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P E N I N S U L A
Monday, October 29, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 25
In the news New medical exams required for Alaska federal firefighters FAIRBANKS — People wanting to fight wildfires in Alaska will have to submit to a medical examination before working for the federal government’s Alaska Fire Service. The new requirement applies to those jobs with the federal Bureau of Land Management, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. The rule does not apply to the state emergency firefighter program. Firefighters will be able to get free exams through a mobile medical team that plans to visit 28 villages, beginning in November. Huslia and Galena will be the first communities visited. The federal medical requirement has been in place for two years, but Alaska had been exempt. The medical exams will be required every three years, beginning in 2019. The exams include vision and hearing tests, a blood draw and a urine test, but not a drug test. There also will be a yearly health questionnaire. The exams will be done in addition to the yearly pack test requiring firefighters to carry a 45-pound weight for 3 miles. “The reason why we’re doing this is for firefighter safety,” said Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ibsen. “Nothing is worse than falling ill or having a medical condition when you’re out on a fire assignment.” People who are prevented by health conditions from passing the medical exams or pack tests can obtain waivers if they can prove can do the job safely without endangering other firefighters or themselves. — Associated Press
Inside
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What’s in Ballot Measure 1? Analysis of how the initiative could affect everyday activities By KEVIN GULLUFSEN Juneau Empire
Ballot Measure 1, known as Stand for Salmon, has generated debate over how it would affect everyday activities like hunting and fishing. Opponents have raised concern that common activities like crossing a stream on an ATV won’t be allowed without a permit. Proponents have said the measure provides for such activity, as long as it doesn’t harm habitat. This is the first of three articles by the Juneau Empire looking at Ballot Measure 1’s legal language. The Empire is starting with part of the measure that will directly affect everyday Alaskan activities: what’s called general permitting. The measure, up for a vote Nov. 6, defines three different permits for activity on salmon-bearing waters. Largescale development would receive major or minor permits, depending on how much it affects habitat.
Fishermen crowd together as they jostle for position on the Kenai River in this file photo. (Photo/File/AP)
A third category, general permitting, governs things like ATV stream crossing, recreational suction dredging and boat launching — ac-
tivities that take place in fish streams, but affect habitat only slightly. So, how do general permits work and who gets one?
As Alaska law is currently like construction on fish habiwritten, activities that disturb tat or vehicle crossing of fishthe “natural flow or bed” of bearing streams. fish habitat require a state Permitting is done through See FISH, page A2 permit. This applies to things
Potters Guild receives community grant By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Potters Guild is spinning in style after receiving a grant from the Alaska Community Foundation. The grant administered by the Alaska Community Foundation’s affiliate, the Kenai Peninsula Foundation, was used to purchase two electric wheels for the guild. “The older wheels were sold to individuals and are now being used in home studios,” according to a statement from the guild. “The new electric pottery wheels are used in the shaping (known as throwing) of round ceramic ware and for trimming. The studio now has six fully functional potters’ wheels.” The guild plans to use the
wheels to further pottery’s growth on the Kenai Peninsula through their studio space, workshops, classes, sales and exhibits, and to further their involvement in local events, like the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank’s Annual Soup Supper. This year, members donated 219 bowls to the event. “Helping feed the hungry by providing handmade soup bowls has been an important community service project for our potters. We have many very talented artists who enjoy working to help those in our community,” said Kenai Potters Guild President Debbie Adamson. The guild can be found throughout the community in other places too, like the Ke- Kenai Potters Guild member Judy Brandt loads a gas-fired kiln with cups and bowls made by Guild members on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 at the group’s studio in Kenai. (File photo/Peninsula nai Fine Arts Center. See GRANT, page A2 Clarion)
Fresh365: Fresh lettuce, fresh ideas What’s happening in peninsula schools this week. See A9
Index Opinion................... A4 Nation..................... A5 Sports......................A6 Schools................... A9 Classifieds............. A10 Comics.................. A14
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By JOEY KLECKA Peninsula Clarion
Fresh365, a hydroponic farm atop Whistle Hill in Soldotna, is looking to innovate how farmers and restaurateurs do business on the Kenai Peninsula. Owned by Henry and Mary Krull, who own and lease 2 1/2 acres at the Soldotna site, Fresh365 is just as the name indicates — a business that grows fresh vegetables yearround, which is particularly ideal during the winter months in Alaska. Hydroponic farming is a method of growing food without soil. Instead, it uses a nutrient-rich water solution to cultivate plants and vegetables. The Krulls have lived 20 years in Soldotna, but just began business on Whistle Hill in January with the opening of Addie Camp restaurant. Krull said he purchased the farming module, which bears a resem-
Shop Talk ble to a Conex container, in August, and planted the first seeds Sept. 1. The Addie Camp restaurant that houses the hydroponic farm sits behind the restaurant. Addie Camp customers dine in a 1913 train car that is attached to the restaurant. Fresh365 provides Addie Camp fresh produce on a year-round basis, and also will cater to other businesses around town. The key words there are year-round. Krull explained that his business is not the first hydroponic farm on the peninsula, but is the first to grow year-round. Krull said the biggest advantage to hydroponic farming is the ability to grow fresh and organic veggies all 12 months, and grow a lot of it. Instead of growing food on an area of land, hydroponic farming allows food to be grown in vertical rows and walls to
Juneau women writers share work By BEN HOHENSTATT Captial City Weekly
Fresh lettuce grows in vertical grows at Fresh365 in Soldotna. (Photo by Joey Klecka/Peninsula Clarion)
maximize production, with the plants roots being held by a felt wicking strip and a nylon cover. Hydroponic farming also uses about 10 percent of the
water that ground farming does, and the plants take about six to seven weeks to fully mature into healthy heads of lettuce, See FRESH, page A3
JUNEAU — For the first time in 26 years, an Alaska Women Speak reading was held in Juneau. Alaska Women Speak is the name of both a nonprofit and a quarterly journal — both of which are devoted to sharing Alaskan women’s expression of ideas, literature and art. “It’s so important,” said Carmen Davis, president of Alaskan Women Speak’s board of directors, Oct. 18 at Hearthside Books in Nugget Mall before introducing the event’s keynote speaker Mary Lou Spartz. Spartz spoke to a crowd that filled an overstuffed sofa, See WRITERS, page A3