Kenai Peninsula News

Thousands of students returned to Kenai Peninsula Borough School District classrooms Wednesday for the first day of the new school year.

Regions of Alaska and the arctic are warming more quickly than anywhere else on Earth, according to scientists. That trend is the focus of a new show at the Kenai Art Center titled “World on Fire.”

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor talked through the program at a town hall meeting Monday in Soldotna.

It hasn’t always been a given Soldotna would be able to open the field house. When the city put the issue before residents six years ago, voters killed it by just 18 votes. But a similar proposition three years ago got overwhelming support.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough already uses paper ballots. But it uses electronic tabulators to tally results. The borough added electronic voting machines to its fleet a few years ago for voters with special needs.

Analysis from the borough’s finance department says the change could generate up to half a million more dollars in sales tax revenue each year.

Ninilchik's annual Salmonfest partners with several Alaska-based organizations to get the word out about environmental causes. A portion of the festival's proceeds also go directly to some of these groups.

If the ballot measure passes, residents in the new service area would pay more in property taxes each year to fund recreation services, with an emphasis on the pool at the K-12 school.

Jurors found 37-year-old Nathaniel Erfurth guilty on 28 counts in the case. He faces presumptive prison time of five to 15 years per count.

Both contracts include creating an inventory of existing infrastructure and development of a plan for maintenance and rehabilitation.