Working with an entire community, to achieve a decades-long dream

In 2021, still recovering and dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Soldotna decided to pursue a project that was a high community priority but had failed in previous attempts to get it done. 

We did this through:

• developing a funding strategy that allowed the City to fund the project with a diverse set of sources, without impacting the existing tax rates;

• ensuring the programming and design of the facility itself provided the greatest flexibility in meeting the community’s needs, and was responsive to feedback from diverse user groups; and

• supported a large, grass-roots movement of supporters to provide informational sessions, written materials and fact sheets, media and radio appearances, and marketing materials encouraging the project supporters to ‘Vote Yes!’ on a $15m GO Bond proposition

 By the end of the project, we successfully achieved:

• overwhelming voter support (67% Yes!)

• Project construction awarded within budget

• Alternate funding sources

• Construction on schedule with 2025 open to the public