Peninsula Clarion, December 10, 2014

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Roll ’em

Grapple

Hot from the oven, a treat any time

Stars, Kardinals meet on the mat

Food/B-1

Sports/A-10

CLARION

Flurries 30/22 More weather on Page A-2

P E N I N S U L A

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Vol. 45, Issue 61

50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday

City filing period open

Question Do you prefer natural or artificial Christmas trees? n We like to find a natural tree in the woods and cut it down ourselves. n We like to find a place to buy a natural tree. n We prefer an artificial tree.

Soldotna charter commission candidate packets due Dec. 19

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.

Photos by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion

Brian Gabriel, Department of Transportation Station Manager, uses a plow to scrape spilled drilling mud from a portion of the Kenai Spur Highway on Tuesday near Mile 26 and Halliburton Road in Nikiski.

In the news Walker hopes to have appointments in M place in weeks K

JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker hopes to have all his appointments in place in the next several weeks. Walker took office Dec. 1, and so far has named a handful of permanent department heads, including Gary Folger, a Public Safety commissioner under former Gov. Sean Parnell kept on by Walker. Walker was asked Tuesday whether he planned to keep Mike Hanley in place as Education commissioner and Larry Hartig as head of the Department of Environmental Conservation. Both also served under Parnell. Walker said he wouldn’t read too much into Hanley and Hartig remaining in place but said he would consider retaining both. If Hanley is not asked to stay, the board of education would get involved. By law, the board would pick a new commissioner, subject to approval by the governor.

Inside ‘We gave up much in the expectation that torture would make us safer. Too much’ ... See page A-6

Index Opinion.................. A-4 Alaska.................... A-5 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-8 Sports...................A-10 Food...................... B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.

Spilled mud raises concerns Drilling waste headed for monofill splashed along roadway By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion

Several hundred gallons of drilling waste bound for the newly opened AIMM Technologies monofill site in Nikiski, splashed out of a truck, onto the Kenai Spur Highway and the parking lot of Charlie’s Pizza whose owner, Steve Chamberlain, fought hard to keep the state from granting a permit for the site. As reports of the slick mud coating the highway filtered through the community, several agencies and companies responded, including the Alaska Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Conservation, AIMM, and finally cleanup crews who

A crew cleans spilled drilling mud from the Kenai Spur Highway on Tuesday in Nikiski.

spent the evening shovelling While the circumstances mud from roadside ditches, surrounding the incident are vacuuming up the waste and not entirely clear, it is bewashing the highway. lieved to have happened be-

tween midnight and 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday when employees of Charlie’s Pizza reported to work. A DEC representative said the driver of a Chumley’s truck was delivering waste from a Cook Inlet Energy drilling site and likely hit the brakes hard enough to cause the muddy discharge to splash all over the road. “They didn’t even know it happened,” said DEC Environmental Program Specialist Don Fritz. The only site Cook Inlet Energy owns on the east side of Cook Inlet is the North Fork Unit and gas field located on the southern Kenai Peninsula, east of Anchor Point, which is about 80 miles from Nikiski. See MUD, page A-12

By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion

Soldotna’s period for Home Rule Charter Commission member candidates to submit nomination petitions opened Monday and will close 4:30 p.m., Dec. 19. Soldotna’s Special City Election for electing members is scheduled for February 3, 2015. The election will be cancelled if less than seven qualified candidates apply and are verified by the municipality, according to Alaska Statue Title 29, which defines how municipalities must adopt a city charter. “It is an interesting process because it encompasses so much,” said retired Kenai City Clerk Carol Freas, who is filling in for Soldotna City Clerk Shellie Saner until Monday. Only one packet had been received as of Tuesday, Freas said. Since that application has not been processed the candidate’s name may not yet be released, she said. Charter commission candidates must provide a nomination petition signed by at least See CHARTER, page A-12

Avalanche survivor says mountain gave warning FAIRBANKS (AP) — Michael Hopper and Erik Peterson heard warning sounds as they skied toward mountains in the eastern Alaska Range, but they thought they would be safe at higher elevations. As they crossed a gently sloping valley in relatively flat terrain on Saturday they heard “whomping,” the sound of a layer of snow collapsing. They

concluded it was snow settling into a creek bed. They heard it again later in ‘I saw what looked like a wave breaking steep terrain, just before an ava- like whitewater. It just instantaneously lanche killed Peterson, 35, and appeared on the slope horizon.’ buried Hopper, 63, for more than two hours. — Michael Hopper Hopper said he feels betrayed by the mountains he loves and thought he knew News-Miner reported. iar,” he said. “Maybe things are them better from trips along the “I may have gotten a little changing in ways none of us same route, the Fairbanks Daily too confident, a little too famil- expected.”

Hopper is co-owner of the nearby Black Rapids Lodge. He has skied in the mountains for 20 years. Peterson was a former assistant football coach at Delta Junction and West High in Anchorage and a former assistant track coach at Dimond High. They had previous outdoor See SIGNS, page A-12

Man arraigned on Volunteer effort brings Santa to sexual assault charge remote village of Shishmaref District Court. According to By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion

A cannery worker has been indicted on sexual assault charges in connection with a July incident that Alaska State Troopers allege occurred in Kenai. Rosendo Pallones, 39, of Anchorage, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Kenai Superior Court Tuesday. A Kenai Grand Jury indicted Pallones on three counts of first-degree sexual assault on Friday. One charge of sexual assault in the first-degree was dismissed at a preliminary hearing on Nov. 26 in Kenai

court records, the charge was dismissed for having no probable cause. The Kenai District Attorney’s office re-filed a charge of first-degree sexual assault, an unclassified felony. If convicted, Pallones faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $500,000. According to a trooper affidavit, on July 25, troopers responded to a report of a sexual assault that took place at a bunkhouse that housed Snug Harbor Seafood cannery employees. A trooper stopped Pallones who was driving a green

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press

SHISHMAREF — Volunteers who brought Christmas to a remote Inupiat Eskimo community on Alaska’s western coast came bearing necessities like coats and school supplies as well as rare treats like apples, oranges and even ice cream. “’Cause everybody loves ice cream,” said 17-year-old Cheyenne Nayokpuk when AP Photo/Mark Thiessen asked why anyone living 25 miles south of the Arctic Circle This photo taken Dec. 6 shows a crying child unsure of what See SANTA, page A-5 to make of Santa Claus in Shishmaref.

See CHARGE, page A-12 C

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