Ben Boettger

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Pallet fires banned on Kenai beaches

By the middle of next summer, pallet fires will be illegal on Kenai’s beaches. On Wednesday the Kenai city council unanimously approved a ban on… Continue reading

Knackstedt, Navarre retain council seats

Kenai city council incumbents Henry Knackstedt and Tim Navarre will retain their seats for a further three year term, while challenger Bob McIntosh said he… Continue reading

This map from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shows the winter and summer habitats of beluga whales in the state. (Courtesy the Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

Beluga research looks at failure to rebound

Two research efforts are taking new approaches to the question of why Cook Inlet’s endangered beluga whales haven’t recovered since hunting restrictions were placed on… Continue reading

This map from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shows the winter and summer habitats of beluga whales in the state. (Courtesy the Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
This year’s three Kenai city council candidates — incumbents Tim Navarre (left) and Henry Knackstedt, and newcomer Bob McIntosh — respond to questions during a discussion on Wednesday in the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center. After the municipal elections on Oct. 3, the two top vote-getters will take the two open seats on the seven-person Kenai city council.

3 Kenai council candidates talk business

Members of the Kenai Chamber of Commerce invited the three candidates to a forum on Wednesday, at which they answered questions chamber members had submitted… Continue reading

This year’s three Kenai city council candidates — incumbents Tim Navarre (left) and Henry Knackstedt, and newcomer Bob McIntosh — respond to questions during a discussion on Wednesday in the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center. After the municipal elections on Oct. 3, the two top vote-getters will take the two open seats on the seven-person Kenai city council.
The research vessel Sikuliaq is docked at its homeport in Seward on Saturday, July 15, preparing for a research cruise through the Beaufort Sea on which oceanographer Dr. Carin Ashjian served as chief scientist. After the recent conclusion of the cruise, Dr. Ashjian was one of eight female scientists to participate in a discussion on women in science, organized by the conservation nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper, at the Kenai Fine Arts Center on Friday.

Female scientists talk about women in science

Eight research and technical professionals gathered at the Kenai Fine Arts Center on Friday to publicly discuss a statistical imbalance in their own population —… Continue reading

The research vessel Sikuliaq is docked at its homeport in Seward on Saturday, July 15, preparing for a research cruise through the Beaufort Sea on which oceanographer Dr. Carin Ashjian served as chief scientist. After the recent conclusion of the cruise, Dr. Ashjian was one of eight female scientists to participate in a discussion on women in science, organized by the conservation nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper, at the Kenai Fine Arts Center on Friday.

Hilcorp subleases Kenai airport hangar

Hilcorp will be using a hangar on the Kenai Municipal Airport for flights to its facilities on the west side of Cook Inlet. The privately-owned… Continue reading

Kenai council to consider pallet-burning ban

At its meeting on Oct. 4, the Kenai city council will consider prohibiting burning pallets and other wood with metal fasteners on the city’s north… Continue reading

Tesoro will change name to Andeavor after Western Refining acquisition

Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct Tesoro's use of the former Flint Hills refinery in North Pole. The company leased terminal space… Continue reading

Once Tesoro, now Andeavor

The refinery in Nikiski that turns Cook Inlet’s oil output into gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and propane won’t be immediately affected by the expansion and… Continue reading

Orthodox Church draws close to restoration goal with funding for chapel work

Orthodox Church draws close to restoration goal with funding for chapel work

Some of the square-hewn timbers of the small Russian Orthodox chapel in Old Town Kenai may be exchanged for fresh wood during a planned restoration… Continue reading

Orthodox Church draws close to restoration goal with funding for chapel work
Old-school metal

Old-school metal

The top 30 feet of an approximately 130 foot-tall oil drilling rig used around Alaska by the drilling company Brinkerhoff-Signal in the 1960s and 1970s… Continue reading

Old-school metal
At the close of the first day of Kenai’s Silver Salmon Derby, Kenai mayor Brian Gabriel spins one of the two wheels that generate the “magic weight,” allowing the catcher of the fish closest to that weight to win a percentage of the day’s derby earning, on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 at Three Bears grocery store in Kenai, Alaska. The wheels settled on a magic weight of 7.85 pounds. Of the 43 silver salmon brought to Three Bears to be weighed and entered on Wednesday, the winner was 8.13 pounds. The Kenai silver derby is a new promotional event in its first year, put on by the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Kenai’s city government. Complete rules can be found on the Kenai Chamber of Commerce website or at Three Bears grocery. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Wheel of Silvers

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to show the magic weight on Wednesday was determined to be 7.85 pounds. At the close of the… Continue reading

At the close of the first day of Kenai’s Silver Salmon Derby, Kenai mayor Brian Gabriel spins one of the two wheels that generate the “magic weight,” allowing the catcher of the fish closest to that weight to win a percentage of the day’s derby earning, on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 at Three Bears grocery store in Kenai, Alaska. The wheels settled on a magic weight of 7.85 pounds. Of the 43 silver salmon brought to Three Bears to be weighed and entered on Wednesday, the winner was 8.13 pounds. The Kenai silver derby is a new promotional event in its first year, put on by the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Kenai’s city government. Complete rules can be found on the Kenai Chamber of Commerce website or at Three Bears grocery. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenaitze tribe to host edible and medicinal plant conference

Experts on medicinal uses of the plants growing in woods and meadows throughout the Kenai Peninsula will be sharing their knowledge this weekend at the… Continue reading

Incorporate Nikiski may amend, withdraw petition

Editor's note: This story has been changed to show that the Local Boundary Commission did not decide on Incorporate Nikiski's contention that their petition was… Continue reading

Two of Kenai Aviation’s five airplanes &

Kenai Aviation closes after 56 years on Kenai Airport

After two generations of family ownership and 56 years of flying from the Kenai Municipal Airport, the charter air taxi service Kenai Aviation has closed… Continue reading

Two of Kenai Aviation’s five airplanes &
Madee Knowlton chases down a steer during the steer daubing event at the Soldotna Equestrian Club’s first 9-11 Tribute Rodeo, junior division, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 in Soldotna’s Centennial Park. In steer daubing, riders carry poles tipped with swabs dipped in mustard to tag a running steer forward of its shoulder. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

At the rodeo

Madee Knowlton chases down a steer during the steer daubing event at the Soldotna Equestrian Club’s first 9-11 Tribute Rodeo, junior division, on Saturday, Sept.… Continue reading

Madee Knowlton chases down a steer during the steer daubing event at the Soldotna Equestrian Club’s first 9-11 Tribute Rodeo, junior division, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 in Soldotna’s Centennial Park. In steer daubing, riders carry poles tipped with swabs dipped in mustard to tag a running steer forward of its shoulder. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
This map, taken from the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s parcel viewer, shades in green the property where Ron and Deniece Isaacs were denied a permit for their marijuana business in 2016, and shades in blue the recreational property containing the softball fields that created a 500 foot buffer, measured in a straight line from the property boundary, which excluded the Isaacs’ shop. The odd shape of the buffered property prompted an unsucessful attempt by council member Bob Molloy to loosen city restrictions on proposed marijuana businesses more than 200 feet and across a road from properties that trigger setbacks. (map by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai Council rejects loosening marijuana setbacks

An effort to loosen city restrictions on where marijuana businesses can locate in Kenai — which critics say has pushed businesses from the town’s commercial… Continue reading

This map, taken from the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s parcel viewer, shades in green the property where Ron and Deniece Isaacs were denied a permit for their marijuana business in 2016, and shades in blue the recreational property containing the softball fields that created a 500 foot buffer, measured in a straight line from the property boundary, which excluded the Isaacs’ shop. The odd shape of the buffered property prompted an unsucessful attempt by council member Bob Molloy to loosen city restrictions on proposed marijuana businesses more than 200 feet and across a road from properties that trigger setbacks. (map by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
Joanna Hollier (left) shows visitor Gary Sonnevil around her apartment in Kenai's Vintage Pointe Manor during an open house in honor of the senior housing center's 25 anniversary on Thursday, September 7, 2017 in Kenai, Alaska. Hollier moved into the 40-unit housing complex immediately after it opened in 1992 — at the age of 67, "so I was pretty young back then," she said — and is its only remaining original resident. At the anniversary celebration, Hollier, who came to Kenai in the mid-1940s to work as an air traffic controller at the city's airport, recalled how she'd waited in line to get her room after the center opened and moved her furniture from her homestead house on Beaver Loop Road. Also attending the celebration were former Kenai mayor Pat Porter — who was director of the Kenai Senior Center in 1992 and is visiting from her current home in Texas  — then-Kenai Mayor John Williams and Kenai's then-state senator Paul Fischer. Porter, Williams, and Fischer recalled how the city had lobbyed the Alaska legislature for funds to build Vintage Pointe, including baking cookies for the Senate Finance Committee and distributing a photo of a senior woman in a bed outside during a snowy winter, holding a sign reading "Don't leave us out in the cold." (Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

25 years in Vintage Pointe

Joanna Hollier (left) shows visitor Gary Sonnevil around her apartment in Kenai's Vintage Pointe Manor during an open house in honor of the senior housing… Continue reading

Joanna Hollier (left) shows visitor Gary Sonnevil around her apartment in Kenai's Vintage Pointe Manor during an open house in honor of the senior housing center's 25 anniversary on Thursday, September 7, 2017 in Kenai, Alaska. Hollier moved into the 40-unit housing complex immediately after it opened in 1992 — at the age of 67, "so I was pretty young back then," she said — and is its only remaining original resident. At the anniversary celebration, Hollier, who came to Kenai in the mid-1940s to work as an air traffic controller at the city's airport, recalled how she'd waited in line to get her room after the center opened and moved her furniture from her homestead house on Beaver Loop Road. Also attending the celebration were former Kenai mayor Pat Porter — who was director of the Kenai Senior Center in 1992 and is visiting from her current home in Texas  — then-Kenai Mayor John Williams and Kenai's then-state senator Paul Fischer. Porter, Williams, and Fischer recalled how the city had lobbyed the Alaska legislature for funds to build Vintage Pointe, including baking cookies for the Senate Finance Committee and distributing a photo of a senior woman in a bed outside during a snowy winter, holding a sign reading "Don't leave us out in the cold." (Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Sterling man arrested for drug charges

A Sterling man, Dennis Backstrom, was charged with controlled substance misconduct and theft after being arrested by Kenai police Sunday morning in the parking lot… Continue reading

Kenai Lions Club hosts annual rubber duck race

Kenai Lions Club hosts annual rubber duck race

Of the approximately 650 to 700 yellow rubber ducks floating down the Kenai River on Monday morning — released upstream of Kenai’s Cunningham Park by… Continue reading

Kenai Lions Club hosts annual rubber duck race