HomeMy WebLinkAbout04222019 City Council Laydown - Lane KPEDD Report Ro-t-74, teuidom
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Report on Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Board Meeting,held April 18th,2019 in
Kenai,Alaska.Attended by Council Member Kelley Lane,representing Seward
April 22nd,2019
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On April 17th-18th I had the opportunity to represent the Seward City Council to the Kenai
Peninsula Economic Development District at its quarterly meeting in Kenai.The experience reminded
me of the strong ties that Seward shares with the rest of the Kenai Peninsula and the tremendous
amount of opportunity that we have for innovation and business amongst ourselves.As an example,I
seized the chance to sit with Bruce Richards,one of the administrators at Central Peninsula Hospital,
an excellent facility that provides medical services to a large percentage of Peninsula residents.The
opportunity to create stronger ties between this hospital and Seward's population is encouraging in
that it could provide geographically closer access to high level care and maintain a tighter level of
economic cycling on the Peninsula.
The KPEDD board is composed of twelve members who represent the municipalities of the Peninsula,
along with Tim Dillon, Executive Director and Caitlin Coreson serving as Administrative Assistant
and record keeper. I spent Wednesday evening and Thursday in strategic familiarization meetings with
members of the Board and businesses that work alongside KPEDD at their Kenai location.This
investment of time in which to meet and learn from key players has broadened my scope of knowledge
of industries and opportunities for Seward and allowed for relationship building.
I met with board member Karin Marks,who is on Homer's Economic Development Council who
introduced me to the idea of brown bag lunches with Council members. In Homer they hold these
monthly,and rotate through Council members,such that each Council member has lunch with the
public twice per year. This provides an informal opportunity for the public to access their Council
members and shares the time responsibility equally amongst Council members. The gatherings are
held at the public library. I'm curious to hear if Seward's Council might be willing to adopt something
similar.
The main goal of my visit to Kenai was to develop relationships with KPEDD board members and its
executive director,Tim Dillon. Getting to spend 28 hours visiting the wonderful city of Kenai,
meeting new and old friends and touring the facility gave me unwavering confidence that I was
successful in this goal.I am grateful to Seward City Council and to Seward tax payers for investing in
relationship and knowledge building and I look forward to traveling to Kenai again for the June 20th
meeting.
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