Mayor ponders budget belt tightening — Nonprofits say costs of cuts go beyond borough funding

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Money doesn’t grow on trees.

It’s an especially fitting adage in trying financial times, such as the situation Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey is concerned the borough may soon find itself in. Oil prices are down, which may affect how much state revenue sharing funds the borough receives. The borough also doesn’t yet know what impact the new sales tax exemption on nonprepared foods will have on its coffers.

In response, Carey is considering pruning the borough’s budget, including funding for nondepartmental organizations — such as the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, the Kenai Watershed Forum, Central Area Rural Transit System, Small Business Development Center and the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council — by starting those organizations out at zero in the administration’s proposed budget.

Carey: Taxpayers should have more money left in pockets

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey is keeping an eye on troubling financial times he sees on the horizon as he prepares the borough’s fiscal year 2010 budget.

“I am going to be very conservative. If I don’t know we have money in the bank, I’m going to assume we do not have it,” he said.

Several factors have put him ill at ease. Oil prices have dropped over the past year. During a trip to Juneau four weeks ago, legislators gave notice that the resultant decrease in state funds could mean a decrease in funds passed on to local municipalities, Carey said.

“The forward funding they set aside for revenue sharing was very much now in play. Up to 50 percent of that could end up not coming to us,” Carey said.

He’s heard that increases in state education funding are secure, but he’s concerned about the capital budget, which has not yet been released. Projects that had been cut from previous attempts at state funding were expected to see money this year, but that may no longer be the case, Carey said.

Local revenue is also in question, he said. He does not yet know how much the seasonal sales tax exemption on nonprepared food will decrease revenue, and property tax revenue may not come in as expected, either.

Students get new view on science — Class takes pictures of Earth with International Space Station camera

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Middle School’s seventh-grade trip photos are a world apart.

There are no snapshots of friends mugging for the camera, no remembrances of funny signs or interesting roadside curiosities, no photographic evidence of practical jokes done while the victim was sleeping.

That’s because the students weren’t the ones doing the traveling. But they were in charge of the camera, and they used their shutterbug and science skills to capture images not seen in any typical vacation slide show — pictures of Earth from space.

The KMS seventh-grade science class participated in ISS EarthKAM, a NASA-sponsored program that allows students to take high-quality photographs from the International Space Station as it orbits the planet.

Strong appeal — Bodybuilding offers new challenges

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

At 38 years old, Pako Whannell is in the best shape of her life.

That’s saying something, since the longtime volleyball coach, college athlete and manager at the Peninsula Athletic Club hasn’t been a slouch in the fitness department.

She’s worked out regularly, played volleyball and stayed in shape throughout her life, but she retired from coaching a few years ago and a back injury kept her from playing as much volleyball.

“I needed to find some other thing to stay focused on and stay fit and healthy,” she said.

She found it in bodybuilding. Whannell went to Anchorage with a group of friends and fellow gym members last year to support Scott Griebel and Sohnya Hamar as they competed in a bodybuilding competition.

“We just were inspired. It was just kind of a neat, entertaining thing to watch as well as it’s different and it takes dedication and hard work,” Whannell said. “But I think a lot of ladies these days might be tired of the same old routine of the doldrums of work every day and working out. They’re looking for some kind of challenge. It’s starting to explode,” Whannell said.

Built to last — Bodybuilding interest on peninsula swells to point of holding local show

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Seeing the toned, sculpted physiques flex, pose and perform in the lights and music onstage will be impressive enough at the Kenai Peninsula’s first Alaska Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness competition March 28 at the Renee C. Henderson Auditorium at Kenai Central High School.

The truly jaw-dropping part comes in realizing how much effort goes into the competitors being onstage — often a year or more of rigorous, multihour, five-days-a-week workouts and diligent commitment to an exacting nutritional regime where every calorie consumed is calculated for maximum benefit.

“Nowhere else in the state will you find a gathering of more lean, fit, healthy people at one place at one time than the 28th of March at that auditorium,” said Bernie Pendergast, of Sterling, who’s promoting the event. “I also think it’s important that people understand it’s not only a competition where these great athletes will be onstage, but it’s an athletic event and it’s also entertainment.”

Just like bodybuilders don’t become ready to compete overnight, the peninsula competition didn’t become a reality in a matter of days. It’s taken months to organize and promote the event, and it’s taken years for local interest in bodybuilding to grow to the point of supporting a competition.

Modern ring to it — Traveling circus puts human feats center stage

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Alaskans don’t need a circus to see exotic animals. But aerial acrobatics, magic, contortionism and other exotic human feats of skill, balance, athleticism and finesse — well, that’s a horse of a different color.

That figurative horse will be on display today, March 18, at the Soldotna Sports Center, as the International All-Star Circus performs at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The International exhibition is a modern circus, one where humans, not animals, are the centers of attention.

“It’s Ringling Brothers meets Cirque du Soleil. The American flair with the big production acts and cotton candy and kids’ room bounce, things like that. It also has beautiful aerial ballet and quality of performance, acts in that type with a modern, clean circus,” said Cornell “Tuffy” Nicholas, ringmaster and producer of the International All-Star Circus.

Art Seen: Brush with the wild side

Susan Anderson is basically a Fauvist, as far as I can tell. I’ve been watching her work for years now and am continually intrigued by it.

Stephen Sanders, who created a Web site dedicated to Fauvism, explains Fauvism as this: “Shortly after the turn of the century, (it) exploded onto the scene with a wild, vibrant style of expressionistic art that shocked the critics but has since been recognized as one of the seminal forces that drove modern art. They were called the fauves, French for ‘wild beasts,’ a term of derision used to indicate their apparent lack of discipline. Today fauvism, once thought of as a minor, short-lived movement, is recognized as having paved the way to both cubism and modern expressionism in its disregard for natural forms and its love of unbridled color.”

Disregard is not the word I would use, instead preferring the idea of a supra-regard translating into the joy of expression through the happy mimicking of the wondrous and varied forms in the natural world.

Anderson was not formally trained, apparently, but rather lived and breathed art in the context of a family full of artists and art educators. The folk appeal and seeming naivety of her pieces work best when she uses simplified images without an abundance of detail.

Arts and Entertainment week of March 18

Events:

Ongoing

• Artists Without Borders in the 4D Building in Soldotna has artwork by Susan Anderson on display through March.
• Art Works in Soldotna has egg tempera paintings by Andy Hehnlin on display through March.
• Coffee Roasters in the Red Diamond Center on Kalifornsky Beach Road has an exhibition of Kenai Peninsula College student photography from the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race on display through March 26.
• The Funky Monkey in Kenai has nature and wildlife photography by Samantha Becker on display through March.
• The Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College has “Details,” an exhibition of paintings by Nikiski graphic artist Chris Jenness, on display through March.
• Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna has “This Season That We Call Winter,” a photography exhibition by Genevieve Klebba, on display through March.
• Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna has photography by Jeremy Reeve on display through March.
• The Kenai Fine Arts Center in Old Town Kenai has the Peninsula Art Guild Biennial Judged Exhibition on display through March.
• The Soldotna Senior Center is looking for artists to display their work in the center’s lobby. Shows are one month long. Artwork must hang on the walls. Call Mary Lane at 262-8839. The artist of the month in March is Corrine Fairchild.

Towering memories — Mystery plaque shakes up story of ’64 quake

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

In the early 1980s, friends of Jean McMaster were tearing down the lean-to attached to the back of her log-cabin dance studio near Kenai when they came across an old brass plaque hanging on the wall in a room that had been used for radio-dispatch calls to the Kenai volunteer fire department. The rectangular plaque had grind marks on each corner, as if bolts holding it in place had been sheared off to remove it.

Stamped into the metal was the name of the manufacturer: the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co. And below that were four lines of data: Whatever the plaque had been attached to had been erected in 1952 and had a capacity of 150,000 gallons. Its “upper capacity level” was 147 feet, 6 inches, while its “lower capacity level” was 120 feet, 2 inches.

Longtime area educator, Gene Morin, whose daughter and son-in-law, Chris and Britton Cook, had been helping tear down the lean-to, realized what the plaque was, and Morin thought he knew who might like to have it.

Back on Good Friday, March 27, 1964, Clayton Brockel, the 37-year-old director of adult education and recently appointed director of the new Kenai Peninsula Community College, had just finished another day of work and was planning to wind down. He climbed into his 1960 white, two-door Chevy Corvair and headed west out of Kenai toward the Wildwood Army Station, where he was a civilian regular at the Friday evening social hour.

He arrived in front of the Officers Club at approximately 5:30 p.m., parked in front of a 4-by-4 post supporting an electrical plug-in, and strolled inside. The Officers Club consisted of three stories —upstairs quarters, a downstairs mess hall and a basement bar and social area. Brockel walked in through the front door and headed down.

“I walked in, and I recall that someone said he wanted me to meet this new officer,” said Brockel, now 82. “So we shook hands, and, about the same time that we shook hands, the earthquake started.”

Editorial: Belt tightening good, but don’t squeeze too tight

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey is right in taking a cautious approach to the borough budget this year. Financial storm clouds are on the horizon — with a drop in oil prices affecting state revenue sharing, a decrease in sales taxes from the exemption of nonprepared food and a question mark over how much the borough will feel the deepening national financial crisis. Whether the storm amounts to a drizzle or a hurricane, it’s good fiscal policy to put sandbags in place now, before the rains come.

Carey has asked all departments to submit budgets with no more than a 4 percent increase. He’s looking at service areas and grants for ways to save money and avoid costly obligations down the road. He’s also instituted a zero-based budgeting approach to the nonprofit organizations the borough has funded in the past, meaning the organizations will have to justify why and how much the borough should fund them.

These are all sound financial practices, and Carey’s desire to lower the mill rate to keep more money in taxpayers’ pockets is an idea that’s sure to be popular.

That desire can be carried too far. Government’s role is to provide essential services on behalf of the people funding it. But when “essential” is defined too narrowly, it does a disservice to residents, even if it means they have some extra cash after tax season.

Guest editorial: Transparency, good faith, public participation needed to solve energy dilemma

Recent grass-roots action by Homer Electric Association cooperative members which resulted in the HEA Board’s decision to contract a third-party, fact-based Power Supply Study is a shining example of why public participation is essential in influencing responsible regional energy policy, including study and development of renewable energy projects.

Unfortunately, HEA, doing business as Kenai Hydro LLC, is aggressively pursuing hydroelectric projects proposed for Kenai River headwaters near Moose Pass and Cooper Landing, which do not represent good renewable energy policy or good public policy.

HEA widely and deliberately misrepresented the projects as “low-impact” to obtain public money and to defuse legitimate public criticism.

HEA funding requests mischaracterizing the projects as low-impact resulted in over $1 million in public funding from the Denali Commission, Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority/Alaska Energy Authority, and the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee.

Science of the seasons: Stream debris can be good for fish, insects

The first raft or boat trip on the Kenai River each spring is a new adventure because the river will have changed significantly since the last trip in the fall. There will be new channels and unknown shallows that have to be noted in order to avoid costly repairs to the boat bottom or prop. Along with the substrate changes are the arrival or removal of large logs and, sometimes, entire trees. Sections of a river with significant numbers of logs and stumps are usually given a wide berth by boaters.

Logs and stumps are transients in the river until a large flood or ice jam washes them downstream. Eventually they will end up in the inlet and can create their own hazard out there. While in the river, however, the logs can have a significant impact on surrounding substrates and can become a temporary microcosm of riverine organisms, especially fish.