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Treasure? You never know what a trip to the dump will bring Community/C-1
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Fast Swimmers make a splash at pentathlon Sports/B-1
CLARION P E N I N S U L A
SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 303
Quick action promised on ballot suit
Good turn done
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50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
By RACHEL D’ORO Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — An Anchorage judge agreed to move quickly on a lawsuit challenging an emergency order that allowed two Alaska gubernatorial candidates to fuse their campaigns into one ticket for the November general election. Judge John Suddock scheduled arguments for Sept. 26, with a ruling likely by the end of that day. Suddock gave both sides time to file briefings before that, and allowed the merged campaigns to intervene on behalf of the state, which is representing the defendants. However Suddock rules, the case is expected to be appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court the following week. The lawsuit was filed
Wednesday by Steven Strait, a district chair in the Alaska Republican Party, against Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and elections director Gail Fenumiai. Strait maintains that Treadwell erred in his Sept. 2 decision permitting candidates affected by the merger to officially withdraw from their respective races. That order allowed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Byron Mallott to join campaigns with independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker and run as Walker’s lieutenant governor. The combined ticket is expected to provide a stronger challenge to incumbent Republican Gov. Sean Parnell, whose running mate is Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan. To join campaigns, Walker dropped his membership in the See SUIT, page A-2
Groups ask for reduced bycatch Petition seeks changes in Bering Sea fishery caps By MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service-Alaska/
Scout adds new resource for Food Bank
Members of Boy Scouts of America Troop 151 and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Soldotna helped pile the first stacks of wood into a wood shelter Kenai Peninsula Food Bank Saturday in Soldotna Alaska. The wood shelter is being constructed and stocked by Sage Hill, a Life Scout in Troop 151 and junior at Soldotna High School. The project is intended to provide an emergency supply of firewood for people in need to heat their homes this winter.
By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Tucked against the western-facing wall of the Kenai Food Bank is a the freshly varnished shelter that will house a new resource for local clients. Sage Hill, a Life Scout in Boy Scouts of America Troop 151 and junior at Soldotna High School, built a perpetual wood shelter at the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank for people in need of firewood to heat their homes throughout the winter.
Photos by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Inside today Enjoy! 55/37 For complete weather, see page A-10
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See SCOUT, page A-2
Alaska Journal of Commerce
The Association of Village Council Presidents and the Tanana Chiefs Conference are petitioning for emergency changes to bycatch regulations in the Bering Sea. The current Bering Sea chinook bycatch cap has two parts: a lower number that is the performance standard of 47,591 and a higher number, the hard cap of 60,000. By joining incentive plan agreements, or IPAs, pollock vessels receive a prorated share of the cap of 60,000. Any vessel that does not join an IPA receives a prorated share of the lower cap. Sectors that exceed the performance standard twice in seven years no longer have access to the higher limit, and must keep their catch under
the lower number. The organizations have asked that the hard cap be reduced to 20,000 kings, and the performance standard be reduced to 15,000. The Association of Village Council Presidents, or AVCP, and Tanana Chiefs Conference, or TCC, asked for the changes in a Sept. 16 letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The North Pacific council instituted the current caps under Amendment 91. According to the letter, a 20,000 cap would be less than the five-year average king take by the pollock fleet. In 2013, Bering Sea pollock fishermen caught 13,036 kings. The request for action comes as the pollock fleet finishes its See BYCATCH, page A-2
Pike eradication OK’d for Soldotna Creek drainage By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
It’ll take four years and more than $1 million in state and grant funds, but if the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s recently approved plan succeeds, the Soldotna Creek Drainage should be free of invasive northern pike by 2018. In 16 days Fish and Game staff will apply the first dose of the plant-based fish-killer rotenone in the first section of the Soldotna Creek drainage scheduled to be cleared. The area includes Union Lake, East and West Mackey Lakes and Derks Lake. The second area to be treated includes the mainstem of Soldotna Creek, Sevena Lake and Tree Lake, which Fish and Game plans to treat in 2016 and again in 2017 after netting and removing native species of fish from the area. The Alaska Board of Fisher-
Alaska Department of Fish and Game map
Alaska Department of Fish and Game map
Area one, or the western branch of the Soldotna Creek drainage will be treated with the poison rotenone, in order to eradicate invasive northern pike in the region. Fish and Game plans to begin treatment on the four lakes in October.
Area 2 includes the mainstem of Soldotna Creek, Tree Lake and Sevena Lake and will be treated with the poison rotenone in 2015. This area contains several species of native fish including Dolly Varden, steelhead, rainbow trout, and salmon.
ies met Friday to hear the details of the plan and ultimately approved it unanimously. It is the last step in a several-year planning process that included public scoping meetings, and
Fish and Game biologist Robert Massengill told Board of Fisheries members. Fish and Game staff told board members that pike, which are indigenous to other
alternative plans to poisoning the water including fish barriers and controlled netting for pike. Both were determined to be either too expensive or impractical for eradicating the species, C
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parts of the state, were illegally introduced on the Kenai Peninsula in the mid-1970s — first to Derks Lake in the Soldotna Creek drainage. Since that time See PIKE, page A-2