C
M
Y
K
Moving
Crash
Students get settled in new UAS dorm
Stewart’s return to racing ends early
Schools/B-1
Sports/A-7
CLARION
Sunshine 62/49 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 286
Asking for changes
Question Do you, or does someone in your family, hunt? n Yes n No
Setnetters, others seek adjustments to Cook Inlet fishery regulations
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 MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service-Alaska Alaska Journal of Commerce
In the news Aftershocks follow 5.1 quake
C
M
Y
K
FAIRBANKS — Aftershocks continue to rattle interior Alaska after a 5.1-magnitude earthquake Saturday night. The Fairbanks News-Miner reports that aftershocks of 4.08 and 4.19 were felt Sunday throughout the cities of North Pole and Fairbanks. There have been no reports of damage or injuries after the shaking. The 5.1 earthquake hit at 7:06 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on Saturday and had a depth of 10 miles. Residents told the newspaper that they felt shaking for about 10 seconds. The aftershocks could also be felt around the region. — The Associated Press
Fun in the mud
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Shannon Pitt, of Nikiski and Jenna Streiff, of Kenai, play in the mud during low tide in the Cook Inlet Sunday in Kenai.
Inside ‘It was a plane upside down with some folks already out of the plane. I could tell there were some bad injuries.’ ... See page A-5
‘We should be providing the Ukrainians with the type of defense weapons that will impose a cost on Putin for further aggression.’ ... See page A-6
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-6 Sports.....................A-6 Schools...................B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Cook Inlet stakeholders are asking the state Board of Fisheries to consider more changes to area fisheries this winter. Fishery participants have submitted nine agenda change requests, or ACRs, which would open up certain aspects of Cook Inlet management plans during the 2014-2015 meeting year, rather than waiting until the next regularly scheduled Cook Inlet meetings in 2016-2017. The majority were proposed by setnetters, who are asking the board to change fishery regulations in part based on how major management plan changes passed at the February 2014 Upper Cook Inlet meeting have played out this summer, although one would also limit participation and harvest in the personal use fishery. The Board of Fisheries sets the management plans for fisheries throughout the state on a three-year cycle. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, or ADFG, is charged with carrying out those plans using the tools provided by the board. The board will decide at its October work session in Juneau whether or not to add each ACR to its agenda for the year. They would likely be discussed in March, which is when the board’s schedule calls for supplemental issues. The standard for accepting
an ACR is if the proposal is for a fishery conservation purpose or reason, to correct an error in a regulation or to correct an effect on a fishery that was unforeseen when a regulation was adopted. Setnetter Christine Brandt submitted a request asking the board to adjust the Kasilof setnet fishery so that when there are restrictions because of conservation concerns, setnetters can fish along the beach. This year, Alaska Department of Fish and Game managers relied extensively on the Kasilof River Special Harvest Area as a tool to catch sockeyes while limiting the catch of Kenai River kings; Brandt is asking that setnetters also be allowed to fish within a half mile of shore when that occurs. Brandt has also asked the board to consider changing the management plan to allow ADFG to manage the Kasilof and Kenai/East Forelands sections separately when fishing is restricted to no more than 12 or 36 hours. That was rejected as an emergency petition in March, but the threshold for an ACR, rather than a petition, is slightly lower. Chris Every, another setnetter, submitted a similar request, asking the board to change the management plan so that when fishing time is limited, fishing in one section doesn’t count against the time available in another section. See REGS, page A-10
Fairbanks spent $7k defending mayor’s $37.50 fine FAIRBANKS (AP) — The city of Fairbanks, Alaska, has so far spent about $7,000 appealing a $37.50 election-law fine leveled on the mayor. The Alaska Public Offices Commission ordered City Mayor John Eberhart to pay the $37.50 fine in May after concluding he broke a state law in the October 2013 election by sending an email on his city council email account, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.
In that email, Eberhart, then a city council member, asked city staff to research resolutions and ordinances sponsored by Eberhart and his mayoral opponent Vivian Stiver. In the eyes of the commission, the records request equaled an illegal use of municipal resources to influence an election Fairbanks has paid about $7,000 during appeals, city attorney Paul Ewers said. The funding comes out of the city’s claims budget. The Fairbanks
City Council held a closeddoor executive session about the city’s appeal strategy earlier this month. The city government is paying for Eberhart’s appeal costs because it’s obligated, in most cases, to defend public officials who are sued as part of their official duties under the city’s indemnification law, the newspaper reported. Eberhart’s attorney, Michael Walleri, accuses the elections body of overstepping its power.
The ruling sets a precedent that would broadly paint legitimate information requests as illegal electioneering, he told the newspaper on Friday. “This has huge ramifications. ... the (Alaska) Municipal League has been talking about this,” he said. “Any information that is received legitimately by an elected official cannot be used in an election campaign.” In its order, the elections commission said Eberhart’s
records request related to his role as a candidate and not as a city councilman because he requested only information about himself and Stiver and because he later used the research at a mayoral debate. Walleri said Eberhart asked for the information as a councilman, to defend himself from a member of the public had been coming to city council meetings and attacking him about his record. See FINE, page A-10
KPBSD staff, law officers receive intruder training By KAYLEE OSOWSKI and KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Uniformed officers from law enforcement agencies throughout the Kenai Peninsula joined with Kenai Peninsula Borough School District administrators to learn about ALICE. “Everybody’s here,” said Dave Jones, KPBSD assistant superintendent. “We’re getting on board together.” ALICE, is an intruder response procedure that is drastically different than the traditional lockdown policy. ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate, provides schools with options of how to best respond to a situation instead of drawing the blinds, locking the door and hiding. Previously the school district did collaborate with law enforcement to a degree, but in working to implement ALICE in local schools, the agencies have ramped up efforts to work together. “This is a really big step forward,”
Jones said about increasing officer involvement in the school district. Dallas Texas-based Greg Crane, former law enforcement officer, and his wife Lisa Crane, former school principal, created the program and came to Kenai last week to begin the process for implementing the procedure in the school district. Principals from KPBSD schools attended training on Wednesday and local law enforcement officers completed a two-day train-the-trainer course. Greg Crane presented data and engaged course takers in simulations. KPBSD Superintendent Dr. Steve Atwater said while the topic of armed intruder events is a difficult one, he said principals left their day of training feeling positive about ALICE. Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD spokesperson, said the training has been intense Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion not only in adjusting to a different way of thinking about responding to a intruder Alaska State Trooper Blake Calhoun role plays an armed shooter during a locksituation, but also in recognizing the real- down drill for the local two-day ALICE Training Institute training for Kenai Peninsula municipal officers and Alaska State Troopers, Friday, at the Challenger ity of the statistics. See ALICE, page A-10 Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai. Y
K