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Streaks
Navy breaks camp early as ice shifts
Spurs, 76ers keep runs going
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CLARION
More sunshine 37/8 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 149
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Going farther north
Question Do you feel the veterans memorial in Leif Hansen Memorial Park in Kenai is appropriate as is? n Yes; or n No.
Borough explores North Road Extension options
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 KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
bank said. The City of Kenai made a stride in another capital project, awarding a bid to Nelson Engineering PC for the design of a new reservoir and replacement of a water main. After receiving bids from five firms last month, a selection committee of four city employees agreed on Nelson Engineering for the amount of $369,062. The city council awarded the bid in a resolution at its March 19 meeting. The scope of the project is for a one million gallon water reservoir and replacement of
Kenai Peninsula Borough officials are examining options to extend the Kenai Spur Highway north. The North Road Extension Project, as it is commonly known, has held onto federal government dollars since 1998 when the borough received about $6 million earmarked to extend the Spur about 26 miles beyond its Captain Cook State Recreation Area terminus. Chief of Staff Paul Ostrander said two options are being considered to make some progress on the project, which would be primarily used by Moose Point and Gray Cliff property owners. The preferred alternative is a re-scope of the plan that would utilize the earmarked dollars and require a congressional change, he said. Ostrander said the borough would refocus the plan to just the first four miles from the end of the highway, which runs adjacent to the Nikiski Alaska Pipeline. He said currently there are issues caused by traffic accessing the area. “In the wetland areas, when you have a lot of (all-terrain vehicle) traffic going in one area, it gets muddier and muddier and muddier,” Ostrander said. “And, as it gets harder to go through, the folks have a tendency to go around the mud hole that was created by the first few that went through. …. Then this hole just continues to grow until you’ve got a pretty significant impact.” Along with large mud holes impacting the wetlands, Leaf Creek, an anadromous stream, is also seeing impacts from people using the adjacent Jacob’s Ladder Drive to access the beach, he said.
See KENAI, page A-8
See NORTH, page A-8
In the news No injuries after gas station collision
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Two vehicles collided and struck a commercial fuel truck at the Tesoro gas station on the Sterling Highway approximately 10:15 a.m. Monday in Soldotna. A woman driving a Jeep Cherokee turned out in front of a Roto-Rooter truck in the gas station parking lot. The Jeep was pushed into a gas tanker in the process of filling the station tanks, said Soldotna Police Officer Tobin Brennan. Central Emergency Services arrived on scene shortly after and checked out the driver of the Jeep and reported no injuries, said CES firefighter Josh Thompson. No damage to the gas station was reported and business returned to normal after Soldotna police cleared the scene in 45 minutes, Brennan said. The driver of the Jeep was issued a citation for failing to yield after she pulled into the gas station, Brennan said. No fire explosion occurred and the tanker and truck received minor damage, Brennan said. — Dan Balmer
Inside ‘The situation is very grim. We have not found anyone alive on this pile since Saturday.’ ... See page A-5
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-6 Classifieds............. A-9 Comics................. A-14 Pet Tails............... A-15
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Spring fling Above, Bryan Hahn of Soldotna aims for the basket on the Kenai Eagle Disc Golf Course Monday afternoon in Kenai. Hahn was playing the course along with Jarrett Urban and Connor Schoessler. Left, Schoessler and Urban watch as Hahn tees off. The trio said it was their first disc golf outing of the season. The course is located behind Coral Seymour Park on Tinker Lane. Photos by Will Morrow/Peninsula Clarion
Kenai capital projects progressing By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
The City of Kenai is moving closer to checking a couple capital projects off its list, none bigger than the new 17,000-squarefoot maintenance facility. The city shop, a $4-million project built by Blazy Construction, should be substantially completed in early April, Capital Projects Manager Sean Wedemeyer said. Construction began last August to replace the current maintenance facility, which resides at the corner of Airport Way and Willow Street, alongside
the Parks and Recreation Department. The city has outgrown the current shop with more than 400 pieces of city equipment, from snow removal trucks to public works vehicles, Wedemeyer said. The new shop on Marathon Road has five overhead doors and adequate space for drive-in repairs of large vehicles and for shop workers to assemble, store and upkeep city equipment, he said. Kenai City Manager Rick Koch said from the time the steel framing went up to now
the building actually looks smaller from the outside; it looks bigger on the inside. At the Kenai City Council meeting on March 19, mayor Pat Porter announced $500 from the Mini-Grant Steering Committee would be awarded to Kia Youngren-Brown, a Kenai Central High School student, for a mural to be painted inside the maintenance shop wall. With the new shop built on city property, the city will save more than $35,000 a year in leasing costs to the airport, Kenai Finance Director Terry Eu-
House Finance gets Fishery stakeholders share education rundown concerns with Senate panel By MIKE COPPOCK Associated Press
JUNEAU — The Legislative Finance Division told the House Finance Committee on Monday that Alaska will spend $1.4 billion on education this fiscal year, and if current spending levels continue, two major reserve funds will be depleted within a decade. Finance Division Director David Teal said the amounts given to local school districts and the total amount the state spends on education are different issues. Per-pupil allocations made to districts are only part of an overall picture that includes expenses such as transportation and construction. Using graphs to underscore
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28th LEGISLATURE
2nd SESSION
his point, Teal told a packed room that even though the perpupil allocation technically has been flat over the past four years at $5,680 per student, it has been declining since 2012 because of inflation. The amount adjusted to inflation was $5,764 per pupil in 2012. Today, adjusted for inflation, the amount is $5,599 per pupil. Teal said other factors should also be added into the formula, such as capital budget grants awarded to districts for everything from books and computers See FUNDS, page A-8
By MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
Kenai Peninsula salmon fishery stakeholders addressed a variety of issues at a Senate Resources Committee hearing in Juneau Monday, including changes to the Board of Fisheries, concerns about certain salmon runs and research needed to better understand them. The committee is holding three hearings on Upper Cook Inlet salmon in Juneau, with some participation via teleconference from other legislative information offices, or LIOs, in the state. Testimony C
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is by invitation only. Kenai City Manager Rick Koch was one of several speakers to raise concerns with the current Board of Fisheries process. The board meets to discuss each fishery in the state on a three-year cycle, and in January and February held its Upper Cook Inlet meeting. Koch noted that some of the proposals changed dramatically from how they were submitted by the public, to the final version passed by the board. “Even if I agreed that each of those actions came to a positive result … I’m still offended by that process, and
I think all Alaskans should be offended by that process,” Koch said. Rod Arno, from the Alaska Outdoor Council, suggested that the Legislature needed to get more involved in the Board of Fisheries process and ask more questions during board member confirmation hearings. However, Arno said he didn’t think the board process itself needed to change. Kenai Area Fishermen’s Coalition Chairman Dwight Kramer said he thought the state should change to having a paid, professional board of fisheries, a change he and others have suggested previously. See FISH, page A-8