Kodiak City Council Moves Forward on Pathway Planning

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak City Council talked grants and pathway planning at its regular meeting last night. City Manager Aimée Kniaziowski explained the available funds that the Council had at its disposal when deciding how much money nonprofits should receive.

“This year, that amount is $149,900,” she said. “This year, the city received 23 applications. They were all complete. They were all submitted on time for a total aggregate request of $215,634, which is obviously over the funding amount available.”

Representatives from the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross discussed their grant requests at Tuesday’s work session and, instead of decreasing all nonprofits’ grants by 3 percent at last night’s meeting, the council moved to lower the amount it would give the two organizations. Councilmember John Whiddon explained the decision.

“It became clear in Tuesday night’s work session that the money, or at least a portion of the money, that was being requested was very likely going to leave town, so the reason for this amendment is to ensure that all the money is given local taxpayer dollars remains in town.”

The Council also discussed dedicating money it received from the cruise ship excise tax fund. Kniaziowski said the council would need to set aside the money for a project in order not to lose it.

“The city was awarded a grant for $384,000 dollars from the state legislature for originally, it was part of a larger program,” she said. “We know that that didn’t go anywhere. The pathway just became onerously expensive, so council decided that you wouldn’t move forward with that. But the money remained.”
    
She said the funds would need to go towards the tourism sector, but the project description could remain general at this stage.

“We didn’t have to be any more specific than to say that we were gonna use it for planning and engineering of a community pathway that would enhance the experience of the cruise ship passengers as well as local folks,” said Kniaziowski.

As currently written, a pedestrian pathway would go from Pier 2 to Near Island and “other points of interest,” a phrase which Whiddon took issue with.

“The point about other points of interest is pretty nonspecific, and we only have $384,000 for planning dollars,” said Whiddon. “So unless the RFP ultimately when it gets written is a little bit more specific, this is so general that it would infer that you could go in any direction.”

Whiddon proposed to strike that wording from the document and the council agreed to omit that section.

The council also recognized an open seat that Councilmember Terry Haines left behind him due his work schedule as a fisherman, which made him unable to attend all meetings. City Clerk Debra Marlar said the city code requires an appointment be made within thirty days of the seat becoming vacant.

“And because the first opportunity to advertise and hold a special meeting is next week and because we will not have a quorum here next week, our attorney has advised that it is permissible to either reappoint Mr. Haines or appoint another person at tonight’s meeting to serve until the October 6 election is certified,” said Marlar.

The council voted Haines back into the position, and Marlar said the two-year seat will be on the ballot for the city of Kodiak municipal election.

The next work session is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9, and the next regular meeting is set for the following day, September 10.