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CLARION
Clear, chilly 27/12 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 50
Question What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? n Turkey n Stuffing n Potatoes n Vegetables n Pie n Leftovers 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 Woman dies, 6 injured in Sterling Highway crash ANCHORAGE (AP) — A Homer woman died and six people were injured Tuesday in a crash on the Sterling Highway near Anchor Point. Alaska State Troopers say 29-year-old Kayli Rodasti was killed in the crash at Mile 145. Troopers say Rodasti was southbound when she lost control on the icy highway and crossed into the northbound lane. Her small sedan collided with a small sport utility vehicle driven by 24-year-old Cristina Reutov of Homer carrying five passengers, including three children. Rodasti’s car was struck on the passenger side. Alaska State Troopers say she died at the scene. Two of the child passengers in the SUV suffered life-threatening injuries, and after initial treatment at the Homer hospital, were flown to Anchorage. Troopers say one child was not restrained in the SUV.
Inside ‘We’re already seeing that flights are getting canceled and delayed, so it looks like we made the right choice.’ ... See page A-5
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-8 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-7
Good food, Peninsula residents reflect on holiday good friends W
ith Thanksgiving in mind, Peninsula Clarion staff spect some time casking members of our community what they’re thankful for, and their favorite Thanksgiving memories. Here’s what we found:
“I’m thankful I have all my family here. My favorite Thanksgiving is having Thanksgiving dinner with all my family.” — Hal Webb, Sterling
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“I am thankful for my family. They support me through thick and thin. I am thankful for all the stuff I have because I know people in other countries don’t have as much as I have.” — Lillian Gomez, age 13
“Going home and being with family. Being with family is my favorite memory every year.” — Beck Craft
“Food. I love the food. Getting with all of the crazy relatives. We play a lot of games like “I’m thankful Farkle.” — Claudia for my health and Feltman my family, and my seniors. (Thanks“I am thankful for giving is) a good having a teacher. time for family and She gives us the friends to get tocracker cookies at gether. And to invite strangers into the end of the day. your home, if you know somebody They are animal that doesn’t have family. I always think it’s neat that on Thanksgivcrackers.” — Cailee ing Day, our center is closed but it’s Percival, age 5 open. The Senior Center provides the meat and potatoes and gravy, and we join in a dinner together, “I’m thankful so people don’t have to be alone. that my tick-tock I think it’s important to provide that still works. We are camaraderie and fellowship.” fortunate to have — Rachael Craig, Director, many great memoKenai Senior Center ries. We have been here for years, “I am thankful for the soldiers that have hundreds of fight for us, the food that keeps us friends. You can’t beat that.” — Bill Bolz, Sterling alive and clothing a and shoes so I don’t have to walk around in bare
feet in the cold. I am thankful for my school so I have the knowledge of how to give back when I am older.” — Isaiah Coleman-Rice, age 10
I’m most thankful “that I am a child of God.” My favorite memory is “being together with family. I don’t have any specific (times), just when times the family comes together throughout the years.” — Zane Fallon, Kenai “Family, friends and good health. Probably late elementary. We always had a big gathering with extended family and played bingo with my grandmother.” — Lori Nelson, Anchorage “My family and having the opportunity for everybody to get together and to thank God for everything we have. When we were kids, we played bingo at grandma’s house every Thanksgiving with unusual prizes – a chicken neck and one time we had my aunt’s stockings.” — Laura Favretto, Nikiski See THANKS, page A-12
Comments and photos were compiled by Clarion staff Rashah McChesney, Kelly Sullivan, Dan Balmer, Ben Boettger and Ian Foley
Students celebrate culture with meal By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
With the rich aromas of fry bread, Indian pudding, ham and moose soup permeating the hallways of Kenai Peninsula College, as so often happens when students of Alaska Native culture gather to celebrate, the final event of a November’s Alaska Native and American Indian heritage month brought more than a dozen together to eat, learn the Dena’ina language and watch a documentary. The month has been peppered with cultural awareness events, including a fry bread social, a presentation on the Dena’ina people to one of the college’s English As a Second Language classes, a beadwork and fish skin basket demonstration, each designed to bring area students of Dena’ina, and others, a knowledge of the Alaska Native culture. “Each one of the students made something and then they shared the Dena’ina word for it,” said Kenai Peninsula College, Kenai River Campus Rural and native Student Services Coordinator Sondra ShaginoffStuart. “Then we all ate, shared our words and then watched a movie.” Dena’ina elder Helen Dick, of Lime Village, also gave a See FOOD, page A-12
Assembly meeting video stream debuts By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
A full house took in Tuesday’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting in Soldotna that debuted an online video stream. The assembly members were each equipped with iPads for the first time. Assembly President Dale Bagley said use of the iPads should improve efficiency and allow the members to vote on them, although that function didn’t work this time. The technological gadgets are another step to save the time and expense it takes the clerk’s office to copy agenda packets for the assembly, he said.
Bagley said streaming the meetings online is another effort to improve transparency to the public. Assembly member Wayne Ogle said the live streaming was long overdue and it will be more convenient for people to have that option to tune in from home. The assembly passed seven ordinances up for public hearing. Among those was the Central Peninsula Hospital acquisition of the urology medical clinic on Binkley Street for $604,000 from the plant replacement and expansion fund. The ordinance was to amend the lease and operating agreement to include the 2,228 square-foot building.
Assembly member Brent Johnson, finance committee chair, said the Jonas Ridge LLC, which owns the urology business, approached the hospital and expressed interest in selling the property. Johnson said he originally had concerns when the hospital hired urologist Robert Cadoff and if that was the reason the private practice went up for sale. According to a memo from CPH CEO Rick Davis, the urologist who occupied the building, Gary Shoenrock, planned to retire Sept. 30 and the hospital recruited Cadoff to take over Shoenrock’s practice on Oct. 16. The ordinance passed with a 8-1 vote, with the no vote
cast by assembly member Stan Welles. Welles said he felt it was a poor investment given the state budget centered on oil with looming deficits. “The money should stay in the replacement fund,” he said. “I think we need to prepare for tight budgets.” Gilman said the purchase is a prudent business decision because it adds to the hospital campus and increases the property value. He said the hospital has created a profitable operation and that the purchase would not cost the borough any additional funds. An ordinance to authorize a land swap between the borough and Kalifornsky Beach
property owners affected by the 2013 flooding in the Kalifornsky Beach area for drainage purposes was postponed to the Jan. 20, 2015 meeting. An agreement was in place for a land exchange for Paula and Timothy Keohane’s 4.3acre property on Karluk Avenue for a 1.84-acre parcel at Mile 12.1 on Kalifornsky Beach Road along the Cook Inlet bluff. Borough Chief of Staff Paul Ostrander said a neighbor, Daniel Sterchi, had concerns that the parcel exchanged to the owners for drainage easement into the inlet would be large enough to handle the water retention the See KPB, page A-12
Woman sentenced for Walmart parking lot shooting By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
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A woman who chased and fired a gun at a car in the parking lot of the Kenai Walmart last year was sentenced to seven years in jail on Wednesday during a hearing in Kenai court. Ashley Nelund, of Sterling, was originally charged with attempted murder, assault and
misconduct with a weapon and indicted on felony drug charges shortly thereafter, but reached a deal with prosecutors to reduce her charges. Ultimately, Nelund’s sentence will include three years of suspended time and a further five years of probation once she is released. Nelund’s charges came after a Nov. 1, 2013 incident in which she fired multiple gunshots into
an occupied vehicle in what investigators have framed as a drug deal gone wrong. A passenger in the vehicle she shot at told police that the altercation started when Nelund approached him and the person he was with about owing her money. The juvenile told police that, as they started to drive away, Nelund opened fire on the vehicle, according to an affidavit. Nelund told police, at the time,
that she had fired three shots at the bumper of the vehicle with the intention of scaring the two inside. In October of the same year, Nelund had delivered heroin to two people, one of whom overdosed and ended up being hospitalized after injection. The sentencing hearing dealt with both the weapons and assault charges and the drug charges — though the two cases are not
related. During the hearing Nelund’s lawyer, Dina Cale, had wanted to present evidence of Nelund’s mental illness, including testimony from a family physician who knew of the woman’s medical background. However, Kenai District Attorney Scot Leaders pointed out that the specific sentencing mitigator Cale had wanted to See CASE, page A-2