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Fish on!
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Tight Lines/A-12
Arts & Entertainment/B-1
CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 235
Bed tax stirs lively debate
Question Do you think municipal officials should be exempt from state financial disclosure rules in favor of local ordinances? n Yes n No
Assembly amends proposed ordinance
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 KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Lodge, hotel, motel and bed and breakfast owners, representatives of interested organizations as well as general members of the public from throughout the Kenai Peninsula Borough presented polarized views on a proposed boroughwide bed tax. The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, at its Tuesday meeting, held a public hearing on a proposed ordinance that, if passed, would ask voters on Oct. 7 if a 4 percent bed tax should be implemented. The Kenai Peninsula Tourism
In the news
Pilot dies in Merrill Field airplane crash
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ANCHORAGE (AP) — Authorities have released the identity of the pilot who died when his Piper PA-12 crashed Wednesday morning at Merrill Field in Anchorage. Anchorage police say in a release the victim was 61-year-old Charles Hancock of Anchorage. A National Transportation Safety Board investigator tells KTVA that the plane crashed on a runway that runs parallel to 5th Avenue. The pilot appeared to have made contact with the tower before crashing after takeoff. Witnesses to the crash are asked to contact the NTSB.
Murkowski announces Alaska communications director JUNEAU (AP) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski has a new communications director for Alaska. Karina Petersen fills the job left vacant when Andrea Gusty left earlier this year. She will be based in Anchorage. Murkowski’s office says Petersen was born and raised in Alaska and most recently worked as the media relations coordinator for the international relief organization Samaritan’s Purse. Petersen previously worked for KTVA in Anchorage.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Business................ A-5 Nation/World.......... A-8 Sports.....................A-9 Tight Lines........... A-12 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-8
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Marketing Council is currently funded at $300,000 annually to promote tourism in the borough. If the tax passes and the borough continues to use the agency to market the borough, KPTMC would no longer request the yearly funding. According to the ordinance, bed tax in the cities would go back to the cities. Molly Poland, owner of Hooligans Lodging and Saloon in Soldotna, is against the proposed tax. “I think this is the wrong direction to go; to start taxing people as they come in is going to have a negative (effect),” she said. See TAX, page A-11
Parnell: Pipeline agreement signed By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
Water hazard
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Water encroaches on a horse barn Wednesday on Buoy Avenue near the Kalifonsky Meadow Subdivision in Kenai. Several homes in the neighborhood have been struggling with groundwater flooding issues since last fall.
JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell says an agreement has been signed that allows for the next stage in pursuing a major liquefied natural gas project. Parnell says environmental field work and pipeline engineering have begun as part of a phase in which the parties are expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. There’s still no guarantee the mega-project will be built, but Parnell called the agreement
and work underway a mark of significant progress. The parties involved are BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corp., TransCanada Corp., and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. ConocoPhillips was previously a holdout to signing because of issues the company said were confidential. A spokeswoman said those issues have been resolved. Parnell said the project, in the coming weeks, will work to begin the process of securing an export license.
Lacking sea ice, seal pups bask on beaches NOME, Alaska (AP) — An early disappearance of sea ice after a warm winter off Nome and other western Alaska communities has prompted an uptick in seal pups coming ashore. More than 20 pups have been spotted on Nome beaches this year, KNOM-radio reported Tuesday. Other molting pups have been seen at Wales, Teller and Shaktoolik. Residents expected more seals with the early departure of ice, and there’s been a “little flurry” with a few more pups than normal, said Gay Sheffield, marine advisory program agent in Nome for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Animals are just figuring
out what do to,” she said. Most of the sightings have been ringed or spotted seals, she said. Seal pups are born covered with lanugo, a white, wooly coat. They leave the water to get into sun as fur grows in. With less sea ice, some choose to come ashore. “They’re weaned after about two weeks to a month and then the mother is done with them — they’re left to fend for themselves,” said Brandon Ahmasuk, subsistence program director at Kawerak Inc., the Alaska Native regional nonprofit corporation. “That’s just the nature of the animal. Unfortunately for the seals, this year,
we had an early spring and the ice took off.” The seals are exhibiting natural behavior, Sheffield said. Wildlife officials don’t want people feeding them or trying to put them back into the ocean, she said, and the young seals have been left alone to molt. “People gave them space to do it,” she said. Sheffield and Ahmasuk are documenting reported pups for signs of disease. All have been reported healthy. Four types of ice-dependent seals — bearded, ringed, spotted AP Photo/University of Alaska Fairbanks, Gay Sheffield and ribbon seals — are found in the Bering Strait region. All A spotted seal pup suns itself along Nome Harbor on May 30 in are protected under the Marine Nome, Alaska. Nome residents report seeing more seal pups on shore this year with an early disappearance of sea ice. Mammal Protection Act.
Kenai man arrested Concern raised with direction on sex abuse charge of alcohol regulatory board By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Alaska State Troopers arrested a Kenai man in Anchorage on sex abuse charges Tuesday, culminating a two-week investigation by law enforcement. Keith Roscoe Bartman, 30, is in custody at Anchorage Correctional Complex and is charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second-degree, attempted sexual abuse of a minor in the seconddegree and failure to register as a sex offender.
The Alaska Bureau of Investigation with cooperation from the Anchorage Police Department made the arrest as a result of a two-week investigation initiated by troopers from the Soldotna detachment, said trooper spokesperson Beth Ipsen. Ipsen said the alleged acts happened at a residence in Kenai between February and May. “We don’t believe there are other victims besides the one that he’s been charged with,” Ipsen wrote in an email. According to the trooper’s
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — A former director of the agency that regulates Alaska’s liquor industry said interference by the state commerce commissioner’s office limited her ability to effectively do her job. Shirley Cote expressed concern about the direction of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in an opinion piece published Wednes-
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day in the Anchorage Daily News. She recently stepped down from the post she held for over five years, a decision largely aimed at helping her daughter with her business, she wrote. But she said there were “instances of interference” by the commissioner’s office, including having a request to attend a conference put on hold until she produced a “business friendly plan” for the board. Commerce Commissioner
Susan Bell challenged that characterization, providing a chain of emails between deputy JoEllen Hanrahan and Cote from April about the travel and plan requests. In one message, Hanrahan requested an outreach plan “focused on education and assistance to the business community rather than primarily enforcement.” In a later message, she said the perception has been that the board needs See BOARD, page A-11