Grannie
Hoops
Pineapple pie, gravy, dumplings
Nikolaevsk, CIA ready for state
Food/A7
Sports/A9
CLARION
Cloudy 38/29 More weather on Page A2
P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 49, Issue 139
Iditarod Peninsula mushers’ progress as of 8:32 p.m. Tuesday:
6. Travis Beals, Seward, out of Elim 8. Mitch Seavy, Seward, out of Elim 29. Sarah Stokey, Seward, out of Shaktoolik 33. Ryan Santiago, Sterling, into Unalakleet
Find more Iditarod coverage on Page A9.
In the news Search continues for pilot missing northwest of Anchorage ANCHORAGE — The Army National Guard says it’s continuing to search for a pilot missing since last week. The pilot’s hunting partner reported March 6 that the pilot and his Cessna 172 were overdue northwest of Anchorage. Inclement weather including turbulent wind and low clouds has hampered the search, which Tuesday focused on the Rainy Pass area. A Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was joined by a fixedwing airplane. Four Civil Air Patrol aircraft also searched.
Helicopter lifts 3 men off ice floe drifting off Nome NOME — Three men were rescued from an ice floe that broke loose from shore ice outside Nome. Alaska State Troopers say 43-year-old John Culp Jr., 33-yearold James Gibson and 45-year-old Phillip Rode were plucked off the ice by helicopter. Their hometowns were not immediately available. Troopers just before 6:30 p.m. Sunday took a call of the men on the floe. The ice broke off the main ice shelf along a beach and drifted slowly into the Bering Sea. Nome Search and Rescue at the time was responding to a person injured on a snowmobile but coordinated the rescue of the men on the ice. No one was injured. — Associated Press
Index Local................A3 Opinion........... A4 Nation..............A5 Courts..............A6 Food................A7 Sports..............A9 Classifieds.... A11 Comics.......... A14 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
Public speaks on ferry system cuts By MOLLIE BARNES Juneau Empire
A lot of people are concerned about the ferries. In fact, a record amount. The public set a record Tuesday for the most callers an Alaska legislative committee meeting has received since they started tracking the number of participants, according to a Facebook post by the co-chair of the committee, Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak. All were concerned about recent proposals by the governor to cut funding for the ferry service. The House Transportation and Public Facilities committee had 283 people call in Tuesday to testify about the Alaska Marine Highway System, not to mention the more than 50 in the hearing room in Juneau and out the halls. Testimonies all shared the same sentiment: Do not cut funding or service
Field house ordinance voted down By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
nity, which means I’m going to pay more in the long run,” said one caller from Kodiak. “I want to
Soldotna’s field house bond has failed by a narrow margin of 18 votes. After initially being voted down during a special election on March 5, the fate of the ordinance was still up in the air with more than 150 absentee and questioned votes to be counted. After a canvassing meeting Tuesday morning, though, the measure failed 363 to 345 votes. When the polls closed on March 5, the unofficial results had left a good portion of votes uncounted. The results are not official, though, until the are certified by the city council. The election’s certification is currently on the
See FERRY, page A2
See VOTE, page A3
People pack the room to give public testimony on the Alaska Marine Highway System in the House Transportation and Public Facilities committee on Tuesday. (Alex McCarthy/Juneau Empire)
to the ferry system. Many said they supported cutting the Permanent Fund Dividend or implementing an income tax.
“You can give me a larger dividend, however, it’s going to cost me more to get groceries and other services in my commu-
State OKs regulations for onsite pot consumption By MOLLIE BARNES Juneau Empire
Alaska is now the first in the country with statewide rules allowing onsite use of marijuana at specially authorized stores. On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer signed the regulations that were approved
by marijuana regulators in December. Last week the Department of Law found no legal problems with the rules. The rules go into effect April 11, at which point interested retail businesses can start applying for onsite use. Marijuana distributors
will have to apply for a special onsite use endorsement and devise plans that meet security, ventilation and other standards and pass muster with the Marijuana Control Board. Under the rules, local governments can protest onsite consumption endorsements and use an ordinance or a vote of
the people to prohibit onsite use or aspects of it, such as smoking. Some in the industry say it’s possible the first onsite use areas are approved by this summer. But Cary Carrigan, executive director of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association, said in an interview with the As-
sociated Press there won’t be a sudden proliferation of smoking sites. “This is something that’s not happening anywhere else in the U.S. yet. As we start to develop this, people are really looking at us, so I know that everybody wants to get it right,” he said of reSee POT, page A3
Lawmakers question repeal of cruise program By ALEX MCCARTHY Juneau Empire
One of the smaller cuts in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget came under scrutiny Tuesday, as members of the House Finance Environmental Conservation Subcommittee questioned the proposal to cut a program that aims to cut down on cruise ship pollution. The Ocean Rangers program, which was created by a statewide ballot initiative in 2006, puts a qualified marine safety and environmental protection official on all cruise ships that enter Alaska waters. These professionals monitor the cruise ships’ compliance with state and federal requirements about pollution, as explained on
Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, poses a question to Department of Environmental Conservation Administrative Services Director Jeff Rogers during a meeting of the House Environmental Conservation Finance Subcommittee on Tuesday at the Alaska State Capitol. (Alex McCarthy/Juneau Empire)
the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website. The program is funded
by a $4 fee that passengers pay, which collects about $4 million per year. As DEC Administrative Services
Trump signs major public lands, conservation bill into law By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a wide-ranging public lands bill Tuesday that creates five new national monuments and expands several national parks. The new law also adds 1.3 million acres of new wilderness and permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects nationwide. It’s the largest public lands bill Congress has considered in a decade, and it won large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate.
In this May 24, 2018, file photo, the home of civil rights leaders Medgar and Myrlie Evers, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
More than 100 land and water conservation bills were combined to designate more than 350 miles of river as wild and scenic, and to create nearly 700,000 acres of new recreation and conservation areas.
The new law also withdraws 370,000 acres in Montana and Washington state from mineral development. Trump signed the bill in the Oval Office during a private ceremony with See LAND, page A2
Director Jeff Rogers said in Tuesday’s meeting, funding for the program does not come out of the state’s general fund. Still, the governor’s proposed budget includes cutting the program. Rogers explained that when the governor’s office directed state agencies to examine which programs could be cut, DEC officials identified Ocean Rangers as a low priority. “I don’t think the intention was to save the passenger $4,” Rogers said. “The intention was to rise to the governor’s challenge to eliminate programs that are inefficient.” According to numbers Rogers presented, Ocean Rangers have reported six violations in the 11 years.
Over the same period, there were 238 other reports of violations that stemmed from cruise companies selfreporting or other staff inspections. Senate Bill 70, proposed by Dunleavy, would cut the Ocean Rangers program. In his transfer letter accompanying the bill, Dunleavy wrote that eliminating the program “does not significantly affect the regulation of cruise ships in state waters” and that cruise ships are still held to wastewater and air quality standards. Members of the committee didn’t agree. Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, talked about how her father was a law enforcement officer and just having his car around helped deter people See CRUISE, page A3
State considers selling historic museum to save money SITKA (AP) — A historic Alaska museum and library may be sold at the direction of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, according to a state official. The Sheldon Jackson Museum and adjacent Stratton Library building in Sitka, southwest of Juneau, are under consideration for sale or transfer. The Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. Patience Frederiksen, Alaska’s director of libraries, archives and museums, informed a legislative subcommittee about the Republican governor’s plans last Friday. The museum founded in 1897 by Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson is Alaska’s oldest concrete structure. Sheldon Jackson College sold the building
and its renowned ethnographic collection to the state in 1983. “The idea is that the building and its collection will be sold, and we will remove any state property but that the collection would remain with the museum and we would try to find someone in Sitka who would purchase the facility and hopefully with the end of operating it,” Frederiksen said. She said admission fees only cover operations and maintenance, not payroll and benefits for the facility’s two full-time and two parttime employees. Museum advocates oppose the sale and said its artifacts help educate the state’s school children and an international audience about Alaska’s native people.