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Getaway
Journey
Using Snowshoes off the beaten path
Carlson beats odds, makes Brown Bears
Recreation/C-1
Sports/B-1
Sunny 30/23 More weather on Page A-2
CLARION P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, February 13-14, 2015 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska 50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Vol. 45, Issue 115
City to clarify pot laws
Question Do you agree with the governor’s plan to expand Medicaid? n Yes n No 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.
By IAN FOLEY Peninsula Clarion
In the news Walker’s budget sees opposition
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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Members of the House Finance Committee pushed back against parts of Gov. Bill Walker’s budget plan Thursday, questioning if some of the cuts he identified were truly reductions. Among the areas of focus was Walker’s proposal to forward-fund education for 2017 at 90 percent. While work is underway on the fiscal year 2016 budget, the state has been forwardfunding education to allow districts to plan. Walker, in his State of the Budget address last month, proposed forward-funding at the reduced level, saying funding could be addressed next session after the completion of school funding studies due by mid-June. The studies were called for as part of an education bill passed last session. Walker’s budget director, Pat Pitney, reiterated that position Thursday. But some committee members questioned the approach. Co-chair Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, said there might be less money to work with next year, and he said lawmakers might want to prefund the full amount. Legislative Finance Division Director David Teal said “short-funding,” as he referred to it, can make the deficit for next year look smaller. “And now more than ever I think it’s critical that you don’t fool yourselves or fool the public by understating the deficit,” he told the committee.
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Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion
Old-time bluegrass Talakai Finau (left) plays ukulele and Dan Grant plays guitar during the Kenai Senior Center’s Bluegrass Jam on Thursday, Feb. 12. The group meets weekly to play bluegrass and gospel music.
No snow, no go: T200 canceled By IAN FOLEY Peninsula Clarion
For the second year in a row, the Tustumena 200 sled dog race has been canceled due to insufficient levels of snow. The annual race covers 200 miles of trails in the Caribou Hills on the Kenai Peninsula, and attracts participants from all across Alaska and other parts of the world. Last month, the race was postponed to Feb. 21 from its original Feb. 7 start date, in order to allow for more snow to accumulate. Because there hadn’t been enough snowfall,
the decision to cancel the race was made by T200 board members on Thursday night. Tami Murray, race director of the T200, said that even Thursday’s snowfall wasn’t enough to proceed with the race. “All possible options for a trail have been explored and we just don’t have the snow to make it happen. With the sevenday forecast calling for mid-30s and rain, the snow we might get over the next few days will most certainly be gone by the 21st,” Murray said in a press release announcing the cancellation. “The lower sections of the trail have minimal snow with
exposed roots and are ice rinks with monster ruts. We considered smaller teams but with no snow you can’t set a hook, you can’t even mark the trail.” She said that race organizers looked at all options of how to put a trail in. Murray said that several people were inspecting the trails throughout the day on Wednesday, trying to figure out how to have the race. She said redesigning a course across the peninsula was difficult because there are hundreds of private landowners as well as several governmental agencies that the race organizers had to
coordinate with. Aside from the lack of snow, Murray said that four-wheelers have also made some trails worse. Murray said that it takes about a week to put in the trails, and having the race any later that Feb. 21 would be impossible due to the close proximity of the Iditarod. Murray said that many of the mushers had been hopeful of competing in the race. As of early January, 50 participants had registered for the event. Reach Ian Foley at ian.foley@peninsulaclarion.com.
CH2M Hill calls off Alaska unit sale By TIM BRADNER Morris News Service-Alaska/Alaska Journal Of Commerce
Senior managers of CH2M Hill were in Alaska Feb. 4 meeting with the company’s employees. Their message: The company’s oil and gas business is no longer for sale and it’s business as usual. CH2M Hill Senior Vice President for Corporate Development Matt McGowan and Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director Pat-
rick O’Keefe said the company wanted to test the market’s reception on a possible sale when it was announced last October. There were a lot of inquiries and a lot of interest but the unexpected oil price plunge affected the outlook and increased uncertainty among potential buyers, McGowan said in a Feb. 4 interview with the Journal at the company’s Anchorage office. In mid-January, the company announced the sale was off. It was still a worthwhile exercise, McGowan said, because
it validated CH2M Hill’s sense that its Alaska-based oil services division, the former Veco Corp., was a valuable business. CH2M is happy to continue owning it, he said. “We’re back to business, developing our long-term strategy and making sure the Alaska division has the allocations of capital that it needs,” McGowan said. “We did a lot of work on the sale and we learned a lot about the business. Then, oil prices changed, dramatically. The price change has not affected
us — our own (engineering and oilfield construction) business is holding up — but the price change caused a lot of turmoil among the parties we were dealing with. “There was a lot of interest, however, and it confirmed the value of the (Alaska oil services) business.” It was unusual for a company to announce in public that it was putting a major division up for sale, McGowan said, but CH2M Hill wanted to be as transparent as possible about it. See T200, page A-10
With the impending statewide legalization of marijuana for personal use, the city of Soldotna is hoping to clarify some city laws. At Wednesday’s Soldotna City Council meeting, two ordinances were introduced — one which would detail where marijuana can’t be consumed, and another which would amend the definition of “smoking” to include e-cigarettes, vaporizer cigarettes, and marijuana. Ordinance 2015-004 would outlaw the use of marijuana in public and in motorized vehicles, including motor vehicles, watercraft and aircraft. The ordinance defines “marijuana” to include all parts of the cannabis plant, as well as seeds, resin, compounds, salts, derivatives, concentrates or any other mixture. The ordinance defines “in public” to mean “in or upon any government-owned property, as well as any place that the public or a substantial group of persons has access.” If passed, a $100 fine would be issued for a first violation of marijuana use in public, $500 for a second, and mandatory court appearance for a third offense. The same fine schedule applies for permitting prohibited marijuana use. Soldotna council member Keith Baxter said the ordinance to ban marijuana use in public and in motor vehicles is in line with how the state regulates alcohol. “I feel like this ordinance is completely in the spirit of the statewide initiative that passed, which is to regulate marijuana like alcohol, and you can’t drink alcohol in public or in cars — that’s the spirit of this ordinance.” Soldotna resident Michele Holley said she had an issue with the ordinance, and advocated for more freedom regarding marijuana use. “This is a miracle plant. My question to people is, do you think God got it right, or do you think some creepy politicians in 1937 got it right?” Holley said, referencing the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which imposed a tax on the See POT, page A-10
Hospice to host Valentine’s day wine tasting By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
For the 19th year, an army of volunteers will host a wine tasting event Saturday to raise money for Hospice of the Central Peninsula and its ongoing programs for those in need of end-of-life care and the families who care for them. The group’s loan closet — primarily a repository for medi-
cal devices such as hospital beds and walkers — was used by an average of 200 people a month in 2014, while volunteers helped close to 100 for the year, said Hospice of the Central Peninsula Executive Director Gale Robison. She said the organization’s operating budget is under $200,000 a year and the winetasting event is critical to the non-profit’s continued exis-
tence. The dinner will be held in the fellowship hall of Soldotna’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, 222 W. Redoubt, and will include five courses of food with accompanying wines, live and silent auctions and a Heads or Tails game that involves correctly calling the flip of a coin for a chance at a vacation trip. The 2015 menu includes C
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vegetarian ravioli, sirloin, duck a l’orange, and a chocolate mousse — each paired with a wine, served by a volunteer and designed to raise money for a type of end-of-life care that can’t be found elsewhere on the central peninsula. The cause is worthy, said event co-chair Teri Birchfield who said becoming involved with hospice care helped to prepare her for the stages of death
involved when her aunt died. “When you’re dealing with that kind of emotion and you’re facing a doctor, you can have a compassionate doctor but it’s different than somebody who just has your personal needs at heart,” Birchfield said. “They’re really outside of the medical field. They’re just waiting to help you.” Birchfield, Robison and anSee WINE, page A-10