Wednesday, Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce gave an update at a Joint Kenai/Soldotna Chamber Luncheon, where he spoke about various borough projects his administration plans to tackle in the coming year.
“We have a board in the office that we call the whiteboard, and on that whiteboard we have a list of 50-60 different things we’ve worked on in the last year,” Pierce said. “Some are completed, some are still pending.”
The mayor listed several projects the borough plans to take on, including working with the planning department on gated communities, revising the borough’s comprehensive plan and developing an agricultural ordinance.
Pierce elaborated on a project that would review and improve the usefulness of anadromous stream ordinances.
“What I’d like to do is make it a little more usable and put a little more common sense into it as well,” Pierce said. “Let’s protect fish habitat. Let’s make sure we don’t go backward here. Let’s make sure we protect the fish. Let’s also make sure that we are delivering services in a more reasonable way.”
Pierce also said the administration would improve the Funny River Solid Waste Collection Site next summer.
“This is one where they take the trash and throw it up into the dumpster,” Pierce said. “We want to make it more user-friendly and safer, and build a ramp so they can throw it down.”
One of the bigger projects Pierce’s administration plans to evaluate is reviewing the existing Seward Flood Mitigation Plan to make it more effective. Pierce said he also wants to develop more leadership in the area.
“This is a problem we’ve been kicking down the road in Seward for the last 50 years,” Pierce said. “We know it’s going to flood, why not some put some engineers on the problem, and some money behind the problem and fix it?”
Pierce said another major project his office is tackling is the borough’s 2020 fiscal year budget, which starts next month.
