C
M
Y
K
Finals
Trail
Spurs take on Heat in Game 1
Hiker beats Pacific Crest record
Partly sunny 64/44 More weather on Page A-2
Sports/B-1
Recreation/C-1
CLARION P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, June 6-7 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 212
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Judge rules for ADFG in lawsuit
Question Should an open burning ban on the Kenai Peninsula be extended until the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire is completely extinguished? n Yes; or
By MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service-Alaska
n No.
Alaska Journal of Commerce
To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com.
ANCHORAGE — A state judge ruled in favor of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in the lawsuit regarding the 2013 Cook Inlet salmon fisheries. The Cook Inlet Fisherman’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 that year and caused harm to commercial fishermen. After hearing oral argument May 29, Judge Andrew Guidi granted the state’s motion for summary judgment June 2. He wrote in his final decision that there was no evidence that ADFG had “exceeded its authority in executing the emergency plan promulgated by the Alaska Board of Fisheries. Specifically, the Fund has failed to articulate any concrete way in which the Department overstepped its management authority other than the claim — already rejected on motion for preliminary injunction — that the Fund’s fishermen were entitled to 51 hours of extra fishing time by law.” ADFG asked for summary judgment in December, which was the focus of oral argument May 29. The state asked the judge to uphold Fish and Game’s interpretation of the management plans in its motion for summary judgment; CIFF opposed that. CIFF President John McCombs said the ruling came as a disappointment. “I just don’t think the Department of Fish and Game did
In the news Bearup runs for mayor
M K
Tom Bearup, a former Soldotna mayor, announced he is running for Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor. Standing in front of a banner with the slogan “The People’s Mayor,” Bearup addressed a group of community members that attended the 2 p.m. Thursday press conference he held at Froso’s restaurant in Soldotna. “It’s not about me … it’s about the people,” he said. Bearup said he will use veto power to control the spending of taxpayer money and that shrinking the national deficit needs to start locally. He said he wants to support local businesses and encourage manufactures to come to the Kenai Peninsula to create jobs. “If we can stabilize (the economy) by diversifying, then we have an opportunity to really do something more for our people,” he said. Bearup is a pastor and a Vietnam veteran. He has worked in law enforcement locally and in the Lower 48. He has been married to Adele Bearup for 38 years, has nine children and 33 grandchildren. — Staff report
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Peninsula Clarion
A wook inside
Nick Calvert makes a bacon, peanut butter and Nutella stuffed waffle in the bright, neon green RV converted into the Wook Waffaz Waffle Emporium Thursday in Soldotna.
Kenai ups mill rate, passes budget By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
After a failed attempt by Kenai City Council member Brian Gabriel to slash more than $300,000 from the budget to avoid a mill rate increase, the City of Kenai passed the fiscal year 2015 budget with more than $92,000 surplus in the general fund at Wednesday’s meeting. The new mill rate jumped from 3.85 to 4.35. The city council voted down $15,000 for a storefront improvement program, passed changes to city health insurance renewal quotes and added $80,000 to complete playground designs for Munici-
pal Park. During the course of discussion, the council passed seven amendments to the budget, which cut $52,200 and added $85,000 for a net increase of $63,800. The City of Kenai general fund for FY2015 is $16.2 million with a $92,414 surplus. Kenai City Manager Rick Koch said the budget process proved to be tumultuous given the late changes to the insurance quotes. The budget, he said, is operational with no significant new projects that would dip into fund reserves. The city saved more than $97,000 by switching from United Health-
Correction In a fishing report titled “Kenai sockeye and lakes the best options” that ran on the Thursday June 5 Tightlines page, the area of the river open to rainbow trout and dolly varden fishing was listed inaccurately. According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulation, anglers are allowed to fish for rainbow trout and dolly varden year-round on the Kenai River downstream of Torpedo Hole to the mouth of the Kenai River. The river is closed for all fishing upstream of Torpedo Hole until June 11. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-8 Religion.................A-10 Sports.....................B-1 Recreation............. C-1 Classifieds............ C-3 Comics.................. C-9 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
care to Premera Blue Cross Shield of Alaska for healtcare. “I think we got lucky with the quote we received,” Koch said. “That has not been our experience in any of my 10 years I’ve been here.” Gabriel, who called in from Boston, Massachusetts, said he was hesitant to raise the mill rate. He would like to see the city make cuts, but not have a “bare bones” budget given the uncertainty of future healthcare costs. Gabriel worked with Koch to look at areas where expenditures could be decreased to
maintain the property tax mill rate at 3.85 — a rate that has not been increased in five years. If the rate stayed at 3.85 mills, the budget would have had a deficit of $303,829. Gabriel introduced 19 amendments in a memo to the council, but only motioned 12. If all 19 were adopted, it would have resulted in a budget surplus of $54,324 in the general fund. Three of his 12 amendments passed. The council voted to eliminate a $19,200 increase to council stipends, decrease $2,000 from travel budget and strike $31,000 for a rotary broom to be purchased from the equipment replacement fund. See BUDGET, page A-12
See SUIT, page A-5
Elodea eradication begins By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Crews began eradicating elodea — an invasive aquatic plant — in two Nikiski-area lakes this week. Staff from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, a representative from the Homer Soil and Water Conservation District Photo courtesy of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and representatives from SePScott Schuler from SePRO pours fluridone pellets into the hopper RO Corporation — an herbion the application spreader (a gas-fired blower).Matt Bowser from cide producing company — dethe Kenai National Wildlife Refuge watches in the background.
scended on Beck Lake Tuesday and Daniels Lakes Wednesday to begin treatments. John Morton, supervisory fish and wildlife biologist with the refuge, said the crews treated all 200 acres of Beck Lake with both pellet and liquid forms of the herbicide fluridone. “The reason you put the liquid fluridone down is because it’s fast acting,” Morton said. … “And the other thing is … it mixes well in the lake. And
then we also put down the pelleted fluridone and that’s a slow release so it will continue to release over an extended period of time.” SePRO and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have tested fluridone, and the product was applied and will be applied during future treatments at a level well below EPA’s maximum contaminate level. See ELODEA, page A-12
More details released in Buccaneer bankruptcy By TIM BRADNER and ELWOOD BREHMER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
Buccaneer Energy, an independent Cook Inlet explorer with high hopes but skimpy resources, saw those hopes come crashing down May 31. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that day in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in south Texas. The company has been fighting a rear-guard action on finances almost since the time it arrived in Cook Inlet, bidding on lease sales and then bringing
a jack-up rig to the Inlet from Asia with a Singapore company and the State of Alaska as partners. Buccaneer had also become embroiled in a dispute with Cook Inlet Region Inc., which owns land adjacent to the state land on which Buccaneer’s producing Kenai Loop gas wells are located. Buccaneer previously had a lease on the CIRI land but the Anchorage-based Alaska Native corporation for Southcentral terminated the lease. Buccaneer sued, claiming the termination was improper, but lost in court.
Meanwhile, CIRI filed a complaint with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state agency that regulates industry production practices, alleging that Buccaneer’s Kenai Loop wells were draining gas from its lands. After two hearings and months of deliberations, the conservation commission decided May 22 to escrow all revenues from gas sales minus operating expenses at Kenai Loop until it could sort out how the gas should be shared among Buccaneer, CIRI, the State of Alaska and the Mental Health Land Trust. Under the commisC
M
sion order, the escrow account was to be created at an Alaska bank by June 1, and revenues to be deposited on the 10th day of each month beginning in June until an allocation was determined. Cut off from its only source of cash income amid its restructuring, Buccaneer had no choice but to file for protection, sources familiar with the company said. In bankruptcy filings for its parent and subsidiary companies, Buccaneer claimed combined assets of $50,000 to $500,000 and liabilities of between $50 million and $100
million. In a state Superior Court civil dispute between Buccaneer and CIRI paralleling the AOGCC case, the Native corporation sued for compensation over the gas drained from its land. On April 22, Judge Frank Pfiffner stayed a ruling on CIRI’s drainage claims until a decision is handed down by the commission or an agreement is reached between CIRI, Buccaneer, the Department of Natural Resources and the Mental Health Trust Land Office, which owns the Kenai Loop property adjacent to CIRI’s parcel. See FILE, page A-5