News

Three Skilak area campgrounds closed after bear damages tent, scratches camper

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has closed three campsites after a black bear damaged a tent at the Lower Ohmer campground and scratched the tent’s… Continue reading

Pilot Alex Agosti inspects Kenai Aviation’s Cessna 206 before a flight with Kenai Aviation owner Joel Caldwell on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at the Kenai Municipal Airport in Kenai, Alaska. The family-owned aviation business flew passengers and cargo around the Cook Inlet region for 56 years before closing in September 2017 after the Cook Inlet oil field operators who were its primary customers consolidated and dropped investment in response to low oil prices. Caldwell bought the business early this year from Jim Bielefeld, son of founder Bob Bielefeld. Calwell plans to revive and expand Kenai Aviation into a statewide charter. Presently he and two other pilots — Agosti and Keith Ham — are offering flightseeing trips. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

With new owner, Kenai Aviation looking beyond Cook Inlet

When Kenai Aviation closed in late 2017, it left behind more than half a century of history at the Kenai Municipal Airport and a generation… Continue reading

Pilot Alex Agosti inspects Kenai Aviation’s Cessna 206 before a flight with Kenai Aviation owner Joel Caldwell on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at the Kenai Municipal Airport in Kenai, Alaska. The family-owned aviation business flew passengers and cargo around the Cook Inlet region for 56 years before closing in September 2017 after the Cook Inlet oil field operators who were its primary customers consolidated and dropped investment in response to low oil prices. Caldwell bought the business early this year from Jim Bielefeld, son of founder Bob Bielefeld. Calwell plans to revive and expand Kenai Aviation into a statewide charter. Presently he and two other pilots — Agosti and Keith Ham — are offering flightseeing trips. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
Docent Carroll Knutson describes Alaska’s 1964 earthquake to visitors of the Soldotna Historical Society Museum on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The Historical Society will be kicking off this year’s Soldotna Progress Days celebration on July 27 with a free community barbecue featuring several of Soldotna’s early settlers and their descendants. Knutson, whose family began homesteading about eight miles south of Soldotna in 1958, will be among those telling stories and leading tours through the museum’s collection of homesteader cabins and exhibits of artifacts. The event, from 4 p.m to 7 p.m, will also include music from Hobo Jim, a dutch oven demonstration, and children’s scavenger hunts. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Past and present: Homesteaders offer perspective on Progress Days

As Soldotna celebrates its progress from a collection of homesteads on the edge of the Kenai National Moose Range to the business and tourism hub… Continue reading

Docent Carroll Knutson describes Alaska’s 1964 earthquake to visitors of the Soldotna Historical Society Museum on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The Historical Society will be kicking off this year’s Soldotna Progress Days celebration on July 27 with a free community barbecue featuring several of Soldotna’s early settlers and their descendants. Knutson, whose family began homesteading about eight miles south of Soldotna in 1958, will be among those telling stories and leading tours through the museum’s collection of homesteader cabins and exhibits of artifacts. The event, from 4 p.m to 7 p.m, will also include music from Hobo Jim, a dutch oven demonstration, and children’s scavenger hunts. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
Setnetters make their way back to the beach near a site on July 11, 2016 near Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

Setnetters ask Fish and Game to clarify commercial king harvest

With low king salmon counts in the Kenai River and restrictions tightened on most fisheries in the area, scrutiny is tightening on the commercial set… Continue reading

Setnetters make their way back to the beach near a site on July 11, 2016 near Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)
Motorcyclist dead after collision with car in Sterling

Motorcyclist dead after collision with car in Sterling

A Sterling man has died after colliding with a truck on his motorcycle on Thursday. Sterling resident Michael Corteg, 60, died on scene Thursday. Alaska… Continue reading

Motorcyclist dead after collision with car in Sterling
Kids slip and slide down the slip n’ slide at the Disability Pride event at Soldotna Creek Park on Saturday, July 21, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai Peninsula residents gather for Disability Pride event

With a live band, facepainting, food trucks and peals of laughter as kids made their way down a broad slip and slide, Soldotna Creek Park… Continue reading

Kids slip and slide down the slip n’ slide at the Disability Pride event at Soldotna Creek Park on Saturday, July 21, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)
This May 15, 2017 photo shows a drift gillnet reel on the back of a commercial fishing vessel docked in the Homer small boat harbor in Homer, Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Federal council names 5 commercial fishermen to committee

A committee of five fishermen, four of whom live on the Kenai Peninsula, will help provide advice to the council that will write a new… Continue reading

This May 15, 2017 photo shows a drift gillnet reel on the back of a commercial fishing vessel docked in the Homer small boat harbor in Homer, Alaska. (Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)
Boy, 8, killed when rock falls off truck, hits car

Boy, 8, killed when rock falls off truck, hits car

An Eagle River boy has died after a large rock fell off a truck on the Sterling Highway and crashed through the windshield of the… Continue reading

Boy, 8, killed when rock falls off truck, hits car
Jessica Entsminger’s dog, Leah, stands guard in front of the tent where they live on East Hill Road. (Photo courtesy Jessica Entsminger)

Short-term rental boom exacerbating the summer labor shortage

Jessica Entsminger is back to living in a tent. She had a brief stay in a small dry cabin out East End Road where she… Continue reading

Jessica Entsminger’s dog, Leah, stands guard in front of the tent where they live on East Hill Road. (Photo courtesy Jessica Entsminger)
Colorful blooms peek out of the green foliage in a section of the Pratt Museum’s garden Thursday, July 12, 2018 in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)

The Pratt’s new gardener wants you to rediscover the many uses of plants

Yarrow Hinnant has long known the many health and subsistence benefits native plants can provide. As the Pratt Museum’s new official gardener, he’s excited to… Continue reading

Colorful blooms peek out of the green foliage in a section of the Pratt Museum’s garden Thursday, July 12, 2018 in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
An aerial photo taken in 2014 shows the current South Peninsula Hospital campus. (Homer News file photo)

Assembly approves hospital boundary ballot questions

Voters in both hospital service areas will weigh in on who should pay taxes to which hospital this fall.

An aerial photo taken in 2014 shows the current South Peninsula Hospital campus. (Homer News file photo)
An angler casts her line into the Kenai River near Soldotna Creek Park on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The water in the Kenai River is a little higher than usual — about 9.71 feet, according to U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge at Soldotna — but has fallen since last week and is significantly below the flood stage of 12 feet. Anglers were hitting the banks on Wednesday morning for sockeye salmon, which normally peak in returning numbers to the Kenai River in mid-July. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Sockeye fishing remains slow on Kenai, counts pick up on Kasilof

Anglers are hitting the banks of the Kenai River in more serious numbers now, though the sockeye have yet to show up in real force.… Continue reading

An angler casts her line into the Kenai River near Soldotna Creek Park on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Soldotna, Alaska. The water in the Kenai River is a little higher than usual — about 9.71 feet, according to U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge at Soldotna — but has fallen since last week and is significantly below the flood stage of 12 feet. Anglers were hitting the banks on Wednesday morning for sockeye salmon, which normally peak in returning numbers to the Kenai River in mid-July. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion)

Hawaii man arrested for car theft

A Hawaii man working at a local fish-processing plant was arrested last week for allegedly stealing a van from a Kalifornsky Beach address and withdrawing… Continue reading

Seagulls flock to where participants in the personal use dipnet fishery fish on the north beach of the Kenai River on July 10, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

High bacteria levels detected at Kenai beaches

Both of the Kenai beaches have too much fecal coliform and enterococci bacteria in the water to meet state standards. Every year, the Alaska Department… Continue reading

Seagulls flock to where participants in the personal use dipnet fishery fish on the north beach of the Kenai River on July 10, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

Few lower peninsula residents comment on hospital service area boundary move

Two proposals that would alter the boundaries of the South Kenai Peninsula Hospital Service Area are poised to make it onto the ballot this October.… Continue reading

Nikiski man indicted for stealing, repainting neighbor’s dirt bike

A Nikiski man was indicted for first-degree vehicle theft last week after allegedly taking a dirt bike from his neighbor and spray painting it orange.… Continue reading

Clyde Didrickson and his wife, Charlotte, smile and hug each other in their new home Friday morning. The couple were able to get their new home through a Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority grant funding program aimed to help veterans. (Gregory Philson | Juneau Empire)

‘It is a blessing’: Grant offering housing for Alaska Native veterans

Program has helped 19 individuals or familes in the last year.

Clyde Didrickson and his wife, Charlotte, smile and hug each other in their new home Friday morning. The couple were able to get their new home through a Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority grant funding program aimed to help veterans. (Gregory Philson | Juneau Empire)

More restrictions for Kenai, Kasilof king salmon

Anglers won’t be able to keep a king salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers after Wednesday. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced… Continue reading

Sterling shares British snack with peninsula

Sterling shares British snack with peninsula

Bill Howell’s 9 Spice Pickled Onion recipe features sweet Palmer-grown onions, apple cider vinegar and nine top-secret spices — but that’s about all he will… Continue reading

Sterling shares British snack with peninsula
This photo shows an approximately 70-pound king caught on the Kenai River by Troy Grote of Aberdeen, South Dakota, on Saturday, July 14, 2018. The fish measured 51 1/2 inches in length and 31 1/2 inches in girth. (Photo coutesy Joe Johnson)

Angler lands 70-pound king on Kenai

A South Dakota angler hit the jackpot on the Kenai River on Saturday with a nearly 70-pound king salmon on the end of his line.… Continue reading

This photo shows an approximately 70-pound king caught on the Kenai River by Troy Grote of Aberdeen, South Dakota, on Saturday, July 14, 2018. The fish measured 51 1/2 inches in length and 31 1/2 inches in girth. (Photo coutesy Joe Johnson)