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Short theater shines in one-acts
Area teams set for conference tourney
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CLARION
Snow, rain 35/29 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 32
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Soldotna weighs home rule and Feb. vote
Question Where do you get your health insurance coverage? n I’ve signed up through the exchange n I have coverage from my employer n I’m covered under another program n I don’t have health insurance
By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Suggested questions may be submitted online or e-mailed to news@peninsulaclarion.com.
In the news NTSB: Pilot choices caused AK crash
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A fatal Alaska State Troopers helicopter crash was caused by the pilot’s decision to fly into bad weather and the agency’s inadequate safety management, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Wednesday. Pilot Mel Nading, 55, Trooper Tage Toll, 40, and an injured snowmobiler they had picked up, Carl Ober, 56, all died in last year’s crash about 5.6 miles from Talkeetna, a community of nearly 900 about 115 miles north of Anchorage. It’s a popular tourist destination and a takeoff point for people climbing or flightseeing Mount McKinley. Contributing to the crash was the pilot’s motivation to complete the search-and-rescue mission, which increased the risk and affected his decisions, the NTSB said.
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
A workers clears the airway of a large vacuum tube being used to remove a cement material from the woods at a Baker Hughes facility, on Wednesday in Nikiski, Alaska. Employees of the company dumped several thousand pounds of the material onto their property and an adjoining property over the course of at least a month, prompting a visit from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
Baker Hughes cleanup nears finish Results from lab testing of spilled material not yet available By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Between the intermittent noise of an industrial truckmounted vacuum running for several hours a day, a cleanup crew in hazmat suits moving the through the woods near his property and his general discomfort with the whole situation, Chuck Campbell has not been getting any work done. Contractors and employees of a Nikiski-branch of the behemoth oilfield services company, Baker Hughes, have been working to clean up a cement mixture that work-
ers had dumped in the woods adjoining Campbell’s property. An Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation investigator said the cleanup is expected to be complete by the end of the week. The 61-year-old Ninilchik man sat on a log sharpening two of his chain saws Wednesday. Wood piles loom large on Campbell’s lot which he uses as the base for his logging company. Several logging apparatus, a half-finished log cabin, a trailer, and several other vehicles dot the property where Campbell said he typically works a few days a week
before returning to his Ninilchik home. That all changed in late October after Campbell discovered a growing pile of dusty, white residue while hunting on his property. For some time, workers at Baker Hughes had been driving to the east end of the company’s lot, and dumping the remnants of the cement mixture down a dirt hill and into the woods — a clear violation of the company’s recommended disposal method for the mixture, according to its data sheet for the material. Several feet of the material encroach on property Campbell
See CLEANUP, page A-10
Correction In a Nov. 5, 2014 story titled “Races motivate peninsula voters,” a quote about Prop. 4 was incorrectly attributed to a Gerry Matthews, of Kasilof. In addition Matthews’ name is spelled Jerry Matthews. The quote: “The Pebble Mine is part of the worst idea anybody came up with. Ecosystems here are godlike. Things take millions of years to evolve into systems and the beauty and vastness of intrinsic wealth is not to be messed with for some copper and iron,” should be attributed to Michael Bishop, of Kasilof. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-6 Sports.....................A-7 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-7
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owns and, a long thin trail of it has streamed into a pit where Campbell had planned to sink a well for drinking water. At the time, a Baker Hughes communications specialist, Dana Morrison, wrote in an email that the company did not believe the cement was a risk to human health or the environment. Despite repeated requests to multiple employees, no one from Baker Hughes provided the Clarion a copy of the company’s material safety data sheet, or MSDS, on the cement-compound. Campbell said the compa-
Rethinking Pot Kenai Peninsula voters wary of new marijuana regulation
6 things the states that legalized pot need to know
By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press
It appears the third time is the charm for Alaskans’ bid to legalize marijuana. After failed voter initiatives in 2000 and 2004, on Tuesday Alaskans voted 52 percent in favor of the legalization for the recreational use of marijuana. Alaska joins Oregon, which passed a similar pot measure Tuesday. Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize marijuana last year. While absentee ballots remain to be counted, the yes votes hold a 9,624-vote lead. The passage of Ballot Measure 2 allows the state to tax and regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana. Possession would be legal for those 21 years old and older. The initiative states marijuana would be regulated and taxed like alcohol. Election results from the Kenai Peninsula show the borough was split on the issue. The more populated central region opposed the measure. More voters in the north and central peninsula voted no, while the southern peninsula and east voted for legalization. District 29, which includes Sterling, Nikiski, Salamatof, Cooper Landing and Seward narrowly voted against marijuana legalization with 2789 against to 2639 votes in favor. District 30, the central peninsula region, voted 54 percent against the measure. The southern peninsula, or district 31, received 54 percent in support of the initiative. Soldotna resident Mike Hill said he thought the measure would pass. His wife, Angela Hill said she was concerned about how pot would be regulated. “It had to pass before the state could figure out how to regulate it,” Mike Hill said. “The drug war wasn’t working. We might as well try something else. If it doesn’t work down the road, we can go back.”
DENVER — Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., voted to legalize recreational marijuana Tuesday. The drug is already legal for people 21 and older in Colorado and Washington, thanks to ballot measures voted on in 2012. It was a whole new frontier for those states, so here are some hints from the legal weed states on what the new places can expect:
See VOTERS, page A-10
See POT, page A-10
UNCLE SAM IS (MOSTLY) LOOKING THE OTHER WAY Some expected a federal lawsuit when Washington and Colorado flouted federal drug law, which considers pot illegal for any purpose. But last summer, the U.S. Justice Department said it wouldn’t interfere with state marijuana laws as long as the states tightly regulate the drug and make efforts to keep it from children, criminal drug cartels and other states. There have since been isolated federal raids on pot businesses in Colorado, but no widespread federal crackdown on the industry in either state.
LEGAL POT BRINGS IN SOME GREEN Pro-marijuana advocates predicted that legal weed would be a huge windfall for Washington and Colorado. Marijuana opponents predicted the drug would prove a drain on state finances because of higher law enforcement costs. Both sides were wrong. Colorado is on track to bring in some $84 million this year from medical and recreational pot taxes and fees. Washington by some estimates will it bring in more than $50 million between 2015 and 2017. That’s not chump change, but in the mix of multibillion-dollar state budgets, legal pot isn’t exactly a game-changer.
In four months, Soldotna residents will decide how much autonomy they want for their city. A special election is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2015, for eligible voters to choose if they want a charter drafted for a home-rule government. Approval would mean Soldotna would have the maximum authority allowed for an Alaska municipality. Council members Pete Sprague and Linda Murphy said moving to home-rule would give the city the chance to adopt and exercise policy specific to Soldotna’s community. Soldotna is currently a firstclass general law city, whose powers are limited by state and borough law, according to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. In Alaska, the unorganized and organized boroughs govern home-rule, first-class general law and second-class general law cities, according to the Alaska Department of Commerce. Of the six cities on the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Seward and Kenai are home rule law, according to the Department of Commerce. Seldovia and Homer are first-class general law cities, while Kachemak is the only second-class city, according to the Department of Commerce. Homer voted down the option of becoming a home-rule city in this year’s Regular Election on Oct. 7. Moving to home-rule would gives the municipality more control over setting tax mill rates and the ability to exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by existing law or charter. According to the Department of Commerce, the election and term of the city council and mayor would be determined by a charter and no longer by state regulations. Right now the state has rigid regulations on first-class city councils when it comes to making regulatory exceptions, said Soldotna Mayor Nels Anderson. If adopted, Soldotna’s charter may also define the veto powers of the mayor, according to the Department of Commerce. Anderson said he has not needed to veto a decision by the city council since being elected until recently. At the Nov. 5 city council meeting, Anderson told the council he would overturn any unscheduled approvals for small grant money, unless they created a policy that would be applied to all future requests. City manager Mark Dixson said a catalyst for the interest in home-rule came from the recent Supreme Court decision in Price v. Kenai Peninsula Borough et al., which could lead to a repeal by voter approval of the Kenai Peninsula Borough food-tax that allows Soldotna to collect a year-round tax on non-prepared food items. If the tax is repealed, the city would need to find another way to make $1.2 million in annual revenue, and it would likely have to happen through inSee SOLDOTNA, page A-10