Search Tip: Use quotes to find results containing your phrase Chickens are seen inside of a chicken house at Diamond M Ranch on Thursday a single engine airplane whisks over a huddled crowd of about a hundred ecstatic spectators gathered at Kalifornsky Meadows Airpark The small plane is performing a quick flyover before dropping some unusual cargo onto a makeshift tarp target below The plane circles back a few minutes later but explodes into bits and pieces that saturate the semi-frozen ground The pumpkin is the first of the day to be tempting gravity Over 20 small engine pilots participated in this year’s annual Kenai Pumpkin Drop Some pumpkins were dropped as low as 50 feet above the ground “We just like people to see what a lot of these pilots pilots’ families and the flying community is about,” said Michael Beckwith The pumpkin drop was first organized six years ago by local airline company Kenai Aviation to bring people together during the central Kenai Peninsula’s shoulder season Organizers say it’s also a way to introduce kids to the aviation industry this year attracting pilots from as far away as Wasilla and Palmer David Yragui is the developer of the airpark He also helped organize the first Kenai Pumpkin Drop “A lot of young people have never seen anything like this Between the day’s many flyovers and pumpkin explosions children behind a barricade fling handfuls of rocks onto a freshly frozen pond that’s adjacent to the target a pumpkin flying at high velocity will shatter part of the pond like glass No gourds actually land on the coffee table-sized target It’s biodegradable and the moose will eat it up Yragui says the pumpkin drop is a one-of-a-kind way for pilots from all over to meet and pursue their shared love of flying "This is just an event that they can come out and have fun.” “It’s just watching the smiles on these people," Beckwith added Even though the temperature outside was hovering around freezing organizers say this year’s Kenai Pumpkin Drop brought in one of the largest crowds in the event’s short history part of the Kenai Performers’ cast of “The Bullying Collection,” rehearse at the Kenai Performers Theater in Kalifornsky Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science on Saturday gathered parents and students… Continue reading An eclectic mix of local art makes up the May show at… Continue reading professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College leads a tour of Kalifornsky Village last month The Native settlement was abandoned in the 1920s but is still home to a rich cultural history there isn’t much to see of Kalifornsky Village An unmarked footpath leads away from Kalifornsky Beach Road into the woods You wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there Dead trees and undergrowth have been cleared recently along the muddy path winding toward the bluff overlooking Cook Inlet affording a clearer view of more branches and tree trunks sprouting among indentations in the undulating ground The structures have long since been dismantled or disintegrated and the Dena’ina Natives who once lived here were the original “leave no trace” campers considering it bad form to leave much of anything behind there’s two obvious indications of human habitation falling-down fence ringing a cemetery that contains 16 graves the paint flaking off the whitewashed Russian Orthodox crosses with their telltale slanted bars surrounding the site of an old Russian Orthodox chapel There is no explanation as far as the untrained eye can see there was plenty of history for the ears to hear and the mind to ponder A group of about 15 joined Kenai Peninsula College anthropology professor Alan Boraas on a tour of Kalifornsky Village “How many times have people driven by here — going to wherever they’re going doing whatever — tucked away in this woods That we hope will continue to be a powerful place,” Boraas said “I’m not saying it will be spiritual to everyone but it’s a place where we can tell the story of the Kenai Peninsula in many different ways that’s interesting,’ but really get to the core of the relation between people and place was founded by Qadanachen Kalifornsky in about 1820 on the Cook Inlet bluff four miles north of the Kasilof River mouth Qadanachen had just returned from working at Fort Ross built by the Russian American Company to grow grain to feed Russian colonies Qadanachen’s heart was likewise deteriorating He had brought a bag of soil from his home village of Ski’tuk at the mouth of the Kenai River that is what I do.’ When your break down the third line ‘do your best in life,’ it could easily be translated as ‘live to enhance your soul.’ ‘Another dark night’ — we all have them Do what you can to live to enhance your soul,” Boraas said he found disputes in the Kenai village and decided to establish a new village with his clanspeople choosing an old village site dating back to prehistoric times Dena’ina thrived here long before European explorers came to Alaska with a hearth in a large room for sleeping Scattered around in the woods were food cache pits in which Dena’ina would preserve the summer catch of salmon to sustain them through the winter In the second occupation of Kalifornsky Village And there was a log Russian Orthodox chapel where a priest from Kenai would visit periodically to tend to the spiritual needs of the villagers Dena’ina spirituality and the imported Russian Orthodox religion were an amicable fit powers of ritual — all of these things would have been common and just as many Dena’ina and Yup’ik today do not see serious conflict between the orthodoxy that they practice and the traditional ways,” Boraas said Boraas points out an indentation in the ground left by a Dena’ina house which now runs just east of the village site The villagers walked or kayaked the 10 or so miles to Kenai many more to visit other villages farther away The area was ravaged by the influenza epidemic of 1918 In the 1920s the survivors dismantled and barged out their homes and the chapel moving to Kenai or across the inlet to Tyonek the crumbling bluff sloughed away much of where the newer village sat and the 27 acres of the remaining site was eventually “sold” for $1 by the Kenai Peninsula Borough to the Kenaitzie Indian Tribe More people died in that influenza epidemic than died in World War I and a lot of people died in WWI so it was a horrific event and it hit indigenous people in Alaska very hard About half the Dena’ina died in two or three years,” Boraas said Kalifornsky Village was never a large place but plays a large role in the Dena’ina heritage of the area today not the least because it was the birthplace and childhood home of Peter Kalifornsky was vital in saving the Kenai Dena’ina dialect from extinction many preserved by Peter Kalifornsky in his book of Dena’ina stories “A Dena’ina Legacy — K’tl’egh’i Sukdu,” demonstrate that it was a spiritual place One story tells of the village being the site of a shaman war a continuation of a conflict that had begun on the west side of Cook Inlet “A shaman war represents tension between the people and it would be couched in spirituality,” Boraas said “It wouldn’t necessarily be couched in political terms but in spiritual terms Boraas tells a story from Dena’ina elder Peter Kalifornsky and played a vital part in saving the Kenai Dena’ina dialect from going extinct shamans possessed a bear and sent it to rampage a village on the west side of Cook Inlet in revenge of travelers stealing a vital food cache shamans from across the inlet caused their spirit to invade a moose and sent it to harass Kalifornsky Village even moreso in that it couldn’t be killed by regular weapons “Maybe some of you have run into an angry moose is just as ominous (as an angry bear),” Boraas said “I’m not sure which one I’d want to encounter if I had to encounter one or the other A powerful village man took three .45-70 cartridges to the chapel carved an orthodox cross in each one and baptized them the second bullet dropped it,” Boraas said and the moose was watching the man who had shot it with its severed head So they shot it with the third bullet and that killed it and they buried it behind the village,” he said Boraas has a few stories of his own from his time at the village site doing archeological excavations of the house pits and giving tours to his 20 years of Cook Inlet anthropology class students A bear paw randomly showed up next to the trail where the moose/shaman was supposed to have been buried He’s also seen a young Native woman feel as though she encountered a presence at the village which she felt so strongly that it led her to seek much-needed treatment for a life-threatening eating disorder and look for the meaning that way,” he said the site has taken on a different meaning for Boraas — the eternal home of his good friend During the tour he bent down briefly to Peter’s grave murmuring something and rubbing soil between his fingers reminiscent of what Qadanachen had done while he was in California “When times got hard he would hold that soil so I think it’s important to have some symbolic contact with the place,” Boraas said my friend.’ Almost every day I think of a question I wish I could ask him and he just gravitated to writing and writing the old stories so diligently to get it right in a book that you can only read half of it (half is written English and half is in Dena’ina) embedded in these stories is a lot of wisdom of the place and by reading them in the original there will be a greater understanding of what this place is and what some of those traditional values are With it written down we now have the potential to teach people to read and write and hopefully that will lead to revitalizing the language as a spoken language for those who care to,” he said The open-to-the-public tour drew a mix of participants Stephanie Carroll and Terri Cowart live just down the bluff from the village site but I knew that it was a cemetery and I just felt it had some sacredness to it and I didn’t know if it would be appropriate for me to come walking up the bluff and Cowart said she was aware of the village but didn’t know much about it and was happy for the chance to hear the history and stories “It was very interesting because (Boraas) gets into so many details you wouldn’t know unless you really did the research,” she said do visitors — people learning about the history help preserve it Given the impact of the influenza epidemic the acculturation of Western influence from early Russian explorers all the way through homesteaders it’s even more important that the history be purposefully preserved “Part of the story of homesteading was to write out of the story the indigenous people of the place but part of that whole euphoria of coming and being ‘the first.’ First to put in a road indigenous rights and indigenous people get in the way of that so nobody either cared or asked,” Boraas said “For me to come back is a very positive experience Sometimes I come by myself just to walk around or sit by the bluff It’s a place to reflect and think and just get my mind clear For me to take and share with others the types of things that happened here is fulfilling They ended next to the cemetery by the bluff in distance not far from where they’d parked which way should we go out?” a tour participant asked “Follow your ears to the sound of the traffic,” Boraas said Leave a comment Filed under culture, Dena'ina, Kenai Peninsula College, Native Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" The Kenaitze Indian Tribe will receive $230,000 in federal funds to look into stabilizing an ancestral gravesite on the Kenai Peninsula against the threat of bluff erosion The project is one of dozensin Alaska to recently receive funding as part of the Department of Interior's investment in climate resiliency projects The department announced the $45 million in funding for projects earlier this month The money is spread among almost 80 tribes nationwide and funded in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law “Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to Tribal economies lives and livelihoods,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement “Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law we are making an unprecedented investment in Indian Country to help ensure that Native communities will have clean air fertile soil and an overall good quality of life for generations to come.” The Kenaitze Indian Tribe plans to assess erosion at the Kalifornsky Village graveyard. According to the project description the graveyard is home to 17 ancestral gravesites “precipitously close to the cliff edge facing Cook Inlet.” The $230,000 grant will be used to explore options to preserve the sites which could include protecting the graves where they currently are or relocating the affected gravesites altogether • The Native Village of Saint Michael is receiving funding to assess the stabilization of two cemeteries residential homes and the tribal office building Saint Michael will use the grant to determine how permafrost degradation is affecting structures in the community • The Native Village of Kipnuk will complete a long-term erosion and flood assessment to help the village create its "long-term adaptation plan." • The Native Village of Tuntutuliak will develop a permafrost vulnerability assessment to predict the future impacts of permafrost melt and recommend solutions Alaska Public Media contributed to this story New maps from the Alaska Redistricting Board will change the shape and boundaries of the state’s legislative districts based on population changes recorded in the 2020 Census “The Kenai is one of the regions that did not have a huge amount of change," said TJ Presley, deputy director of the five-member Alaska Redistricting Board. The group redraws maps every decade based on new census data which are then used to divvy up state legislative seats The board is considering multiple map drafts The Kenai Peninsula Borough saw an increase in population from the 2010 to 2020 census of 6 percent It was one of the few regions in the state that saw population growth “If you have more people packed into a single place then naturally their geography’s gonna shrink a little bit because each box that you draw is going to have more people,” Presley said Presley said the biggest change the board is considering is moving the Fritz Creek area from District 31 which includes most of the southern half of the peninsula Cordova and parts of the eastern peninsula Fritz Creek has a little over 2,200 people The board might also move a small sliver of the K-Beach area into District 31 That patch of Kalifornsky is just south of Kenai and currently included in District 30 But district numbers are all subject to change during redistricting While the district parameters are largely the same between 2010 and now on the peninsula they’re referred to in the new maps as Districts 6 The board is considering two versions of its map The main difference is regarding south Knik an area that straddles the border between Anchorage and the Mat-Su and has just under 800 people Version one of the board’s map loops that area into Anchorage’s map Each version also draws Anchorage's districts differently The Kenai Peninsula is divided the same between those versions Presley said they’re encouraging people and organizations to draw and submit their own full maps for consideration Each party will have 30 minutes to present their maps Friday Presley said crowdsourcing maps is a helpful way to incorporate public input while also adhering to the time constraints in the Alaska Constitution. He said the board has already received five or six maps and that they’re still accepting drawings — and written testimony on its own drafts — at akredistrict.org the board adopted for consideration two of its own maps and three third-party maps we will adopt a few of the third-party maps so that we can bring them around the state and talk about them," Presley said He said the map the board ultimately chose was a composite of multiple designs The 2010 redistricting process had a bigger impact on the peninsula’s districts most of the peninsula outside the immediate Kenai-Soldotna area was included in one large district there will also be time for public testimony at Friday’s meeting To join the meeting Friday at 9 a.m. The Soldotna girls and boys track and field teams swept the 21-team… Continue reading The visiting Homer softball team split a pair of Northern Lights Conference… Continue reading The Kenai Central girls and Soldotna boys won matches against their Peninsula… Continue reading The visiting Soldotna baseball team defeated Grace Christian 16-1 in five innings… Continue reading The visiting Soldotna softball team swept Redington by scores of 14-2 and… Continue reading The visiting Kenai Central baseball team toppled Redington 15-2 in five innings… Continue reading The host Homer boys soccer team defeated Nikiski 15-0 on Friday in… Continue reading A pair of athletes from Top of the World Swimming, the area… Continue reading The visiting Kenai Central softball team swept a pair of Northern Lights… Continue reading The Kenai Central baseball team defeated Soldotna 4-3 on Monday in Northern… The Kenai boys soccer team defeated Nikiski 13-0 on Tuesday in Peninsula… The Soldotna girls and boys track and field teams swept the 21-team… The visiting Soldotna softball team swept Redington by scores of 14-2 and… The visiting Soldotna baseball team defeated Wasilla 8-5 on Thursday in nonconference… The visiting Kenai Central softball team swept a pair of Northern Lights… The Kenai Central girls and Soldotna boys won matches against their Peninsula… Kenai Peninsula College anthropology professor Alan Boraas leads a tour through the now-abandoned Kalifornsky Village An indentation in the earth indicates a home site dating back to A.D a clue left behind by ancient Dena’ina peoples who once inhabited a now-abandoned village Semi-subterranean homes were used by all Native Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples of Alaska leading a village tour for his Kenai Peninsula College anthropology students The house site is made more impressive by a square offshoot on the back of the earthen home giving modern people a more intimate glimpse or a bathing room where steam was used,” he said a fire crib filled with sand and firewood at the center for what people craved: “Fireside therapy,” Boraas said This is the first year Boraas has taught a long-distance education course available to students at KPC’s Kachemak Bay Campus as well as students at Soldotna’s Kenai River Campus Distance education was an experience that didn’t always sit right “I couldn’t see my students’ eyes,” he lightly complained standing now before most all of his 20 students at an abandoned graveyard He had just read a story told by Peter Kalifornsky at the side of Kalifornsky’s grave then it seemed amongst the drooping spruce boughs and dried leaves This would be the preferred way to teach a class that focused on the Kenai Peninsula’s indigenous peoples — in person respectfully calling up stories heavy with meanings and now preserved The long-distance class involved Boraas sitting at a table under the eye of a video camera while teaching his Kenai River Campus class A television monitor in Homer broadcasts the lecture to students at the Kachemak Bay Campus The tour was the first time they all met in person That’s a lot different from oral tradition the anthropologist has enjoyed: his work with one of the last speakers of the Kenai Dena’ina was born in 1911 at Kalifornsky Village and died in Kenai in 1993 His 1991 “A Dena’ina Legacy: K’tl’egh’i Sukdu,” edited by James Kari and Boraas is a collection of his writings between 1972 and 1990 and was a winner of the 1992 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation named after Peter’s great-great grandfather helps modern Kenai Peninsula residents learn about past events Qadanalchen was a young man in 1818 when the Russian colonists sent him to Fort Ross he endured the strange new land and labored for the Russians Many times he was struck with an awful case of homesickness during which he wrote a song to give himself comfort When Qadanalchen returned in 1821 or so to his beloved Kenai he went by the name Kalifornsky — man of California — and this is how the area received its name He had been baptized into Russian Orthodoxy while at Fort Ross Through Peter’s incredible memory of oral stories made an honorary member of the Kenaitze Tribe in 2000 and a close friend to Peter for many years tells Qadanalchen’s song on a misty bluff overlooking Cook Inlet where one can imagine the young Kenai man taking off in an ancient Russian sailing sloop “To do your best is to live in such a way as to enhance your own soul He cautions against anyone taking the song for their own uses because it falls under ownership of tribal intellectual property rights the class was standing by a more recent house pit dating to about 1900 where the last remaining inhabitants lived Boraas described the archeology dig of 2001 as opening with a drum ceremony by the tribe a rare act of honoring the sacred that seldom takes place at archeology digs It was rich in Western artifacts,” he said But they didn’t find many fish bones because those were tossed back in the sea to “nourish” the waters a practice now understood by Western science that the Kenaitze knew long ago Caribou once roamed wild on the peninsula (today’s herd is a transplant) when the native caribou were no longer around due to vegetation changes caused by extensive fires a lay reader in the Russian Orthodox Church That disparate combination makes Boraas wonder   “Were they arguing theology or were they taking elements of orthodoxy and putting them in a context they could understand The village was last inhabited in about 1925 when an influenza outbreak claimed many members Its long record of habitation means it was a well-used site for at least eight or nine centuries Boraas has asked the students to keep its location secret to treat the site “like a church.” One student takes this to heart and picks up bent beer or pop cans littering the trail Though the village once held about 50 people the old cemetery contains only a dozen crosses each built by Peter Kalfornsky and placed according to memory The cemetery is behind a chapel that was dismantled after the village was abandoned So much time has passed that thick spruce trunks grow where a priest formerly prepared the sacraments Peter himself is buried at the old cemetery a white-boxed grave whose Russian Orthodox cross llies flat Boraas takes out the book of Peter’s stories to read aloud for his students “This is a story about a war between the people of this village and one across the water,” Boraas starts out It’s a tale of powerful shamans who conduct warfare in spells One spell involved turning a moose against the people of Kalifornsky an angry dnigi whose role of terrorizing eventually meant a hunter had to kill it They couldn’t kill it with large-caliber rifles Only when a powerful man carved orthodox crosses in the bullets could they kill the moose The moose was buried at Kalifornsky Village Boraas puts the book aside and tells the rest of the story They bones have been returned to their original resting place The Kenaitze tribe now has about 1,300 members is a website devoted to the language that nearly died with him What accounted for Kalifornsky’s supreme scholarly work getting these stories set down the words containing the history of the peninsula’s people What if you were the last person left to know the stories It was out of this urgency that he worked hard to get all of it written down,” Boraas said and it’s not hard for his students to notice he misses his old friend This wasn’t a lesson they would understand if he had to give it on long-distance ed Leave a comment Filed under Kenai Peninsula College, Native Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story concerning the genesis of Kalifornsky Beach Road This week will follow homesteader Grant Phillips as he and a friend mark the snowy trail that Cat skinner Morris Coursen would later turn into a rough road through the wilderness part two will follow Phillips and Coursen as they build the road and as Coursen attempts to help the Phillips family find safe passage over Slikok Creek Grant Phillips navigates his 24-foot wooden boat the year that he and his family homesteaded in the Soldotna-Kenai area Grant Phillips and Marvin Smith crossed the Soldotna bridge early on a mid-April morning in 1956 each toting at least one roll of colored toilet paper They were not on their way to a two-seater outhouse They were about to snowshoe out through the woods and mark a trail to Phillips’ homestead The men were on long wooden snowshoes because the winter of 1955-56 had been one of the snowiest on record in Southcentral Alaska 128.8 inches of snow had fallen — topped only by the 132.6 inches that had fallen in the winter of the previous year — and a great deal of the white stuff had yet to melt Phillips said that he and Smith carried different colors of tissue — most likely blue and pink which had been invented only two years earlier by the Northern Tissue Company must have seemed like a convenient substitute for breaking off branches or using axes to hack blazes into the sides of trees where they planned to cross and then head north-northwest for Phillips’ 150.66-acre parcel located just west of the Ed Ciechanski homestead along the banks of the Kenai River but they had checked it out just prior to filing on it in the fall of 1955 Grant had heard about a man named Henry Knackstedt who lived on the lower river just outside of the village of Kenai and they went to visit Knackstedt with the idea that he might take them upriver in his boat for a look-see at the land and he threw the door open,” recalled Phillips “And here stood a guy with a patch over one eye and hair standing on end The patch was the result of injuries sustained in a brown bear attack Knackstedt was “the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet,” Phillips said the three of them motored upstream to inspect the prospective homestead They approached a high bank on a wide meander and Knackstedt pointed out the Ciechanski property they knew that the wooded section above the muddy river cut and adjacent to Ciechanski’s place was the spot for which they were looking Without bothering to climb the bank and investigate further Grant and Lois determined to file on the land they learned that their application had been successful and they immediately began making plans to become homesteaders he had come to Alaska seeking land in 1947 — two bachelors traveling aboard the steamship Baranof out of Seattle from their native Washington state They docked in Seward in December and traveled by rail to Anchorage Don soon found himself with a railroad job in Healy while Grant got a job as a longshoreman in the port of Whittier where he helped unload seven million railroad ties bound for a railway upgrade project between Seward and Fairbanks As he worked a variety of jobs over the succeeding months he wrote to her and encouraged her to come north and see Alaska “So she and her girlfriend had two weeks off,” Phillips said “They decided to either go out to the Oregon coast or come to Alaska Lois’ friend met an Anchorage man whom she married Grant Phillips was hired by the Anchorage Water Department where he worked until he decided to homestead the Phillipses had two young children and a house of their own They sold their home before packing up and leaving for Soldotna on April 12 Marvin Smith and Ira Little had adjoining homesteads just north of the Soldotna bridge and had built their homes near each other along their shared property line The Phillipses had met Smith and Little while living in Anchorage they moved in temporarily with Little and began planning the road they would build out to their new home when Phillips and Smith snowshoed out with rolls of colored toilet paper they flagged trees along the route that they hoped Cat skinner Morris Coursen would follow with his D-7 shortly thereafter in laying out the route that would one day become the first few miles of Kalifornsky Beach Road the two men did not exactly create the arrow-straight sections of road known today they followed the path of least resistance so we was just tramping through the brush and snow and leaving toilet paper in the trees,” Phillips said “And when we’d come to a big patch of trees or something Breakup was behind schedule at Slikok Creek because of the unnaturally long and snowy winter and the water was only a trickle beneath a layer of sturdy ice Phillips and Smith dropped into the drainage in the same place that the road crosses the creek today and they traipsed across the ice and then clambered up the other side to continue their journey they reached a point along the river from which they could see the Libby’s cannery and they knew they had gone too far and needed to head farther upriver “We stopped down there to have a sandwich,” Phillips said Then we started backtracking up close to the river and we saw where somebody had cut some trees.” Smith figured aloud that they must have been cut by Ed Ciechanski and we walked right into Ed Ciechanski’s yard brought them in and helped them with their map Then he strapped on his own snowshoes and escorted the men out to a spot where he knew that a surveying hub was located precisely where Ciechanski had said it would be they determined the approximate boundaries of the Phillips parcel had sunk somewhat into the ground on which it had been built but the size and condition of his home didn’t prevent him from being hospitable to his new acquaintances he invited them in and offered them his own cot for the night Smith washed the dishes while Phillips dried Then Ciechanski slept on the floor while Phillips and Smith squeezed onto the cot between two moose hides to keep them warm after a hearty breakfast of brown bear steak and eggs Phillips and Smith strapped on their snowshoes again and began the slow trudge back to Soldotna to tell Coursen they were ready but the hard part of homesteading was yet to come 4 Comments Filed under Almanac, history, homesteaders I ran across my maiden name & thought I’d check out some of the sites I had no clue of a Ciechanski being in alaska What relationship are you to the Ciechanski family In a neighborhood off Kalifornsky Beach Road insufficient infrastructure and some human activities have led to a level of flooding residents say is damaging their yards and homes The borough has made progress on lowering water levels in some areas and has long-term plans to change the water flow patterns in the area But some residents say they’re still waiting to see those impacts.  Robert Thompson lives on a wooded property off K-Beach near where the road turns south to run along Cook Inlet He said floodwaters have caused widespread damage to his property Thompson and his wife bought the house two years ago and moved in full time in February When it happened again this month following heavy rains “We decided to move here to live and garden and get a couple part-time jobs and have fun for the rest of our lives And now it seems crazy that we have to do all this work and can’t even enjoy ourselves yet.” and K-Beach road stifles drainage of water into Cook Inlet Borough Mayor Peter Micciche explained it like this “A 16-mile dam was installed called Kalifornsky Beach Road And there’s inadequate passage for water through that highway,” he said “And when we have these high precipitation years Micciche told the residents he was committed to solving the problem But Thompson said flooding last week cost him money and time He listed the impacts in a letter to the borough well and pressure tank system submerged,” he said He said he hasn’t done the total cost calculations but a new water heater alone was $1,000 and he hasn’t been able to install it yet because there’s still standing water in the crawl space Thompson said he wants the borough to identify the nature of the drainage issue and do what they can to fix it before winter comes He said he’s not necessarily looking for financial restitution but there has been talk among neighbors about a class action lawsuit the borough was able to lower water levels by a foot in the ditch system through some parts of the neighborhood by draining them into a DOT reservoir “So we’re very happy with the progress,” he said “Water can freely move through that particular neighborhood and into the DOT beaver pond.” But he said the Kenai Peninsula Borough is a second-class borough without flood control authority so the long-term work of diverting water in the neighborhood will require the help of state and federal agencies like the Department of Natural Resources and Army Corps of Engineers Micciche said phase two will require hiring an expert to assess the hydrology of the entire area and figuring out a way to get water across the highway and out to Cook Inlet He said the focus going forward will be creating a management plan for when high precipitation years cause a destructive swelling of groundwater one of Thompson’s neighbors took matters into his own hands moves for a restraining order against a K-Beach-area resident who dug a two-mile-long trench through borough property to divert water those activities could cause flooding damage to other private properties The borough planning director assessed that if the canal were to fill with water and fail it would release two million gallons of water into the surrounding properties Micciche said he’s committed to communicating with residents and taking action his life is on hold while he worries about the next round of flooding City Council Member James Baisden speaks during a work session of the Kenai City Council in Kenai Water pools near at the intersection of Patrick Drive and Bjerke Street where contractors for the Kenai Peninsula Borough install a culvert to mitigate flooding off of Kalifornsky Beach Road on Friday Dave Yragui talks about flood problems along Kalifornsky Beach Road during a public meeting on Thursday chopped bell peppers and morel mushrooms are prepared on a fire pit (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion) A Central Emergency Services firefighter emerges from a burning home on Tuesday 2018 off of Poppy Lane near Kalifornsky Beach Road The front facade of Outlaw Body & Paint on Kalifornsky Beach Road undergoes repairs in Soldotna The building was hit by a car on Saturday night spicy finish with a recipe from Anthony Bourdain (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion.) Ian McEwen and Alyeska Garrett rehearse “Boeing Boeing” at the Kenai Performers’ Theater on Kalifornsky Beach Road Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly President Brent Hibbert is running unopposed for the Kalifornsky seat Kalifornsky Beach Elementary first-graders Maddi Redder (left) and Brayden Gregory prepare to rig a beam to a shop crane during their class’ field trip to Alaska Crane Consultants on Monday An area off Kalifornsky Beach Road is partially underwater after experiencing extra heavy snow during the winter and residents say they’re tired of mismanagement and the impacts of flooding near their homes About 1,300 acres south of K-Beach road just outside of Kenai have been affected by the flooding the remnants of heavy rain from the fall and snow in the winter according to a May 12 press release from the office of Borough Mayor Peter Micciche But the issue has plagued the neighborhood for years due to its location in a low swampland and a lack of drainage across K-Beach road out to Cook Inlet The flooding dominated the public comment period during last Tuesday’s borough assembly meeting Kalifornsky resident Laura Burke said the issue is a violation of the borough’s obligation to its residents the lamentable lack of fully functioning roadside ditches has been clearly evident and a very sore topic among residents of the greater Kalifornsky area in particular,” she said “Fully functioning roadside ditches are the exception Burke said residents of this area pay for borough services through taxes but don’t receive adequate infrastructure or maintenance in return Other residents commented on unusable property holding water on the east side of the roadway said the flooding has damaged her septic system and required her to vacate her home “My septic might not be functional for a very long time We have families in our neighborhood who need to flush their toilets sometimes — foreseeably that won’t happen until the water is gone.” Fowler also mentioned a lack of disclosures to new residents about the history of flooding in the area Micciche emphasized his commitment to solving the issue and the assembly has supported action that we took,” he said “We agree that water must find a way out to the Inlet.” And he said he’s currently working with staff to monitor the water flows in the area during this flooding event then work on a drainage project as soon as conditions allow “This project will work backwards from the Cook Inlet to the upper reaches of the impacted area We’re working with state agencies to create a long-term solution,” he said the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers to deliver a larger project to provide adequate drainage across K-Beach Road to Cook Inlet a long-term problem that requires a comprehensive Micciche’s press release also warns residents not to take matters into their own hands by creating dams or moving water because it could negatively affect their neighbors May First Friday showcases work by Homer and Kenai Peninsula artists Project Awards are for short-term projects that clearly benefit the artist and their development Tuzroyluke spoke on her novel and writing process last week at the Homer Public Library A fallen tree reaches onto Kalifornsky Beach Road in Soldotna Members of Central Emergency Services attend to the scene of a two-vehicle accident blocking traffic on Tuesday 2016 at the intersection of Kalifornsky Beach Road and Poppy Lane in Soldotna Kitchen manager Beau Jamison of the Duck Inn slices the breast meat of one of the twelve turkeys he prepared for the restuarant’s Thanksgiving dinner at the Duck Inn on Kalifornsky Beach Road on Thursday This Thanksgiving — the twelfth for which that Jamison has prepared the Duck Inn’s traditional meal closes a year of hardship for Jamison — in August he recieved a clean diagnosis after struggling with lymphoma since October 2016 and it’s his first year as a single father after his wife’s death The first proposition would expand worker rights by requiring employers to provide sick leave increasing the minimum wage and barring employers from requiring employee attendance at political or religious meetings The second proposition would repeal Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice voting election systems Lloyd Davis was canvassing for Democratic U.S House candidate Mary Peltola in neighborhoods between Soldotna and Sterling He estimates he’s visited more than 1,800 houses this election season roughly one in five of which actually hear his pitch He says only a handful of people have slammed doors in his face because having our voice heard is important as a whole.” Davis was born and raised in Kodiak and now lives in Kasilof He’s a commercial fisherman and says he shares Peltola’s priorities of family he says his first priority is convincing people to vote a handful of people waved signs for a variety of candidates at the intersection of the Sterling and Kenai Spur highways Billie Hardy was holding a red sign supporting incumbent Republican Alaska Senate candidate Jesse Bjorkman She says there are a few reasons she’s backing Bjorkman “He listens to people and I like the way he represents us in the Senate.” who was waving signs for Carpenter and Republican State House candidate Ron Gillham Oberts says he likes Carpenter and Gillham because they’re conservatives with a common-sense approach to education that includes opposing the National Education Association “Just not fund education but actually expect and demand results,” he said “And we need to get this wokeness out of our schools.” Oberts says he’s also voting for Republican U.S Presidential candidate Donald Trump and U.S He says he and his wife attended this year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee his wife as a delegate and him as an alternate The feeling in the stadium was just unreal to actually be there in person.” Gillham and Republican State House candidate Justin Ruffridge were waving signs for their respective campaigns Bjorkman said he’s spending election night at home with his family He estimates he’s knocked on over 5,000 doors this election season and inflation is top of mind with constituents “And all the work that my team's done on this campaign has been really rewarding in and of itself.” Ruffridge is the incumbent candidate facing a challenge from Gillham He said he’s spent the final days of his campaign trying to meet voters where they’re at Energy security and education funding are the issues he says he hears the most about Both he and Gillham said they waited in line for over an hour to vote early at Soldotna Prep School “We're already going to say that it's a success with voter turnout,” he said obviously looking to be ahead on election night But it’s just going to depend on how many people actually get out and vote.” Poll workers at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex reported high turnout Harmony Bolden was helping run the Kalifornsky Beach precinct she said voters had cast more than 475 ballots representing roughly one in five of the precinct’s total registered voters She reported steady traffic in and out of the precinct all day we go from 1,200 voters on our presidentials down to maybe four to 800 all other elections.” Precinct Chair Nancy Eoff was running around One of those fires had to do with literal access to the sports complex “There are two doors that are marked handicap accessible with the wheelchair icon and neither one of the activators works on either door going in or going out,” she said Eoff said she checked the doors with her grandson in mind They ended up propping one of the doors open which made some precincts chillier than others She filled out an incident report for the election board and plans to also take her concerns to the City of Soldotna I want everybody that needs help to get it for whatever reason.” Although precincts on Election Day were busy thousands of Kenai Peninsula residents had already cast ballots before Tuesday Alaska Division of Elections data show that almost 7,000 people in House District 7 and 8 had either voted early or returned an absentee ballot to the division.Those districts cover the Kenai Peninsula north of Tustumena Lake including Kenai and Soldotna in District 7 When the Alaska Division of Elections’ Kenai office opened Sunday there was a line of people out the door waiting to vote early A steady throng streamed in and out of the office in the Old Carrs Mall in the afternoon seemingly undeterred by the slushy conditions Donna is a local chapter head for Moms for Liberty and said it was important to her to vote early “I don’t want something to happen on Tuesday – a snowstorm or something – and not be able to come in and vote,” she said “It was important to me to have my vote count.” She’s not allowed to endorse state and federal candidates in her capacity as a Moms for Liberty chapter head she’s supporting a slew of Republicans that include Ben Carpenter for State Senate and Nick Begich for U.S That’s on top of Donald Trump for president he rolls up his sleeves and he does what needs to be done He estimates he waited in line for about 20 minutes before casting his ballot “I support Trump mainly because of his abortion policy – bringing it back to the states – that was a big reason,” Watkins said “(It) kind of gave more freedom to everyone.” Watkins says he didn’t rank any candidates this year and wants to see ranked choice voting go away “The other way to think about it for me is that if we have one person to vote for – that’s simple,” he said “Then there’s no way you can misconstrue that.” Watkins says he didn’t know what Proposition 1 was before he got to the voting booth but that the state shouldn’t require businesses to do anything “Requiring small business owners to give the 40 hours sick leave is a great idea – but it probably should be out of the hearts of each business owner,” he said The Alaska Division of Elections will share results on its website once polls close at 8 p.m In races where no candidate receives more than 50% of votes the final results won’t be known until at least Nov That’s because the state accepts absentee ballots postmarked on election day are accepted up to 10 days after the election are accepted up to 15 days after the election Some early voted ballots won’t be included in election results shared Tuesday 1 through 4 will be counted in the week following the election Wildlife Troopers are looking for information on a caribou that was illegally killed and improperly harvested near Soldotna last week Chris Johnson is the wildlife trooper handling the case He said the caribou was shot near Wendy Lane on either Wednesday or Thursday of last week “This was straight up like a poaching incident here They only took the hindquarters and the backstrap and left the rest of the meat to waste,” Johnson said “It’s one thing to accidentally shoot an animal and harvest it all The caribou wasn’t just improperly harvested — Johnson said the Kenai lowland caribou herd only has 65 members and hasn’t been available for hunting for about 20 years There are several open caribou hunts on the Kenai Peninsula but nothing especially close to where this incident occurred Troopers have been soliciting tips from the public since Monday Johnson said he went door-to-door knocking in the neighborhood “I really don’t have much to go on with this other than a dead caribou and half of it was wasted You can submit a tip to Soldotna Wildlife Troopers at (907) 262-4573 a 6th grade student at Tustumena Elementary inspects a plant by the side of a trail behind the school on Tuesday (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion) Deputy Secretary Wayne Ogle and Director Erin McKittrick will all retain their seats West Homer Elementary students last month had their third annual tour to the Homer Senior Center which spans from Anchor Point to Baycrest Hill It’s not hard to find coffee on the central Kenai Peninsula coffee drinkers can pull over at a drive-through hut and get a quick cup of joe The busy connector between Kenai and K-Beach is mostly industrial The royal blue coffee shop popped up two weeks ago close to Duke’s Automotive and not far past the intersection with the Kenai Spur Highway Elisabeth Peterkin is the owner of 1882 Brew a fifth-generation Alaskan who grew up in Kenai said she’s received a lot of support from that community since opening her own business “It’s very exciting to have the amount of support that I’ve received from people calling or texting or swinging by,” Peterkin said 1882 Brew actually started out in Kasilof last summer as a coffee shop designed to serve dipnetters fishing at the mouth of the Kasilof River Peterkin catered to dipnetters at the Kasilof by staying open until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning Everyone out there fully supported,” she said “They came and hung out with the girls at the shop and I would have customers until 2 in the morning Peterkin said she also offers some products not typical of a coffee shop asked Peterkin to move the coffee hut to the lot next to his auto shop “So we picked up my coffee shop in Kasilof and now I’m open full year-round here in Kenai,” she said they’re also offering provisions for dipnetters at the Kenai location Peterkin is planning to build a new coffee hut about 20 feet away from the Bridge Access Road location then haul the current structure back to Kasilof The name of the shop is inspired by the original Kasilof location. In the 1880s, a three-masted wooden passenger and cargo ship called the Corea started making trips between California and Cook Inlet. In 1890, the ship crashed near Kasilof leaving wreckage in what is now called Corea Creek “And the boat on my logo is almost-replica of the boat that crashed there,” Peterkin said 1882 Brew is located on a plot of land within the City of Kenai’s waterfront revitalization project area The work aims to transform a mile-long stretch along the Kenai River from a heavy industrial area to a commercial and social district One business that will be a part of that revitalization is Nikiski-based Kassik’s Brewery which is moving in right next door to Peterkin “It’s very exciting to be a part of the new community that will be a part of Kenai Peterkin said she’s still getting to know the customer base at this location and people seem grateful to find a new business in Kenai Roberta Turner of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s Na’ini Family and Social Services carries blankets donated by Girl Scouts Troop 254 to the center for its blanket drive collected blankets at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School and Kenai Middle School to donate to the tribe The blankets will be available for clients in need at the Na’ini Family and Social Services building and some will be distributed at the Project Homeless Connect event in January 2018 A local food truck is expanding into a new market on old wheels.  literally since we opened — Kenai needs ice cream Conradt and Benjamin Peterson run Reindeer Hut a Kenai-based food truck in its third season They've just moved it a new trailer and opened a dessert truck But Peterson said they’ll move Caribou Caboose over to Old Town Kenai soon and will frequent the local markets where there’s a scant ice cream presence.  “There’s nobody doing the event circuit at all Conradt and Peterson are buying Umpqua-brand ice cream through IGA and root beer from Moose’s Tooth They’ve also got milkshakes and have plans to bring in more baked goods Reindeer Hut, on the other hand, is known for its savory snacks. Peterson and Conradt had a really busy season last summer dishing out reindeer meat gyros and lunch specials from their spot next to Alaska Cab on K-Beach Road But they didn’t have the space to keep up with the demand in their old trailer The kitchen was too small to multitask and they’d run out of food quickly “They literally built this trailer from the ground up from the axle to the frame to everything," Peterson said They drove the truck up from Outside this winter It was cold and windy and the trailer was whipping around behind the truck as they ventured north “The winds in North Dakota were just awful," Peterson said we had caribou after caribou after caribou," Conradt said They’ll be able to make more of their specials to construct their large cones of reindeer meat The trucks will migrate next week — Reindeer Hut to its previous spot on K-Beach Road and Caribou Caboose to Old Town Kenai Patrick’s Day parade route while marching with her girl scouts troop Saturday With its ideal location on Kalifornsky Beach Road the dispensary can accommodate the novice consumer as well as those who prefer to buy in bulk before hitting the cabin True to the outdoorsy culture of the Kenai Peninsula Coldsmoke has a distinctively Alaskan feel The exterior of the building is a beautiful nod to log cabins and even features an Alaskan flag complete with Cannabis leaves instead of stars The cozy cabin theme continues inside with a large stone fireplace while friendly budtenders make you feel at home Coldsmoke has a cornucopia of product offerings including topicals Coldsmoke has flower from Snow Capped Gardens Great Northern Cannabis and Denali Herb Company But their real bread and butter is their selection of pre-rolls Customers can choose between rolls from Worner Brothers Coldsmoke offers everything from shatter to distillate from some of the state’s best extractors Pick up a transdermal patch from GOOD Cannabis or pop a CannaCap from Cold Creek Originally poised to cater to the tourist market Coldsmoke suffered from the lack of cruise ships and busses last summer But as the world slowly began opening again they have seen an uptick in visitors looking for a quick hit before throwing on their waders The plus side of the customer lag was that it enabled the dispensary to dial in their product offerings and build up a loyal local following One thing that makes Coldsmoke unique is the care and concern its budtenders have for their customers takes a lot of pride in establishing repeat customers by providing individualized product recommendations Budtenders also sample new products and work hard to keep up with industry trends Photos by @shipeshots This article was originally published in the October 2021 issue of Alaska Leaf View our archive on issuu Sign up for the Leaf Newsletter for the latest in Cannabis product reviews District Cannabis has a huge stock of the freshest products Even the mayor asked for a field trip to the store back in 2015 just after opening the doors By entering this website, you are agreeing that you are 21 years of age or above, and agreeing to the terms and conditions and privacy policy Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion A participant relaxes into "corpse pose" during an aerial yoga session at the Yoga Yurt on Monday a new yoga studio on Kalifornsky Beach Road near the intersection of Poppy Lane offering aerial and paddleboard yoga as well as more traditional mat yoga classes Alaska (AP) — The latest following the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that hit southcentral Alaska early Sunday (all times local): It appears public infrastructure damage from Sunday’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake in southcentral Alaska was limited to a small stretch of road on the Kenai (KEY’-nigh) Peninsula State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy says a 150-foot section of Kalifornsky Beach Road dropped about 18 inches in the northbound lane That occurred near the community of Kasilof (KUH’-see-loff) Crews on Monday are removing the pavement from both lanes along that section They will then bring in gravel to fill the gaps and level it off This is a temporary fix until crews can address the road this summer McCarthy says no damage was found from early Sunday inspections of bridges in Anchorage Kenai Peninsula and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Stay secure and make sure you have the best reading experience possible by upgrading your browser A 150-foot section of Kalifornsky Beach Road near Kasilof was damaged in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Southcentral Alaska at 1:30 a.m Work crews began repairs Monday and both lanes were open Wednesday morning Kalifornsky Beach Road reopened to two-way traffic Wednesday morning because we can’t pave in the wintertime — it would not set But it is open to two-way traffic,” said Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy especially during spring breakup as the ground starts to thaw I don’t think it will become a mess but you can always have shifting And that’s why they brought in the compactors and things like that to really shore up and tighten up that area but they’ll of course keep an eye on it and if any additional material needs to be brought in We were fortunate that was a short section so it will probably be a very straightforward project just putting together a permanent repair,” she said DOT is asking drivers to reduce their speed and use caution as they drive over that section of road Though one lane of Kalifornsky Beach Road was still open to traffic Sunday afternoon many drivers heading between Kenai and Kasilof stopped of their own volition They wanted to see the gaping cracks in the pavement that occurred when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Southcentral Alaska around 1:30 that morning James Benson takes pictures of his daughter Ali posing in a crack in the pavement of the northbound lane of Kalifornsky Beach Road on Sunday afternoon we had to come out here and check it out,” said James Benson were part of the steady stream of people marveling at the shattered road A crack runs about 150 feet through the northbound lane spidering into fissures that extend laterally down into the snowy marshland off the side of the road The force of the quake split the road near its center and the shoulder side of the northbound lane sloughed away and sank up to a foot and a half The fissures measure as little as inches across to more than a foot wide The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities closed the northbound lane and marked the area with caution signs and cones Sunday morning Spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said DOT planned to send a work crew Monday morning “We’re going to have our maintenance crews get in there and make a temporary fix tomorrow so we can open it to two-lane traffic What they’ll do is they’ll grind up the broken-up pavement and they’ll bring in D1 and smooth it out so that both lanes are usable,” McCarthy said Workers will repave the road after the weather warms up this summer one lane of traffic will remain open as much as possible drivers were getting through the one-lane section without the help of flaggers though most stopped on the shoulder of the road anyway to take a closer look Cameraphones were at the ready to snap pictures of the cracks Small talk was all on the same subject — the earthquake at Mile 1 K-Beach Road on Sunday afternoon had just finished walking the family dog when her husband “I just walked in the house and all of a sudden he goes grab the TV because it hit not 30 seconds after I’ve got the dog in one hand and I’m holding the TV 10-year-old Ali Benson was posing for pictures for her dad to send to her grandmother “This is what Alaskans do for fun,” James Benson said Ali was marking the occasion by taking home a few keepsakes clutching a grimy chunk of asphalt under each arm one with bits of yellow centerline paint still showing “Souvenir from her first earthquake she remembers,” Benson said Ali slept through half the earthquake until her dad woke her up “I grabbed her and we just headed for the front door James remembers being in Fairbanks when a magnitude 7.9 quake jolted Interior Alaska in November 2002 We were bouncing going down the hall,” he said McCarthy said the damage to K-Beach Road is similar to the cracking that occurred on the Richardson and Glenn highways in the 2002 quake when an earthquake comes along they’re like any other structure if you have a big enough quake with enough movement ADOT crews were busy throughout the night checking bridges on the Kenai Peninsula in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna area anything that happened that’s new that would indicate a problem,” McCarthy said “Bridges are engineered specifically to take this kind of abuse from an earthquake but we want to let people know that we do inspect within 24 hours of an event.” McCarthy said that all bridges passed inspection Leave a comment Filed under earthquake, Kasilof, transportation late-autumn rain and dutifully participated in the chilly ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Warren Ames Memorial Bridge he may have flashed briefly on the irony that he was out there getting wet only because the weather had been too bad for him to fly on to another engagement in Nome and Kotzebue the damp outdoor proceedings in Kenai that day — Oct the proper words had been spoken and the official ribbon had been severed and then the sizable crowd of participants and onlookers had retired indoors to the new Kenai Courthouse for the bridge dedication ceremony Although the bridge had been opened to traffic since July 15 the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony had been postponed twice before and officials seemed determined this time not to allow the delays to continue the structure had taken two and a half years to complete had cost more than double the original estimates and had actually entered the serious discussion stage more than a decade before Hammond’s arrival a brief article had announced that a survey had begun for a new bridge over the Kenai River to connect Beaver Loop Road to Kalifornsky Beach Road Beaver Loop extended from its current western terminus all the way up to the Spur Highway and the connecting ribbon of asphalt from the Spur to Kalifornsky Beach Road was given the innocuous moniker Seven years after the announcement of the bridge survey a public hearing was held in Kenai to help Highway Department officials determine which of the proposed routes (or corridors) for the new bridge would be built the Highway Department let it be known that the new bridge would be a Federal Aid project and would feature a 5-foot sidewalk and 30-foot roadway with a paved surface Matlock said he would like to see Kalifornsky Beach Road paved Nearly 20 members of the public spoke at the hearing Kenai Mayor Eugene Morin and Kenai City Planning Commission member Ruby Coyle spoke in favor of Route B with Morin adding a caution against routes A and D might obstruct development of the lower river Some claimed that Route C might run through a subdivision near the high school One of the few to speak in favor of any route besides B was John Hakala the manager of the Kenai National Moose Range Hakala said he favored Route A because it would cause the least disturbance to wildlife anyone living south of the Kenai River had to drive the Kenai Spur Highway in order to reach Kenai For some residents of Kalifornsky Beach Road the bridge reduced the length of their Kenai trips by 30 to 40 minutes Buoyed by the belief that a bridge would one day unite Kalifornsky Beach Road with Kenai made it easier in the next few years for the college — then an itinerant institution centered at KCHS — to select a permanent site near the mouth of Slikok Creek roughly equidistant between Kenai and Soldotna Matlock said that a route decision was expected within two months with construction set to begin at the end of 1970 The project would take “two seasons” to complete bridge construction did not begin until 1973 The construction of the bridge was a first of its kind for Alaska since its span was “launched” across the river rather than being placed there in sections by a crane The launching involved the on-site fabrication of the span and then pushing it incrementally into place from one side to the other Construction was handled jointly for the first two years by Burgess Construction Company and Willamette Construction and then Burgess became the managing contractor overseeing the work done by hired sub-contractors about the same time that bridge construction began practicing with a friend for the Kenai River Regatta overturned a canoe in the middle-river rapids and was drowned and was a son of two prominent Kenai residents the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution naming the bridge in his honor Leave a comment Filed under Almanac, Kenai Glass artwork by Mary Krull is on display at the Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna Brandi Kerley and Nicole Lopez have teamed up to put on a nice little show at Coffee Roasters in the Red Diamond Center on Kalifornsky Beach Road this month and though Kerley has an offering in that medium she also gives us some well-executed found object paintings “The Shoes That Wore Her,” by Nicole Lopez is on display at Coffee Roasters during June The one that strikes me the most (besides the collaged “Chain Reaction” with DNA references that I think I’ve spoken about in another column) is “Heaven or Hell.” In it an almost absent figure reaches for something equally absent and only vaguely hinted at The bottom of the frame is dense with objects and deeper hues and one feels the tension of opposing forces It’s fun to see the repeated coffee cup sleeves used as a design element bringing your eye up to the right corner and making you think you really can escape the sleepy dregs below I am not sure how much personal meaning there is in the objects she chose on display at Coffee Roasters on Kalifornsky Beach Road but the handling and the title lead me to believe she is working with some big issues and I am able to read plenty into it as a viewer I am not one of those who would like art to be spelled out for me Kerley has done a really fine job with this piece The piece I find most successful from Lopez is “The Shoe That Wore Her.” I love the title and the excellent use of the medium She really lets the watercolor paint express itself The label says there is photo transfer involved as it is much more relevant that the final presentation is both aesthetic and interesting with just a tease of orange to support its chaotic mood Good art is that which can present a common object yet make you feel you are looking at so much more The other photo transfers she displays are more obviously transfers and are full of fun but don’t have as enticing a definition or subject matter Something else fun and full of texture can be found at the Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna Mary Krull has been doing collages in glass since she was a teenager and I think it is wonderful that she has given these objects a second life even more useful than their first The Kaladi coffee shop has a ton of windows Any of the work that doesn’t allow for light behind seems drab in comparison Zirrus VanDevere is a local mixed-media artist and owns Art Works She has bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and education 1 Comment Filed under art, Art Seen now I want to run out and see these works…And get a mocha Heidi Hanson walks in the rain along Kalifornsky Beach Road last month dark or any other conditions don’t stop her from biking or walking daily You might not think you know Heidi Hanson but you probably do If you’ve been on the Kenai-Soldotna stretch of Kalifornsky Beach Road between about 4 and 5 p.m any weather — you’ve likely seen the Soldotna resident trucking along the Unity Trail She’s the neon-accessorized streak on bike or foot bulky Beats headphones clamped around her head knee-length basketball shorts flapping in her pace-created breeze only slowing down if she’s got a garbage bag in hand and is picking up trash strewn alongside of the road If you’ve watched women’s hockey at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex her 5-foot-9 frame in signature neon-orange gloves screaming around the ice with tanklike invulnerability but with speed and agility armored vehicles could never hope to attain Hanson has her two mottos tattooed on her arms —”Believe to Achieve” and “Desire to Aspire.” Both have motivated her weight loss journey and her efforts to help inspire others along a similar path If you’ve played bingo or pull tabs in the area in the last 20 years all the more striking coming from a tattooed weightlifter who If you’re a central Kenai Peninsula resident with a Facebook account Hanson’s photos from her frequent bear-viewing drives to the Cooper Landing area — a hobby she pursues with as much determination as her healthy lifestyle — have likely flickered through your feed Perhaps you’re one of the 1,346-and-counting followers of her Believe to Achieve page where she chronicles her path to lose weight gain health and find continued motivation to keep on keeping on Or maybe you’re someone needing inspiration along a similar path as 15 peninsula residents since May already have when she shows up to give you a brand-new bike and a firsthand example of how believing in yourself can lead to achieving dreams yet hardest benchmark of all — living life on her terms or keeping a blistering pace while biking into a wall of wind and rain or being in the right place at the right time to see a sow and cubs meander out of the woods striking celebratory poses in her collection of superhero T-shirts than any of the mountain trails she hikes all summer long And all overcome without the benefit of what she now provides to others — an outside source of encouragement motivation and demonstration that things can change her love of basketball was benched after being hit by a car while riding a snowmachine The accident snapped her lower leg in half bending it backward with two ragged bones jutting from the skin The hospital reconnected the bones with a plate and screws and secured it all with a cast “But the circulation and everything was already gone They put a solid cast on it and a week later when they took the cast off my leg had rotted away,” she said Her mom got her into a Shriners hospital in Portland where doctors debrided the wound and performed skin grafts and muscle transfers It would have been gone if it wasn’t for the Shriners,” she said a year on crutches and she still insisted on playing basketball her senior year of high school even with the screws coming out of the bone A year after her high school graduation Hanson followed her mom and brothers up to Soldotna Jobs came and went — managing Baskin Robbins in the Peninsula Center Mall Soldotna Little League Bingo and for Peninsula Community Health Services as an individual service provider for school kids with disabilities where you have to find your right thing before you connect with something,” she said For the past 20 years she’s been selling pull tabs for various nonprofit organizations It doesn’t pay a ton of money but it pays the bills,” she said Currently she sells pull tabs and team paraphernalia for the Kenai River Brown Bears hockey organization out of the Short Stop gas station on K-Beach Road since she’s been skating for about 18 years and plays on the Alaska Avalanche women’s hockey team “Go Brown Bears,” she enthused to a customer buying a cowbell to clang at the team’s season-opening game Sept “Especially against Fairbanks to start the season.” in which she got a degree from the University of Phoenix in 2008 She went to San Diego for a year in 2005 to pursue being a corrections officer “But they wouldn’t pass me because of my leg because I couldn’t run so much distance in such a quick time,” Hanson said Ignore the lower half of my body!’ So that was kind of discouraging She’s hoping to someday get on at the Kenai Youth Facility combining her interest in the corrections field with her enjoyment of working with youth As much as she liked her ISP kids when working in schools and as much as her nephews are a cornerstone of her world begun soon after moving to Soldotna when she was still basically still a kid herself but increasing more — and more severe — lows It was just one of those youth things,” she said draining and difficult when he was drinking He’d go through cycles of treatment and sobriety listening to him freak out in the living room watching him suffer day after day,” she said To say I stayed in it that long is just embarrassing That would have been the worst scenario possible.” she kicked him out and instead of boomeranging back to her doorstep shot by a police officer he was threatening with a knife She now considers that date a birthday — her rebirthday focusing on living her life the way that makes her happy “I was relieved he was no longer fighting the demons and it was time to learn to live and love myself again many sleepless nights as he still haunts me I want to live every day as if we have no tomorrow.” Once free of her relationship and looking to turn her life around Hanson found herself overweight and growing increasingly intolerant of the extra pounds weightlifting and seasonally playing hockey since her old leg injury prevents her from more jarring activities But diet and regular cardio exercise wasn’t a priority “I let life set me back with my relationship It’s not like I ever stopped working out and exercising I focused so much on weightlifting for a couple years She went to the gym five days a week and added walking on a treadmill — “Which is boring as hell I’ll never do that again,” she said — but there was little result on the scale Then her brother suggested she try HCG hormones He called me one day — my brother who is totally antidiet — and said I’ve talked to people.’ I would never have done it otherwise I would have kept on taking my steps to try to change and not gotten anywhere His encouragement made a huge difference,” she said She took the hormone and followed the diet plan — healthy foods Through it all Hanson kept exercising an hour or two a day which is not advised but just try stopping her It totally kicked my metabolism in place and it hasn’t changed since then It just kicked me into drive and that’s it,” she said Finding cardio exercise she actually enjoyed sealed the deal “I just put on my shoes in the middle of winter and started walking and the feeling of snow dropping down on me Now she exercises outside every day of the week walking four to six miles or riding 15 to 30 sometimes doing both or adding a mountain hike in the evening “When I get off work the girl who replaces me comes in and she’s like are you riding or are you hiking?’ She knows That combination is what it took for the pounds to start melting away She’s lost 70 pounds and had a tummy-tuck procedure in December 2013 to tighten up the now-superfluous skin around her abdomen Her jeans have gone from a 42-inch waist to 34 inches She did 19 hikes and bike rides in Cooper Landing with a friend this summer She went on her first halibut-fishing trip She flew with her nephew across Cook Inlet to go bear viewing Hanson on a recent bike ride in Cooper Landing most active summer I’ve ever had since living here 25 years,” she said She still has moments of doubting that she’ll maintain her gains and continue to make progress She still won’t wear a bathing suit without shorts over the top She still hasn’t found a good guy — not that she needs a relationship That’s what her Believe to Achieve page is about sharing her experience in the hope it’ll inspire someone else She’s literally armed herself for the challenge “I don’t remember if I dreamt it or if I was just sitting around and my mind was thinking it would be nice to give bikes to underprivileged people who can’t afford them to get them active.’ I just thought about it last summer and this summer all of a sudden it popped in my head even if she had to pay for all of them herself asking for nominations of possible recipients teens or adults who are overweight and can’t afford but would use a bike please send me nomination.” She got 20 or so nominations and gave away her first bike She posted the pictures and the effort took on a life of its own “I gave away that first bike and all of a sudden people just started giving me donations for more bikes It’s crazy how many people have wanted to help,” Hanson said Eleven local businesses so far have chipped in and at this point Hanson is looking at switching to giving away ice skates or snowshoes to keep the program going through the winter seeing her on the bike path and around the ice rink He was impressed with her then — “She’s a hockey player and very active in the community You always see her out and about,” he said But was even more impressed when he learned about the bike giveaways “She came in one day and told me what her program is all about And I just thought it was a really neat thing she’s doing She’s a very giving person and we’re definitely proud to live in the same community as her,” Gabriel said “I thought that it was just a remarkable concept that’s a tall order for someone to take on by themselves.’ The more I heard about it the more I thought I would like to be a part of this and help her out because it is a pretty selfless thing to do.” a hockey teammate and Hanson’s frequent hiking buddy “She’s just one of the most giving people I’ve ever met “I think she’s had some hard times in her life and she’s really dealt with that and come around and made some bad things turn into good and tried to make a good lifestyle “She’s always looking for ways to help other people step up She’s been down the road where she was heavier and she lost that weight She knows how good it feels and she wants to help other people do that,” she said even though Brown in the abstract wanted to go hiking she wasn’t feeling incredibly motivated at that moment to do so But wussing out is not an option when Hanson is in the mix Even though they weren’t going to even make it to the trailhead until after 5 p.m. but if you’ve got a friend waiting for you “Every time she gives one away it just inspires her to keep moving She’s going to find something else to give away and it’s going to keep growing bigger and bigger,” Brown said those wanting to improve their physical or emotional health To people on the central Kenai Peninsula and in Homer sometimes driving down herself to make a delivery Heidi Hanson delivers a bike to Ashley Freeman in Homer in August Freeman is 19 and loves to bike but hadn’t been able to lately “She was walking to work because her current bicycle was kind of a disaster She was riding it but the brakes are bad and when she would go to shift the chain would fall off,” Hahnlen said Hahnlen’s friend Michelle Gaegal nominated Freeman after Gaegal’s husband received a bike from Hanson Hanson brought a bike down to Homer and gave it to Freeman at work she was just absolutely shocked,” Hahnlen said “She’s been trying to lose weight and help her health and watch what she eats and everything It really helped her self-esteem because she has been losing weight since she started bicycling If she could get more people helping her do this she could affect more lives being touched that Freeman burst into tears The little boy who came back after getting a bike to give her flowers the many messages of support she’s gotten through Facebook “One lady is going through cancer right now and said but I’m just doing what’s making me happy and sharing it on.’ I get a lot of messages on there like that,” Hanson said It’s gotten to the point where strangers are commenting on recognizing her you’re the Believe to Achieve lady!’ At least probably six to eight times in the store that’s happened,” Hanson said “The other day I was standing at the register purchasing something and this guy looks at me “I’m not that kind of person that likes the spotlight and I really didn’t create this to be in a spotlight I just created it to help people out,” she said Being recognized — for her generosity or just her tenacity out trucking along K-Beach — is the price Hanson will have to pay for being motivational I just wanted to give the bikes away,” she said “It probably will continue every summer from here on out as long as I have donations and I can afford it myself It’s been definitely overwhelming at how exciting it’s been To donate to, suggest a recipient for and follow Hanson’s bike-giveaway project, visit her Believe to Achieve page on Facebook. 2 Comments Filed under community, fundraiser, health, outdoors i remember you well and what ever your weight was or is i still remember you with nothing but good thoughts man-size Bigfoot cutout along Kalifornsky Beach Road between Kenai and Kasilof serves as a unique driveway marker and address sign for the Luecker-Borce family Tourists are often eager for a lucky glimpse of a bear moose or caribou while driving around the Kenai Peninsula the silhouette of an even more rarely seen species has drivers turning their heads “Everyone else has a salmon or buoy or reflectors I wanted something more interesting,” said Casey Luecker who erected a man-size Sasquatch cutout along Kalifornsky Beach Road to serve as his driveway marker and address sign the all-black shape could be mistaken for a black bear but those familiar with the lore surrounding the enigmatic hominid would immediately identify Luecker’s work as the bipedal pose from the famous frame 352 of the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film “It’s actually a five-eighths reproduction,” said Luecker the creature is anywhere between 6 and 10 feet tall and weighs around 1,000 pounds since Bigfoot is undeniably the grand champion of hide and seek Luecker said that he considers himself an amateur cryptozoologist — those who search for animals or creatures that appear in myths and legends are considered extinct or whose existence is not yet proven the International Society for Cryptozoology proved its worth to naysayers in 1901 when member Henry Morton Stanley while exploring the Congo for a whispered-about species proved the existence of okapi — a small member of the giraffe family that has stripes like a zebra The okapi is now intensely managed as an endangered species Luecker said he leans toward believing it could exist in numbers so low that the species remains elusive “I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and always liked the Bigfoot lore I know the likelihood of them existing may be low While his driveway marker doesn’t prove its source model is real Luecker said that his cutout has more than adequately served a real use everyone has been able to find it,” he said which has a mythological creature much like a Sasquatch but referred to as more of a shape-shifting “Land Otter Man.” Her only hesitation with the idea was that since the marker would be so novel from the pictures we’ve sent to friends and what we’ve heard from people who’ve visited Leave a comment Filed under Kasilof begins to pull the Watchman’s Cabin onto Kalifornsky Beach Road A deteriorating but historically important building that has stood for 127 years near the mouth of the Kasilof River has a new home and is now in the process of getting a facelift The Superintendent’s Cabin — more popularly known as the Watchman’s Cabin — was the last on-site structure from the peninsula’s first salmon cannery it also features a framed-lumber arctic entryway and littered its interior with graffiti and garbage on a specially prepared gravel pad at the Kasilof Regional Historical Association museum grounds on Kalifornsky Beach Road had been kept intact until 1938 with the help of hired watchmen most of the buildings were dismantled or sold was one of those original buildings; it was moved and used temporarily as a Kasilof schoolhouse which had worked for nearly 20 years to save the structure in its original location After numerous attempts to maneuver through a tangle of state regulations KRHA decided that it could not protect the cabin where it was so it successfully negotiated to have it moved The Watchman’s Cabin is backed onto the gravel pad that will serve as its new home On an overcast late-October day — following the earlier efforts of more than 30 volunteers to dig out its rotting foundation shore up its log walls with wooden cross-bracing and then jack up the entire 14-by-36-foot structure — a small crew worked to place it all onto skids connected to a Kenworth 300-horsepower winch truck owned by Billy Hill of Oilfield Hot Shot Service pushed a 38-foot set of steel skids beneath the building The cabin-moving crew then placed 8-by-8-inch supporting beams perpendicular to the skids and then the cabin was lowered onto the supports Hill then dragged the building on the skids from its original location up onto the road bed where he used his winch to lift one end of the building to attach wheels to the skids he winched up the other end and began the drive up the gravel road away from the river mouth Volunteer Dawn Fry works on a step-and-lock notch along the front wall of the Watchman’s Cabin during restoration work last week the front tires of Hill’s winch truck failed to settle firmly on the uphill climb to Kalifornsky Beach Road so a Chevy pilot truck was attached out front to assist in steering it took less than an hour to move it to its new location Fish and Wildlife Service historian Gary Titus who is directing the restoration of the Watchman’s Cabin estimates that he and his crew of volunteers will require two to three years (working only from October to March each year) to complete the work the volunteers will remove two to three tiers of sill logs and replace them with new logs cut and notched to precisely match the originals — a task complicated by the fact that the logs on the Watchman’s Cabin were scribed and  joined with a rare “step-and-lock” notch Matching this notch is much more complex a task than matching more traditional dovetail notches although Titus said that the restoration crew is getting better with practice Volunteer Mike Wiley employs a hammer and chisel to fashion a step-and-lock notch that will fit up into the similarly notched sill log in the background The next stage will involve restoring the arctic entryway and then the workers will replace the structure’s windows All of this work will require manual labor and Titus said that the KRHA welcomes all of each that it can get—more volunteers since the extra help could greatly speed the entire process The materials currently most needed are spruce logs that can be cut notched and then used to replace rotting originals with a butt-end diameter of 9½ to 11 inches KRHA also accepts monetary donations to purchase materials for the remainder of the restoration process Although KRHA has received some grant money for the project Volunteer Bill Nelson works to create a step-and-lock notch in a replacement log during restoration work on the historic Watchman’s Cabin in Kasilof regular members of the restoration crew are Bud Crawford as long as the temperature is not below zero To check with Titus to see if the weather is warm enough to work in volunteers can call him at 260-5410 either the night before a workday Anyone who wishes to volunteer should show up with warm work clothes and a sack lunch All the necessary tools will be provided on the worksite at the McLane Center located near the beginning of Kalifornsky Beach Road The crew welcomes workers who can help all day or just a portion of the day Checks as donations should made be made out to KRHA and mailed to the organization at P.O Leave a comment Filed under Almanac, commercial fishing, history A moderate magnitude 3.9 earthquake occurred in the Gulf of Alaska near Kalgin Island island The quake had a moderate depth of 74 km (46 mi) and was felt widely in the area.