The City of Kodiak was well represented during this month’s Alaska Municipal League awards ceremony. City staff and certain local projects received awards as part of the group’s annual local government conference in Anchorage from Dec. 9 – 13.
The Alaska Municipal League is a nonprofit statewide membership organization representing roughly 165 cities and boroughs.
Out of all those Alaska communities, Kodiak’s acting city manager Josie Bahnke was chosen for the municipal employee of the year award.
Bahnke, who was formerly the deputy city manager, first took on the head job on a temporary basis after former city manager Mike Tvenge retired at the end of April.
Parks and Recreation director Corey Gronn also received an award that recognizes, “an emerging municipal leader, their early career contributions to local government and their potential for future success in local government," Sarah King, the special projects coordinator with the Alaska Municipal League, explained.
She said via email that the City of Kodiak’s recently completed recreation center, which includes the renovated ice rink, was selected as a model of excellence in the economic and work environment. The community award has four categories that can be used to select a worthy project from across the state.
King said this project fit the physical environment category because, “the recreation center, funded mostly by grants, created a multi-use facility for Kodiak residents to recreate year around, improving everyone’s quality of life.”
All award candidates were nominated by Alaska Municipal League’s member communities and final awardees were selected by the league’s board.
