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P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 298
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Strong salmon runs recorded in Yukon River
Question Would you like to see the borough implement limited animal control to address cases of abused or neglected animals? n Yes; or 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 JEFF RICHARDSON Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Photo by Kaylee Osowski/Peninsula Clarion
In the news Hiker rescued near Skilak Lake
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Alaska State Troopers located an out-of-state man who got lost on a hiking trip near Skilak Lake on Sept. 11. Josh Blackmore, 43, of Midland Mich. became separated from his group of four hikers who set out on a multi-day hike, according to a troopers dispatch. A charter plane flew the four hikers into a remote area on the south side of Skilak Lake. Troopers received a report at about 6:50 p.m. from the Rescue Coordination center to locate Blackmore. An Alaska Air Guard helicopter responded to the area and located Blackmore. The four hikers were transported to Central Peninsula Hospital and released without need of medical attention. — Staff report
Jerry Terp, 59, of Kenai, won the Colonist category at this year’s Alaska State Fair’s Great Alaska Beard Contest in Palmer. Terp was severely burned in a house fire in October 2010. Since the fire, his facial hair has now grown back enough to allow him to compete in beard contests again. On Friday the staff and clients at Birchwood Center in Soldotna, where Terp receives assistance, celebrated his blue ribbon win.
The beard is back
Burn victim wins colonist category at state fair beard competition By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Facial hair of different colors and lengths — some real, some store-bought and others homemade — adorned the faces of staff and clients alike Friday afternoon at Birchwood Center in Soldotna. The beard party, complete with live music, pizza and root beer floats, celebrated Jerry Terp’s first place win in the colonist category at this year’s Alaska State Fair Great Alaska Beard Contest in Palmer.
‘It is not necessary that they participate in air strikes; what is important is that they participate in the decisions of this conference.’ ... See page A-6
which he said took about seven hours. A couple in a motor home was particularly helpful, Terp said. They took him to the fair, paid his gate fee and gave him an extra $20 for food. “A lot of people don’t do that,” he said, who had brought about $40 with him to get into the fair and buy a meal. Terp’s first beard competition was in 2009 at the State Fair before the fire took his facial hair. The fire put Terp in the burn center at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for See BEARD, page A-10
See RUN, page A-10
Report: Ketchikan ship projects equal revenue By MATT ARMSTRONG Ketchikan Daily News
Inside
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said about the event. “I haven’t had nobody do something like this.” The 59 year old’s long, gray beard is the product of four years of dedication following an early morning house fire in October 2010 in which Terp was badly burned losing his hair and beard. Now Terp’s beard is back. While it may not be as long as it was before the fire, it did win him a blue ribbon and a photo opportunity with the cast of the reality TV show “Duck Dynasty.” Terp hitchhiked his way to the fair,
FAIRBANKS — The Yukon River is having strong runs of silver and chum salmon this fall, giving a boost to fishermen after another tepid summer for king salmon. Sonar counts on the Lower Yukon at Pilot Station had tallied 233,000 silver salmon by Sept. 3, far above the historical median of 126,600 by that date. At that pace, more than 245,000 silvers are expected on the Yukon this summer. Jeff Estensen, an area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said it should be the strongest run of silvers in at least four years, allowing for commercial and subsistence openings last week on the lower Yukon. Last year, only about 80,000 silvers passed the sonar at Pilot Station. It’s also been a good year for fall chum salmon, with about 800,000 fish tallied, roughly 100,000 more than during a typical even-year run. The midsummer chum run sent 1.9 million more fish down the Yukon. Those solid numbers have helped offset a weak run of king salmon this year, which left the fishery closed to subsistence users. More than 60,000
KETCHIKAN — Ketchikan could see significant economic benefits — both in terms of new jobs and money spent in the community — if either the state or private companies choose the Ketchikan Shipyard for largescale shipbuilding projects, according to a recent report. The report, released by the
Ketchikan Marine Industry Council, states that a $100 million shipbuilding project could mean 190 new jobs — paying $27.4 million in wages — and $12.4 million on additional spending for local goods and services. Chelsea Goucher, executive director of the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce, said the study was done for a purely hypothetical situation.
“(The study) just really illustrates to the community how valuable the marine industries are,” Goucher said. “That’s a huge amount of money coming into our community and local economy (for a project like that). People are going to spend money here in town, businesses can hire more employees and that would bolster those businesses. “It’s important to look at studies like this and how, holis-
tically, they’re good for everybody,” Goucher added. The council also is willing to conduct economic impact studies on other aspects of the marine industry in and near Ketchikan. “The shipyard is a sponsor and promoter of the council, but it’s one of many,” Goucher said. “We want to make sure (the council) focuses on all aspects of the marine industry, and it
goes well beyond shipbuilding. We would welcome any interest in other studies.” One project that could test the study’s projected benefits could be the construction of two Alaska class ferries for the Alaska Marine Highway System. In December 2012, Gov. Sean Parnell voiced his belief that the two ships could be built for the $120 million that had See SHIPS, page A-10
Denali road crews juggle access with protection By WESTON MORROW Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-6 Sports.....................A-7 Schools...................B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584. AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Erin Corneliussen
In this photo taken Aug. 28 road work leader Rick Weibel waves to a road grader while making the rounds to the work sites along the Park Road in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve. The workers on the Denali National Park and Preserve road crews spend their time navigating a narrow path between two imposing bodies. The road crew spends each day maintaining the narrow, two-lane road that runs for miles between 6,000-plus foot ridge lines. C
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FAIRBANKS — The workers on the Denali National Park and Preserve road crews spend their time navigating a narrow path between two imposing bodies. In the most literal sense, the road crew spends every day maintaining the narrow, two-lane road that runs for miles between 6,000-plus foot ridge lines, but in a more figurative sense, the road crews are perpetually toeing the line between resource protection and visitor access. Tasked with the maintenance of a 92-mile road through the heart of the national park, the Denali Park road crew stays busy. Excluding the first few miles, from its start to the Savage River where personal vehicles cannot pass, most of the park road is unpaved. The miles of gravel road require constant work — whether that means laying down calcium chloride to prevent choking clouds of dust, reclaiming the road banks to stop the
road’s gravel edges from inching out into the tundra or grading the slope of the bumpy road to make it passable for the 10,000 buses that will travel its length annually. All of this work falls on the shoulders of the road crew — a couple dozen men and women who spend day after day ensuring the park’s thousands of visitors have a place to go when they arrive. The road crew is split into two groups that occupy and maintain their separate and bordering territories: the western crew, which roves from the park entrance up to Sable Pass at 39 Mile on the park road, and the eastern crew, which picks up where the western crew leaves off at Sable Pass and runs to Kantishna at the terminus of the park road. Since Sable Pass and beyond is typically accessible only by bus, many visitors don’t always make it that far into the park. Everyone who enters the park via the road system must pass through the domain of the western road crew — led by Rick Weibel. Weibel has been maintaining the See ROAD, page A-10