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P E N I N S U L A
Monday, October 22, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 19
In the news Road rage driver avoids jail time for pointing BB gun FAIRBANKS (AP) — An Alaska woman who menaced a family with a BB gun during a road rage incident will avoid jail time. Betty Jean Holder, 49, of North Pole was initially charged with two counts of felony assault, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. In a plea arrangement, she pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault. She was sentenced to a year in jail, which was suspended, and two years of probation. Holder in June 2017 contacted Alaska State Troopers and reported that a vehicle had nearly collided with hers. She told an investigator she followed the second vehicle for a short distance and flipped her middle finger at the driver. Three hours later, the other driver, who had his teenage daughters with him, told a different story. He reported to troopers that he and Holder stopped at an intersection and that she gestured at him as he started to drive through. He backed up and made a sarcastic gesture indicating Holder should go first, he said. He also began recording video. The video showed Holder standing outside her vehicle holding what appeared to be a black semi-automatic handgun. The BB gun had “SIG Sauer” on the side with a model number of P226 and looked almost identical to a real SIG Sauer pistol, prosecutors said. “What? Are you scared?” Holder is recorded saying. One of the teens is recorded saying there were children inside the man’s vehicle. Holder replied, “Good,” and pointed the gun directly at the camera, according to the criminal complaint. The man immediately drove through the intersection. His 16- and 13-year-old daughters told troopers they believed Holder was pointing a real handgun and that they were going to be shot. Holder acknowledged getting out of her vehicle but denied pointing the BB gun toward the camera. She had the BB gun and a stun gun in her vehicle for self-defense, she said. Holder was ordered to attend an anger management assessment and to forfeit the BB gun. She will be banned from possessing a firearm until she concludes probation. She also was ordered not to contact the victims.
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Walker says he quit race to boost Begich By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s surprising announcement that he was quitting his bid for re-election with less than 21 days to go was an effort to boost Democratic rival Mark Begich’s chances of beating Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker, the only independent governor in the country, said Friday he could not win a three-way race and that Alaskans deserve a choice other than Dunleavy. There are a lot of things he and Begich don’t agree on, but Walker said Begich would be better for Alaska. Whether Begich can overtake the presumed front-runner remains to be seen with twoand-a-half weeks before the election. Begich, who said his campaign was “inundated” with calls after Walker’s announcement, thinks he can win. Some Democrats and independents had long worried Walker and Begich would split the vote, handing the race to Dunleavy. Walker, a former Republican, was elected in 2014 with Democratic support. The Gubernatorial candidates Democrat Mark Begich, left, and Republican Mike Dunleavy, right, take the stage amid an empty seat clincher for Walker’s decision for Gov. Bill Walker at a debate Friday in Anchorage. The two debated shortly after Walker, an independent, dropped out of the See QUIT, page A2 race just weeks ahead of the election. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
A tour of homesteading history School By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Third-graders at Soldotna Elementary are learning all about their community. Marge Mullen, one of the city’s first homesteaders, is invited every year to teach students about what life was like in the early days on the peninsula. Mullen showed the students around Soldotna’s historic post office, where she used to receive mail. She visited the students in their classroom earlier last week to talk about her own homestead. “I took some survey tape and made a 14- by 16-foot square on the floor to show them that my homestead could have fit inside their school room,” Mullen said. Third-grade teacher at Soldotna Elementary, Shaya Straw, said having Mullen speak to the students is a great opportunity. “I think it’s cool they get to Marge Mullen shows a group of third-graders around the Howard Lee Homestead, which was have this firsthand account of used as the city’s first post office when she first homesteaded in Soldotna, Wednesday in Soldotna. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion) history here,” Straw said.
Scientists show support for salmon measure By KEVIN GULLUFSEN Juneau Empire
Former scientists and fisheries managers are taking sides over Ballot Measure 1. On Wednesday, a group of 58 experts from state and federal agencies released a statement of support for the measure, which would change how development is permitted on some fish habitat. That follows a letter of opposition penned by 10 former habitat managers and State of Alaska commissioners, published in the Anchorage Daily News in late September. Ballot Measure 1 creates a different permitting structure for development on anadromous (e.g. salmon) fish habitat in Alaska. Oil and mining companies say it’s bad for business. Measure backers call it a much-needed update to state law.
Why are so many retired state employees speaking out? Alaska law bars current state employees from using their positions to advocate for “partisan political purposes.” Only retired permitting, habitat and fisheries biology experts are allowed to speak out without repercussions. Wednesday’s support statement, put together by conservation group Cook Inletkeeper, makes the case that Alaska’s current laws are too vague to properly protect wild salmon. Current habitat protections fall into Alaska’s Title 16, the Alaska Anadromous Fish Act. It’s about a page and a half long , single-spaced. Ballot Measure 1 is eight pages, and adds detail on what kind of habitat harm the Alaska Department of Fish and Game should allow from which projects.
Retired Juneau fisheries biologist Phil Mundy, one of the letter’s signers, worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service for 23 years. Title 16 is “sketchy,” and vague, Mundy told the Empire. The state’s spawning and rearing streams are largely intact, Mundy said, unlike Washington state’s Columbia River Basin, where Mundy worked for 13 years. Passing the ballot measure would prevent what happened there from happening here, Mundy said. Alaska’s habitat may be pristine, he said, but that’s not guaranteed to last. “You don’t wait until the horses run off to close the barn door,” Mundy said. The larger number of experts voicing support for the measure was telling, Mundy added.
“As a consequence of being a larger group of people, we have a much broader experience with salmon habitat and salmon habitat issues. I would go with the weight of opinion,” Mundy said. A spokesperson for opposition group Stand for Alaska, Kati Capozzi, said the statement of support has a lot of federal managers, which weakens its relevance, she said. Twenty of the 58 signers worked exclusively for federal agencies. Ballot Measure 1 would affect state law, something federal fisheries scientists know less about, Capozzi said. “This is something that the state will have to implement, this is something that the state will have to live with and pay for, so you would think that they would be looking a little more toward state officials,” Capozzi said.
district, unions continue labor talks By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District met last week with the Kenai Peninsula Education Association and the Kenai Peninsula Educational Support Association to continue negotiations on a contract for district teachers and staff. Teachers started the school year in August without a contract, although they did receive movement on their respective salary schedules. Pegge Erkeneff, communications liaison for the school district, said Wednesday’s meeting included conversations about health care. The district and the associations are waiting to hear a health care premium quote from Public Education Health Trust, an outreach program to assist in the procurement of affordable health care options for Alaska’s public school districts. At the negotiations, the school district offered a supposal, or one-time offer, to the associations, which was rejected. The associations, in turn, offered the district a package proposal, which is an offer that must be taken in its entirety. David Brighton, president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association, said the package proposal expires Oct. 31. He said another meeting between the associations and the district has not been planned. “In theory, it could happen quickly,” Brighton said.