Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion In this March 30, 2013 file photo (left) Mitch Fields and Mark Stogsdill both land hits during their title fight at the Peninsula Fighting Championships at the Soldotna Sports Center in Soldotna, Alaska. The Soldotna City Council is considering a resolution to award a contract to one of the two mixed martial arts promoters in the central Kenai Peninsula area as its sole purveyor of MMA events.

Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion In this March 30, 2013 file photo (left) Mitch Fields and Mark Stogsdill both land hits during their title fight at the Peninsula Fighting Championships at the Soldotna Sports Center in Soldotna, Alaska. The Soldotna City Council is considering a resolution to award a contract to one of the two mixed martial arts promoters in the central Kenai Peninsula area as its sole purveyor of MMA events.

Soldotna loses, regains mayor

  • By Rashah McChesney
  • Thursday, July 9, 2015 9:50pm
  • News

For just under two minutes on Wednesday, Soldotna had no mayor.

Current mayor Nels Anderson resigned and it took a few minutes for city council members to unanimously vote both to accept his resignation and then appoint him as interim mayor until the city’s October election.

He thanked council member for reappointing him after the vote, joking that he had been nervous.

“You never know how these things are going to go,” he said.

Anderson, whose three-year term is up in October of 2017, plans to travel to West Africa in 2016. But, had he resigned in December before he plans to leave, the city would have had to hold a special election.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

According to his request to the council, Anderson wanted to resign and be reappointed with a term set to expire in October so a mayoral candidate could be selected during the regular elections, thus saving the city the cost of holding a special election.

Council members also took up a resolution that would appoint a sole mixed martial arts promoter for competitions held at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.

City Manager Mark Dixson said the city has had issues with promoters who have withdrawn from events in the past and, according to the resolution, conflicts between promoters, dates, availability and community attendance have created a burden on the city.

“Over the years we’ve not had a generally good experience with promoters of mixed martial arts,” he said. “We really just wanted to work with one sole mixed martial arts promoter.”

City administration solicited proposals from mixed martial arts promoters in the area and selected “6 or 5 Productions,” as its most responsive and highest scoring respondent.

However, during the call for proposals, Dixson said he was emailed by a mixed martial arts promoter who had worked out a deal with another area promoter that the two could partner to offer the city services.

“We were in the middle of a (request for proposals) process and there may be other promoters out there so we really couldn’t get involved in any of those discussions at that time,” Dixson said. “Our only legal option at that point was to go through with the (request for proposals) as it was out there on the streets.”

Stephanie Clay, of Soldotna, said she represented Peninsula Fighting Championships or PFC.

Clay said she emailed Dixson after verbally agreeing with the other production company in the area that the two would prefer to administer their own fights. Clay said she was not aware of any other mixed martial arts promoters in the area.

“When you pick one or the other, you are limiting the business in the area. Both companies offer something different to the fighting community,” she said. “You’re limiting commerce, you’re limiting the ability to represent the community and give the community what they need. I don’t see that the city can lose in any way when you have free commerce and the different groups are willing to work together.”

Council members questioned why the city forced promoters allow a buffer of time between similar events.

“If I booked six particular dates, I could eat up a lot of time,” said council member Keith Baxter. “That does seem like something that should have been addressed.”

Council member Linda Murphy said she was not a mixed martial arts fan and had never been to one of the fights, but sympathized with the idea of allowing the market to decide how many fights it could sustain. She said she wasn’t sure if the city could back out of awarding a contract once it had gone through the request for proposals process.

“Are there legal consequences to a decision not to award to the person who scored the highest? I don’t want to put the city in a position where the winner of the (request for proposals) could come back on us and sue us for not awarding the contract,” she said.

Dixson said he would contact the city’s attorney for a legal opinion.

The council voted to postpone the resolution until its July 22 meeting.

 

Reach Rashah McChesney at rashah.mcchesney@peninsulaclarion.com or follow her on Twitter @litmuslens

More in News

An angler holds up a dolly varden for a photograph on Wednesday, July 16. (Photo courtesy of Koby Etzwiler)
Anchor River opens up to Dollies, non-King salmon fishing

Steelhead and rainbow trout are still off limits and should not be removed from the water.

A photo provided by NTSB shows a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, that crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska, Sept. 12, 2023. The plane was weighed down by too much moose meat and faced drag from a set of antlers mounted on its right wing strut, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
Crash that killed husband of former congresswoman was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, NTSB says

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska on Sept. 12, 2023.

Armor rock from Sand Point is offloaded from a barge in the Kenai River in Kenai, Alaska, part of ongoing construction efforts for the Kenai River Bluff Stabilization Project on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Work continues on Kenai Bluff stabilization project

The wall has already taken shape over a broad swath of the affected area.

An aerial photo over Grewingk Glacier and Glacier Spit from May 2021 shows a mesodinium rubrum bloom to the left as contrasted with the normal ocean water of Kachemak Bay near Homer. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Greer/Beryl Air)
KBNERR warns of potential harmful algal bloom in Kachemak Bay

Pseudo-nitzchia has been detected at bloom levels in Kachemak Bay since July 4.

Fresh-picked lettuces are for sale at the final Homer Farmers Market of the year on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
USDA ends regional food program, pulls $6M from Alaska businesses

On July 15, the Alaska Food Policy Council was notified that the USDA had terminated the Regional Food Business Center Program “effective immediately.”

Exit Glacier is photographed on June 22, 2018. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
2 rescued by park service near Exit Glacier

The hikers were stranded in the “Exit Creek Prohibited Visitor Use Zone.”

Two new cars purchased by the Soldotna Senior Center to support its Meals on Wheels program are parked outside of the center in Soldotna, Alaska, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (Camille Botello/Peninsula Clarion)
State restores grant funding to Soldotna Senior Center

In recent years, the center has been drawing down its organizational reserves to provide some essential services.

A table used by parties to a case sits empty in Courtroom 4 of the Kenai Courthouse in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Former school district custodian pleads guilty to sexual abuse of a minor

Alexander Coxwell was arrested in September on allegations that he had engaged in an illegal sexual relationship with a then-14-year-old student.

Dick Hawkins speaks during a community meeting about the proposed Ninilchik Recreation Service Area at the Ninilchik Community Center in Ninilchik, Alaska, on Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Ninilchik residents consider creation of service area to fund pool

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Aug. 5 will consider an ordinance that would create the service area if it is approved by voters.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in