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Baghdad in turmoil as violence erupts
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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 226
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Kasilof setnets to open
Question Have you successfully negotiated the new roundabout on Binkley Street in Soldotna? n Yes, worked like a charm; n Yes, but it was not a good experience; n No, I’m avoiding it; n No, I just haven’t 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. C
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In the news HUD announces funding for Alaska homeless projects ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two homeless assistance projects in Alaska are recipients of a second round of federal grants to renew and expand services. Officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development say the $96,985 awarded Thursday are part of an additional $140 million going to almost 900 homeless projects nationwide. That’s in addition to nearly $3.49 million in funding awarded by HUD in April to 23 homeless projects in Alaska. That funding was part of $1.6 billion awarded by HUD to more than 7,100 programs across the country. The recipients of the latest Alaska funding are the Fairbanks-based Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living, which is receiving $60,249, and the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, which is receiving $36,736. The projects are under HUD’s “Continuum of Care” program.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-7 Sports.....................A-8 Comics................. A-14
Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Mesh length restrictions in place for some By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Peninsula Clarion
Above: Mike O’Brien stands between rows of the grafted apple trees packed inside the O’Brien Garden and Trees’ high tunnels, Friday, in Kenai. Below: Honey bees are unleashed every spring outside the high tunnels — the operation relies on both wild bumblebees and their own honey bees and other insects for most of its plant pollination.
Core
business By KELLY SULLIVAN and RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Inside the towering high tunnels’ at O’Brien Garden and Trees, are rows of meticulously sown trees, erupting with vibrant green leaves; the branches laden with the beginnings of this year’s fruit crop. See APPLES, page A-5
New green space for Kenai lot By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
With help from the Kenai community, a vacant corner lot will transform into a green space park this summer. The Kenai City Council allocated $5,000 toward the construction of a park at the corner of 4th Street and North Forest Drive. Kenai Mayor Pat Porter, who spearheaded the project, will receive contributions and labor from the Kenai Rotary Club and Home Depot to trans-
form a space that has traditionally been used a snow dump during the winter months. Porter said the street has a lot of pedestrian traffic and is a busy residential area. Residents have expressed concerns to the council that children sliding down snow hills in the winter come close to street traffic. “We will take that danger away and turn it into a green space with a walkway and make a great stopping-off place,” Porter said. “It will be a great place for sitting and watch the world
go by.” Community members have donated topsoil and volunteers will plant seeds for grass, Porter said. The rotary club will help build a pathway and install a bench while a team from Home Depot has agreed to build a fence in the back corner of the half-acre lot. Porter said volunteers will start work on the space and the grass could start growing by July. “We have great people in the community who care what the town looks like and are willing
to work to make it happen,” she said. During Wednesday’s council meeting, Kenai resident Bob Myles, who lives near in the park area, asked why they needed another park in the area when Municipal Park and 4th Street Park are both in the neighborhood. Porter said the park would reduce the danger of attracting kids close to the street, and is another way of beautifying the neighborhood. See PARK, page A-5
As sockeye salmon continue to slam into the Kasilof River, a portion of the commercial set gillnet fishery will get a chance to intercept salmon in the second largest escapement measured on the river. The opening is two days earlier than the first regularly scheduled season opening for the Kasilof portion of the set gillnet fishery — however provisions in its management plan allow Alaska Department of Fish and Game managers to open on or after June 20 if more than 50,000 sockeye have entered the Kasilof River. That goal was met and as of 8 a.m. Sunday. Nearly 82,000 sockeye salmon are estimated to have passed the Kasilof River sonar site, according to Fish and Game data. Despite having the regulatory authority to fish the setnetters and slow the flow of sockeye into the Kasilof — a river that exceeded its escapement goal by nearly 100,000 fish in 2013 — area management biologist Pat Shields said Fish and Game waited a few days to try and protect early-run king salmon bound for the nearby Kenai River. The early run of king salmon on the Kenai River was forecasted by Fish and Game to come in an about 2,230 fish — well below the lower end of the river’s escapement goal range of 5,300 - 9,000 fish. Management biologists announced a closure to sportfishing for early run Kenai king salmon in late February — eliminating the already-struggling six-week fishery. Kenai-bound king salmon can be found mixed in with Kasilof-bound sockeye salmon and some will likely be caught during the Kasilof setnet opening. See NETS, page A-5
Sikuliaq readies for ocean research MOLLY DISCHNER Morris New Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Next summer, there’ll be a new ship docking in Dutch Harbor and Nome on its way to the Arctic. But first, the research vessel Sikuliaq is headed to Honolulu for its inaugural research cruises. This summer, the 261-foot oceanographic research vessel will make its way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Panama Canal, stopping for testing and research along the way. By February 2015, it is expected to arrive in its homeport of Seward. The University of Alaska Fairbanks will operate the ship, but it is owned by the National Science Foundation, and scheduling research cruises is done in conjunction with the University National Oceanographic Labo-
ratory System, or UNOLS, said Dan Oliver, the marine superintendent at UAF’s Seward Marine Center. UAF took delivery of the ship June 6, almost 3 and a half years after fabrication began in January 2011. The total project cost was $200 million, including $123 million from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus bill) for the construction contract. Scientists will contract the ship at a cost of $44,000 per day, said UAF spokeswoman Sharice Walker. Annually, the operating costs are projected to be about $16 million, Walker said. The first research cruises will take off from Honolulu this fall. One is a 50-day look at the ocean floor at the western end of the Hawaiian Island chain in an effort to gauge the impacts of bottom trawling. The ship’s autonomous underwater vehicle and mapping systems will both
be used to look at three areas, about 300 to 600 meters deep — one where trawling is underway, one where trawling has never occurred, and one where trawling stopped 30 to 40 years ago. The goal is to compare the
bottom, and see how the former trawling site has recovered, Oliver said. The second will look at the geologic structure of the Hawaiian Jurassic basin, west of the Hawaiian Islands. That’s about
a 30-day trip, and will end in Guam, Oliver said. The research team will use the autonomous underwater vehicle, and conduct a magnetic survey at about 5,000 to 6,000 meters deep. But first, See SHIP, page A-5
Agency: Anchorage mayor broke campaign finance law ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A report from a state agency says Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan broke state law when he issued a campaign-related press release through his city spokeswoman last month. The Anchorage Daily News reports that a staff member with the Alaska Public Offices Commission is recommending a fine of $187.50. Sullivan is a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. His official mayoral spokeswoman issued an apologetic statement for comments he made at a candidate forum C
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equated laws requiring union membership and payment of union dues to slavery. According to the agency’s report, Sullivan said the news release did not advance his campaign and that it was responding to inquiries he had received from reporters in his official capacity. But the agency noted that the release was “not non-partisan information.” It said the statement identified the mayor as a candidate for lieutenant governor, restated his position on labor laws and aligned him with the Republican Party.