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Hiking
Baseball
Vets take to trail to help heal
NLC tourney opens in Soldotna
Recreation/C-1
Sports/B-1
CLARION
Breezy, rain 57/45 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, May 30-31 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 206
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Council accepts money for library
Question Who is your preferred candidate for U.S. Senate? n Mark Begich n Joe Miller n Dan Sullivan n Mead Treadwell n Other 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 KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Coming up
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Marty Rogers and Michael Hatfield debrief after getting off their 24-hour-plus shift on the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire Thursday at Kenai Peninsula College Residence Hall in Soldotna. The two were setting up unmanned drones that will use infrared radiation imaging to detect hotspots within the fire’s boundaries.
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A place to sleep
Photo by Rashah McChesney/ Peninsula Clarion
We’re looking for your best photos from the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire. Send them to news@peninsulaclarion.com or tag us on Facebook. We’ll pick our favorites and run them alongside ours in our Sunday paper.
Correction In a Wednesday article titled “Rain helps slow fire” we misidentified a public information officer for the Alaska Interagency Incident Management Team for the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire in a pull-quote. His name is Jim Schwarber. The Clarion regrets the error.
Inside ‘As they have gained experience they are becoming more efficient’ ... See page A-5
KPC opens Residence Hall to firefighters By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
A group of residents at the Kenai Peninsula College Residence Hall having been staying out all night and coming back long after dawn, while their neighbors are still sound asleep. The temporary tenants are Division of Forestry firefighters combating the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire on the night shift. The firefighters were originally set up in tents on the lawn outside the incident command center at Skyview High School, but the area’s bustling daytime activities made sleeping a challenge, said Associate Director of Residence Life Tammie WilSee HOST, page A-10
Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Flight support: Includes airtankers, fixed wing, heavy, medium and light helicopter support and flame retardant costs
$1,613,683
Handcrews: Includes Type 1 and Type 2 crews
$1,173,074
Dozers and Engines
$424,108
Direct personnel: Operations and firefighters
$375,926
Indirect: Camp support
$433,079
Indirect: Includes buses, camp crew, caterer, facilities, mobilization and demobilization, other equipment, support, vehicles and supplies.
$1,949,872
Kelly Sullivan can be reached at kelly.sullivan@peninsulaclarion.com
Name Wildfire costs up released to $6.1 million in $187,695 trooper$2,804 involved Total: $6,160,241 handgun incident By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
It has taken 10 days, 760 people and more than $6.1 million for firefighters to gain control of the spread of the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire. And, while plans are in place to begin phasing crews out of the area — at least four of the 17 fire crews will leave in the
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Religion...................A-8 Sports.....................B-1 Recreation............. C-1 Classifieds............ C-3 Comics.................. C-7
What does it cost?
The Soldotna City Council unanimously agreed to raise the amount of appropriations for renovations to the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Library from $30,000 to $42,000. The amount was changed after the Soldotna Library Friends informed City Manager Mark Dixson, in a memorandum from City Librarian Rachel Nash, that recent fundraisers reached $21,000, up from the previously calculated $15,000. Nash suggested the city put the money toward the Rasmussen Foundation challenge community grant that matches funds raised by a municipality of up to $100,000, open until June 30. The ordinance specifies the amount will go to purchasing furniture, fixtures and equipment. Following, the council adopted an ordinance allowing fishing in Centennial Park’s boat launch lagoon before July 1, and after Aug. 30 of each year. Parks and Recreation Director Andrew Carmicheal said this was to match a regulation put in place by the Alaska Board of Fish. Previously the lagoon had been closed year round to ensure the safety of anglers. Any person caught fishing in the lagoon between July 1 and Aug. 30 will be fined $100, according to the ordinance.
next few days — it is not yet clear when the fire will be manageable enough that operational crews can begin disassembling the massive logistical operation necessary to manage a 300 square mile wildfire that has threatened hundreds of homes and thousands of Kenai Peninsula residents. At its peak, on Saturday and Sunday fire operations See COSTS, page A-10
Indirect: includes lowboy transportation, misc equipment and water tenders Indirect: Medical rescue
Costs incurred by the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire through Thursday May 29. Information compiled from Alaska Incident Management Team data
At the end of the hearing, Judge Andrew Guidi said he couldn’t make a prediction on how or when he’d rule, but that he recognized the importance of the case to the public. Guidi said the two sides had a pretty good go at each other in court last summer, and he would be tasked with deciding whether the evidence from last summer was enough to say that there’s no issue of material fact, as the State has argued.
Alaska State Troopers have released the name of the trooper involved in the shooting near Cooper Landing on May 25. Trooper Kevin Gill responded to a report of a man with a gun standing along the Sterling Highway near Mile 55 outside of Cooper Landing at about 2:40 p.m., according to a police affidavit. After asking the man, identified as, Timothy Lange, 30, of Anchorage to put the gun down, Lange fired in the direction of Gill but missed him. Gill returned fire, but did not strike Lange, who then
See SUIT, page A-9
See TROOPER, page A-10
CIFF, ADFG argue for more information By MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
ANCHORAGE — A state judge heard oral argument yesterday about the lawsuit over 2013 management of Cook Inlet salmon fisheries. The Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund, or CIFF, sued the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in July 2013, asserting that fisheries managers did not follow Cook Inlet salmon management
plans appropriately in 2013, causing harm to commercial fishermen. At the time, CIFF asked for a preliminary injunction requiring Fish and Game to follow certain aspects of the Cook Inlet salmon management plans, and both sides argued the case in Anchorage Superior Court. Judge Andrew Guidi ruled that the injunction was not necessary, in part because a remedy was available if he later determined that managers had erred, and in part because he would simply be substituting the
court’s judgment for managers if he ruled in favor of changing their practices. ADFG has asked for summary judgment, which was the focus of oral argument yesterday. The state has asked the judge to uphold Fish and Game’s interpretation of the management plans in its motion for summary judgment; CIFF has opposed that. The fishermen’s fund asked the judge to at least allow the process to continue to discovery before making a decision. C
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By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion