Election
Victors
Female candidates take primaries
Kenai captures Peninsula Cup
Nation/A5
Sports/A9
CLARION
PM rain 60/51 More weather on Page A2
P E N I N S U L A
Monday, August 20, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 48, Issue 276
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
Tariffs and tenders
In the news Officials to decide if Iron Dog race will return in 2019 ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Iron Dog board of directors is expected to meet next week to decide whether the 2,000-mile (3,219-kilometer) snowmobile race across Alaska will be held this winter. Iron Dog announced in a Facebook post Thursday that the event is “running on empty” when it comes to both finances and leadership. The Anchorage Daily News reports board member Lee Butterfield wrote in the post that they don’t have funding to pursue new leadership through pay, nor maintain basic staffing levels. The Iron Dog is considered the world’s longest, toughest snowmobile race. It was first held in 1984. The event took a big financial hit in 2016 after it lost its title sponsor, the Alaska National Guard. It suffered another blow when executive director Kevin Kastner resigned last summer.
Village of Napakiak wins federal funding to respond to erosion, climate change BETHEL (AP) — The Alaska village of Napakiak received $449,000 in federal funding that could help the community respond to erosion and other effects of climate change. The village of less than 400 residents, which received the funding on Thursday, has lost 50 feet (more than 15 meters) of its shoreline since May, Tribal Administrator David Andrew said. A storm destroyed Napakiak’s boat and hovercraft landing, which residents relied on for food and supply deliveries, KYUK-AM reported . The village has been getting its food flown in ever since, which is much more expensive, Andrew said. Erosion also threatens the community’s school and fuel depot, so Napakiak turned to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for help. The funding will help the community design and build a new landing for hovercraft, barges and residents’ boats. Napakiak will need more support over the next year, Andrew said. The village, which has moved before, will have to move again, Andrew said. Napakiak held a fiddle dance recently to raise enough money to a move a house, which was dangerously close to the river’s banks.
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US-China trade war escalates, with more taxes on seafood By ELIZABETH EARL Peninsula Clarion
Dale Bagley on top of the roof of his business, Redoubt Realty, where he installed 48 solar panels earlier this summer on Friday, near Soldotna. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
Solar power growing on peninsula By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
Stephen Trimble wants everyone to know that the business of solar power is growing. His company, Arctic Solar Ventures Corporation, has been installing more and more solar panels on the central peninsula. In 2016, when Trimble’s company first started, it put up around 120 panels. In 2017 that number ticked up to set
more than 1,000, and so far this year they have already surpassed a thousand. ‘We’ve seen a huge uptick in volume,” Trimble said. “There’s a lot of different tangible outcomes that come from solar.” One of Arctic Solar Ventures’ recent customers is Dale Bagley, one of the owners of Redoubt Realty. On July 14, he installed 48 panels on the Redoubt Realty building on Kalifornsky Beach Road. He said he was interested in solar power because of the cost savings. The
panels cost him a total of $50,000, but he’s expecting to save over $3,000 a year. Bagley was awarded a $13,800 grant to help pay for the cost of the panels on his commercial property. He says there’s a lot of tax benefits and government rebates for those interested in getting into solar. “I can’t say I ever thought two hoots about doing solar,” Bagley said. “I was never part of that group, but now I’m in See SOLAR, page A8
The trade war between the U.S. and China is amping up for Alaska’s commercial fishermen. In June, China announced its intentions to levy a 25 percent tariff to imported American seafood including Pacific salmon, cod, Alaska Pollock, flatfish, crab, shellfish and other common commonly exported products. The announcement came in response to a U.S. tariff hike targeted at imported Chinese products earlier this year. The Chinese tariffs went into effect July 6, impacting imported seafood destined for consumption in China itself. Seafood shipped to China that is intended for re-export after processing, either to the U.S. or elsewhere in the world, is exempt from the increased tariff. However, a few days later, on July 10, the U.S. Trade Representative proposed a return shot to China by increasing tariffs on products imported from China, including on seafood items. A few weeks after that, on Aug. 1, the U.S. Trade See FISH, page A8
Air ambulances save lives on the Kenai Peninsula By MCKIBBEN JACKINSKY For the Homer News
Like many Alaskans, Milli Martin thrives on physical activity. She hikes, skis, horseback rides, picks berries and gardens. When Martin needs more than that, she packs up her motorhome and goes in search of distant trails to explore and water to kayak. In summer 2015, when simply walking made breathing a struggle, Martin checked with her doctor who found that her left lung was bleeding. In short order, Martin found herself strapped securely into the seat of LifeMed Alaska’s Bell 407 helicopter, lifting off from South Peninsula Hospital and taking the flight of her life. Or, more accurately, a flight to save her life. A tightness in Joe Talbott’s chest, something like mild indigestion, got Talbott’s attention on a morning this May. After enjoying lunch with friends and with the tightness persisting, he and his wife Lisa drove to South Peninsula Hospital to have the discomfort checked out. Nitro pills and an echochardiogram didn’t prove anything conclusive, but “triggered the senses of the ER doc who decided that the best choice was a quick trip to Anchorage,” said Talbott. “It was all rather surreal to me at the time, but I didn’t have any objection and Lisa was totally on board with the decision.” Similarly to Martin, the LifeMed helo was the choice of transport. Unlike Martin, Talbott was flown to Alaska Regional Hospital. “I have a fairly extensive
background in emergency medical procedures and would say that the flight crew handled the medevac in a very professional manner. … I didn’t really need any special care during the flight. At that point I became a ‘tourist’ and took a lot of photos using my iPhone,” said Talbott, admitting, however, that his memories of the experience may be less than accurate due to having been administered morphine. Because he was flat on his back as opposed to sitting up, the only way he could see the country below was by taking photos with his phone and then reviewing them from his prone position. In this undated photo, Guardian Flight Alaska’s Beechcraft Super King Air 200., left, and Learjet In spite of offering a wide 45, right, sit on the tarmac in Anchorage, prepared to be dispatched. (Photo provided/Guardian range of medical support, Flight Alaska) South Peninsula Hospital has its limits. To make up for that, they’re classified a Level IV Trauma Center, according to Lee Yale, South Peninsula Hospital’s chief nursing officer, explaining how it is determined whether or not a situation rises to the level of needing to be sent to another By VICTORIA PETERSEN the borough must provide a match, which it medical facility. intends to do through an approximately $5.5 Peninsula Clarion As defined by the American million bond package. In June, the Kenai PenCollege of Surgeons Commitinsula Borough Assembly approved a propoThe Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly tee on Trauma, medical fasition to ask voters to approve those bonds on and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Discilities can offer four levels of the Oct. 2 ballot. trict will be providing information to voters trauma response: The current school in Kachemak-Selo is about the general obligation bond issue set to Level I: Generally serves made up of three borough-leased buildings help pay for the new Kachemak-Selo School large cities or heavily popuon their web platforms in the coming weeks. and serves about 46 students. The district’s lated areas and are responThe bonds would fund a new school for communications liaison, Pegge Erkeneff, said sible for providing research, the remote Russian Old Believer village of the school has deteriorated beyond useful caprofessional and community Kachemak-Selo, about 30 miles west of Hom- pacity. The buildings are converted homes, education leadership; and students and school district officials have er at the headwaters of Kachemak Bay. Level II: Offers said the buildings are unsafe and leak in the The village petitioned the school board for comprehensive trauma care; a new facility in 2011. In 2016, the state ap- winter, among other issues. serves as the lead trauma faOne of the largest cost drivers comes from propriated approximately $10 million for concility for a geographic area; See BONDS, page A7 struction of the school, but in order to proceed provides educational outreach
Borough, school district to provide more info on K-Selo school bonds
See AIR, page A8