Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Efforts to build an appropriate school in Kachemak-Selo are still going strong.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed an ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting to work on extending the state agreement for their grant share of approximately $10 million for the school.

K-Selo has been in need of a new school for nearly 10 years. In 2011, the village petitioned the school board for a new facility. In 2016, the state appropriated $10,010,000 for construction of the school, but in order to proceed the borough needed to provide a match. Borough residents voted down the match bond package, which was nearly $5.5 million, last October.

The $10 million grant the borough received from the state expires June 30. Tuesday’s ordinance allows borough Mayor Charlie Pierce to work with the state on extending the grant deadline for up to seven years. Given the extension, the ordinance says the borough will have more time to find the 35 percent match funds required by the grant to construct the school.

The current school in Kachemak-Selo is made up of three borough-leased buildings and serves about 46 students. A December memo from the borough community and fiscal projects manager, Brenda Ahlberg, told the assembly that the current school has deteriorated to the point that it is no longer viable as an educational facility.

The proposed new K-12 school will be 15,226 square feet, the memo said. Some residents have expressed concern about the $16 million cost for the school, given its remoteness and small student population. However, a state statute based on the number of students dictates the size of the school, and the borough does not have the flexibility to downsize the building. Shipping in materials is also expected to increase the cost.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Jason Ross of Nikiski provided public comment expressing frustration over school’s price tag.

“We could probably build a road that would go back and forth and make things a lot easier for education and give them more opportunity,” Ross said. “With a brand new building — getting supplies in and out to build the thing — it sounds like it’s going to be kind of an arduous deal there. It might be easier to just build a road and create access for a bunch of people who don’t have it. I realize they move out there and they want to be off the system… How much money do we spend on a group of kids who choose to live a lifestyle like that?”

One of the largest drivers of cost comes from the remote nature of the village. The village sits at the bottom of a steep bluff only accessible by a dirt switchback trail, too narrow and steep for most vehicles to traverse. The borough initially considered upgrading the road to borough standards but found it would be too expensive.

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

State lawmakers from the Kenai Peninsula havebanded together to question a recent Board of Fisheries proceeding, according to a press release. 

An unexpected vote by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which took place with little notice, decided to move the 2020 regulatory meeting from the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. The meeting was originally going to be held in Anchorage, but a March 2018 vote moved the meeting to the Kenai-Soldotna area, the Clarion previously reported.

In a Wednesday letter, the peninsula delegation outlined concerns the “Alaska Board of Fisheries may have intentionally circumvented the public input process that is normally required when deliberations on meeting locations are made.”

“Transparency, integrity and process are imperative in the effort to restore public trust,” said Sen. Peter Micciche (R-Soldotna) in the release. “The people of Alaska deserve better. The public process and the Board’s own procedures were circumvented and Kenai Peninsula officials were disrespectfully misled at the January 18th meeting. The request from the entire Kenai Peninsula Legislative delegation is simple and united: Rescind the actions to move the 2020 BoF Upper Cook Inlet Finfish meeting from the Kenai and reschedule a meeting following BoF procedures. Rebuilding trust must include facing and hearing from the Alaskans we serve.”

At the start of the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim finfish meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 15, Board chair Reed Moriskey mentioned that the Upper Cook Inlet meeting location would be discussed. On Friday, the board reversed their March 2018 decision with a 4-3 vote, bringing the 2020 meeting back to Anchorage, the Clarion previously reported.

“There are not enough words to express my disappointment and frustrations with the Board of Fisheries. It is completely disingenuous to tell people who have driven to Anchorage from the Kenai Peninsula to testify that there would be no action taken regarding the 2020 UCI BoF meeting location. Then, to turn around and have the issue addressed after their departure,” said Representative Gary Knopp (R-Kenai/Soldotna).

The letter requests that the board allows the public adequate notice to revisit the issue.

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

The timeline for the Alaska LNG project — a planned 806-mile pipeline that would carry natural gas from the North Slope to a liquefaction plant and terminal in Nikiski — has not been affected by the federal government shutdown, but progress on the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline has been halted due to the shutdown, according to a recent community update.

“We’re waiting on a signed record of decision from both the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management,” said Lisa Parker, Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s stakeholder engagement manager, at the Jan. 15 Alaska LNG Advisory Committee meeting. “That has been affected by the shutdown. We don’t know when we will receive those records of decisions. Once we receive them, the only outstanding issues with ASAP would be getting state local permits that would be required.”

Parker also said the Federal Regulatory Commission is requesting more data for the Alaska LNG project.

“We thought we received the last data request, however, our Christmas present on Dec. 26 was a note from FERC with 91 additional data requests,” Parker said.

She said the majority of data requested is engineering related, and they won’t affect the draft environmental impact statement, which is set to be released by the end of February.

Parker said they plan to respond to all of the data requests by June. As of last Tuesday, the project has received 1,655 data requests from FERC. All but 111 data requests have been responded to.

Both Valdez and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have expressed interest in housing the Alaska LNG project, but the likelihood of the Alaska LNG project staying in Nikiski seemed high after Parker’s update. In the last two months, formal resolutions supporting the Alaska LNG project in Nikiski have been passed borough wide, from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, and the cities of Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Seward and Seldovia.

“So you have support from Seward to Seldovia that the facility should be located here in your neighborhood,” Parker said.

The draft environmental impact statement coming at the end of February will identify a location for the Alaska LNG project. All of the work that has gone into identifying facilities and infrastructure would need to be replicated in those communities. The Alaska LNG project thus far has already cost tens of millions of dollars, Parker said.

“The draft (environmental impact statement) will identify a location for a liquefaction plant facility, which 99 percent of me says will be Nikiski,” Parker said. “Will there be people that challenge that and say we want it in other places? I suspect yes… I don’t see FERC coming back and identifying a different location.”

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

While the borough’s ports and highways fill up with thousands of visitors from across the world in the summertime, more and more travelers are looking to experience Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula in the fall and wintertime.

Alaska has seen an increase in winter tourism, according to a new report from Anchorage-based research firm, the McDowell Group.

Locally, several chambers across the borough have reported seeing small increases in winter tourism.

In Seward, Cindy Clock, the executive director for the Seward Chamber of Commerce, said in an email that there has been a slight growth in winter tourism in the Seward area.

“Although we are too far south to promote consistent aurora activity, Silverton Mountain Guides has been offering heli-skiing for the past few years,” Clock said. “Activity, lodging and restaurant businesses have been evolving into year-round businesses as well since they too are aware of this travel trend.”

Cooper Landing has also seen growth similar to Seward’s, with a handful of businesses choosing to stay open longer in the winter, President of the Cooper Landing Chamber of Commerce Stephanie Lesmeister said.

“Several of our members are open this winter and seem to be staying steady,” Lesmeister said. “Local volunteers have been grooming the cross-country ski trails and that seems to draw people to the area. Additionally, fly fishing has been getting more and more popular and we seem to see people out fishing later and later into the winter.”

Lesmeister said Drifters Lodge, Sunrise Inn, Wildmans and The Inn at Tern Lake are a few of the local businesses that have stayed open for the winter.

Tim Dillon, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, said the winter tourism numbers in the borough are up.

“Borough-wide everybody is pretty pleased with the numbers we’re seeing,” Dillon said. “We’re seeing some growth.”

Over the last three seasons, winter visitation in the state has increased by 2.1 percent. The report said Alaska’s winter tourism has been growing steadily over the last decade, though still far below summer tourist numbers. The report says the number of tourists visiting between the fall and winter season of 2017 and 2018 was up 33 percent from a decade earlier. Data refers to the time period between the months of October and April, and both out-of-state and Alaska residents.

The report notes that the “Chinese market has exploded over the last several seasons.”

“The main draw is the northern lights,” the report said.

The report also notes that Girdwood’s Alyeska Resort reported “unprecedented growth in out-of-state visitation over the last several winter seasons.”

Dillon said local chambers are in a listening mode and are gathering information about what travelers might be interested in doing in the winter.

“Whether it’s northern lights, ice-fishing, snowmobiling, or other winter sports, the peninsula can really accommodate,” Dillon said. “Our tourism industry has really been able to hold its own.”

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Near Anchorage’s Ship Creek, a new bronze statue of an elder named Olga, a Dena’ina matriarch from the village of Eklutna, stands and overlooks land that was once a prosperous Native fish camp.

Soldotna artist Joel Isaak, who is Dena’ina himself, worked on the statue for two and a half years. He said he doesn’t take the opportunity to represent his culture through art lightly.

“It’s a lot of reflection,” Isaak said. “Trying to consolidate the history of cultural annihilation and assimilation in a positive light is tricky. It’s a way to convey that we are still living people.”

Isaak, a Dena’ina language professor at the Kenai Peninsula College, created his proposal for the statue after the village of Eklutna sent out a call for art. The parameters of the project included a piece that was in the likeness of Olga and that it tiedinto the fishing heritage at the site of Ship Creek.

Isaak said it’s always a rare opportunity to himself as an Alaska Native in public art.

“Most of the figurative work, if it is of indigenous people, looks like European people,” Isaak said. “I don’t identify with it from a visual standpoint. Being able to have the opportunity to be able to be a little more in control of the narrative is an honor. It’s exciting to see other people’s excitement at that opportunity.”

Isaak’s work can be found in many places across Alaska. He worked on a beluga whale diorama in Anchorage’s Ted Stevens Airport. Art of Isaak’s can be found in the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka. Locally, Isaak completed statues in front of the Dena’ina Wellness Center and salmon skin bowls in the Kenai Courthouse.

Isaak had two photographs of Olga to base his statue on. The statue has Olga in customary Dena’ina clothing, like fish skin boots and a dress featuring quill work. Isaak said Dena’ina regalia has been important to him to him from an early age.

“Part of my journey in making the bronze statuary is learning how to make the clothing,” Isaak said. “I’ve wanted to learn to make regalia since I was in either first or second grade making paper pilgrim and Indian costume stuff. I researched at museums, and took workshops and learned all the methods needed to produce that clothing so I understood what I was trying to replicate before just looking at a picture in a book and trying to make it look something like that.”

The Dena’ina culture is a matriarchal society. Olga was an elder and a leader in Dena’ina land north of Anchorage. Isaak said the piece was not only honoring Dena’ina history and heritage, but also women in our society.

“Honoring our indigenous women and women everywhere — our society is based off of that model so there’s strong precedent for making an elder and then having the elder be a woman,” Isaak said. “I think it’s poignant in our current situation for the need to honor and respect women in our state and in the world, but especially with the current statistics. Bringing a visual voice to honor the role that women have in our society and culture.”

Born and raised in Soldotna, Isaak has many connections to Dena’ina culture, and even Olga herself. His family comes from the Upper Cook Inlet area in Point Possession. He said he’s distantly related to Olga, going back several generations.

“I’ve always had a strong desire to be connected to my indigenous Native culture and all the different cultures that my family comes from,” Isaak said. “But living here in Soldotna on Dena’ina land there has been a very strong desire from me from a very early age to learn my language and material culture.”

In Dena’ina culture, clothing is used as fine art. Dena’ina people were semi-nomadic or sedentary and would move between summer fish camp and a winter village, which was sometimes in almost the same spot, Isaak said. For this reason, art would move with the people in the form of clothing, which would represent things like where a person was from and what family they belonged to.

“You put (your art) on your clothing and you bring it with you,” Isaak said. “So the quill work design in the shape of the tunic can tell where you’re from — it can tell your clan information. It’s a form of visual written communication that we don’t really have that Rosetta Stone for. It served as a function for that and it also brings in that visual fine art. We just brought it with us everywhere instead of leaving it behind glass or in a frame.”

The statue is near Anchorage’s downtown, which a busy and growing part of the city. Isaak said the statue is a reminder of the area’s past.

“Having it be in Anchorage is making invisible people visible,” Isaak said. “It’s surrounded by this growing city, but we’re still here and making that visual presence.”

Joel Isaak is a Soldotna-based artist who teaches Dena’ina language classes at the Kenai Peninsula College, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

A mural not seen for decades has been uncovered on the facade of the Kenai Municipal Airport.

The decades-old mural, which was revealed Tuesday by construction crews working on the airport’s remodel, depicts familiar local icons, such as the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox chapel, fishing nets and a dog musher.

The Peninsula Clarion was unable to reach the airport manager, however, Chris Parker of K &A Design said the mural dates to the 1960s and was covered up by metal siding in the 1980s.

The airport was built in 1966 and has been renovated three times since. An expansion of the airport took place in 1983, and the restaurant and lounge were added in 1988. In 2004, sidewalks, entryways and parking lots were updated.

After construction workers removed siding from the facade of the Kenai Municipal Airport, a mural with iconic Kenai images like fishing nets, the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox chapel and a dog musher, was revealed on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 in Kenai, Alaska.

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District superintendent Sean Dusek announced his retirement on Monday.

Dusek will be leaving the district at the end of the school year, effective June 30.

“I’m resigning for retirement purposes,” Dusek said during Monday’s Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education work session.

There is no one lined up to replace Dusek. On Monday, the school board discussed plans to create a committee that would begin the process of finding a new superintendent.

Dusek has served as the superintendent for nearly five years.

During Monday’s work sessions, school board member Dan Castimore said the district was large enough to have a CEO instead of a superintendent. The school board’s committee will see what’s the most suitable plan of action for filling the superintendent’s role later this year.

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Editors note: This story has been updated to show there were 110 suicide risk assessments.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has so far this year seen an increased number of suicide risk assessments and referrals to the Office of Children’s Services compared to the previous year.

As of last week, the district has conducted 110 suicide risk assessments on students this year, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction John O’Brien told the school board during a work session on Monday. Last year, the school district reached a record high of 140 suicide risk assessments for the full year. Suicide risk assessments are done on students who have exhibited suicidal ideation.

In recent years, the district has been working to get more counselors and psychologists in schools to help alleviate growing issues with students’ mental health. O’Brien said he was hoping the district would be able to fund four additional counselors, two for the central peninsula, and one each for the southern peninsula and eastern peninsula, which would cost $400,000.

“Administratively and fiscally, on what’s going on with the state, the board was reluctant to come up with an additional $400,000 for those counselors,” O’Brien said at the work session.

The district uses the number of OCS referrals and suicide risk assessments as indicators of student mental health. O’Brien said recent data for the number of referrals and assessments was troubling.

“I hate to continually bring you this kind of data, but it is real,” O’Brien said. “Our school psychologists, counselors and principals, especially schools that don’t have counselors, are the ones who are on the front lines of students dealing with crisis.”

O’Brien said the number of OCS referrals this year has exceeded numbers compared to 2016.

“At this point in the year we already have almost as many OCS referrals as we have had in years past for the entire year,” O’Brien said. “We’re only one semester into the year now.”

School board member Mike Illg said he is going to keep pushing for more counselors in schools.

“I would like to see (more counselors) in the budget, even if it means we have to cut something else,” Illg said. “Our schools are literally on fire, internally. We owe it to these kids to help them where we can.

“This is coming at us hard and fast and it’s only going to get worse if we do not provide the services they need in our schools. $400,00 is a lot of money, but what’s the long game on this?”

The school district is beginning to work on their FY2020 budget. It is unknown if they will fund additional counselors.

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

A resolution to establish an election stakeholders group to explore election models to better serve the peninsula voters was introduced at Tuesday’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting.

The resolution would task the borough clerk in establishing the group, which would maximize accessibility and inclusivity in the voting process.

The stakeholders group would evaluate and solicit constituent comments about various election models to better serve borough and municipal voters.

“While local elections directly impact the everyday lives of borough residents, voter turnout in the borough and municipal elections is typically low and the current election process consumes considerable community resources,” the resolution reads.

The borough conducts regular elections through traditional polling places open on election day and by mail for more remote precincts through absentee and in-person voting sites, according to the resolution.

The stakeholder’s group would also research ways to increase voter turnout in the area.

The group would include a representative of borough administration, one community resident who would represent the interest of people with visual impairments, two members of the borough’s canvas board, one member representing the League of Women Voters, the municipal managers and one council member from each of the borough’s municipalities and two borough assembly members.

The group is slated to form and meet by August 2019.