Kenai council approves $775,000 for Sixth Street water, sewer, road work

The Kenai City Council voted 6-0 Wednesday to appropriate $775,000 for water and sewer service and partial construction of Sixth Street, reaching senior housing units now under construction. The work will not extend far enough to serve the parcels the city set aside for future units.

City Manager Eubank told the council the city sought about $850,000 in federal block grant funding, a figure he said he believed was the original request. The award came in at $525,000. That shortfall changed the scope of the project, he said.

The money goes into the municipal roadway improvement capital fund. It combines a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant, passed through the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, with funding from the Kenai Peninsula Housing Initiative. Because the item was time sensitive, the council introduced the ordinance and held its second reading and enactment at the same meeting. The municipal code allows that procedure for ordinances making or changing an appropriation.

The reduction reshaped the design. The city had envisioned extending Sixth Street past the housing development, running water and sewer to that point, then looping water over to Fifth Street. The granting agency ruled the funds can only reach the buildings already under construction, Eubank said. The agency will not pay to extend service to land the city has conditionally donated to the housing initiative for future buildings.

The city has donated parcels along Readout Avenue, where the initiative has built senior housing, including rent-controlled units.

A council member moved a housekeeping amendment correcting a math error. It raised the stated total in the revenue and appropriation paragraphs from $725,000 to $775,000. The council adopted the amendment by unanimous consent.

Under the grant terms, the city must handle both procurement and construction administration. That work falls to the Public Works Department. The design also requires an easement from the housing initiative for a hammerhead turnaround, so emergency vehicles can reverse direction at the end of Sixth Street.