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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 245
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
First oil spill response drill planned near Nome
Question Should the City of Kenai regulate electronic cigarettes in restaurants and healthcare facilities the same as smoking tobacco? n Yes, they release toxins in the air n No, the vapor is less harmful than smoke n The city until more conclusive studies are complete. 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.
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In the news Coast Guard frees sailboat trapped in Arctic ice ANCHORAGE — The U.S. Coast Guard has freed a Canadian sailboat that became trapped in Arctic ice off the north coast of Alaska. KTUU-TV reports the 36-foot Altan Girl out of Vancouver was attempting to sail to eastern Canada through the Northwest Passage. It became trapped in ice 40 miles northeast of Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States. The Coast Guard cutter Healy reached the sailboat, and with the Altan Girl in tow, on Saturday cut a 12-mile path through ice to open water. The sailboat’s owner says he intends to wait in Barrow for better weather and to restock supplies. The Healy is on a National Science Foundationfunded research mission in the Arctic. The Coast Guard says the cutter is continuing with its research. — The Associated Press
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Sports.....................A-6 Classifieds............. A-8 Comics................. A-11 Pets......................A-12 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Photos by Dan Balmer/Peninsula Clarion
Above: Kenai police Sergeant Jay Sjogren warns boaters to slow down in the no wake zone area of the Kenai River during high tide Monday. Kenai Police work in coordination with the Kenai Fire Department patrolling the mouth of the Kenai River on a Central Emergency Services owned rigid hull inflatable boat. Below: Boaters dipnetting on the mouth of the Kenai River Monday in Kenai. Three buoys with a flashing light are activated when the tide reaches 20.5 feet high. The Kenai City Council passed the no wake zone ordinance in April.
No wake zone Kenai launches new enforcment boat
By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
With boat traffic around the mouth of the Kenai River nearing its summer peak, the City of Kenai has obtained a new rescue patrol boat that will prove to be a valuable addition to its arsenal. The Kenai Fire Department launched a 22-foot rigid hull red inflatable boat at the start of the Kenai River dipnet season to assist in the enforcement of the no wake zone ordinance for boaters along the VIP subdivision side of the river during high tide. When the tide reaches 20.5
feet high, a flashing light is activated on three buoys to inform boaters to slow down to five miles per hour through the area. The ordinance, passed in April by the Kenai City Council, came as a result of residents who voiced their concerns of bank erosion and property damage created from boat wakes through the milelong river channel the length of Watergate Way. Kenai Battalion Chief Tony Prior said the target area is patrolled only during high tide with one boat operator from the
fire department and two police officers on board for enforcement. On Monday, Kenai Fire Department boat operator Courtney Lehl, escort Kenai Police Sergeant Jay Sjogren and seasonal enforcement officer Gabe Boyle took to the river and reminded boaters of the new regulation. “Guys running fast on boats creates problems for people going upstream and downstream,” Prior said. “People are glad to see us out there because they know when you get that many people on See WAKE, page A-5
NOME (AP) — An oil spill response drill is set to take place at Port Clarence northwest of Nome on Wednesday in a region where industrial projects are proposed. Spill response company Alaska Chadux is among those participating in the exercise near Teller and Brevig Mission, KNOM reported. “It’s a new place for an exercise like this,” said Chadux general manager Matt Melton. “Obviously the remoteness of Nome and Teller and Brevig brings some different challenges.” The goal is to deploy equipment from Nome to Teller over the 72-mile road connecting the two communities. Participants will put deflection boom on the Port Clarence side to simulate a fuel spill and try to keep it out of Grantley Harbor, Melton said. Other participants are the Alaska Department of Conservation, and Gay Sheffield, a marine biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks marine advisory program. The conservation department considers the drill a small-scale version of a larger exercise the agency would like to try in a year. The idea is to get a better sense of how far or close stakeholders actually are in case of an industrial accident near the Bering Strait. Sheffield, who is volunteering to observe wildlife during Wednesday’s drill, said the exercise will help establish the degree of readiness in the region. “It’s a win-win: if the drill is a success then we’ll know we See DRILL, page A-5
States told to clear Man kills prowling bear Medicaid backlog By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
By JUDY LIN Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A half-dozen states with backlogs for Medicaid enrollees were facing a federal deadline Monday to create plans for getting those low-income residents enrolled in health coverage. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters dated June 27 to Alaska, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Tennessee asking those states to address gaps in their eligibility and enrollment systems that have delayed access to coverage for poor and disabled people. The letters were sent months after the first national sign-up drive under President Barack Obama’s health reform law. The letters stated that those states had 10 days to come up with a response plan, but health advocates say there is no clear deadline for actually clearing the backlog. The federal government “will remain in close contact with states to monitor their progress to ensure that they
are facilitating Medicaid enrollment for those individuals eligible,” agency spokeswoman Marilyn Jackson said in a statement. California had the largest backlog of 900,000 people in its Medicaid program as of May, out of 1.9 million people who enrolled. The state Department of Health Care Services reported that the backlog has been reduced to 600,000 as of Monday. “We’ve been proud of much of what California has done to implement health reform, but we’re fundamentally concerned about people who need care and can’t access it — people who are going without care, people who are getting medical bills even though they’re eligible for Medi-Cal — that’s all happening today,” said Elizabeth Landsberg, an advocate with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. California’s information technology problems stem from communication gaps between the state and county welfare See HEALTH, page A-5
A Sterling man killed a 9-foot brown bear with a pistol after the bear attempted to break into his home multiple times in the early morning of July 7. Jim Landess and his 17-year-old son Montana Landess awoke at about 3:30 a.m. to the sound of a brown bear knocking on his house on Bunno Road on the east edge of Sterling. “There was some loud banging on one of my windows in the first level and pounding on my walls which shook the whole house,” Landess wrote in an email. “My son was sleeping downstairs and stood up to be eyelevel with a 9-foot brown bear looking at him through the dinning room window.” Landess said he looked outside his upstairs window and saw the bear peaking over the bed of his pickup truck. He yelled at the bear and his dog barked, which caused the bear to run into the woods. Landess said he walked C
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Photo submitted by Jim Landess
Sterling resident Jim Landess kneels next to the 9-foot brown bear he killed after it attempted to break into his house on July 7.
into the woods and told his son to keep an eye on the bear so he could grab a gun from his truck. While he went to get a gun outside, the bear circled around to the end of his driveway and started to walk back toward him. Both Landess and his son shot a couple rounds off and the bear scattered back into the woods. “We went back inside assuming this was just a routine
of scaring off another bear as we do almost every summer,” he said. After going to bed for the night, Landess received an early morning wake up call from the bear. At about 6 a.m. he heard more banging in front of the house as the bear attempted to get inside. “I couldn’t believe that it came back,” he said. See BEAR, page A-5