‘Lucky’ on Lilac Lane — No injuries, deaths in gas explosions after earthquake

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. The shell of a home at 1211 Lilac Lane stands beyond the complete wreckage of a home at 1213 Lilac that exploded from a natural gas leak caused by the magnitude 7.1 earthquake Sunday.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

While the loss of four homes is nothing to be celebrated, residents and emergency responders to natural gas-fueled explosions on Lilac Lane in Kenai following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake early Sunday morning are calling the situation miraculous, since no one was hurt and everyone got out alive.

“The second house, when it exploded, it blew off its foundation, it blew its garage door across the street and then caught the home on fire,” said Kenai Fire Chief Jeff Tucker. “It just happened that nobody was around there. We had crews within a pretty close distance of it. There was a tree out in front of the home that blocked a bunch of the debris from flying too far and injuring anybody. So we were lucky there was nobody in the area at the time of the explosion.”

Residents along Lilac Lane, Cook Inlet View Drive and Wells Way were evacuated early Sunday while emergency responders and utility companies worked around the clock to stop gas leaks in the area. The neighborhood parallels the Kenai Spur Highway on the Cook Inlet bluff side, behind Doyle’s Fuel Service, across the highway from Wildwood Correctional Facility.

Misty Schoendaller lives at 1215 Lilac. She was drifting off to sleep when the earthquake hit at 1:30 a.m. She got dressed, grabbed her cellphone and headed outside.

“About the time I got out the door the house next to mine exploded and knocked me back. And when the explosion happened it was really weird because it was like coming out from the kitchen area, and the front of the house kind of came out and then went back in, and black smoke everywhere. I mean, it was bad. It was real bad,” Schoendaller said.

She called 911 and ran to next door to 1213 to see if she could help. Vinnie Calderon was in the front yard, shouting for his family to get outside. Miraculously, neither he, his fiancée nor the two kids in the house were injured in the explosion.

This home at 1211 Lilac was one of four destroyed by natural gas explosions and fires Sunday following the earthquake. Janice Gottschalk lived there with her fiancé, brother and three kids.

Janice Gottschalk lives with her fiancé, brother and three kids at 1211 Lilac, to the left of Calderon.

“About 1:30 a.m. the earthquake hit, and probably about 1:40, 1:45 a.m. I heard my neighbor’s house blow up,” she said. “The gas blew off the roof. They thankfully made it out. And then we were all told probably about five minutes later to evacuate our house, as well,” she said.

Kenai police officers arrived within minutes of the explosion, Schoendaller said.

“There were things on fire outside of the house on the ground and the Kenai police were trying to extinguish it with extinguishers, and it just kept coming back,” she said.

The neighbors piled into an apartment across the street as the Kenai Fire Department worked on Calderon’s house, about a dozen people anxiously waiting for whatever might come next.

By 3 a.m., emergency personnel noticed a strong smell of gas in the area and told neighborhood residents they had to evacuate.

When she left Lilac, Schoendaller expected to come back to her home.

“I didn’t think anything was going to happen with my house because the fire department was here and it looked like they were going to be able to contain it, so nobody thought they were going to lose their homes except that one (that exploded),” she said.

Displaced

An emergency shelter was set up at the Kenai National Guard Armory. Sgt. 1st Class Albert Burns got the phone call from the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s Office of Emergency Management.

Kenai OKs plan for south beach road — City to purchase 7 lots for $1.6 million

Imagery from Kenai Peninsula Borough parcel viewer. The city of Kenai will purchase the highlighted seven lots in order to build a new access road to the south beach of the Kenai River.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

It was not their ideal solution, but members of the Kenai City Council did pass a solution at its Sept. 16 meeting to address the thorny problem of providing better access to the south beach of the mouth of the Kenai River during the July dip-net fishery.

“We have to think outside the box a little bit. This is a little different than normal but I believe it can work, I believe it’s the right solution with the options that were given us and I don’t think we need to delay any further,” said Council Member Tim Navarre, who voted in favor of the city purchasing seven lots off Drag Net Court for the purpose of constructing a beach access road.

The city only needs four of the lots for the road project, but negotiations with ARK Properties LLC resulted in only one deal — all seven or none. The lots include one with a mansion and various outbuildings with a borough assessed value listed at over $1.4 million.

Not liking that option, the city investigated skirting those lots to put in a road, but that placed the path through sensitive wetlands, which was another nonstarter.

So it was back to the purchase option. The city obtained a $1.9 million grant from the state for improved access and upgrade work for the dip-net fishery. The road project is covered under that pot of money, including the $1.6 million purchase price for the seven lots.

But there are a few strings attached. The city intends to sell the lots it doesn’t need for the access road. The state doesn’t want the city using grant money to buy the land then turn around and sell it at a profit, since the purchase price of the lots is below the assessed value.

As City Manager Rick Koch explained, if there is any profit from the sale of the extra lots, the city will be required to return it to the state, where it will go back into the grant and be available for the city to use for other dip-net access and improvement work.

“It’s the same grant money that’s been replenished. And we are able to use it for the same purpose that the grant was extended to the city in the first place.” Koch said.

Lot lines to discern — Before Kenai could grow, Uncle Sam needed to be in the know

Image courtesy of Shana Loshbaugh. The original townsite map of what is now known as Old Town Kenai was created by surveyor Elliott Pearson, starting in 1951 and revised in 1954. The village of Kenai developed before modern-day subdivision standards came to Alaska. Note that the spit of land seen bottom left has now largely eroded with the crumbling bluff above the mouth of the Kenai River.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Joanna Hollier moved to Kenai long before it gained its “Village with a Past, City with a Future” motto. Before it was even a city, when the village’s past was the present. When Old Town Kenai was just Kenai.

“I came here in August of ’46, and there was no roads. I mean, no getting around with cars and what not. So we were more or less out there in old town, or Kenai — it was just called Kenai at that time — was downtown at that time,” she said.

Hollier came to town to work with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the precursor to the Federal Aviation Administration, and has lived here through the town’s most dramatic period of change, as described by historian Shana Loshbaugh at a meeting of the Kenai Historical Society on Sunday at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center.

“Back in the early part of the 20th century, Kenai was basically an offroad Native village, like so many in Alaska still are,” Loshbaugh said. “It had a lot of Russian influence, the big industry in the area was the canneries. But really very different from what we have today. There were a lot of changes that started about 1940 to 1960, which is really when Kenai morphed from the village to city. As of the time of the beginning of World War II, you can see Kenai was pretty isolated, didn’t have a good port, no roads. The 20th century, however, was slowly coming to Kenai.”

Hollier worked for one of the biggest agents of change in Kenai — aviation. In 1926, the first plane came to Kenai, and the first “airstrip” was established in 1937.

“And basically little planes could land on the road just over here on Overland Drive,” Loshbaugh said.

The village got airmail service in 1930, though by the end of the ’30s mail service stopped because the community was seen as too small, and residents had to go to Kasilof for their mail.

But World War II was brewing, and the federal government saw Alaska as an integral part.

“Now, the war is when the changes really started happening in this area,” Loshbaugh said. “When the United States was not part of the war effort there were a lot of national leaders who really had a premonition that the U.S. was going to get dragged into it and there were also people who recognized the strategic importance of Alaska so they started sending federal resources to Alaska and ramping up for a potential war effort in this area.”

In March 1941, the military reserved a huge chunk of land — two to three square miles — just outside the Kenai village site, from the bluff adjacent to where the Kenai Senior Citizens Center is now, out into the wetlands north of town. In December, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the U.S. officially joined the fight. In 1942, the CAA built a 5,000-foot airstrip in Kenai, which has turned into the airport we have today. It didn’t end up having much role in the war effort, but had a huge role in transforming Kenai.

“It was the war that brought this airfield to Kenai and it was set up to be a major airport that they could use in an emergency situation,” Loshbaugh said. “So that’s basically what Kenai got out of World War II was the airstrip. And when the Air Force and the military wound down and the war ended the airstrip stayed, and by 1945 the descriptions show that the Civil Aeronautics Administration that ran it was one of the major employers in the Village of Kenai.”

Road access was the next big change for the then-little community. In 1946, surveying for the Sterling Highway began, and the road was dedicated in 1950, with the Kenai Spur Highway completed not long after.

“At that point the population of Kenai in the official census in 1950 was 321. That’s less than 10 more than had been 10 years before, so Kenai was still a little bitty place at that point, but things were on the move. Next thing they get electricity,” Loshbaugh said.

Kenai loosens residency requirement

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

How Kenai must you be in order to have a role in making decisions for the city?

The Kenai City Council on Wednesday redefined its answer in loosening the requirement for serving on the planning and zoning commission to allow up to two of the seven seats to be filled by nonresidents who either own property or a controlling interest in a business in the city.

Making the change to allow nonresidents on the commission involved a philosophical discussion over how much weight to give one’s home address.

Vice Mayor Brian Gabriel said he thinks there’s a large number of Kenai business owners, living outside the city, who would like to serve on the commission.

“There’s many other cities within the state and across the country that do allow nonresidents from their corporate and city boundaries (to serve) on the planning and zoning. They’re invested community, and I don’t think considering their input is a bad thing,” Gabriel said.

Council member Tim Navarre has been a near lifelong Kenai resident, yet serves on various committees outside the city. Where one lives isn’t the only qualification dictating where one’s interests lie, and he thinks the city should be open to the involvement of those who invest here, not just live here.

“I see that the city of Kenai is open for business is willing to involve people because our city wouldn’t be as great as it is if we didn’t have people from all around peninsula that not only work, invest in our city and everything else,” Navarre said.

Fishing for a smooth season — Dip-net prep starts long before the fish, people show up

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. City of Kenai workers were busy last week preparing for the start of the dip-net fishery Friday. The crowds of dip-netters show up overnight, but the services needed to manage them take considerable time, money and planning to put in place.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

As sockeye salmon return to the Kenai River in July, so, too, do crowds of dip-netters seeking to catch their share. But while the people show up overnight, the fishery doesn’t come together that fast. Prep work begins before the first late-run fish hit the fresh water.

Come the 6 a.m. July 10 opening of the Alaska resident dip-net fishery on the Kenai, the place was humming with hundreds of boats, vehicles and people, seeking their share of the tens of thousands of sockeye salmon that pass through the sandy, silty, windy transition of Cook Inlet and the river each day.

“On our busiest day we’ll see up to 15,000 — that’s in boats and on the north beach and south beach,” said Kenai City Manager Rick Koch. “You think, ‘Gosh, that’s just an incredible number,’ but you think of 600 boats out there during the course of the day, you put four people in a boat, that’s 2,400 people already.”

Kenai has the dubious honor of managing the most popular location of the state’s personal-use dip-net fishery.

“Things have become significantly more routine as it relates to keeping beaches clean, making sure we have enough portable toilets, Dumpsters, parking spaces are well defined, trying to moving people through — those things over the last five to six years we’ve got handle on, being event people. It’s sort of like Wrigley Field and 40,000 of you and your closest friends show up for a few hours. We’ve become event coordinators, and I think our personnel have done a very good job at undertaking those responsibilities, but every year there’s always something new,” Koch said.

Work began far in advance of the Friday opening. On Thursday, the beaches were busy with city workers doing last-minute preparations.

“Restroom cleaning, putting up fence to keep people off the dunes, picking up trash, cleaning up, whatever needs doing,” said Larry Hull, with the Kenai Parks and Rec Department.

Kenai project a step ahead — No bluffing: Final feasibility study is furthest erosion work has gotten so far

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

For Kenai’s mile-long bluff stabilization project along the mouth of the Kenai River, the easy part will be building the thing. And that’s saying something, because construction will be no easy task — piling giant boulders to armor the toe of the bluff, plus re-sloping and revegetating the bluff face and installing drainage and erosion-control systems throughout.

But compared to the process of getting approval and funding for the project, construction will be a piece of cake. The city has been actively pursuing a fix to the 3-feet-per-year erosion problem for 30 years, and the estimated price tag for the project has risen in that time from a lowball $10 million to the current $43 million.

“So, you think about a century ago there was a football field out here. But you can see here’s the senior center and it’s really riverside property in 2053, and there’s a loss of improvements and properties along here,” said Kenai City Manager Rick Koch, who moderated an open house at city hall May 6 to update the public on the project.

There wasn’t any great news to share — that a construction date had been set, for instance — but there was the good news that progress is being made.

“We will continue to be diligent. I know the council, as I’ve told you, has year after year after year, identified this as number-one priority project … especially since we are slowly moving forward and the Corps is involved in a way that hasn’t happened before,” Koch said.

The city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently executed a funding agreement to go ahead with a final feasibility study on the project, which will coalesce all previous studies, prepare documentation for National Environmental Policy Act permitting, and come to a final recommendation on whether or not an erosion abatement project should be built. That should be finished in August 2017. And at that point, assuming the conclusion is to build the thing, the process to obtain federal funding will begin, said Dave Martinson, a representative with the Corps.

“Because I’m sure next thing that you’re wondering is, ‘OK, when will something be built? When will construction happen?’ And, to be honest, that is really out of my hands, because we’re at the mercy of a nation that is struggling with a pretty incredible debt, with a project workload that they’re trying to accomplish. So, no offense, but the community of Kenai doesn’t weigh very high, as you can tell, from a national standpoint. … With us doing as much as we can to show the importance of this we’re going to present that argument,” Martinson said.

Study in patience — Kenai inks funding agreement on bluff erosion final feasibility study

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. A section of bluff in Kenai sloughs off into the mouth of the Kenai River. The city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently ironed out the terms of a cost-share agreement to do a final feasibility study on the erosion problem, which could clear the way for a stabilization project to move to the funding phase.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

The approval of a cost-share agreement for a final feasibility study between the city of Kenai and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers might only be an incremental advance toward someday constructing an erosion abatement project along the mouth of the Kenai River. But it’s a necessary step, nonetheless.

The city had been anticipating the agreement for about a year, and the city council has already provided authorization for the city manager to execute the agreement. When the document was received April 16, City Manager Rick Koch said it didn’t contain any surprises. It calls for a 50/50 split to conduct a final feasibility study on a bluff stabilization project. Koch said the preliminary cost estimate for the study is $227,000 from both the city and the federal government, though the project could cost as much as $637,000 in all. The city will be using funds from a state appropriation toward a bluff stabilization project.

Koch said that the feasibility study essentially coalesces and refreshes the several previous studies the Corps has conducted on the bluff erosion situation, including reports on socio-economic impact, historical and cultural resources in the area and National Environmental Policy Act documentation that supports an Environmental Impact Statement for the project. The Corps also did a feasibility study, “to determine if the value of the areas that are being sort of saved from the erosion exceed the value of the cost of the project. There’s been a technical analysis, which defines the problem and explores solutions to determine if, in fact, the problem can be solved. And the results of that study were that, yes, the problem can be solved,” Koch said.

A new stage — Land donation allows theater group to build permanent home

Redoubt Reporter file photo. The Kenai Performers have staged shows wherever they could find space throughout the group’s 40-plus-year history, including “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Kenai Central High School this winter. The city of Kenai is donating a parcel of land for the group to build its own theater.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

As Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage.” But after 45-plus years of performing, here, there and anywhere space could be found, the Kenai Performers want a corner of the world for their own stage.

With a vote by the Kenai City Council at its meeting April 15, it looks like that might happen. The council voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to work on a donation of about two acres of land to the nonprofit organization, on which it can build a theater.

“I was very pleasantly surprised. I’ll admit I shed a tear,” said Sally Cassano, board president of the Kenai Performers.

The organization has rented several locations over the years, currently the old Peninsula Athletic Club next to Subway on Kalifornsky Beach Road. And it owned a building in Kenai for a couple of years, on the corner of North Spruce Street and First Avenue. But pre-existing buildings haven’t met the theater organization’s unique needs — for performance space, lots of storage, a lobby, areas for technical equipment, and the bathrooms, parking space, safety systems and other requirements for facilitating large crowds.

“Right now we’re just spending so much on storage and rent. And it was difficult in the old building, as well, because once we got in there the stipulations on us for getting to be able to hold a group of people in there were really too much. We didn’t realize the air exchange system and things like that,” Cassano said.

So the group has been looking to build, but land in the city was out of its reach.

“The price of land is skyrocketing, and we were looking at down K-Beach but then it kind of removes us from Kenai,” she said.

Good tidings — Unusual winter tides avoid stormy possibilities

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Unusually high “spring” tides sprung on Cook Inlet last week, bringing the potential to exacerbate bluff erosion, especially the unstable slopes around the mouth of the Kenai River. Luckily, the high water did not coincide with high winds or other stormy weather. The tides also retreated to lower-than-average levels, as seen here Thursday looking north from the mouth of the Kenai River.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Credence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty might talk about a bad moon rising last week. But luckily for Kenai, though a particularly close new moon caused extra-high tidal ranges, there were no hurricanes ablowin’ at the time, thus avoiding any rivers overlowin’, much less any rage and ruin to the unstable bluffs along the river mouth.

Cook Inlet was awash in its highest tides and widest tidal ranges of the year last week. Anchorage on Wednesday saw a high tide of 33.1 feet at 7:48 p.m., followed by a low tide of minus 5.2 feet at 2:55 a.m. Thursday, for a tidal range of 38.3 feet. At Homer, a high tide of 22.3 feet at 2:55 p.m. Wednesday was followed by a low of minus 4.9 at 9:16 p.m., for a range of 27.2 feet. And at the mouth of the Kenai River, a high tide of 24.9 feet at 4:42 p.m. Wednesday was followed by a low of minus 4.5 at 11:31 p.m., for a rage of 29.4 feet.

The tide reached a high of 24.9 feet at the Kenai River mouth on Wednesday.

The high highs and low lows were created by a conjunction of factors having to do with the position of the moon. A little Earth science 101 refresher, here — tides are essentially long-period waves rolling around the planet as the ocean is affected by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Twice each month, tidal ranges are a little larger than average as the Earth, sun and moon are nearly in alignment. As seen from Earth, that’s either a full moon — when Earth is between the moon and the sun — or a new moon — when the moon is between Earth and the sun. In both cases the gravitational pull from the sun and moon combine and tug a little harder at Earth’s oceans, making high tides a littler higher, and low tides a little lower.

These are confusingly named “spring tides,” which have nothing to do with the season of spring, but come from the idea of “springing forth.” Spring tides happen twice every 28-day lunar month, all year-round.

In addition to spring tides, the moon also exerts a little extra pull on our oceans when it is nearest to the Earth. That’s called perigee, or a “super moon,” and it also results in slightly higher tidal ranges. Three or four times a year, a new or full moon will coincide with a super moon. This month’s new moon was Jan. 20, and the lunar (pear-eh-gee) happened about a day and seven hours later, on Jan. 21.

All together, that’s called a perigean spring tide, and that combination of factors causes even higher tidal ranges than either factor alone.

That’s what happened last week. Along most coasts around the globe, the effect to tidal ranges is only a couple of inches. But since Cook Inlet already sees some of the highest tidal ranges on the planet, the effect of a perigean spring tide can be 6 inches or more beyond average.

Drop in to drop pets — Kenai shelter closes outdoor after-hours cages

Redoubt Reporter file photo. The Kenai Animal Shelter is one of the few places to bring found or unwanted pets in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and has recently closed its outdoor, after-hours kennels. Some worry the change will limit animal surrenders from outside the city — and that something worse will happen to the animals — while the city says the move is meant to help animals because staff will be able to get more information that might make the pets more adoptable.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

With the coming of the new year, the Kenai Animal Shelter has also implemented a new change to benefit the canines and felines that find themselves temporarily at the facility. As of Jan. 1, the shelter closed its external pet drop-off, primarily used for after hours for the surrender of unwanted pets and strays whose owners are unknown.

“The closing of the outdoor cages does not mean the city shelter won’t take animals after hours. It’s just a different intake,” said Rick Koch, Kenai city manager.

Koch said the reason for the change is two-fold. The first is to ensure surrendered pets are receiving more humane accommodations.

“Animals were being left in terrible conditions. We’ve had boxes of kittens left when it was 10 below outside and the outcome wasn’t good. We also had pets being put in cages with other pets they weren’t compatible with,” he said.

The other reason for the change is also to get more information about the animals being surrendered to streamline the shelter’s processes for handling them, as well as to glean more information that could find the surrendered pet a home.

“When an animal was left in the overnight cage, we didn’t know if it was a stray or surrendered for adoption, and just knowing the answer to that question can help us and the pet. If we don’t know anything, we have to treat the animal as lost and hold it for 72 hours before putting it up for adoption, which can be problematic when the shelter is at or near full capacity. Then we have to do things with the adoptable animals, and those things aren’t good,” Koch said.

Buy the book — Kenai library fundraiser is annual mark of support

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Kathy Heus, chair of the Friends of the Kenai Community Library’s annual book sale, sorts books at the Home Gallery in Kenai in preparation for the event.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

“Game of Thrones, “50 Shades of Gray,” Harry Potter. These and many, many, many more are among the books that may be available during the Friends of the Kenai Community Library’s annual book sale, Sept. 18 to 20 at the Home Gallery furniture and flooring store in the Kenai Mall (old Carrs Mall).

“We unpacked six pallets of books today and we still have many more to do,” said Kathy Heus, who chairs the book sale, last week while working to organize books by subject or genre.

Unlike the minisale at the library itself last month, this book sale will be five times that size and is too large to hold at the library, which is how it came to be held at the furniture store, in the former Sears location, at the Kenai Spur Highway location.

“We had to find a large-enough area and they were kind enough to give us space for a week,” Heus said.

With a planned 5,000 to 10,000 books for sale, space is dearly needed.

“We didn’t have one last year, so we knew we had to have one this year due to the volume of books we have now,” Heus said.

Lee Cassel, owner of Home Gallery, said he has helped with the book sale in years past by helping move boxes of books, and so he didn’t hesitate to offer up his store when the book sale needed a location.

“I wanted to help. It didn’t seem like a problem and I thought it could bring some foot traffic though the store,” he said.

Volunteers Carolyn Ostrander and Kathy Heus unload boxes from the trunk of Heus’ car. The boxes will be filled with books to make them easier to lift on to tables for the sale.

The books being sold are titles being phased out of the library’s main collection, as well as books donated by the community in order to raise funds for the facility and its programs.

“Typically, hardbacks and large paperbacks are sold for $1, and trade paperbacks are sold for 50 cents, which is very reasonable pricing for what is available, which includes all types of fiction, thrillers and nonfiction, cookbooks — a little bit of everything,” Heus said.

From time to time a few literary gems or valuable books will show up in sale piles. This year volunteers have found several first-edition books dating back to 1882, 1895 and 1912.

“Some of them could be valuable,” said volunteer Jean Taylor. “And they’re all in good shape.”

Petal power — Kenai wildflower field in full bloom

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. The Buchholz-James family poses for family pictures in a field of wildflowers along the Kenai Spur Highway on Monday. Above, Carole Buccholz, of Soldotna, hoists granddaughter Olivia while photographer Shawna Shields of Narrow Road Productions captures the shot. Below, Kristina James coaxes her daughter to smile for the camera.

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

To say there’s been an explosion in Kenai is, yes, a gratuitous use of verbiage to describe a field of wildflowers, but such is the force with which it has bloomed that the gentle terms usually associated with landscaping simply don’t apply.
The previously drab dirt pile along the Kenai Spur Highway across from the Welcome to Kenai sign has blasted forth recently with such a ruckus of color that it’s a veritable assault on the eyeballs.
But in the nicest way possible.
“It’s beautiful up here!” said Carole Buchholz, of Soldotna, who was wandering amid the riot of yellows, oranges, pinks, purples, reds and blues Monday with her family — husband, Curt, daughter and son-in-law, Kristina and Clint James, and granddaughter, Olivia James.
The Buchholz-James family was one of several groups posing among the poppies for a family portrait, with photographer Shawna Shields of Narrow Road Productions in tow.
With the landscape aflame in color it was impossible not to get striking shots, even if 2-year-old Olivia’s patience was quickly flaming out.
They tried bubbles. They tried tossing her in the air. They tried hiding keys and other personal effects for Olivia to find among the flowers — “OK, but I do need my credit card back,” Curt Buchholz said — hoping each tactic would elicit a smile to match the rapturous scene through which they were wading.
“I’d love to know how many seeds they used,” Carole Buchholz remarked, a little dreamily.
“I’d like to see the bees that come up here,” said Clint James, a little more pragmatically, as the toddler squirmed away from mom and made a beeline toward grandpa.
“No, she’s good,” Shields reassured the family. “I’m getting some good ones. This is such a great spot. It’s so neat they did this.”
“It seems like it’s very successful. People seem to really love it,” said Kenai Mayor Pat Porter.
The field was — pardon the 1989 Kevin Costner movie reference — one of dreams.
“It’s a project I’ve been working on for several years and it finally come to fruition. It’s always been a dream of mine to plant wildflowers on that hillside,” Porter said.