At its Jan. 16 meeting, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly heard a presentation from KPBSD’s Clayton Holland, who emphasized the budget deficit that the district is currently facing.
"It's 13 million (12.9). "We will have budget forums coming up in February. We'll be going over that, and we do have a neat tool that we'll be using this year,” he said.
A public interface called "The Balancing Act" is currently in development. The public will be able to view the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s budgets, examine potential changes to student-teacher ratios, and explore other options before making recommendations to address the budget gap.
Holland says those options are also being considered internally.
During the meeting, the assembly approved an ordinance that would change the borough logo.
Assembly Member Mike Tupper proposed enacting the ordinance along with an amendment changing the language used in the code.
"As Mayor Micciche mentioned, this new logo is part of a kind of overall rebranding effort that the borough is going through, and our current logo is pretty old and expensive to reproduce. And this new version, hopefully, proves to be a little cheaper to reproduce,” he said.
The assembly unanimously passed this ordinance along with two others.
One involved using $50,000 from the road operating fund as a cash contribution in collaboration between The Borough and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. That partnership aims to design and construct culverts, enhancing fish passage in the Deep Creek Watershed. Additionally, another ordinance proposes the allocation of $150,000 to mitigate the risk of flood damage in the Salmon Creek revetment area.
Near the beginning of the meeting, the assembly voted to introduce several ordinances through the consent agenda. This included one appropriating $350,000 from the School Maintenance Fund for snow removal and sanding at school facilities.
Others appropriated funds for the Opioid Settlement Fund Program and authorized a negotiated lease of land for temporary worker housing to support the construction of the Juneau Creek Bridge near Cooper Landing and an ordinance correcting the description of a zoning district.
The next Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting will be held on February 6, 2024.
Copyright 2024 KBBI
