25.0°

As a young man in Wisconsin, I awoke one morning and decided to jump on my snow machine and do some riding. I slipped on all of my cold weather gear, which included a very warm Arctic Cat snow machine suit, mittens, and my helmet. I started my snow machine and was off, despite the snow being so dry and fluffy it made visibility very poor. Despite having at least one road in site all the time, I never saw one vehicle or another snow machine that day.

The folks at Driven Auto Body want you to be prepared in the event you or a loved one is involved in an automobile accident, so they are giving away a free accident report check list that you can keep in your car should an accident occur. "The purpose of the form is to assist drivers in our community that become involved in an accident, whether its with a moose or another vehicle, to relieve the stress of an accident by giving them a convenient check list or form to complete. Many times we have customers come in with information scratched on scraps of paper, theatre tickets or whatever they might find at the time. So as a public service, we've created an accident report form. It is made out of heavy card stock paper that's easy to write on, and you just leave in your glove box along with other information. Hopefully you'll never need it, but if you ever do, you don't have to stress to remember all the things you're supposed to do at the time. Just fill in the blanks and you'll have all the information you'll need for your insurance company," said Driven Auto Body Manager Ray Gonzalez.

Back in 2005, the City of Kenai entered into a sister city agreement with the Russian city of Bolshoi Common, for mutual community benefits. At a recent Kenai Chamber of Commerce meeting, Sal Mattero of Reality Check Consulting reported on his trip with Dee Gaddis of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District to Vladivostok, Russia. According to Mattero, their visas for Bolshoi Common were revoked early last year, so they arranged to meet with city officials in Vladivostok. "We had gone back there to talk with them about a new business incubator similar to the EDD program we have here in Kenai. Then we were asked to go back in 2008 to review their program, and that was when we introduced them to the Job Shadow concept which they became very interested in," said Mattero.

On the 14th & 15th of January, the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District (KPEDD) and the Kenai Peninsula Chapter of the Alliance hosted an Industrial Outlook Forum titled: "Looking Forward to the Next Decade." According to KPEDD executive director John Torgerson, the purpose of the forum was to offer an opportunity to a variety of speakers and topics, some 45 in all, to discuss the economic outlook for municipalities, Borough and State with regards to oil, gas, mining, gas pipeline projects, and overviews by Native Corporations with impacts on the Kenai Peninsula. "The two day event was open to Borough residents at no cost. It included economic overviews from the University of Alaska ISER program and Department of Labor, the borough and city mayors, with updates from the Governor's office, U.S. Senator offices, Congressman Young's state director, as well as the president of the state Senate, and speaker of the state House of Representatives.

The 34th Annual Peninsula Winter Games (PWG) are coming this Saturday, January 30th to the Soldotna Sports Center. A full day of family activities gets underway at 11:00am according to January Yaeger, project coordinator for the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce. "It's all about the kids! We'll have ice bowling again along with the return of the kick sleds for kids, snow machine rides, plus all the indoor activities like face painting, the Monopoly tournament, and something for everyone. Of course none this could happen if it wasn't for our major sponsor, ConocoPhillips," said Yeager. Since the Winter Games were first conceived by Sterling missionary Al York, they have been a broad-based community event designed to get families involved with traditional Alaskan activities.