Ben Boettger
Peninsula Clarion
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Photo: In praise of salmon
Sculptor Nichole Hoop works on a carving during the Alaska Wild Salmon Day festivities in Soldotna Creek Park on Friday in Soldotna. The event, organized by the conservation nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper, featured salmon-themed art, servings of salmon chowder, readings by fisher-poets, and music by Tyson James and Motown Fever. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion) → Read More
Republican gubernatorial candidates discuss issues at Soldotna forum
Three of this year’s five Republican gubernatorial candidates discussed their plans for state finance, capital spending, and the Alaska LNG project during a Wednesday forum organized by the Soldotna and Kenai Chambers of Commerce. → Read More
Kenai debates adding sign to Lawton Acres’ Field of Flowers
The Kenai Airport Commission’s plans for a sign marking the the annual wildflower field the city plants in a vacant municipal lot on Lawton Drive have been delayed by disagreements over the property’s complicated relationship with the Kenai Municipal Airport and the size of the proposed sign. → Read More
Lieutenant governor candidates discuss LNG, taxes, Stand for Salmon in Kenai
Six of this year’s eight lieutenant governor candidates answered questions on Wednesday about ballot initiatives, potential state taxes, the Permanent Fund Dividend, and the Alaska LNG Project in a Wednesday forum before members of the Kenai and Soldotna chambers of commerce. Voters will choose from these candidates on Aug. 21, in the primary elections that will determine which will move on to… → Read More
Barbecue brings Soldotna to its roots
People from every generation of Soldotna’s brief history may have been among the large crowd that gathered Friday at the Soldotna Homestead Museum for a barbecue in honor of the town’s homesteaders. Vice President Sara Hondel of the Soldotna Historical Society, who organized the event, plans for it to become an annual part of Soldotna’s Progress Days celebrations. → Read More
Alaska Department of Labor to use $1.2 million grant for opioid response
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development plans to use $1.2 million from the federal government for its first programs specifically to help people affected by opioid addiction get back into the workforce. → Read More
Road construction getting out of the way for fishing season
As RVers, dipnetters, anglers, and other recreationalists prepare to drive to the Kenai Peninsula for the peak of tourist season and the personal use dipnet fishery — which runs from July 10 to July 31, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) plans to step out of their way. → Read More
Floating the Kenai
Honestly, what’s left to say about the Kenai River? → Read More
Cook Inlet Energy fined over well pressure at Osprey platform
Cook Inlet Energy has received fines totaling $50,000 from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) — $25,000 for failing to test a new injection well from its Osprey oil platform and another $25,000 for failing to notify AOGCC when that well later showed “significant pressure anomalies,” according to AOGCC’s Monday order issuing the fines. → Read More
Central Peninsula Hospital to have new birthing and cardiac facilities
Babies born on the central Kenai Peninsula soon after November 2019 may be the first to enter the world in a new birth center that Central Peninsula Hospital (CPH) plans to have operational by that date. The enlarged obstetrics unit will be on the second floor of a new hospital addition and a new facility for heart treatments will sit beneath it. → Read More
Alaska Communications progressing through Kenai Peninsula broadband wireless project
Statewide telephone and internet service provider Alaska Communications plans to begin offering wireless broadband internet to some rural areas of the western Kenai Peninsula in late 2019, company representatives told the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. → Read More
Drift River dismantling may start in early 2019
With oil expected to begin flowing in September through a reconfigured pipeline system connecting fields on the west side of Cook Inlet to the Andeavor Refinery on the east, Hilcorp’s Drift River Oil Terminal — from which oil is presently carried across the inlet by tanker — may start being dismantled in early 2019. → Read More
Refuge repairing boat launch, trails, and cabins
The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is replacing a boardwalk and boat ramp into the Kenai River at the end of Soldotna’s East Redoubt Avenue. → Read More
Design to start on Cooper Landing bypass
Design is set to start on a new stretch of the Sterling Highway around Cooper Landing after the state and federal agencies in charge of the bypass — formally known as the Sterling Highway Milepost 45-60 project — signed a record of decision Friday, officially choosing the Juneau Creek alternative that would run through the hills above Cooper Landing. → Read More
Primary election candidates final
Kenai Peninsula voters will have a choice in the Aug. 21 primary of two Republicans running for state Senate, three candidates for the northern peninsula’s House district, four vying for the southern peninsula’s House district, and an unopposed incumbent for the House district representing the Kenai and Soldotna area. → Read More
River City Academy graduates nine
The nine River City Academy students who turned their tassels at a Monday afternoon graduation ceremony at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex spoke about the interests they had discovered during their time at the small, tight-knit school, and about the people that had helped shape them there. → Read More
CINGSA plans backup systems
After losing some capacity in March to a sand-clogged well and failed dehydration unit, Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska (CINGSA) is planning to spend an estimated $41 million to back up its ability to store and dispense the fuel gas that generates most of south central Alaska’s heat and electricity. → Read More
Soldotna Blockbuster to shut down after 24 years
Tourists from the Lower 48 who come to Soldotna to fish or hike sometimes find themselves surprised by a less-expected feature of the local landscape — Soldotna’s Blockbuster Video, one of the Alaskan remnants of the once-ubiquitous rental chain that survived its parent company’s 2010 bankruptcy and competition from rental kiosks and online streaming to become among the last in the U.S. The… → Read More
Borough and municipalities contest revenue changes
City managers from around the Kenai Peninsula said Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce’s proposal to raise sales taxes while dropping property taxes would hurt sales tax-dependent city budgets. Municipal leaders met with borough administrators and assembly members on Monday to discuss the trickle-down effects of the borough’s various revenue-raising plans. → Read More
HEA takes a look at electric vehicles
Of the attendees who drove from the central Kenai Peninsula to Homer for Homer Electric Association’s annual member meeting on Thursday, at least two made the trip in electric cars. → Read More