Kenai Peninsula Assembly to reconsider Nikolaevsk School conveyance July 7

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly is set to reconsider a school property transfer at its July 7 meeting in Soldotna, with a separate ordinance to fund ongoing maintenance at the same facility scheduled for introduction that evening.

The assembly will take up the Nikolaevsk School conveyance as unfinished business under a notice of reconsideration. Assembly Member Willy Dunne filed that notice at the June 16 meeting, returning the question to the full body. The ordinance would transfer the property to Alaskan Homestead Education, Inc. to support K-12 education in Nikolaevsk, a small Russian Old Believer community on the Kenai Peninsula. At a May 27 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, Alaskan Homestead Education, Inc. was described as the only interested party, given the building's remote location and deferred maintenance, with carrying costs estimated at roughly $200,000 a year.

Also on the July 7 agenda is the introduction of an ordinance that would appropriate general fund dollars for utilities, maintenance, and insurance at the Nikolaevsk facility and at surplus school buildings in Seward, Sterling, and Tustumena through fiscal year 2027. A public hearing on that ordinance is scheduled for Aug. 4.