Borough sets FY19 nonprofit funding amounts

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly approved the fiscal year 2019 nonprofit funding at its regular meeting last night.

A number of community members stepped up during public comment to speak for the Kodiak Area Mentor Program, or KAMP, which is a faith-based group that serves people with issues such as addiction.

The meeting packet proposed to eliminate KAMP’s funding of $2,000 and decrease KANA’s Women, Infants, and Children program to make up for a distribution error. The borough had $4,000 less than previously believed set aside for nonprofits in the category of education, culture and recreation.

During citizen’s comments, one KAMP mentor and board member, Shaun Olsen, described his experience within the organization.

“As I mentor people in the jails, I mentor ‘em when they go into the institutions throughout our state. As well as into the federal prison system as well. They can connect with me. I keep the continuity going. We establish a relationship, and we don’t want to break that. We continue that because they’re gonna get out.”

Assembly members, like Julie Kavanaugh, talked about pulling the money together to fill the gap between the expected and actual amount.

“I think that we created that we created that expectation when we put out how much was in the budget, and maybe if there is funds available for that $44,000, we should fund it to that.”

The assembly decided to spread the funding out equally among the 10 nonprofits and grant them each $4,100. That way, it could fund KAMP and also provide for Special Olympics, which would have otherwise received nothing.

The borough funded Kodiak’s nonprofits for a total of $184,000.

In the interest of full disclosure, KMXT also receives borough funds and was discussed at the regular meeting.