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P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 130
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Measure would reform state rental law
Question Do you think Alaska’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage should be repealed? n Yes; or n No. 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.
By MATT WOOLBRIGHT Morris News Service-Alaska Juneau Empire
Iditarod 2014 Peninsula mushers’ progress as of 8:30 p.m. Sunday: C
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6. Gus Guenther, Clam Gulch, out of Yentna 9. Mitch Seavey, Sterling, out of Yentna 17. Paul Gebhardt, Kasilof, out of Yentna 36. Travis Beals, Seward, out of Yentna 40. Kristy Berington, Kasilof, out of Yentna 43. Anna Berington, Kasilof, out of Yentna 55. Monica Zappa, Kasilof, into Yentna 67. Danny Seavey, Seward, out of Willow Find more Iditarod coverage on Page A-8.
Inside ‘We should be no longer deluded by the fact that Europe is a safe spot of stability and security, and not a security risk for the U.S.’ ... See page A--6
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World......................A-7 Sports.....................A-8 Schools...................B-1 Classifieds............. B-4 Comics................... B-8 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Photo by Dan Balmer/Peninsula Clarion
Training day Kenai resident Tyler Taplin, 23, walks down the Kenai Spur Highway dragging a truck tire on a rope tied to his backpack Sunday. Taplin said he started pulling the tire as a means of exercise to train for the Army, but his asthma condition made him ineligible for service. He walked from the end of North Forest Drive to the Kenai Middle School and back, nearly eight miles round-trip.
Democrats unveil oil tax plan BY TIM BRADNER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
Minority Democrats in the Legislature unveiled their vision of an oil tax system should voters this summer roll back the tax structure lawmakers approved last year. It includes the idea of the state getting directly into the oil business by allowing the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state development finance corporation, to finance oilfield development
with small independent companies and own an equity share in the field, not just a tax and royalty interest. “There are (state) entities around the world that own a share of their oil industry (through state oil companies) and I have confidence that we have the ability to do this,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage. The state is already proposing to own a share of a proposed large gas project through the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp., Wielechowski
Refinery closing could cost railroad $11M annually By ELWOOD BREHMER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
The impending closure of the Flint Hills Resources North Pole refinery could cut $11 million in annual revenue to the Alaska Railroad, adding to the “unholy trinity” of challenges facing the state railroad, its president and CEO Bill O’Leary said. O’Leary made his remarks Feb. 20 to the Resource Development Council for Alaska. The Flint Hills closure will also put the railroad’s recent announcement of proposed commuter service between Wasilla and Anchorage on hold. O’Leary said the service, which railroad officials said could start this fall on a trial basis, wouldn’t generate substantial revenue early on and isn’t feasible given the added financial strain caused by reduced freight service demand. Railroad leaders predict bulk fuel transports in 2015 to be roughly 20 percent of peak volumes in 2003 that were primarily jet fuel shipments from the Flint Hills refinery to the Port of
Anchorage. When it’s purchased by airlines, fuel from the port is piped to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. O’Leary said the $11 million loss in freight business is expected despite a likely increase of northbound fuel trains to meet Interior demand for multiple fuels now provided by Flint Hills. The overall freight business for the railroad totaled 5.1 million tons of goods moved in 2013, off 23 percent from 6.6 million tons in 2008, O’Leary said. Gravel and export coal hauls have fluctuated during the time period, but the decline in service is largely attributable to decreased production from Flint Hills. The railroad hauled nearly 2 million tons of petroleum in 2008, while the sum of 2013 fuel shipments was less than 1 million tons, according to railroad data. To compensate, the Alaska Railroad has cut what was once daily freight service between Anchorage and Fairbanks to five days per week. “Freight is far and away our See RAIL, page A-10
said, and AIDEA itself has invested in oil drilling rigs. “I like the idea of AIDEA providing venture capital to oil and gas projects. There are independent companies coming to Alaska who lack capital,” Wielechowski said. “The governor’s giveaway is a pathway to poverty,” said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, said in the press conference “He throws two billion dollars out of an airplane and hopes it lands in the piggy bank. Our bill makes sure Alaska’s oil money goes into Alaska’s piggy bank, and that
for every dollar we give back to the industry, we get more oil production in return.” Gara did not explain in the Feb. 24 press conference, however, how the Democrats’ bill ensures that tax reductions are reinvested in the state, or how the proposal was better than a targeted per-barrel tax credit for new oil allowed in SB 21, the tax change that was passed by the Legislature last year. The per-barrel credit in SB 21 replaced a general capital investment tax credit that was not See TAX, page A-10
A North Pole Republican is trying to change the Alaska Landlord and Tenant Act for the first time since the early 1990s. HB282, sponsored by Rep. Doug Isaacson, R-North Pole, includes minor technical updates and serious alterations to the tenant act, such as a section authorizing landlords to collect unpaid rent from a tenant’s Permanent Fund Dividend. The House Labor and Commerce committee listened to testimony on HB282, but took no action Friday. Isaacson called his proposal the “neverending bill” because it’s been tinkered with regularly over the past year. “In contact with a lot of Realtors, tenants and constituents, people just started coming, and we saw a common thread (of different issues from different people) so they all kind of congealed,” Isaacson said. “The current statute is in dire need of updating, and this bill addresses many of the deficiencies in the current statute,” Kris Abegg, a broker with Paragon Properties, told lawmakers in an email. Lisa Mariotti, the policy program director for the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, praised a portion of the bill that allows victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking to get out of their leases early if they were attacked at their rental. See RENT, page A-2
Digging up old roots Totem Tracers to help locals start family trees By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Technologicaladvancements may have changed genealogical research methods since Kari Mohn and Loretta Mattson first began tracing their family trees years ago but the duo is keeping up with the times. On Wednesday Mohn and Mattson, both Kenai Totem Tracers Genealogical Society members, practiced using the Kenai Community Library’s duel television screens and document camera in the meeting room to practice for their presentation called “Your Family Tree — Getting Started.” Mattson began researching her family tree when her “brother-nephew,” her nephew that grew up in her family like a brother, starting trying to find his real father, she said. Mohn’s interest started when she was taking a library mini-course at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and needed an idea for a class project. While brainstorming she began to wonder how people get C
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started researching their family trees, so she made it her project to find out. “It’s addictive,” Mohn said. “It’s a gigantic puzzle.” Both women have traced their trees back to Charlemagne, king of the Franks and
emperor of Western Europe. He was born in the late 740s and died in 814. “We’re related!” Mattson said and the women laughed. Before sites like Ancestry. com were available the women said they did research in librar-
Photo by Kaylee Osowski/Peninsula Clarion
Kari Mohn (left) and Loretta Mattson, Kenai Totem Tracers Genealogical Society members, practice on Wednesday for their “Your Family Tree — Getting Started” presentation to be held at 1 p.m. on March 8 at the Kenai Community Library. See TRACERS, page A-10