Leaves fall at the Kenai Senior Center on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Leaves fall at the Kenai Senior Center on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai Senior Center makes plans for $715,000 endowment

The money comes from the Tamara Diane Cone Testamentary Trust

The Kenai Senior Center plans to set up a permanent fund using roughly $715,500 it received this year after being named the beneficiary of a trust.

The money comes from the Tamara Diane Cone Testamentary Trust, of which the Kenai Senior Center was named a beneficiary. Through the trust, the Kenai Senior Center is to receive one-third of the residual balance, or about $700,000. That’s according to an Aug. 9 memo from Kenai Finance Director Terry Eubank to council members.

Kenai Senior Center Director Kathy Romain sought guidance from members of the Kenai City Council during Wednesday’s council meeting about how the funds should be used.

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

Romain said Wednesday that Cone, who died on July 2, was the daughter of Beaver Loop homesteaders Chester and Mavis Cone, who Romain said were proponents of the center. The Cones wrote in “Once Upon the Kenai” that they arrived in Alaska from Arkansas in 1949 and moved to Kenai in 1950.

“Homesteading, like mountain climbing, was an upward climb,” Mavis Cone, who died in 2016, writes in the book. “It has been very gratifying to raise our children, Tamara and Curtis, to be part of a growing community.”

Romain told council members Wednesday that while the Kenai Senior Connection has previously received endowment money that it used to create a permanent fund, the Kenai Senior Center has not received that kind of contribution before. Kenai Senior Connection is the fundraising organization for the Kenai Senior Center.

“This is a big thing for us to do,” Romain told council members Wednesday.

To date, the Kenai Senior Center has received just over $715,500 through the trust over two separate payments, Eubank wrote in his Aug. 9 memo. In proposing potential paths forward, he said one of the fundamentals of governmental budgeting is to not use one-time funding for recurring expenses.

“When funds are received and they’re one-time funds, the general prescription is that they not be used for an operational purpose,” Eubank said. “You don’t want to create a program or something that, at the end of these funds, you have to come up with another revenue source to pay for it.”

Eubank proposed multiple options for the funds, such as depositing them into the city’s general fund to have for one-time expenditures at the senior center, and establishing a permanent fund for the center. Rather than establishing a fund with annual distributions that could be used for any costs — recurring or nonrecurring — the council threw their support behind Eubank’s third option. That option proposes establishing a permanent fund with periodic, rather than annual, distributions.

“As one-time, non-recurring projects are identified — like capital projects — you would appropriate the earnings towards those projects,” Eubank said. “It could be three years, it could be five years, it could be 10 years, it could be one every other year. It just depends on how the projects are identified. The funds would be as a permanent fund again, and have a longer lasting impact.”

The fund would be invested in the same way as the City of Kenai’s other permanent funds.

The Kenai City Council still needs to formally vote on the use of the funds. Following direction provided by the council Wednesday, city administration will write legislation for the council to consider at an upcoming meeting.

Wednesday’s full council meeting can be streamed on the City of Kenai’s YouTube channel.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

University of Alaska President Pat Pitney speaks during a meeting of the UA Board of Regents at Kenai Peninsula College in Soldotna, Alaska, on Feb. 22, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Pitney: UA, KPC seeing momentum, attendance growth

The university president described KPC as “a leader of the pack” in enrollment growth at the university

University of Alaska Board of Regents Chair Ralph Seekins speaks during a meeting at Kenai Peninsula College in Soldotna, Alaska, on Feb. 22, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘Where does this end?’: University of Alaska to strip diversity and inclusivity language from programs, policies

The board was clear during the meeting that they were responding to pressure from the federal government.

U.S. Rep. Nick Begich holds a telephone town hall on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (Screenshot from the Facebook page of U.S. Rep. Nick Begich)
Murkowski, Begich host telephone town halls to address constituent concerns

Both events were inaccessible to some, who grew frustrated at technical problems

Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, speaks on the House floor on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Education funding bill unexpectedly advances again, nears House floor vote amid affordability concerns

HB 69 clears Finance Committee at first hearing as minority says discussions there are not worthwhile.

The front of the Kenai Police Department as seen on Dec. 10, 2019. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai accepts federal grant for police vests

The funds entirely cover the purchase of three ballistic vests this fiscal year.

Soldotna High School student Ethan Anding asks a question during a Kenai Peninsula Borough School District budget development meeting at Kenai Central High School in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
District discusses $17M deficit at community meeting

More than 100 people gathered in the KCHS auditorium.

Alaska State Troopers logo.
Man found dead near Kasilof roadway on Tuesday

He was found off Pollard Loop Road near Reindeer Lane in the Kasilof area.

Fire Marshal Jeremy Hamilton gives a tour to students during Job Shadow Day at Kenai Fire Department in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Roddy Craig/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai students try on careers for Job Shadow Day

Roughly 100 students from Kenai Central High School scattered to more than 30 businesses to get a feel for the workforce.

A 2015 Ford Explorer that was stolen from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce before crashing into a tree near Wells Fargo Bank is loaded onto a tow truck in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Car stolen, crashed in Kenai

The car was reportedly taken from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center.

Most Read