■ The Soldotna Chamber of Commerce next meets June 30 at noon at Froso’s Restaurant in Soldotna. Larry Persily, assistant to the borough mayor, will provide an update on the Alaska LNG Project. RSVP to 262-9814.
■ The Kenai Chamber of Commerce’s annual Community Awards Luncheon is June 24 at noon at the Kenai Visitor Center. Join the Kenai Chamber in recognizing the outstanding members of the community. The festivities will include a catered lunch, Keynote Speaker Peggy Arness, and 2014 awards presentation which will include the Log Cabin, Pioneer, Community Service, Volunteer, Business/Organization, Service to Youth, Small Business, and President’s Awards. RSVP required to 283-1991.
Wells Fargo has named Christina Cooper as Kenai Peninsula small business specialist. She will focus on meeting the unique financial needs of Kenai Peninsula small business owners and helping them succeed financially. Her office is located at Wells Fargo’s Soldotna store.
Cooper, who is originally from Homer, has been helping Kenai Peninsula customers succeed financially for three years as a teller, lead teller, personal banker and business specialist. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She previously owned a small business in Homer, and she serves in the community as a volunteer for the Out of the Garden project to feed children in need.
July is peony month in Alaska. To celebrate, the Alaska Peony Growers Association is going to have a farm tour on Saturday June 27 at some of the farms on the central Kenai Peninsula.
Basic topics covered during the tour will include:
— How to best utilize your property;
— What to do in your field after you have planted by before your flowers are ready to sell;
— Companion planting for pest control;
— Chillers and packhouses.
The tour begins at 10 a.m. at Echo Lake Peonies, owned by Richard and Irene Repper. Take Kalifornsky Beach Road to Gas Well Road, then turn left onto Echo Lake Road. Go a half-mile, then turn left on Price.
For more information, call 283-1400.
The Kenai Soil & Water Conservation District announces a workshop covering all aspects of using the District’s Meri Crusher, an implement used to prepare cleared land for planting, reclaim old farmland, or maintain trails. This workshop is required for anyone who wishes to rent the implement during the 2015 season. The workshop will be held 9-10 a.m. Saturday in Ninilchik off Oil Well Road. Cost is $25. Please call Heidi at 283-8732 ext. 5 to register and get directions.
The Kenai Soil & Water Conservation District has a wide variety of agricultural equipment for rent, including manual and mechanized tools for tillage, re-seeding, planting, pesticide and fertilizer application and bale wrapping. For information, see the “Equipment Rental” page at www.kenaisoilandwater.org.
The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) will offer a 12-hour Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor workshop in Homer on July 11 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The workshop will be conducted at the Best Western Bidarka Inn, 575 Sterling Highway. This workshop is an excellent opportunity for commercial fishermen and other mariners to gain hands-on training with marine safety equipment and learn best practices for surviving emergencies at sea.
Instructor Rob Hulse will cover cold-water survival skills; EPIRBs, flares, and maydays; man-overboard recovery and firefighting; immersion suits and PFDs, helicopter rescue, life rafts, abandon ship procedures, and emergency drills. There will be and in-the-water practice session, giving participants practical experience with PFDs and immersion suits, employing survival techniques, and righting and boarding an inflatable life raft.
AMSEA Drill Conductor workshops meet the training requirements for documented commercial fishing vessels operating beyond the federal boundary line. This workshop is offered to commercial fishermen at no cost, thanks to support from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health. Interested mariners may register online at www.amsea.org or call (907) 747-3287.
The Kenai Soil & Water Conservation District has a wide variety of garden and farm equipment for rent, including tractor-drawn implements for initial field preparation (the fabled “Meri Crusher”), tillage, no-till seeding, bed shaping, mulch laying, and planting. Non-mechanized tools for rent include backpack sprayers, broadcast seed spreader and broadfork. A DEC-approved mobile kitchen trailer is also available. For information, see the “Equipment Rental” page at www.kenaisoilandwater.org or visit Kenai Feed & Supply.
Have you opened a new business, moved to a new location, hired a new person or promoted an employee? Send us your information at news@peninsulaclarion.com, fax it to 907-283-3299, or drop it by the Clarion at 150 Trading Bay in Kenai. Questions? Call 907-335-1251.
Business announcements may be submitted to news@peninsulaclarion.com. Items should be submitted by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to publication.
