05/20/2026 City Council Work Session

Good evening. I'd like to call the May 20th, 2026 work session to order. Um, that brings us down to introductions. I would like to introduce City Manager Eubank. You want to take it from here, Terry?

Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, so today what we have before us is a presentation of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Um, it's been developed by, um, Mr. Chris Myrtle, and Nancy Casey is local representative on that team. Um, I also want to definitely recognize the time and efforts of the Parks and Rec Commission and Tyler, our Parks and Rec Director, and his staff in putting this together.

And I think there's a lot of great information in here. And with that, I would turn it over to Tyler. Yep. Sure. I just want to, you know, yeah, so this, you know, we did an RFP last year and Corvus got the project.

And then that started off with a workshop we held at the Kenai Chamber on April 29th. We did an in-person workshop, invited the community, provided free hot dogs, and then we did an online survey that covered all the information, which was open for, uh, until May 21st. The workshop was on April 29th, and then we opened up the survey. So that was all. So that was open for the community to do feedback on.

We took all that feedback. Uh, myself, Mr. Eubank, Director Butner, and Christine Cunningham worked with Corvus through the winter, really implementing the public's idea and a lot of historical knowledge into the plan. And then on April 2nd, it was presented to the Parks Commission this year. And then on May 7th, the Parks Commission recommended approval of the plan. And now we are here bringing forth the plan to the commission— or sorry, the council.

So now I will kick it over to Mr. Myrtle and Nancy.

Great, thanks. Uh, my name is Chris Myrtle. I'm a landscape architect with Corvus Design out of Juneau. Might look familiar. I helped you do your Kenai Waterfront Master Plan about 6 years ago.

So, um, also on the team, as mentioned, is Nancy Casey, a local landscape architect on the team. And we also had ECI, who are architects out of Anchorage, to help out with some of our facilities, looking at the rec center and also the ice rink. Um, again, just following up with what Tyler said, I just want to give props to the community, to the commission, to City Manager Eubank, and everybody else that really helped guide the process and where we got. On this project. It really turned out to be a really nice, in my opinion, a really nice document.

We've done parks and rec master plans for Kodiak, for Ketchikan, we're starting Sitka's, so you're number 5. So we're getting some really good experience in understanding how all the different communities— Alaska is very different than national standards, so I think we'll get into that. Hopefully every—. Surprise! What I'm going to do, I've been asked just to give about a 20-minute presentation, walk you through the document, kind of give you the high points of what's in here, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have.

You have a copy of the master plan in front of you. I'm going to kind of walk through it. We're going to go sort of in chronological order, and then we're going to jump around a little bit. But what I really want to do is make sure you've got the background and the understanding of where we came up with our recommendations in this. So starting off, the Parks and Rec Department has quite a few facilities to take care of.

They have 2 buildings. It's the Kenai Recreation Center and the multipurpose facility, otherwise known as the ice rink. 14 Parks and public open spaces, 4 playgrounds. Those are in some of those 14 parks, 14 developed athletic fields, 2 beaches and wildlife viewing areas. They have 4 special use areas and then quite a few maintained grass strips.

They also manage 8 trails within the community. Um, there's all other properties. Thank you. There's other properties that are managed and those includes the trails, the cemeteries. So there are a lot of facilities that the Parks and Recreation Department overseas.

So my task was to develop a Parks and Rec master plan that was guided by a public process. But also what's really important is that we can develop master plans that are implementable, actionable, and appropriate for the community. So there's no sense in setting super lofty goals that you really can't implement. So it really needs to be a plan that you can implement. And thanks to these, uh, leadership on the, on the city side and the department heads that really help tighten those up and make sure that it is a plan that can be implemented within the community.

So really, the Parks and Rec Master Plan is a 20-year vision. So what it's going to do is help you, it's going to help Tyler and everybody else in understanding what are your assets, what are your priorities, what are your funding sources, and how are you going to implement this plan so you've got a vision of moving forward that it's not helter skelter. So it's really important. One thing to keep in mind is that in developing the recommendations, we spent several days in the communities looking at all the parks and recreation facilities. Tyler had already developed a draft inventory report that we expanded upon.

We held public meetings. We looked at national standards or metrics. And we also received input from the public. And then as landscape architects and park planners, we provided our professional input on these. And then we got feedback through the commission and through department heads.

Really coming up with defined recommendations that are found in the plan. So what we really want to do is make sure that we're providing the level of service. You know, what is the expectations of the community? And that's been developed through the public meetings and the surveys. So we understand what are the priorities of the communities, what level of service are you providing, what's the satisfaction of what you're providing within the communities.

And sorry, Tyler, thanks for clicking along, but I am jumping around, so. I'm on number 6 and I'm moving on to page number— into the park metrics. So one thing to keep in mind is that there are national standards through the National Recreation Park Association. They survey communities all over the United States and they break them down into small communities, communities less than 20,000, larger communities, and very large communities. Kenai, logically, with a population of just under 8,000, falls into the small community size and that Those are lumped into communities less than 20,000.

So those are metrics that have go— these data has been collected for years and years and years and comes out every year. And it really is a great benchmark to understand where does Kenai fit within the national picture. But realizing that Kenai and Alaska as a whole is unique. You know, we don't have urban sprawl where we have large cities that spread into each other with, you know, well-defined transit systems and not limited by geography and coastlines and all that. So we do take this with a grain of sand, and we do modify it for what is appropriate for not just Alaska, but also for Kenai.

So taking a look at the benchmark metrics— yep, thank you, Tyler. So what we took your existing facilities, and as I said, you've got 15 developed parks, 14 athletic fields, 4 special use areas, 2 beaches, and approximately 364 acres of managed parkland within the city. What we do is plug that into the system and what they're showing for the national metrics is that for a population less than 20,000 people, and using the population of 7,614, you have roughly 1 park per 1,001 residents. So that is the national metric. Kenai comes in really good at— you have about 31 parks per 1,000.

So, which is really good. Um, sorry, I got that wrong. Let me just back that up. You offer 31 parks. Sorry, you offer 31 parks, uh, or 1 park per 246 people, as opposed— so you're 4 times the national average.

But you have to consider you have a lot of undeveloped natural areas as well. You have your beaches, so you've got a lot of unique features that the community and people that are visitors to the community are requiring of the city. So you do have some unique numbers that are going to show up in these. So don't, don't be worried about those. Um, the other metric is that typically, um, a typical community of 20,000 people has roughly 13 acres of parkland per 1,000 people.

You have roughly 48 acres per 1,000 people. Again, a lot of that is undeveloped parkland, but then very large expanses, whether it be North Beach and places like that. So you do have some metrics that are a little bit outside, but that again, that's okay. And although you exceed the national, uh, medium for parks and acres, um, keep in mind that in your Comp Plan, Goal Number 6 says that you want to ensure that Kenai has excellent parks and recreation facilities and opportunities for its citizens and visitors. So you are meeting that threshold within the comprehensive plan.

We also take a look at all the outdoor recreation facilities. Some of these are shared, some are by, uh, with the school district, some are by other agencies with the borough. And we plug them all into, again, the metrics for communities of less than 20,000. You're doing really good. You meet all the metrics for facilities except pickleball.

Pickleball. And it's a new trend. Don't be— in all of our surveys we've done with all the communities, everybody is missing the pickleball. So, it is the largest growing sport right now in the United States. So, don't worry.

It's a fairly low-cost facility to be added. So moving on to the next one, please, Tyler. Next page. So keep in mind that communities of 20,000 usually have 3 parks and rec facilities. You have 2, so you're not too far off the metrics.

And then so keeping in mind also that, you know, as I said that the city is not the only one providing these facilities. It's the school, it's the borough, and even to a certain effect, the federal government is providing some of these with the wildlife refuge in the area. The city also provides a lot of programs and events, which is great to celebrate, to get people healthy, get people social, get people active. Not necessarily in the metrics, but we did list on the following page all the different events and programs that the department provides. And moving on to staffing, and this is fairly important, is that typically for a community of under 20,000 people, you have roughly 13.7 FTEs per 10,000 residents.

So keeping in mind that you have a population of 7,600 roughly, you're coming in at roughly, um, 10.8. Now the low medium is 10.4, so you're in the threshold, but the Park Metrics has medium and then they've also got the lower range. So you're coming at the lower range number, but you are meeting— you are following what you would see of a typical Parks and Recreation Director. One of this is really due to the large, the large portion of acreage that you cover, I think, is why that FTE number is falling a little bit lower. Moving on to the financial snapshot on page 16— sorry, 18.

Currently for 2026, you have roughly just short of half a million for operations, $825,000 for personnel. For a total of roughly $1.3 million with another $120,000 for capital improvements. Now when you look at the metrics for, communities of less than 20,000, the number is anywhere between 1.4 and as low as 665. So you guys are doing fairly well coming in at within the averages in terms of the operation. But keep in mind that, uh, when you take a look at it per acre cost, and again, And keep going back to the 364 acres, lots of turf areas, lots of natural areas.

Um, the department is currently— your department is currently operating at roughly $3,600 per acre. Um, the, the medium of that is $9,512, and again, that's because you've got so many acreages. So again, it's not a red flag, you're falling within the metric, but again, you might be a little bit low on some of your expenditures related to that. Taking a look at funding, Typically, on a national average, most communities operate at about 66— sorry, let me back up. So most communities recover roughly 31% of their revenue.

Kenai is coming in a little bit low at 16.6%. So you are coming in a little bit lower in your cost recovery. Again, that's not necessarily a bad— and you are coming in the lower percentile. But again, we're finding that in Alaska, that number typically is low. So again, nothing to be alarmed about.

Nationally, yes, you're low, but I think in Alaska, just because of the cost and everything else, that isn't something that you need to be too overly worried about. But it is something to keep an eye on. Taking a look at where your money is coming from, typically 63% come from general funds, 20% come from earned revenue, 8% from special taxes, or voter-approved levies, and 9% from other sources. You guys are very unique out of all the Alaska communities we've looked at and the national average that you get roughly 84% of your revenue from tax-supported appropriations. So you've got a— you're very unique in that respect.

My recommendation, probably through the voter initiative bonds, is a great avenue for raising additional funds. You're very low— well, you're low compared to other communities. So again, if you are looking for funding sources in terms of how other communities are doing it, you're definitely very, very low in that respect. And actually, I think you're the lowest in any communities we've come across so far. Again, not the end of the world.

Taking a look at deferred maintenance, typically a Parks and Rec Department runs at about $120,000 per year. Interesting enough, your department does not have a deferred maintenance list. So Tyler's aware of that.

Moving on to the next page. So that's kind of give you a snapshot of how the department is operating, its staffing, its funding, revenue sources. Again, very high-level stuff, stuff that I don't think you need to get too far into the details, but at least understanding where you sit both within an Alaska standpoint and within the nation. And really there's nothing— you're lower end on a few things, but that would be expected because we're in Alaska and you have large amounts of park parkland to maintain. But you are typically in the middle or towards the lower.

You're not really fallen out yet. So there are some chances for improvements or for making some enhancements that would benefit the department. So moving on to the next thing, what we then did is I talked about the inventory. So each parks and recre— each parks and recreation facility is classified and they're broken into regional parks, community parks, neighborhood parks, pocket parks, special use parks, and open land and Open land and natural spaces. Now really, each of these parks are set also by national standards, but we know, again, Kenai is a little bit unique.

Now for each of these park classifications, we talk about the size of a typical park, the facilities, whether it has a playground, parking lots, restrooms, lighting, so on and so forth. What are the facilities that would fall into those different types of parks? We don't— Kenai does not have a regional park. That's a park that would attract people from all over the area. You don't have one of those quite yet.

Most communities don't, but you do have several community parks, and community parks really service the entire neighborhood and the community as a whole, not necessarily— and we do recognize that you have lots of other communities, you do share facilities with Soldotna to a certain point. But the idea is that keeping in mind that These serve generally the whole community, and they generally have a service radius of 6 miles. So what's important about this is the 6-mile radius shows us what areas and neighborhoods are being served by Parks and Recreation. So each of these park classifications has what's called a radius of service. So as I said, community parks is about 6 miles, and honestly, that's the whole community.

Um, examples of community parks in the community, you have the sports complex, Steve Shearer Memorial Ballpark, uh, the Kenai Green Strip Municipal Park, so on and so forth. They're listed there on page 2021. Next is neighborhood parks. Those are ones that typically are a little bit smaller. They have a service area of roughly 1 mile, and they really service neighborhoods.

They typically are parks and playgrounds, day-use recreations. They might have basketball court in them. As I said, they have a radius of about a mile, so they service a neighborhood, a specific neighborhood. People will go to different places depending what they have, but for the most part, it services one mile radius. And examples of that is Old Town Park, Beaver Creek Park, and 4th Avenue.

Then pocket parks, those are generally smaller parks. They're usually an acre or less, and they may just have smaller attractions. Again, they may service people at a neighborhood level, but they typically have a radius, a service radius of about a half mile. Examples of those that you have in the community is Leaf— Eric Hanson Scout Park, Ahlson Family Restaurant, and 4th and Forest Park Strip. And then you have several special use— you actually have a lot of your facilities that are what are called special use.

They have a single use. So those are things like the disc golf course, those are the, uh, the bark park. So those are things that are specific attractions that people come from out the— throughout the community but have a specialized single use only. And then finally moving on to open space and natural space. These are kind of the areas that have more passive recreation where you don't have a lot of facilities associated.

There may be trails, there may be wildlife viewing, parking lots. They don't have a specific radius of service because they're kind of a unique thing— feature, but that would be Tarbox, wildlife viewing, Scenic Bluff, North Beach, and South Beach are some of those examples. So we took all those metrics and the radius of service and looked at the communities and identified communities that should be considered for possible future parks. Typically these are neighborhood or pocket parks, and we need to do a little bit more research in terms of figuring out the community needs, making sure that there is the need for these, and, and having very targeted outreach to these specific neighborhoods. But those that might be considered for a park would be Channel Way neighborhood, which is an expanding new neighborhood, Rogers Road, VIP Drive neighborhood.

There's about 10 of them listed here. So I know Tyler's going to start working with those communities to figure out what are the highest priority areas that might need new parks. So that kind of gives you an overview of where the department sits, how your parks and recreation facilities are serving the community. And then next we get into the next chapter, which is— I'm on 27 here, Tyler. Is the inventory and recommendations.

What we want to do in this document is to really make it a really user-friendly document. So if you want to look up Cunningham Park, you can look up Cunningham Park and find everything about it on 2 sheets. You're not flipping from the front to the back to the middle. So we were very strategic in working with Tyler. We knew this is the type of document that we wanted to make that was going to be user-friendly.

So I'm not going to go through every single park that's in the plan, but really the idea is that within each of them we talk, we give the park name. Could you go to the next one or two, Tyler, please? So if you take a look at the recreation center, we give it the park classification, the size. We talk about the existing conditions as we went through and did our inventory, what's there. We talked to Tyler and figured out what is the maintenance and operation of these facilities or parks, so it's categorized.

Then we talk about the specific facilities and amenities that are at each of these parks or facilities. And then the public input that we received, you know, through our survey, through our public meetings. People didn't always have an opinion of every single facility, so some of them may be blank. But for the most part, they gave us inputs on what they thought for their recommendations. And then as professionals looking at this and working with the department and with Terry and everybody else, then we really looked at the opportunities that presented themselves to make these facility meet user needs.

Address operation and maintenance, and make sure they're meeting the needs of the community as a whole, looking at the whole picture rather than just a specific park by park. How does the network work together as a cohesive unit? And then we made recommendations. So we go through and we've done it for all the parks and for all of the built facilities. The— we also included the trails, but we have not made recommendations for the trails.

You currently do not have an adopted trail plan. And that's one of our recommendations. You do need a trail plan that's adopted. We went through and inventoried this, so you've got a cohesive document that inventories all your parks and recreation assets. Unfortunately, our charge was not to get into the trail so much and come up with the recommendations.

We focused really on the parks and playgrounds and the facilities. So that gives a quick overview of all of these. If you've gone through all these, fantastic, great reading. Hope it was useful and engaging. Now I'm going to jump back to the front here, Tyler, and we're going to just go quickly into the summary of recommendations on page 10.

So these are the big— without getting too specific park by park, I just want to be respectful of your time and everything, but really what are the summary of recommendations that were found? That's from all the parks, all the facilities, what we heard from the public, our professional insight. And generally, we've broken them into general policies, land management improvements, planning, and new facilities. So for the general policies, accessibility. Some of your parks and playgrounds have accessibility challenges.

You need to meet those nationally required for public spaces. Tyler and everybody's aware of that. It's everything from areas that probably were gravel or good walking surface, but over time have become grass and kind of undulating and challenging to walk on. Also, you have a lot of loose shredded surfacing in your playgrounds. It is accessible, but it's not truly accessible.

So we're recommending something that's also going to be less maintenance for Tyler and the crew, so he's not out there fluffing up the wood chips and mulch that's out there, but putting in a resilient rubber tile or something similar that he only has to go out there and deal with it once or twice, but is 100% accessible. Another big thing is facility consolidation. You have Tyler and his crew driving all over the place maintaining ball fields all over the community. You have lots of concessionaries. You've got 3 snack shacks scattered throughout the community.

You've got dugouts. You've got storage sheds scattered all over the community. So one of our recommendations is facility consolidation. That's going to reduce maintenance. It's going to reduce the amount of facilities you need.

It's going to actually provide a better user experience. And it's going to reduce operation and management costs. One of the big things that we talk about is consolidating all the sports fields, all the baseball, soccer, rugby into the sports complex. Expand that, make it one stop instead of having ball fields at— oh, I see a yeah. So instead of having fields scattered all over the town, it's going to make it easier for Tyler and his crew.

He's going to have one shop there. His crew can go and do all their work at one place rather than lots of windshield time going back and forth. It's also going to help out with the volunteers.

Operation expectations, this is just none— this is just typical. You want to meet user expectations for your parks and recreation. Is it meeting their expectations? Are you providing facilities for all? Are you providing the multi-generational opportunities?

Developing design standards, we notice that you have a lot of different benches, a lot of different trash cans, a lot of different park equipment. Consolidate and come up with a unified design so that if Tyler needs to replace the trash can, he's already got 4 in the warehouse and it's an easy fix rather than having to order something new. So again, operation maintenance and trying to find ways to keep things efficient. Inspections, suggesting regular, more regular inspections of parks and recreation facilities. Again, we talked about shared infrastructure and this is, you know, working with the schools, working with the tribes, working with other people that might have a shared interest in parks and recreation.

And how do you really come together to find these shared infrastructures? Funding, support adequate parks and recreation funding, both local sources but find those outside grants. And we provide a whole bunch of different sources of grants at the end of this document. And then adaptive management. Things change.

This is a 20-year vision. So again, reevaluate where you are in 5 years. Is this still meeting the use— everybody's expectations? Another big thing that we got into is land management. And one of the biggest things is In your land use code, you don't have a park district.

So all your parks are light industrial. Got— they're, they're a hodgepodge. So you need to do a little cleanup on your land use ordinance and develop a park district or parks and recreation zoning classification. It's going to make Tyler's life easier. It's going to make planning's life easier and start putting all the facilities in this.

So it is going to require a land use rewrite or an amendment. Strategic disposals— there's some properties that just are not being used. They're there, you're mowing grass, but no one goes there. So look at those opportunities for perhaps disposing of them, hopefully taking the proceeds, put it back into the Parks and Recreation Department. But again, find the higher and better use of these.

Just because it is a park doesn't mean it needs to continue to be a park if there's not that demand for it. Again, parcel consolidation— we talk about this is more The actual legal survey that several parks are within several different individual pieces of property, consolidate them, lump them into one, it's going to be easier for planning and development. And then take a look at new neighborhoods. What are the new neighborhoods that are expanding? Do you have public lands within them?

You might want to set aside some public land within these new expanding neighborhoods so that in the future you can put in a park as that demand occurs. Again, there's a whole lot of facility improvements And we get into it specifically in the implementation at the very back where we say, what are your roles for 0 to 5, 5 to 10, and beyond? So we're very specific outlining all of the different parks improvements. But just quickly going through them, looking at the improvements over the next 10 years, new playgrounds at Old Town Park and Municipal, do interior upgrades and refrigeration system and roof replacement for the multipurpose facility or the ice rink. You need interior upgrades and remodels at the recreation center.

You need to relocate your parks and recreation shop. And then there's lots of small improvements at Cunningham, Eagle Disc Golf Course, Lee Hanson, there's a whole list of them. So those are kind of the things that you need to be tackling over the next 10 years as your higher priorities. Then getting into recreation planning, again, as I mentioned, consolidation. So how do we develop the sports complex?

Complex better. So there needs to be a master plan. Agree that right now it's only roughly 20 acres there, but there's a lot of undeveloped parkland around it. You've got over 50 additional acres that you could bring into that park to create it. So you need to develop a master plan.

So we're looking at both that where you are going to take the ball fields from Steve Scheer, from the athletic fields, and even maybe the rugby pitch over at Millennium and consolidate them all over at, um, the sports complex. And then you also have a lot of open green space that you use for festivals and get-togethers and community spaces. You've got 3 of them. You probably only need one. So again, consolidate.

And our recommendation is develop a master plan and see if the green strip in Steve Shearer, once the ball fields get removed, becomes a really good centralized community gathering and event space. You've already got the pavilions there, you've got restrooms, but again, create a facility that people will want to come here. And again, Tyler only has to maintain one facility, not three. Again, taking a look at— and I mentioned this— is that there's a lot of grass that's being mowed, and we're not sitting out there in our bikinis getting sun. There's a lot of grass that's being maintained that probably doesn't need to be maintained.

So again, come up with a turf reduction plan. Yes, it looks nice, But it is a lot of maintenance for the Parks and Recreation Department with very little return other than the visual aesthetics. I'm not saying that's not a priority, but come up with a turf reduction plan because I think that's going to make it a lot easier for the department. Develop a trails master plan. You need to get this done, get it adopted, and then do audits every 5 years.

And that's mostly internal with the department. I'm taking a look at new facilities. Pickleball courts, there they are. You need to develop some new pickleball courts. We're saying, uh, develop a Kenai Sports Complex that is expanded.

Already talked about that. We talked about expanding and consolidating the Kenai Green Strip and the Memorial Ballpark into a community event space, moving the Little League fields, getting those moved over, and then taking that space along with Municipal Park to create it into a seasonal campground parking. With a Link Trail network. And then, as I mentioned earlier, you know, look for those new neighborhoods that need new parks. So funding is obviously— this is a list, this is a dynamic living document.

As I said, that's why this 5-year audit's important, because priorities will change, new funding will come up. You might have these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to build a regional Nordic ski facility. I'm just throwing that out there, and if you guys decide that's what what you want to do. You know, you do need to make sure that you're responsive. But this really is your roadmap, but it is meant to be a dynamic document that goes— that moves.

And as I said, if you move towards the very end, as we move on to page 81, and I'm not going to go through all of these, but this really lines out everything that's in the document and spells it out of what you're supposed to be doing, or the recommendation actions for 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10, and then 10 years beyond. And at the very end, we have a whole bunch of different funding sources. And with that, you know, opportunities that if a project does come up, and I know Tyler has been successful getting outside funding for parks and recreation, but to continue to pursue this because most communities do find outside funding. You can't do it just on your own, just with taxing. And then as I said it before, local parks and recreation bonds are fantastic.

Opportunity. Today may not be the right time. We might want to wait a couple of years, but I think that the pendulum may move, that there is going to be a larger support for parks and recreation. With that, go ahead. Thank you.

Open it up to perhaps council. Council has any questions of Chris? Anything? Just, uh, just—. It's open discussion, so go ahead.

I'll kick it off because I couldn't be more excited about this. I think I might have said this when you visited us initially at the Kenai Visitor Center. So I think having gotten into this position through my continuous desire to see more parks and rec facilities and consolidation, I'm really excited to see this. I wanted to say thank you to your team's efforts. To both of you.

Tyler, your efforts, your team efforts, the folks before you, 'cause I think this is the third, you are the third Parks and Rec Director to work towards this goal. You did a ton though. I'm not gonna take that away from you, 'cause you did a ton of it. And then the administration overall for supporting this. I think it's exciting.

Yeah, campgrounds and consolidated outdoor sports complexes, um, less maintenance. This all sounds super great. I think it provides an opportunity for members of our community to pitch in. We have user groups for all of these types of facilities who I think want to fund improvements, whether it's Little League or the adult softball league. And knowing that they have a plan of where that money could go, I think is beneficial.

Same thing for the user groups of the Kenai Multipurpose Facility. If they know there's a long-term plan for our Kenai Rink, they know they can invest in that as well. So I think I'm just really grateful for everyone's efforts on this and couldn't be more excited for it. Yeah, and thanks all the Parks and Rec commissions that have existed over the last 10 years to help make this happen too. So my only other question is more of a financial question, and, um, maybe for the city more than anything, is, um, we have some rate increases, uh, proposed for the upcoming fiscal year for ice time, I believe.

Um, is that in hopes to help align our, uh, earned revenue more with the 20% average, uh, so we can use taxes less and more actual usage?

City Manager Eubank, I guess that's a question for you. Sure, yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Cassata. So the rate increase associated with the, the multipurpose facility— Tyler, when was the last time we did a rate increase? I think it was, it was '22 or '23 that we did an increase. So we're 3, 4 years since our last rate increase, and really is dealing with all our increase in utility costs, and it's just You know, our— fortunately, I think our ice maintenance over there, that contract might be going out to bid this summer.

No, it went out to bid last year. Okay, last summer has stayed pretty stable, which has been very nice for us. But, you know, just other general costs over there. So it's just trying to, you know, make sure that we're not losing ground on the percentage of fees that we're collecting. We're still subsidizing that facility to a large extent.

Yeah, last time we did it, it was— it's usually between 65% and 70% that we're subsidizing it. Or we're—. Sorry, we're getting back on it, subsidizing on the other end. Sorry, 45%. Yep.

Can I respond in just a little bit of context? Thanks. Yeah, ice rinks actually are one of your better profit makers. So Tyler is right that your ice rink is running at about 65% recoverable. And we're finding that's pretty standard across Alaska.

I know Juneau's similar. Kodiak's struggling because they've got an interesting facility. But for— I don't know if you've been to Kodiak ice rink. But yes, and I think just following up on the funding, this is your greatest funding tool once you approve this. You can start tearing pages out of this and attaching it to grant applications.

Without this document, you're not going to get outside funding. So this is really, really critical for Tyler and anybody else at the city who wants to chase outside money, because once this is adopted— it's developed through a public process, it's been adopted by the commission and hopefully by yourselves— so this becomes a vision for the community And it shows that people that will be providing opportunities for grant money knows that everybody's behind this. This isn't just a one-off, oh, we can chase some money. It's real. So this is your greatest tool right here once it's approved for chasing grant money.

Thank you again for bringing this forth. I mean, like Councilmember Kucinich said, there's a lot in here, and this is a great tool for our toolbox. I really appreciate it. I do have a question though. You mentioned a trail plan.

Maybe it's high level, is that similar to this but just for trails or something a little different? What is that and why do we need it? So, if I may, so a trails plan essentially is very similar to this. I'm gonna say the obvious, it focuses on trails. There's not necessarily national, there are some standards that come out of the National Recreation Park Association related to trails.

But for the most part, you did have a trails plan that was started back in— Nancy, help me out— phoning a friend here— 10 years ago. And yeah, yeah, so it went partway through the process, but it never got completed or adopted. So what that's going to do is very similar to this, is it's going to give you a roadmap and a vision of what you want for your trails in 20 years. And there's funding specifically for trail improvements and maintenance. So it's going to be very similar.

Generally, we do find that parks and recreation or parks and playground plans are separate from trail plans because usually they're two different entities or management. Kenai's a little bit unique that you, you, they all fall under your own purview. But for the most part, they're usually two different because they're, they're two different types of recreation that fit neatly into a package. We have developed some that are parks, playgrounds, and trails plans, but for the most part, they're usually independent documents. The trails plan we did 8 years ago or so focused on just a few areas in town where it was really the creek corridors here in the central part of town.

Um, that was our purview at that time, and you have implemented quite a few of those already. But he's right, it was never officially adopted and implemented into the Yeah, a proper trails plan would, would, would be done for the whole city versus just a small area. Um, it would help connect communities to each other, connect various parks to it, you know, and help prioritize those improvements. So And just to follow up on the trails, one of the challenges with trails though, and why they're usually independent, because these are all facilities managed by the City of Kenai. Trails cross so many different property and land managers.

That's why they're usually unique documents. I forgot to get into that. We just wrapped up the Ketchikan Trails Plan and there's over 12 different agencies that we had to get involved and it was like herding Cats. We got there, but again, everyone's like, no, they're going to take the priority on that one. No.

So they're a slightly different beast, and management is the biggest challenge related to trails because they go through so many different pieces of property managed by so many different agencies, easements, private land ownership. So there's a— they're slightly different beast compared to this. So that's why they're typically pulled apart from a plan, because this is all city facilities. Hopefully that answered your question. Yeah, and a trails plan too is something that we could take to the state if they're going to upgrade a road or something through town here.

We want a pathway that's X wide with other amenities. So that—. I did that, we— I was involved with that 30 years ago, something like that. But it was, it was, uh, pretty extensive. It was not even just trails, it was places where people were traveling.

Like you just said, across easements, across private property, frankly. That's where people wanted to be. Yeah. And it's the except once it gets adopted as a trails plan, again, as the mayor's correct, you know, you work with DOT and say, hey, we said that there is going to be a separated non-motorized trail along this road corridor. You need to fund it.

Because they are required to provide not only motorized transportation, And DOT is going to push back a little bit on this, but they are also required to provide non-motorized facilities. So a lot of times trail plans are that avenue to get DOT to actually provide those facilities within their right-of-ways. So not only is it a funding document, it also gives you a little bit of leverage to work with other agencies. And I think that's the biggest thing with the trails plans, because there are so many different agencies that you have to work with just because of the nature of the layout of the trail.

Okay, any further comments for Chris or Nancy? Go ahead. Thank you for bringing this to completion, and look forward to having the opportunity to vote affirmatively for this if, when it comes before us. Two questions for you. One on the the turf reduction plan, um, the aesthetic pleasing portion of that.

How could we maintain our aesthetically pleasing portion of that for our city and reduce the opportunity for taking care of that space without mowing grass? So I'm going to put on my landscape architect hat here. Thank you. I think it comes down to the highest and best use. So there's some pieces of property that are just mowed grass, and yes, it does provide an aesthetic benefit due to its location.

And if it was turned over and disposed of and became an opportunity for commercial, recreational, commercial facility or retail, some of these— I'm not saying this is all of them, but I'm just saying it's something that you might want to consider as the highest and best use of this property. We typically We don't recommend disposal of parkland, but you do have a lot of parkland within your downtown core that could potentially be used for something else. So I'm not saying you need to get it, but it's part of the park reduction— the turf reduction plan is to do that inventory and figure out. The other thing, let it go back to a natural state. Grass— Tyler's crew is probably mowing everything at least once a week.

You know, to keep the grass going. But for the most part, if it's only being used a couple of times a year, that's requiring a lot of time and effort for Tyler's crew to keep something natural as grass. And we're talking larger expenses, whether it be 4th Avenue, you know, that's the old ball field and there's a basketball court. I don't think I've seen anybody— I'm not that I live here and I'm there every day, but I just don't see any or very limited use in that area. So again, turf reduction, there may be disposal Or be coming up with other strategies.

So it may be instead of saying turf, maybe we're putting in paved, maybe we're putting in other facilities there that doesn't require grass. So if you do decide that you want to have whatever the event is, put in something that's a hardscape. It's easier to maintain hardscape, whether it be a gravel trail or concrete plaza, or perhaps even dispose of it and turn it into something else that might be of benefit to the community. Maybe it becomes a new museum. I don't know, but that's part of the plan.

Because grass is cheap to put in, but horrible to maintain. It's the most expensive landscape that probably Tyler and his crew maintains right now. So again, I think it's just looking at strategies. It's coming up with alternatives other than clipped green grass. So it could be, —letting stuff go back to nature.

Nancy, do you have any insight as a local? Sorry, I don't mean to put you on the spot. No, it's all right. It is a complicated question. I mean, when you have safety issues, you've got wildlife and wildlife and the human side that can sometimes occupy unmaintained areas.

So I think you've got all that to consider. Visually, strictly visually, he's right. You can let it grow back to natural. You can mow under trees once a year and just at least keep it down, but not every single week. If you keep at least an edge mode, it gives you that cue to care that gives it that trimmed, we do care for this sort of appearance without the huge amount of acreage being mowed.

It's tricky and you'll have to do it on a case-by-case basis and what's best for each location. There's a lot of tools to implement for that.

The second thing is you said that we didn't have any regional parks. Was the North and South Beach considered in our personal use hosting for the personal use fishery that comes down here annually and the whole state of Alaska enjoys that space? I would think that's pretty regional. I mean, to answer your question, yes, it is a regional statewide destination, but because it's a single use and it fits cleanly under a special use area, so that gives Tyler better management control of that. Generally, um, regional parks They have accessible parking, they have lit parking lots, they have year-round toilets.

So it's really something that's a destination that appeals to everybody and everybody can use year-round. So there's some challenges and I agree, North and South Beach are huge draws. Absolutely. But it fits a little bit neater into the special use classification just because of what it is. There's the ability to move some of these around, and we definitely work together in how we classified some of these parks.

But generally, those that are regional attractions are large built park facilities. Like I said, it could be a regional Nordic cross-country ski facility that has grandstands and concessions and lit trails, you know, the, the whole thing. So that's more of a regional attraction. Agree on the, on the fisheries. But I think it's a matter of how we put it in so that we can give the right tools for management.

Thank you, I graciously appreciate that. But yes, it is a great question. Okay, any further council comments, questions?

Seeing none, do we have anybody from the public online? No public comments. Before we adjourn, I want to personally thank you both for helping with the document. And I read through it, and it's very well presented. And just like you said, you can find everything in succinct little areas, whatever, and get your head around it as opposed to going back and forth.

And I appreciate a document like that. It's usable and understandable. And it looks good, you know, all of those things. So anyway, much appreciated and thank you for being here tonight.

With that, we'll adjourn if we have no further questions. Thank you.