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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 306
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Nikiski to talk about thefts
Question Have you ever needed assistance to feed your family? n Yes, extended family or friends helped me out; n Yes, I received help from a non-profit or public agency; n No.
Community meeting to take place tonight
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 DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
ing cases before the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Alaska Superior Court in Anchorage. The Superior Court case — closed June 5 pending resolution of the bankruptcy proceeding — is a lawsuit filed by Cook Inlet Region Inc. against Buccaneer for natural gas royalty payments the regional Native corporation claims it is owed as a result of production from two Buccaneer wells on the Kenai Loop pad in the City of Kenai. CIRI, which owns a property adjacent to the Kenai Loop pad, claims it owns 20 percent of the Kenai Loop gas reservoir, and thus should be paid for a portion of what Buccaneer has produced.
A group of Nikiski residents, fed up with the increase of thefts in the area, have organized a town hall meeting today to address the ongoing problem. Elected state and local officials and candidates, law enforcement and Peninsula Crime Stoppers representatives are expected to be in attendance to discuss the lack of police coverage in the area, said Nikiski resident Ann Krogseng. “We are the largest growing community on the peninsula and with growth comes big changes,” she said. “The hope is the community can mobilize together and collectively we can find solutions to the problem.” Krogseng said a rash of burglaries has occurred since a break-in at M&M Market in Nikiski on Aug. 10, where an automatic teller machine was pulled out of the store and dragged down the street, in the early morning. A stolen truck used in the burglary was found burned a mile down the road, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch. M&M Market owner Felix Martinez said in an interview shortly after the break-in that the types of crimes being committed show the need for a trooper post or expanded police coverage in Nikiski. Two businesses, AA Dan’s Construction and Water Systems and Service Company in Nikiski reported property crimes committed on Sept. 14 to troopers. Krongseng, coowner of AA Dan’s Construction and Toni Dyer of Water Systems and Service Company, said the stolen property and the damage have temporarily put them out of work and they are still attempting to recover from their losses. After speaking with other members of the community who have been burglarized, Krongseng said the string of
See GAS, page A-12
See NIKISKI, page A-12
Hooked In the news C Y
State won’t M appeal decision K in refuge case JUNEAU (AP) — The state will not appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit over the closure of national wildlife refuges during last year’s partial federal government shutdown. Department of Law spokeswoman Cori Mills says the state hopes the situation won’t happen again. She says the state will continue to monitor the situation. In July, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason sided with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Interior, declaring the case moot. The refuges reopened after Congress passed legislation to end the 16-day shutdown last October. The state persisted in the lawsuit with the Alaska Professional Hunters Association, arguing in part that another shutdown could be reasonably expected. Gleason said that didn’t make it reasonable to expect the agencies’ response to a future shutdown would be the same.
Index Obituaries.............. A-3 Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-7 Sports...................A-10 Food...................... B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-7
Above, a seagull with a hook and line stuck in its beak takes flight over the Kenai River Tuesday at Centennial Park in Soldotna. Right, Silver salmon anglers line the banks of the Kenai River Tuesday, enjoying the sunshine. Forecasters are calling for more sunshine today. Photos by Rashah McChesney/ Peninsula Clarion
Miller makes bid for Buccaneer By ELWOOD BREHMER Morris News Service-Alaska/ Alaska Journal of Commerce
There is a new suitor for Buccaneer Energy’s Alaska assets and a tangled web of legal challenges continue for the bankrupt independent producer. Miller Energy Resources Inc. announced its intent to spend $40 million to $50 million on “substantially all” of Buccaneer’s Alaska holdings in a Sept. 15 release. The Knoxville, Tenn.-based independent entered a non-binding letter of intent with Buccaneer, according to the release. Miller is the parent company of Cook Inlet Energy LLC, which has an office in Anchor-
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$50,000 in cash and at least $50 million and up to $100 million in liabilities when it made its claim for bankruptcy protection. Buccaneer’s debt to unsecured creditors in Alaska is more than $2.1 million. The State of Alaska and nine Alaska-based companies are on a list of Buccaneer’s 30 largest unsecured creditors. Once a promising new entrant to Cook Inlet when gas production was declining, Buccaneer seemingly spread itself too thin over the past two years to absorb exploration that came up empty and financing that fell through. The bankruptcy proceedings have slowed down and complicated Buccaneer’s other ongo-
Grading by the numbers Elementary grading system gets a makeover By KAYLEE OSOWSKI Peninsula Clarion
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age. Buccaneer’s Cook Inlet interests are scheduled to go up for bid Oct. 14, a result of the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District on May 31. An Australian company, Buccaneer has operations in Houston, but its domestic work was primarily in Southcentral Alaska. AIX Energy LLC, a Houston-based energy finance group, has also made it known that it will bid for Buccaneer’s Alaska holdings. In April, AIX purchased debt from Buccaneer’s major creditor, Meridian Capital International. According to court filings, Buccaneer had no more than
Elementary school students’ quarterly report cards will look a little different this year. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has implemented a Standards-Referenced reporting system, which evaluates students’ performances in different skill areas under standards as determined by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Dr. Chrstine Ermold, KPBSD director of elementary education, said the new system is designed to help students understand where they are in their learning and also to motivate them to go beyond expectations. “Knowing that this is a move that we’re making because it’s about promoting the success of kids. Where they’re at is so important,” she said. Under the new system, teachers score students on “strands”
in language arts including reading literature, reading informational texts, writing and speaking and listening, among other areas. In math students are graded on “domains,” which include counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking and statistics and probability, along with other skills. Science, health and social studies only have comment areas where teachers can report what students studied. Music See GRADES, page A-12 C
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In this Jan. 10, 2013 file photo a group of students dig into a carcass during a pink salmon dissection in a third grade classroom at K-Beach Elementary School in Soldotna. The Kenai Peninsula Borough school district is implementing a new, number-based grading scale for elementary school students.