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Cheese!
Cheerio
Pooch happy to pose for photos
Tour wraps up England stages
Pet Tails/A-14
Sports/A-6
CLARION
Sun, showers 64/52 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 239
Question Do you plan to participate in one of the Peninsula’s dipnet fisheries? n Yes n No n I’m going to wait and see 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.
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Stay calm: T-shirts net $2,500 Funds to benefit emergency services charities By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Brad Nelson knows social media and as the Funny River Horse Trail wildfire spread, his name became synonymous with frequent, rapid updates spreading on Facebook. During the two-week period when the fire was most active near communities on the central Kenai Peninsula, the Borough Health and Safety Officer’s reputation became the impetus for a series of T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Keep Calm and Wait for an Update from Brad Nelson.” Proceeds from the sale of those T-shirts were presented on Monday to
‘I was surprised by the first-day volume. That first day, the phone would not stop ringing. We have two lines and people were still leaving messages.’ — Daniell Stynsberg Central Emergency Services. The Kenai-based commercial radio station, KSRM, designed the shirt, which was sold for charity through GAMAS Designs in Soldotna. The limited run of the T-shirt is over and former GAMAS manager Daniell Stynsberg presented Brad Nelson and Dan
Nelson, board president for Emergency Services Inc., with a check for $2,500. At $13 dollars donated for each shirt, GAMAS sold 189 of the Funny River wildfire tees. “I was surprised by the firstday volume,” she said. “That first day, the phone would not See SHIRT, page A-8
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Daniell Stynsberg presents a check for $2,500 in proceeds from a T-shirt commemorating the Funny River Horse Trail Wildfire fighting efforts to Dan Nelson and Brad Nelson Monday at the Central Emergency Services administration building in Soldotna.
Deaths mar holiday
In the news Woman mauled by brown bear
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ANCHORAGE (AP) — A jogger who came upon two bear cubs on a trail south of Anchorage said she was attacked by the mother bear Monday. Alaska State Troopers say Susanne Knudsen, 59, of Indian was taken to an Anchorage hospital for treatment of injuries that were not considered life threatening. Knudsen told troopers she was jogging on a trail in Chugach State Park when two brown bear cubs came out of the brush in front of her. She said she was hit from behind by the sow. She used her cellphone to call for help Monday morning and a group of all-terrain vehicle riders happened upon her soon after. Troopers said a group of riders, in the parking lot when the trooper arrived, lent the responding trooper an ATV and the riders helped bring Knudsen down the trail. Jessy Coltrane, Anchorage area wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said vegetation along the trail is about 5 feet tall, and it appeared Knudsen had surprised the bears. She said there are typically a lot of bears in that area, where two years ago, there was also a mauling on the trail. Coltrane said troopers were wrong in identifying the trail as the Penguin Ridge Trail. She said Monday’s attack occurred on Bird Creek Trail.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-6 Classifieds............. A-9 Comics................. A-13 Pet Tails............... A-14 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Troopers respond to accidents near Anchor Point, Seward By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Photo by Will Morrow/Peninsula Clarion
New Habitat for Humanity homeowner Crystal Stonecipher, left, chats with Ramon and Eduviges Carreon at a groundbreaking event in Kenai on June 14. The Carreons recently paid off the mortgage on their Habitat home, which they moved into in 1995.
Building for the future
Construction begins on new Habitat for Humanity home By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Sawdust sprayed into the 66-degree air around Bill Radtke and Nathon Stonecipher as they sliced into a thick strip of wood. After the whirring table saw blade was turned off, the two men paused in their work for a water break. In a pair of dark reflective sunglasses, Stonecipher sipped from a water bottle on the property of his soon-to-be home. Behind him a rectangular cement foundation jutted up from the ground. On Saturday, framing work began on this year’s Central Peninsula Habitat for Humanity home on Second Avenue in
‘It would not have been possible for us for a long time if this hadn’t happened.’ — Crystal Stonecipher
Stonecipher will move into the home with his wife, Crystal Stonecipher, and her three children, Rebecca Trickel, Charles Trickel and Destin Trickel. “I love everything about it,” Stonecipher said. “Pouring the concrete has been my favorite part of construction so far. It finalizes that it’s actually happening.”
New family, new home The Stoneciphers married last January Kenai. By Thanksgiving the foundation after dating for five months. The couple Stonecipher was overlooking will evolve decided early on in their relationship they into a three-bedroom house, said Bill wanted to start saving up for a house. The couple was selected to receive this Radtke, board member for the Central Peninsula Habitat for Humanity. See HOME, page A-8
Two separate accidental deaths on the Kenai Peninsula put a damper on the Fourth of July weekend. A Wasilla woman died in an all-terrain vehicle accident Friday in Anchor Point. On Saturday, a Houston man was found dead at the bottom of a 100foot cliff in Seward after Alaska State Troopers attempted to contact him earlier in the evening for failure to yield while on a mini four-wheeler. Shelby Caven, 23, was driving the ATV with a passenger, 22-year-old Jaclyne Schachle of Wasilla, along Whiskey Gulch beach Friday at about 6:20 p.m. when the accident was reported to troopers. Caven, who was camping nearby, attempted to cross the mouth of Stariski Creek when she struck the south side of the creek bottom, which caused the ATV to flip forward and tip over. The impact caused Caven to hit the handlebars with her chest, while Schachle was sitting behind her, trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said. Caven initially stood up following the crash but then collapsed into the water. Schachle suffered minor injuries from the accident. Fellow ATV riders See MAR, page A-8
Senate Democrats: Obamacare? What’s that? By CHARLES BABINGTON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has her Republican opponent right where she wants him geographically — and, therefore, politically. Thom Tillis is stuck at the state capitol trying to resolve a budget quarrel as speaker of the North Carolina House. It’s
a spot that helps Hagan emphasize Tillis’ role leading a Republican-controlled state government that Democrats contend has gone overboard with conservative zeal by restricting access to abortion and the voting booth while cutting corporate taxes and slashing spending on schools. If Tillis is worried by Hagan’s portrayal, he doesn’t show it. Drinking coffee this past week
from a hand-grenade-shaped mug in his no-frills legislative office, he’s got his own message in his campaign to take Hagan’s Senate seat. “Obamacare,” he said, “continues to be a big problem.” Similar themes are playing out in other crucial Senate races, as voters have four months to decide which party will control the chamber in the final two years of Barack Obama’s presiC
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dency. For Republicans, it’s all about tying Democrats to Obama — especially to a health care law that remains unpopular with many Americans. And for Democrats, the election is about just about anything else, especially if they can steer attention away from Washington and federal matters. It’s a political strategy that sometimes gives the campaigns an inside-out feel, with veteran
senators running as if they were first-timers without a Washington resume to defend or tout. Democrat Mark Pryor has represented Arkansas in the Senate for two terms, yet one of his TV ads begins with a man saying, “I remember when Pryor was attorney general.” A woman adds that he pursued “scam artists that were ripping off seniors.” See VOTE, page A-8