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Vol. 49, Issue 222
In the news 3 more dead gray whales found in Alaska; state total at 10 ANCHORAGE — Three more gray whales have died in Alaska, bringing the total to 10 for 2019. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the latest dead animals were found in Southeast Alaska. A fisherman Monday reported a dead floating gray whale near Wrangell. The U.S. Forest Service helped secure it to a beach. Late Tuesday, a gray whale was spotted beached on the outer coast of Kruzof Island west of Sitka. It has substantially decomposed. Also on Tuesday, a carcass was seen floating near Annette Island south of Ketchikan. NOAA Fisheries last month declared an unusual mortality event for elevated gray whale strandings along the West Coast. The agency says 167 gray whales have been found dead from Mexico to Alaska.
Police release name of victim in motorcycle homicide case ANCHORAGE — Anchorage police have released the name of a man killed on a motorcycle that was being chased by a stolen sport utility vehicle. Thirty-six-year-old Christopher Lebert died early Wednesday morning. Police are investigating the case as a homicide. The SUV was stolen Tuesday night at the Port of Alaska. Patrol officers shortly after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday responded to a crash on Minnesota Parkway near 15th Avenue. Minnesota Parkway is the main north-south thoroughfare on the city’s west side. They found Lebert dead and his motorcycle dragged some distance away. The stolen SUV exited on the off-ramp leading to West High School and was found abandoned in a neighborhood southwest of the crash scene. Police say the crash was not a hit-and-run. They’re asking for witnesses with information to contact them. — Associated Press
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Friday-Saturday, June 21-22, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
Roadwork continues on schedule Seward
launches birding festival
By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
Construction season continues on the central peninsula as all four major road renovation projects in the area move forward on schedule. On the Sterling Highway between Sterling and Cooper Landing, crews from Granite Construction are working to improve road conditions from Mile 58 to 79. Major renovations, including shoulder widening and culvert replacement, are taking place, so motorists should be aware of delays. Pilot car and flagging operations are in effect between Mile 69 and 73, as well as between Mile 65 and 67, near the Watson Lake area. Crews will be active in these areas from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Friday and Sunday nights.
By Kat Sorensen Peninsula Clarion
A construction crew excavates along the Kenai Spur Highway on Tuesday, June 4. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Delays of up to 15 minutes are expected. During the day, crews are working between Mile 59
and 63 near the eastern end of ground. Motorists should be Skilak Lake Road, as well as aware of flagging operations between Mile 69 and 71 near on this section of the highway. See ROAD, page A2 the Peterson Lake Camp-
Seward will be hosting its first Seabird Festival this weekend from Friday to Sunday. The inaugural event will include art and food vendors, kid activities, birding competitions, talks by bird experts and specific bird-watching boat tours. Events will be held throughout town at the Alaska SeaLife Center, the K.M. Rae Building, Zudy’s Cafe, the Iditarod Memorial, the American Legion, Kenai See BIRD, page A3
Borough defunds tourism marketing council By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council — a nonprofit, public-private partnership aimed at promoting the Kenai Peninsula as a “world class visitor destination”— was defunded Tuesday evening when the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted to sustain a budgetary,
line-item veto made by Mayor Charlie Pierce earlier that day. Pierce vetoed the $100,000 in funding for the council, a June 18 memo to the assembly said. Because of the veto, Pamela Parker, a board member of the tourism marketing council, said the organization’s website will go into disrepair, due to lack of funding for digital marketing. She said
search engine optimization and Facebook marketing will also cease without funds from the borough. “I guarantee you, folks from Anchorage and out of state are not going to be seeing the Kenai Peninsula at the top of their search when they look for things to do in Alaska, and that is going to be a direct correlation to the funding that you just vetoed,” Parker
told the assembly Tuesday. In his veto memo, Pierce said it was time for the borough to market itself in new ways. “I believe it is time for the borough to go in a different direction by using a competitive solicitation process to hire an organization to market the areas of the borough outside of the cities,” the memo reads. “This would provide
an avenue to explore different options available for this marketing that include promoting other forms of economic development and a better understanding of borough functions.” In his proposed FY 2020 budget, Pierce zeroed out the $100,000 marketing council funds provided in years past. The assembly amended the See FUND, page A3
Lawmakers wary of Wasilla special session By MARK THIESSEN and BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
WASILLA — When Gov. Mike Dunleavy called for the Legislature’s next special session to be held in Wasilla, some agreed with him that a change of venue would be good for lawmakers struggling to finish their work after a drawn-out five months at the state capital. Others called it a means of intimidation or cited security and logistical concerns. Now, the wait is on to see if the House and Senate heed Dunleavy’s call to do business July 8 in his conservative hometown. It would be the first time an Alaska special session has convened outside the capital, Juneau, or the state’s largest city, Anchorage, where a few have been held. Nationally, it’s rare for special sessions to be held outside state capitals, though committee hearings sometimes take
This Friday, June 14, photo shows Jeremy Price, a deputy chief of staff to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, showing reporters the cafeteria at Wasilla Middle School. (AP Photo/ Mark Thiessen)
place elsewhere. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, pitching it as a way to make government more accessible, gave most of his State of the State speeches outside of that state’s capital, after his first address at the
Statehouse was marred by protests. Alaska’s Republican governor called the session so lawmakers can finalize this year’s payout to residents from the state’s oil wealth fund, a
New UAA chancellor visits Homer By Michael Armstrong Homer News
Eight months into her job as University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor, Cathy Sandeen has survived not just her first winter in Alaska, but crises that might have sent other cheechakos screaming back to the Lower 49 states. Sandeen started out 2019 not just with the loss of accreditation for the UAA School of Education, but with a proposed budget from Gov. Mike Dunleavy that included a cut of $134 million or 40% of the state’s contribution to the University of Alaska funding. “I didn’t expect as extreme a cut as in the gover-
University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Cathy Sandeen speaks last Friday, June 14, at the opening of the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference at Land’s End Resort in Homer. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/ Homer News) nor’s original proposal,” Sandeen said in an interview with the Homer News. “I think the community understood the
ramifications and stood behind the university.” Last weekend, Sandeen See UA, page A2
politically divisive issue that has been simmering for years and is nearing a boiling point. The checks have been smaller for the past three years as political leaders struggling with a budget deficit strayed from a
formula in state law for calculating them. If the law is followed as Dunleavy wants, this year’s check will be about $3,000. The House, controlled by a bipartisan majority composed largely of Democrats, rejected a full payout during the first special session of the year, in Juneau, while the Republicanled Senate was more closely divided in not advancing a full payout. Dunleavy warned of a change of venue if lawmakers didn’t complete their business during that session, suggesting as a potential site the Matanuska-Susitna region, where Wasilla is nestled about 40 miles north of Anchorage. Wasilla made headlines more than a decade ago as the hometown of then-Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, an Anchorage See WARY, page A3
Sullivan, Murkowski ask to tap relief funds for seafood ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s congressional delegation said the state’s fishermen and seafood processors should be included in a federal trade war relief package, a report said. Lawmakers asked the Trump administration to give its seafood industry access to $15 billion earmarked for farmers, The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday. “Unjustified retaliatory” tariffs are eroding Alaska seafood’s market share in China, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young said in a June 11 letter. The delegation wants Agriculture Secretary Sonny
Perdue to include Alaska seafood in the recent federal support package for U.S. agricultural products affected by the ongoing Chinese trade war. “New market growth has stopped and Alaska seafood consumption has dropped,” the legislators wrote to Perdue. China’s 25% tariff on Alaska salmon, pollock, cod and other fish implemented in July boosts the overall tariff to 32% on some fish species, they said. Before the trade war began, China bought about $1 billion per year in seafood, the state’s largest privatesector employer. See SEA, page A3