THE
Surprise Columnist jumps the gun on buying fat-tire bike Community/C-1
C
M
Y
K
Sunday
Football Nikiski, Soldotna advance to state Sports/B-1
CLARION P E N I N S U L A
OCTOBER 12, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 10
SEARCH sees
Success Photo by Rashah Mcchesney/Peninsula Clarion
Forrest Henry walks through gives a tour of a supply room on Thursday, where he works as an intern for the Project SEARCH program at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska. Henry is one of several interns who have used the program, which provides job opportunities for people with disabilities, to gain work place skills.
C
M
Y
K
3 students begin CPH internships By KAYLEE OSOWSKI and RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Christopher Petrovich can’t help but smile at his co-workers when they giggle at him as the three fold blankets, sheets and rags piled high in the laundry
room at Central Peninsula Hospital. At a slow, but steady pace, Petrovich worked methodically on a recent Thursday, trying to fold a stack of small, blue blankets. Each had to be facing the same direction, a task that took him some time to figure out. He’s one of three Project SEARCH interns working in the hospital, part of a program that provides job training to people with disabilities. For the past two years, students who have completed the
program have successfully gotten jobs in the community. Previous interns have been hired at the hospital as well. Now, three new interns are hopeful that the skills they gain will also help them find employment. “That’s kind of setting the bar high, now I’ve got to do it again with these three students, but I have good students, I really do,” said Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Special Education teacher Fran Stetson.
Forrest Henry, a new intern, started his program in September. Currently, he works in materials management, keeping hospital supplies stocked both in a warehouse-type room on the lower floor of the hospital and also by making deliveries to other departments. “The most challenging part is trying to get there on time, getting as (many) supplies as you can there, doing it accurately and doing it all at once,” he said. See SEARCH, page A-2
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Soldotna man gets 3 years for ‘violent’ domestic assault Victim’s dad frustrated by sentence By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A Soldotna man, who plead guilty to a domestic violence felony assault charge, was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for assaulting his girlfriend and another man in January. With the victim in the courtroom and their six-week-old son, Patrick Slate, 38, was given a maximum two-year sentence for the amended charge of assault in the third-degree, a class C felony. Kenai Superior Court Judge Carl Bauman also sentenced Slate to one-year in jail for assault in the fourth-degree charge, a class A misdemeanor. After consecutive sentences, Slate will be on probation for four years. On Jan. 11, Soldotna Police arrested Slate after police found his then girlfriend with seconddegree burns to her face, neck and torso, fractured ribs and severe facial trauma from being immersed in hot water. Slate had also burned her lip with a lit cigarette, according to the police affidavit. She spent several days at Central Peninsula Hospital with life-threatening injuries and couldn’t recall the assault.
Slate said he’d assaulted her after seeing another man kiss her. Slate also assaulted the man, fracturing hs orbital socket and breaking his nose, according to the report. The Clarion is not printing the names of the victims, or the female victim’s family, who testified in court Thursday. Defense attorney Joy Hobart filed a character letter from the female victim saying Slate was a good person. The male victim did not appear in court. From the start, the victim has requested to be in contact with Slate. On Aug. 28, he was granted a temporary release to be present for the birth of their son. The victim said, during the hearing that Slate is a good person and not the “monster the media made him out to be.” Assistant Kenai District Attorney Kelly Lawson said the state has had concern of the victim’s mental health after she was beaten. The victim had been uncooperative with the state and Lawson said they had asked her to see a neurologist to determine if she suffered any brain damage. See ASSAULT, page A-2
KPBSD begins ‘challenging’ budget planning process Solving deficits with savings cannot continue, says Superintendent
next year’s budget begins. KPBSD Superintendent Steve Atwater started a budget development meeting by asking the public and school site-based councils to review site budgets, specifically to look at how well funds are being used. “Your task tonight is to offer input to the school board on where the district should reduce expenditures and where it should increase expendiBy KELLY SULLIVAN tures,” Atwater said “Given our defiPeninsula Clarion cit model of balancing our budget, all The Kenai Peninsula Borough increases should have a corresponding School District faces some tough decrease.” The school board is responsible for choices as the process of planning deciding where the allocated funding
Steve Atwater
Dave Jones
is received at the 43 schools operating in 21 communities on the Kenai Peninsula. Atwater said the school district should no longer solve its deficits by dipping so deeply into the district’s
reserves. It is expected that balancing the FY16 budget will be a challenge, he said. At the beginning of the 2014 fiscal year general fund balance was $26.5 million, and dropped to $15.5 by the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year, according to the KPBSD Annual 20142015 Budget. “We talked about looking within all of our budgets and seeing if there is money in there that can be repurposed,” said Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones. “Or, if we are not using it for the greatest potential for increasing student achievement.” The school district has no way to
generate its own funding, Jones said. The state provides 72 percent of the district’s general revenue fund and the borough assembly allocates 27 percent, he said. The remaining 1 percent comes from other sources. Of the money allocated by the assembly, 31 percent is raised through property tax, and 69 percent comes from sales tax, Atwater said. For a property owner with home valued at $250,000 with a $50,000 exemption, the household is contributing $440 to education every year, which Atwater said he believes is a reasonable amount.
Judge considers fate of AK gay marriage ban
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska promised a quick decision after hearing arguments Friday to overturn the first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages. Five gay couples sued the state to strike down the constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1998 that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. They say it violates their U.S. constitutional guarantee of due process and equal protection. Arguments for the plaintiffs were bolstered Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court re-
Inside today Showers 46/33
Five couples sue the state saying that a 1998 constitutional amendment violates their rights to due process and equal protection MARK THIESSEN Associated Press
See BUDGET, page A-2
For complete weather, see page A-12
fused to intervene in the issue, making gay marriage legal in a number of states. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, to which Alaska belongs, the following day struck down similar bans in Idaho and Nevada. Each side in the Alaska case was given 30 minutes to present its case. The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Allison Mendel, said she anticipated using only a little bit of that time and would save the remainder for rebuttal. “Are you anticipating the landscape is going to change AP Photo/Mark Thiessen while we’re talking?” joked Lin Davis, of Juneau, Alaska, shown wearing an orange rain coat, holds signs supporting gay U.S. District Court Judge Tim- marriage during a news conference on Friday, outside of the federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska. A federal judge on Friday heard arguments from five gay couples seeking to overturn othy Burgess. See BAN, page A-5 the state’s ban on gay marriage. C
M
Opinion......................... A-4 Alaska........................... A-5 Nation........................... A-6 World............................ A-8 Cops/courts................ A-10 Sports........................... B-1 Community................... C-1 Weddings...................... C-1 Dear Abby..................... C-2 Crossword..................... C-2 Horoscope.................... C-2 Classifieds................... C-3 Mini Page...................... C-9 TV...................... Clarion TV Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.