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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
MARCH 30, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 154
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
LNG project ready for next phase
Gone dancing C
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Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Top: Mercedes Norris and Connor Aaronson perform the Gundam Style dance together to a cheering crowd at the Spring Fling, Friday, the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Joe Lunn said earlier a balloon had exploded while he was blowing it up as he helped decorate for the Spring Fling on Friday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Sydney Adams is no longer a resident of Alaska, but still her roots on the Kenai Peninsula continue to deepen every spring. This year, she received a message alerting her it happened to be the day before the massive community celebration she started five years ago. Adams still receives pictures and phone calls every year documenting how much bigger the Spring Fling has grown since its beginnings. The event draws hundreds of community members, who pack the conference rooms at the Soldotna Sports Center. It only
continues to increase, she said. “I am proud of where is started and where it’s going,” Adams said. “I never thought it would be this big, or more than a one time thing.” When Adams was in high school and worked at Hope Community Resources. She became close with a deaf client. Adams recalled the woman, who had already graduated, telling her she had never been able to attend a prom. This reality struck her so hard Adams decided to recreate prom that would also include community members with disabilities, she said. “I wanted to make it everything, and
Middle: Tina Svec decorates the center pieces for the Spring Fling.
more than any prom I’d ever been to,” Adams said. With no funds available but a big green light from Hope, she went around to the local businesses in the Kenai Peninsula Borough asking for donations. Soldotna High School gave decorations, and a local seamstress offered some of the girls free dresses and tailoring, said Adams. Despite the overwhelming support, as the event neared, they still could not afford a venue, Adams said. The owner of Soldotna-based Ellis Automotive asked how much was needed and wrote her a check right on the spot, Adams said. The community
pulled everything off, she said. Nicole Egholm heads up the Spring Fling production. The community provides monetary support and the City of Soldotna City Council makes an annual donation. Such assistance is what makes it possible for everyone to get in free, because a lot of the attendees have limited income, Adams said. Everything else is volunteer-driven. The DJ and the Photographer don’t charge for their services, and food is brought in potluck-style, Egholm said. A Hope employee, Shady DeMoss, offers help doing hair and make-up the day of, Egholm said. See FLING, page A-2
BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — Oil and gas company executives said they’re prepared to move into the next phase of pursuing a major liquefied natural gas project under terms of a bill that recently passed the Alaska Senate. The House Resources Committee is hearing SB138, which would set state participation in the project at about 25 percent and move the project — currently estimated to cost between $45 billion and more than $65 billion — into a phase of preliminary engineering and design and cost refinement. David Van Tuyl, a regional manager for BP Alaska, told the committee Friday it’s important to take the time needed to get a mega-project right and not rush. But he said his company believes the project, as things stand today, can compete in the Asian markets and to the extent the gas resource can be monetized, he said it behooves everyone involved to move forward expeditiously. The state has signed an agreement with the North Slope’s major players — BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil Corp. — TransCanada Corp. and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., setting out broad terms for moving ahead. The state also signed a separate agreement with TransCanada to hold its interest in a pipeline and gas treatment plant, with the state having an option to buy back some of the equity. Both agreements are contingent upon passage of enabling legislation deemed acceptable by all the parties. The process envisioned for pursuing the project would happen in stages, with opportunities for the state or another party to get out if they don’t want to continue. It’s not known whethSee LNG, page A-2
‘Fish Week’ ends in Senate resources committee RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
A final day of testimony for Upper Cook Inlet Salmon Dialogue in the Senate Resources committee wrapped up as members heard from Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff on a myriad of issues in the Cook
Inlet marine and freshwater fisheries. After nearly an hour of testimony from ADFG sportfish division director Charlie Swanton and central region supervisor Tracy Lingnau on salmon stocks, management plans and ongoing fisheries research senators quizzed staff on testimony
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they’d heard during what chairwoman Sen. Cathy Giessel, RAnchorage, called “fish week.” As testimony ended, Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, led the way with questions touching on habitat, flexibility in management of the area’s commercial fisheries and the ailing early run of Kenai River king salmon. Micciche asked if ADFG had done any broad habitat studies on the Kenai River in recent years. “We’re more focused on those areas that appear to be impacted by recreational anglers,” Swanton said. “I think the (Board of Fisheries) actually instructed a couple areas additional to close to recreational anglers along the bank, but we haven’t done any intensive work in that regard.” Giessel asked if ADFG staff worked closely with the state’s Board of Fisheries to generate
management plans and provisions within those plans. “Are your recommendations typically taken by the board? Does the board have its ideas most of the time,” Giessel said. Swanton said responsiveness between the board and ADFG “depends on the board” and both sides generated ideas for management plans. Several questions centered around northern pike, an invasive species widely considered to be decimating salmon populations in the Mat-Su Valley. Sen. Anna Fairclough, REagle River, said she had been in Alaska for 50 years and had yet to catch a king salmon, but spent time fishing in the MatSu area. Fairclough asked for a breakdown of the pike problem in the area, the migration habits of the fish and how ADFG managers typically eradicated the fish. Swanton said ADFG used, C
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among other methods, a chemical called rotenone — a biological agent that affects the cellular respiration of fish, essentially causing them to stop breathing —to control pike populations on the Kenai Peninsula. “It doesn’t sound, I would think it sounds good to most Alaskans to put poison in the water. Period,” Fairclough said. “But people do want salmon runs to continue and pike, at least certainly were alluded to earlier this week as part of the problem.” Fairclough asked if ADFG managers had considering applying the chemical— which Swanton said was usually applied in the fall—in the winter when the water was frozen
so the chemical might affect a smaller area. “I was just wondering if, in an effort to protect our water and our salmon, if there was a way to go after those pesky pike in the winter,” she said. Giessel said the questions from Fairclough and other resources committee members who were not familiar with fisheries issues were the focus of the three-days of meetings. The Senate Resources committee has jurisdiction over the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Conservation and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Giessel said the committee doesn’t often hear from the latter. “If there’s a bill coming through, you know you hear people’s opinions on each side of the bill, but never just kind of a big overview and hearing See FISH, page A-2