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Vol. 49, Issue 202
Editor’s note New publishing schedule The final Monday edition of the Peninsula Clarion will publish May 27. We will continue to publish five days a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
In the news Beaver makes surprise cameo in Alaska police camera video ANCHORAGE — A police camera caught a beaver’s surprise appearance near a traffic stop in Alaska’s largest city. Anchorage police posted the brief video on the department’s Facebook page Wednesday showing the creature ambling into the road between two patrol cars. The beaver then backtracks before disappearing from the screen. Police wrote in the post, “We say it all the time: Rubbernecking is bad.” They said, “Thankfully he didn’t end up a speed bump. That would’ve been depressy (depressing + messy). Nothing to see here, buddy. Scurry on.”
1 dead, 2 hurt in Parks Highway collision ANCHORAGE — Alaska State Troopers say a 22-year-old South Dakota man died and two other people were injured in a collision on the Parks Highway. Nicholas Bertram, who was driving an SUV, died at the scene of the Thursday afternoon crash. Troopers say the crash occurred when the SUV collided with a semi tractor-trailer as the SUV was turning left onto the highway at the intersection of the Big Lake cutoff. Troopers say the driver of the semi, 37-year-old Arnol Farmer, was unable to avoid the collision. Farmer was not injured. Two passengers in the SUV — 43-year-old Frieda Gillespie and 28-yearold Shawn Phillips-Tomlinson — were taken to an area hospital. Troopers say one of those passengers was flown there. — Associated Press
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‘Last link in an error chain’
Coast Guard releases report on crane fatality By Michael Armstrong Homer News
Improper operation of a crane in the buoy yard of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hickory in January caused a crane to roll over and kill a crew member of the Hickory, a report released Tuesday concluded. The Major Incident Investigation board report also cited leadership deficiencies aboard the Hickory that contributed to inadequate crewmember training. On Jan. 31, while Hickory crew moved buoys and other items in the yard at the Homer Harbor, a Shuttlelift crane rolled over, with the boom hitting Chief Warrant Officer Michael Kozloski on the head while he stood talking to another crewmember within the area of the crane operations. Rear Admiral Matthew T. Bell Jr., commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, Juneau, has temporarily relieved the Hickory’s
Assembly fails to overturn mayor’s veto of education funds By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
four young children, Madeline, Bayleigh, Cassidy and Michael. The report found that
Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce’s veto of $2.4 million of supplemental funding for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will stand — after the action was sustained at Tuesday’s assembly meeting. The Borough Assembly passed an ordinance April 16 increasing the fiscal year 2019 funds to the school district by $2,423,955. The ordinance passed last month, 5-4. To overturn the veto, the assembly needed six votes in favor. At Tuesday’s assembly meeting, there was no public comment or assembly discussion regarding the ordinance. The assembly voted 3-6, with assembly members Kelly
See COAST, page A8
See VETO, page A2
Homer Volunteer Fire Department emergency medical technicians treat Chief Warrant Officer Michael Kozloski, a crew member of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hickory, after he was injured when a crane tipped over at the Pioneer Dock on the Homer Spit on Thursday, Jan. 31. Kozloski was later pronounced dead at South Peninsula Hospital. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News.) captain, Lt. Cmdr. Adam Leggett, of duty. Cmdr. Charter Tschirgi has assumed command of the Hickory.
Kozloski, 35, of Mahopac, New York, died of his injuries. He is survived by his wife of 15 years, Brienne Kozloski and their
Native veterans get another chance to receive land By ALEX DeMARBAN Anchorage Daily News
ANCHORAGE — Nelson Angapak Sr. promised Sen. Ted Stevens to help Alaska Native veterans get another chance to apply for prized land allotments. It took two decades, but the 74-year-old Yup’ik leader from Southwest Alaska has done it — with help from others, he points out. Congress in March passed a major lands bill that opens the door for more Native veterans to apply for tracts of land of up to 160 acres. It follows a more limited application period in 1998, an opportunity that many veterans said wasn’t enough. The allotments were offered to Alaska Natives by the federal government beginning in 1906, after
In this photo taken May 6, Nelson Angapak stands outside the Federal Building in Anchorage. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
non-Native settlers and miners began arriving in the state and claiming Native lands.
The program’s original restrictions prevented many from applying until the 1960s, as today’s vet-
erans were heading overseas during the Vietnam War era, said Kevin Illingworth, professor of tribal
management at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Nonprofit firms helped many Natives apply at the time. Applications surged. More than 13,000 allotments were awarded then, representing a tiny fraction of land in Alaska. But the program ended in 1971, before many of the 3,000 or so Natives serving in the military returned to Alaska. “The Native veterans never got that assistance, or they didn’t know about this allotment push,” Illingworth said. Angapak planned to apply for the land-allotment program in his early 20s. But the U.S. Army drafted him in 1969, whisking him to Turkey to be a communications specialist for two years. “As military personnel you get very engrossed See VETS, page A8
More details emerge from fatal Ketchikan crash By Alex McCarthy Juneau Empire
The pilot of one of the planes involved in the fatal May 13 crash near Ketchikan told investigators that just before the crash, he dropped his plane to a lower altitude to show the passengers a waterfall, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation
Safety Board. The report, dated Wednesday, provides detail of the crash from the pilot of a Taquan Air Otter airplane. The pilot of the Mountain Air Beaver airplane, 46-year-old Ketchikan resident Randy Sullivan, died in the crash. Five others were killed in the crash, and 10 were injured.
The Taquan pilot, who has not been identified, told investigators that he hadn’t seen any conflicting traffic on his flight display that included Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast data. He had last looked at the display when he was flying over Carroll Inlet, according to the report. The crash occurred near the west side of
Tribal officials blame state for stalled child welfare talks FAIRBANKS (AP) — Alaska Native officials have criticized the state for backing out of negotiations over the Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact, a report said. The Alaska Federation of Natives and state tribal officials blamed Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his administration in a May 17 statement for
the breakdown of negotiations over funding, The Fairbanks Daily NewsMiner reported Thursday. The compact signed by former independent Gov. Bill Walker in 2017 said Alaska Natives make up about 20% of the state’s children but more than half are in foster care. The agreement enables tribes to manage services
for those children. The state entered negotiations expecting all tribal funding for fiscal year 2020 would go toward “direct services and deliverables” and that tribes would come up with their own insurance to cover risks related to work done by the state in the process, said Matt See TALKS, page A3
George Inlet, east of Mahoney Lake, at about 3,350 feet, investigators say. Prior to descending to view the waterfall, the Otter was flying at about 3,700 feet. The Beaver was traveling at 3,350 feet as it approached the scene of the crash, according to the report. Right before the collision, the pilot saw a flash
from his left, he told investigators. After the impact, the plane rolled right and began to dive nose-first toward the George Inlet water. The pilot was able to regain some control over the plane in the next five seconds before it hit the water, the pilot told investigators. The Otter’s wreckage came to rest about 80 feet See CRASH, page A2
Free dump sites for beetlekilled trees in Mat-Su Borough PALMER (AP) — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is offering free sites for residents to dispose of spruce beetle-killed trees. The move comes as officials try to reduce fire danger amid a spruce beetle infestation, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The sites are the borough’s central landfill, as well as transfer stations at Big Lake and near Talkeetna. The service is available
only to borough residents for private, not commercial, use. The disposal sites are part of an initiative announced Thursday by officials. The insects are native to Alaska. The infestations have come in cycles, with the last one damaging nearly 4,700 square miles in South central Alaska, primarily on the Kenai See TREES, page A3