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Jazz
Fish on!
Peninsula musician branches out
Sockeye, anglers rush to the Russian
Arts & Entertainment/B-1
Tight Lines/A-10
CLARION
Cloudy 58/47 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 229
Question Do you buy Alaska Grown produce? n Yes, that’s a selling point for me. n I do if it’s the best price or best quality available. n It’s not a priority for me. 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.
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
DOT shares highway study progress Agency lists preferred options for Sterling Highway safety corridor By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
How many lanes should there be? How should the lanes be divided? What are environmental concerns? Is lighting an option? How much room is available for a pathway? Where should turn lanes be included? Those are a few of the questions officials working on an Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Sterling Highway Safety Corridor Study are working to answer. And DOT&PF is looking to the public for feedback to help select the best option to increase safety and mobility to the 11.5-mile stretch of highway between Soldotna and Sterling. At meetings in Soldotna and Sterling this week DOT&PF shared its Decision Document for the Sterling Highway Safety Corridor Study, which explores highway lane alternatives between Mile
82.5 and Mile 94. “The document will stay in draft form until after the meeting(s) and depending on what we hear, we may make some changes,” said Anne Brooks, public involvement coordinator. The department also identified its preferred option and ruled out two alternatives for road construction. Aside from doing nothing, the document identifies five alternatives for the highway:
A) 4-lane divided with a 30-foot depressed median; B) 4-lane divided with two-way leftturn lane or raised median; C) 2-lane divided with 30-foot depressed median; D) 2-lane divided with 30-foot depressed median with alternating passing lanes; E) 4-lane divided with a 2-foot concrete barrier.
CIFF ordered to pay court costs
In the news Groups ask to have yellow cedar listed
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ANCHORAGE (AP) — Four conservation groups have petitioned the Interior Department to list an iconic Alaska tree as threatened or endangered because of climate change. Yellow cedar for centuries has been carved by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people for canoe paddles and totem poles. They could remove a lengthwise strip of bark from a living tree to use for weaving baskets and hats, and as backing in blankets because the trees can compartmentalize the damage and heal themselves. Yellow cedar can resist insects and rot and live more than 1,000 years but their shallow roots are vulnerable to freezing. In a paper published in 2012, U.S. Forest Service researchers concluded that climate warming has meant less snow, and less insulation for the ground. Elevated mortality began around 18801890 and peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the study. Across 781 square miles of Alaska’s Panhandle, more than 70 percent of yellow cedar trees have died because of root freeze induced by climate change, according to the petition.
See STUDY, page A-7
By Molly Dischner Morris News Service-Alaska/ Alaska Journal of Commerce
Photo by Dan Balmer/Peninsula Clarion
A 16-year-old girl on a motorbike was struck by a white Chevy truck when she attemped to cross Kalifornsky Beach Road between VIP Drive and Bowpicker Lane Wednesday at about 2:30 p.m. in Kenai. Alaska State Troopers said the girl sustained non-life threatening injuries and was transported to Central Peninsula Hospital. The minor was wearing a helmet, but troopers said she did not look before she crossed the street.
Teen injured in traffic collision By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A 16-year-old girl riding a motorbike sustained non-life threatening injuries after a truck hit her when she attempted to cross Kalifornsky Beach Road Wednesday afternoon. Alaska State Troopers and Central Emergency Services responded to the accident at about 2:30 p.m. on K-Beach Road between VIP Drive and
Bowpicker Lane. Trooper Ronny Simmons said the girl was headed southbound with a 17-year-old boy on a motorbike when she crossed the street in front of a white Chevy pickup. The truck wasn’t able to stop in time and struck the bike, he said. “All eyewitness reports conclude she didn’t stop or look and came out in front of the pickup,” Simmons said. The driver of the truck, Luke
Demientieff, did not suffer any injuries. The truck sustained minor damage to the front end and was towed because it leaked fluid, Simmons said. The girl was wearing a helmet. CES Health and Safety officer Brad Nelson said the girl was conscious and talking while CES paramedics transported her to Central Peninsula Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Simmons said the girl suf-
fered a broken leg. Alaska Department of Transportation crews are in the process of constructing a pathway on the Cook Inlet side of Kalifornsky Beach Road. Simmons said the girl came off a trail on WestWay Road and attempted to cross from one trail to another. Reach Dan Balmer at daniel.balmer@peninsulaclarion. com.
ANCHORAGE — A judge ruled Wednesday that a commercial fishing group should pay part of the State’s cost for the lawsuit regarding management of the Cook Inlet salmon fisheries in 2013. Alaska Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi issued an order asking Cook Inlet Fisherman’s Fund to pay the state Department of Law $12,924. That amount was 20 percent of what the state spent defending itself in the fisheries management lawsuit, according to a Department of Law memo filed with the court June 18. 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 that year and caused harm to commercial fishermen. Guidi denied a preliminary injunction that summer. After hearing oral argument May 29, Guidi granted the state’s motion for summary judgment June 2. He wrote in his final decision that there was See CIFF, page A-2
Correction In a photo accompanying a June 19 Business page article called “Odie’s ownership stays local” Odie’s employee Ruairi Tuite’s name was misspelled. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Business................ A-5 Nation/World.......... A-6 Tight Lines........... A-10 Sports.....................A-8 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-8 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Potters guild lease terminated over insurance issues By DAN BALMER and RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
ing the eviction including that the kilns used for making pottery could not be fired, members of the public were barred from entering the potters guild space and that the arts guild would file legal action to evict potters guild members if the terms of the lease termination were not met. “Their activities put our own insurance at risk,” Kashi said. “It is unfortunate it had to happen this way. We are surprised and sorry to see them go.” Laura Feo, president of the potters guild, said the art guild never made an attempt to inform them of their decision ahead of time. “(Kashi) handed us an eviction letter and ordered the kilns to be shut down,” she said. “We have complied with everything thrown at us and we still haven’t been given a straight answer.”
After 41 years in the same space, the Kenai Potters Guild is homeless. The guild shared a space with the Peninsula Art Guild at the Kenai Fine Arts Center in Old Town. However, the art guild board voted unanimously to remove the potters guild at a May 30 meeting after questions arose over the building’s insurance coverage and whether the potters guild was, or could be, included in that coverage. Potters guild members were evicted with the notice that the art guild’s insurance did not and would not cover the potters guild and that lack of coverage could cause the City of Kenai to terminate the building lease, according to a resolution from the Peninsula Art Guild board. In a letter to the potters guild Insurance dated June 6, Peninsula Art Guild secretary Joe Kashi listed The issue of insurance covseveral conditions accompany- erage for the potters guild went
The brick gas-fired kiln inside the Kenai Potter’s Guild is pictured. The Peninsula Art Guild terminated the lease of the potters guild after an insurance inspection found the studio uninsurable. The space will need to be cleared out by September 30. Photo by Dan Balmer/ Peninsula Clarion
unnoticed for many years until the art center looked into prospective liability insurance at the request of the potters guild, a separate entity of the arts center, Kashi said. It is unclear when communication between the art guild and its insurance company resulted in a revelation that the potters C
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guild would not be covered. Kashi said he was told via emails that potters guild would not be covered, however neither Kashi nor the insurance company would provide the emails said to contain that assessment. When asked to provide emails verifying that the art guild’s insurance company
would not cover the potters guild, Kashi said he was going through his emails from the insurance broker and that “they equivocate a little bit,” and that the insurance company told him that they would decide whether the potters guild would be covered after a claim had occurred, “which is no good for anybody,” he said. Kashi provided fully redacted copies of emails exchanged between himself, a State Farm Insurance agent and an agent at Walters & Associates and Peninsula Art Guild board president Shauna Thornton. However, the content of those emails is unreadable. Kashi said board members for the Kenai Fine Arts Center were shown the emails before they voted unanimously to evict the potters guild from the shared building. The potters guild has since received five insurance quotes for its operations, said potters guild treasurer Karen Momell. See GUILD, page A-7