Ice rivers
Pick ‘Em
Exhibit features art of Alaska’s glaciers
Struggles continue for NFL expert picker
Arts & Entertainment / A9
Sports / A7
CLARION
47/31 More weather, Page A2
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Vol. 50, Issue 18
IN THE NEWS
Police seek elderly man recorded lighting fire ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage police are asking for help identifying an elderly man suspected of walking up to a home and lighting it on fire. The Oct. 16 fire charred the front door and exterior of the south Anchorage home. The homeowner extinguished the fire. The Anchorage Daily News reports homesecurity video recorded the suspect stepping out of a gray or silver Subaru or Toyota station wagon and walking up to the door. He carried a gas can in one hand and a box of matches in the other. The man pours a liquid along the bottom of the door and lights it. As flames appear, the man steps off the porch. He then returns to the porch, possibly to retrieve the gas can. Family members say they don’t recognize the man.
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Fewer nuisance bears killed ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the number of nuisance bears killed around Anchorage fell sharply this summer. See NEWS, Page A3
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Borough Assembly elects new leadership By Brian Mazurek Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly elected new leadership during their meeting Tuesday night, following the municipal elections at the beginning of this month and the certification of three new assembly members. After an invocation lead by George Holly, Jr. of Kenai and approval of the consent agenda for the evening, the assembly voted on which members would serve as the president and vice president for the 2019-2020 session. Kelly Cooper, representing District 8 in Homer, was the only person nominated to be president and was approved unanimously by the rest of the assembly.
Cooper had previously served as assembly president three years ago and said on Wednesday that she was pleased to be able to serve again. “There were conversations during the elections earlier this month about the assembly being stacked a certain way, but I think this new body is very diverse in terms of people’s backgrounds and stances on the issues,” Cooper said. “Obviously I’d like to see more women serving on the assembly, but I expect to see a lot of healthy debate this year.” The assembly president is responsible for facilitating each meeting by ensuring that the rules and regulations of the assembly are being followed. The president also assists See ASSEMBLY, Page A3
BRIAN MAZUREK / PENINSULA CLARION
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly President Kelly Cooper and Vice President Hal Smalley attend the assembly meeting Tuesday in Soldotna.
Extreme Fun Center opens
HEA gives updates on downed power line By Brian Mazurek
Warm, wet winter predicted by federal agency ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A warmer and wetter winter than normal is expected in Alaska, according to federal weather forecasters. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration released the winter outlook following an unusually warm summer, news agencies reported. The above-normal temperature prediction for is in large part due to a lack of sea ice, which is expected to result in warmer water that sustains higher land temperatures into the winter, NOAA said. Alaska’s winter will be wetter than normal because warmer air holds more moisture. The state’s temperatures are still expected to be below the freezing point and periods of cold temperatures and snowfall are predicted, the agency said. NOAA issues a three-month outlook each month and the next update is expected Nov. 21.
Rinse cycle
Peninsula Clarion
Children shoot hoops Wednesday in the newly opened Kenai Extreme Fun Center in Kenai.
By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
Kenai’s newest entertainment option has opened just in time for winter. The Extreme Fun Center, a project in the works for around three years, had their soft opening Wednesday. “We’re so excited to be here in Kenai,” said Cheryl Metiva, director of Alaska sales and marketing for Coming Attraction Theatres, the center’s owner. Metiva said the fun center is like a “giant arcade for all ages.” She said the center has 50 games, amd more are on the way. Some of the games are newer and involve popular video games and virtual reality, while other games are classic, like Skee Ball. “As the business grows, we have the ability to grow,” Metiva said.
Hungry patrons can order pizza, wings, mozzarella sticks and more from the center’s food court. The center also has space to to host parties and events. The center is cashless, and gamers recieve pre-paid cards for games and keep track of points, which can then be used to pay for prizes at the gift shop. With the loss of Kenai’s bowling alley years ago, the Extreme Fun Center is hoping to fill a gap in central peninsula entertainment market. “We felt there was a need here,” Metiva said. Between 12 and 16 jobs were added to the community with the openings of the theatre and the fun center. In 2017, Coming Attractions purchased the former Kenai Professional Center, now home to the Extreme Fun Center. The
VICTORIA PETERSEN / PENINSULA CLARION
two-story office space was built in 1968, and has been sitting vacant since the mid 1980s, the Clarion previously reported. Coming Attractions has Extreme Fun Centers in Wasilla and Aberdeen, Washington. The Ashland, Oregon-based Coming Attraction Theatres operates 18 movie theaters in coastal Washington, Oregon and northern California, according to its website. In 2017, the Oregon company also bought the former Kenai Regal Kambe Theatre — now called Kenai Cinema. The movie theatre opened in May and has expanded from three screens to seven screens with stadium seating. The Extreme Fun Center’s hours will be the same as its Wasilla location, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
At this week’s joint Kenai/ Soldotna Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, Homer Electric Association’s General Manager Brad Janorschke gave an update on some recent developments for the energy cooperative. Janorschke started off by comparing the service quality of HEA to that of a California energy company, Pacific Gas and Electric, which made national headlines following their announcement to mitigate wildfire risk by shutting off power to millions of customers. “The good news is, in Alaska, we have not found this to be an acceptable practice,” Janorschke said. “And we’ll do everything possible to make sure that’s something we do not have to do.” Several large wildfires burned across Alaska this summer, and the Swan Lake Fire alone scorched over 167,000 acres on the Kenai Peninsula. The threat posed by the Swan Lake Fire prompted HEA earlier this year to de-energize their transmission line that runs parallel to the Sterling Highway and sends energy back and forth between the Kenai peninsula and other parts of Alaska including Anchorage and Fairbanks. The transmission line moves about 88% of all the hydroelectric power generated by the Bradley Lake hydroelectric facility at the head of Kachemak Bay, Janorschke said. Normally that energy is used to power homes and businesses from Seward to Fairbanks, but Janorschke said that with the transmission line See HEA, Page A3
Republicans disrupt impeachment deposition By Michael Balsamo and Mary Clare Jalonick Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Republicans briefly brought the Democrat-led impeachment investigation to a halt Wednesday when around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. Democrats said the move compromised national security because some of the Republicans brought electronic devices into a secure room. The protest by Republican lawmakers captured national attention, drawing the focus away
from the testimony of a top U.S. diplomat who told lawmakers just a day earlier that he was told President Donald Trump was withholding military aid from Ukraine unless the country’s president pledged to investigate Democrats. The maneuver delayed a deposition with Laura Cooper, a senior Defense Department official who oversees Ukraine policy, until midafternoon. The interview began roughly five hours behind schedule, after a security check by Capitol officials, and ended after roughly four hours. As a series of diplomats have been interviewed in the impeachment probe, many Republicans have been silent on the president’s conduct.
But they have been outspoken about their disdain for Democrats and the impeachment process, saying it is unfair to them even though they have been in the room questioning witnesses and hearing the testimony. “The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what’s going on,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform panel. That committee is one of three leading the investigation, and its members are allowed into the closeddoor hearings. Lawmakers described a chaotic scene. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she had
just walked into the room when the Republican lawmakers blew past Capitol police officers and Democratic staffers. The staff member who was checking identification at the entrance was “basically overcome” by the Republicans, she said. “Literally some of them were just screaming about the president and what we’re doing to him and that we have nothing and just all things that were supportive of the president,” Wasserman Schultz said. Later when the deposition began, Cooper answered questions from lawmakers and staffers in response to See DISRUPT, Page A2