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CLARION
Morning showers 40/30 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, January 24-25 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 98
Question
All fun and games
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.
On the web
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Native Youth Olympics, Peninsula Winter Games on center stage
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Find a Native Youth Olympics slideshow online at www.peninsulaclarion.com.
In the news Cantwell asks Obama to limit mining in Bristol Bay SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell is asking President Barack Obama to take action to restrict or prohibit the development of large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed. In a letter sent Thursday, Cantwell asked the Obama administration to invoke a rarely used veto authority under the federal Clean Water Act to protect the region. The Democratic senator from Washington state wrote that the science shows Pebble Mine poses a direct threat to Bristol Bay salmon, maritime jobs and Alaska Native people. She also said thousands of jobs in Washington are tied to Bristol Bay salmon fishing.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Police, courts......... A-5 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-8 Religion................ A-10 Sports.................... B-1 Recreation............ C-1 Classifieds............ C-3 Comics.................. C-9 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Feds declare disaster for Kalifornsky Beach area By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
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It’s a weekend for the kids as the 38th annual Peninsula Winter games rolls into Soldotna today. For some, it will be a weekend of spontaneous fun with ice-bowling, a bounce house, cookie decorating and a monopoly tournament to keep them busy. For others, this weekend’s Native Youth Olympics will be the culmination of months, sometimes years, of training to compete in ten ultra-athletic competitions including a seal hop, Eskimo stick pull and one-foot high kick. “The games have been used as strengthening skills and hunting skills or strength and stamina,” said Michael Bernard, Yaghanen programs director for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe. “There were some, like the high kicks, that were as signals across the tundra a long way a way. You could signal ‘I need assistance to help carry game back to the village.’ There were no cell phones or VHF radios then.” The tribe is hosting the regional Native Youth Olympics for a second year and Bernard said the same teams that competed last year will compete again this year including about 40 kids on the Kenaitze tribe’s Ggugguyni, or Raven, team. Others will be travelling from Seward, Ninilchik, Chickaloon and Wasilla. The Native Youth Olympics opening ceremony starts Photos by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion at 5:45 p.m. today at the Kenai Middle Above, Siobhan Dempsey, 11, practices the Squirrel dance with the Kenaitze InSchool gym. While NYO and the Kenai Peninsula dian Tribe’s Jabila’ina dance group Thursday at the Yaghanen Youth Center in See GAMES, page A-12 Kenai. Top, Tatiahana Dehoyos, 10, practices the Raven song with the group.
President Barack Obama declared the fall flooding in the Kenai Peninsula Borough along Kalifornsky Beach Road a federal disaster last week. Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Mike Navarre said while the declaration is limited to aiding public infrastructure, it can help to fund mitigation plans and make low-interest Small Business Administration loans available to businesses affected by the Oct. 27-28, 2013 flood. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local governments, Native tribes and certain nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding. Communities can apply to the program on behalf of homeowners and businesses, but individuals cannot apply directly, unlike the State Individual Assistance program, the application period for which closed last week. Navarre said the borough is working with the state on an “overall plan” and determining which agencies and departments are responsible for various areas affected by the flooding. Diana Bartelds, who lives on Bore Tide Court with her husband Jon Bartelds, said they aren’t “nearly as bad off” as some of their neighbors, but they’re still experiencing the effects of the flood. The couple takes short showers and doesn’t flush the toilet more than twice See FLOOD, page A-12
Soldotna passes public records ordinance By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
At its Wednesday night meeting, the Soldotna City Council discussed a public records ordinance. The council unanimously voted to approve a substitute ordinance brought forth by council member Linda Murphy instead of an administration introduced ordinance. The original ordinance was introduced on the council’s con-
sent agenda at its Jan. 8 meeting. City Clerk Shellie Saner said the ordinance’s main goal is to clarify the procedure for handling requests for public records. Murphy’s ordinance made three “major changes” to the administration’s public records ordinance, one of which made the ordinance less restrictive, she said. The first change was that it substituted city clerk for city manager throughout the ordinance because according to Alaska Statute, the city clerk is
the records manager, she said. “There may be a few municipalities where the manager makes that final decision, but I’m not aware of any,” Murphy said. To ensure record requests are well tracked, Murphy’s ordinance changed some references to city agencies to city clerk. The original ordinance called for requests for records to be submitted to the department keeping the record. “I think it’s important that we have one person receiving
all requests regardless of where the record is stored at that time,” she said. … “And make sure that one person is responsible for not only taking that request in but see it through its conclusion including the collection of any fees that may be assessed.” The original ordinance gave the city manager and chief of police candidates as well as current employees the right to decide if their applications could be released to the public. Murphy said the section is actually
written so that they would have to approve the release of their employment applications. She cited state case law in which the courts determined high-ranking city employees don’t have any right to privacy when it comes to employment applications. City Manager Mark Dixson said the administration supports the substitute ordinance. Kaylee Osowski can be reached at kaylee.osowski@ peninsulaclarion.com.
Funding increase for schools? DEC says Alaska fish are safe to eat 2014 20 By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell said a per-pupil funding increase would be part of an overall education package he plans to introduce as early as Friday. Parnell told reporters Thursday that if legislators accept his proposal, he would be glad to sign the bill. But he said once they start making changes, which he fully expects as part of the legislative process, then “it becomes a negotiation for
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Alaska’s benefit.” In his State of the State address Wednesday, Parnell said if legislators were willing to work with him in passing “real education reform,” he would work with them to authorize an increase in the per-pupil funding formula known as the base-student allocation. That statement
was left open for interpretation in the hours that followed. Ron Fuhrer, president of NEA-Alaska, a major teachers’ union, said it “almost feels like blackmail.” Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, said her takeaway was that Parnell was holding hostage student services to try to force legislators into policy changes some don’t believe will necessarily improve schools. In his first news conference of the session Thursday, ParSee SCHOOL, page A-12 C
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By JENNIFER CANFIELD Morris News Service-Alaska Juneau Empire
The Department of Environmental Conservation isn’t actively testing fish for radiation, Commissioner Larry Hartig told the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.
A radiation leak from a nuclear power plant in Japan after a March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami continues to worry some about whether it’s safe to eat fish from the Pacific Ocean, but Hartig said those concerns are unfounded. Hartig said the state is reSee SAFE, page A-12