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P E N I N S U L A
MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 71
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Walker: Alaska will weather fiscal storm
Question How much do you recycle? n Everything that I can. n I recycle items accepted at borough transfer sites/stations. n I recycle a few things here and there. n I very rarely or never recycle. 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
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Homer Electric Association members will likely see a rate decrease beginning Jan. 1, 2015, the electric cooperative announced in a press release Friday. According to the release, HEA has submitted a filing with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska that lowers the Cost of Power Adjustment from $0.08194 per kilowatt hour to $0.06900 per kilowatt hour. COPA reflects the cost of the fuel purchased by Homer Electric to generate electricity and is adjusted on a quarterly basis. The reduction in the COPA is due in part to the use of additional low cost power that was available from the stateowned Bradley Lake hydroelectric project. During the last quarter of 2014, Bradley Lake experienced high water levels, resulting in increased power generation at the facility. The COPA revision will lower the blended rate (COPA plus energy rate) for HEA members from $0.21974 per kilowatt hour to $0.20680 per kilowatt hour. The new rate will mean a decrease of $8.15 per month for the average HEA member using 630 kilowatt hours a month. Pending approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, the new rate will be effective for all billings as of Jan. 1. — Staff report
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-6 Classifieds........... A-11 Comics................. A-14 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
By TIM BRADNER Morris News Service-Alaska/ Alaska Journal of Commerce
Photos by Will Morrow/Peninsula Clarion
Christmas lights adorn a new gate to the playground at the Kenai Municipal Park on Forest Drive in Kenai.
Kenai park to receive upgrade City council OK’s funds to refurbish, expand playground By BEN BOETTGER Peninsula Clarion
Kenai’s Enchanted Forest playground project took another step closer to reality on Wednesday evening. Two of the four components of the plan created by the city administration, with the help of the Kenai Parks and Recreation Commission and a group of interested citizens, were approved for purchase. City manager Rick Koch said the new playground equipment could be installed in late April. Council member Tim Navarre was the first to speak about playground improvement at Wednesday’s Kenai city council meeting. He began by thanking the Parks and Recreation Commission
The Kenai City Council has approved funding to refurbish and expand the playground in the municipal park.
for the Dec. 4 work session at which they originally presented the plans for the council’s consideration. The proposal
up for approval on Wednesday — to renovate the Kenai Municipal Park with an “enchanted forest” theme — con-
sisted of four elements for the council to approve separately: the construction of a play area for 2- to 5-year-old children, priced by the city manager at $160,751; the renovation of equipment in the existing play area for 5- to 12-yearolds, priced at $107,966; the construction of a zipline for $140,000; and the addition of carved wooden animals for $6,975. “I’m happy that we’re finally at a point where we’re proceeding, as you know, through the frustration of Parks and Recs,” Navarre said. “I’m glad they finally came to a level where they brought to us ‘Here’s what we want to see. Here’s the big picture of this park, and we want to get it done, and be done with it.’ See PARK, page A-10
Gov. Bill Walker is reaching out to community and business leaders to help guide him through some tough times with the state budget. In a speech to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Dec. 15, Walker’s first address to a major business group since taking office Dec. 1, the governor promised to be honest and “blunt” about the state’s deteriorated fiscal position. “We have to make adjustments. Alaskans have done this before and we can do it again. We can do it together, in collaboration, rather than making late-night decisions on the third floor,” he said, referring to the governor’s office in the state capitol building. Walker appeared at the podium with new budget director Pat Pitney and acting Revenue Commissioner Marcia Davis. The governor said he met with legislative leaders last week, with Davis showing details of the fiscal situation that were also displayed to Anchorage chamber members. State budget documents for upcoming fiscal year 2016, which starts July 1, were also released Dec. 15 as required by law, but Walker said these were placeholder budget bills that had been developed by the outgoing administration of Gov. Sean Parnell. See STORM, page A-10
Workshops perpetuate Tlingit language By MARY CATHARINE MARTIN Capital City Weekly
JUNEAU (AP) — Mallory Story, Will Geiger, Andrew Williams and Richard Radford show respect for the people who have lived in Southeast Alaska since time immemorial by learning, and helping to perpetuate, the Tlingit language. Six months ago, the four started a free Tlingit workshop at Juneau’s downtown library. “We’ve been given a lot of knowledge,” Story said. “We want to keep studying and share that knowledge.” Radford, who has been learning Tlingit for two and a
half years, said one of the main goals is to create a space where Tlingit is spoken. “One of the things I had heard many times from X’unei (University of Alaska Southeast professor Lance Twitchell) was that if you want to learn French, you can go to France. If you want to learn Italian, you can go to Italy. But if you want to learn Tlingit, there is no place to go where Tlingit is spoken. Instead, you have to manufacture that place, create that space. The Tlingit Language Learners Group is an attempt at creating another space where people in the community can come to speak, listen, share, and learn,”
he wrote in an email. Story’s experience with Tlingit began in a class about Alaska Native social change that was taught by Twitchell. “It just made me a lot more aware of how little I knew about Tlingit language and culture, and I grew up in Juneau and went to public school here,” she said. On a recent week, the workshop started off with pronunciation practice. There’s the difference between “gooch” — hill — and gooch — wolf — for example. There are high and low tones. AP Photo/Capital City Weekly, Mary Catharine Martin Geiger and Story broke Mallory Story sings “Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes” in TlinSee SPEAK, page A-10 git as students in a free Tlingit language workshop sing along.
Fisheries tech program has in-state focus By MEGAN PETERSEN Ketchikan Daily News
KETCHIKAN (AP) — More than half a dozen fish-centric University of Alaska community campuses around the state are educating an upcoming generation of fisheries technology professionals with the University of Alaska Southeast’s fisheries technology program. Barbara Morgan, the pro-
gram’s student support and community outreach coordinator for the Ketchikan campus, recently hosted an informational meeting for prospective students. UAS’ fisheries technology program is designed to enable Alaska residents already involved in fisheries to enter the industry around the state, Morgan said. The program stresses the importance of retaining and building a local source of fish-
eries professionals. “It’s important for the state of Alaska to be fulfilling that need (for fish tech professionals) instead of out-of-state schools. I want to see us doing that,” Morgan said. “There’s really no reason we can’t be doing this ourselves rather than relying on out-of-state sources.” Students in the program can earn a two-year associate’s degree, a one-year certification C
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focused on fish culture or fisheries management, or an occupational endorsement, which can be earned in as little as 14 weeks, according to Morgan. Students can also go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in fisheries from the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences — the only degree program of its type in North America, according to a UAF press release.
Morgan said the UAS fish-tech program consists of mostly online curriculum, though students are required to participate in labs at regional UAS campuses. Flexibility is essential to the program’s and students’ success, Morgan said. Because all the fisheries technology courses are online, students can arrange to start and finish courses on a non-traditional timeline. See FISH, page A-10