By Willow Hetrick
Turnagain Times
Moose Pass Correspondent
Fifth Annual Cooper Landing Ski Race
On March 5, the Fifth Annual Cooper Landing Ski Race participants trekked along Kenai Lake, starting and finishing at the Cooper Landing airstrip. An additional skijor race for those wishing to involve their dogs took place afterwards. It was a beautiful, sunny day on the lake, although slightly cold. Volunteers had drinks, food and a fire going for participants and fans.
Everyone who was there owes a big thanks to Lisa for organizing the event year after year, and working to get sponsorship from businesses to provide every race participant with a prize; that’s right, everyone gets a prize. Thanks Lisa. And thanks to the numerous businesses around the towns who donated fantastic prizes!
This year’s ski-jor race winner was Jesse and Lucy Labenski from Moose Pass. Jason Aigeldinger of Moose Pass came in first place in the ski race, but was disqualified for using skate skis.
Moose Pass Open Gym
The Moose Pass School will be open on Sundays from 6-7:30 p.m. for ‘Family Time’ with assorted games, on Tuesday 6:30-8:00pm for adult volleyball and on Wednesday from 3:15-4:15 p.m. for grade K-8 for assorted games. For more information and a calendar of open gym times contact Erin Knotek at ekmk@arctic.net. Open gym times may vary due to Erin’s travel schedule. Please contact Erin to confirm dates and times. Open gym will be February through May 1.
Forest Service Seward Ranger District Ice Fishing Day
The Forest Service Seward Ranger District held their annual Ice Fishing Day on Wednesday Feb. 24 at Trail Lake by the Ball Diamond. Children from Moose Pass, Seward, Cooper Landing, Hope Schools as well as Home School students attended the event. Katy Toth Stauble organized an outdoor scavenger hunt that had to be completed on snowshoes.
The stations included measuring snow temperature, identifying snowflakes and learning about the fish most likely to be caught in Trail Lake. TelAlaska, the Forest Service’s partner for this event, provided hot dogs, rolls, condiments, chips, hot cocoa, and apple cider. Many thanks to Paula Johansen who is the wonderful and dedicated contact at TelAlaska that buys the food for the event. The roughly 80 kids caught three Dolly Varden.
The young fishermen and women had a warm day and clear skies. There were all together happy kids, parents, and teachers!
Moose Passer Excels in Seward High School Sports
The Seward High School Boys and Girls basketball teams will be participating in the 3A State Championship Tournament at the Sullivan Arena from March 17 through the 19. Seward Boys kick off the tournament playing Craig High School and the Seahawk Girls begin playing Sitka. The championship game is at 3:30 p.m. at the Sullivan Arena, stop by and cheer Jared, Keenan, Meg and Gretchen on.
U.S. Forest Service News
By Irene Lindquist
This Great weather is exhausting; there are so many places to enjoy outdoor winter activities on Seward Ranger District.
Snow River South Fork to Nellie Juan: Wonderful conditions. The first water crossing where you would need over boots is at approximately mile four. Wide path from snow machines the whole way, which makes for fabulous skate skiing if you don’t mind tracks.
Grant Lake Portage and Grant Lake Trail: The tree hindering snow machine travel to Grant via the Portage Trail has been removed and the travel is good.
Kenai Lake: In front of Kenai Lake Work Center has been windswept of snow. The conditions are a little bumpy for skating but really worth getting out enjoying the majesty of the mountains surrounding this area.
Trail Lake: Plowed paths and rinks for ice skating. How about putting a new hike on your list to view frozen ice/falls?
Victor Creek and Primrose Creeks offer some beautiful glistening ice. The howling winds last week have made for some challenging conditions on SRD favorite slopes for snowboarding and tele-skiing.
Resurrection Pass Trail: Packed trail the entire distance. No firewood at cabins on the north, very little at cabins on the south, Devil’s Pass oil stove working well. Looking ahead to another fun weekend, Enjoy!
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Report March 1
By Sue McClure
Our day began at noon with a joint budget work session with the borough administration.
Mayor Carey and Craig Chapman, Finance Director, gave us an overview of budget plans for the coming fiscal year, and the issues facing us. The Homer solid waste transfer site is the primary new expense. This was followed by a joint work session with the school district and the school board.
Their budget was discussed at length, with explanations for a net expected deficit of approximately $3.5 million when expecting funding from the borough to be equal to last year’s value of $43,251,135.
They expect to have to use their fund balance to make up the deficit, but stated that that would be a one-time fix. Our committee meetings went from 2:45 to 5:30, during which time we had a teleconference with most of our legislative delegation, receiving up p.m. dates on pending legislation. At the regular meeting, since the scheduled pastor was absent, I was honored to deliver the invocation!
We heard quarterly report presentations from both the KPB school district and the South Peninsula Hospital.
We had public hearings on five ordinances.
Ordinance 2010-19-35 (Murphy) Substitute was approved unanimously, which appropriates supplemental funding to cover estimated additional costs to the borough’s health plan due to mandated federal changes. This substitute eliminated a new half time position from the original ordinance. We unanimously approved two Coastal Impact Assistance Program ordinances, one that will provide more sanitation for the Hope area campgrounds.
We also unanimously approved Ordinance 2011-02, sponsored by the Mayor and myself, which extends the sunset provision of Ordinance 2009-09 and Ordinance 2010-17 until the DFIRM maps are received and adopted by the borough assembly. This retains the provisions establishing and regulating development in the Seward Mapped Flood Data Area. My Resolution 2011-014 which supports the City of Seward’s state funding request to begin the establishment of the home port of the Coastal Villages Region Fund’s fishing fleet in Seward was passed on the consent agenda. Three resolutions were pulled from the consent agenda and discussed: Two of them authorize purchase of properties in the Old Mill Subdivision/Lost Creek area near Seward, under the Emergency Watershed Protection program.
These were both approved by 5-3 votes, after some discussion. There are 4 more properties in line for similar purchase.
The properties will be demolished and the land reclaimed for flood plain purposes and a conservation easement placed there, prohibiting future development. Resolution 2011-018, sponsored by Smith and the Mayor, set the minimum amount provided from local sources to fund the school district for FY 2012 at equal or greater to last year’s amount, which is $43,251,135.
This was unanimously approved, and allows the school district to issue contracts to non-tenured teachers at this time. At our next meeting, on April 5, we have for public hearing Ordinance 2011-03, which would amend borough code to repeal the seasonal exemption from sales tax on non-prepared food items. If passed, the new tax money would go entirely to school funding. As always, the full information on assembly meetings can be found at www.borough.kenai.ak.us, and I can be reached at 224-6784 or suemccl@gmail.com.
