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Week of Jul 27

Seward faces heavy rain and flood risk again, weeks after July storm

Seward faces 2 to 4 inches of rain Monday through Thursday, with flood and landslide risk — the second such threat weeks after a July flood warning.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Seward faces heavy rain and flood risk again, weeks after July storm

Kasilof man, 87, dies after Sterling Highway collision near Cohoe Loop

An 87-year-old Kasilof man has died after a two-vehicle crash on the Sterling Highway, days after he turned into the path of an oncoming minivan.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Kasilof man, 87, dies after Sterling Highway collision near Cohoe Loop

Two charged with burglary after troopers find them back at a Clam Gulch cabin, hauling out an appliance

Two people were charged after troopers found them back at a Clam Gulch cabin they'd allegedly burglarized more than once, hauling out a large appliance. Most of the stolen goods were recovered nearby.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Two charged with burglary after troopers find them back at a Clam Gulch cabin, hauling out an appliance

Seward Lagoon youth-only king salmon fishery closes Friday night

Seward Lagoon's youth-only king salmon fishery closes Friday night at midnight, ending the summer window for anglers 15 and younger.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Seward Lagoon youth-only king salmon fishery closes Friday night

Six Kasilof dipnetters cited this month, all for failing to record catch

Six people got cited on Kasilof dipnet fisheries this month, none for taking too many fish, all for forgetting to write down what they caught. Bail runs $120.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Six Kasilof dipnetters cited this month, all for failing to record catch

The Gulf of Alaska's ocean station was saved. The funding still isn't.

The Gulf of Alaska's deep-sea monitoring station was saved from removal — but the money to keep the network Alaska's fisheries rely on is still unsettled.

Melinda Communities.Newsby Melinda Communities.News3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: The Gulf of Alaska's ocean station was saved. The funding still isn't.

Sterling Highway closed in both directions at Milepost 164 after collision

Sterling Highway closed in both directions at Milepost 164 after a multi-vehicle crash Thursday afternoon, expected to remain closed into the evening.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Sterling Highway, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Cover image for article: Sterling Highway closed in both directions at Milepost 164 after collision

The state is opening Kenai lynx season — and already predicting it'll close next year

Alaska is opening Kenai lynx season Dec. 15–Feb. 28 while already predicting it'll close next year — the cats are heading toward the bottom of their boom-bust cycle.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: The state is opening Kenai lynx season — and already predicting it'll close next year

More from Kenai Peninsula

State cost-share helps Kenai and Mat-Su fix eroding riverbanks

Kenai and Mat-Su landowners can get the state to cover up to half or two-thirds of eroding-bank repairs — if they use salmon-friendly fixes, not rock armor.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: State cost-share helps Kenai and Mat-Su fix eroding riverbanks

Sterling residents want to tax themselves for recreation

Sterling residents want to tax themselves for recreation. On Aug. 4 the borough sets the date for a public meeting where they can back or fight the plan.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Sterling residents want to tax themselves for recreation

Kenai assembly weighs putting school board term limits to voters

Kenai's assembly weighs term limits for school board members — but can't impose them alone, so a yes vote just puts the question to borough voters. Hearing Sept. 1.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Kenai assembly weighs putting school board term limits to voters

Kids get the Homer Spit's prime fishing spot for a day

Kids get the Homer Spit's best fishing hole to themselves Saturday for the lagoon's youth day — a perk some shut-out adults grumble about.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Kids get the Homer Spit's prime fishing spot for a day

A 20-acre parcel near Homer is headed to public hands — but for what?

Twenty acres near Homer could be sold to a public or charitable group with no auction — though the state's notice doesn't say who wants it or why. Comment by Aug. 31.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: A 20-acre parcel near Homer is headed to public hands — but for what?

The state ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow

Alaska ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow, deepening a years-long squeeze on a fishery it controls in state waters.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: The state ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow

With 331 belugas left, the Park Service is chartering a boat to learn what they eat

Just 331 Cook Inlet belugas remain, so the Park Service is chartering a boat to study what they eat in winter — while critics say research alone won't save them.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: With 331 belugas left, the Park Service is chartering a boat to learn what they eat

Ballot Measure 3 turns on a single word

Ballot Measure 3 would add "only" to Alaska's voter law. Sponsors call it a gap worth closing before a court does it for them; opponents call it a doubt nobody needed.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Alaska55% read
Cover image for article: Ballot Measure 3 turns on a single word

About Kenai Peninsula

The Kenai Peninsula, governed as the Kenai Peninsula Borough, is a region of Southcentral Alaska bordered by Cook Inlet. Its communities include Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Seward, Nikiski and Anchor Point, and Kenai Fjords National Park lies within it.

Salmon fishing on the Kenai River and in Cook Inlet shapes the economy, along with oil and gas development and natural gas storage. The borough assembly and the councils and planning commissions of Kenai, Homer and Seward decide questions of land use, taxes, short-term rentals, housing and utility rates.

The Sterling and Seward highways carry traffic through the peninsula, and Kachemak Bay State Park and Kenai Fjords National Park lie along its shores. Schools across the peninsula answer to a single borough school board.

More from Kenai Peninsula

In Tyonek, one health aide holds the village's care together

Robert Stephan is the only health aide in Tyonek, a boat-or-plane village where the doctor visits every two months. Now he's headed to PA school.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: In Tyonek, one health aide holds the village's care together

Troopers cite 12 dipnetters on the Kenai in one day

Troopers wrote at least 12 dipnet citations on the Kenai in a single day, mostly for fishing after hours. The reward: $120 bail and a long drive home.

Alaska Newsby Alaska News3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Troopers cite 12 dipnetters on the Kenai in one day

It's July, and it's snowing on the road to the Arctic

It's late July and it's snowing on Atigun Pass — the 4,739-foot Brooks Range crossing that's the only road to Alaska's North Slope.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Atigun Pass, Alaska
Cover image for article: It's July, and it's snowing on the road to the Arctic

Cook Inlet drifters get 12 more hours as Kasilof sockeye double the goal

Kasilof sockeye are running at double the escapement goal, so Cook Inlet drifters get 12 hours Monday — still two miles off the beach for the kings.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Cook Inlet drifters get 12 more hours as Kasilof sockeye double the goal

Kenai dipnetting goes 24 hours as sockeye run hits 3 million

Daaaaang! Kenai sockeye are running hot — 3 million projected — so dipnetting goes 24 hours a day through Friday's season close. Residents only, and kings go back.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Kenai dipnetting goes 24 hours as sockeye run hits 3 million

Week of Jul 20

Former Anchorage Assembly member Karen Bronga killed in Sterling Highway crash

Former Anchorage Assembly member Karen Bronga passed away in a vehicular accident on July 24

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Sterling Highway, Alaska
Cover image for article: Former Anchorage Assembly member Karen Bronga killed in Sterling Highway crash

Mike Rowe helps mark a $250,000 gift to Seward's trade school

Mike Rowe showed up in Homer to help hand Seward's trade school a $250,000 Wells Fargo gift for scholarships and instructors.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Mike Rowe helps mark a $250,000 gift to Seward's trade school

Wind Advisory keeps Isabel Pass dangerous through Thursday evening

Big wins through Isabel Pass, careful on the roads

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Isabel Pass, Alaska
Cover image for article: Wind Advisory keeps Isabel Pass dangerous through Thursday evening

Cook Inlet clammers need a permit, and the east-side beaches stay empty

You now need a permit to dig razor clams on Cook Inlet — though on the Kenai's east-side beaches, closed since 2015, there is almost nothing left to dig.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Cook Inlet clammers need a permit, and the east-side beaches stay empty

High water has Southcentral anglers waiting it out

Flooding has Southcentral anglers mostly sidelined — weirs underwater, creeks blown out, and 12-foot waves hitting the Kenai dipnet beaches.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Kenai River, Alaska
Cover image for article: High water has Southcentral anglers waiting it out

A sinkhole swallowed a Seward Highway lane, and that lane is closed for a month

A sinkhole ate a northbound lane of the Seward Highway at Potter Marsh. Crews are on it around the clock — and it stays closed until August 24.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: A sinkhole swallowed a Seward Highway lane, and that lane is closed for a month

Alaska's trade school in Seward can't turn out graduates fast enough

Alaska's vocational school in Seward made USA TODAY's national top-schools list again — and most of its students have jobs lined up before they even graduate.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Alaska's trade school in Seward can't turn out graduates fast enough

Wind advisory: 50 mph gusts and 12-foot Cook Inlet waves threaten Kenai dipnetters Thursday

Yeah, maybe think about your choices before you just haphazardly go out - I don't know. I guess that's on you. Best of luck.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Wind advisory: 50 mph gusts and 12-foot Cook Inlet waves threaten Kenai dipnetters Thursday

Sockeye keep the drift fleet fishing while the Kenai's kings stay closed

Kasilof sockeye escapement is way past the top of its goal, so the drift fleet got another opener. The Kenai's kings are so weak the sport season never opened.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska
Cover image for article: Sockeye keep the drift fleet fishing while the Kenai's kings stay closed

85 mph on a stretch of road marked for its fatal crashes

Troopers say a Sterling man ran his dirtbike 85 in a 45 — on a stretch of the Sterling Highway flagged for its fatal crashes — then briefly declined to pull over.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: 85 mph on a stretch of road marked for its fatal crashes

Nenana River erosion threatens Alaska Railroad mainline; DNR proposes 6-acre land sale near Healy

Alaska is selling 6 acres of state land to the Alaska Railroad so it can move its mainline tracks away from the eroding Nenana River near Healy. Comments due August 14.

Maggie AlaskaNewsby Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min readFrom
Nenana River near Healy, Alaska
Cover image for article: Nenana River erosion threatens Alaska Railroad mainline; DNR proposes 6-acre land sale near Healy

He listed two Alaska move-in dates. Then he quit the race.

A Kenai-area candidate filed two different Alaska move-in dates on two candidacy forms. Asked to prove one, he withdrew the next morning.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: He listed two Alaska move-in dates. Then he quit the race.

Sterling man shoots neighbor's generator, returns armed and drunk, threatens troopers' children

A Sterling man wanted his neighbor's generator. The neighbor said no. Troopers say the generator ended up full of bullet holes.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Sterling man shoots neighbor's generator, returns armed and drunk, threatens troopers' children

Seward Highway closed both directions at Mile 69 after collision

Seward Highway closed both directions at Mile 69 after a collision early Tuesday morning, with delays expected to last at least one hour.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Seward Highway closed both directions at Mile 69 after collision

Rockfall risk added to Anchorage flood watch as second rain round targets Monday commute

Heavy rain expected Monday morning in Anchorage may trigger rockfalls on the Seward Highway and flood Chester and Campbell creeks through Tuesday.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Rockfall risk added to Anchorage flood watch as second rain round targets Monday commute

Flood Watch expands to Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula as atmospheric river intensifies

Flood watch expanded Sunday to Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula as atmospheric river brings 2 to 4 inches of rain and 55 mph winds through Monday. • Yentna River in Susitna Valley forecast to crest above flood stage by Tuesday, threatening cabins at two lodges. • River users warned to expect higher water levels and monitor forecasts closely through midweek.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Southcentral Alaska
Cover image for article: Flood Watch expands to Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula as atmospheric river intensifies

Five dipnetters cited at Kenai personal use fishery for recordkeeping violation

Five people were cited July 18 at the Kenai dipnet fishery for failing to record salmon catches in ink before hiding or moving the fish, a violation that can cost future fishing privileges.

Bill AlaskaNewsby Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Cover image for article: Five dipnetters cited at Kenai personal use fishery for recordkeeping violation

Week of Jul 13

Landslide closes Ninilchik Beach Access Road near Mission Ave through July 28

A landslide closed Ninilchik Beach Access Road near Mission Avenue through July 28, blocking access to the beach.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Cover image for article: Landslide closes Ninilchik Beach Access Road near Mission Ave through July 28

Three DUI arrests in one day span Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks

Alaska State Troopers arrested three drivers on DUI charges Saturday, two on the Kenai Peninsula and one in Fairbanks, after crashes that injured multiple people.

Walter AlaskaNewsby Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks, Alaska
Cover image for article: Three DUI arrests in one day span Kenai Peninsula and Fairbanks