City Manager Paul Ostrander is leaving the City of Kenai next year after six years on the job. The city announced today he will not renew his contract when it expires Jan. 9, 2023.
Ostrander said he’s been considering the move for a while. And he said now, the timing feels right.
“Everything at the city is in a really good place,” he said. “It just felt like it was time to do something different, move on to the next phase of my life.”
The city manager in Kenai is appointed by the Kenai City Council. They’re the head of the city’s administration and are charged with preparing a budget and overseeing the city’s employees, among other responsibilities.
Ostrander became city manager in 2017 and renewed his three-year contract in 2020.
Now that he’s not renewing his contract for a second time, Ostrander said he’s not sure how he’ll fill the next six to 12 months — he just knows he wants to take a break and spend time with his family before moving onto the next thing.
But first, there’s a list of to-dos he wants to accomplish.
Number one, he said, is making sure all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted on Kenai’s bluff stabilization project. Ostrander has moved that project toward the finish line, securing most of the funding potentially needed to fortify a 5,000-foot section of eroding bluff in Old Town Kenai, which is losing approximately three feet to the Kenia River each year.
Ostrander said he hopes to solicit bids for the project’s construction by Oct. 3. Construction on that project is supposed to start next spring.
“A couple of things that need to be wrapped up on bluff stabilization to make sure we’re in a position that once we hit April, there’s absolutely nothing that will stop us as far as development,” Ostrander said. “That’s number one on the list.”
Ostrander said he’s also excited about the city’s new land management inventory, which catalogs the nearly 370 subdivided parcels of land owned by the city and outlines how they should be used. City-owned land is under the jurisdiction of the city council, which can lease, sell or acquire new parcels.
Ostrander said the next step for that plan is to get the parcel map online.
“That’s something that had needed to be done for years,” he said. “The city has an enormous resource in their lands. And we really didn’t know what we had. It was about a four-year process to get that document together and get it through the public process. But that’s going to serve the city really well going forward.”
Along the lines of property development, the city’s also pursuing a waterfront revitalization project. It commissioned a study on how to best use the 160-acres of city-owned waterfront and last week got asummary of those recommendations back including incentives for private businesses.
Ostrander said there’s momentum building there that he’d like to see continue into the future. He said private owners who share the city’s vision are on the verge of buying the Port of Kenai. And already one business said it’s moving in — Kassik’s Brewery, which is currently in Nikiski.
“When I first got here six years ago, Mayor [Brian] Gabriel said, ‘That’s my number one priority, I want to see that brewery in town,’” he said. “And here we are — we're going to have a brewery in town next year.”
Ostrander said he also wants to continue to improve the relationship between the city and the Kenaitze Indian Tribe.
And he plans to create a transition document for his successor.
“So whoever sits in this chair after I do — they have everything they need to be successful going forward,” he said.
Before he became city manager, Ostrander founded and owned Aleutian Chain cell company Alaska Wireless Communications. Ostrander sold the business to GCI in 2007. And he was chief of staff to Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Mike Navarre from 2011 to 2017 before joining the City of Kenai.
The city council will start talking about recruiting and selecting a new city manager at its next meeting on Oct. 5.