Ben Boettger

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HEA takes a look at electric vehicles

Of the attendees who drove from the central Kenai Peninsula to Homer for Homer Electric Association’s annual member meeting on Thursday, at least two made… Continue reading

Worker-inmates to be housed in Kenai cannery

As inmates in the work-release program at Kenai’s Wildwood Correctional Complex prepare to go to work at the town’s seafood canneries, the Alaska Department of… Continue reading

A watercolor flower by Melinda Hershberger hangs at the Kenai Fine Arts Center on Wednesday, May 2 in Kenai. Hershberger’s painting is part of the watercolor exhibit that will show there until May 25, with an opening reception on Thursday May, 3 from 5 p.m to 7 p.m. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Watercolors in bloom at Kenai Fine Arts Center

Watercolor flowers are blooming on the walls of the Peninsula Art Guild’s Kenai Fine Art Center — alongside landscapes, portraits (human and animal), and a… Continue reading

A watercolor flower by Melinda Hershberger hangs at the Kenai Fine Arts Center on Wednesday, May 2 in Kenai. Hershberger’s painting is part of the watercolor exhibit that will show there until May 25, with an opening reception on Thursday May, 3 from 5 p.m to 7 p.m. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

BlueCrest fined $20,000 for 2 safety valve violations

On April 26 the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) issued a $20,000 fine to the Cook Inlet hydrocarbon extractor BlueCrest Alaska Operating for… Continue reading

SeaLife Center faces long odds in raising octopus

The aquarium staff of the Alaska SeaLife Center are getting their third opportunity to pull off a feat accomplished only once before: raising a giant… Continue reading

Phone scammers posing as HEA collectors

Phone scammers posing as bill collectors for Homer Electric Association have targeted local business owners, seeking payment for false electric bills and threatening to cut… Continue reading

New Kenai Planner emphasizes listening, balance

New Kenai Planner emphasizes listening, balance

Elizabeth Appleby, who became Kenai’s new city planner on April 9, said she’s practiced the skills of listening to and balancing different interests through her… Continue reading

New Kenai Planner emphasizes listening, balance

Kenai plans airport terminal renovation

On Wednesday the Kenai City Council moved ahead with plans to renovate the Kenai Muncipal Airport’s passenger terminal. Council members saw a cost-breakdown and floorplan… Continue reading

CINGSA well gets first clearing of sand build-up

Drivers on Kenai’s Bridge Access Road during the past few weeks might have noticed a crane rising above the trees opposite the intersection with Beaver… Continue reading

Winged words

Winged words

Parents and children catching flights at the Kenai Municipal Airport now have the chance to make waiting time into story time. On Friday afternoon the… Continue reading

Winged words
Youth Librarian Ali Jobe of the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Soldotna Public Library sits beside the canned goods and other nonperishable food items that library patrons have donated to the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank in lieu of late fees during the library’s food for fines collection drive on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. In addition to the two and a half bins of food at the library entrance, the Food Bank has already recieved 193 pounds of food since the library began collecting on April 9. Soldotna librarians will take food for fines — at an exchange rate of $1 per item — until April 14. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).

Food for fines

Since the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Soldotna Public Library started accepting canned and other nonperishable food items in lieu of late fees on April 9,… Continue reading

Youth Librarian Ali Jobe of the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Soldotna Public Library sits beside the canned goods and other nonperishable food items that library patrons have donated to the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank in lieu of late fees during the library’s food for fines collection drive on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. In addition to the two and a half bins of food at the library entrance, the Food Bank has already recieved 193 pounds of food since the library began collecting on April 9. Soldotna librarians will take food for fines — at an exchange rate of $1 per item — until April 14. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).
Researcher Kim Ovitz observes a group of Cook Inlet beluga whales milling in a bend of the Kenai River by Cunningham Park on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. Ovitz, a fellow in the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Sea Grant program, will be counting and recording beluga activity from public locations along the Kenai River until April 31, and is also seeking to talk with local residents about their own observations of marine mammals in the Kenai. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion) 

Researcher looks at beluga use of Kenai River

Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct the end date of Ovitz's observation project. Early this week Stevie Shackelford saw his first beluga… Continue reading

Researcher Kim Ovitz observes a group of Cook Inlet beluga whales milling in a bend of the Kenai River by Cunningham Park on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. Ovitz, a fellow in the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Sea Grant program, will be counting and recording beluga activity from public locations along the Kenai River until April 31, and is also seeking to talk with local residents about their own observations of marine mammals in the Kenai. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion) 

Kenai Council limits appeals of city decisions

At their Wednesday meeting the Kenai City Council voted to change the rules that had allowed any Kenai resident to challenge any decision by city… Continue reading

Alycia Backstrom (left) and Steven Taylor pose with infant Bailey Backstrom outside their rooms in Kenai’s new Clear Pointe six-plex — the city’s first income-restricted rental housing, constructed by the Homer-based not-for-profit Kenai Housing Initiative — on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. After a roughly two-month search for a place to live, Taylor and Backstrom became Clear Pointe’s first tennants after moving in Monday. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai’s first income-restricted housing now open

The central Kenai Peninsula’s small low-income rental housing market grew six units larger with the recent completion of Clear Pointe, the first low-income housing building… Continue reading

Alycia Backstrom (left) and Steven Taylor pose with infant Bailey Backstrom outside their rooms in Kenai’s new Clear Pointe six-plex — the city’s first income-restricted rental housing, constructed by the Homer-based not-for-profit Kenai Housing Initiative — on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. After a roughly two-month search for a place to live, Taylor and Backstrom became Clear Pointe’s first tennants after moving in Monday. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
A Central Emergency Services firefighter emerges from a burning home on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 off of Poppy Lane near Kalifornsky Beach Road. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion) 

No injuries in home fire near Kalifornsky Beach Road

There were no injuries reported from a home fire near Kalifornsky Beach Road on Tuesday afternoon. No one was in the home when it burned… Continue reading

A Central Emergency Services firefighter emerges from a burning home on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 off of Poppy Lane near Kalifornsky Beach Road. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion) 

Bypass may bump businesses, boggle bears

Plans to relocate five miles of the Sterling Highway through the hills around Cooper Landing have been under way since the 1970s, but questions about… Continue reading

Tie vote jeopardizes HEA solar project

A Homer Electric Association plan to build Alaska’s highest-capacity solar farm near HEA’s Anchor Point substation is in limbo after the cooperative’s eight directors tied… Continue reading

Kenai to debate who can appeal city decisions

Kenai residents who disagree with decisions by city administrators or the Kenai Planning and Zoning Commission can appeal them to the seven members of the… Continue reading

Funding Cook Inlet: Legislature debates bonding for oil and gas tax credits

Funding Cook Inlet: Legislature debates bonding for oil and gas tax credits

Sometime between 2014 and 2015, Alaska state employees distributed a handout at oil and gas trade shows featuring a cartoon moose holding up a stack… Continue reading

Funding Cook Inlet: Legislature debates bonding for oil and gas tax credits
Instructor Lee Coray-Ludden (center) shows how to spin yarn from wool on a kick-driven spinning wheel, with student Amy Townson practicing in the background on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 in the Soldotna Preparatory School library in Soldotna, Alaska. In her four-session weekly yarn spinning class, part of the Soldotna Community Schools program, Coray-Ludden will teach students to spin and ply yarn from locally-grown wool and fleece, including exotic fibers from cashmere goats, alpacas, and llamas. (Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).

Spin class

Instructor Lee Coray-Ludden (center) shows how to spin yarn from wool on a kick-driven spinning wheel, with student Amy Townson practicing in the background on… Continue reading

Instructor Lee Coray-Ludden (center) shows how to spin yarn from wool on a kick-driven spinning wheel, with student Amy Townson practicing in the background on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 in the Soldotna Preparatory School library in Soldotna, Alaska. In her four-session weekly yarn spinning class, part of the Soldotna Community Schools program, Coray-Ludden will teach students to spin and ply yarn from locally-grown wool and fleece, including exotic fibers from cashmere goats, alpacas, and llamas. (Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).