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Sunday, August 18, 2019 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 263
Swan Lake fire flares up, again
Dunleavy to announce budget decisions Monday
Authorities identify 4 who died in Girdwood plane crash ANCHORAGE — Authorities have released the names of the four people killed when a small airplane slammed into a mountain near Girdwood earlier this month. Alaska State Troopers identified the victims Friday as 31-year-old Charles Weimer, 60-yearold David Osborn, 55-year-old Karl Erickson and 37-year-old Paul Wiley. All were Girdwood residents except for Wiley, who lived in Superior, Arizona. The four died Aug. 4 when the plane hit Goat Mountain at about 5,500 feet during a short sightseeing flight over the Girdwood valley. The National Transportation Safety Board says the wreckage was largely consumed by a post-crash fire. A witness told federal investigators he saw the Piper P22-150 airplane “performing aggressive flight maneuvers” shortly before it crashed. The cause of the crash is under investigation. See news, Page A3
Index
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JUNEAU — Gov. Mike Dunleavy plans to announce his final decisions on the state budget Monday. Dunleavy’s office previously indicated a final announcement was expected this week. But his press office said Friday the review is continuing and an announcement is expected Monday. Lawmakers, unable to win support to override Dunleavy’s vetoes to a wide-swath of programs and institutions, passed legislation to restore many of the cuts. Dunleavy said this go-round he will not cut funding for certain early education and senior programs. He also moderated his position on cuts to the University of Alaska system, which he said was not related to a recall effort against him. The bill also includes a roughly $1,600 permanent fund dividend, less than Dunleavy has argued for.
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By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
megan pacer/homer news
A young volunteer chases three piglets — Mary Hamkins, Petunia and Sir Oinks-a-lot — through the race at Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds during the pig races on Friday in Ninilchik. Spectators place bets on their favorite swine to win and the proceeds go to support the fair.
Living the fair life Pig races, fish throwing, live entertaintment and livestock auctions on display in Ninilchik By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
and Megan Pacer Homer News
Fair weather and fair fun were in abundance this weekend at the annual Kenai Peninsula Fair in Ninilchik. Families from all over the peninsula converged on the fairgrounds to enjoy live music, classic games like the egg throwing competition, classic-to-Alaska games like the fish throwing contest, and the ever popular 4-H Junior Market Livestock Auction. Participants in 4-H also showcased their talents in other ways not related to pigs, goats and cattle. The exhibit hall at the fairgrounds was filled to the brim this year with oneof-a-kind creations showcasing the talent of local youngsters and their love of Alaska. From handmade traditional Alaska Native mukluks, to miniature Lego replicas of the BB-8 android from the Star Wars film franchise, crafting skills of all kinds were on display. Another big crowd-pleaser was
the annual pig races. Businesses, including Alaska USA Credit Union, Diamond M Ranch and Matti’s Farm in Kenai, each sponsored a piglet. The animals race in two heats before a final showdown between the winners of those first two rounds. Spectators place bets on which swine they favor to win, and those who win get to take tokens to the Ninilchik Thrift and Gift to redeem for prizes. All proceeds from the pig races to go support the fair. This year’s first round of races featured a tight competition between a group of six piglets: Mary Hamkins, Petunia, Sir Oinks-a-lot, Lightning, Hamlet and Kevin Bacon. As the announcer noted between races, it’s “the largest baby pig race on the entire Kenai Peninsula.” Petunia came out victorious against the winner of the first heat, Hamlet, to take home the trophy in Friday’s first round of racing. The main event on Saturday was the 4-H Junior Market Livestock Auction, which featured pigs, cows, lambs, turkeys, geese and even a few pheasants raised over the last
year by about 40 kids from clubs across the peninsula. The animals were judged on Friday and each category had a grand champion and a reserve champion, which were the first to be sold off Saturday afternoon. The animals were mostly bought by local organizations and businesses, including the Soldotna Rotary Club, which buys the grand champion pig each year. This year’s grand champion pig was Chaos, raised by soon-to-be seventh grader Alekzander Angleton of Nikiski. Angleton is in his fourth year with the 4-H program and only his second year raising a pig for the auction. When asked how Chaos got his namesake, Angleton said that he was pretty wild as a piglet and was always causing trouble. As if to answer the question himself, Chaos knocked over his water bowl during Angleton’s interview. Despite his rebellious nature, Chaos drew a lot of compliments from this year’s judge, Rayne Reynolds, who told Angleton that the pig could easily be competitive on a national level. See fair, Page A2
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Alaska has been America’s canary in the coal mine for climate warming, and the yellow bird is swooning. July was Alaska’s warmest month ever, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sea ice melted. Bering Sea fish swam in above-normal temperatures. So did children in the coastal town of Nome. Wildfire season started early and stayed late. Thousands of walruses thronged to shore. Unusual weather events like this could become more common with climate warming, said Brian Brettschneider, an associate climate researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ International Arctic Research Center. Alaska has seen “multiple decades-long increases” in temperature, he said.
“It becomes easier to have these unusual sets of conditions that now lead to records,” Brettschneider said. Alaska’s average temperature in July was 58.1 degrees. That’s 5.4 degrees above average and 0.8 degrees higher than the previous warmest month of July 2004, NOAA said. The effects were felt from the Arctic Ocean to the world’s largest temperate rainforest on Alaska’s Panhandle. Anchorage, the state’s largest city, on July 4 for the first time hit 90 degrees at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 5 degrees higher than the city’s previous recorded high of 85 degrees. Sea ice off Alaska’s north and northwest shore and other Arctic regions retreated to the lowest level ever recorded for July, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. Arctic sea ice for July set a record low of 2.9 million square miles. That was a South Carolina-size loss of
See fire, Page A3
Homer easement closure voted down By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
30,900 square miles below the previous record low July in 2012. Sea ice is the main habitat for polar bears and a resting platform for female walruses and their young. Several thousand walruses came to shore July 30, the first time they’ve been spotted in such large numbers before August. Effects were less obvious in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s west coast. Lyle Britt, a NOAA Fisheries biologist who oversees the agency’s annual Bering Sea groundfish survey, was on a trawler east of the island of Saint Matthew during the first week of July. “The temperature out there for us was in the high 70s,” Britt said. “On those boats, everything up there is designed to conserve heat, not vent heat. It was unbearably warm inside the boat.” On the ocean bottom, Britt’s crew for the second consecutive year
An effort by a group of Homer residents to close off a pedestrian easement running by their properties was shot down at a Monday planning commission meeting. On Aug. 12, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission narrowly voted 5-4 to not vacate about 830 feet of a section line easement near the homes on Dorothy Drive of Peter and Kathleen Zuyus, Richard Koskovich and musician Zac Brown, of the Zac Brown Band. The road is in a subdivision below East Skyline Drive. Parts of the section line were vacated in the 1990s, but a 20-foot-wide pedestrian easement was kept. The issue has been playing out at the state and borough level since the group of neighbors first sought to make Dorothy Drive a private road back in July 2018. The Department of Natural Resources did temporarily close a portion of the section line easement in May of this year, but then reversed the decision a month later in June after a Homer area citizen requested reconsideration. Brown and his neighbors originally filed a petition to vacate the section-line easement with the DNR. The department issued a preliminary decision supporting the easement vacation, but referred it to the borough for the planning commission’s input. Monday’s meeting brought scores of people to the borough’s assembly chambers. Dozens of people spoke to the issue — from homesteaders who say they use the easement to get to and from family and neighbor homes, to property rights activists from across the borough. The petitioners were seeking to vacate the easement, which sees pedestrian use, due to privacy and safety concerns. They also wanted to vacate the upper pedestrian easement that runs between the Koskovich and Brown properties. Brown was the first to offer public comment dur ing
See record, Page A2
See homer, Page A2
Alaska records its warmest month ever; future records likely By DAN JOLING
Weeks after fire crews wrapped up their containment efforts, the Swan Lake Fire is growing again. According to the latest update from the Incident Management Team, the 102,906-acre fire has experienced substantial growth over the last few days. A cold front has moved in from the north and brought dry winds that are pushing smoke into Cooper Landing and the Kenai River corridor. The wind conditions also dried out fuels in areas near the Thurman Creek, Mystery Creek and Dike Creek drainages, leading to increased fire activity. These conditions have prompted managers of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to close the Fuller Lakes and Skyline Trails. The Chugach National Forest