Kenai seeks federal grants for sidewalks, fish passage culverts

Pedestrian Safety and Salmon Habitat

The City of Kenai planning department submitted a federal grant application for pedestrian safety improvements and is preparing a second application targeting fish passage barriers, Planning Director Butner told the Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday.

The first application, submitted under the federal Safe Streets for All program, seeks funding for sidewalk and street lighting improvements along Lawton and Tinker. The project received letters of support from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and K-9 SEIF.

Butner described the Lawton-Tinker corridor as "the number one priority for the entire borough" and called the application "a very competitive application." If funded, Butner said the grant "will turn what was just going to be a repaving project into a full-scale redo of Lawton and Tinker in that area."

Fish Passage Restoration

The second application targets fish passage culverts. Butner said the city is "hopeful that this might actually get some culverts between Cemetery Creek, the city cemetery, all the way down to North Beach so that juvenile salmon can get up into the freshwater streams."

The planning department is working with local tribes and the Kenai Watershed Forum on the fish passage application, which is due at the end of June.