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P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 187
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Budget makes debut
Question Where do you think Wildlife Troopers should deploy additional enforcement on the Kenai Peninsula? n Commercial fisheries n Personal-use fisheries n Sport fisheries
Assembly gets overview of fiscal plan By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
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.
In the news Fishing businesses upset with senator on EPA bill
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JUNEAU (AP) — A group of lodge owners and guides has expressed disappointment with Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s support of a bill that would limit when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could use its so-called “veto authority” under the federal Clean Water Act. Nineteen individuals signed onto a letter to Alaska’s senior senator, featured in a full-page ad Wednesday in the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest newspaper. Last month, Murkowski became a co-sponsor of legislation that would limit to the permitting stage when EPA could act to restrict or prohibit use of a certain area for disposal of dredged or fill material. Murkowski raised concerns when EPA announced this year that it was initiating the process under the Clean Water Act in relation to the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region before the project had even moved into the permitting phase. That process is still underway, with no final decisions made.
Correction In the Sunday story “Ranger Games” Kelly Modla’s title was incorrectly reported. She is a Federal Wildlife Officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Business................ A-5 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-7 Sports.....................A-8 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
In its proposed fiscal year 2015 annual budget the Kenai Peninsula Borough is facing a $2.9 million funding gap, largely due to an increase in property tax exemptions. Craig Chapman, borough director of finance introduced Assembly members to the annual budget during a finance committee meeting on Tuesday and said voters increased property tax exemptions from $20,000 to $50,000 in October 2013, which impacts the budget by $2.4 million. While voters chose to increase property tax exemption, revenue from the tax is projected to be up slightly from last year. Even with the decrease in revenues it will generate, property taxes is expected to be the biggest contributor to the general fund at $33 million. Chapman said a decrease projected for taxable assessed values for real property is offset by an increase in assessed values oil and gas. More oil and gas exploration in the borough has lead to an increase in assessed values from $699 million in 2012 to $1.142 billion in 2015. The borough projects collecting $73 million total for its
Fish on! Above, Bill Schmidt, of Sterling, shouts as he lands a landlocked sockeye salmon, or kokanee, while fishing Wednesday at Sport Lake in Soldotna. Schmidt said his wife wanted the fish for her birthday, so he spent part of the afternoon fishing for the kokanee which he intends to smoke and gift to her. At right, Schmidt baits his hook. Photos by Rashah McChesney/ Peninsula Clarion
See BUDGET, page A-10
Acuren building safe, landlord says By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
News that one of his tenants had suspended operations, after a surprise inspection by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, came as a shock to Rick Roeske, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District. The organization owns
the building where the Kenai branch of Acuren USA has been housed for more than five years. Staff at the development district building has since met with inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, and been assured that other tenants in the building had not been over-exposed to radiation, Roeske said.
“We didn’t get a notification from Acuren, we got notification from the media and that’s the first we heard of it,” Roeske said. “We were as surprised as everyone else.” Technically the company was not required to report its encounter with the NRC as it was not spelled out in the terms of its lease with the economic development district, he said.
The company is licensed to use radioactive materials when inspecting pipe welds and on April 10 NRC inspectors on a surprise inspection of the facility, 14896 Kenai Spur Highway, had meter readings that went “off-scale” close to the building, according to a confirmatory action letter issued to the company. An initial dose estimate sug-
gested that a member of the public standing near the building during testing could have gotten a dose of radiation in excess of mandated annual limits, according to the letter. Inspectors moved about 40 feet away from the building and their survey meter read about 200 mR/hour during the two minutes that Acuren was conSee SAFE, page A-10
Assembly approves Lease sale nets $5.2 million funds for turf field By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
The Soldotna High School track and artificial turf field will be completed this year. The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly appropriated funds to finish the project during its Tuesday meeting. From the borough’s general fund, the assembly appropriated $135,000. The assembly also redirected $165,000 from other school capital projects to the turf project. Borough Mayor Mike Navarre said the turf field has already been ordered and with the site work underway, the track is the last piece to be ordered. “We need to order (the track) this week in order to move forward,” Navarre said.
He said if the funds weren’t approved the site work, field portion and probably the base work for the track would be complete this year. Because the field and track are from the same company, holding the track until next year would create additional delivery costs. He said costs would be “exponentially higher to delay the project.” “I won’t oppose it simply because of cost benefit analysis of it,” assembly member Wayne Ogle said. “… We’re down the road. And not doing it would present more problems than doing it, but I sure hope in the future we have our funds lined up a little bit better.” The borough received one bid for phase one work — removing the existing track and See TURF, page A-10
By TIM BRADNER Morris News Service-Alaska/
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Bidding was modest at the state’s annual Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula “areawide” lease sales Wednesday, with bids coming from independent companies and most of those in Cook Inlet from companies already established there. A surprise, however, is that there were three bids on tracts near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula in southwest Alaska. The state Division of Oil and Gas routinely offers leases on state-owned lands on the peninsula when it makes the Cook Inlet acreage available. Until this year, however, there have been no bids for Alaska Peninsula leases since 2007. Shell acquired several C
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leases in 2007 but subsequently dropped them. This year two small independents, Auxullium Alaska Inc. and Novus Terra Ltd. offered bids on three parcels. All three leases were near shore and southwest of Port Moller. In the Cook Inlet sale, 152 state-owned oil and gas tracts were offered, with 35 sold for about $5.2 million in high bids, state Oil and Gas Division Director Bill Barron said. All bids were from independent companies. No major companies submitted bids. Bids for 10,280 acres of leases sold on the Alaska Peninsula totaled $51,400, Barron said. Cook Inlet leases sold totaled 108,543 acres. “Eight bidders participated in the Cook Inlet sale and the high bids of the sale,
of $153 per acre came from Woodstone Resources for two tracts,” Barron said. The state had set a minimum bid of $25 per acre. Hilcorp Energy acquired 11 tracts in the sale with bids ranging from $30 to $40 per acre, while Apache Alaska Corp. won seven tracts with bids that ranged mostly from $26 to $50 per acre but with an $86-per-acre bid on one tract. Hilcorp is the major oil and gas producer in the Inlet, having acquired Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Co. properties in 2012 and 2013. Apache is engaged in a multi-year exploration program. Other companies participating included Cook Inlet Energy, a small producer on Cook Inlet’s west side, which
See LEASE, page A-10