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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
Sunday, February 17, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 118
In the news Man found dead after Seward sailboat fire A man is dead following a fire on a sailboat in Seward Harbor Saturday morning. Seward Fire Department responded to the fire on the Perspective, moored in Seward Harbor’s B float, just after 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. The cause of the fire is unknown and authorities have not yet identified the victim. This is second vessel fire in the Seward Harbor this winter.
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Knopp speaks at chamber breakfast By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Rep. Gary Knopp (R-Kenai/Soldotna) addressed his efforts to build a coalition in the state House of Representatives and the governor’s proposed budget to the community Friday morning at a Special Kenai/Soldotna Joint Chamber Breakfast. Knopp’s efforts to organize the House have been criticized by some residents. At the breakfast, Knopp said his goal was to create a functioning House, where both parties are working together. “The House needs to function,” Knopp said in his
Rep. Gary Knopp speaks to a sold-out Joint Chamber Breakfast On Friday, in Kenai. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
short chamber presentation. Knopp dug into the local “It had no chance of func- impacts of Gov. Dunleavy’s tioning or succeeding with proposed budget, which was our makeup.” released Wednesday.
Proposed education cuts to the foundation formula for education spending was cut by about $300 million. For the Kenai Peninsula Borough, that would equate to a loss of about $20 million, Knopp said. “About every million dollars for the education system is about 10 teaching positions,” Knopp said. “So if you lose about $20 million, you do the math, you can see the impacts to employment. Pretty substantial. The fact of the matter is it could resolve in closing and consolidating schools and some pretty drastic changes.”
presentations from the Department of Law and the Department of Corrections, Hoffman said he was shocked to see the state spending less money on these departments after the governor made clear he wants to combat crime. The DOL presentation showed that the governor’s proposed budget would spend $1.8 million less on the department next year if the budget remained unchanged. Hoffman asked DOL Administrative Services Director Anna Kim how the department can do its job better while spending less money. Kim pointed to a $1.1 million fiscal note that See SAFETY, page A3
See OUT, page A7
See KNOPP, page A2
JUNEAU — Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is offering President Donald Trump the use of the Alaska National Guard to patrol it, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Dunleavy says in a video message that the soldiers would “stand ready to support the national security crisis on the U.S. southern border.” “While the southern border may seem far away and distant, this crisis is real and a potential threat to every American, including Alaskans,” he said in the message released Friday. Dunleavy press secretary Matt Shuckerow tells that Daily News that no movement of the Alaska National Guard is planned. He says that if the soldiers were sent there, the federal government would pay most of the cost. — Associated Press
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Senators baffled at public safety cuts By ALEX MCCARTHY Juneau Empire
When Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a “war on criminals” in his State of the State speech, many around the state were encouraged. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, was among them. When Hoffman read through Dunleavy’s proposed budget this Wednesday, Hoffman was befuddled. According to presentations to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and Friday, Dunleavy’s budget proposes cuts of about $29 million from the Department of Corrections, $3 million from the Department of Public Safety, $1.8 mil-
Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, poses questions to Department of Corrections and Office of Management and Budget officials during a Senate Finance Committee meetingon Friday. (Alex McCarthy/Juneau Empire)
lion from the Department of Law, $900,000 from the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs and a $3.5 million increase in
spending for the Alaska Courts System. At Friday’s Senate Finance Committee meeting, which included
By ALEX MCCARTHY Juneau Empire
Recent history might repeat itself if Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget comes to fruition. Included in the plan for the Alaska Department of Corrections is a money-saving measure that would send at least 500 inmates from Alaska prisons to prisons outside the state, according to a presentation to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday. Doing this would provide a savings of $12.8 million, according to the presentation from DOC officials and Office of Management and Budget Director Donna Arduin. The governor’s budget also proposes closing down a wing of Wildwood Correctional Center to save money. Kelly Goode, deputy commissioner for DOC, said in the presentation Friday that the department has begun to reach out to Outside prisons to see if there’s room for Alaskans. “We just wanted to know if there were even beds available outside, but beyond that, no, we haven’t started a process,” Goode said.
— Kat Sorensen
Dunleavy offers use of troops along US-Mexico border
State examining sending inmates out of state
Budget proposes $3.5 million cut to public media By KEVIN BAIRD Juneau Empire
The state of Alaska contributes about $3.5 million annually to support public radio and television programs across the state. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal would cut this state assistance out completely. Last week, Dunleavy released his budget, which followed up on his campaign promise to align the state’s revenue and expenditures rather than dip into savings. To do so, he proposed an unprecedented $1.6 billion cut to the operating budget. By cutting out public media funding, Alaska would save $3.5 million in
Bethany Lowrance, left, of Gavel Alaska, and Rashah McChesney, a reporter with the Alaska Energy Desk (a collaboration between stations of the Alaska Public Radio Network), cover a Senate Finance Committee meeting at the Capitol on Thursday. (Michael Penn/Juneau Empire)
the next fiscal year. This equates to roughly 0.22 percent of total proposed cuts.
But what would Alaskan’s lose? Each year this $3.5 mil-
lion grant is distributed in varying amounts to Alaska’s 27 public radio stations and seven television stations. For example, KTOOTV received an allocation of $75,700 for the current year. The KTOO radio station received $77,041, according to an an Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission document. This state grant is not the sole source of funding for public media in Alaska. The state grant accounts for about 7 percent, or $400,000 of Alaska Public Media’s total funding. Alaska Public Media includes KSKA 91.1 FM in Anchorage and produces a number of radio shows including the “Midnight Oil” podcast. Alaska
Public Media also receives federal funding, about $1 million or 18 percent of its budget. The vast majority, 75 percent, or $4.2 million of Alaska Public Media’s funding comes from community donations. It’s difficult to say how these cuts might affect the different public media organizations in Alaska. “A station like the KTOO complex will probably survive,” Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau said. “The more rural parts of public radio may not…I of course oppose these cuts. I will fight for that small subsidy. Public broadcasting in Alaska has been a lifeline to rural Alaska.” Hannan said public radio
See MEDIA, page A2
Man arrested in murder cold-case Kenai woman charged with cashing $17,000 ANCHORAGE (AP) — A suspect has been arrestin fraudulent checks ed in Maine in connection with the sexual assault and murder of a 20-year-old woman whose body was found in a dorm bathtub at the University of Alaska Fairbanks nearly 26 years ago, Alaska State Troopers said Friday. Steven Downs of Auburn, Maine, was arrested in Auburn on Friday on charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault in the April 1993 death of Sophie Sergie of Pitkas Point, troopers said. New DNA technology led to Downs, according to troopers. The technology, called genetic geneal-
By BRIAN MAZUREK Peninsula Clarion
Col. Barry Wilson, director of the Alaska State Troopers, speaks at a press conference Friday, in Anchorage. (Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
ogy testing, was also used to make an arrest last year in the Golden State Killer case in California. For-
mer police officer Joseph James DeAngelo faces 13 rape-related charges and See COLD, page A7
A Kenai woman has been charged with writing and cashing fraudulent checks, according to an affidavit filed by the Kenai Police Department on Feb. 14. Stephanie Davis, 43, had allegedly been writing unauthorized checks to herself for several months while working at the Main Street Hotel in Kenai in 2018. The manager of the establishment made a report of the
theft to the Kenai Police Department on Nov. 21, 2018 and gave police 36 photocopied checks as evidence. The checks had all been written out to Davis and totaled $17,010, according to court documents. The manager pointed out to officers that on one of the checks the signature of authorization did not match the signatures found on the other checks. On Nov. 23, 2018, the manager additionally gave police a video recording that See CHECK, page A7