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Thriller
Tails
Foles, Eagles fly past Luck, Colts
No cabin fever for this best friend
Sports/A6
Pet Tails/A-13
CLARION
Showers 59/48 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 299
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Furie oil rig arrives
Question Do you think this winter will be: n Milder than last winter; n More severe than last winter; or n About the same as last winter?
Platform headed to Kitchen Lights Unit
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.
In the news
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By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
Photo by Kaylee Osowski/Peninsula Clarion
Fairbanks, Delta see record high temperatures
The Binkley Street improvement project work continues between Park Avenue and Corral Street on Monday in Soldotna.
FAIRBANKS (AP) — Fairbanks has been known to have snow by September but that’s not the case this year. Temperatures on Saturday and Sunday broke or tied record highs. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the thermometer hit 76 degrees just before 4 p.m. Sunday. That beat the old record for the day of 73, set in 1938. On Saturday, the temperature reached 74, which tied the record high for Sept. 13 set in 1965. A new temperature record was also set Sunday in Delta Junction at 70 degrees. Normal temperatures for the interior Alaska communities range from the mid-30s to the low 50s. The National Weather Service says the unseasonable warmth should carry into Monday. Temperatures are forecast to cool Tuesday.
Upgrades to sewer system needed to accommodate hospital
Young announces plans for 3 House debates, forums JUNEAU (AP) — U.S. Rep. Don Young has agreed to participate in three debates and forums in the lead-up to the November general election. Young’s campaign says he’ll participate in a Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce forum on Oct. 28 and an Alaska Public Media debate on Oct. 30. His campaign had previously said he would take part in a debate on fisheries issues in Kodiak on Oct. 1.
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Binkley Street work continues By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
The City of Soldotna and the Kenai Peninsula Borough will be split the cost of the final stage of Binkley Street improvements. The sewer collection lift station at the intersection of Corral Avenue and Binkley Street will be decommissioned, replaced with an upgraded system and an insulated, stand-by generator
will be installed to maintain pump flow when the area has a power outage, said city engineer Kyle Kornelis. “The city’s existing sewer collection infrastructure is insufficient to accommodate the borough’s new four-story specialty clinics facility, which is currently under construction at the hospital campus,” Kornelis wrote in an Aug. 27 memo to city manager Mark Dixson. “An upgraded and large capacity life station is required
and will be incorporated into the Binkley Street improvements project. The lift station upgrade will also consider future growth and will be sized accordingly.” This lift station will be slightly larger than any of the others currently in operation within city limits, Kornelis said. Its volumetric flow rate is greater than any other lift station due to its central location near the hospital. Soldotna will be contrib-
uting half of the $115,000 to the upgraded lift station costs, while the borough will contribution will not exceed $115,000, according to a memo from Kornelis. The fund appropriation was presented to the city Wednesday evening in an effort to speed up the process. “With the summer construction season winding down we believe the expeditious appropriation is prudent,” Kornelis See CITY, page A-8
Furie Operating Alaska’s platform has arrived in Alaska from Texas. The platform was built in Ingleside, Texas, this summer. On June 4 it left Corpus Christi, Texas, traveled through the Gulf of Mexico, went through the Panama Canal, sailed north through the Pacific Ocean and arrived in Kachemak Bay on Sept. 9, according to a press release from Furie. The monopod platform will be set over Furie’s Kitchen Lights Unit No. 3 well, which is located in Cook Inlet about 20 miles northeast of Nikiski. In June 2013, commercially producible natural gas was discovered at the well. Installation of the platform, which has a surface area of 0.3 acres, will begin in the spring of 2015, after the ice leaves Cook Inlet, according to the release. An 18-foot diameter caisson will support the platform. A 16-mile subsea pipeline will connect the platform to the onshore processing facility See FURIE, page A-8
Death of son weighs heavily on family By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
After moving back to Soldotna at the end of August to begin a new job, the future looked bright for Connor Jezorski until tragedy struck. On his way to work at 7 a.m. Sept. 9, Connor Jezorski’s silver Toyota pickup crossed the opposite lane, went into the ditch and hit a culvert. The impact caused the truck to become airborne, roll over and crash through a fence at the Soldotna
Airport. Central Emergency Services and Soldotna police responded to the crash and found Connor Jezorski partially ejected from the single-vehicle crash. Responders declared him deceased on the scene. Soldotna police Sgt. Duane Kant said Connor Jezorski was not wearing a seatbelt. Mike Jezorski was out hunting with friends the day of his son’s accident. He returned to his campsite near Cooper Lake and found his daughter, Jess
‘He was a good kid, always with a smile on his face. ... He had his whole life ahead of him.’ — Mike Jezorski Jezorski, who came out to find him and break the news. “That was the longest drive of my life,” he said. “We are all devastated. There are no words to describe the pain of losing our son.”
His father said Connor, 21, had just started a new job at Conam Construction Company in Nikiski as a welding apprentice. The general construction company performs maintenance of oil and gas facilities
and pipelines. “He was a good welder and hard worker,” said Mike Jezorski, owner of Jezorski Builders in Soldotna. “I was extremely proud of how hard he worked to get a good job.” After working in the family business with his father and brother Scott, Connor decided to pursue a welding career. Connor received his welding certification at Kenai Peninsula College in 2013. In between the semester course he spent next See HEAVY, page A-8
Sullivan backs state BP layoffs follow Hilcorp sale minimum wage raise JUNEAU (AP) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan said he doesn’t support raising the federal minimum wage but backs a state initiative to raise Alaska’s minimum wage. Sullivan, in a statement, said Alaskans know best when it comes to strengthening the state’s economy and supporting its workers and businesses. He said continued efforts are also needed to support Alaska’s energy sector, streamline state and federal regulations and make the tax system more competitive. His position on the state minimum wage was reported by the Wall Street Journal. Voters in November will decide a ballot measure that would raise Alaska’s minimum wage of $7.75 an hour by $2 over two years and have it adjusted for inflation in subsequent years. In rapid-fire questioning dur-
ing a primary debate, Sullivan said he didn’t support the initiative. On Monday, critics — including the campaign of Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich — accused Sullivan of flip-flopping. The Alaska AFL-CIO, in a release, called his latest statement supporting the initiative an attempt to pander to voters. “Dan Sullivan appears to be able to read polls and knows that opposition to the wage increase might have helped him in a closed primary, but it hurts his appeal to general election voters,” the president of the union, Vince Beltrami, said in a statement. “Sullivan is playing politics with people’s livelihoods, and it’s reprehensible.” Sullivan spokesman Mike Anderson said Sullivan came to his position after speaking to and meeting with Alaskans on the campaign trail.
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — BP Alaska, a major player in the state’s oil industry, on Monday announced plans to lay off 275 employees and direct contractors early next year. BP’s business in Alaska will be smaller because of the previously announced sale of its interests in four North Slope oil fields to Hilcorp, spokeswoman Dawn Patience said. The layoffs, combined with 200 of the roughly 250 people whose work was tied to those fields and accepted jobs with Hilcorp, represent about 17 percent of the total number of BP employees and contractors in Alaska, Patience said. BP has 2,725 employees and direct contractors in the state; of that total, 2,250 are employees. When the sale was anC
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nounced in April, employees were told “the entire business is going to look different at the end of this,” Patience said. “The Alaska business is still very important to BP. It’s just a smaller business than it was before,” she said. Hilcorp spokeswoman Lori Nelson said job offers were made to about 200 workers associated with the assets in the deal. She said the final number who will be hired “is still a work in progress. We’re going to continue to assess our needs, and we’re going to be working to get fully staffed before the official acquisition date takes place.” The layoffs announced Monday include overhead associated with the fields, Patience said. The sale, which Patience said is expected to close later this year, involved all of BP’s
interests in the Endicott and Northstar oil fields and a 50 percent interest in the Liberty and Milne Point fields. It also included BP’s interests in the oil and gas pipelines associated with those fields, BP said in April. BP’s president for Alaska operations, Janet Weiss, said at the time that the sale would allow for BP to focus on maximizing production from Prudhoe Bay and advancing plans for a major liquefied natural gas project. BP is working on the latter with the state, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and TransCanada Corp. The companies have said the gas-line project, as proposed, would be the largest of its kind ever designed and built. The company said it remains committed to plans to continue investing in Prudhoe See BP, page A-8