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Sail away
Match
Parody show on stage this weekend
Women’s final set at Aussie Open
Arts & Entertainment/B-1
Sports/A-7
CLARION
Rain 41/37 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 97
Question Which team do you think will win the Super Bowl? n The Denver Broncos n The Seattle Seahawks To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Results and selected comments will be posted each Tuesday in the Clarion, and a new question will be asked. Suggested questions may be submitted online or e-mailed to news@peninsulaclarion.com.
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Parnell lays out education vision Governor proposes changes to state’s approach to education By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell used his State of the State address Wednesday to lay out plans to change Alaska’s education system, including improving access to charter schools and giving parents more choices in where they send their kids. Parnell told lawmakers that if they are willing to work with him in passing
“real education reform,” he would work with them to boost public school funding. Parnell said as an act of good faith, he would propose increasing the basestudent allocation, or per-pupil spending, for each of the next three years — something he has been loath to support in recent years, in part citing the need to see greater results. The Republican dedicated much of his fifth State of the State address
to education, an issue that critics have said he’s given short shrift in the past. He called for a digital initiative to give students in rural areas greater access to array of classes and for allowing high school students to “test out” of a class for credit. He said nothing is gained by keeping a student in a class whose subject matter he or she has mastered. He also proposed scrapping the high school graduation exam, which he said is no longer a valid measure of student
success given new education standards. In its place, he said he will propose that high school students take the ACT, SAT or WorkKeys skills test within two years of their expected graduation date, with the first test taken at state expense. Parnell said he supports giving parents more choices in where to send their children to school. He called on lawmakers to debate and send to voters a proposed constitutional amendment See STATE, page A-2
Dispatch changes passed, flood plan updated
In the news Truck driver killed in East End Road crash
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A Soldotna truck driver hauling drilling mud was killed Wednesday in a crash near Mile 9.5 East End Road. Trevor Cunningham, 29, was ejected from his truck. Kachemak Emergency Services medics took him to South Peninsula Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Next of kin have been notified, Alaska State Troopers said in a press release. Cunningham had been heading inbound to Homer when the truck overturned about 10:25 a.m., separating the tank from the frame. Some drilling mud spilled from the tank. KES crews set up booms as a precaution. Troopers notified the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The truck is owned by AIMM Technology, said Megan Peters, a trooper spokesperson. Troopers also notified Commercial Vehicle Enforcement. The Bureau of Highway Patrol assumed control of the scene and conducted an investigation. The crash happened on East End Road near Walters Street by a downhill curve between Kilcher Road and Greer Road. The tanks rolled onto the south side of the east bound side of the road. Buccaneer Energy just started drilling a well at the West Eagle prospect off East End Road 20 miles east of Homer. AIMM Technologies is a vendor used by Buccaneer. Buccaneer will be providing a contents list of the drilling mud to DEC, according to Jay Morakis, a Buccaneer spokesperson. — Homer News
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Business................ A-5 Nation/World.......... A-6 Sports.....................A-7 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
The streets of the central Kenai Peninsula have devolved into muddy messes over the last few unseasonably warm winter days.
Rain, rain go away
Residents, maintenance departments cope with weather By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
The prolonged above average temperatures this January have wreaked havoc on side streets all around the central Kenai Peninsula and has locals wondering when winter weather will return. During the first 22 days of January, the average high temperature measured at the Kenai Airport was 28 degrees,
according to data from Accuweather.com. Alyson Hoegg, a meteorologist for Accuweather.com said Kenai’s average high for January is 11 percent above average for this time of year. On Monday, the highest temperature recorded was 43 degrees, Hoegg said. National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Peterson said a jet stream set up in Northern Canada has brought warmer weather from the
south to Alaska while blocking out the colder weather, which has blanketed the Northeastern U.S. Peterson said the highpressure situation hanging over Western North America happens all the time around this time of year, although the stretch of unseasonably warm weather may feel longer than what Alaskans are used to experiencing. Kenai resident Megan
Wohlers said while she is not complaining about the warmer weather, the effect it is having on the roads in her neighborhood is concerning. Wohlers lives in the Woodland subdivision and said with all the rain and melting snow the streets have gotten icy overnight. She said the City of Kenai road maintenance response has not been as quick as last year. See WARM, page A-2
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly held public hearings on two ordinances at its Tuesday night meeting. Neither item prompted comments from borough residents. The first ordinance concerned a staffing change at the Soldotna Public Safety Communication Center as well as a funding appropriation. The assembly unanimously approved to create a new shift supervisor position and eliminate a dispatch position. The passage of the ordinance also OK’d increasing funding by $6,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year and $13,200 annually to make up the difference in position costs. Assembly member Brent Johnson said having both the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the borough run the dispatch center has created some problems with filling some supervisor positions. Basically the ordinance promotes a borough dispatcher to a supervisor position, he said. “That will reduce some of the wear and tear on people that have been putting in a lot of overtime,” Johnson said. He said this change will reduce overtime, which could lead to cost savings for the borough. See CHANGE, page A-10
Group behind effort to ban Cook Inlet setnets files appeal By Molly Dischner Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
The Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance will appeal the state’s decision to reject its proposed ballot initiative that would ban setnetters in Cook Inlet. In November, AFCA submitted signatures asking for voters to consider banning setnetting in the urban, nonsubsistence, areas of the state — such as the Anchorage area, much of the Kenai Peninsula, Valdez and Juneau. It would eliminate Cook Inlet setnetters and not have an immediate affect on anyone else, although fishermen in other communities would lose the right to setnet if Alaska’s Board of Fisheries
and Board of Game removed a region’s rural, subsistence, designation in the future. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell announced Jan. 6 that the proposed ban on setnetting did not meet legal standards to appear on a ballot. Treadwell used an Alaska Department of Law opinion, that the initiative was a prohibited appropriation of state assets, in striking it down. AFCA announced the decision to appeal Jan. 22 during a press conference in Anchorage, and maintained that the initiative was about conservation, not appropriation. AFCA Executive Director Clark Penney said the appeal had been filed that morning in Alaska Superior Court. See APPEAL, page A-10
Panel brings diverse fishery users to table By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
More than 130 people had lunch together at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center where a panel of representatives from many of the fishing groups in the Cook Inlet answered questions on the ongoing conflict over fishing. Six panelists answered prepared questions about the history of the fishery, problems with management and potential solutions to coping with the decline in king salmon. The first question asked of the panelists, many of whom are fishermen in the area, was how changes in participation in Cook Inlet fisheries had affected user groups. C
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Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Jim Butler, commercial setnetter and representative of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association looks out over a crowd of more than 130 people during a fisheries panel and chamber luncheon Wednesday in Kenai.
Jim Butler, a commercial sula Fishermen’s Association, setnet fishermen and repre- said commercial fishing had sentative of the Kenai PeninSee PANEL, page A-10