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P E N I N S U L A
Monday, October 15, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 13
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
In the news
Woman found dead in Ninilchik
Proposed rules tighten water contamination FAIRBANKS (AP) — Proposed rules in Alaska would restrict the cleanup of water contamination. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation looks to tighten the standards for perand polyfluoralkyl chemical pollution in a set of regulation changes up for public comment through Nov. 5. The regulations up for comment add three additional chemicals to the list of substances that require cleanup when concentrations in groundwater reach a concentration of 70 parts per trillion, which represents about 31/2 drops of liquid in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The three new chemicals are perfluoroheptanoic, perfluorohexanesulfonic and perfluorononanoic acids. By making the chemicals part of the cleanup standards, the state would further require polluters to clean up the source of the chemical and to map the spread of the chemical in the groundwater.
Body discovered in RV after standoff By MEGAN PACER Homer News
Students participate in the Mind A Mazes problem-solving competition at Soldotna Prep on Saturday in Soldotna.
Amazing minds
Trump signs Save our Seas Act into law KETCHIKAN (AP) — President Donald Trump recently signed into law a bill that lawmakers have called a point of unity among Republicans and Democrats. The Ketchikan Daily News reports the Save our Seas Act, which Trump signed Thursday, reauthorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program through 2022. The program works to reduce debris through research, prevention and reduction. The Save our Seas legislation keeps the program going by continuing to authorize $10 million per year for the next five years.
Correction The Peninsula Clarion received false information regarding last week’s story on the unemployment rate in the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The current borough unemployment rate is 5.3 percent as of August 2018, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. — Staff
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Photos and story by Victoria Petersen
Last Saturday, students from across the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District met at Soldotna Prep for the annual Mind A Mazes Problem Solving Competition, sponsored by the district’s Quest Program. Students are divided into teams where they take on many different kinds of problems. Students fill the roles of engineers when they are tasked to build something to solve spontaneous problems. The spontaneous problem is random at every event and stuStudent projects lay idle at Mind A Mazes, on Saturday, Oct. 13 in dents must think on the fly. The event brings hundreds Soldotna. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion) of students together.
Troopers found an Anchorage woman dead on her property in Ninilchik after an hourslong standoff Saturday. The woman, 58-year-old Kathy Vancleve, was found in her RV. Concerned family members had reported to troopers at about 10:53 a.m. Saturday that they thought Vancleve might be dead in the residence, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch report. Troopers went to the property in Ninilchik and found the RV. There, the found another person was also inside the RV. That person was “not cooperative,” according to the dispatch, and a Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) from the troopers was also sent to the scene. “Attempts to make verbal contact with the occupant of the RV continued to be unsuccessful,” troopers wrote in the dispatch. Eventually troopers obtained a search warrant and were able to enter the RV. Megan Peters, public information officer for the troopers, said officers made contact at 7:39 p.m. She said troopers had arrived at the property shortly after 11 a.m. “A man was located in the RV highly intoxicated,” troopSee RV, page A2
Alcohol and Marijuana Control Board to meet Meetings, which start today, are taking place in Kenai for the first time By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office will be conducting their board meetings on the Kenai Peninsula for the first time, this week. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will be meeting today. The Marijuana Control Board will be meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. The boards meet regularly, but not often and the agendas are full. During the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board meeting, members of the public will have the opportunity to give public testimony regarding items that are not on the agenda. The board will hear considerations from a number of businesses, including many
state breweries and restaurants. Local up-and-coming restaurant Addie Camp Train Car Eatery and Wine Bar is on the docket for their new license application, as well. At the Marijuana Control Board meeting, public testimony is available for issues not on the agenda. A discussion from the Department of Environmental Conservation on food safety and sanitation will be given at the beginning of the meeting. Director Erika McConnell will also brief the board and public on a resolution regarding the separation of personal-use and commercial marijuana. Following the director’s briefing, there will be an enforcement briefing where the supervisor will give a report, go over priorities and notices of violations issued.
When it comes to regulations, the Marijuana Control Board has several proposed projects. Projects drafted for board review include sample jars, handler permit renewal fees, inspection parameters and consideration in following the approved operating plan. There are several regulations and projects that have received public comment and are subject to potential board actions including, out-of-state investment in testing facilities, the definition of residency, license conversion, ownership change without a license, license expiration for renewal, wholesale concentrates to retail license, expiration of public notice, all licensees to have handler permits, effective date of ownerSee BOARD, page A2
In this April 20 file photo, a marijuana plant is seen on Hippie Hill in San Francisco. A bill requiring California prosecutors to erase or reduce tens of thousands of marijuana criminal convictions was approved by the state Legislature on April 22 and now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson, File)
Case closed in decade-old fatal plane crash The Associated Press
ADMIRALTY ISLAND — Federal investigators closed their investigation into a decade-old fatal plane crash mystery on an Alaska island, concluding the pilot accidentally flew into a mountain. The National Transportation Safety Board last week issued its final report in the 2008 crash on Admiralty Is-
land that claimed the lives of pilot Brian Andrews and his son, Brandon, the Juneau Empire reported . Andrews, who at the time was Alaska’s deputy commissioner of revenue, accidentally flew his plane into a mountain amid worsening weather conditions, investigator Michael Hodges concluded. Hodges’ report ends a mystery that began on Aug. 9,
2008. Andrews had previously flown from Admiralty Island’s Young Lake to Juneau International Airport’s seaplane base to deliver some camping equipment to his older son, Brent, who is also known as B.J. Andrews flew back to the lake with Brandon for another load of gear, but the two never returned. The U.S. Coast Guard, Juneau Mountain Rescue and
other searchers combed a wide area of Admiralty Island, but they found no sign of the missing plane or the two men. The pair was missing and presumed dead until October 2017, when a deer hunter found the wreckage of their aircraft on a heavily forested mountainside near Admiralty Island’s Young Lake. The remains of the pilot and his son were found in the
plane’s wreckage. B.J. Andrews told the Juneau Empire Thursday that he has not read the final report but has been generally pleased with the investigation. “I also feel that we’ve gotten some closure out of the finding and being able to put down Brandon’s remains in the ground, which has given the family a place where we can go and find them,” he said.