Kenai Peninsula

Formed January 1, 1964 (8^th borough)

Kenai Peninsula Borough (58,787), Soldotna (4,340), Kenai (7,418)

The borough courthouse is a Modern masonry building.  The courthouse is located on Trading Bay Drive north of Main Street Loop.  Homer and Seward also have courthouses.  The courthouse is augmented with an Administrative Building.  The borough is named for the Peninsula and surrounding mountains.  The borough seat’s name comes for the Russian word for “soldier.”  The borough was founded in January 1, 1964 as the 8^th borough.  Interstate Highway A1 comes in from Anchorage Municipality and terminates.  The borough has two parts separated by Cook Inlet, a part of the Pacific Ocean. 

Kenai Peninsula Borough government consists of a sheriff, financial director, a mayor, district attorney, and a clerk (executive).  It has 9 assembly members (legislative.)  Twenty-six Superior Judges and Fifteen District Judges serve the Third Judicial District which includes the Kenai Peninsula Borough (judicial.)  It is southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.  The center of the borough is 15 miles South-Southeast of Soldotna.  The borough is surrounded clockwise by Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Municipality of Anchorage, and Chugach Census Area and the Pacific Ocean and Kodiak Island and Lake and Peninsula Boroughs, and Bethel Census Area.

The area of the borough is 16017 square miles.  It is 12 of 30 in size.  It ranks 4 out of 30 in population in the state.  It has a density of 3.79 persons per square mile making it 5 out of 30 in the state.  Kenai Peninsula Borough has 35.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  The peninsula looks like a catcher’s mitt and the mainland looks like a fat hook.  The borough seat is located on the peninsula in the northern quarter of the borough.  The largest city is located on the northwest part of the peninsula.  Soldotna is the borough seat and Kenai is the largest city.  Soldotna is 7.4% of the borough population while Kenai is 12.6% of the borough population.  The borough is pronounced KI-NIE and the seat is pronounced SOLE-DOT-NA.