• Classrooms adapt to the needs of tomorrow by working on technology skills now
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Editor’s note: This is the second in a new series offered by the Homer Tribune on school issues. We take a look this week on
changing technology’s evolution of learning.
Student Katlain Nelson agrees to let her teacher project a piece of writing onto a screen for a writing subject review.
Her hands are the favorite part of herself, she wrote. “They help me when I am working the hay fields. They help me when I move bales of hay into perfect pods.”
Her hands write stories, and her hands wipe tears.
In Emily Putney’s fifth grade class at West Homer, students are reviewing a writing assignment for lessons in transitions and “voice.”
They do this in a seemingly old fashioned way, helped along by the latest in projection technology. The teachers have a “document camera,” a device that sits on a flat surface with a camera mounted to it. The teacher places a piece of paper (or an object) in the view of the camera that she wants to show the whole class. The camera sends the image to the projector mounted to the ceiling.
Nelson’s essay fills the screen, underlined sentences to show her transitions. Everyone in class can view a single page with ease.
In an age of technology, students in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District are using these tools and many more sophisticated ones as a matter of course. Blackboards, chalk and erasers don’t cut it anymore as the world turns on a new technological information age.
The challenge posed to school districts is whether they are integrating learning and new systems for learning – the Web – into their lesson plan to prepare students for future jobs?
The technology is certainly in the classrooms and schools.
Robert Porter is the technician serving 15 area schools extending from Chapman School at Anchor Point to Kachemak Selo out East End and across the bay to Seldovia, Port Graham and Nanwalek. In that area, there are some 1,500 computers to serve an estimated 2,000 students.
He oversees the technology, helping teachers adapt and integrating new equipment as it comes on line.
Today, that includes desk top computers, but increasingly schools are choosing laptops instead. SmartBoards, the glitziest technology at $4,000 each may end up in nearly every classroom of a school – as at Homer Middle School. Or, there might be only one, as in the library at West Homer. These were purchased with special one-time federal stimulus dollars.
The standard LCD projector in use by Emily Putney’s class, which costs far less than a SmartBoard, are located in every school and every school uses them, Porter said.
The SmartBoard platform is a giant touch screen – picture an enormous iPad.
“What happens with a SmartBoard is that the projector acts like the computer monitor and displays it onto a big screen. Then the teacher or student can interact with the desktop like they normally would,” Porter said. But they use touch instead of a mouse or keyboard.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Calla Seay, a fifth grader in Emily Putney’s class at West Homer Elementary, reads her essay aloud. It is projected onto a screen for class instruction.

Software allows teachers to customize. At Paul Banks, students check their attendance on a SmartBoard in the morning. They drag their names to a box that says they are here. It tells the teacher whether they’re eating hot lunch or cold.
“Many are tactile learners. Teachers love letting kids use these. For math they put up a question – 3 X 4 – and there are four answer choices. Students choose the answer and drag it into the box. There are four color choice trays on a SmartBoard. Red, black, green or blue. They can pick up that color choice and write on the SmartBoard like a chalkboard,” Porter said. The technology is limited only by the teacher’s imagination.
The old blackboard, long known as the very symbol of school, is still there in some schools. “They are used more or less to post a static display. Some schools don’t have the money to put in SmartBoards. You’ll see more whiteboards than chalk boards,” Porter said.

‘Centers of learning’
Steve Atwater, KPBSD Superintendent, used a recent example of the shifting school role driven by an Internet age. “Will Richardson, who writes and speaks about education, is adamant that the purpose of schools today is much different than it was in the past. That is, he feels that a school’s primary function is no longer to deliver information or content but to instead be centers of learning,” Atwood wrote on his district web blog. “He states that you can get all the content that you need from the web, you don’t need a school for this. Want to learn geometry? Personalized lessons are out there for free in cyberland. He stresses that schools need to shift their purpose from a place where you go to learn content to a place where you go to learn. And while the difference between the two may at first glance be subtle, it is significant.”
The principal at West Homer Elementary, Ray Marshall, said educators are working to understand and prepare kids for rapidly changing 21st century skills.
“The majority of jobs in an information technological age require a high level of expertise. Those are skills students have to have,” Marshall said. “What skills will these students in grade school now need in their future? With computers, it will be a lot more then we had to know.”
The “formal skills” in math, grammar, science, literature, music and art are one level of school learning, Marshall points out. Beneath that is another level of “informal learning.”
“In this informal curriculum, they learn how to open computer programs, how to operate and manipulate things. Those are skills that kids do when they want to present what they’ve learned. Those informal skills are 21st century skills,” he said. With technology growing exponentially every year, kids will need to keep up in these informal skills.
To prepare them, he talks about the technology decisions his school has made. They own one SmartBoard, and keep it in the library for large group instruction.
“The district has been good about allowing individual buildings to choose how to spend their technology allowance,” Marshall said. “Last year we bought laptops, software, and LCD projectors for every classrooms. The LCD displays information in a projection from the ceiling, and is about one-sixth of the cost of a SmartBoard.”
These show many of the advantages for group instruction as a SmartBoard.
“Back in the day when I was in school, there would be the science experiment, and the teacher would invite everyone to come up front. So, everyone comes up in a horde, all crowded around the project,” Marshall said. “They couldn’t see the science project. Now, you can see it better than if you go up and look at it (through the projection.)”
Still, technology is only as good as instructional goals behind it.

Photo provided - Students at McNeil Canyon School are assigned individual Dell Netbooks.

A technology expert overseeing schools in Washington state once told Marshall technology is a good amplifier. “It amplifies good instruction and it amplifies bad instruction. Our question is, how can I use this to amplify instruction?”
West Homer is a good school to note as an example of success. Students there earned the second highest ranking in Standardize Based Test Scores of all schools in Alaska. They were No. 1 in the district.
“How our technology relates to test scores is an interesting question. We have the lowest amount of SmartBoards. I don’t think that technology equals test scores,” Marshall said. “I think effectively using technology can enhance education. Test scores are just a reflection of learning.”
(Anchorage’s Ravenwood Elementary ranked No. 1 in the state.)

One-to-one instruction
Pete Swanson, the principal at McNeil Canyon Elementary School, made a decision to place a laptop in each student’s use in a move toward individualized instruction for grades 3-6.
This is another school that tends to score highest in the state on standardized testing. The school is proud of its four BP Teacher of the Year award winners: Debbie Piper, Amy Budge, Bill Noomah and Cheryl Sotelo. Swanson was selected for national honors as Principal of the Year in 2006.
“We wanted more of a one-to-one model for putting computers in kids’ hands. We took that money to purchase small Dell Netbooks,” Swanson said. “We were the first elementary school in district to go Wifi and we’re in our fourth year with the Netbooks.”
For the price of one SmartBoard, Swanson found he could purchase eight Dell Notebooks.
One-to-one starts in the third grade. “Any time in the day, if a teacher chooses to integrate technology, whether it’s a Google document or to assess a skill development project, they (computers) are available at their desks. You will see students using them like a textbook, essentially.”
The district purchased Discovery Ed, which offers an abundant knowledge bank like an encyclopedia. “They have access to this through the Internet. They might be writing their notes in regards to findings and observations. They might be producing a report or answering questions posed to them.”
As in a professional environment where employees or co-workers are collaborating on a project, student assignments at times includes this approach.
Swanson said McNeil teachers already had LCD projectors in every classrooms. But they didn’t have an interactive tool. The laptops answer this need.
The classroom instruction is mirroring the future use of technology, Swanson believes.
“Basically what you’re seeing happen is the majority of people have a mobile device or three devices that are all wifi loaded and they are walking around with those. Because they are just everywhere, they are being used by people in their professions. That, to me, is what we need to prepare kids for – they have a tool in their hands, and have them interacting with the learning.”
Research suggests brains are changing through the use of technology. This generation of young people literally “think” in a different way.
“The research supports the suggestion that the neocortex is a different in this generation than they were in mine. They interact with videos – it is physically changing in our bodies.”
The best combination is to guide their education through smart instruction incorporated with smart use of technology, he said.
“You have to be dynamic. Some teachers can still teach very well with a piece of chalk. Teaching is an art form and one particular method or process is not going to be the best for a given population,” he said. “There are people who can teach up a storm with a one-to-one environment using laptops. It’s the quality of the teacher who is in front of them.”
Back in Emily Putney’s fifth-grade class, it’s Lee Lowe’s turn to show his essay to the class. His favorite feature is his pointer fingers, which allow him “to press keys on the piano,” and to poke his friend when he “desperately needs help with a math problem.”
“Do you hear Lee’s ‘voice’ in this?” she asks the class. “If you can hear the person talking when you read what they write, this is called ‘voice.’”
Without being able to see the sentences projected on a screen, the students might not have “heard” it quite so clearly, or so early in their education.

• New Homer checkpoint saw race’s major action as mushing champs dropped dogs, took breaks
By Joseph Robertia
Redoubt Reporter

HOMER TRIBUNE/Sean Pearson - An exhausted sled dog takes a quick nap before heading back out on the Tustumena 200 trail.

If Big Lake musher Cim Smyth was an animal, he would undeniably be cheetah, as Jeff King found out the hard way after leading more than half the 2012 Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race only to be brought down like an antelope just miles from the finish line.
“I had an eight-minute lead over him leaving Homer and I thought it might not be enough,” King said at the finish line Sunday, crossing it seven minutes later than first-place finisher Smyth. “Both Smyths are known to be hard finishers. (Cim’s brother, Ramey, won the T200 in 1998, 1999 and 2002.) They’re remarkable.”
Smyth — Cim, that is — is no stranger to being in the T200 winner’s circle, having won the race twice before this year, in 2004 and 2009. Smyth also is no stranger to coming on strong at the end of a race, as he is a four-time recipient of the Iditarod’s award for having the fastest time from Safety to Nome.
At the halfway point, at Freddie’s Roadhouse off of Oilwell Road in Ninilchik, Smyth’s team appeared tireless. At his front end was Alpha, a 70-pound and muscle-rippled male that looked more like a horse that Trojans could be hiding in, rather than a typical lead dog. This 3-year-old dog seemed unfazed by the 100-mile hill run it had done to get there, and attempted to wrestle and play with other dogs in the team during the mandatory six-hour rest.
However, on the run to the next checkpoint the dog must have taken a bad step because he was favoring a front foot in Homer.
“He’s a solid dog, but his wrist was sore,” Smyth said.
Smyth dropped the dog for its own safety, much to the dismay of the still-energetic Alpha, who continued to bark and try to pull away from handlers when Smyth left the checkpoint with the rest of the team.
In addition to being down one of his best dogs, Smyth was dealing with several females in heat, which further handicapped his performance. Females in heat will continue to run and pull in the team positions, but often become too distracted by hormones to be able to handle the demanding task of leading.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Sean Pearson - Tusty 200 mushers face subzero temperatures as they hit the trail after the Homer checkpoint at McNeil Canyon.

“I was really struggling with leaders,” Smyth said. “I had eight females in heat and six of them were lead dogs, and the two who weren’t in heat, only one was fast enough to be able to be at the front and beat Jeff King, but she had never run in single lead.”
Single lead is something even experienced lead dogs may or may not do, and is a daunting task for young, still-learning leaders like Smyth’s dog Jane. A little on the small side compared to most of his other canine companions, this rust-colored 4-year-old female may not have looked like much to the average race spectator, but her powerful performance in the last leg of the race clearly showed that amazing things sometimes come in small packages.
“She really shined,” Smyth said.
Jane was willing to fill the role of lead dog, but with the forward momentum Smyth still had to contend with beating King — a four-time Iditarod champion and three-time T200 champion who holds the moniker of “most winningest musher” in the sport today.
As King pulled through the Oilwell Road checkpoint, 25 miles from the finish and the last place to drop a dog in the race, he cut loose three uninjured dogs just to try to move quicker in an attempt to stay in front of Smyth.
In the end it wasn’t enough to fend off Smyth, who passed King, led for a few miles, and then got passed back by an unyielding King.
“I thought he knew I had the power and would lay off, but he didn’t, so after he passed me I really got with it,” Smyth said.
Having trained his dogs to switch from trotting fast to full-out loping at a whistle, Smyth attempted to call his dogs up, but he had yet another problem, this one not related to his dogs.
Smyth is usually a clean-shaven musher, but this year showed up with a big, black, bushy beard on his face. He said he grew it not by choice, but from having a lack of time to keep up with shaving due to all the long training runs he was putting in during the weeks leading up to the T200.
As he attempted to whistle up the team, he discovered a thick shell of ice had built up on the whiskers that prevented him from being able to pucker his lips for a whistle.
“I got scared and started trying to bite and chew the ice off as fast as I could,” he said.
Luck must have been on his side because within a few chomps, Smyth was able to get enough of a whistle sound out to shift the team into high gear. He passed King again and then held the lead all the way to the finish line, where he crossed at 3:56 p.m. Sunday with his 11-dog team still loping at no less than 20 miles per hour. Seven minutes later King arrived in second place.
Smyth said it felt great to achieve another T200 victory, and that beating King added to the sweetness of his success.
“He’s a great guy to race against because if Jeff is there, you know he’s there to win. He’s not going to make it easy for you. So if you beat him, you worked for it, and that feels good. Those are the best types of wins, the ones you work hardest for,” he said.
Rounding out the race finishers Sunday were Dan Kaduce in third at 5:15 p.m., Colleen Robertia in fourth at 7 p.m., Paul Gebhardt in fifth at 7:45 p.m., Didier Moggia in sixth at 8 p.m., Jodi Bailey in seventh at 8:38 p.m. and Anna Berington in eighth at 9:57 p.m.
The next day Jane Adkins came in ninth at 2:23 a.m., followed by Sarah Stokey in 10th at 2:59 a.m. and Bill Piccola in 11th at 7:41 a.m. Scratches for the race included Rebekah Ruzicka, William Pinkham, Bruce Linton, Dee Dee Jonrowe and Aaron Kerschner.

• Cold weather spells good news for retail, but stresses for pipes, fishing vessels
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - The M/V Kennicott found an iced harbor when it docked in Homer Sunday amid sub zero temperatures.

The good, the bad and the ugly reality of harsh winters like this one mingle in a picture full of contradictions: There’s a mini boom in snow removal and retail sales for local retailers. Snow plowers and haulers are in high demand. Cod fishermen unable to get to their fishing grounds are out of luck. And a hemmed in harbor clogged with ice spells hard times for smaller vessels.
Skip Perk, owner of Skip’s Trucking, said this year’s total hauls of snow are three times what he had last January. He’s hauled snow on more consecutive days in 2012 than in any previous year since 1987. The private contractor is called out to work with City of Homer Public Works crews on snowplowing around the clock.
“I don’t remember ever seeing this much dry snow,” Perk said. “I’ve seen a fair amount of snowfall, but never this much dry snow, where it’s been cold this long.”
He has carried up to 40 loads in his dump truck in 12 days time.
Over at Ulmer’s Hardware, it’s been a run on shovels and heaters, said assistant manager Mike Quinn.
“It’s been a busy winter. Business couldn’t be better,” Quinn said. The store tries to keep the shelves filled with shovels, ice melt, RV antifreeze, a variety of heaters and emergency equipment. “We usually order a lot to stock up for winter – we’re trying to meet the community’s needs. Heaters were a big one this year.”
Plastic shovels just don’t cut it when snow freezes and hardens. People are reaching for the flat garden shovels. “They take smaller bites and are not lifting quite as much snow. We’ve also seen people stocking up on emergency gear, which is a good idea if you’re snowed in for days and can’t get out. It makes sense to keep extra water and food on hand.”
Ice clogs at Homer’s normally ice-free harbor has caused a bit of havoc. A finger float in the Homer Harbor was pointing at the sky this weekend, a causality of frozen ice and heaving tides.
“It’s a big ice year, especially out in the bay,” said Harbormaster Bryan Hawkins. “It’s definitely a lot colder than we’ve had in the past. When it’s extreme cold like that, floats will freeze to the piling so when the tide goes down, the piling doesn’t go with it. Or we have the opposite problem, they’ll stay submerged.”
Hinge supports on the floats then get damaged and will need replacement.
During last week’s two-day white out storm and subzero wind chills, two boats nearly sank.
“We had two responses during the storm that was all-hands-on to save the boats. The owners are too hampered by the blizzards to even get here and respond themselves,” Hawkins said. Boat owners living in Soldotna or Anchorage with the idea to come check on their boats wouldn’t have been able to travel the highway. So the object was to handle it for them, he added.
The M/V Kennicott had difficulty tying to the Pioneer Dock on Sunday. Ice jams at low tide meant the ferry was abutting ice as it tried to tie up. That work took two hours before passengers could be offloaded.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - A “finger” float rose with the tide this weekend, then froze to the pier, no longer adjusting to the lower tide.

Cod fishermen are finding an above normal harvest of fish, but are kept in the port on stormy days. Fish Factory owner Mike McCune, who purchases from the commercial fishermen, said some days the boats can make it out in the bay, and some days they can’t.
“The resource seems quite strong, but they are limited in days to get out there. We’ve had an average January that’s colder than normal. It’s always a struggle to get multiple days of fishing in,” McCune said. But when the fishing vessels come in to offload, the dock workers are putting in some impressive hours in harsh wind chill as they process fish on the dock. “Usually on the very worst days they deliver the fish and that’s the worst for (fish processors). They are amazing to me from time to time,” McCune said.
At Homer Public Works, crews begin work plowing roads at 4 a.m. each snowy day. On Wednesday and Thursday, the crews were stuck with back-to-back 12 hour days to combat more than a foot of snowfall.
“Overtime at this time of year is normal,” Director of Public Works Carey Meyers said Monday. “We’ve probably had a little more all at once but that is part of the job of doing snow removal.”
Public Works’ goal is to have all city streets and sidewalks on Pioneer Avenue cleared within 24 hours of a snowfall. To get there, it takes the work of three grader operators, a couple in sanders and dump trucks hired to haul snow.
At this point, Meyers is concerned about running out of places to dump snow. He wanted to get the message out to the public to not stockpile snow from their own yards into the streets’ right-of-ways and to keep cars off the roadway so emergency vehicles can get in.
Plumbers in town also are kept busy as a byproduct of the cold snap. Eayers Plumbing and Heating has been inundated with calls about frozen and broken pipes.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls. A lot of it is due to not enough insulation and fuel is so high, people have been turning the heat down, too,” Owner Steve Eayers said. “Things without having had the proper maintenance are working harder and they break. A heating system is one of those things that people don’t think about unless something goes wrong.”
Carpet cleaners also are being kept busy. When pipes burst, carpet cleaning companies are called in to help clean up and dry the flooring.
The work is welcome, with even a need to hire more people, but it’s not the kind of work Eayers said he enjoys.
“It’s better for them if they can plan the work so they have the finances for it, not when there’s a disaster,” he said.

• MPG players also available through generous Friends of Homer Library donation
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Friends of the Homer Library Coordinator Erin Hollowell, (left) and Library Director Ann Dixon, (center) listen as electronics expert Debbie Waldorf explains which books are loaded on the Kindle Touch reader.

E-readers remain a mystery to book loyalists, yet are touted for a variety of features individuals may want to discover for themselves – without risking the investment. Now they can try out an e-reading device free through the Homer Public Library.
Friends of the Homer Library purchased six new Kindle Touch electronic books and six new MPG Players for $3,500, equipment now available for cardholders.
The Kindle comes already downloaded with about 30 titles including: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, “Kidnapped,” “Frankenstein” in its origination by Mary Shelley, “Leaves of Grass,” Dickens’ titles, the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
“Or people can download new titles, and if they don’t know how to do that, we can help them,” said Librarian Ann Dixon.
The MPG Players are for loading Listen Alaska books and music. Each device comes with its own carrying case and instruction material.
Erin Hollowell, the coordinator for Friends of the Library, is scheduling new classes open to the public to help them navigate Kindle. The next one is 2-3:30 p.m. Feb. 25 under the instruction of Amanda Foley.
Hollowell, a teacher and Kachemak Bay Campus instructor, said in today’s environment where young people are accustomed to electronics, the MP3 player can entice them back to books. “Listen Alaska is an amazing tool, especially for parents of reluctant readers. They can download audio books, and listen to the stories. It’s a huge boon for these kids and helps them pick up reading skills,” she said.
As for e-books, the aging are finding the enlargeable text easier on their eyesight.
“My 91-year-old dad said he read more this year than in the previous six years because he doesn’t have to go out for a new book,” she said.
The rules allow for a two-week take home. The patron must be 18 or older. There is a hefty late fee of $5 per day. A $25 fee will be charged if the device is returned in the book-drop, because that could damage them.
“We really want patrons to use these with extra care. They will pay if these are damaged or if they lose them, and this is all explained at checkout through a form they sign,” Dixon said.

kindle

As a pilot program, this ventures the Homer library into the arena of offering new literacy technology.
“More and more books in digital format are offered, yet not everyone can afford them. Some titles you can only get electronically, particularly in nonfiction. The basic role of the library is to provide access to everyone,” she added.
Debbie Waldorf, an electronic specialist at the library, selected the Kindles over the Nook. The Nook is good for individual use, but not for repeat users.
“The Kindle was probably the easiest for patrons to use. That’s not saying the Kindle is the best; it just works in a library setting very well,” Waldorf said.
In order to download e-books, patrons can go to the library’s Listen Alaska website and follow the prompts, or download free materials from Amazon. In order to do that, the cardholder would need to establish a free account with Amazon, she said.
“We had just started checking them out yesterday (Wednesday). By the end of the day we had one checked out. But people are asking questions,” Waldorf said.
Since there are only six, and 10,000 Homer cardholders, the rules say no immediate renewals. But you can put one on hold.

• City council enacts new service district for troubled seawall, plans for Homer’s gasline, agrees to fix broken dock
Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - John Szajkowski, a property owner along the seawall below Ocean View Loop, shows the materials the wall was built of and the stressers that can cause it to weaken. The wall has withheld storms for 10 years but with many patches that cause concern.

For now, business owners protective of their sandwich board signs will be able to keep them within certain established limits, after contentious testimony at the Homer City Council meeting called into question a constitutional issue.
If Homer sign rules were to change, favoring real estate agents and nonprofits, but not allowing a cafe to broadcast its soup du jour – would it amount to stifling speech and enterprise?
In the end, the council voted unanimously to send sign changes back to the Homer Advisory Planning Commission for more tweaks. Then it’s to land on the work table of the Homer Economic Development Commission for a look over, before coming back to the council for a vote.
Adrienne Sweeney, owner of A.J.’s Oldtown Steakhouse and Tavern, told the council she hopes the courts will take a look at whether the changes would hold constitutional muster, if they enacted it into city code.
“I hope the state courts take a look at this. We’re not allowed to advertise a steak special or music event. However, a real estate agent is allowed … an event is allowed for nonprofits,” Sweeney said.
But, a lot of work went into the proposed changes by the planning commission, Planning Director Rick Abboud told the council earlier in a memo, tallying 17 work sessions, 14 regular meetings, two public workshops, a joint session with the council and a public hearing.
“Work on the ordinance started out as a response to some specific items. Staff was looking for a directive to deal with noncompliant signage that had not been comprehensively addressed for many years, mostly dealing with the Homer Spit and sandwich boards,” Abboud wrote. “The Planning Office was unable to issue sign permits for new boardwalk businesses because we found that most all boardwalks were far past the sign allowance found in code, and thus we could not condone any sign past the legal limits.”
Holly Vanpelt, testifying to the council, allowed that the commission’s role is to prevent garish signs, but they must also let each business show its uniqueness. “The planning commission is responsible for finding balance … but signs do more than sell a service or product. Signs provide information,” she said, pointing to safety issues when visitors try to find the turnoffs to places they need to get to with traffic piling up behind them.
Others testified that reasons sited for the change – that the signs are in roadways or view sights and therefore a danger – wasn’t confirmed.
Kevin Fraley, the owner of Print Works, said when he attended one of the planning meetings, he felt the commission was being anti-business and acting on subjective choices about what signs should look like.
Councilmember Barbara Howard brought up the sign ordinance earlier in a work session, questioning the proposed new rules. The city has a 14-day rule in a 90-day period for allowing sandwich board signs.
“I say keep it in. It’s well written. I’m saying exactly the way the ordinance is on the books now, just leave it alone,” Howard said.
Both Councilmen David Lewis and Bryan Zak also expressed problems with it, contending it wasn’t pro business. Lewis proposed sending it back for more work. Councilman Kevin Hogan suggested sending it to the Economic Development Commission first.
“Let it go to the EDC instead of the planning commission. They’ve already had their time with it,” Hogan said. “Get out of people’s hair. We don’t need a bunch of Mrs. Cratchets running around telling us what our signs should look like.”
But, City Manager Walt Wrede said the council would need to define what they want the planning commission to do. Also, the EDC can review the code, but wouldn’t know the legal issues behind enacting it. That role belongs to the planning commission.
The directions devised by council members for work ahead are reinstating temporary signs; review real estate signs, let election signs remain at 32 feet; come up with a policy for sandwich signs and enforcement.
The new rules would have outlawed sandwich board signs for commercial purposes, but let stand their use for noncommercial use. “We were getting a large number of complaints about illegal sandwich board signs that were found off-site, in the rights-of-way, on the sidewalk, being displayed beyond the amount of time allowed in code, and in numbers exceeding limits in code. Complaints and comments were provided by a wide array of people including those on the council and commission along with business owners (especially competing businesses) and the general public,” Abboud had said.
He contended it’s a complicated process of rules to sort, but this is the nature of the signs. “There are so many aspects, it doesn’t lend itself to being easy. Easier is to either be restrictive or anything goes. Everybody has their perfect ordinance.”

Seawall news

• The city council passed a measure to allow a special service district to create a differential property tax zone to levy property taxes to fund special services for bluff erosion control. In a vote of 4-2, a separate measure passed that takes $60,000 from the general fund to pay for repairs. Then, the city would be reimbursed through the special service district that is not yet set up.
This was a controversial move on the city’s part that was fought by all the residents who showed up to testify.
At issue is a U.S. Army Corp of Engineer permit, now 10 years old, that holds the city responsible for maintaining the wall. Storm damage this winter created openings that demise the wall, requiring the up to $60,000 from the city to pay for it. Then property owners would be responsible for paying costs through the service district tax levy.
But another option pursued by the city is to let its permit sunset, then the Corp could issue new permits to each property owner for maintaining their section.
“Technically, we have until June before we have to do anything. The city is responsible for maintenance but the city doesn’t necessarily need to pay for it,” Wrede said. “We’ve heard no answer from the Corp yet about letting the city off the permit. We probably need to be the squeaky wheel there.”
Donna Rae Faulkner and Don McNamera, who appear to testify each time the council has taken up the seawall, are property owners who want out of the special district. They have already paid $15,000 to maintain their segment and yet, under a new mil rate, would pay $500 a month.
“You were not here when (the seawall construction) began,” Faulkner told the council. “I don’t know if we can communicate with you how stressed we are on this. This could be the biggest regret of my life getting involved in the seawall… a $500 a month bill. I can’t imagine how we are going to be able to finance that.”
Property owners would be asked to reimburse costs to the city at different rates based on property taxes. Retired property owners have exemptions that would make their bills as low as $200 a year, pointed out Paul Hueper, another property owner. But his own bill could be as high as $12,000. “The insanity of what’s going on, it’s just crazy. There will be such great inequity between the neighbors.”
“If this goes through – are we going to wait six months and a $6,000 repair becomes a $10,000 repair? Or are we going to move on these funds right away? We have no materials, no game plans and no contingency in place. That seems like just neglect at best.”
John Sjakowski, another resident of Ocean Drive Loop, provided the city with a time line going back 10 years. He cited the poor decisions made along the way, and an opportunity to learn from the experience as coastal erosion is a problem grappled by many Alaska communities under climate changes.
Designs were considered, bidding, then engineering and construction firm was selected. The idea was to have a wall that would last 30 years.
“Behind the scenes were some unforeseen obstacles waiting to emerge. For example, there was not testing of the product in the harsh Alaska environment. There was no property Owners Association created…”
Marilyn Hueper asked for a bigger, more long term picture on how to fix this, set by agreed upon maintenance plans.
“It needs to become the rhythm of the community so it can be addressed as quickly and inexpensively as possible.
• Enstar Manager Charlie Pierce talked to the council on the Homer area gasline, contending that under new plans to partially fund the line through tariff, the plan is stronger to present in Juneau.
Mayor Jim Hornaday and Councilman Bryan Zak will go next week to attend the Alaska Municipal League conferences and meet with legislators.
City Manager Wrede devoted his report this week to the topic, contending the council will need to do planning in upcoming work sessions.
“There are fundamental questions: what should be the boundaries of the core area? Should the council initiate it to get it started quicker? Should we go by lot or by frontage? What source of money would we tap to borrow?” Wrede said.
Pierce said he thinks he is seeing an alignment, “and the sooner you can demonstrate there is a willingness and a strong desire, I think it will weigh heavily in the decision. Work as quickly as you can.”
The new city hall is ready to go. It will be one of the first to be hooked up.

• Homer schools debate how to bring down bus costs when classes start about the same time
Note: The Thursday transportation meeting at Homer High School is now cancelled due to travel advisories and high snow.
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Editor’s note: This is the first in a new series offered by the Homer Tribune on school issues. We take a look this week at the problem faced by school administrators as they consider new start and dismissal times to solve a deficit.

The day hasn’t fully awakened yet when, in the dark, children at Paul Banks are dropped off by their parents for kindergarten through second grade.
These tender years, parents can be seen walking their children to class and every bus is met by Principal Benny Abraham or staff, ready to offer a hand for the district’s littlest students.
“We start at 8:30 a.m. It would be hard for us to start much earlier,” Abraham said. “I would rather keep our start time where it is at, though we may not be able to do that.”
The Kenai Peninsula School District continues to hold public meetings in order to receive input on a pressing dilemma. About $750,000 in busing costs needs to be reduced throughout the district. Homer is targeted for cuts in five or six buses at a cost of $60,000-65,000 each for more than half the savings.
The next information meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Homer High School library. Another meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Ninilchik School library.
Dave Jones, the assistant district superintendent, said when the district renewed the busing contract with First Student, the cost came in $750,000 more than what was budgeted. That’s because First Student was operating on a five-year contract and the price of fuel rose dramatically during that time.
“The transportation costs as bid by First Student increased significantly beyond the amount we are reimbursed by the State of Alaska, resulting in a deficit,” Jones said. “First Students’ five-year contract expired in June 2011. Last spring we put out an RFP for contractors for another five years. We received one proposal – First Student. Their proposal showed the cost they do it at had increased quite a bit.”
Yet, the state allots each district a set amount per student enrolled. KPBSD receives $675 for each student, or a budget of about $8.2 million.

“Last spring, we went to the board and talked about it. We negotiated a one-year contract extension with the intent to have us look at the transportation services that we provide and determine what we could do to save money,” Jones said. “When we reissue the RFP this year, we’re hoping to attract more bidders.”
Homer is unusual in the vast school district that encompasses 44 schools. The schools begin at about the same time, give or take five minutes, except McNeil Canyon Elementary starts at 7:50 a.m. and lets out at 2:30. Nikolaevsk starts at 8 a.m. This means each bus accepts all age students for each run, dropping off students at each of the schools. This is called a one-tiered system.
“The biggest thing people have to understand is what we provide in the cost of running that bus per day,” Jones said. “Here’s an example: If you look at the Central Peninsula, one bus will go out to pick up students for Soldotna High School and it delivers to Soldotna High School. Then, it goes back out and picks up children for Soldotna Elementary. We’ve paid for one bus that has delivered two loads of children.”
The difference in Homer is that all the buses deliver one load of students to each school. The district is looking to make reductions throughout the district, with hopes to eliminate five buses.

Elementary or high school?

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Students board the school bus home after a long day in school.

The debate is open to all ideas. One proposes elementary age children could start earlier. Another poses high school students start earlier.
Back at Paul Banks, Principal Abraham said all the routes and scenarios need to be worked out.
“What time we start could impact the supervision of young children. So many parents have to be at work by 8 a.m or even earlier. Someone needs to look after the students,” Abraham said. “A later start time is a huge issue that will have to be thought through. That’s a biggy and what time they would be dismissed.”
Principal Allan Gee at Homer High School said one of the assumptions about families is that if high school students start school earlier, they’ll be home earlier and can take care of younger siblings. High schools elsewhere on the Peninsula start earlier, Gee points out. Seward, Skyview High, and Soldotna High all start at 7:50 a.m. Kenai Middle and high school start at 7:45 a.m.
“We want to maintain our 8:30 a.m. start time, but I think if we have to start early, 8 o’clock is the earliest start I can commit to,” Gee said.
Students generally need to adjust their physical-biological clocks in order to start earlier. “It doesn’t take long. I’ve seen students who enjoyed starting earlier because after-school activities finished earlier and they could be done for the day.”
In the metro Atlanta area, where Gee was the principal, freshmen coming into high school were starting at 7:10 a.m. The previous year, in junior high, they had started at 9:30 – a big adjustment. That district had a three-tiered system.

Early birds, bad grades

Cost per student

Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some don’t make it to class, and the truancy contributes to high school dropout rates.
Gee said it really amounts to how many hours of sleep students receive.
“Once kids get acclimated, they do get into the schedule. After we’ve been up late at night enjoying the summer, coming back to school means adults and kids a like have a hard time at first. But once they’re back into routine, it’s a non-issue.”
Dave Larson, the principal at Homer Middle School, said he can’t speak to the research but that he knows what he experienced as a teacher when schools started earlier than in Homer. At Kenai Central, he was a teacher at that middle school, which began each day at 7:45 a.m. “I had a first period advanced placement class and it seemed to me those students were coherent and ready to learn.”
From his standpoint, the best supervisory model is one that allows for students from middle school to be able to board buses shortly after school is dismissed, without milling around. “They can load up on their buses and they’re on their way home.”
A two-tiered system that has them waiting for buses takes staff time away from instructional duties, he said.
The pros of getting an earlier start on the day needs to be explored, the principals point out. The schools could start sports earlier and provide options for juniors and seniors, such as taking classes at Kachemak Bay Campus.
Dave Jones said after public input and meetings, the district hopes to have plans in place in April or May. Then the schedules would be set the 2012-2013 school year.
“It’s important that we solve this funding issue in the area of transportation, so that it doesn’t cut into instructional funding,” Jones said.

By Joseph Robertia
Redoubt Reporter

Joseph Robertia/Redoubt Reporter - Sled dogs hit the trail for the Tustumena 200.

Volunteers are the staple for dog mushing check points along the trail, which includes Homer at McNeil Canyon School this weekend for the first time.
For Kasilof resident James Banks, being a volunteer for the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race seems more like fate than a choice. Growing up in Michigan, dogs were a part of his daily life for as long as he can remember, but these were family pets or bird dogs used for hunting, not the powerful pulling huskies of the north.
“I’ve always had dogs since I was born. When I was four, my parents used to find me outside, sleeping in the doghouse with our St. Bernard,” he said. “But when I got here I knew nothing about mushing or sled dogs.”
Moving to Kasilof, it is tough not to bump into someone who has or had sled dogs, or who doesn’t take part in the T200 in some capacity, as the race annually relies on dozens of volunteers.
“The T200 starts right in Kasilof, not far from where I live, so right away I started hearing about it from locals,” Banks said. “They started telling me about it, and how they volunteer for it. They told me to come to a volunteer meeting to check it out, so I did, but none of them were there.”
Rather than being stood up, Banks figured out on race day when he saw the folks who had told him about the meeting, that some volunteers have been doing it so long they just show up for the event to do the volunteer jobs they always have done.
“They were all there doing something,” he said.
Banks talked with race organizers and found out what he could do to help. His love of dogs drew him to trying to help with the canine athletes, assisting teams as they moved up to the starting chute, and lending a hand however else he could. After seeing that first team blast from the starting line, he knew he was hooked.
“Seeing all those dogs working together and working so hard pulling their musher down the trail. I had never seen anything like it. I had never seen anything so amazing. I knew I wanted to do more,” he said.
That was back in 2006, and Banks has helped every year since, and was recently voted onto the T200 board of directors. He also has started acquiring his own sled dogs and is up to 11. He hopes to run them himself in the T100 next season.
“Now you can’t tear me away from all of this,” he said.
Banks’ experience is reflective of many volunteers who came to a T200 event not knowing what to expect, then had so much fun.
Two new checkpoint locations have been added this year, according to their website.
One is in the Homer area, the 50 mile marker with a four hour mandatory layover. And the Snomads are sponsoring the 24-hour checkpoint at McNeil Canyon School starting at 5 p.m. Saturday through 5 p.m. Sunday. The public is invited to watch, help or enjoy a hot drink.
From building the start chute and hanging the race banners, working the checkpoints and keeping times or staying out late Monday evening to wait for any back-of-the-packers who may be running hours behind the front runners, there always seems to be more jobs than people.
Some volunteers, such as Nicole Sweetland, of Clam Gulch, look for what they can do personally to make the race better than the previous year. She has helped at the start for four years, but last year realized something was missing.
“Getting up early and standing out there for hours in the cold, I got hungry, so after everyone left I went home and made breakfast burritos and thought, ‘We should have brought some out there,’ so this year we are,” she said.
Sweetland got the OK from race organizers and will have breakfast burritos and biscuits and gravy available for mushers, volunteers or anyone else who may have rushed out of the house before breakfast.
While Sweetland pioneered a new race role, some volunteers enjoy serving in the same position every year.
Bob Monroe, of Nikiski, got into volunteering after helping his mushing friends. When that wasn’t enough, he volunteered for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and for the last six years he has used volunteering for the T200 to also get his fix for helping out others.
“I liked it from the start and wanted to do more of it,” he said.
Monroe frequently helps out during the veterinary checks before the T200, and at the start and finish line once the race gets going.
“It’s really something fun to do in winter, and I would recommend it to everyone,” he said. “The mushers are all nice people for the most part. Some get grumpy when they’re tired, and a few are just that way all the time, but most are fun to be around.”
“You just dress for it and catch up on sleep when it’s all done,” he said.

• Crane Conservation in Sacramento Valley benefits Lesser Sandhills as it focuses on “threatened” Greater Sandhills

Editor’s note: This was submitted by Kachemak Crane Watch and Save Our Sandhill Cranes cooperatively to give the public information about collaborative problems.

Photo by LA Yarbrough / www.ShareTheRoad.us - A sandhill crane at the Cosumnes River Preserve in Central Valley, Calif. begins to run in an effort to take flight from the communal roost site to the surrounding fields to feed.

In 2008, working in cooperation with the International Crane Foundation and crane biologist Gary Ivey, Kachemak Crane Watch funded a satellite banding project to determine where Homer’s Lesser Sandhill Cranes migrate to spend the winter.  Homer’s Sandhill Cranes go to the Sacramento area in California where they feed and roost with the valley’s Greater Sandhill Cranes. 
Jan. 6-9, Edgar Bailey and Nina Faust, co-founders of Kachemak Crane Watch, went to Sacramento, to meet with crane advocates who founded Save Our Sandhill Cranes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining open-space habitat and the conservation of the California Central Valley’s Sandhill Crane populations through education, outreach, and community activism.
“We wanted to see firsthand where Homer’s Sandhill Cranes spend their winters so we could understand for ourselves what threats they may face on their wintering grounds,” said biologist Edgar Bailey.  “Homer’s small population of cranes, probably around 200, face many similar problems in Kachemak Bay—loss of habitat, excessive predators, but also hunting,” Bailey explained. “However, in California’s Sacramento Valley the problems are more pressing.”
Faust and Bailey met with many of the board of directors of SOS Cranes who gave them a special tour of Sandhill Crane areas, particularly around the Cosumnes River Preserve.  Sean Wirth and Michael Savino provided insights into the very dire problems faced by cranes wintering in the area. 
“The two main threats to Sandhill Crane habitat in the Sacramento valley are conversion of their roosting and foraging sites into suburban housing developments and into vineyards and orchards,” Wirth explained.  “In California, the Greater Sandhill Crane is listed as “threatened” under the California endangered species act.  Your Homer cranes belong to the more populous Lesser Sandhill Crane subspecies and are not afforded the same legal protection as the Greater.  However, since both subspecies share the same roosting sites and many of the same foraging sites, the protections afforded the Greater Sandhill Crane also benefit the Lesser.” 
Habitat loss is the greatest threat to cranes because they have special habitat needs. They require roosting as well as feeding habitat. They roost (stay overnight) in shallow wetlands, but in the Sacramento area they feed in agricultural fields that have been harvested. Cranes sometimes feed on grasslands, but they prefer corn, rice, alfalfa, or wheat fields. These fields need to be within a reasonable proximity to roosting sites, which provide a safe harbor for the night.
Gary Ivey’s research in the Valley suggests that Greater Sandhill Cranes utilize foraging sites within a two-mile diameter of their roosting sites, whereas the Lessers use a foraging diameter of 10-15 miles.  As more crane habitat is destroyed or modified, additional loss of habitat for Greater Sandhill Cranes requires mitigation, and any habitat utilized by the Greater is de facto potential habitat for the Lesser.  
“Mitigation, typically habitat replacement of one acre preserved for every acre ‘taken,’ is required for any habitat that is converted to urban uses in that two-mile region,” said Savino who spends a lot of time leading crane tours at Cosumnes River Preserve. “There is currently no regulation of agricultural conversions and with the recent creation of more than 26,000 acres of vineyards that are crane death traps, concerns are mounting.  Cranes, with a six-foot wing span cannot take off in vineyards.”
Save Our Sandhill Cranes participates in the ongoing creation of a Habitat Conservation Plan for Sacramento’s south county where cranes spend the fall and winter.  Agricultural conversion is a critical strategic consideration in the plan.  The conservation strategy for the cranes will need to be flexible enough to counteract changes in agricultural practices. The likely scenario will be that vineyards, which are more expensive than row crop lands, will need to be purchased and then restored to crane friendly agriculture.  The majority of useable open space for most cranes and wildlife is privately held agricultural land.  A new threat to crane habitat is the conversion of agricultural land to turf farms, creating a monoculture with little or no value to cranes.
“Beyond our policy work, we have to diligently fight bad development projects.  The most notable present effort is the city of Elk Grove’s proposed incursion into 8,000 acres of habitat used by cranes during high water events when their typical roosting sites within the 100-year floodplain are rendered inaccessible,” said Wirth.  “We feel we have strong enough arguments to stop this effort.  If they do not agree, we will let the courts make the determination.”
Bailey and Faust were impressed with SOS Cranes’ policy work and battles against bad development projects.  “This group is doing a fabulous job of working to save critical habitat for all cranes in the Sacramento area, an effort that directly benefits Homer’s Sandhill Cranes,” said Faust. “They do a lot of public education and outreach, teaching school kids about cranes, taking the public out to see the cranes, and educating the public at various festivals and events. Sandhill Cranes enrich our respective communities in more ways than we realize.” 
One enjoyable experience was going out to the fields at night to watch a “fly-in,” the evening gathering at the roost site just before sunset.  While standing with other SOS Cranes Board members at the “fly-in” one of the board members asked Faust, “How is Homer?  Anyone seen him?”  Faust’s response was a bewildered, “Who is Homer?”  The Board member laughed and said, “You know, the Goose who thinks he is a Sandhill Crane!”
Going to Sacramento has forged a relationship between two groups that advocate for Sandhill Cranes at opposite ends of their migratory route.  “In both the summer and wintering areas cranes face threats that we must work to mitigate so we do not lose these populations,” said Bailey.  “It is great to meet the dedicated people who are working to protect the wintering area.”
“We look forward to collaborating across the migratory flight way of the cranes we share to improve the lives of our feathered friends,” said SOS Cranes’ Mike Savino.

• Kenai Peninsula units unanimously approved for game management units 15A and 15C
By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Photo by Brad Josephs - Wolves can now be killed on state lands.

Starting as early as March of this year, wolves on the Kenai Peninsula will be subject to extermination from above, as the Alaska Board of Game on Monday voted unanimously to approve predator control measures authorizing the aerial killing of wolves in Game Management Units 15A and 15C.
The measures are presented to help boost declining numbers, low bull-to-cow ratios and calf survivability rates in a moose population that has seen better days.
“To me, this is a very clear-cut case. We can either sit, wait and hope, or we can be proactive and try to do something for our moose population,” said Ted Spraker, vice chair of the Board of Game and a retired Kenai-area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
On Monday, Gino Del Frate, Fish and Game management coordinator for Region 2, gave a presentation to the board outlining the proposals and the department’s reasons for recommending their passage — a change in position for Fish and Game, which didn’t used to support aerial wolf control on the peninsula.
Evidence of a struggling moose population has been predicted and noted for decades, particularly in 15A where the population is estimated at about half what it was 30 years ago. The board enacted intensive management plans for both 15A and 15C in 2000. Since then, 15A hasn’t once met the population target, and only one year met the harvest target.
The main problem in 15A has been identified as a lack of quality habitat for moose. Nutritious moose browse is most effectively produced by fire, and 15A hasn’t seen a big wildfire in 40 years. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, which covers about 80 percent of the land in 15A, hasn’t conducted any large-scale controlled burns. Doing so is challenging, what with oil and gas development, a busy airspace, expanding human development and a lack of a defensible firebreak between civilization and wilderness.
To add another wrinkle, the refuge has said it does not support aerial wolf control and will not allow it on the refuge, leaving Fish and Game only a small chunk of state- and privately owned land in 15A to possibly conduct an aerial wolf-control program on, if private landowners give their approval now that the board has.
With the limitation of available land on which to conduct aerial wolf kills, and the evidence that poor habitat is the biggest hindrance to a robust moose population in 15A, Fish and Game has been reluctant to pursue wolf predator control in the past. But declining moose harvest numbers has prompted the department to proceed, with the idea that killing wolves will free up moose for human hunters.
“In the past we have elected not to go ahead with an intensive management program up until about four years ago, and four years ago we started saying, ‘Well, let’s put it on the books, let’s talk about habitat, let’s talk about intensive management. That’s kind of where we are today. Successful wolf control alone is not going to increase the moose populations to objective levels. There’s going to need to be some habitat enhancement, and we are hopeful that that will happen,” Del Frate said. “However, wolf removal may allow for the reallocation of some moose to harvest by humans.”
In the three days of public comment preceding Monday’s deliberations, speakers argued against aerial wolf control, using much the same information pointed out in Fish and Game’s own feasibility reports on the proposed programs — that habitat, not wolves, is the primary problem of the peninsula moose population, and that killing wolves, especially in the limited area available to aerial shooting, wasn’t going to solve what most ails the moose population.
Board members didn’t disagree, exactly, but came to a different conclusion — that addressing predation is doing something, which is better than nothing.
“There are certainly habitat issues and predation issues happening simultaneously. There’s only one of them that we can really deal with through this board. However, our measure of success would be limited by our ability to access land, but I think we have responsibility to do what we can, where we can,” said board member Nate Turner.
Predation may not be the biggest hurdle facing the Kenai’s moose population, but it is a contributing factor that should be addressed, Spraker said.
“You have this combination. You have a couple really bad winters, you have a population that’s declining because of habitat quality, you have restricted trapping (on the refuge), and then when you have these really bad winters, I think that was the final straw. Around 2000, 2001 the population was low enough where the predator impact really became important. And that’s what helped this population go down, and that’s why calf survival and so forth was poor during those years,” Spraker said.
“We have very little land that’s state land or private land that we could possibly impact the number of wolves (though aerial wolf kills), but I think it’s well worth the try because if we’re able to adopt a plan that removes at least some of the impact that’s caused by wolves on our moose population, I think what it will do is buy us some time. That’s what’s important at this stage of the game — we need to buy ourselves some time and not let this moose population decline any further,” he said.
Spraker referenced research done in the early 1980s to assess moose calf mortality. Of the 46 percent calf mortality noted in the study, 34 percent was attributed to black bears, 6 percent to brown bears, 6 percent to wolves and 2 percent to undetermined predation. And that was within the first six or so weeks of the calves’ lives. Spraker said that, to his knowledge, wolves kill a more significant amount of calves in the winter, while bears are denned up, and can kill older moose and occasionally prime adults, as well.
The board already increased the harvest limit of black bears from two to three. Fish and Game regularly hears assessments from peninsula residents and hunters that the brown bear population has increased, but until the results of a brown bear census conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is released, expected later this year, it is difficult for Fish and Game to substantially increase the allowable hunt of brown bears. The board also enacted moose hunting restrictions in 2011 to boost bull-to-cow ratios, which had a dramatic effect of reducing the peninsula’s moose hunting harvest from recent years’ average of 400 a year to 35.
Short of habitat enhancement, which is largely up to federal refuge managers, since the state owns little land with potential for a controlled burn in 15A, wolf control is the only cog left to tweak in the moose population puzzle, according to Spraker.
“This board has absolutely no choice. We have a clear mandate that when we reduce the (hunting) season — and we have reduced the season until we practically closed the moose season — we have to make some sort of effort to correct things or at least authorize the department to try to correct things,” he said. “I’m very hopeful that the refuge will do habitat enhancement, but we haven’t seen it for 40 years. … When it comes to that option of just waiting until the habitat improves, which is the long-term fix, it’s really not an option for this board at all. We have no choice in that matter.”
Fish and Game commissioned a study on the peninsula’s wolf population in November. It estimated 60 to 62 wolves in eight packs in 15A and 44 to 52 wolves in six packs in 15C. Hunting and trapping is currently allowed on both state-managed land and the refuge, which covers about 30 percent of 15C, compared to 80 percent of 15A, and has averaged a harvest of about 40 wolves a year peninsulawide in recent years.
Wolf harvest used to be higher, but several factors have lessened trapper interest, including an outbreak of a wolf lice infestation in the 1980s, and the enactment of regulations on the refuge that make trapping more difficult than on state land — including that traps must be checked every four days and be set at least a mile away from roads.
While the aerial kill program is not expected to result in a huge impact to the wolf population — and the proposals include population thresholds that say the program will be curtailed if wolf numbers get too low — board members said they expect it to be successful enough to be worth doing.
Even in 15A, where only two packs were tracked as being outside the refuge boundary —thus available for aerial hunting — Spraker said he still thinks it will be a boon for moose.
“Removal of at least these two packs will be huge as far as benefiting the moose population because that’s part of the old 1969 burn. That’s where the majority of the moose are distributed across 15A, so although the department’s efforts may not seem like a lot … the department will have an opportunity to make the most impact by removing wolves in the most-dense area of moose,” he said.
In this case, what benefits moose will benefit hunters, since Fish and Game doesn’t want to dramatically grow the moose population without habitat enhancement, since moose in areas of 15A are already showing signs of nutritional stress, and moose in the intensive management area of 15C are already at a fairly robust, 2.5-moose-per-square-mile estimated density. Increasing the population without increasing available browse could just further exacerbate nutritional problems.
So Fish and Game is proposing to monitor the progress of the wolf kill program, and if extra moose result from fewer wolves, Del Frate said the department intends to pursue more hunting opportunities. Since a concurrent goal is to increase bull-to-cow ratios, increased hunting opportunities may initially be for cow moose, rather than bulls, as the bull harvest was already restricted in 2011.
“We’re operating under the premise that we’re really going to do no harm to the moose population. We want to be able to see that there is a detectible difference to the calf-cow ratios, that we’re seeing some response from our intensive management program,” Del Frate said. “… We’re trying to make it very clear that we don’t want the moose population to grow outside of its habitat, and the initial intent of this program is to reallocate those animals from wolves to harvest directly, and that may include antlerless harvests (in permit hunts).”
That may be good news to peninsula hunters, many of whom didn’t even attempt to moose hunt on the peninsula this year. Ultimately, that’s for whom these predator control measures are meant, Turner said.
“I know there’s been a lot of discussion around the state and especially the Anchorage area about whether we should be doing it, considering other factors, and we have considered them. We listened. We’ve had a lot of public testimony and, personally, when it comes to the rubber meets the road, it’s the local people that are immediately affected that I really feel the need to pay special attention to in this situation,” Turner said.
“I think we’ve put it very clear on the record that we don’t believe that we’re going to solve the problem all the way across the Kenai refuge by doing this. We’re making the attempt to fix what we believe based on the data that we have that we can affect the areas that are within our reach. And I think we’ll be affective in those areas. I have little doubt of that,” he said.

Southern area looking up
 
In the southern Kenai Peninsula’s Game Management Unit 15C, moose numbers have fared better than in 15A. The most-recent population estimate pegged the moose population there at about 2,900 animals, at a density of about 2.5 moose per square mile, which is within the area’s intensive management objective.
Habitat in 15C is in better shape, considering that more than 170,000 acres have burned in wildfires in 15C in recent decades. Of more concern to Fish and Game than moose numbers in 15C is calf survivability and declining bull-to-cow ratios in the intensive management area — north of Kachemak Bay, the Fox River Flats and west of the flats.
Similar to 15A, black bears, brown bears and wolves are active predators on moose in 15C, and hunters have had limited success in controlling predator populations in the intensive management area of 15C. The hunting restrictions put in place by the board in 2011 have had a quick impact in boosting the slipping bull-to-cow ratio, though it plunged moose harvest numbers below the range laid out in the intensive management plan for the area.
“We do believe that part of our bull-cow ratio issues is that the previous bull harvest of the last few years has been unsustainable, which has caused the bull-cow ratio to decline. With the new harvest numbers we may or may not be within our harvest objectives for intensive management,” Del Frate said.
The refuge only covers about 30 percent of the land in 15C, leaving open a much larger area to conduct aerial wolf kills. That, coupled with the generally healthier state of moose in 15C than 15A, should mean that a wolf kill program will be more effective, more quickly, than in 15A, Spraker said.
“It is very different from 15A in that I think in a very short period of time, permittees can be very successful given the land status, and I think that 15C can be turned around in a short period of time,” he said.
Spraker noted his intention to suggest stopping the permit hunts for cow moose in 15C when the hunt comes up for re-authorization at a future Board of Game meeting.
“We’ve already adjusted the hunting season for residents, eliminated nonresident hunting for 15A and C. We’ve taken those steps and I think it would be prudent for this board to eliminate the cow hunt in 15C if we adopt aerial shooting of wolves in 15C,” he said.
Del Frate cautioned against doing so, suggesting that the 2012 permits already issued for the 15C antlerless hunt continue, and that the board consider leaving Fish and Game the option to issue more permits in 2013 if it finds that aerial wolf kills do result in extra moose.
“We might need to harvest more antlerless moose in future years because we’re taking away from the wolves,” he said. “… Considering the high moose densities (in 15C), we’re not necessarily interested in increasing the moose population at this time. However, the goal is to reallocate moose from wolves to human harvest.”
 
Who will shoot?
 
A significant difference between the aerial wolf kill proposals is who will be allowed to do the shooting. The wording before the board started out the same for the proposals in 15A and 15C, but the final intention is that only Fish and Game personnel conduct aerial wolf kills in 15A, while permits will be given to the public to do work in 15C.
The difference is the land ownership. Since there is so little area outside the refuge that’s available for aerial wolf kills in 15A, the board said it didn’t want the public trying to decipher where those boundaries were.
“I would not like to see this open to the general public for the fear of just the difficulty of individuals knowing where these land boundaries are,” Spraker said, in proposing an amendment to that effect.
In 15C, however, only about 30 percent of the land is covered by the refuge.
“It’s different from 15A that the intent of the board is that the department issue aerial wolf-shooting permits to the public and that the department may get involved if the public is not successful, but the primary operations should be conducted by the public,” Spraker said.
Spraker requested that both programs be expedited in processing to get started as early as March 1, while snowcover lasts, with 15C being the priority to get started first.
The proposals in both 15A and 15C are written to last five years, but with required re-evaluation after three years to suspend or curtail the wolf kills if certain factors are met — such as the wolf population getting down to 15 animals, or the moose population showing increased nutritional stress.
“The threshold that we described is if after three consecutive years we could see issues, we’ll either come back to the board or we’ll suspend the program,” Del Frate said. “…  What we didn’t want to do is have a knee-jerk reaction to a one-year change in population parameters and be sure that it’s more than just some environmental factor that one year.”
An extensive two-year moose research program is slated to begin in the spring, and will help track the impact of the wolf-kill program, producing information to help Fish and Game evaluate whether it should continue the full five-year duration.
The program will involve collaring, tracking and testing 50 moose in 15A and 50 in 15C, which could result in a wide range of information, including rump fat (which indicates health), moose movements, bull-to-cow and cow-to-calf ratios, age structures, pregnancy and twinning rates, calf numbers and calf mortalities. There isn’t enough money and resources to find out everything Fish and Game would like to know, and Del Frate said that the final details and priorities of the research will be left for the not-yet-hired biologist who will be in charge of the research. Determining predation rates of calf mortalities, for example, likely won’t be feasible. Wolf population numbers will also be estimated during the research period.
“We do want to stop and evaluate whether or not we’re doing any harm to our moose population, so we would plan to suspend (aerial wolf kills) and look at our nutritional indices, and see what our moose population is doing. If it warrants different objects from here on out we’ll come back to the board with new numbers. If we see any signs of nutritional stress we will want to re-evaluate the program to make sure we have a highly productive population of moose. And if (the wolf population falls below 15 in 15A or 15C), we will immediately suspend the program and ensure we have a sustainable wolf population,” Del Frate said.

• Natural gas brings local businesses large overall net impact for their bottom line
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

File photo - Anchor River Inn Owner Jesse Clutts shows the kitchen in the restaurant portion that was recently converted to using natural gas. He has seen big savings. Propane bills used to reach as high as $2,000 a month. Now his monthly bill is $500.

At the Anchor River Inn, the grills in the kitchen used to be hooked up to propane, an expense that made every pot of soup and hamburger’s cost just that much higher.
At the end of November, owner Jesse Clutts shut down his famed restaurant to make a conversion.
“We shut down for that week, then we were able to go in and change out to new equipment. Using propane in the kitchen was our major expense,” Clutts said.
December’s bill brought Clutts the equivalent of a Christmas gift. From paying $2,000 a month for propane, his bill went down to $500 a month with natural gas.
“It was exactly as they said it would be; we dropped our costs in one month,” he said.
Buzz Kyllonen, owner of the Alaska State Trooper building that is shared by dentist Jeff Bartley, also made the switch. Last October, he took advantage of Enstar’s new pipe running past his building on the Sterling Highway in downtown Anchor Point.
The 4,000-5,000-square foot building is now heated by natural gas, including water. The conversion for the heating was about $1,200.
“We had radiant floor heat fired by propane boilers that we converted to natural gas,” Kyllonen said. “I was so grateful to transfer from propane to gas. I’m seeing about a 75 percent savings.”
A few streets down, Fritz Milo north and south have agreed to a limited improvement district to fund bringing the line to those streets from the main line on the highway. That hookup is said to begin in May.
“That’s a large portion of Anchor Point. The LID was relatively inexpensive, the primary cost was $2,300- per property owner, over 10 years at no interest,” Kyllonen said. Residents are to expect the LID to cost $230 per year. There’s also the cost of their individual hookups.

Photo provided - Dan Rickard, owner of Sleepy Bear Cabins, changed out water heaters and refitted parts for Rinnai stoves.

At the Anchor River Inn the cost of paying for the natural gas line and installation will be paid for in little over a year, Clutts calculates. “That’s an excellent return on an investment. I’m paying 25 percent of what I was paying before,” he said.
This observation was echoed by other Anchor Point businesses interviewed by the Homer Tribune.
Dan Rickard, owner of Sleepy Bear Cabins for the past 10 years, said he put in new curtains, new heating and natural gas in October. In November, his first bill showed up in the mail as $200 – a far cry from his normal $800 propane bill.
“That’s a savings of 4-1 or 25 percent of what I was paying. I base that on my November bill, and that was a cold month,” Rickard said.
Rickard owns three cabins and lodging of two units, along with a wash house, all now converted.
“I paid out of pocket to change six water heaters, to the tune of $4,200 for the three cabins, two more rooms and my wash house,” he said.
Then he changed parts for five Rinnai stoves – “you don’t have to buy new ones, but you have to change parts and do a certain kind of service work on them,” he said.
All told, Rickard paid $8,000-9,000 for the entire conversion– hook up to the distribution line, changeovers for appliances and water heaters.
“But you have to remember,” Rickard said, “I’m saving so much over the course of the winter that I can almost pay that back in the course of a year. I believe you’ll pay it back in almost one season.”
That’s because his payout for natural gas saves him $7,500 he paid for in propane previously.
From a businessman’s standpoint, the Anchor River Inn owner and real estate investor Buzz Kyllonen are in agreement with Rickard.
“I can completely understand how businesses moving into the area will find that utility costs are going to be hugely affected, if they have access to something that changes their entire cost structure and overhead,” Clutts said. “Suddenly, it’s a much better place to do business.”
Next, the Anchor River Inn will need to replace a boiler system before heat can be converted in the rooms. Clutts finds that the cost differential between heating oil to natural gas isn’t the same as the more costly propane to natural gas. But, it too will make a difference when the Anchor River switches over this spring, he said.
The problem with stove oil and propane is constantly fluxuating prices that hinder businesses from planning ahead.
“If you stay where you are, it’s only going to get worse. Oil and propane have rates that are almost subjective. They aren’t regulated or controlled like natural gas is,” Kyllonen said. “I consider it a no-brainer. I wish I could have done it years earlier.”
Klyllonen believes that if Homer businesses calculated out their savings, they would create an avalanche of demands that would pressure the state to build it.
“It’s an amazing savings. The monthly rate isn’t regulated – you won’t see those fluctuations,” he said.
Chapman School also made the conversion last fall. Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s David Spence said the numbers aren’t all in yet, but officials are expecting about 50 percent in savings on heating the school. When Nikiski and Tustemena Schools were converted that was the case.