Uncategorized

Citizen science beluga monitoring effort to begin on Kenai, Kasilof Rivers

Alaska, News, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

The Alaska Beluga Monitoring Partnership is offering residents the opportunity to help scientists understand more about Cook Inlet beluga whales.

The partnership — a collaboration of several organizations, including Beluga Whale Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance — seeks to help facilitate beluga monitoring from citizen scientists. From Aug. 14 to Nov. 15, monitoring events will take place in sites at the mouth of Twentymile River and at Bird Point near Girdwood, at Ship Creek in Anchorage and at the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers.

Kimberly Ovitz, a citizen science monitoring coordinator with the partnership, said anyone can be involved with the effort.

“You don’t have to be a scientist or a researcher,” she said. “It’s open to anyone. You don’t have to have had experience observing belugas in the past, or really any other animal. It’s really just a great opportunity for people to come out and learn more about their ecosystem, enjoy being outside and to contribute conservation recovery of this species in Cook Inlet.”

Volunteers will learn more about the Cook Inlet beluga whales and their conservation needs, receive training on how to identify and record data on beluga distribution and behavior in the field and participate in beluga monitoring sessions at one of the partnership’s sites. Data collected will be shared with researchers and federal agency personnel to inform beluga research and management. The data will also be incorporated into NOAA’s Beluga Sightings Database and Ecosystem Portal.

The Cook Inlet beluga whale population has declined by nearly 75% since 1979, from about 1,300 whales to an estimated 328 whales in 2016, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that has managed the Cook Inlet beluga population since its 2008 listing as an endangered species. According to the agency, the Cook Inlet beluga whale population is declining by 0.4% each year.

Scientists are exploring a number of factors that may be inhibiting the population recovery, including noise. Belugas have sharp hearing. They use sounds to find each other and echolocation, a series of sound signals called clicks, to find food.

“Pervasive noise throughout the year and in different locations in Cook Inlet could inhibit beluga whales’ ability to hear, communicate, and find food,” a June article from NOOA Fisheries said.

The article said scientists believe noise from a variety of human activities may be a concern for the whales’ recovery.

This year, monitoring will take place at the Kasilof River, where citizen science monitoring hasn’t existed in the past. Ovitz said the Kasilof River is an important area to build data.

“Kasilof is also this really important area that we really do not have a lot of data on, if any data at all,” Ovitz said. “We really don’t have much more information on how frequently they use that (river), outside of people calling in and reporting opportunistic sightings.”

Ovitz said that having a monitoring site at Kasilof will help fill current knowledge gaps, while also being able to learn more about how the whales use a river that has human activity going on around it.

The beluga monitoring project was originally spearheaded by Miami University graduate student Suzanne Steinert in 2017 in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Steinert’s project took place at the mouth of the Twentymile River at the Turnagain Arm. Ovitz was hired on as a research fellow with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shortly after, and established a monitoring site at the Kenai River in the spring of 2018. Since then, both Ovitz and Stiner have been fielding monitoring efforts in those parts of Cook Inlet.

Ovitz said the project found belugas were very active in the Kenai River.

“We were seeing beluga activity in the river every day and that really affirmed that this an important feeding site,” she said. “We know it’s important for this population, which also happens to be endangered. On top of that, it’s an area heavily used by people.”

She said the Kenai River has the potential for a lot of interactions between belugas and humans, and that it’s important to know what those interactions look like and how often they’re occurring.

Ovitz said during her spring 2018 monitoring efforts on the Kenai River, she had about 10 to 12 members of the public helping out periodically. Stiner’s project at Twentymile River has about 15 to 20 volunteers. This year, the partnership was formally established after the group received funding from NOOA Fisheries to hire on a coordinator. The partnership is pushing to solidify and standardize protocols for monitoring methods, as well as increase the number of citizen scietists in the region, especially on the Kenai Peninsula.

“We’re really shooting to have this combined effort and get more people on board and really have this collaboration functioning,” Ovitz said. “We’re hoping this fall for a really big push to increasing citizen science monitoring in the area, and if things go well, we want to keep it going in future years.”

While Ovitz said every year is an important year to be watching the belugas and gathering data, this year is especially important. In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Associations Fisheries announced a gray whale unusual mortality event. As of July 26, the association has reported a total of 191 whale strandings from Mexico to Alaska, with 30 being in state. The cause of the deaths is still undetermined, but several of the whale necropsy results show signs of emaciation, according to an article published by NOOA Fisheries.

“Because we’re seeing this mortality events in larger whales and in other marine animals it is really important to look at other components of this ecosystem that make up the Kenai River and Cook Inlet and try to understand how this event we’re seeing might impact other members of that ecosystem, like beluga whales,” Ovitz said.

Interested citizen scientists can find more information about getting involved in the initiative by visiting akbmp.org.

EdWeek:On the Snowy Tundra, Alaska Students Bridge Differences and Eat Moose Snout

Alaska, Education, food, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story was originally published in Education Week, as part of the 2019 Gregory M. Chronister Journalism Fellowship.

Outside of Alaska’s few urban pockets, a constellation of tiny communities, scattered across a rugged landscape, is home to more than half of the state’s residents. Alaska is among the nation’s most rural states—99 percent of its land mass is considered so. Resource extraction, transportation, food insecurity, and climate change have strained and complicated relationships between the state’s first inhabitants—members of 229 Alaska Native Villages—and non-Natives who, for the last three centuries, have come from all over the world to seek opportunity on one of the continent’s last frontiers.

Many familiar with that history see education as a powerful means for defusing tensions among the geographic and cultural groups. That’s what programs like Alaska’s Sister School Exchange aim to do, enlisting middle and high school students to build bridges, by offering them the chance to visit one another’s communities. Founded in 2001 by the Alaska Humanities Forum, the program was initially funded through Congress and a private foundation. Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Education Alaska Native Education program has fully funded the exchange. As of this year, more than 2,000 students have traveled to 88 communities across the state to participate in the free, weeklong exchanges.

Seven years ago, I was one of those students who left her comfortable, urban home in Anchorage to fly 300 miles to New Stuyahok to participate in the exchange. I was a shy high school junior and fourth-generation Alaskan with my own set of misconceptions about my rural neighbors.

The exchange gave me the chance to understand the challenges of life in rural Alaska—like the feeling of being completely isolated and the pressures of subsistence living in an ever-changing natural environment—while also showing me what it’s like to be part of a tight-knit, culturally rich community where I made friends for life.

This April, I made the trip again, this time with an Education Week photographer and four Anchorage students and their teacher to get a sense of the kinds of academic and cultural lessons the program might offer to communities across the country with different needs and lifestyles.

Prepping for the Adventure

The program begins each year long before the travel takes place. To participate, teachers must apply and then spend several months with their students, preparing for the visit. The exchange program provides a cross-cultural learning curriculum designed by educators, both Native and non-Native, where students study their own community and family histories as a step toward understanding their exchange-program peers. The curriculum becomes primarily experiential once the students and their teacher arrive at their sister schools in early spring when students shadow their peers from class to class.

Our two-hour trip this year covered more than 500 miles. Two planes and several snowmobiles were required to reach the destination: Scammon Bay—an isolated Native Village of 500 people, nestled on a mountain a mile or so from the Bering Sea Coast in the southwestern part of the state.

The East Anchorage High School students—Genavieve Beans, Starlyn Phillips, Jonathan Gates, and Nuulau Alaelua—and their math teacher, Ellen Piekarski, each had their own reasons for wanting to make the trip. Genavieve and Starlyn, who are both sophomores, are Alaska Native and wanted to see what life would’ve been like if they had grown up in a Native Village.

Jonathan, also a sophomore, was looking to escape the bustle of Anchorage and connect with his foster and adoptive brothers at home who are of Native heritage. Twelfth grader Nuulau, whose parents are from a rural part of the Independent State of Samoa, sought a way to connect to her own background.

“My parents, they came [to Alaska] and kind of really did struggle, and it’s like they had to fit into society. So I really didn’t learn much about my own culture,” she said. “This program gives me an opportunity to learn about my roots and other people’s roots, too.”

Their teacher, Piekarski, grew up in a military family before settling in Texas and eventually moving to Alaska. She wanted the opportunity not only to visit rural Alaska, but to see what teaching in a rural classroom would be like.

World of White

On the gravel strip that is Scammon Bay Airport, we climbed out of the nine-passenger airplane. Outside, everything was white, except a handful of colorful buildings and the navy-blue squiggle of the nearby Kun River. A thick, white fog hovered overhead, making it nearly impossible to tell where the snowy tundra dissolved into bleached sky. The whoosh of the wind and the buzz of the snowmobiles—the local mode of transportation—replaced the familiar sounds of Anchorage’s busy streets.

We were greeted by a handful of students from Scammon Bay School. The only school in the village, it serves about 200 K-12 students, all of whom are Alaska Natives. The temperature was about 20 degrees, and our student hosts wore their school sweatshirts, sweatpants, and sneakers—puffy weather gear and heavy boots covered us.

Jeremy Brink, a charismatic high school senior who plans to pursue a career in teaching, led the tour through his village. Despite his ease and connection with the community, Jeremy hasn’t lived in Scammon Bay long. He left his hometown of Bethel, a nearby hub, last year to seek a change of scenery and a deeper connection to his Yup’ik culture.

As we trudged through the snow, Jeremy took us inside the health clinic where he explained, to the surprise of the Anchorage students, how the village doesn’t have doctors or nurses. Health aides, whose only medical training is a 12-to-16-week program, are the community’s only source of health care. He explained how a storm last winter prevented planes from landing for a week, endangering patients in need of advanced medical attention—a stark contrast to Anchorage, where the big hospitals serve patients from across the state. Scammon Bay also has no police force. The community’s sole crime deterrents are village public safety officers—who receive 18 weeks of training and are hired by a consortium of tribal leaders from 56 Native Villages with oversight from Alaska State Troopers.

At the only general store, the students were shocked by high prices. They oohed and aahed at a small bottle of ranch dressing, no more than 12 ounces, which cost nearly $6. This, despite having learned about the high cost of rural living in their pre-visit prep—perhaps further proof that there is no substitute for first-hand experience. (In 2012, I felt the same shock when we spent $80 on ingredients for chocolate chip cookies on my exchange trip to New Stuyahok.)

Jeremy’s 45-minute tour ended in the center of the village, at the local stream or carvaq, as it is called in the locals’ native Yup’ik. He invited us to pack our water there, just as the community does. (For residents of the Lower 48, that means to haul water for home use.) That’s something none of us would dare try at Ship Creek, the stream that cuts through downtown Anchorage.

Jonathan stayed with Scammon Bay Principal Melissa Rivers and her family in district-owned housing adjacent to the school. The rest of us, including Genavieve and Starlyn, Nuulau, and Piekarski, occupied a district-owned apartment.

Hands-On Learning

In science teacher Mary Cox’s class, the students got a hands-on lesson from two visiting scientists—Lauren Bien and Chris Iannazzone from the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova, about 650 miles southeast of Scammon Bay. The scientists used an inflatable pool, several mystery liquids, some animal furs and feathers, and a handful of cleaning supplies to show the students how oil leaks from tankers and pipelines affect marine ecosystems. Then they let students experiment with potential clean up methods.

“Things that educate that aren’t really book or paper—we try to do as much hands-on as we have available or invite people in,” said Cox, an Arkansas transplant who’s been teaching at Scammon Bay for five years. She said she incorporates hands-on lessons herself by incubating salmon eggs in the classroom to teach about the life cycles of salmon.

Over the next few days, the Anchorage students engaged in other activities reflective of life in the bush. They learned to comb a musk ox pelt for wool or qiviut, skin an otter, and clean, inflate, dry, and cut seal intestines into sheets to sew together into a traditional Yup’ik raincoat. For the final task, students held opposite ends of a pale, slimy strip of seal gut, while blowing into it to inflate the pink, rubbery tube for drying.

At a potluck organized by principal Rivers and members of the community, the students sampled local foods like beluga, seal, herring eggs, smelt fish, and smoked salmon. Moose snout, a local delicacy, was prepared by the school’s chemistry teacher, Kristian Nattinger, who was in his last semester with the school after two years. Together, the students held up their oily, cream-colored, pieces of moose snout cartilage. In unison, they each bit a piece of the meat off the thin layer of hairy snout skin.

“It tasted like chicken,” Starlyn reported.

The locals’ deep knowledge of subsistence food-gathering practices impressed the Anchorage students.

“When you think about people in the bush you think, ‘Oh, they just hunt, they might not know much,’ but in reality, they know a lot more than we do, and they can do a lot more than we can,” Nuulau said. “It made me realize how I need to value things more.”

Macy Rivers, a softspoken 11th grader from Scammon Bay, appreciated the chance to share her life with her urban peers.

“It is important for them to see how we live out here because they could know who we are and how we live and just to see how we grow up and see how different it is living in a village than a city,” she said. “There are no cars, no highways. You know everyone.”

One-Way Exchange

The Anchorage and Scammon Bay students were already sharing Snapchat usernames and bonding over similar music tastes when they learned the rural students wouldn’t be visiting their homes in Anchorage this year. The reason: Conflicting activities prevented the Scammon Bay students from completing the required preparatory curriculum.

The news disappointed students from both communities. “They are frustrated now that they’ve met the students in the community. They’re like, ‘Can’t they just come?’” Piekarski said of her Anchorage students.

But she and other participating educators later said the curriculum is essential to a smooth experience for students, with its emphasis on first understanding one’s own culture, learning different communication styles and how to share cultural differences without offending, and developing an openness to new foods and experiences.

“I wasn’t worried about my students feeling comfortable in the community,” Piekarski said. “Now I see it helped them be prepared.”

“I would absolutely love it if every high school student could do these activities,” she said. “I think it would be an amazing way to improve relations with people from different communities.”

On her last day in the village, Genavieve said four days wasn’t enough. The Good Friday holiday cut their weeklong visit to four days. “I feel like I got cheated out of the experience.”

Nuulau said her time in Scammon Bay has motivated her to visit villages in her parents’ Samoan homeland.

“I learned to not judge and assume a lot of things because even I thought I knew everything before coming [to Scammon Bay],” she said. “When I heard about the trip, I thought, ‘Is it really worth coming here?’ Now, I wish we had more time because it’s just so great. I know why people are here and stay here.”

When I returned to my Anchorage high school in 2012 from my visit to New Stuyahok, I felt both more connected and knowledgeable about my home and neighbors, while also more aware that I had barely scratched the surface of what Alaska has to offer—which only propelled me to discover more of my state.

Leaving Old Perceptions Behind

And I shed some misconceptions about life in Alaska’s rural Native Villages. Like many of my peers, I had believed people in rural Alaska were to blame for the state’s high rate of drug and alcohol abuse and violent crimes. Alcohol-induced mortality rates are more than double in Alaska than for the United States as a whole, with 23 people per 100,000 citizens in Alaska compared to a nationwide average of 9.5, according to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control. For Alaska Natives, that rate is more than seven times the national average, with 81.7 people dying per 100,000 residents. What I didn’t understand then was that resources for health care, mental-health services, and addiction treatment are scarce beyond Alaska’s urban areas.

These mindset changes are not uncommon. Program statistics show that 90 percent of participants showed a change in perception following their travels, said Kari Lovett, the SSE coordinator.

For Piekarski, the added benefit was that she got to try her hand at substitute teaching in a math class at Scammon Bay. She found that while the technology and instructional resources there were more limited than in Anchorage, “you can still teach and impart wisdom.”

East High, which draws students from a wide range of racial and ethnic groups, is already one of the nation’s most culturally diverse high schools. But Piekarski said her experience in Scammon Bay further honed her sensitivity to students’ different cultural backgrounds back in Anchorage.

“This experience is definitely going to change how I teach, particularly with my students that are Native Alaskan, and I’ll have some of them that, you know, grew up in a village and then came to Anchorage,” she said. “A lot of the things that students do that used to bug me, I realize, hey, that’s part of their culture.”

Vol. 38, Issue 37, Pages 1, 14-16

Cooper Landing Businesses feel impact from fire, smoke

Alaska, News, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Smoke from the Swan Lake Fire — which was ignited by lightning June 5 and has grown to over 100,000 acres — has had an effect on several communities in the Southcentral area, from Anchorage to Homer.

In the small town of Cooper Landing, winds have blown the fire’s smoke into its valley, affecting the community’s local tourism industry.

Yvette Galbraith, an administrator with the Cooper Landing Chamber of Commerce, said there has been a quite an impact on Cooper Landing because of the smoke. She said many businesses had cancellations and many patrons tried to reschedule for later dates. No businesses closed down, and everyone stayed open, she noted.

“From my understanding unless you had respiratory issues, many were able to still go out and do their activities, just at an adjusted level or time of day,” she said.

She said it was tough having the area be portrayed as constantly smoky.

“So when the weather broke or mornings or afternoons were clearer, folks missed out enjoying the Landing,” she said.

Galbraith said only heavy windstorms impact trips, but business still operate in rain or smoke.

“Skies are clear now, and it is absolutely beautiful in Cooper,” she said.

Katy Borchers is a Cooper Landing local and manager of Alaska Heavenly Lodge. She said the lodge has had to deal with only one cancellation, but said a smoky Cooper Landing was not the experience she wanted her guests to have. “… (Where) you can’t even see the mountains across the river,” Borchers said.

Borchers was raised in Interior Alaska, where wildfires are common. She’s been living on the peninsula for 10 years now, and said she’s never seen anything like this.

“Because of the geographic features, the smoke just rolls in and sits in the valley here with the river,” she said. “It’s going to have an economic impact for sure, especially in our little community.”

She said she understand wildfires are part of summer and is understanding in regard to local agencies allowing the Swan Lake Fire to burn, ensuring it’s safer in the future. “But, it’s difficult to swallow when it’s 100,000 acres,” she said. “This is where we all live and are raising our families. I have to monitor how much my 6-year-old plays outside.”

Despite the smoke, Borchers said guests have been fantastic and understanding. She said they’ve been forthcoming with guests and updating them on fire activity that may impact any excursions their guests may go on. Cooler weather and shifting winds have offered relief to the community this week, she said.

“We’ve all been getting out as much as possible, while the smoke is gone,” Borchers said. “We’re letting guests know when they should plan to be outside.”

The small community is a popular fishing spot, located at the headwaters of the Kenai River. The community experienced a banner opening for sockeye salmon on the Russian River this month. Erick Fish is an owner and guide of Fish and Sons Kenai Charters. He said despite the incredible fishing season the area is having, he has seen his business impacted by the smoke.

“(The smoke) got us a little bit,” he said. “We’ve had a few cancellations, not too much. There is so much salmon running, so people suffered through it.”

At the Kingfisher Roadhouse, a restaurant sitting near the shores of Kenai Lake, business is down by around a third, Chef Katherine O’Leary-Cole said.

“But, we’ve heard it’s much worse at other businesses,” O’Leary-Cole said. “Thank goodness smoke is clearing. Hopefully, we can salvage something from this season.”

Many independent travelers decide where they’ll visit when they get here. Borchers believes many of those travelers avoided the Kenai Peninsula because of the Swan Lake Fire.

“With the fire, we lost a lot of those independent travelers,” she said. “They chose to go somewhere else. There is going to be an impact, but we’ll weather the storm.”

‘Everything is on the table’

Alaska, Education, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story was originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed $130 million in state funding for the University of Alaska system on Friday. Now, UA President Jim Johnsen said programs, faculty and entire campuses are at risk, and tuition increases are a possibility should an override to the governor’s veto fail.

“We’re doing our damnedest to navigate through this so that it doesn’t impact our students,” Johnsen said. “Everything is on the table, $134 million is huge. This cut cannot be met by ‘oh, let’s close a program here, let’s tighten our belt here.’ It can’t be done like that.”

Dunleavy’s funding cut is on top of a $5 million reduction already authorized by lawmakers.

Johnsen said the veto was a surprise.

“It quite frankly was a surprise when we heard,” Johnsen said. “We met with the governor over the spring and we went over ideas on how to strengthen the university. We didn’t think he would persist in this huge cut to our budget.”

Rep. Gary Knopp, R-Kenai/Soldotna, said the cut to the university would be “financially devastating.”

“How do you take $130 million from the university without an analysis?” Knopp said.

Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, also opposed the governor’s veto of the University of Alaska budget. A retired college professor, Stevens’ district includes Homer, Kodiak and Cordova, all cities with community campuses.

“I don’t see it surviving after a cut like that,” Stevens said. “We’re talking about personnel, about a lot of professors being fired … I’m absolutely opposed to that veto of the university.”

When asked where he stands on the governor’s vetoes, Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski, said via email that he’s “committed to standing behind necessary reductions in government spending to better the long-term fiscal health of our state.”

Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Kenai/Soldotna, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, also did not respond to emails or a phone call asking for comment.

Since Friday’s veto, the university has taken measures to reduce costs in the short term.

The system has issued furlough notices across the state to 2,500 employees. Furloughed employees are able to take two weeks of unpaid leave, or use 10 days of unpaid leave within the next six months.

Johnsen said the university has also issued hiring and travel freezes.

The veto is the largest cut the university has faced in their over 100-year history. The veto of $130.35 million is in addition to the $5 million cut the Legislature approved in their budget, resulting in a 41% total reduction in last year’s funding for the university system. The university relies on the state for about 40% of its funding. Other funding sources for the university budget include revenues from fees and tuition, investments and land sales, as well as research grants and contracts.

Excluding UAA, UAF and UAS, closing the 12 community campuses in the university system would only save the university $38 million.

“The 40% (from the state) is definitely core funding,” Johnsen said. “It’s where we hire faculty and staff. You have to use this funding to go get that other money.”

The university has sustained cuts in four of the last five years, with a loss of more than 1,200 staff, he said. Johnsen said this cut has the potential to reduce funding from other resources.

“Given the he extent of this cut, it’s not just limited to state funding,” he said. “If we lose faculty we’re going to lose the research grants they bring in; we’re going to lose the students that those faculty taught because there would be fewer courses, fewer programs, fewer sections — actually the cut is going to be substantially more than the governor’s reduction in our general fund budget.”

With private funding sources, Johnsen said, the university system is advocating for an override of the veto, which will require a three-fourths vote from state legislators by July 12.

He says many legislators support the university, but it’s a close call.

“There’s a small number of legislators on the fence,” Johnsen said.

Many state legislators, and Dunleavy, have attended and received degrees from the University of Alaska, including Micciche.

If the veto is sustained, Johnsen said the university system’s Board of Regents will declare financial exigency at their July 15 meeting, which will enable the board to expedite cuts that need to be made. By July 30, the board will have a plan for cuts, Johnsen said.

“Between July 15 and July 30, tough decisions would need to be made about what campuses are closed, what programs are closed across the University of Alaska,” Johnsen said.

The Kenai Peninsula College, the Kachemak Bay Campus and other regional campuses could find their way on the chopping block. Johnsen said the Kenai Peninsula College costs $6.3 million, and 20 similarly priced campuses would need to shut down to break even with the veto. Community campuses received their own appropriation in the budget, which was not vetoed by Dunleavy. Johnsen said these campuses — which receive university system support for human resources, financial aid, information technology, facility management, university relations — could not sustain themselves solely on the community campus appropriation.

“They could not operate — they don’t have the horsepower to operate with that money,” Johnsen said. “… They cannot operate on their own. We’re looking hard at what those costs are that that appropriation will bear.”

University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Cathy Sandeen echoed that point.

“We cannot keep the community campuses harmless, because the main campuses — we provide a number of services they cannot provide themselves,” she said. “We won’t be able to do that under the current budget scenarios unless those campuses pay us for those services, and if they cannot pay us, we will have to stop doing them.”

Sandeen noted that students at community campuses also take classes through distance and online education offered by the main campuses. Support of online courses offered at KPC and KBC also comes through UAA, such as for computer programs and platforms.

Sandeen said UAA could lose about 700 academic jobs, including potential jobs at the community campuses, if the veto stands.

“It’s sad to think about it — 700 people losing their jobs,” she said. “There are no replacement jobs in the state. People are going to leave the state of Alaska — smart, professional, committed people.”

University programs that get federal or non-state support won’t be affected by the veto, except for those grants that require a state match. The Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, for example, is funded through the UAA Alaska Center for Conservation Science, which receives some federal support.

“The extent to which this is funded through federal grants, those will not be affected,” Sandeen said.

Knopp says he doesn’t think the Kenai Peninsula College will be too greatly impacted because of the separate appropriation, but, he said the campus “will have impact.”

There is potential for the university veto to ripple beyond the university. Mouhcine Guettabi is a regional economist at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA. He studies Alaska’s economy and its drivers, produce, forecasts and more, he said. When Dunleavy’s proposed budget was announced, Gutteabi was asked to present his work on the economic impact of various state budget options. After hearing of the vetoes, Gutteabi created a “very basic and quick assessment” on their potential impact to the economy, which he has posted online, he told the Clarion Tuesday.

In his analysis, Gutteabi said the proposed vetoes total about $450 million, which should amount to at least 4,500 of jobs lost in the short run.

“Actual job losses may be much larger if the agencies affected all lay off workers,” he said in the analysis.

Just the cut to the university system “essentially pushes the Alaska economy back into a recession,” he said.

“This tells us that once we account for all the cuts and their indirect and induced effects, there is a very strong likelihood that the economy will dip back into a recession,” Guttaebi posted on Twitter.

Stevens said legislators opposed to the vetoes are counting noses. The first vote will be to override them as a whole, and if that fails, try overriding them one at a time, he said. Stevens said he has been getting public opinion messages all week.

“This morning I had 150 new messages. I thought I dealt with them last night,” he said.

A week ago, many messages urged Stevens to back a $3,000 dividend. Now the message is “For Heaven’s sake, save our university. Save our senior programs,” he said.

Legislators have until July 12 to decide if they will overturn Dunleavy’s veto.

Reach Victoria Petersen at vpetersen@peninsulaclarion.com. Homer News reporter Michael Armstrong contributed to this story. Reach him at marmstrong@homernews.com.

New chef brings fresh menu to Cooper Landing

Alaska, food, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Chef Katherine O’Leary-Cole has only been in Alaska for two months, and her ambitious menu offers something fresh for diners at Cooper Landing’s Kingfisher Roadhouse.

Nearly half of the food is vegetarian, with one whole side of the menu offering plant-based options, most of which could also be considered vegan or gluten-free. She was offered the job, her first chef de cuisine position, in January and spent every spare second she had planning out her menu. Her yearslong cooking career and love of plant-based foods influenced the menu.

“My long history of being interested in plant-based foods started the moment in clicked in my 8-year-old brain that shrimp have a poop line, because they were animals,” she said. “That’s it, I love animals. No meat, ever.”

Her stance on eating meat has since relaxed — she used to refuse things like chicken stock and marshmallows — but now will occasionally indulge in a meat delicacy such as sashimi or foie gras. “I gravitate towards plant-based meals, but will definitely eat a chicken entrée I mistakenly cooked for a wrong ticket pickup or eat a beef stew if my grandmother cooks it for Christmas,” she said.

O’Leary-Cole didn’t go to culinary school, but she’s spent years in the kitchen. She previously worked at a restaurant in Arkansas, called Tusk and Trotter. She spent time teaching an Italian-themed wine pairing and vegetarian four-course dinner class at a culinary store in Arkansas. She planned a series of vegetarian open-fire dinners as a pop-up restaurant that took place at her cabin. She traveled around to different cities working in the best restaurants she could find. She also volunteered to cook a vegetarian dinner for 300 guests to support her local culinary school.

When plans in Arkansas fell through, O’Leary-Cole had no obligations, and sought a new adventure in Alaska.

“I was trying to think ‘what is the coolest thing I could do with job, my life, my work’ and I thought ‘I’m going to go to Alaska,’” she said. “I had heard tidbits here and there from people who’d come up for seasonal jobs and how beautiful it was.”

The very first Alaska job ad she found was Dominic Bauer’s, owner of Kingfisher, which has been in Cooper Landing for over 20 years.

Offering as many vegetarian options on a menu in Alaska as O’Leary-Cole has comes with its challenges. At the restaurant she was working at in Arkansas, which she says was in a somewhat rural area, she said she got food deliveries every day of the week, and several grocery stores to choose from if something was needed last minute. In Cooper Landing, her closest fully stocked grocery store is an hour away and produce orders come only once a week.

“When that produce gets here, often it has traveled thousands of miles, resulting in much higher food costs, lower quality produce and lower environmental sustainability,” she said. “As a chef committed to the idea of offering a diverse plant-based menu alongside traditional roadhouse fare such as burgers, pot pies and brownies with ice cream, these produce challenges simply mean that it’s time to get creative.”

She’s also challenged herself with creating vegetarian dishes meat eaters will be interested in.

“While only a small portion of the population may consider themselves strictly vegetarian, there are many more people that consider their health and the health of the environment when they make their dining choices,” she said. “It’s time for mainstream restaurants and chefs to move past hummus, salads and portabella mushrooms as the only choice for those looking for an alternative to meat.”

She said she’s been surprised how those plant-based options are being received. She said close to half of customers order off the vegetable-based menu.

O’Leary-Cole also pulls some inspiration for her menu from her southern heritage, like her cornbread with bacon jam.

Kingfisher is only open for the season and come September, the restaurant will shut their doors and O’Leary-Cole will return to the Lower 48, where she’ll pick up her van in Seattle and drive cross-country. She said she’s planning to return next summer.

District staff resignations and retirements highest recorded

Alaska, Education, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Facing potential state, local and district budget reductions, many non-tenured teachers are considering employment elsewhere.

To date, 86 certified staff and administrators resigned or retired, the highest number in the years the district has been tracking the data, Pegge Erkeneff, communications liaison for the district, said in an email.

Thirty seven out of those 86 have served the district for 15 years or more, 24 served 20 or more years.

“A disturbing development we noticed this year is a rise in the number of resignations from our staff, in part due to the fiscal uncertainty state budgeting caused to the school district this year,” Erkeneff said.

For the last four years, an average of 72 teachers resigned or retired from the district annually.

At the beginning of the new semester Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed deep cuts to education, worrying some residents, especially school districts, across the state. This spring, borough assembly and school board meetings were dominated by residents, teachers, principals, school board members and even students who pleaded for education funding support to give non-tenured teachers more certainty.

Days before the school year ended, May 16, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education approved contracts for 62 non-tenured teachers. Due to budgetary reasons, nine non-tenured teachers were not able to retained, Erkeneff said.

“Throughout the spring, our non-tenured teachers did experience uncertainty, and we were happy to issue 62 contracts and receive approval from the school board during a special meeting May 16, a few days before school was done for the year,” Erkeneff said.

Erkeneff said some employees leaving the district are leaving the state, too.

“In contrast to anticipated retirements, several of our valued staff noted that the fiscal instability of our state and subsequently in our district is a reason why they are leaving now,” she said. “They are not leaving our district for other districts in so much as they are leaving the state to go elsewhere.”

At an April school board meeting, James Harris, an English teacher at Soldotna High School and the 2017 Alaska Teacher of the Year, offered public comment regarding his recent resignation and departure from Alaska.

Harris said he felt he didn’t really have a choice.

“With the mayor’s proposed cuts and the governor’s proposed cuts, we would be hurting and we would lose our home,” Harris said. “On top of that, there has been seemingly very little support from the community.”

Teachers leaving the district can cause ripple effects with the district’s projected enrollment. Erkeneff said many of the district’s younger staff have children in local schools. Lower enrollment could mean even less funding from the state next year. In the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, a loss of 50 to 100 students might be spread over 15 to 20 schools, from the 42 schools across the district.

“If we experience a decline to projected enrollment that drove staffing decisions this spring, we potentially end up over-staffed, and experience a decrease in state funding based on the 20 day count in October that determines state funding, which is also linked to the local or Borough contribution to education funding,” Erkeneff said.

Despite uncertainty with the state budget heading into the summer, state statute requires school districts to let their staff know in May whether or not they have employment for the next year.

“All of our teachers know whether or not they have a contract for the school year beginning in August,” Erkeneff said.

She said 10 teachers were not retained because they were hired after Oct. 10, which presents another state statute issue, Erkeneff said.

“We are in the process of starting to hire back some of those teachers who were laid off,” Erkeneff said.

While teacher resignations were highest this year, support staff employee retirements and resignations are lower this year, Erkeneff said.

Satanic Temple invocation prompts protest, walkouts at assembly meeting

Alaska, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

A member of the Satanic Temple offered an invocation at Tuesday’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting, prompting walkouts from about a dozen attendees and borough officials, and a protest outside the building.

The invocation was the first given by the Satanic Temple since the borough changed its invocation policy in November. The new policy allows for anyone in the borough to offer an invocation, no matter their religion. The change in policy came after the Alaska Superior Court found the former policy unconstitutional and in violation of the state’s constitution’s establishment clause.

In her invocation, Iris Fontana — a member of the Satanic Temple and the prevailing plaintiff in the lawsuit against the borough — called the room to be present, and for attendees to clear their minds. She asked listeners to embrace the impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

“Let us demand that humans be judged for their actions,” she said.

No one is required to participate in assembly invocations. Assembly members Norm Blakeley and Paul Fischer stepped out of the assembly chambers, along with chief of staff James Baisden and Mayor Charlie Pierce — as well as a handful of audience members.

Two Soldotna police officers were present for the invocation, staying in the assembly chambers entryway.

About 40 people, some holding signs reading “reject Satan and his works” and “know Jesus and his love,” demonstrated outside the borough building before and during the meeting.

In October, the borough lost a lawsuit against plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska in a fight over its invocation policy, which allowed certain groups and individuals to offer an invocation at the beginning of each meeting. The plaintiffs, Lance Hunt, an atheist, Fontana and Elise Boyer, a member of the Jewish community in Homer, all applied to give invocations after the policy was established in 2016. All three were denied because they didn’t belong to official organizations with an established presence on the peninsula. They sued and the ACLU Alaska agreed to represent them.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson ruled the invocation policy violated the Alaska Constitution’s establishment clause, which is a mandate banning government from establishing an official religion or the favoring of one belief over another. Article 1, Section 4 of the constitution provides that “no law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion.”

In November, the assembly voted against appealing the Superior Court decision and passed an updated invocation policy allowing more people the ability to give invocations at assembly meetings.

Several people addressed the borough’s invocation policy during the meeting’s allotted time for public comment. Michele Hartline and Paul Huber, both from Nikiski, offered their own Christian prayers during public comment.

Barrett Fletcher, who is the pastor of the First Lower Peninsula Congregation of Pastafarians, said the borough should do away with invocations and “stop offending people.”

“I’m sure when I give the invocation in Homer in September there will be people that are offended by the idea of a creator of the universe, the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, being invoked,” Fletcher said.

Greg Andersen, Kenai resident, also spoke to the policy during his public comment. He warned the room he’ll be giving the next invocation.

“This is just some advanced notice for those of you who have a hard time accepting that some people have beliefs that are different than your own,” Andersen said. “You can turn your back and walk out like I witnessed this evening.”

Gravel pit controversy continues in Anchor Point

Alaska, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

From Hans Bilben’s back deck, one can see Mount Redoubt, waves from Cook Inlet crashing on the beach at Anchor Point and hillsides dotted with a handful of homes. Perched on the side of a natural amphitheater, Bilben’s house also overlooks a patch of undeveloped forest that extends across the valley below.

Bilben, his wife Jeanne and many of their neighbors fear that their scenic view will be damaged if a proposed gravel pit moves in next door.

Emmitt Trimble — owner of Coastal Realty, whose family has been developing and selling property in the area for around 40 years — manages Beachcomber LLC, a company that’s been working for a year to excavate gravel on 27 acres of his property. The property, totaling around 40 acres, sits at the bottom of the natural amphitheater, 500 feet from the Anchor River and near several state parks and campgrounds. As a developer, Trimble said one of his major costs is gravel. He said he wants the property’s 40 or so acres to be multi-use, where 27 acres is used to mine gravel, and the oceanfront parcels remain untouched, as a legacy property for his daughters.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission rarely denies gravel pit permits, but last July, Trimble’s application to excavate his Anchor Point property was denied after hours of public testimony raised concerns about potential disturbances created by the gravel pit, including damaged views, noise, dust, truck traffic and the property values of adjacent property owners, the Clarion previously reported. Commissioners who voted to deny the permit said it wouldn’t meet the noise and visual impact conditions even with additional buffers, according to Clarion archives.

“If you are willing to meet the conditions required, you get the permit,” Trimble said. “Unfortunately, the planning commission went off on its own and did whatever it wanted. It cost us a lot of money and a year.”

After his permit was denied, Trimble applied for a smaller permit — one that doesn’t require a public hearing — to excavate on a 2.5-acre section of the property. Last August, Trimble decided to appeal the commission’s decision, which will be heard again June 10. Some concerned neighbors hope the appeal for a permit is denied again at the hearing.

Trimble has full faith in the project. He touted the family’s 40-year track record with property development, and said he’s intending to redevelop the land after the lifespan of the pit comes to an end.

“I’m always looking to develop and redevelop,” Trimble said. “It’s not like I’m going to dig the gravel up and leave a hole sitting there.”

The excavation would happen in three phases, and has an estimated lifespan of 15 years or more, and could result in up to 50,000 cubic yards of gravel per year, according to the application. Bilben estimates this could require thousands of trucks a year traveling the neighborhood’s roads, which provide the only access to a handful of state parks and serve as the main access road for the area beach. The required route also includes a narrow bridge over the Anchor River with an 11-ton weight limit, a similar weight to an empty 10-yard dump truck.

Trimble’s efforts to mine the gravel on his property is well within the law, if the permit is granted. But, balancing the rights of property owners and neighbors in unzoned areas can be tricky. For property owners in unzoned areas interested in mining gravel, certain conditions in borough code must be met to get a permit, including buffers, barriers and regulations for when heavy machinery like rockcrushers can be operated. If these conditions are met, permits can be issued, despite how the conditions required in the code adequately protect neighbors.

“It’s always the people who are closest to it, who don’t want it,” Trimble said. “It’s that simple, but that’s not the way it works in unincorporated, unzoned areas.”

Bilben doesn’t believe current borough code would minimize his, or many of his neighbors’ properties from sight and sound impacts coming from the proposed pit. Bilben’s house sits 90 feet above the proposed pit, while the home of another neighbor, Pete Kineen, sits roughly 70 feet above the proposed pit. Six-foot-tall berms are required by the borough, but to block the view for many neighbors, Bilben estimates those berms would need to be at least 52 feet high.

“Say you’re gong down the road in Kansas or Florida where it’s flat,” Kineen said. “A 6-foot fence, 6 feet is sufficient and that’s all there is to it. Here in this amphitheater, I’m about 70 feet and Hans (Bilben) are 90 feet above. There’s nothing they can do to screen this off. The effective height of the fence would have to be 52 feet.”

“We wouldn’t even see the berm because we’re so far over it,” Bilben said.

Kineen called the proposed pit an “intrusion into paradise.”

“I’m concerned that the entire point of being here would be destroyed,” Kineen said. “Everything else is just a detail. It would destroy the whole atmosphere here. The noise would be overwhelming, the dust would be uncontrollable. The view — I didn’t move down from Anchorage just to look at a gravel pit.”

Neighbors opposing the proposed pit said they think the borough could be doing more to protect homeowners.

“Basically, the homeowners have no protections,” Bilben said. “If somebody comes into your neighborhood, buys a piece of land and says, ‘I want a gravel pit there,’ they get it unless they don’t submit the reclamation plan or if there is a body water that’s going to be affected.”

In January of 2018, the borough created the Material Site Workgroup, a council of stakeholders tasked with reexamining borough gravel pit regulations. The group was supposed to wrap up, with possible recommendations and improvements to the code, six months later. The group ended 15 months later this May. Their new proposal will be reviewed by the planning commission and then the assembly. Some neighbors opposed to the Trimble pit are not satisfied with new code recommendations, which they believe don’t offer sufficient barriers to protect nearby homeowners from noise and visual impacts of the mine.

Assembly member Willy Dunne, who represents the residents in Anchor Point, said he was disappointed the Material Site Workgroup took so long. He says the assembly will most likely be addressing the code proposal in late July. He’s heard lots of concerns from residents about proposed gravel pits in the area, and said he hasn’t had an opportunity as an assembly member to directly address those concerns.

“My main role would be to address the proposed changes through the ordinance that’s coming up,” he said. “I’m following the issue. I’m talking with residents. I’ve heard from people both for and against the gravel pit.”

He said there are some deficiencies in current borough code.

“In certain situations the buffers might not be adequate,” he said.

To invite the public to learn more about the Trimbles’ efforts and plans for the property, the family hosted an open house June 1, where people could tour the property, learn about the pit and ask questions. The land, which Trimble has owned since 2016, is the remainder of the Kyllonen family homestead, established in 1946. During the tour, Buzz Kyllonen gave a presentation on Anchor Point’s history in front of his mother’s homestead, which the Trimbles plan to preserve as a historical site, Allison Trimble Paparoa, Emmit Trimble’s daughter, said.

“This was a very positive event and the Trimbles are very grateful to the people who attended with an open mind,” Trimble-Paparoa said. “A wonderful time was had by all. This is the Anchor Point community we know and love.”

Neighbors opposing the pit say they are not against the gravel industry. Building in Alaska often requires gravel, and Lynn Whitmore, a neighbor to the proposed Beachcomber LLC gravel pit, said the gravel industry is huge in Anchor Point — noting the entire town of Homer was built using gravel brought from the Anchor Point area. He occasionally works for gravel companies, in permitting, and said he’s noticed some companies buying property “out in the sticks” to get away from the controversy that comes with mining near homes.

“If you buy property around a gravel pit, you ought to expect the interference from a gravel pit, but you if buy property with a nice view down from the beach here, and (the gravel pit) comes in — we want to stop the next guy from going through this,” Whitmore said. “The neighbors are stuck seeing it and hearing it for a long time.”

In a document submitted by Bilben to the borough’s Material Site Workgroup, he outlines property value concerns of the proposed pit’s neighbors. Using assessed property values of the proposed pit, and 45 neighboring parcels, Bilben estimated the neighboring property values could drop by 30%, a potential loss of $2,343,960 in assessed valuation dollars for the borough.

Trimble-Paparoa, who is an owner and managing broker with her family at Coastal Realty and who helps run the business in Washington state, said the last thing her family wants to do is negatively impact property values. She said the property is part of her family’s legacy, and eventually, the family hopes to retire there. Her sister is already living near the property where the proposed gravel pit would be.

The planning commission will have a public hearing June 10.

Gray whale found dead in Clam Gulch, 4th in Alaska so far this year

Alaska, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

A gray whale was found dead near Clam Gulch late Thursday. It’s the fourth gray whale found dead in Alaska and the second gray whale found dead in Cook Inlet this year.

The cause of death is still unknown. Since Monday, a team of biologists have been waiting for a minus tide to reach the whale so they can perform a necropsy, Julie Speegle, public affairs officer with the Alaska regional office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said.

The Clam Gulch whale is the most recent in a series of whale beachings this month, including one spotted last week near Kodiak, one near Cordova two weeks ago and one in Turnagain Arm earlier in May. Last month, a young humpback whale was stranded twice on the shores of Turnagain Arm.

Speegle said for the last 18 years, between January and May, normal records have indicated between zero and three gray whale deaths a year.

“We’re slightly above that now,” Speegle said.

Speegle said the whale was a sub-adult, or not fully an adult, and is estimated to be between 20 and 24 feet long.

Kenai’s historic chapel gets makeover

Alaska, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Visitors to Kenai’s Old Town may have noticed some construction at the Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel. Restoration efforts are underway.

At the beginning of the month, restoration experts began patching up and waterproofing the roof of the iconic chapel in Kenai’s Old Town, which sits across the street from the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church.

Dorothy Gray is the treasurer of the nonprofit group Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska, the secretary and treasurer for Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai and a lifelong member of the church. She said the chapel is in great need of repair.

The restoration efforts are broken up into three phases. The first is to repair the roof, and to waterproof it for years to come. The original cedar shakes will be replaced with cedar shingles, slowing the wood’s deterioration at the walls and corners of the building. Gray said the roof phase should be finished soon. The second phase should begin later this summer, with an assessment of the condition of the chapel’s logs. The third phase, which will come at a later date, will address the church’s foundation and fence.

The chapel received two grants to help renovate the National Historic Landmark. In 2017, the chapel received a $13,000 donation grant from the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America. Last September, the Alaska Historical Commission awarded a $14,964 grant to the chapel. Gray said a private donor has also recently provided additional funds.

The chapel is one of the most recognized landmarks in Kenai, and is featured on the city’s seal. The chapel has been sitting in Old Town since 1906.

Gray said the chapel recognizes the first Christian influence on the Kenai Peninsula.

“This place matters because it is the final resting place of the first Christian missionary here,” Gray said. “He brought the smallpox vaccine responsible for saving people’s lives far beyond Kenai.”

Gray said the chapel is also a poplar tourist attraction.

“It’s one of the most highly photographed places on the Kenai,” Gray said.

The Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel is getting restored with a new, waterproof roof this summer, Friday, May 17, 2019, in Old Town Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion.The Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel is getting restored with a new, waterproof roof this summer, Friday, May 17, 2019, in Old Town Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion.

John Wachtel, a former National Parks Service employee, places new cedar shingles on the roof of the Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel as part of new restorative efforts, on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, in Old Town Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)John Wachtel, a former National Parks Service employee, places new cedar shingles on the roof of the Saint Nicholas Memorial Chapel as part of new restorative efforts, on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, in Old Town Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

More than 200 students enrolled in homeless assistance program

Alaska, Education, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

As of May 10, 218 students were enrolled in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Students in Transition Program, Kelly King, program coordinator for the district, said. The 16-year-old program provides services to homeless students and students no longer in the custody of their parent or legal guardian.

The number puts the 2018-2019 school year roughly on track to match previous years. On average, the program serves around 250 students per year.

At the beginning of the school year, the program saw a 42% increase from previous years in the number of students the program was serving, with 98 students referred by mid-September.

In comparison, 69 students were identified as homeless at the same time in 2017, prompting fears of a spike in student homelessness.

At the beginning of the school year, King said she couldn’t attribute any one thing to the enrollment rise in September, the Clarion previously reported. She said the homelessness issue on the central peninsula often goes unnoticed, due to how spread out communities are. Enrollment is always high at the beginning of the year, and continues to grow throughout the year.

The Students in Transition Program provides a number of resources to students, including school supplies, hygiene products, free meals, transportation to and from school and other things that can be a stressor for a family when their housing situation is vulnerable.

King has been the coordinator for nearly 11 years, and works with Jane Dunn, a liaison in Homer who serves the southern peninsula. Their jobs are to help identify homeless students within the district. The program takes referrals until the last day of school.

With the end of the school year, comes the end of the program’s ability to provide services for students.

“Both district liaisons work at linking students to as many supports and services as possible before the school year ends,” King said.

Referrals come from a variety of places, including students, parents and school staff. When a student is referred, King does a needs assessment to make sure the child qualifies for the federal definition of homelessness. After a student is enrolled, they are enrolled for the entire school year. Youth enrolled in the program must be attending school.

“It’s critical for the public to understand that KPBSD strategically uses all available sources to support students on the peninsula, but are required to follow the specific requirements of individual funding sources,” Tim Vlasak, director of K-12 schools, assessment, and federal programs, said.

The program is required by law to define homelessness using the federal law standards provided in the McKinney-Vento Act, an act passed in 1987 providing federal money for homeless shelters and programs.

“It’s important for people to understand this definition isn’t something KPBSD came up with,” King said. “We are required to use the definition given by the McKinney-Vento Act, which is a federal law. This is the same definition districts across Alaska and the country are using to identify students experiencing homelessness.”

King said residents interested in giving a helping hand during the summer can help by supporting local service agencies.

“We always encourage community members to look at ways they can support local service agencies that assist our students and families, such as local food pantries and food banks or Love, INC of the Kenai Peninsula,” King said. “These groups are assisting our vulnerable neighbors year-round.”

K-Selo grants gets two-year extension

Alaska, Education, News, Online, Print, Uncategorized

This story originally published in the Peninsula Clarion.

Efforts to build a new school in Kachemak-Selo are still going strong, and a two-year extension on a state grant gives the borough more time to find additional funds for their match.

Last year, the Legislature enacted a bill allowing Department of Education and Early Development construction grant recipients to request an extension of up to seven years.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed an ordinance at their Jan. 23 meeting asking for an extension on the $10 million state grant for a new school.

Brenda Ahlberg, community and fiscal projects manager, said the borough requested a seven-year extension, but received only a two-year extension, making the deadline for the grant June 29, 2021. This means the borough has two more years to find around $5 million to fulfill the 35% match required of the grant.

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 originally expired June 30.

The borough is seeking alternative ways to fund the project, Ahlberg said.

“Given the state of the economic challenges we’re trying to overcome, now is the time that we need to seek alternative solutions for this project,” Ahlberg said. “The district is looking to consolidate schools due to the future fiscal uncertainties. While these challenges cannot take away from the students’ needs in K-Selo, the borough administration would like to identify a better approach that resolves the building issues.”

It’s uncertain if voters will see another K-Selo bond package on the ballots again.

“Last year the voters clearly stated that they did not approve of the 35% match or the $15 million-plus construction cost and Prop 1 failed,” Ahlberg said.

The current school in Kachemak-Selo is made up of three borough-leased buildings and serves about 46 students. In a December memo, 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 costs 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.

One of the largest drivers of the cost comes from the remote nature of the village. The community 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.

Ahlberg said the borough, school district and community will resume talks about next steps in the coming months.

Windmill to receive critical facelift, bringing back ‘former glory’

Alaska, Online, Spenard, The Spenardian, Uncategorized

Originally published in The Spenardian.

Sitting in the Koot’s parking lot is arguably one of the largest — both physically and figuratively — symbols of Spenard. The ornamental windmill, decorated with lights of green, red and white looms over the neighborhood.

“I didn’t think it would become the icon it is today,” former owner of Chilkoot Charlie’s, Mike Gordon said. “I thought it was cool. It was a pretty neat landmark, but no, at the time I didn’t envision it being on t-shirts or used as a symbol.”

However, the symbol is starting to show some natural wear and tear. Gordon said the windmill could use some love. In its current state, the wood is starting to rot and the lights that line the windmills legs hardly work, Gordon said.

“If you ever saw it when all the lights were on, on the legs through the tail, and the spokes were working — in other words, if the whole thing was working the way it was supposed to — it was a rare moment,” Gordon said. “There was usually something wrong with it.”

Cue Rod Hancock and his company, the founding owners of the Moose’s Tooth empire. They are the technical owners of the windmill. In an email, Hancock said the owners just recently decided to get the windmill back in working order.

“We have just recently decided to rebuild/refurbish the windmill this summer so that the lights and structure will shine again in all its former glory,” Hancock said.

Hancock said he didn’t have an exact schedule ready, but it will be completed in 2019.

The windmill is roughly over 60 years old. It has been sitting in the same parking lot since the 1980s, but it began its life in Alaska in the early 1960s.

Anchorage businessman Byron Gillam owned a liquor store on East Fireweed Lane. In the early 1960s, he was traveling in Southern California when he discovered a DIY windmill kit. Gillam bought the kit and installed it in front of his liquor store, the Kut Rate Kid.

The windmill lived on East Fireweed Lane for many years, with different owners as years passed. By the 1970s the windmill was in the hands of a local character Mike Von Gnatensky, better known as “Mafia Mike.” He told Gordon he would donate the windmill to him if he paid to have it moved to his parking lot.

“[Mike] had a pizza place in midtown he was going to move it to,” Gordon said. “But, he asked around and people said Mike Gordon will buy anything.”

Part of the contract also noted that a plaque be placed on the windmill forever honoring Mafia Mike’s donation. Gordon said is cost around $10,000 to move the windmill from East Fireweed Lane to its current home in Spenard.

“It was a nightmare,” Gordon said.

The windmill was installed in the Koot’s parking lot in the early 1980s, shortly after Chilkoot Charlie’s was established. The plaque went missing shortly after the move, but the windmill is here to stay.

Chilkoot Charlie’s hosted a celebration several years after the windmill was moved to the parking lot. Gordon didn’t know the specific date but said it was around 1989 or 1990. The community gathered at the party to fill a 55-gallon drum with neighborhood memorabilia. The drum was buried under the windmill and remains unearthed today, about 30 years later. He doesn’t remember what he put inside the drum, but Gordon said it was probably a selection of Chilkoot Charlie’s memorabilia. Gordon said there was no set date for the time capsule to be opened. There are no current plans to unearth the time capsule.

There was a time when Spenardians might have lost its neighborhood icon. Bob Gillam, son of Byron Gillam and well-known Alaska investor, had made offers to Gordon on the windmill. Growing up around his father’s business, Kut Rate Kid, Gillam wanted the windmill as a memento to put on his family’s property near Lake Clark. Gordon said he would sell it as long as the Gillams could replace it, to make sure Spenard wasn’t without a windmill. Gillam passed away last fall; the deal never went through.

The windmill currently stands above the Spenard Farmers Market every summer as well as the Spenard Food Truck Carnival. These events use the windmill as a landmark to let locals know the events are “under the windmill.”

Borough seeks to grow local agriculture

Alaska, News, Print, Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

The Kenai Peninsula Borough is working on a new agricultural land program, which will turn locally owned spaces into productive agricultural land, according to a Jan. 30 media release from the borough’s land management division. This new effort has been coined the Kenai Peninsula Agricultural Initiative.

“In short, the borough is looking to connect its good Ag land with the people who will be doing agricultural production into the future,” Marcus Mueller, the borough’s land manager, writes in the media release.

On the Kenai Peninsula, agriculture is a growing industry, which the borough is working to further progress with its agricultural initiative. The release said the borough has seen an increase in public interest for the quality of local products, the use of locally grown foods in area restaurants and farmers markets. As the need for more locally grown food increases, the need for affordable and effective farmland will also grow.

“The borough is seeing this emergence of activity as a new era in agricultural system development, which may in ways be unique to the Kenai and our growing state,” the release said. “Several new terms are becoming part of common conversations. Words like peonies, Rhodiola, hemp, and high tunnels expand the vocabulary on the Kenai and with those are created new opportunities. Access to local vegetables are talked about as the ingredients to healthy communities.”

The program is still in the preliminary stage, and the borough is looking to connect with interested farmers to better understand what they might need should the land be made available.

“A maze of considerations need to be sorted through to end up with a land offering method that works well for the farmer and that meets people’s expectations for managing lands on the long term,” the release said. “…The borough needs to hear from those people who are apt to be looking for new agricultural land so that it can bring forward the kinds of land offerings that are most likely to work out.”

The borough is calling for letters of interest from people looking for new agricultural land. Letters should include the size and general location of needed land, and time frames for production goals.

Letters should be addressed to KPB Land Manager, 144 North Binkley St., Soldotna AK 99669. More information can be found at kpb.us/land

Educators call for action

Alaska, News, Print, Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

A sea of red flooded the Betty J. Glick Assembly Chambers Monday night, when hundreds of educators, support staff and Kenai Peninsula Borough School District employees attended the Education Board meeting, wearing red in solidarity and support of getting a contract. After public comment, the district employees moved outside to rally for a contract, and discuss a potential strike.

Two full busses of employees from Homer and Seward, along with employees from the central peninsula, were packed into the assembly chambers, with many people sitting on the floor and filling up all three of the chamber’s entryways.

Now in the second semester of the school year, teachers and staff are still without a contract. Arbitration between the district and unions is expected Feb. 26-27, but staff said they hope to find a contract sooner, without arbitration.

Stephanie Cronin has been teaching in the district for 20 years. Her family lives in Seward, where her children attend Seward High and Seward Middle School. During public comment, Cronin spoke on behalf of teachers and staff across the peninsula.

“Today, we have worked 100 days, over 32 weeks without a contract,” Cronin said. “During this time we have spent countless hours of our own personal time in the evenings and weekends to provide an excellent education for our students. We’ve spent thousands of our own dollars to enhance our learning in our classrooms. We want to continue to do this. We want to work as a team. But it is hard when you as our leaders continue to treat us this way during contract negotiations. Every few years we go through the same drawn-out battle only to end up in arbitration.”

The district has spent $16,252.50 on legal fees related to contract negotiations, according to documents provided by the district at Monday’s school board work sessions.

Cronin said the lack of a contract has been difficult for employees in the district.

“Teachers want to stay here to work and raise families, but the lack of a contract and constant uncertainty about the costs of health care are making it hard for many to stay,” Cronin said. “…We look around the country and we see our colleagues standing up demanding that they are respected. We are feeling the pain and frustration that our fellow educators felt in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Los Angeles, and this is what it would look like here on the Kenai Peninsula.”

That last line of Cronin’s public comment was the cue for employees to vacate the assembly chambers into the borough building’s lower parking lot, where a short rally took place. Educators and support staff, most of them wearing red, and several who were waving signs demanding a fair contract, stood in a circle outside the chambers chanting “fair contract now.”

David Brighton, president of the Kenai Peninsula Education Association, addressed the crowd, encouraging employees to attend the Feb. 19 Borough Assembly meeting and to contact their school board representatives. Brighton said arbitration begins at the end of February, and through arbitration, the end of April would be the soonest employees saw a contract. Boos and jeering arose from the crowd, and talks of an upcoming strike were discussed, but Brighton wouldn’t commit to a specific date.

The cost of health care has been a focal point during negotiations. In her public comment to the school board, Cronin said employees in the district are taking home less in real dollars, compared to last year, due to increasing health care costs.

“Rather than meeting with us to negotiate a solution to health care you created an emergency enrollment in September where more than 400 employees took on more risk and will pay more when they use their health care because they couldn’t afford the rising cost of the premium,” Cronin said.

Cronin said this move created a $1.2 million savings for the district that was not used to improve salaries and benefits for employees.

“(The school board) took (the savings) out of the budget to use it elsewhere,” Cronin said. “We believe that was patently wrong and deceptive at best.”

A reduction of $1,170,029 for district health care contributions resulted from the transition of employees from the traditional plan to the high-deductible health plan, and employees opting out of health care coverage, according to a document provided at Monday’s school board work sessions clarifying the January 2019 budget revisions. Employees switching to the high-deductible health plan will collectively save approximately $849,300, which are funds that individuals may use to pay for deductibles and out-of-pocket costs when health care is needed, the document said.

During Monday’s school board work sessions, school board Vice President Zen Kelly confirmed with district staff 15 employees opted out of the district’s health care programs. According to the clarifying document, employees who opted out will collectively see around $74,700 less in premium payments from their paychecks.

Dave Jones, assistant superintendent for the district, said the district doesn’t have the new revenue sources to pay for the salary and benefit increases requested by employee unions.

“So we’re back to the same situation we were in prior to negotiations: find alternative internal savings or new revenue,” Jones said at Monday’s school board work sessions. “We haven’t been able to identify alternative savings within the budget, and the state and borough haven’t come forward with additional revenue. In fact, as we’ve discussed, the state has come forward with a reduction of money to us.”

The district’s expenditures have exceeded their revenues for the eight years in a row.

The public comments and rally come in a wake of increased action by employees to get a contract. Last week, staff hosted walk-ins and walk-outs at several schools across the peninsula, and residents have expressed support for education at the most recent Borough Assembly meeting. There are no official plans for a teacher strike. Employees are required to notify the district 72 hours in advance of a strike.

Kenai refuge spared shutdown damage

Alaska, News, Print, Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

After 35 days of a partial federal government shutdown, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is back on its normal schedule.

Across the country, many public lands remained open for residents to use. Joshua Tree National Park in California was forced to close mid-shutdown after the park was vandalized. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge was spared any major vandalism, Steve Miller, deputy refuge manager said.

“There were no major incidents to report,” Miller said. “We’re still trying to dig out of the snow though.”

Out of any time of the year, he said January was the best time for the shutdown to happen. Most visitors come to the refuge in the summertime. The roads weren’t maintained, which could have also prevented visitors from getting to the refuge.

Residents who entered the refuge cleaned up after themselves, Miller said.

“It’s mostly local people who were using (the refuge) and they did a good job of taking care of it,” Miller said.

Visitors helped to clean refuge cabins, which are normally maintained by refuge staff.

“It seems like people sort of adopted the cabins,” Miller said. “It looks like people did an exceptional job of cleaning up after themselves, and leaving the cabins ready for the next visitor.”

The Refuge’s winter hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. The refuge is closed Sundays, Mondays and federal holidays.

Borough to lose $1.4 million under proposed Dunleavy education cuts

Alaska, News, Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced legislation that would repeal a 2018-2019 appropriation of $20 million to K-12 public education in Alaska. In a letterto peninsula Sens. Gary Stevens and Peter Micciche, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Jones asked for support in opposing the repeal of the one-time funding.

Of the $20 million, $1.4 million was appropriated and allocated to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, according to documents from the state Department of Education and Early Development.

The school district budgeted the $1.4 million into their General Fund Revenue, which was used to reinstate 11.5 teaching positions.

“We have been employing and paying those folks since the start of the school year in August,” the letter reads.

In his letter, Jones said the district cannot afford to be forced to spend an addition $1.4 million in fund balance.

Last year, the Legislature passed a $20 million appropriation to be distributed among Alaska’s school districts during the current fiscal year. Dunleavy’s proposal essentially nixes the $20 million appropriation approved by legislators when the budget passed.

The $20 million was the first budget increase in years. It was divided among Alaska’s 53 school districts and Mt. Edgecumbe school in Sitka.

According to a document from the Office of Budget and Management, the proposed education cut is intended to provide money to underfunded programs at other agencies.

“The additional funding created a situation in which education was funded beyond the statutorily required amount while other programs were underfunded. This reduction is required to meet other obligations of the state,” the document states.

On Monday, the governor proposed two supplemental budget bills. Senate Bill 39, the bill that includes a $20 million cut to education, would provide an increase in funds to the Department of Corrections, the Alaska State Troopers and the Office of Information Technology.

Both supplemental budget bills are in the Senate Finance Committee.

The AP contributed to this report.15335682_web1_AP19017041481805-1200x796.jpg

After shutdown ends, federal workers pick up the pieces

Alaska, Beyond Alaska, News, Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended Friday when President Donald Trump signed a bill to reopen the government for three weeks. Nearly 700 emails and 60 voicemails awaited Amy Milburn when she returned to work after being furloughed for 35 days. Milburn is the area director for the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development office in Kenai. The office is home to only two employees, including Milburn. She said the impact of the partial federal government shutdown went beyond herself and her coworker.

“It was hard knowing how many people were affected,” Milburn said.

Without a regular paycheck, and with the uncertainty of when back pay will come, Milburn said she had to cut costs for her family. She said she cut $600 off her food bill.

“It had an effect on our economy,” Milburn said. “Neither of us were able to go out to eat, which means a server didn’t get a tip and a restaurant didn’t have a customer. I have more heartburn over people who didn’t get their tips.”

She said the effect wasn’t just in food consumption, but with all of her partners in the community.

In Kodiak, which is a part of the office’s service area, 20 percent of the 6,000 person population was not receiving a paycheck. Several Kodiak businesses were offering discounts and IOUs. Milburn said there wasn’t as much awareness about the shutdown on the peninsula.

“It’s not as widely felt in the community when it’s just two people (in our office),” Milburn said. “I didn’t see discounts at grocery stores or in restaurants.”

When Milburn and her coworker were furloughed Dec. 21 last year, the office wasn’t completely shut down. Natural Resources Conservation Services and their employees were funded and able to stay open. Milburn said this was a great thing, as they have more employees.

The USDA-Rural Development office has several programs that help Alaskans become homeowners. According to their website, USDA-Rural Development provides federal assistance resources throughout rural Alaska and has invested $2.16 billion dollars in 236 rural communities in the last eight years. Milburn said all of these programs were brought to a halt during the shutdown. Since furloughed workers can’t discuss work during the shutdown, residents concerned with the status of their loans couldn’t reach out to the USDA office for answers.

“Most of the housing applicants understood it was out of our control,” Milburn said.

Milburn said her office is optimistically hoping there’s not another shutdown.

“We’re glad we’re back,” Milburn said. “It’s hard not being considered essential. It’s kind of degrading.”15320013_web1_shutdown.jpg

Further assessment shows borough faced little damage in Nov. 30 earthquake

Uncategorized

Originally published in the Peninsula Clarion

Further assessments have found little damage to Kenai Peninsula infrastructure after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake rumbled Southcentral Alaska on Nov. 30 last year.

Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Manager Dan Nelson said all borough buildings have been deemed safe to occupy. Initially, building managers and supervisors assessed immediate damage following the earthquake. Next, Nelson said seismic specialists conducted detailed screenings of borough buildings and their final report was issued to the borough last week.

“We didn’t have damage compared to Anchorage or the Mat-Su, and the Kenai Peninsula was lucky,” Nelson said.

In their report, three buildings were flagged for further assessment by an engineer, which the borough will contract out.

Skyview Middle School, Kenai Middle School and Nikiski Community Center will all be receiving a further assessment by an engineer in the following months.

Nelson said after the earthquake there were a lot of little things that were fixed right away, such as cracks in borough-maintained roads.

In the city of Kenai, City Manager Paul Ostrander said there was little to report after damage assessments.

The Kenai dock was slightly damaged along with an inactive well house, and the building surrounding the well house, which has now partially subsided, Ostrander said.

The city also experienced a water main break in one of the city’s neighborhoods, which occurred a week or so after the earthquake and was fixed shortly after the problem was identified, Ostrander said. The break created a small disruption to the neighborhood’s water supply.

Ostrander said the dock and the well house were both insured.

Residents who experienced damage to their home have until Jan. 29 to file for federal assistance. Nelson said there were a lot of scattered incidents to homes in the borough, but that the state will handle the federal assistance process for residents.

“If you think you have damage you can report it,” Nelson said. “It’s a fairly simple to process to get started on.”

Nelson said now is a good time for residents to evaluate their own home emergency plans.

“It’s a really good time to look at any plans you have for an emergency,” Nelson said. “Just in case the next big earthquake is a little further south.”15279958_web1_47220456_581615692282053_7979177864413052928_n-1200x800.jpg

Borough works to extend state grant agreement for K-Selo

Alaska, Uncategorized

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.15260861_web1_49606043_273456466666625_3883115979974115328_n-1200x800.jpg