The City of Kenai will fine individuals dumping fish carcasses and other refuse on its beaches in an effort to keep the North and South beaches clean during the July dipnet fishery season. The city now requires that dipnetters dump fish waste into the water.

City Manager Rick Koch said fish parts collected in piles and rotted on the beach last dipnet season. Area residents testified to the council that seagulls had dumped fish heads in their yards.

Koch described last year’s scene as “unsanitary, unsightly and uncomfortable.”

Kenai City Council finalized and approved its comprehensive plan following an about three-hour discussion on its amendments at a Wednesday night council meeting. Now the plan is headed for the Kenai Peninsula Borough for final approval.

The council voted on more than 20 amendments concerning land use classification and how to facilitate greater public input when updating its comprehensive plan in the future, among other topics. Nearly all the amendments came from council members Bob Molloy and Mike Boyle.

They are the flowers carried in a bouquet at a sunny wedding. They can mark promises made, or the beginning of a happy future.

But these flowers, peonies, grow best in a state where the winter sun can linger for less than six hours a day and temperatures can drop to 20 degrees below.

“Out of the darkness of Alaska comes the bright brilliance of the peonies,” said Wayne Floyd, laughing and throwing his arms up.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is working with the Kenai Natives Association to boost available moose browse on 85 acres north of Sterling. It is a partnership that Fish and Game hopes will spark conversation about potential future collaborations to improve Kenai Peninsula’s Game Management Unit 15A moose browse, said Sue Rodman, Fish and Game program coordinator.

“Looking at the big picture, all the land owners that have an interest in moose habitat, at some point I see us sitting at a table and having that discussion,” Rodman said.