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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
AUGUST 24, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 279
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Ready for the next one
Court says CIRI can push for gas royalties
Agencies, K-Beach residents prepare for future flooding
By ELWOOD BREHMER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
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A federal South Texas Bankruptcy Court has ruled that Cook Inlet Region Inc. can continue its quest through the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for natural gas royalties from the state and Buccaneer Energy. Judge David Jones signed an agreement between CIRI, Buccaneer and creditors Aug. 18 to lift a stay the court had put in place on the Alaska commission proceedings while Buccaneer, its creditors and the court attempted to sort out the Houston-based independent’s bankruptcy. The agreement was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas Aug. 14. CIRI has been trying to get royalty payments from Buccaneer and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office through the AOGCC since early this year. Buccaneer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 31, a move that has slowed the AOGCC process, along with a parallel lawsuit CIRI filed in state court to recover its purported damages. A stay on the state lawsuit is still in place. CIRI Vice President of Land and Energy Development Ethan Schutt said the Southcentral region Alaska Native corporation owns 20 percent of the Kenai Loop gas field geologically that Buccaneer is producing from via an operating lease it has with the Mental Health Trust Land Office. CIRI owns property adjacent to the Mental Health Trust Land Office parcel. Buccaneer has two producing wells on its Kenai Loop pad, KL 1-1 and KL 1-3, that CIRI says are draining gas from its portion of the field. At one time Buccaneer and CIRI
By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Appreciating industry
Top: Richard Thompson, left, of Kenai, a United Cook Inlet Drift Association member, grills salmon with his father, Dan Thompson, for the crowd at Industry Appreciation Day Saturday on the green strip in Kenai. The event recognizes the contributions of area industries, including fishing, oil and gas, and tourism, to the community. Above: Glen Faulkner, right, and James Slone, center, work the cotton candy machine at the Hilcorp tent while Laura Favretto, left, hands out their wares. Left: Gabe Brower, right, 13, of Kenai, retrieves a fishing buoy while his brother, Joel, 14, watches at the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association booth. Photos by Will Morrow/Peninsula Clarion
About 10 months after the declared Kalifornsky Beach Road flood disaster, affected property owners gathered Tuesday at the Donald E. Gilman River Center to listen to officials from involved agencies about the event. State and Kenai Peninsula Borough staff who have been involved in the issue presented to the audience and held a discussion period in an effort to answer questions that primarily centered on drainage and concerns about future flooding. With residents concerned about future severe flooding, officials said if another flood event occurs, the area will be better prepared, due to the work that has been done. “In the event that we have this happen again, and, according to the hydrologist, it is going to happen again in the future, the same process will apply,” said Scott Walden, Borough Office of Emergency Management director. “If it’s groundwater, we’ll have everything ready.” The roadwork that has been done with culvert installation, ditching and restoration, will likely help in a future event, Walden said. The borough was also able to drain water into Karluk Basin, and with cooperation from the Department of Transportation and Public Affairs, the borough drilled a hole under K-Beach Road, which allowed for water to be pumped from the basin, Walden said. With that pipe already in place, during a future flood, the borough will
See GAS, page A-2
See FLOOD, page A-2
Soldotna officers lauded for actions By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Two Soldotna police officers were recognized on Aug. 13 for saving the life of a man who jumped into the Kenai River in June. Officers Derek Urban and Stephen Clary were presented with service medals from Soldotna Police Chief Peter Mlynarik who described their heroic actions at the Aug. 13 Soldotna City Council meeting.
‘Without the quick action of these officers the outcome would have surely been different possibly even deadly.’ — Soldotna Police Chief Peter Mlynarik On June 24 at 11:50 p.m., Urban and Clary responded to Soldotna Creek Park after someone reportedly found an apparent suicide note along with a man’s identification card
Today’s Clarion Rain 58/51 More weather on page A-12
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Inside ‘I’m hoping all this can die down and I can go back on with my life.’
on the park boardwalk. After a search of the area, a man matching the description of the ID was located at the stairs going down to the river. Mlynarik said from the offi-
At the Aug. 13 Soldotna City Council meeting, Soldotna Police Chief Peter Mlynarik presents medals to Officers Derek Urban and Stephen Clary for saving a man’s life. Mlynarik thanked the officers for their actions in rescuing the man from the Kenai River on June 24.
cer’s report, the man looked upset and yelled something to the officers then ran downstairs and jumped into the Kenai River. Urban ran over to where the man jumped in and called for him to come back. The man said he “wouldn’t want to go back into a cage and would rather die.” Urban removed his gear and went into the Kenai River and continued to talk with the man while Clary walked downstream to attempt to cut him
Photo courtesy Shellie Saner, Soldotna city clerk
See ACTION, page A-2
Adventurer completes Pacific crossing By MICHAEL ARMSTRONG Morris News Service-Alaska Homer News
She tried three times in three years, but after 3,700 miles, at 8 p.m. Aug. 14, British adven... See page A-6 turer Sarah Outen paddled her kayak, Krissy, up to the Homer Spit and finished a Pacific Check us out online at Ocean crossing from Japan to www.peninsulaclarion.com North America. To subscribe, call 283-3584. “It took a bit, a wee while,” Outen said. “I need some rest, sleep, beer, a haircut.” With her travelling companion Justine Curgenven, 40, the 29-year-old Outen finished the last leg, 1,300 miles in 101 days
from Adak in the Aleutian Islands. A small group met them on the beach by the Seafarers Memorial. Debbie Speakman, director of membership relations of the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, welcomed the women to Homer with a bottle of champagne. Outen now has traveled about 16,000miles, more than halfway on her London2London expedition, started April 1, 2011, under the Tower Bridge in London. Her goal is to circumnavigate the world with muscle power by bike and boat. Now resting back home in Oxfordshire, United KingC
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dom, Outen returns to Alaska later this month with her bike, Hercules. After landing, Outen tapped the statue at the Seafarers Memorial. She will resume her travels where she landed and bike across Canada and the United States to New York City. In 2015 she will finish her journey, rowing her boat, Happy Socks, across the Atlantic back to London. In 2011, Outen kayaked across the English Channel to Calais, France, and biked 10,000 miles across Europe and Asia to the Russian Far East. From there she kayaked to Japan. In 2012, she attempted to
row from Japan to Canada in Gulliver, a rowboat, but had to be rescued and abandoned her boat after she ran into a tropical storm. In 2013, she tried again in a new boat, Happy Socks. Winds and currents kept turning her in circles, and she rowed north to Alaska. “I hadn’t planned to go to Adak,” she said. “I kept getting pushed back with the wind.” Outen returned this year with Curgenven — “the Queen of sea kayaks,” Outen calls her — as her guide and companion. The longest kayak trip Outen had done before was 300 miles. See CROSS, page A-2