Kodiak keeps a road-sand storage lease its assembly had said it wanted to end

Kodiak's Service Area No. 1 taxpayers will keep paying about $12,600 a year to store road sand, gravel and salt on private land, after the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly agreed at a work session this week to continue a lease that several members had said last fall they wanted ended.

The lot, on East Rezanof Drive, is leased through the end of 2029 at a cost that rises annually, and it falls entirely on Service Area No. 1 property owners through their taxes. Reviving the debate, the service area's chair defended the deal while some assembly members pushed to finally end it.

Service Area No. 1 Chair Scott Arndt — a former borough mayor as recently as 2024 — made the case on price and location. "We are leasing approximately 20,000 square feet at roughly 5 cents a square foot, and anybody with any sense in the construction business... 5 cents a square foot is unheard of," he said. He argued the site's real value is proximity: the contractor, AIM Maintenance, leases adjacent space, so its loaders sit next to the material piles and the service area avoids paying mobilization fees that could run a two-hour minimum at $150 to $200 an hour per loader each callout. "I feel it will far exceed the $12,000 we're paying for the property," Arndt said.

Arndt also disclosed a long personal connection to the property owner, describing a friendship between the Arndt and Fields families dating to 1964. He said owner Duncan Fields let the service district use the lot free for five or six years before rising assessments led him to seek rent, and that the current arrangement has worked for about eight years. Arndt said he had disclosed the relationship to the service area board.

That board has drawn scrutiny of its own. Borough code requires service area boards to meet at least quarterly, but a 2025 review found Service Area No. 1 had not held a regular meeting since March 2024. The borough manager said she attended a board meeting on Aug. 11.

Not every assembly member was satisfied. One recalled that the assembly had reached at least a majority last fall to end the lease, then agreed to delay so the contractor wouldn't lose its materials over the winter — only to see more gravel and, recently, sacks of salt added to the property since. He said he couldn't support keeping the lease on the argument that the stored material is now too hard to move, and noted the borough still hasn't seen an alternative priced out. He asked staff to report back on space at the borough's own Dark Lake site and on historical mobilization costs. Four members signaled agreement.

The cost lands on the residents who pay for it, and some are watching. Jeremiah Gardner, who lives in the service district, said it "kind of seems like" the approach is "let's squeeze the deal for as long as we can." Arndt, for his part, said the district knows the arrangement "won't last forever" and would look into other borough property that "would potentially be better."