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Amazing
Fish on!
Kenai Performers take the stage
Ice fishing can be fun after all
Arts & Entertainment/B-1
Tight Lines/A-10
CLARION
Sunny 36/19 More weather on Page A-2
P E N I N S U L A
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 120
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
More sign up for health plans
Question Are you facing a tax penalty for not having health insurance? 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.
By IAN FOLEY Peninsula Clarion
In the news Report: Changes may be needed to commercial fisheries panel
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JUNEAU (AP) — A review of the commission that regulates commercial fisheries participation in Alaska details inefficiencies, a backlog of permit applications and options for restructuring. The report requested by former Gov. Sean Parnell reviewed operations of the three-member Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. That board decides how many fishermen can participate in a limited fishery and who receives the permits. Parnell requested the review in August after the Legislature sought its own audit. It was written by Tom Lawson, former director of administrative services for the state Department of Fish and Game. The Legislature’s review is pending and not expected out before the end of the session. Rep. Louise Stutes, RKodiak, introduced a bill Wednesday that would move the commission into Fish and Game, partially in response to Lawson’s review. That was one of the options for restructuring in the report. The review said that change would be the most cost effective but also the most disruptive. The bill would make the state Board of Fisheries responsible for deciding whether or not to limit new fisheries, rather than the commission. Other restructuring options in the report included having fewer commissioners or parttime commissioners. The agency has an annual budget of about $4.5 million, which comes from permit fees, and a staff of about 28 full-time employees, including the 3 commissioners, who are paid at least $120,000 per year.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation/World.......... A-5 Sports.....................A-8 Tight Lines........... A-10 Arts........................ B-1 Classifieds............. B-3 Comics................... B-6 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Hands-on learning
Above: Cloe See participates in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s ice fishing event at Sports Lake on Wednesday. Right: Molly McMillan (right) jigs a lure while her father Sandy McMillan (seated) uses a fish camera during the event for students participating int he Salmon in the CLassroom program.
Salmon program continues on ice By BEN BOETTGER Peninsula Clarion
Students from around the central Kenai Peninsula school district took field trips on Wednesday for an opportunity to practice ice fishing on the frozen surface of Soldotna’s Sport Lake. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jenny Cope, who organized Wednesday’s ice fishing demonstration as a part of Fish and Game’s Salmon in the Classroom program, said that approximately 560 students attended. Many parents also came to fish with their students, bringing along their own gear and tackle. For those without gear of their own, Fish and Game staff and volunteers provided poles, hooks, and shrimp for bait, as well as a safety talk and instruction in fishing technique, before allowing students onto the lake. Students from 19 schools, as well as home-school classes, came out to participate in hour-long fishing sessions through-
Photos by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion
See FISH, page A-7
More Alaskans are choosing to sign up for health coverage through the government’s health care marketplace. Now that the Feb. 15 deadline to sign up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, has passed, statistics show that this year’s enrollment numbers are strong. 20,897 Alaskans enrolled by the deadline, which is a 162 percent increase from 2014 enrollment figures, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services. From Nov. 15 through Jan. 16, people in Kenai selected or re-enrolled in 264 plans through the marketplace. In Soldotna, people signed up for 366 plans, while Homer and Seward residents enrolled in 744 and 165 plans, respectively, according to the Department of Health and Social Services. On the Kenai Peninsula, organizations such as Peninsula Community Health Services offered assistance for people wishing to sign up for health coverage. Tina Wegener, outreach and open enrollment coordinator for PCHS, said the organization offered two open enrollment classes during the enrollment period and held classes every other Tuesday from last October through January. Wegener said she didn’t notice more people coming in to PCHS to sign up this year compared to the previous year, but attributed that to people being automatically enrolled from See HEALTH, page A-7
Finalists for superintendent job selected By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education will be interviewing four candidates for the superintendent position on March 3. Five applications were re-
ceived from around the nation, said school district spokeswoman Pegge Erkeneff. The period for submitting applications closed Monday. School District Interim Superintendent Sean Dusek, Montana’s Eureka Public School District Superintendent James Mepham, Idaho’s
McCall-Donnelly School District former Superintendent Glen Szymoniak, and Iditarod Area School District test coordinator, principal and teacher Kimberely Bergey are up for consideration. The school board held a special meeting Wednesday with Tim Navarre and Marty An-
derson absent and Penny Vadla participating via phone. Not enough members were present to take any action. School board president Joe Arness said his preference was to offer the position to Dusek, and not go through with interviewing the other candidates. However, after discussing the
options, the board decided to hold interviews as previously scheduled. Arness asked the school board members to submit any questions they have for the candidates within a week, and Director of Human Resources Joann Riener will be reviewing See SCHOOL, page A-7
Murkowski pushes back on feds By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski used her speech before state lawmakers Wednesday to push back against a federal government that she says seems to want to starve the trans-Alaska pipeline system of new oil. Murkowski, chair of the Senate energy committee and Alaska’s senior senator, said she’s never been a good alarmist but it has become harder for her to conclude otherwise given recent federal actions. She cited as examples Presi-
dent Barack Obama’s recommendation to make oil and gas development off limits in the potentially oil-rich coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by seeking a wilderness designation, even though that plan would need congressional approval. Murkowski also cited the Obama administration’s proposal to bar drilling in millions of acres of Alaska’s Arctic waters. She said the viability of a ConocoPhillips project in the National Petroleum ReserveAlaska was put into question by “hugely expensive” mitigation measures that Obama’s admin-
istration was trying to impose on the company. ConocoPhillips Alaska late last month said it was slowing the pace of investment on the project, calling it challenged by permitting delays, requirements and current oil prices. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management last week issued a final decision on the project, under which the company said it voluntarily agreed to contribute $8 million to a compensatory mitigation fund. Alaska relies heavily on oil AP Photo/Becky Bohrer revenues to fund state govern- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaks with reporters afment, and the trans-Alaska ter delivering an address to a joint session of the state LegislaSee PUSH, page A-7 ture on Wednesday in Juneau. C
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