News

Kenai residents surprised by cul-de-sac paving

Leslei Spalding was among six Kenai property-owners who recently received bills from the city for $6,274.58 — part of the cost of a paving project… Continue reading

This April 21 photo shows the cul-de-sac at the end of Kenai's VIP Drive, which the city paved in 2014. Kenai administrators billed cul-de-sac residents - whom they said had requested the paving by petition - for a share of the cost, creating a dispute with residents who denied requesting the paving. The dispute was resolved Wednesday with an agreement that reduced the cost to residents.

Mistaken pavement bill resolved

When property-owners on Kenai’s VIP Drive cul-de-sac were billed by the city for part of the cost of paving their road, they contested the bill,… Continue reading

This April 21 photo shows the cul-de-sac at the end of Kenai's VIP Drive, which the city paved in 2014. Kenai administrators billed cul-de-sac residents - whom they said had requested the paving by petition - for a share of the cost, creating a dispute with residents who denied requesting the paving. The dispute was resolved Wednesday with an agreement that reduced the cost to residents.

Kenai manager anticipates difficult future budgeting

Declining sales taxes, anticipated reductions in state revenue sharing and pension funding, the rearrangement of a state meal program, and a probable rise in the… Continue reading

Twenty three days into his job as Kenai City Manager, Paul Ostrander speaks about Kenai issues to a Kenai Chamber of Commerce audience during a talk on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017 at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).

Ostrander speaks about Kenai issues

After 23 days as Kenai City Manager, Paul Ostrander spoke about his view of Kenai’s finances, policies, and future obstacles to an audience of Kenai… Continue reading

Twenty three days into his job as Kenai City Manager, Paul Ostrander speaks about Kenai issues to a Kenai Chamber of Commerce audience during a talk on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017 at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).
From right, Alaska Department of Fish and Game geneticist Sam Rabung, Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack and Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation Acting Director Matt Weideke listen to concerns from Homer and Tutka Bay residents about a permit that would authorize Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association to move its net pens in Tutka Bay from the lagoon to the head of the bay at a meeting at the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on May 15 in Homer. (Photo/Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Park users, commercial fishermen clash over Tutka Bay net pens

HOMER — The debate over whether a Cook Inlet hatchery operator can move some net pens out into a Homer-area bay is tangled up with… Continue reading

From right, Alaska Department of Fish and Game geneticist Sam Rabung, Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack and Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation Acting Director Matt Weideke listen to concerns from Homer and Tutka Bay residents about a permit that would authorize Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association to move its net pens in Tutka Bay from the lagoon to the head of the bay at a meeting at the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on May 15 in Homer. (Photo/Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge intern Kyra Clark rakes masses of the invasive waterweed elodea from the Soldotna-area Sport Lake on Tuesday, May 16. Behind her, staff from the Refuge, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the Kenai Watershed Forum prepare to launch the two boats that will target elodea with the herbicides diquat and fluridone. Following Tuesday’s herbicide discharge into Sport Lake, Refuge biologist John Morton said there’s a three-day safety restriction on drinking the lake water, but none on swimming or fishing. He also cautioned against sprinkling the herbicide-treated water on lawns or gardens. A second round of diquat and fluridone will be put into Sport Lake in September, Morton said, to contnue killing elodea through the winter. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Photo: Raking the lake

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge intern Kyra Clark rakes masses of the invasive waterweed elodea from the Soldotna-area Sport Lake on Tuesday, May 16, 2017. Behind… Continue reading

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge intern Kyra Clark rakes masses of the invasive waterweed elodea from the Soldotna-area Sport Lake on Tuesday, May 16. Behind her, staff from the Refuge, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the Kenai Watershed Forum prepare to launch the two boats that will target elodea with the herbicides diquat and fluridone. Following Tuesday’s herbicide discharge into Sport Lake, Refuge biologist John Morton said there’s a three-day safety restriction on drinking the lake water, but none on swimming or fishing. He also cautioned against sprinkling the herbicide-treated water on lawns or gardens. A second round of diquat and fluridone will be put into Sport Lake in September, Morton said, to contnue killing elodea through the winter. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Cook Inletkeeper scientist will head to Antarctica

Early next year, 80 female scientists plan to set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, for Antarctica. Among them will be Homer’s Sue Mauger, Science Director of… Continue reading

State Rep. David Eastman, a Republican freshman from Wasilla, is seen during the introduction of the newly-elected house speaker at the Alaska Legislature in Juneau on Jan. 17, 2017. (Mark Thiessen | The Associated Press File)

Wasilla Republican asks Alaska Legislature to criminalize abortion

Wasilla Republican David Eastman has proposed a measure making abortion illegal in the state of Alaska. On Monday, Eastman introduced House Bill 250, which —… Continue reading

State Rep. David Eastman, a Republican freshman from Wasilla, is seen during the introduction of the newly-elected house speaker at the Alaska Legislature in Juneau on Jan. 17, 2017. (Mark Thiessen | The Associated Press File)
Nikiski High School student Justin Mason, with diploma, poses for a photo at his graduation from Project SEARCH flanked by (left from right) Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones, Board of Education member Penny Vadla, Superintendent Sean Dusek and Pupil Services Director Clayton Holland, Monday, May 16, 2017 at Central Peninsula Hospital. (Kat Sorensen/Peninsula Clarion)

Project SEARCH awards five diplomas to graduates

On Monday night, a group of five interns from across the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District were celebrated with a graduation ceremony for their work… Continue reading

Nikiski High School student Justin Mason, with diploma, poses for a photo at his graduation from Project SEARCH flanked by (left from right) Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones, Board of Education member Penny Vadla, Superintendent Sean Dusek and Pupil Services Director Clayton Holland, Monday, May 16, 2017 at Central Peninsula Hospital. (Kat Sorensen/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai airport struggles to perfect land agreements

The Kenai Municipal Airport earned a fifth of its revenue recorded in the city's present budget from payments made by businesses that lease the hundreds… Continue reading

A bufflehead duck flies between three drift boats of birders on Thursday, May 14, 2015 as the group tours the Kenai River during a long weekend of Kenai Birding Festival activities. (Clarion File Photo)

Birding festival takes flight May 18

Grab your binoculars, the annual Kenai Peninsula Birding Festival starts Thursday, May 18 and runs through Sunday, May 21 with different birding hot spots and… Continue reading

A bufflehead duck flies between three drift boats of birders on Thursday, May 14, 2015 as the group tours the Kenai River during a long weekend of Kenai Birding Festival activities. (Clarion File Photo)

Students collect more than 3,000 pounds of trash

Redoubt Elementary took home the “Most Trash Collected” award after collecting 1,540 pounds of trash during the fourth annual Kenai River Spring Cleanup last Thursday… Continue reading

  • May 15, 2017
  • By KAT SORENSEN

Senate kills income tax

The Alaska Senate on Friday voted 15-4 to kill an income tax proposed by the House, all but ensuring the Alaska’s multibillion-dollar deficit will not… Continue reading

Senate passes oil tax bill

Now the oil tax debate in the Legislature can really start. The Republican-led Senate passed House Bill 111, this year’s oil tax credit legislation, Monday afternoon by a 14-5 vote alongcaucus lines. The Senate version of the bill ends the cashable tax credit “experiment,” Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel said in thefloor debate, along with preventing companies producing oil in the state’s largest fields from using deductible credits to taketheir tax obligation below the 4 percent gross minimum tax. Read more… Continue reading

John Michael, a member of Kenai’s Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, prepares to carry a damaged icon of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane from the church’s sanctuary on Monday, May 15 in Kenai. In the foreground stands the wooden cross that fell backward during the January 2016 Iniskin Earthquake, tearing the icon’s canvas. After planning and fundraising for the icon’s repair since mid-2016, the church shipped it to an art restorer on Monday.

Kenai Russian church sends icon for restoration

John Michael, a member of Kenai’s Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, prepares to carry a damaged icon of Jesus praying in… Continue reading

John Michael, a member of Kenai’s Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, prepares to carry a damaged icon of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane from the church’s sanctuary on Monday, May 15 in Kenai. In the foreground stands the wooden cross that fell backward during the January 2016 Iniskin Earthquake, tearing the icon’s canvas. After planning and fundraising for the icon’s repair since mid-2016, the church shipped it to an art restorer on Monday.

Big issues unresolved as Alaska legislative deadline looms

JUNEAU — Alaska legislators face a looming constitutional deadline for completing their work, but they remain at odds over how best to address a multibillion-dollar… Continue reading

Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula ClarionThis icon of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane sits behind the altar of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church and was torn when a cross fell on it during the Jan. 24, 2016 Iniskin earthquake. It was photographed on Monday, Oct. 31 in Kenai. The church is raising funds to send the icon to a conservator in Colorado who will repair the rip, as well as an earlier candle burn above and to the right of the rip.

Earthquake-damaged icon to be repaired

When the Kenai Peninsula was shaken by the 7.1 magnitude Iniskin earthquake in the early hours of Jan. 24, one of the many things to… Continue reading

Photo by Ben Boettger/Peninsula ClarionThis icon of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane sits behind the altar of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church and was torn when a cross fell on it during the Jan. 24, 2016 Iniskin earthquake. It was photographed on Monday, Oct. 31 in Kenai. The church is raising funds to send the icon to a conservator in Colorado who will repair the rip, as well as an earlier candle burn above and to the right of the rip.

Kenai’s Russian Church to install fire system

Kenai’s Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church is filled with religious art and historical artifacts, is built of logs, and hosts weekly… Continue reading

Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Father Andrew Thomas of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church speaks to the small congregation gathered for Divine Liturgy in the St. Nicholas Chapel on Saturday, Dec. 19 in Kenai. Behind him stands Father Victor Nick of Ninilchik. "There is no other church like this in Alaska," Father Thomas said of the chapel, which was built in 1906 over the graves of three missionary monks who came to the Kenai area in the mid-1800s.

Divine Liturgy for St. Nicholas held in Kenai’s historic chapel

The rough wooden interior of St. Nicholas chapel was lit by a hissing gas lantern as Father Andrew Thomas, priest of Kenai’s Holy Assumption of… Continue reading

Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Father Andrew Thomas of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church speaks to the small congregation gathered for Divine Liturgy in the St. Nicholas Chapel on Saturday, Dec. 19 in Kenai. Behind him stands Father Victor Nick of Ninilchik. "There is no other church like this in Alaska," Father Thomas said of the chapel, which was built in 1906 over the graves of three missionary monks who came to the Kenai area in the mid-1800s.
Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Electrician Richard Cutter crawls through the roof space of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church while installing a new fire supression system on Thursday, Oct. 6 in Kenai.

Kenai Russian Orthodox Church gets new fire supression system

A system designed to extinguish fires without damaging the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church’s collection of icons, art, and archived documents… Continue reading

Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Electrician Richard Cutter crawls through the roof space of Kenai's Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church while installing a new fire supression system on Thursday, Oct. 6 in Kenai.