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Inferno Pipeline explosion kills at least 73 in Mexico World/A6
Sunday
Champs Nikiski girls win their own tournament Sports/B1
CLARION P E N I N S U L A
Sunday, January 20, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 94
Man kills polar bear outside animals’ normal habitat FAIRBANKS (AP) — A man from northeast Alaska said he fatally shot a polar bear that had strayed far south of the animal’s usual habitat. Jim Hollandsworth of Arctic Village said he encountered the bear in early January. He said the bear had tried to get into his cabin about 20 miles from the village, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported . Hollandsworth went to check a trapline and immediately saw evidence of the bear. “Tore up one of the snowmachines, flipped it completely over,” he said, describing the damage. Hollandsworth said he didn’t see the bear until the following morning, after he stepped outside his cabin to put gasoline in the generator. “My dog barked, and the bear was on my back, right behind me. And I jumped back inside, grabbed my rifle,” Hollandsworth said. “By time I got turned around, it was heading for the door, the open door. Wanted to come in. So they got shot point-blank right there at the doorstep.” He said the animal appeared to be a young female. Polar bears are a federally protected species, with the exception of selfdefense killings. Hollandsworth said he reported the shooting to Alaska State Troopers. He said they put him touch with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages polar bears. The agency did not reSee BEAR, page A3
Inside today Partly cloudy 12/3 For complete weather, see page A8
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Setting culture in stone Soldotna artist honors Dena’ina heritage with Anchorage statue By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Near Anchorage’s Ship Creek, a new bronze statue of an elder named Olga, a Dena’ina matriarch from the village of Eklutna, stands and overlooks land that was once a prosperous Native fish camp. Soldotna artist Joel Isaak, who is Dena’ina himself, worked on the statue for two and a half years. He said he doesn’t take the opportunity to represent his culture through art lightly. “It’s a lot of reflection,” Isaak said. “Trying to consolidate the history of cultural annihilation and assimilation in a positive light is tricky. It’s a way to convey that we are still living people.” Isaak, a Dena’ina language professor at the Kenai Peninsula College, created his proposal for the statue after the village of Eklutna sent out a call for art. The parameters of the project
Alaska Native in public art. “Most of the figurative work, if it is of indigenous people, looks like European people,” Isaak said. “I don’t identify with it from a visual standpoint. Being able to have the opportunity to be able to be a little more in control of the narrative is an honor. It’s exciting to see other people’s excitement at that opportunity.” Isaak’s work can be found in many places across Alaska. He worked on a beluga whale diorama in Anchorage’s Ted Stevens Airport. Art of Isaak’s can be found in the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka. Locally, Isaak completed statues in front of the Dena’ina Wellness Center and salmon skin bowls in A bronze statue near Anchorage’s Ship Creek represents the Kenai Courthouse. Isaak had two photographs Olga, an elder and matriarch for the Dena’ina people north of of Olga to base his statue on. Anchorage. (Photo courtesy of Joel Isaak) The statue has Olga in customincluded a piece that was in the site of Ship Creek. ary Dena’ina clothing, like fish likeness of Olga and that it tiedIsaak said it’s always a rare skin boots and a dress featuring See ARTIST, page A2 into the fishing heritage at the opportunity to himself as an
Aftershocks rattle Alaskans, spark anxiety By RACHEL D’ORO Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Seven weeks after a massive earthquake rocked Alaska, aftershocks are still shattering 7-year-old Connor Cartwright’s sense of safety. They shake the earth far less than the 7.0 magnitude quake that sent a mirror, TV and dishes crashing to the ground in the Anchorage home where Connor lives with his mother, father and 11-year-old brother. But the seemingly neverending aftershocks deepen quake anxiety for the secondgrader and many other Alaska residents in the wide swath of the state shaken by the Nov. 30 quake. When the big aftershocks
— but his teacher made all the students dive under their desks to be safe. The latest big aftershock happened last Sunday — a magnitude 5.0 jolt that flared already frayed nerves and prompted panicky posts on social media. That one “reminded people again that it’s not over yet,” said seismologist Natalia Rupert at the Alaska Earthquake Center. There have been more than 7,800 aftershocks since the main earthquake struck 7 miles In this Jan. 10, 2019, photo, Ethel Sechlera talks about the ef- north of Anchorage, the state’s fect of multiple aftershocks from Alaska’s recent magnitude 7.0 most populous city. Most were earthquake in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Rachel D’Oro) too small to feel, but 20 have had magnitudes of 4.5 or greathit, Connor fears his home will Many of the aftershocks are er. Rupert expects the temblors collapse. so small that people don’t no- to continue for months, al“I feel like the house won’t tice them, like a recent one that though the frequency has lessSee QUAKE, page A2 hold up,” he said. Connor didn’t feel at school
Kenai supports bike grant application By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
Kenai City Council approved a resolution supporting the local group BIK&S in the grant process to continue the Unity Trail from Beaver Loop to the Kenai Spur Highway via Bridge Access Road. BIK&S, a local biking group, is working with the Department of Transportation to receive a grant that would connect the western end of the Beaver Loop pathway to the existing bike path along the Kenai Spur Highway, by following Bridge Access Road. According to comments from Ben Boettger, who is working with BIK&S on the grant application, the Alaska Department of Transportation grant would fund 90.97 percent of the project through the federal governments Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. The grant requires a 9.03 percent match from a local partner, a role Boettger hopes Kenai will fill. “Constructing this pathway along Bridge Access Road extending from the intersection of Bridge Access Road with Beaver Loop Road to the intersection of Bridge Access Road with the Kenai Spur Highway combined with the existing Unity Trail along the Kenai Spur Highway and the planned pedestrian path with the forthcoming Beaver Loop Road Project construction would create an important connecting loop along main transportation corridors in the area,” said City Manger Paul Ostrander in city docuSee BIKE, page A3
Suicide prevention bill gains bipartisan support By KEVIN BAIRD Juneau Empire
The Alaska Legislature’s start to the new legislative session has been a rocky one, but one bill is already gaining bipartisan support in the Senate. Senate Bill 10 aims to extend the term of a 17-year-old statewide organization dedicated to preventing suicides, through the year 2027. If the bill does not pass, the Statewide Suicide Prevention Council would expire on June 30. Sen. Scott Kawasaki, DFairbanks, introduced the bill ahead of session, and on Friday, 14 of the 20 state senators backed it as a co-sponsor. “Suicide and suicide pre-
Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, gathers with other senators and families as they prepare for the opening of the Alaska’s 31st Legislative Session on Tuesday. (Michael Penn/Juneau Empire)
vention is not a partisan issue,” day. “So I was pleased to have Kawasaki said in a phone in- so much support. I think it’s terview from Fairbanks on Fri- something we can pass fairly
easy.” Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, made a short emotional request, with tears welling in her eyes, to become a co-sponsor of the bill, in honor of “a dear friend” during a Senate Floor Session. It did not take long for the other senators to follow suit. In addition to Costello, Republicans who became co-sponsors now include: Sens. Natasha Von Imhof, Cathy Giessel, John Coghill, Shelley Hughes, Gary Stevens, David Wilson and Chris Birch. In addition to Kawasaki, Democrat cosponsors include: Sens. Donny Olson, Bill Wielechowski, Jesse Kiehl, Lyman Hoffman, Elvi Gray-Jackson and Tom Begich.
Kawasaki said suicide is something that has touched almost every Alaskan including many legislators and himself. “It was a bit personal,” Kawasaki said about drafting the legislation. He said he was shocked himself last fall when a “bright, vivacious, talented” friend completed suicide. Alaska has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, and a new study released in December indicated there was a 13 percent increase in suicides between 2012 and 2017 compared to a similar period from 2007 to 2011. The Associated Press reported that suicide was the leading cause of death for people between the See BILL, page A2
Nikiski Pool holds 1st cannonball contest Woman reunited with cat By BRIAN MAZUREK Peninsula Clarion
that was missing for years
Big splashes and even bigger smiles were in abundance at the Nikiski Pool’s first-ever Cannonball Contest Thursday. The event was free, and contestants were divided into three age categories that each went through three rounds of jumps. Volunteer judges Jenny Long and Treasa Cooper scored the jumps on style and splash size.
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A Wasilla woman has been reunited with a cat that disappeared more than three years ago from its home at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The Anchorage Daily News reports that a woman at the base messaged Lynsey Ryan that a stray cat she had fed for months resembled a photo posted on Facebook missing-pets pages. The feline was indeed
See POOL, page A3
A contestant in the cannonball contest at the Nikiski Pool prepares for landing on Thursday. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Winter, the missing cat. A microchip implanted beneath its skin confirmed the identity. Ryan, who now has Winter, first met the cat when it was rescued in 2014 from a Houston home. Ryan, a rescue group volunteer, fostered the cat before finding it what she thought was a good home at the base. The cat disappeared in 2015.