The city of Kenai is requesting that residents restrict their water usage, as the city has been consuming more water than its wells can produce.

“It’s the weather and the time of year that causes us to lose ground,” City Manager Rick Koch said.

This time of year, with warm weather and blue skies, many Kenai residents consume a lot of water to keep lawns green, wash cars or clean driveways, he said. But when it rains Kenai begins consuming less water, as residents use it less, he said.

Sockeye salmon fishing is booming on the Kenai River, said Brian Miller, Trustworthy Hardware & Tackle owner and manager.

“I imagine the Russian River is going to take off pretty fast and furious,” Miller said.

He noticed the sockeye flooding into the lower Kenai River last week, and he expects they are still moving up.

Since sockeye salmon fishing opened Tuesday on the Russian and Kenai rivers and their confluences, fishing has been productive from Bing’s Landing up to the Russian River, he said.

The two boys climbed out of their cockpits, onto a yellow wing and back onto the tarmac where the World War II era plane sat under a blue sky. 

When the brothers grow up, if they chose a life in the sky, 8-year-old Devin Martin would like to fly barrelrolls and backflips; 9-year-old Tyler Treider would just like to fly a plane like the antique AT-6 Harvard warbird they had just climbed down from.

“When I was in the back you could see a lot of the controls,” Tyler said.

Devin said there were gauges and switches and dials.

Kenai residents will vote on the city’s comprehensive plan in its October election, following the validation of a petition that challenges the city council’s recent approval of that plan.

“Let’s put it on the ballot and see if it’s just a core group of people,” said Mark Schrag, a resident of the MAPS subdivision who spearheaded the petition.