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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, MAY 8-9 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 188
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 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.
In the news
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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sean Parnell has signed legislation setting Alaska’s participation in a proposed liquefied natural gas project. Parnell signed SB138 on a piece of pipe surrounded by lawmakers in Fairbanks. He ended the event with a call to go build the project. The bill is aimed at advancing the mega-project into a phase of preliminary engineering and design; there is not guarantee yet that it will be built. The project’s other partners are the North Slope’s three major players, TransCanada Corp. and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., or AGDC. Alaska’s participation would be at about 25 percent. TransCanada would own the state’s interest in the pipeline and gas treatment plant, with the state having an option to buy-back some of that stake. AGDC would hold the state’s interest in liquefaction facilities.
Correction In a standalone photo package called “Fish On” we misidentified a fish being caught by Bill Schmidt of Sterling. It was a chinook salmon.
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Nikiski schools locked down Thursday Troopers hunt for man whose suicide threat prompted 2-hour campus closures By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Alaska State Troopers are still searching for a man whose threats of suicide caused school administrators to put two schools in Nikiski on lockdown Thursday afternoon. The man had been at Nikiski Middle High School earlier in the day, according to a trooper report, where he reportedly threatened to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills and drinking alcohol. The high school went into lockdown at 12:15 p.m. while
Nikiski North Star Elementary went into lockdown 30 minutes later, according to an email from Kenai Peninsula Borough School District spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff. Administrators at both schools confirmed the lockdown at about 2 p.m. but would not divulge details of the situation. Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said the Troopers had not asked the schools to respond to the situation. “There are no threats to the schools that we know of,” Peters said.
Erkeneff said the lockdown was a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the students at both schools. Shane Bostic, vice principal of Nikiski Middle-High School recorded an emergency message which was sent to parents at 2:11 p.m. Parents were notified that their students would be released on-time, though after school activities have been cancelled. Erkeneff wrote in an email Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion that the delay between when the schools were put on lock- A First Student school bus turns off of Holt-Lamplight Road in down and when the emergency Nikiski Thursday near Nikiski North Star Elementary School. See SCHOOL, page A-14
A short trip back in time Kenai By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Moving to Alaska at 25, in the late 1940’s was a more rigorous transition than making the trip today. After taking a short walk across the playground of Soldotna Elementary School, Shaya Straw’s third grade students huddled in the tight space of the Soldotna Historic Post Office to hear about what life was like for Marge Mullen, 92, when she arrived in 1947 as Soldotna’s first female homesteader. A wooden table draped in a red-checkered cloth took up the center of the cramped, perfectly square room. An old set of skis, a small, blue sewing machine that was long out of use, and a dusty Aladdin lamp were on display, all items used in the area’s early households. Mullen talked about the daily duties of being a homemaker decades ago. She said it was challenging heating the large metal cooking stove with nothing but wood chips, and making ice cream was only possible during the winter season because natural refrigeration was the only way to keep things frozen. Slowly walking the perimeter of the downstairs, her fingers brushed pennypostcards, rusting scissors and an old black and white Sears catalog that advertised clothing. “A whole outfit only cost $1.19 back then,” Straw said to her students, evoking low murmurs of surprise. Students took turns venPhoto by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion turing upstairs into the family bedroom. In opposite cor- Only half of Shaya Straw’s third grade Soldotna Middle School Elementary class could fit in the old wooden building at a time, Thursday, at the Soldotna Historic Post Office.
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A fire engulfed a vacant trailer in Nikiski before firefighters could contain the blaze Thursday morning. At 9 a.m. the Nikiski Fire Department received a 911 call of a reported a structure fire of a single level home on Milky Way Street about a mile from North Star Elementary School, Courtesy photo/Nikiski Fire Department said Nikiski fire chief James A morning fire destroyed an empty home Thursday off of Milky Baisden. Both Nikiski fire stations reWay Street in Nikiski. No one was injured in the blaze. C
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By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
sponded within six minutes and were assisted by the Kenai Fire Department. Crews contained the fire within 30 minutes and remained on scene until 11 a.m. No one was injured in the fire or found on scene when firefighters arrived, he said. Baisden said when crews left the station they could see black smoke in the air. He said the fire had been going on for about 20 minutes before the call came in. “The structure was fully See FIRE, page A-14
See FEE, page A-14
Empty Nikiski home destroyed by blaze By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Council approves Vintage Pointe rate hike, increase in water and sewer rates More than 7,000 Kenai Library card holders, or just about 65 percent of the community library’s users, will continue to get their library cards free of cost. The Kenai City Council voted to down a portion of a resolution which would have required residents who lived outside of the city to pay an annual $20 library card fee. The council then passed the resolution of fee changes adopted in the fiscal year 2015 budget process. While renewed plans for playground equipment at Municipal Park dominated discussion at Wednesday night’s meeting, the council passed three ordinances and seven resolutions. One of the resolutions authorized the city manger to enter an agreement with the Department of the Army Corp of Engineers to complete one final feasibility study for the Kenai River bluff erosion project, a project that has been one of the city’s capital priorities for more than 20 years. The library card fee was one of four changes that came out of the budget process including one that raises the rent at Vintage Pointe Manor, the city’s senior living facility. The city will also increase the parking fee at the Kenai Municipal airport and increase water and sewer rates. The $20 library card fee would have generated $50,000 per year in revenue and reduce the subsidy for outside city users provided by Kenai property tax payers, according to the resolution.
See TRIP, page A-14
Index
nixes fee for library