The two candidates hoping to be the next mayor of Kenai, and two of the three candidates running for the two open seats on the Kenai City Council, met last week to discuss their visions for the future of the city as part of a candidate forum moderated by the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM.
The forum, hosted in partnership with the Kenai Peninsula League of Women Voters and KSRM Radio Group at the Kenai Community Library, was the third in a series of forums leading up to the Oct. 7 municipal election that will be held in Soldotna, Kenai, Soldotna and Homer. Ashlyn O’Hara, senior reporter at KDLL, and Jake Dye, senior reporter at the Clarion, moderated.
Mayor’s seat
Kenai Mayor Brian Gabriel is not running for reelection this year. Henry Knackstedt, Kenai’s vice mayor, and Alex Douthit, who serves on the Kenai City Council, are contending for the seat.
Knackstedt introduced himself as a longtime resident of Kenai who graduated from Kenai Central High School in 1979 and received an engineering degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He served 20 years on the city’s airport commission and was vice chair of the planning and zoning commission before spending the last 11 years on the city council, including two years as the vice mayor.
Douthit, similarly, said he was born and raised in Kenai. As a business owner, he said he has nearly 20 employees in the area and is “heavily invested in the community.” He also has served on the planning and zoning commission, currently sits on the board of directors for the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and this year is finishing his first term on the city council.
City council race
There are two seats open on the city council, and Kenai voters will cast ballots for two of the three candidates. The top two vote-getters will fill the two seats. Incumbent Victoria Askin is running, as is Bridget Grieme and Glenese Pettey. Pettey did not attend the forum and did not provide a written statement.
Askin said she’s a 40-year resident of the city with a long history of public service on the harbor commission and planning and zoning commission before joining the city council.
“I want to give back to the community and I support programs for children and seniors alike,” she said.
Grieme introduced herself as a lifelong Alaskan who moved from North Pole to Kenai in 2002 with her husband. She’s worked for 23 years in juvenile justice and served on committees “from PTA and site council and church councils to den leader.” With her children now adults, she said, “I have a little bit more time to dedicate to things they aren’t involved in.”
“I love working in Kenai,” she said. “I want to be part of making this and continuing to keep this a great place where other people want to live and work.”
Kenai’s present and future
All four candidates said that the city’s budget is in good shape, though Douthit and Knackstedt both said they expect some larger maintenance needs to come due in the coming years. Kenai is currently inventorying its streets and streetlights and also exploring the needs of its public safety building.
Knackstedt pointed to the airport as a driver of the city’s economy that will continue to be important especially if construction begins on a proposed Alaska LNG Project.
Douthit pointed to Kenai’s room to grow, “large quantities of land that are undeveloped,” that can be used to grow Kenai’s population, business and more.
Each of the candidates said they wanted to see more development and revitalization in the city’s waterfront. Knackstedt said he wanted to see development of trails in the area, possibly including the walkway on top of the bluff stabilization project. Douthit said he wanted to see the city better market that space to investors who might be interested in developing the area without requiring the city to put forth the funds for it. Askin echoed Douthit in looking to “partnerships with a lot of private entities” to make development happen. Grieme said that she wanted to see Kenai be creative to encourage that development whether by motivating investment or partnering with other groups.
“Can we think outside of the box to motivate people to put money into our community and make money from our community so that people will come and spend money in our community?” she asked.
The candidates also all agreed that the fees for Kenai’s water and sewer utility would likely increase in the coming years. Each cited the needs to modernize the infrastructure and said that the quality of the service provided is significant.
Room for growth
Among the largest looming questions for the city, Knackstedt said, is whether the LNG pipeline will or won’t be constructed. He said the mayor, as a leader of the city council, is an important voice in encouraging and supporting development of things like housing — though he said Kenai is fortunate to already have strong utilities and transportation infrastructure in place.
Douthit said the city needs to figure out its future and how to grow, whether that picture includes a pipeline or doesn’t. Kenai needs to bring in more people — including young families — and ensure there are jobs available for those people to afford to live in the area. Part of that equation, he said, is getting more developers into the area. He cited the in-development parks and recreation master plan as a potential guiding light in developing “what people want to see.”
“I want to see something in our future that’s exciting,” he said. “I think the mayor has a good role in trying to push for that.”
People often say Kenai “is dying,” Askin said, “but nobody can tell me what it is they want changed.” She said that the city has strong schools and programs that deserve to keep growing, and that she’d similarly be interested in more public input to guide future growth.
The council’s responsibility, Grieme said, is to be “one step ahead of the game.” That means, she said, identifying where they want Kenai to be and figuring out how to get there — “how do we get other businesses here that are going to continue to help Kenai grow and be the city that we all love it and want it to continue to be.”
People want to see change, Douthit said. He said he wants to see Kenai as a place his children are excited to return to and make their home.
Knackstedt said the city is on the right track, that it will solve its infrastructure challenges and that there is a lot to be excited about. He pointed to the openings this year of both the new Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula clubhouse and Triumvirate Theatre in Kenai, the growth of the Kenai Art Center and other local organizations.
“I don’t want to stop there,” he said. “I want to continue as your mayor and do all of those things and more.”
A full recording of the forum can be streamed on the Clarion’s Facebook page or on KDLL’s website at kdll.org. The forum will also be available on podcast services as an episode of “Kenai Conversation.”
This week, a candidate forum will be held Wednesday, Sept. 10, with candidates for the Soldotna seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly at the Soldotna Public Library. A candidate forum for the Seward mayoral race will be held on Thursday, Sept. 11, from 6-7 p.m. at the Seward Community Library.
There will be two forums held next week, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with candidates for the Kalifornsky seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s board of education in the Soldotna Public Library, and on Thursday, Sept. 18, with candidates for the south and east peninsula seats on the school board at the Homer Public Library. All forums are held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Election Day is Oct. 7.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
Alex Douthit speaks during a forum with candidates for Kenai mayor and city council at the Kenai Community Library in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Victoria Askin speaks during a forum with candidates for Kenai mayor and city council at the Kenai Community Library in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Alex Douthit speaks during a forum with candidates for Kenai mayor and city council at the Kenai Community Library in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Bridget Grieme speaks during a forum with candidates for Kenai mayor and city council at the Kenai Community Library in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Henry Knackstedt speaks during a forum with candidates for Kenai mayor and city council at the Kenai Community Library in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
