By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
Ironically enough, the progress report was where progress got tripped up on a project meant to decrease the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions on the Sterling Highway.
The report was issued at the conclusion of a Sterling Highway Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Study, covering Mileposts 58 to 79, from the east entrance of Skilak Lake Road [...]
Entries from November 2009
November 25, 2009
Crossroads — Refuge, DOT perspectives clash in Sterling Highway collision mitigation project
November 25, 2009
On the road to highway funding changes — ‘Donor’ states decry Alaska’s disproportionate receipt of transportation money
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
Alaskans have it good when it comes to federal funding for highway projects. That may not seem to be the case while rattling along the ruts in the Sterling Highway heading east out of Soldotna, or bottoming out on the frost heaves and dips that never quite seem to be evened out [...]
November 25, 2009
Feeding the need — Food bank launches facility expansion
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
Picture being in charge of a Thanksgiving dinner for a large group of friends and family.
At the store, when buying a turkey and all the fixings, sticker shock leads to creativity in finding lower-cost ingredients. Or putting back items altogether. Picking up perishables involves estimating how much freezer space is left at [...]
November 25, 2009
Anchor Point boy burned with ‘redneck flamethrower’
By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
When Alaska State Trooper Ryan Browning arrived at Chapman Elementary School on Nov. 16, he was relatively surprised by the calmness of the 5-year-old boy he had been called out to interview.
“We got a call from OCS that Monday morning advising that a student at the Anchor Point school had arrived with [...]
November 25, 2009
Alaskans lobby Utah ski resort owner to give up coal — Groups find irony in ‘environmental’ businessman’s investments
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Alaska isn’t the only place melting in the controversy of global warming and climate change. Even a ski resort in Utah is on the impact list, a message local environmental groups tried to get across in a protest staged last week in the southwestern state.
The groups are sending appeals to the owner [...]
November 25, 2009
Great lakes — Frozen, flat surfaces heat up otherwise lukewarm ski season
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
With the bare dusting of powder that has been blowing around the central Kenai Peninsula for the past few weeks, winter recreationists are finding themselves all geared up, yet few places with snow.
Backcountry mountains don’t have enough cover to smooth over tangles of birch and alder, and trails through the woods are [...]
November 25, 2009
Quality time with a ski pole to the face — Life lesson to be learned? Take it on the chin
By Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter
Why is it that lessons have to be unexpected and painful in order to really sink in?
I was pondering the brutality of meaningful knowledge acquisition while skiing at Headquarters Lake behind the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge building on Ski Hill Road on Saturday afternoon.
Actually, this train of thought didn’t come about [...]
November 25, 2009
Musseling in on the Kenai — Freshwater mollusks make themselves at home out of sight in stream beds
By Dr. David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter
Freshwater mussels can be found in a number of streams and lakes on the Kenai Peninsula. However, most of us never see them because they are found exclusively on stream beds and they are almost completely submerged in the substrate.
On top of that, their outer shell covering, called [...]
November 25, 2009
Dogged determination — Patience is rewarded in raising energetic hunting dogs
By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter
When I met Gunner he was in a 3-by-6-foot wire cage. His only respite from barking was to stop and lick his paws, which had open sores from his anxious licking.
He was a shelter dog, and only by the grace of the person running the shelter was he still [...]
November 25, 2009
Financial feast — Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t have to break the bank
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
Thanksgiving dinner can be challenging enough to prepare just in terms of quantity and quality. Worrying about cost on top of it all can be the lumps in the gravy.
Even with a down economy prompting thriftiness this year, that doesn’t mean a holiday feast has to be anything less. A little extra [...]
November 25, 2009
Art Seen: Woven wanderings — Fabric artist explores life’s journey through textures, patterns
By Zirrus VanDevere
Susan Welsh-Smith has had two open-heart surgeries in the last 12 years. She lives in Ninilchik and has been a fiber artist for many years, and has her work currently on display at the Funky Monkey in Kenai.
She states that after the most recent surgery, she feels she has a new lease on [...]
November 25, 2009
Putting the ‘juvenile’ in juvenile delinquent — Young vandals turned in by parents for doing considerable damage to Sears Elementary
By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter
On the surface, the crime was like many other incidents of vandalism perpetrated against area schools: Over the weekend in mid-June 1980, someone had broken into Sears Elementary in Kenai and damaged numerous classrooms.
Then, when more details emerged during the following week, the public learned that the damage was far more extensive [...]
