AUTHOR’S NOTE: Kenai Peninsula citizens voted in 1963 to create a second-class governing entity called the Kenai Peninsula Borough, which was incorporated at the beginning of 1964. They also selected the borough’s first executive, Borough Chairman Harold Pomeroy. Then it was time to decide where the new borough’s administrative seat was to be.

After the Kenai Peninsula Borough was incorporated on Jan. 1, 1964, assembly members knew that they had to select a seat of government. They also knew that such a selection might be difficult.

It didn’t take long for the sparks to fly.

Battle for the Seat of Power

On Jan. 10, near the end of a page-one article in the Cheechako News, Kenai mayor James G. “Bud” Dye suggested that, despite its initial activities in Soldotna, the borough could move t

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