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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 56
School pool discussion makes waves
Question Did you go shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? n Yes, we hit the Black Friday sales; n Yes, we shopped at some local small businesses; n Yes, we visited craft fairs/bazaars; n All or a combination of the above; n No.
By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
In the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, schoolmaintained swimming pools could be sapping valuable education resources or saving lives, depending on who is talking about the facilities. During a Tuesday meeting on the pools, Kenai Peninsula Board of Education members heard a proposal to cut costs by centralizing management of the district’s pools which include facilities in Seldovia, Ninilchik, Kenai, Soldotna, Homer and Seward. Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones told board members
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that the pools were consistently falling short of budget goals — but that it could be a necessary expense. “That $769,000 deficit that you see there, what’s within that deficit is the fact that ... it’s an unwritten rule in schools that you’re going to have a deficit associated with your pools if you’re going to teach kids to swim,” Jones said. “You’re not going to have kids drowning. So, if we say ‘it’s costing us money, we’re going to shut our pools down. We’re not going to teach them to swim and have them drown.’ Now we’ve put a price on kids.” Jones said the district needed See POOL, page A-12
Superintendent shares progress
In the news
By IAN FOLEY Peninsula Clarion
Parnell gas line member takes energy committee job JUNEAU (AP) — A member of former Gov. Sean Parnell’s gas line team has taken a job working with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski says Mike Pawlowski will join the Senate energy committee’s Republican staff, focusing on energy and natural resources issues important to Alaska and the West. Pawlowski most recently served as a deputy state Revenue commissioner and was a public face of Parnell administration efforts to set state participation in a liquefied natural gas project. Parnell left office Monday, after losing re-election. Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon said Murkowski was looking for smart people to join the staff as she prepares to take over as chair of the committee. He called Pawlowski one of the smartest people around. Murkowski also announced that Colin Hayes will serve as the committee’s deputy staff director.
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Watchdog
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
A dog stands guard over Emerald Road Wednesday in Nikiski.
Interim Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendant Sean Dusek had mostly positive news about the current state of the school district during a speech on Wednesday. Speaking at a joint Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce luncheon held at the Kenai Visitor Center, Dusek focused on district enrollment, student performance and budgets.
Dusek recently took over from former superintendent Steve Atwater, who had left the district to for a position with the University of Alaska. After introducing himself to members of the community, Dusek spoke of the district’s student enrollment. While district-wide enrollment had been decreasing since before the 2010 fiscal year, that trend has reversed as enrollment started to increase in the 2014 fiscal year. Dusek said See SCHOOL, page A-12
NOAA gives Kachemak Bay special designation By MICHAEL ARMSTRONG Morris News Service-Alaska/ Homer News
Scientific research in Kachemak Bay could get more federal funding thanks to its recent designation as a Habitat Focus Area by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Part of NOAA’s habitat blueprint initiative to identify ecologically rich areas that merit research and other attention, Kachemak Bay is the first
region in Alaska to be identified as a Habitat Focus Area and only the eighth in the nation, said Julie Speegle, a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson. Kachemak Bay already is a state of Alaska critical habitat area and a NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. By designating Kachemak Bay a Habitat Focus Area, NOAA also will work more collaboratively with partners like the state of Alaska,
NOAA said in a Nov. 19 press release. One such collaboration, the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve, looks to be on firmer ground as the state moves forward to designating an agency partner with NOAA in the research reserve. While a Memorandum of Agreement needs to be signed, the University of Alaska Anchorage has agreed to be the new state fiscal agent with NOAA, said acting KBRR director Jessica Ryan-Shepherd.
“They’re looking at it as a real opportunity for the university to branch out from the terrestrial research they do to the near aquatic,” Ryan-Shepherd said of UAA becoming a new partner. Ryan-Shepherd also praised designating Kachemak Bay a Habitat Focus Area and the expanded collaboration with NOAA “They have a mission that’s very similar to ours,” she said of NOAA. “We’re extremely
excited and fortunate to be heading in this direction. We look very much forward to collaborating with them.” Under its funding agreement for the KBRR, the state needs to match 30 percent of total research reserve funding, or about $175,000. Currently, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is KBRR’s state fiscal agent. Earlier this year, Fish and Game officials had said KBRR would be moved out of See BAY, page A-12
Kasilof prowler caught on video How do you count Alaska’s governors? By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-5 World..................... A-7 Sports.....................A-9 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6
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By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — This week, Bill Walker became the 13th governor of Alaska. Or the 11th. Or 16th. Depends on how you count. As it turns out, the state of Alaska doesn’t appear to have an official way of counting governors and their terms. Since statehood in 1959, two men, Bill Egan and Wally Hickel, served nonconsecutive terms. Three — Egan, Jay Hammond and Tony Knowles — served back-to-back terms. When asked which number Walker holds, the state historian, Jo Antonson, said she was unaware of how
Alaska counts governors. The director of the state Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums, Linda Thibodeau, didn’t know, either. Antonson suggested the Division of Elections might know, but director Gail Fenumiai said her “totally uneducated” guess would be that if governors were elected in non-consecutive terms, they would be counted as new governors. That would make Walker Alaska’s 13th governor. But in the Hall of Governors — on the third floor of the state Capitol, outside the governor’s office — 14 portraits hang, including Walker’s. The first two portraits are See COUNT, page A-12
Alaska State Troopers are looking for help in identifying an unknown male caught on camera who attempted to break into the Kasilof Mercantile store early Sunday morning. Camera footage captured a man presumably in his 30s, about 6 feet tall wearing a knit mask over his face with a black jacket and blue jeans with a backpack walk up to the store and attempt to gain entry at about 3 a.m. Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said the man damaged the building in an attempt to gain entry but left after several minutes. The investigation is ongoing. Kasilof Mercantile employee John Smith said employees noticed footprints coming out of the woods to the door on the first night of fresh snowfall. No damage was done to the buildC
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Photo courtesy AST
An unknown man attempted to burglarize the Kasilof Mercantile on the Sterling Highway Sunday at about 3 a.m. Anyone with information on the attempted burglary is encouraged to contact the Soldotna troopers at 907-262-4453.
ing, he said. the prowler.” “It could only be one of three Smith said this is the first things,” Smith said. “Looking attempted burglary at the store See VIDEO, page A-12 at the video it’s hard to identify