An ordinance to appropriate a lower funding amount is scheduled for June 22 public hearing

By Delcenia Cosman

Reporter, Homer Independent Press

The Homer City Council took new steps on Monday to address the proposed Woodard Canyon Trail above Karen Hornaday Park after rejecting an ordinance last month to appropriate $378,000 from the Homer Accelerated Roads and Trails Fund for trail planning and design.

The council introduced a new ordinance during its June 8 meeting that would appropriate $50,000 from the HART Fund for conceptual planning of a lower-impact trail project. Ordinance 26-30 will come back before the council on June 22 for a public hearing and second reading. 

Council member Jason Davis said that the ordinance essentially set “an upper cap” on the needed funding for the project.

“We think it would probably be a lot less, because we’re not looking for engineering or final, shovel-ready designs, we’re just looking for a company with trail-building expertise to basically do a feasibility study to … identify the best, most feasible route for (the trail) that would involve the least removal of trees and vegetation and be the least likely to upset the balance of that slope up there,” he said. 

The council also postponed until the June 22 meeting a resolution directing the city manager to issue a request for proposals for trail route identification and planning. 

During the Committee of the Whole meeting, Davis said that postponing Resolution 26-041 would pose no real delay, because the city would not put out an RFP until the ordinance appropriating funding was passed by the council. Additionally, postponing the resolution would allow Davis and Council Member Shelly Erickson, as sponsors of both the resolution and ordinance, and City Manager Melissa Jacobsen to meet with city staff “to get a little more clarity on the whole thing.”

Erickson added that there may be some elements of the project that the city could accomplish in-house to save money. Jacobsen said that holding a meeting with city staff and the council sponsors would “be helpful to talk through a bigger picture.”

“Instead of doing everything at once like we had talked about, maybe initially we’re doing pieces at a time, and so what does that whole big picture look like?” she said. “Just to give council an idea of what’s going to be next after the conceptual design, because there will still be some engineering and design work done to solidify what the trail plan is actually going to look like, and how much engineering and additional costs we might need.” 

Mayor Rachel Lord said she appreciated postponing the resolution from a procedural standpoint, so that the funds might be appropriated first before putting out an RFP.

In other council discussion on the proposed trail during the regular meeting, Council Member Caroline Venuti suggested ways to incorporate handicapped accessibility measures. 

“I just hate to see a large segment of our population never able to use this,” she said. “If we could do something for them … to me, it would be more fair for the larger population.” 

Find both Ordinance 26-30 and Resolution 26-041, as well as a full recording of the June 8 council meetings, at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-350.