Peninsula Clarion, July 09, 2014

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Spicy

Goals

Brazilian cooking is hot, hot, hot

Germany thumps host team Brazil

Food/B-1

Sports/A-8

CLARION

Showers 61/51 More weather on Page A-2

P E N I N S U L A

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska

Vol. 44, Issue 240

50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday

City capital budget up for review

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.

By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion

In the news State announces new absentee voting sites

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JUNEAU (AP) — The number of absentee voting locations is expected to more than double over 2012 for this year’s elections. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell’s office says at least 123 new locations are being added. The deadline for new sites to be approved was the close of business Tuesday. Treadwell, in a release, said the new locations, along with a new online system for returning ballots, should make ballots for this year’s elections “the most widely available in state history.” The Division of Elections, which Treadwell oversees, worked with ANCSA Regional Association and the Alaska Federation of Natives in securing the new sites.

NTSB find misrigged control on plane that crashed ANCHORAGE (AP) — Federal investigators have found that elevator cables on a plane that crashed in Anchorage last week, killing the pilot, weren’t connected correctly. A preliminary report on the crash says the 1947 Piper PA-12’s elevator controls were reversed, meaning the plane would dive if ordered to pull up and vice versa. This finding matched witness accounts that said the plane made a steep climb before pivoting to a nose-down position before hitting the ground July 2. KTUU reports the preliminary report of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the Merrill Field crash that killed 61-year-old Charles Hancock of Anchorage was released late Monday.

Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-8 Police reports....... A-10 Food...................... B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-8 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.

Photos by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell addresses the audience Tuesday during a joint Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce luncheon at the Soldotna Regional Sports Center.

Taking care of the bills 11 measures become law at bill signing By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell signed 11 bills into law during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. A large crowd attended the luncheon to hear Gov. Parnell’s speech and witness the signing of several laws ranging the legislative gamut from worker’s compensation and medical malpractice issues to cattle brand registration, fishery resource landing taxes, and commercial crewmember licenses. Parnell has made a tour of the state in the last few weeks signing bills in Juneau, Wasilla, Anchorage and Fairbanks — a tradition that, in part, brings issues decided in Juneau back to the constituents

Parnell signed 11 bills into law Tuesday during a joint chamber luncheon at the Soldotna Regional Sports Center.

affected by them. “We passed, what, 118 bills this session? Most people have no idea what happened. They know the big ones ... but beyond that, most people don’t

know what has been passed,” he said during a post-luncheon interview. Before he signed any of the bills, Parnell spoke about progress on the Alaska Gas Pipeline

Project which is in the preFEED, or pre-front-end engineering and design, phase. North Slope producers ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and BP, pipeline company TransCanada and the state, have agreed to invest up to $500 million into the phase — a first for the state, Parnell said. “No project has developed to this stage with all the necessary parties,” Parnell said during the post-lunch interview. For the next 12-18 months, the pipeline project will be negotiated and developed before being brought back to legislators. The advancement of the pipeline project heralds a larger oil and gas development upswing in the state, Parnell said during the luncheon, one that will require a skilled workforce. See BILLS, page A-12

The city of Soldotna is proposing a capital budget with significant attention to downtown improvement projects aimed at community identity. New light pole banners, landscaping improvements and two gateway signs are among the beautification projects in the city’s fiscal year 2015 capital budget. The final draft will be introduced at Wednesday’s council meeting, and the final list of capital projects will be open for public comment on July 23. Promoting downtown development was determined to be the highest priority goal from the Economic Development section of Envision Soldotna 2030 Comprehensive Plan, according to the document. The projects for this fiscal year were identified by the public, city administration, or council based on current needs or opportunities, said Stephanie Queen, Director of Economic Development and Planning. “The capital budget is a way to annually implement highpriority city projects,” Queen said. “Many projects on the list were identified as goals in one of the city’s various planning documents, such as the Comprehensive Plan or Recreation and Trails Master Plan.” This year’s proposed budget is $1.45 million to be appropriated to the city’s General Fund. In previous years the operating budget and capital budget were in the same ordinance, but this year the two were taken on individually said Kyle Kornelis, City Engineer. By looking at the two budgets separately, an emphasis See CITY, page A-12

Buccaneer bankruptcy slows gas fight with CIRI By ELWOOD BREHMER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce

A dispute over natural gas rights and royalties is on hold as the producer works out its finances in a South Texas Bankruptcy Court. Representatives for Houstonbased Buccaneer Energy, Cook Inlet Region Inc. and the State of Alaska convened at the Alas-

ka Oil and Gas Conservation Commission office in Anchorage Monday for what ended up being a very brief hearing in the fight over gas Buccaneer is producing from its Kenai Loop field to which CIRI says it has a right. The Southcentral Native corporation claims Buccaneer owes royalties for gas the company pulled from CIRI land that is adjacent to the Kenai Loop

pad. Buccaneer once held a now-terminated gas lease with for the CIRI property. It does not dispute that the drainage is occurring from two of the three wells, KL-1 and KL-3, on the Kenai Loop pad. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority also owes it money, CIRI says, for the royalties the authority has received from Buccaneer that stemmed from draining CIRI’s gas. The

Alaska Mental Heath Trust Authority owns the Kenai Loop property that Buccaneer is leasing. CIRI is having its subsurface rights violated as gas is being pulled from beneath its property by the KL-1 and KL-3 wells without a pooling agreement in place, it argues. CIRI Vice President of Land and Energy Development Ethan Schutt said during an April

hearing on the issue that nearly 8 million cubic feet of gas per day is being produced by the wells. Buccaneer once had a gas lease for the CIRI land that was terminated by the Native corporation for undisclosed reasons. AOGCC chair Cathy Foerster said the commission would not rule on the conflict until a stay put in place on Buccaneer See GAS, page A-12

Board approves site for Man sentenced for shooting Kachemak Selo school ANCHORAGE (AP) — where he was a nationally beard and thinning gray hair, By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion

With the approval of a recommended site, the village of Kachemak Selo is one step closer to seeing a new schoolhouse. The next step is funding. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education approved a site for a proposed new Kachemak Selo School at its Monday meeting. Selecting a site will improve

the chances of receiving grant funding from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development for the estimated $16 million project based on a 18,599-square-foot-building, said Kevin Lyon, director of the borough Capital Projects Department. “Because we’ve found a site, so obviously our plan is more formed so we’ll get … additional planning points,” Lyon said.

An Alaska man was sentenced Tuesday to four consecutive life terms in the 2012 shooting deaths of two co-workers at a Coast Guard communications station that mystified an island community for nearly a year before an arrest was made. Prosecutors had contended that James Wells resented the growing influence of the two victims at the rigger shop

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recognized antenna expert. They said Wells meticulously planned an alibi, sneaked onto the station and gunned the men down. A federal jury found the 63-year-old Wells guilty in April after a 19-day trial. On Tuesday, he maintained that he had nothing to do with the shootings on Alaska’s Kodiak Island. Wells, sporting a long white

made his comments after the widows of the victims spoke. Both women said Wells had destroyed their lives and the lives of their families. In the circumstantial case, it took a jury only one day to find him guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder, murder of an officer or employee of the United States, and possession of a firearm in a crime of violence.


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