Goodbye to 2005
Politics, industry — even weather broke expectations
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John Williams was elected Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor last fall.
Clarion file photo by M. Scott M
If there is one certain, sure-fired, immutable reality defining life on the Kenai Peninsula, it is that, over time, nothing remains certain, sure-fired or immutable. As a year, 2005 proved no exception to that rule.
State and local politics were about as predictable as the weather, which is to say, not very. Economic forecasts at the beginning of 2005 looked stormy but ended up relatively sunny.
Below is a review of some of the top stories and leading issues that affected Clarion readers in 2005.
Efforts to keep Agrium's Nikiski fertilizer plant open led news stories for the central Kenai Peninsula in 2005.
Clarion file photo
Industry
Through most of 2005, the future of Agrium USA’s North Kenai facility was uncertain. Agrium started trimming its work force in December 2004 in anticipation of a shutdown in October 2005, due to a lack of affordable natural gas to run its operations.
In March, Agrium was willing to pay Cook Inlet Basin producers up to $3 per thousand cubic feet of gas to secure short-term contracts. By July, a temporary agreement with Cook Inlet Gas Gathering System pipeline owners Marathon and Unocal secured Agrium contracts to buy enough gas to keep the plant running until November 2006, but uncertainty persisted. In October, Agrium closed one of its plants and cut its work force to 150.
November brought welcome news. Agrium announced a joint feasibility study looking into the use of coal gasification to make feedstock for its fertilizer operations. If the gasification plant is built, it could mean as many as 2,000 direct and indirect jobs for the area. A decision is expected in early spring.
At roughly the same time, Tesoro announced a partnership with Flint Hills Resources Alaska to refine low-sulfur fuel at its Kenai refinery. The project could mean hundreds of temporary construction jobs for the area.
Meanwhile, Conoco-Phillips, Unocal — this year acquired by Chevron USA — Marathon and others continued exploration efforts onshore and off around Cook Inlet in search of more oil and natural gas.
This year saw increasing interest in the Beluga Coal Fields, including the Chuitna project that would export the low-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal to Pacific Rim nations. Other initiatives envision gasifying some of that coal for consumption by local industry and liquefying more to produce diesel fuels.
The prospect of mining millions northwest of Iliamna had Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. pushing forward with plans for a huge open-pit operation there toward the end of the decade, and peninsula residents eyeing hundreds, if not thousands, of direct and indirect jobs. Nevertheless, opposition to the mining project continued to grow as people began weighing the serious environmental issues at stake.
Kenai Peninsula Borough
Borough voters appeared to prefer former state Sen. John Torgerson to any of his four challengers in the municipal election Oct. 4. But Torgerson’s 36 percent wasn’t enough to win the borough mayor’s job outright, forcing a runoff with second-place finisher John Williams, the former long-time mayor of the city of Kenai. Williams engineered a dramatic come-from-behind victory in November.
His election victory left Mayor Williams facing an uphill battle to balance the borough budget after the success of ballot propositions promoted by a grassroots group known as the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers, or ACT, limited the borough’s ability to raise and spend money. One rolled back a 1 percent increase in the borough sales tax and required that any future increase meet with the approval or 60 percent of voters. The other reduced from $1.5 million to $1 million the amount the assembly could spend on a capital project without a ballot measure.
In May the assembly voted 5-4 to put a controversial bed tax proposition on the fall ballot. They needn’t have bothered. In October, Kenai Peninsula voters defeated the proposed 4 percent sales tax.
Wal-Mart announced last fall plans to open a store in Kenai.
Photo by M. Scott Moon
City of Kenai
Wal-Mart announced plans Oct. 26 to build a 235,000-square-foot combination grocery and general merchandise store on 37 acres of airport property behind Kenai Chrysler Center. The announcement was met with mixed reactions from the community — some adamantly opposed and many embracing the news.
Anchorage-based Grant Aviation Inc. began regularly scheduled air service between Kenai and Anchorage in May. Kenai Municipal Airport has seen three air carriers come and go in the last five years. Grant said it plans to set up shop here on a long-term basis.
Mike Tilly, who has been with the Kenai Fire Department since 1990 and served as the assistant fire chief under former Chief Scott Walden, was promoted to chief in July. Walden has since become Emergency Management Coordinator for the borough.
The Kenai City Council approved a plan in September to build a 25-acre soccer park north of town adjacent to the Kenai Spur Highway.
Saying erecting a town clock in Leif Hansen Memorial Park establishes a town center, something Kenai lacked, Mayor Pat Porter saw the idea become reality this fall when the new clock was delivered and installed Nov. 28.
City of Soldotna
Construction began March 1 on a temporary Sterling Highway bridge over the Kenai River in Soldotna so workers could remove the old bridge and begin work on a new one. The new bridge is expected to open in August 2006.
The Soldotna City Council ratified a two-year contract Sept. 14, giving a 3 percent pay increase to the city’s nine patrol officers and two police department clerks.
City officials threw up their hands in bewilderment in September over continuing vandalism and reports of drug abuse at the Soldotna skateboard park and closed it until spring.
As work continues to restore the Kenai riverbank through Soldotna Creek Park, a portion of the bank below the former Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities site remained closed through 2005 and will probably be closed next fishing season, as well.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
In February, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s claim of being underfunded by the state found support in a study released by the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee. A study identified numerous districts in the state, including the peninsula’s, which had received less than needed. If the Legislature were to fully implement the study, it would mean an additional $10 million to the district.
In August, the state of Alaska released its Adequate Yearly Progress report, which identified 32 peninsula schools, or 73 percent, that met the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That represented an overall loss of ground from the 82 percent that met the targets in 2003-04, but an improvement over the 52 percent that met yearly progress criteria in 2002-03, the first year the targets were measured.
In September, Melody Douglas, the district’s chief financial officer, reported that district enrollment had returned to its annual 2 percent decline after enjoying an increase during 2004-05. The loss of some 200 students equals a $1.4 million shortfall in revenue, Douglas said.
Also in October, Superintendent Donna Peterson wrote to parents, teachers and community members in Hope and Cooper Landing, alerting them that enrollment numbers in those two communities had dropped to levels nearing the minimum number of students required to maintain a school.
Central Peninsula General Hospital
Three times within three months, tragedy befell Central Peninsula General Hospital workers and staff members. In February, hospital maintenance man Jay Stafford and his wife, Teressa, were killed in an auto accident on the Seward Highway. In January, dietary services Employee of the Year nominee Michelle Odom Maheras died suddenly at her home, and the preceding month, Dr. Tina Juul-dam, a doctor working in an internal medicine residency program, was killed in a head-on collision on the Sterling Highway. Another doctor, William Weppner, was seriously injured in the wreck.
The springtime saw construction begin on a new two-story hospital wing, phase two of a $49.9 million hospital expansion. Completion of the 82,000-square-foot building, which will include 50 single-patient rooms, is expected by the end of next year.
The year ended with David Gilbreath announcing his resignation after three years as chief executive officer of the hospital effective April 28. He and his wife, Pat, have decided to relocate to Washington state to be closer to her ailing father.
Goodbyes
Kenai Peninsula residents mourned the loss of well-respected public servants this year, including former Alaska state senator and long-time borough mayor Don Gilman, who died of a heart attack July 18, and former Alaska state representative and borough assembly member Drew Scalzi, who succumbed to cancer July 21.
Paul Drennen and Chris Kempf prepare the F/V Excalibur for the commercial salmon season last spring. Upper Cook Inlet fishers harvested their fourth largest season last summer.
Clarion file photo
Fisheries
Silt pouring off the rapidly melting Skilak Glacier is building up in Skilak Lake and affecting the supply of copepods, an important food source for sockeye salmon fry. As a result, the average size of the fry has been shrinking, researchers with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported. The average fry sampled this year was less than half as large as the average for the past decade.
In 2005, Upper Cook Inlet fishermen harvested more than 5.1 million sockeye, the fourth largest sockeye harvest on record. At 90 cents per pound, it was the most valuable fishery since 1997.
David Forster was sentenced to 101 years in prison for the murder of Kenai Police officer John Watson.
Photo by M. Scott Moon
Crime and justice
In September, Kenai resident David Forster, 35, the man convicted of murdering Kenai police officer John Watson, was sentenced to 101 years in prison.
On Dec. 26, 2003, Watson was sent to the Forster’s residence to check on the welfare of his 18-year-old fiancé. Amid a struggle between Forster and Watson outside the residence, Forster shot Watson with the officer’s gun.
Justin Starkweather was sentenced to 80 years in prison for a sexual assault and attempted murder that occurred in 2002.
Clarion file photo
In May, Justin Starkweather, 24, the man convicted of sexually assaulting and attempting to murder a Soldotna woman in 2002, was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Robert Holt Jr., 22, pleaded guilty in April to one count of the first-degree murder of Harold Sipary. Holt was accused of murdering the Soldotna man and stealing his pickup truck after Sipary picked up the hitchhiker along the Seward Highway in May 2001.
In January, Dorothy Israel, 44, was stabbed with a butcher knife in her residence in Soldotna, and her son, 22-year-old Adam Israel, who lived with her, was charged with first-degree murder for her death. Adam Israel called 911 shortly after the stabbing; Dorothy Israel was taken to Central Peninsula General Hospital, where she died. Court action is pending in the case.
Volcanoes
Activity at Mount Spurr that began in 2004 continued in 2005, and the Alaska Volcano Observatory maintained a “yellow” alert code, meaning an eruption was possible. Scientists continue to monitor the peak, which last erupted in June 1992.
Similarly, scientists have been keeping a close watch on Mount Augustine, where the number of earthquakes below the summit began increasing in May. The level of concern remains at yellow.
The increasing activity has led local government and industry officials to review various contingency plans that would be put into effect in the event of an eruption.
Weather
Just when it looked like the winter of 2004-05 was going to slide by with little in the way of the white stuff, Mother Nature slammed us with tons of snow as a succession of storm fronts moved through in February.
Still, overall, it counted as a relatively warm winter, and things got hotter from there.
The Tustumena Lodge in Kasilof hosted a weather event in May that goes down in the Big T’s already colorful history. An unusually strong dust devil whipped across the hot, dry parking lot, toppling the 20-foot Big T sign, as well as a few full-grown spruce trees across the Sterling Highway.
On July 6, witnesses saw a funnel cloud descend between Sterling and Skilak Lake, an occur-rence that meteorologists say is becoming more common in Al-aska.
Wildfires
It may not have looked it last summer judging from the smoke in the air, but 2005 was a below-average year for fires on the Kenai Peninsula, according to data from the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Some 52 fires were ignited, roughly half the number in 2004, but a few grew to major proportions. A broken power line at the end of Tracy Avenue near 8 Mile East End Road launched the Tracy Avenue blaze on April 29, which spread quickly, even threatening at one point to jump the Anchor River and head north.
On July 11, lightening ignited the Fox Creek Fire southwest of Tustumena Lake, which burned more than 26,000 acres of beetle-killed and black spruce forest.
Still another blaze, the King County Creek Fire, was ignited June 26 near Skilak Lake as a result of a thunderstorm, eventually consuming more than 10,000 acres.
Arctic Winter Games
The year saw preparations for the 2006 Arctic Winter Games kick into gear, but there were some stumbles along the way.
Games General Manager Loren Smith, of Fairbanks, resigned Feb. 10, citing family reasons. Former UAA Athletic Director Tim Dillon was hired as his replacement.
In an effort to lure volunteers, planners held rallies in October and November, signing up 400 volunteers, bringing the total to 1,200, or just under half of the projected 2,700 needed.
The host society released a 500-page operations manual in October, providing details on how to plan each event for the upcoming Games in March — information that had been unavailable to previous host societies.
In early December, Games officials announced they faced an estimated $750,000 budget shortfall, blaming the lack of a fundraising committee and miscalculations.
AWG fundraiser Bill Popp and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor John Williams are seeking help from the state. The news spurred reaction from private sources, and by Christmas, the host society received nearly $200,000 of cash and in-kind donations.
A young brown bear rummages for salmon carcasses on the bank of the Kenai River near its confluence with the Russian River last fall. It was one of three cubs orphaned during the summer after an Anchorage man allegedly shot the bears' mother.
Clarion file photo
The bear facts
In October, a hiker was hospitalized and her dog was lost after an attack by a 300- to 400-pound brown bear. Colleen Sinnott of Kasilof had her scalp torn off, three ribs broken and was bleeding from numerous punctures and scratches after she was mauled by the bear on a trail near Skilak Lake Loop Road. The dog was found, alive, 13 days later.
In September, Danielle Compton, 21, of Valley Springs, Calif., was on her way to work at the Kenai Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing when she spotted a brown bear between her and the lodge. The bear charged, knocked her to the ground, bit her once and dragged her a short distance before running off into the woods.
In July, a 15-year-old Boy Scout from Texas was mauled by a brown bear in Cooper Landing. Alex Benson of Plano, Texas, was with a group of 24 Scouts when they encountered the adult bear. After the bear attacked the teen, a Scout leader in the group fired a handgun into the air, scaring it off. Benson received puncture wounds on one arm and a leg.
In August, an Anchorage man was charged with shooting and killing a brown bear sow near the Russian River on July 31. Charging documents allege that Michael B. Oswalt, 26, deliberately shot the bear — which had been hanging around the river with its three cubs most of the summer — without provocation. Oswalt faced six counts, including taking a brown bear in closed area, taking a female bear with cubs, failure to salvage hide and skull, hunting a brown bear without a proper tag and reckless endangerment.
Hungry?
In August, J.D. Meg-chelsen, the Nikiski man who set a new state record in 2004 with a 707-pound pumpkin, came back with another garden-grown goody of even greater girth. At the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, his 942-pound pumpkin crushed the state record by nearly 200 pounds.
Clarion reporters Phil Hermanek, John Hult, Patrice Kohl and Joseph Robertia contributed to this report.