Representatives from Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche’s office met with Anchor Point residents Saturday, Sept. 27, to outline the community’s wishes for borough Community Assistance Program grants and for capital improvement projects.
About 15 attendees, representing multiple local organizations and nonprofits including the Anchor Point Public Library, the Anchor Point Food Pantry, the Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce, the Anchor Point Community and Senior Center and more, discussed their project and funding priorities with the borough’s Special Projects and Constituent Relations coordinator Dana Cannava and Grants Administrator and Community Liaison Heather Geer.
Cannava explained that Anchor Point could select two priority projects for the CIP. Applications for projects on the CIP list are submitted to the state for potential future funding, though funding is not automatically guaranteed.
“It depends on what the other asks are within the state,” Cannava said. “These are just really our wish list, and we hope that they’ll grace us with some of those funds, but there’s no guarantees, ever. But if you don’t ask, then you definitely don’t get anything, so it’s always good to put them up here.”
In 2024, the community’s first priority was the replacement of the library’s septic system and the second priority was parking for the new location of the Anchor Point Food Pantry. The library received grant funding through the Rasmuson Foundation to replace their septic earlier this year.
For this year’s CIP priorities, residents selected additional repairs to the library building as their top priority, keeping additional food pantry parking as their second priority in order to better meet the community’s needs and current demand for the pantry’s services.
The KPB Community Assistance Program receives grant funds annually from the state Division of Community and Regional Affairs on behalf of unincorporated communities that have nonprofit and tribal entities who are able to utilize the funds for “public purposes” within those communities, the borough website states.
Geer explained that the program used to be referred to as “revenue sharing,” and consists of pass-through funding from the state for unincorporated communities.
“The borough applies for the funding for any of the unincorporated communities that have a fiduciary or nonprofit who’s able to take on a project,” she said. “Their community is awarded a lump sum that can be split between multiple projects within the community.
“This is purely a community decision. The borough doesn’t have any vote or influence over what projects are funded … (or) not, as long as all of the projects are completed by a nonprofit and are publicly available to the community.”
The lump sum available to Anchor Point amounted to $15,979.41. After drafting a list of multiple projects from various local nonprofits, community members unanimously voted to divide the lump sum equally among all projects, so that each organization would receive a little over $2,200.
Recipients of CAP funds thus include Snomads, the Anchor Point VFW Post 10221, the Anchor Point Community and Senior Center, the Anchor Point Library, Anchor Point Food Pantry, Anchor Point Chamber of Commerce, and Anchor Kings Wrestling.
“Most of these meetings are very positive, because these communities are coming together and agreeing on these priorities and on how to spend the CAP budget,” Cannava said. “It’s great to see — because that’s what we hope to do with these projects, is build community.”
Kenai Peninsula Borough grants administrator Heather Geer explains the Community Assistance Program to community members gathered at the Anchor Point Community and Senior Center on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Anchor Point, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
