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P E N I N S U L A
Monday, January 28, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 101
In the news Kodiak officials debate replacement of city warning sirens KODIAK — Kodiak officials are calling for an assessment of the city’s siren system. Sirens that warn of tsunamis are part of the island city’s emergency preparation services. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports the city’s 12 sirens were installed in the 1980s and ’90s. Police Chief Tim Putney told city officials last week that extensive repairs were recently completed on a siren near the harbormaster’s office and another is being fixed. Three sirens don’t work and others feature some level of rusting on their speakers. The city’s capital funding request lists tsunami siren replacement as its second highest priority. Councilman John Whiddon says the city needs to establish whether current sirens need replacing, how many sirens are necessary, where they should be located and what model would be best suited to Kodiak.
Authorities recover body of Kake man after house fire KAKE — Authorities say a man died in a home that burned down in Kake. KINY News of the North in Juneau reports that a home in the village of Kake caught fire early Saturday. KINY says firefighters put out the blaze in an hour, but the second floor had collapsed onto the ground floor, making the home inaccessible. Authorities recovered the body of Loren Jackson Jr., who lived in the home, on Sunday. Kake Tribal President Joel Jackson tells KINY that the State Fire Marshal and Alaska State Troopers are investigating. Kake is a village of about 500 people in the southeast part of the state.
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3rd time’s the charm Dave Turner claims 1st Tustumena 200 win By MEGAN PACER Homer News
After chasing other top mushers for three years, Dave Turner has finally proven himself a winner by snagging first place in the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race on Sunday. The race, which takes mushers and their dog teams winding and climbing through the southern Kenai Peninsula’s Caribou Hills, was actually short of 200 miles this year, with the course coming in at 179.3 miles. Turner and 19 other mushers running the T200 took off from Freddie’s Roadhouse near Ninilchik on Saturday, making their way down to McNeil Canyon Elementary School east of Homer before looping back up to the Roadhouse. From there mushers went to a checkpoint in Kasilof before finishing back in the same place they started: Freddie’s. Six mushers competing in the shorter T100 race finished after making that See T200, page A2
Musher Dave Turner pulls up to the finish line of the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race on Sunday at Freddie’s Roadhouse near Ninilchik. Turner took first place in the race that takes dog teams throughout the Caribou Hills on the lower Kenai Peninsula. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
3 men sentenced for illegal hunting in Wrangell-St. Elias
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Three men have been sentenced on federal charges connected to an illegal hunting operation in a national park in eastern Alaska. The three former employees of Ptarmigan Lake Lodge inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve were sentenced earlier this month in Anchorage after they pleaded guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges related to illegal big-game hunts. Jeffrey Harris of Poulsbo, Washington, Dale Lackner of Haines, Alaska, and Casey Richardson of Huson, Montana, were indicted in August 2017. Lackner was sentenced to six months of house arrest. Richardson and Harris were sentenced to three months in a halfway house, followed by three months of house arrest. They also were sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.
State crime commission seeks feedback on reform bill By ALEX MCCARTHY Juneau Empire
A day after Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced four bills aimed at rolling back parts of Senate Bill 91, a statewide crime commission held a public meeting hoping to get feedback on the bill and its effects. The meeting, held by the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), was advertised as a listening session for people who have been victims of crime. The bulk of the time was spent talking about SB 91, the criminal justice reform
Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, center, speaks from a panel of the Alaska Criminal Justice Commission during a listening session at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Thursday. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
bill passed in 2016 aimed at reducing incarceration and recidivism rates.
Dunleavy’s proposed bills address sex crimes, pretrial processes, parole
and prison sentences. Senate Bill 32, for example, intends to reinstate more severe sentencing ranges that were in place prior to SB 91. In a letter that was submitted along with SB 32 to Senate President Cathy Giessel, Dunleavy wrote that SB 91 has limited the state’s ability to address the increase in crime. “Most importantly, SB 91 has contributed to the loss of public trust in our criminal justice system and our ability to keep Alaskans safe,” Dunleavy wrote. Dunleavy said in a
Wednesday press conference there will be more bills coming up, hoping to “plug” some of the holes that he believes SB 91 has created in the state’s criminal justice system. Barbara Dunham, the project attorney for the ACJC, said the commission was not asked for recommendations prior to Dunleavy’s bills being announced. The commission was formed by former Gov. Sean Parnell and began meeting in 2014. The commission’s goal is to gather information and make pubSee CRIME, page A3
Economists: Alaska recession likely to end in 2019 ANCHORAGE (AP) — The longest recession in Alaska history likely will end later this year but the economy will not look very different than it does now, according to longtime Alaska economists. Economists also warn
that resolving Alaska’s state budget deficit with spending cuts alone would have detrimental effects. Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said employers are pro-
jected to add about 1,400 jobs in 2019, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. That’s positive news but the total would represent only about 0.4 percent growth in the job market. The state lost about
12,000 jobs since late 2015, when depressed oil prices and ballooning state budget deficits led to contraction of oil, construction and government jobs. The final numbers for 2018 are still being tallied. Fried and University
of Alaska Anchorage economic professor emeritus Scott Goldsmith said final numbers likely will show the state lost about 2,300 jobs last year, a 0.7 percent contraction. That follows losses of more than 4,600 See 2019, page A2
— Associated Press
Getting their hands dirty By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Index Local................A3 Opinion........... A4 Schools............A5 Nation............. A6 Sports............. A7 Classifieds.......A9 Comics........... A11
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Fifth-grade students from Soldotna Elementary had the opportunity to make their own ceramic bowls with the help of Debbie Adamson, president of the Kenai Potters Guild. This is the first time Erin Eveland’s class has made pottery. With access to a kiln and Adamson’s help, students are able to make bowls to sell at a fundraiser that the school is hosting to buy a new piece of playground equipment. Adamson was the school’s librarian for 12 years. She said she’s excited to be back in Soldotna
Fifth-graders at Soldotna Elementary school work on pottery projects this week for a fundraiser that will buy new playground equipment for the school on Thursday, in Soldotna. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
Elementary. “I just happen to do some clay work and I am
thrilled to share it with them,” Adamson said. See POTS, page A3
Shutdown complicates landslide response KETCHIKAN (AP) — The partial government shutdown that lasted 35 days has complicated efforts to clear a key roadway following a landslide on southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. About 300 people have been affected by the closure, and an old logging road has been a cumbersome detour, the Ketchikan Daily News reported . The city of Thorne Bay said the slide occurred on U.S. Forest Service land. Sara Yockey is the tribal transportation director for the Organized Village of Kasaan, a community affected by the closure. She said that with Forest Service workers furloughed,
finding anyone from the agency to speak with has been difficult. There is a federal program that helps federal agencies with repairs to tribal transportation facilities. But Yockey said the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs plays an important role in that process and hadn’t been able to participate in a damage assessment amid the shutdown. Yockey initially estimated the road would open as early as March but is no longer certain that will happen. Thorne Bay officials have said the road is used by residents of Kasaan and South Thorne Bay for acSee SHUT, page A3