Reluctant Council pledges $2.5 million for new library building

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News
The Seward City Council Monday night approved by a 4-1 vote, a resolution that authorizes the city manager to submit a proposal to the Rasmuson Foundation requesting $1.5 million for the $10.2 million Seward Community Library Museum Project. More important to taxpayers is that the resolution clearly sets in [...]

Will We Have a Homer-Like Spit?

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News

The city-owned South Harbor fill area and breakwater is wasted space, an untapped gravel eyesore just waiting to be put to better use in the summertime. Most summers, the area fills with cars and boat trailers, parked by visiting tourists and locals fishing or putting their boats in for [...]

City Council Report: Preserving and Promoting Seward History

Heidi Zemach for Seward City News
The Seward City Council went on record Monday April 26 supporting the concept of creating a potentially lucrative new niche in the local travel market—Japanese fans of Jujiro Wada, an Alaska Pioneer and the original surveyor of the Iditarod trail. Local history professor Edgar Blatchford and his University of Alaska [...]

Representative Seaton’s End of Legislative Session Newsletter

Greetings from Juneau after this 91st day of the adjourned legislative session. We did not quite finish our work in 90 days but kept going only part of one additional day. This was still 29 days less than the constitutional 120 day limit. As I have expressed before, trying to cram all the issues into [...]

Flood Board Meeting Civil But Emotional

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News

(Photo: DNR’s Christina Nahorney, Scott Ogen, Mayor Carey, DNR’s Clark Cox)

Property owners from the Seward/Bear Creek Flood Service area sparred with Department of Natural Resources representatives and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey Monday April 19. The evening question-and-answer session highlighted the SBCFSA board meeting at SeaView Plaza. Although [...]

Poor Management in Lost Lake and Primrose Trail Closures

[following is a copy of the letter I just emailed to the Forest Service from their website (hence the CAPS)
Please voice your own opinion at
The LOCAL FOREST SERVICE OFFICE 907-288-7702
OR ANCHORAGE 907-743-9500]
Dear whoever is in charge there,
Claiming “inadequate snow coverage” in order to close the Lost Lake and Primrose snowmachine trails so prematurely is by [...]

Flood Hazard District Continues but Flood Plain Task Force Ends

(Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Flood Plain Task Force met for the very last time March 10 at Seward City Hall before being dissolved by the borough. They turned over future flood work to the Seward Bear Creek Flood Board. A divided task force voted 4-2 to keep Ordinance 2009-09 in [...]

City Proclaims Seward Alaska’s Wellness Capital

(Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)
The Seward City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday March 8, proclaiming the City of Seward as the “Wellness Capital of Alaska.” Mayor Willard Dunham and council member Tom Smith were absent. The resolution also authorizes City Manager Phillip Oates to seek state and federal recognition under that title, and [...]

Council vote moves fluoridation forward

(By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)
heidizemach@yahoo.com

(Will this water contain fluoride in the future?)

A divided city council has moved city water fluoridation a step forward. With a 4-2 vote they passed a resolution at Monday night’s meeting “affirming council support for fluoridation of the public water supply to improve oral health.” The resolution directs the [...]

Seward Bear Creek Flood Board Hears From Borough Mayor

By Heidi Zemach for SCN
The Seward//Bear Creek Flood Service Area Board voted Monday Feb. 16 to spend $84,000 of its FY2011 budget on a new project at the flood-prone Salmon Creek Road/Nash Road intersection, pending approval by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. The board already has been promised a matching grant of $60,000 from the [...]

Council rejects fee increases on harbor properties, maintains $5 parking fees

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News
At Monday’s regular meeting the Seward City Council discussed, but rejected for the time being a proposal instituting a two-percent increase in fees on the city’s rental properties. The city’s 37 property leases along the harbor are due for their mandatory five-year reappraisal, where a Fair Market Value is [...]

City Council Addresses Coal Issues

(Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)

Coal dominated the Seward City Council meeting Monday, Jan 25th, as nearby, coal-filled trains pulled up to the Seward waterfront coal transfer facility, steadily growing a 90,000 ton-plus coal pile as it was loaded onto a waiting ship. The council unanimously agreed to undertake a community-wide ambient air [...]

Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Walker Coming to Seward

Candidate for Governor, Bill Walker, will be in Seward Tuesday, February 9th. He will be at the Breeze Inn from 9am-11:30am talking with people in the community. All are invited to this casual gathering to meet Bill, hear about his vision for the state, and let Bill know your questions and concerns. For more information email info@billwalkerforgovernor.com or [...]

LIO Amplifies Local Voices

(Heidi Zemach, for the Seward City News)
The legislative information office in the SeaView Plaza Building on Railway Avenue was eerily quiet on Tuesday morning, Jan 19, the first day of the state legislature’s 2010 session. But quite a lot of business will be taking place there in the 90 days ahead, says Marianna Keil, Seward’s [...]

Kenai Watershed Forum – First Installment: Who We Are & What We Do

The Kenai Watershed Forum (KWF) is a local 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to maintaining the health of the watersheds on the Kenai Peninsula. KWF is recognized as the regional watershed organization of the Kenai Peninsula, successfully identifying and addressing the needs of the region by providing high quality education, restoration, and research programs. KWF’s mission is [...]

Successful Donations for Pick.Click.Give

In an update from the PFD Charitable Contributions Program, www.PickClickGive.org, they report the following:
“The number of people who have successfully filed a charitable donation to eligible Alaska nonprofits through the PFD Charitable Contributions Program, also known as Pick Click Give., has shot up in the hours since the State reported that the technical problems had [...]

Alaska Logistics to expand Seward operation

(By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)
The Seward City Council has agreed to have City Manager Phillip Oates negotiate a lease with Alaska Logistics, LLC, to construct a large vessel maintenance, repair and storage enclosure at the Seward Marine Industrial Center in support of their Western Alaska Barge Service. Alaska Logistics has operated a barge service [...]

City Council approves two-year budget resolution and tariffs that businesses say will squeeze them more

(Heidi Zemach for Seward City News)
Like it or not, whether you own a small or large business, or you’re just a resident Joe or Jane who works for someone else, city fees are going up everywhere. But rest assured, it looks like the city won’t be cutting any of its staff, or lowering the level [...]

It’s Tails, Linda Wins!

Linda Amberg is Sworn in

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News
A simple coin toss, followed two deadlocked 3-3 city council secret ballot votes, decided who would be appointed for the one-year term on the Seward City Council October 26. In that instant, Linda Amberg, a local insurance company owner, broker, and former city council member [...]

Thank You Voters!

The Seward Community Library Museum Committee (SCLMBC) members thank you, the community, for your strong support for the new library museum.

With a very successful Yes vote on proposition 3, the project is now well positioned to seek state and federal funding as well as funding support from private and public foundation grantors. Local commitment [...]

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