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Rain 62/51 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 262
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Upper Kobuk oral history being recorded
Question Do you think additional enforcement in area fisheries this season has been effective? n Yes n No 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 ANNA ROSE MACARTHUR KNOM Radio
In the news Juneau police seek information on vandalism
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JUNEAU — Juneau police are seeking help in identifying suspects in the vandalism of a local middle school. Police say the suspects were caught on surveillance camera, but since they’re minors, police are not releasing those pictures. Instead, the department is asking adults who know the children who live near the school for their help. Police also would like for parents to ask their kids about the case. Police say five or six kids between seven and 13 years old are believed to have been involved in blowing up cans of body spray behind the school on July 26. Police say the kids also are suspected of damaging a window to get into the school, where a vending machine was pried open and snacks were taken. — The Associated Press
Inside ‘We’ve caused substantial damage to this network to an extent where we’ve basically taken this huge threat and made it minimal.’ ... See page A-5
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Biking in the rain
Chad Arthur (left) bikes with his kids, Erika Arthur, 11, Andrew Arthur, 8, and Kellie Arthur, 13, during a rainstorm Sunday in Kenai. Chad Arthur said the group was headed to Don Jose’s restaurant.
NOME, Alaska — For the first time, centuries-old fishing knowledge from the Upper Kobuk River is being recorded. The knowledge that is in us, in our brains, has not ever been written,” said Virginia Commack, tribe manager for the Native Village of Ambler, “not even the elders, we learned it from, which is like 500 plus years old. I’d say it’s a 1,000 or more years knowledge that we’ve never been able to write down to pass onto our children.” Commack said the transcriptions will contain holistic traditional fishing knowledge: how to harvest and process fish, how to observe fish habitats and populations, and how to safeSee HISTORY, page A-8
Campaign signs stolen around Soldotna By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
As political signs pop up around the Central Kenai Peninsula signaling that election season is in full swing, some Soldotna residents are noticing what they believe to be is the systematic removal of the advertisements. Mary Toutonghi said whoever is illegally taking the signs is targeting democratic candidates and legislature.
‘We don’t want to have to go so far as to prosecute, but it does qualify as vandalism.’ — Mary Toutonghi, Soldotna resident They are also being taken from private property, she said. “It needs to stop,” Toutonghi said. “We don’t want to have to go so far as to pros-
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ecute, but it does qualify as vandalism.” Richard Waisanen said he has been helping place signs around the city for about a month. The first to be removed
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were knocked over and piled nearby from where they were erected at the Soldotna “Y.” Waisanen said that when installing political signs within the city it is important to be aware of the size of the right-of-ways bordering the city’s streets. They range between three and 30 feet, he said. Waisanen said he checked with the city to make sure it was not them removing the signs, and that they were prop-
erly posting them outside of the right-of-ways. The Planning and Zoning department said they have not touched the signs. Toutonghi, Frank Mullen and Megan Lacross reported a number of signs were stolen including nonaffiliated candidate Eric Treider for Senate District O, Vote Yes on Ballot Measure 1 to repeal Senate Bill 21, Sen. Mark Begich DAlaska, and Democrat Byron See SIGNS, page A-8
Two Nikiski candidates 20 14 running for District 29 By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories looking at area candidates for the Alaska Legislature.
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The Alaska Redistricting Board alPolitical newcomer Rocky Knudsen, a tered the boundaries for District 28, which Democrat from Nikiski, is running against Chenault currently represents, and renumHouse Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, bered it to District 29. for the District 29 House of Representatives seat. Both names will appear on the ballot Mike Chenault for the Aug. 19 Primary Election. Chenault, 57, was first elected to the
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things happening at the state level in Kenai, but I wasn’t seeing those same developments going on in North Kenai.” Chenault said, like many other newly elected officials, he thought he would “change the world,” but found it’s a slow process. “You just have to be persistent,” he Rocky Mike said. Knudsen Chenault Chenault is vice-president of Qwick Construction Company and as a businesshouse in 2000. man, he said it was challenging to adjust “I ran (in 2000) simply because … I to the deliberative process. didn’t feel that Nikiski was getting good See RACE, page A-8 representation,” he said. “I was seeing
State buys land for vet cemetery Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-6 Classifieds............. A-9 Comics................. A-14
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By WESTON MORROW Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
FAIRBANKS — After years of searching and one false start, the state has purchased land it says will become the location for the Interior’s first veterans’ cemetery. The Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs announced Thursday it has purchased 320 acres of land in Fox. The land is located about two miles down Goldstream Road on the west side of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline on a hilltop looking south, according to the department. The state purchased the lot from John and Ramona Reeves,
paying them $2 million for the land. The Legislature allocated the money for the purchase. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will foot the bill for the cemetery’s construction, having promised $9 million to ensure the graveyard meets the standards of the VA’s other national cemeteries, according to Kalei Rupp, a spokesperson for Military and Veterans Affairs. The Fox cemetery will be the third veterans’ cemetery in the state and the first in the Interior. The department already operates veterans’ cemeteries in Southeast Alaska in Sitka and in Southcentral on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson
outside Anchorage. Rep. David Guttenberg said he’s delighted the state finally can begin work on land to give veterans in the Interior a final resting place nearby. “I think it’s a long time coming,” the Fairbanks Democrat said. “Even before I started working on it there was a need for it.” Guttenberg brought the idea before the Legislature in 2009, and the state believed it had found a suitable location last year. That location, a 40-acre plot off Gold Mine Trail, was later deemed unfit for the cemetery because of permafrost. After the first location was See VETS, page A-8 C
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Stylin’
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Jerami Youngblood, of Homer, gets his hair teased by Allyson Novy, of Anchorage during the 4th annual Salmonstock music festival Saturday in Ninilchik. For a photo slideshow of the weekend’s festivities, visit www.peninsulaclarion.com