Southcentral

A heated debate over what is and isn’t allowed in Soldotna’s public spaces is over, for now, after the city council this month quashed a series of proposed policy changes. That came nine months after a drag performance in Soldotna Creek Park first sparked intense discussion over what’s appropriate and constitutionally protected in public.

A standing-room-only crowd packed Wednesday’s city council meeting, alternating two hours of impassioned testimony on one of those policies, which would have made lewdness in Soldotna’s public spaces a fineable offense.

But members of the council said they didn’t think the policy on the table addressed any real problems the city had, and ultimately voted no on the ordinance.

“I think it comes down to sending a message,” said council member Jordan Chilson after the vote. “And that message that we’re sending, we have to consider very carefully.”

The debate over the city’s policies started last summer, following a Pride month event in Soldotna Creek Park which included performances from drag queens. And while there was no pushback at the event itself, it became a target after the fact when a conservative Alaska blogger posted an eight-second clip of a performer twerking onstage.

Drag performers have become a political target nationwide. Tennessee just passed a law criminalizing public drag performances, and other laws are in the works.

In the months following the performance, a vocal group of local residents and business owners showed up to city council and parks advisory board meetings, demanding the city drill down on what they said was inappropriate behavior at local parks that they don’t want their kids to see.

City Manager Stephanie Queen, who was called on to resign by those who pushed back against the performances last summer, said members of her staff were getting threatened over the issue.

The city council, in response to the pushback, said the performance was legal and protected in the Constitution as freedom of expression, but agreed to take another look at its park policies. Officials crafted a series of proposed policy changes, including one that would’ve drilled down on what’s considered obscene and is not allowed at city parks, and another that would’ve updated the city’s park reservation policies — both of which were shot down earlier this month at the council’s March 8 meeting.

A third ordinance, barring lewdness in public spaces city-wide, not just in parks, came before the council Wednesday night after it was tabled at that earlier meeting. The ordinance would have made “lewdness or lascivious behavior” a minor offense, with a $250 fine.

“A person commits the minor offense of lewdness or lascivious behavior if, in a public place, that person engages in acts of ‘sexual conduct,’ ‘specified sexual activities,’ exposes ‘specified anatomical areas,’ or engages in ‘obscene’ conduct,” the proposed ordinance read.

Some of the behavior outlined in the ordinance is already barred at the state level. Earlier this month, City Attorney Brooks Chandler said, crucially, the ordinance included definitions and examples of what would be barred, such as simulations of sex or performances that would be harmful to minors. City staff said they didn’t think the performance at Pride in the Park wouldn’t have been prohibited under the legislation.

Still, commenters on both sides of the issue said the ordinance would send a message.

“We – the families, the couples that are raising children, our children here – we’re raising the future of this community,” said Joshua Scilzo, who has spoken about the proposed policies at multiple city council meetings. “And we have a right to discuss sexuality with them in the privacy of our own homes and not to go into the public spaces of this town and have to explain to them things that they don’t need to be exposed to at that age.”

But those who organized and attended pride, and testified before the city council Wednesday, said passing laws like this one in response to Soldotna Pride tells the LGBTQ+ community it is not welcome.

“Please understand that your decisions, actions and the language you use directly contribute to how the community receives us when we leave our house,” said Ash Magallanes, a parent and member of Soldotna’s LGBTQ+ community. “And will continue to affect ours and our children’s daily lives on a daily basis, since we hope to never leave the area.”

In the end, the majority of city council members said it was unclear what the ordinance was trying to accomplish, and that the wording in the legislation was still too subjective. The ordinance failed, 4-2.

“I don’t want to see everybody running around the park this summer with their iPhones taking pictures and then going to the chief and saying, ‘Is this something? Can we do something?’ I just can’t get there from here,” said council member Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings.

Farnsworth-Hutchings was joined by Chilson, Dan Nelson and Chera Wackler in voting no; Lisa Parker and Dave Carey voted in favor.

The council could take the ordinance up again but it would have to be reintroduced by one of the members in the majority who voted against it.

Houston Middle and High school students have been crammed into the same building for over four years since a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southcentral Alaska in 2018. The quake damaged roads, houses. and other infrastructure. It also did irreparable damage to Houston Middle School.

On Thursday, officials cut the ribbon on the brand-new Houston High School building. Ben Howard served as principal of Houston Middle in 2018 and is now the principal at Houston High.

“When I reflect on our students and our community, one word always comes to mind: resiliency,” Howard said. “Our school community is resilient. In times of adversity, we stuck together and persevered — through crowded hallways, interrupted learning time, a cramped cafeteria — and so much more.”

The new building is on the site of the old Houston Middle School, which was built in 1985. The previous high school building, built in 2003, will now become the middle school. When the earthquake damaged Houston Middle in 2018, the district moved 15 portable classrooms to the Houston campus and both schools united under one roof as Houston Jr./Sr. High School.

The high school now features brand-new career and technical education classrooms to teach welding, construction, aviation and woodworking, as well as a medical training facility.

All of the 338 students inside Houston Middle in 2018 evacuated the building without injury. During the quake, students at Houston Middle helped get classmates and teachers out of the building to safety. The Mat-Su Borough showed a video they had produced at the start of the assembly with nationwide newscasts from that day, as well as time-lapse videos of the construction of the new building and testimony from staff.

Dunleavy toured the damage to Houston Middle in December 2018, just weeks after he had been elected and prior to his swearing in. Dunleavy recalled how students carried one classmate to safety.

“I want to thank again the staff, the students, the teachers,” Dunleavy said. “Because what you demonstrated on that day I think makes all of us proud to be Alaskans, so I want to thank you.”

Seniors at Houston were seventh graders when the quake hit, and provided the backdrop for the ribbon-cutting. After so many years spent together as Houston Jr./Sr. High, Howard became emotional when he spoke to students on Thursday.

“We knew deep down that our time was coming,” Howard said. “We knew a new school would be built, and that we would thrive in it. Ladies and gentlemen, that day is now.”

The borough and school district waited years for a response from FEMA to determine whether they would receive federal funding and attempt to repair the gym and academic wing of the old Houston Middle building, or replace it with a new school. FEMA issued a decision in 2020 that the damage was greater than 50% of the building’s value and provided funding for the new construction.

Borough Mayor Edna DeVries lamented supply chain issues during her brief comments to the assembly, which partially contributed to the delay of the school’s opening to students from last fall to this spring. DeVries thanked the contractors who built the school, which drew the loudest reaction from the crowd.

The federal government is walking back a proposal that would have allowed brown bear baiting and reversed other restrictions on hunting and trapping in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge — one of two decisions in the last week that environmental groups say is a win for the refuge and its wildlife.

As it stands, the practice of taking brown bears at bait stations is not allowed on the nearly 2-million acre refuge, as outlined in an Obama-era regulation known as the Kenai Rule. In 2020, the Trump administration tried to reverse those protections in a proposed new rule that also would’ve opened up access in the refuge to more bicycles and snowmachines.

But those rule changes never passed. And on Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — which manages the refuge — announced it was withdrawing the proposal, citing the tens of thousands of comments submitted in opposition to the rule change over concerns about wildlife and visitor safety.

The service also said it considered “new information on recent annual levels of human-caused brown bear mortalities on the Kenai Peninsula, and additional scientific literature” in its decision about brown bear baiting.

“Allowing the harvest of brown bears over bait on the Refuge has a high potential to result in adverse impacts to the Refuge’s brown bear population, and that a cautious approach to management of Kenai Peninsula brown bears remains scientifically warranted,” the service said in its decision.

The withdrawal isn’t the only victory for those commenters. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday not to take up a legal challenge from the State of Alaska and Safari Club International on the Kenai Rule — halting a case that has been working its way through the court for seven years.

“This week was a big week in terms of the movement on these protections,” said Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

She said the decisions show the federal government does have authority to manage wildlife on refuge lands, including for the purpose of maintaining natural diversity.

“The second big point is that through the decision to rescind the 2020 rule, I think the refuge really listened to and took a hard look at what those changes would really mean on the ground,” she said.

In its decision, Fish and Wildlife cited concerns about public safety related to brown bear baiting and increased access for hunters, for example.

But advocates of the 2020 rule, including the State of Alaska and Safari Club, have a different take.

Alaska has argued its authority to manage wildlife on federal lands within the state. And it said brown bear baiting does not pose a risk to public safety.

“Wildlife management decisions should not be made based on the number of public comments, but on the best available science,” said Safari Club’s Ben Cassidy in a written statement. “And the best available science supported the proposed rule.”

The Anchorage School District has closed five elementary school libraries to evaluate potentially dangerous snow buildup on top of schools.

In an email sent to parents Monday night, the district said that libraries at two Anchorage elementary schools — Klatt and Spring Hill — were closed after the maintenance department identified ceiling damage.

The district also decided “out of an abundance of caution” to proactively close the libraries of Bear Valley Elementary, Fire Lake Elementary, and Ravenwood Elementary, which share the same building design with Klatt and Spring Hill.

“There is no risk of catastrophic collapse,” the email said. “There is a risk of ceiling pieces coming down. There is no indication that ceilings in these buildings are damaged outside of the libraries.”

Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Boyd said that three buildings and a carport have collapsed in Anchorage over the last month. One person died in a South Anchorage CrossFit gym roof collapse on Feb. 17 and two buildings suffered partial collapses over the weekend, but no other major injuries have been reported from the structural failures.

Prior to the fatal roof failure in Anchorage, the Palmer Public Library suffered a partial roof collapse on Feb. 15. The city is currently examining alternative sites to host library programs and store books, according to Palmer City Manager John Moosey.

Engineers assessed the snow load on the roofs of Anchorage schools after the first major snowfall in December, and began a second assessment recently. The district says all five school libraries will be closed until engineers can complete an assessment on the ceilings.

Parts of the Kenai River are still frozen over. But the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has already closed the early and late king salmon runs to sport fishing — also shutting down the beleaguered Cook Inlet east side set-net fishery before fishermen can gear up.

“This is my 53rd year coming up as a set-netter, and I have never experienced this,” said Ken Coleman, vice president of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association.

He said he’s never seen the fishery close completely this early. Fish and Game does release a preseason forecast for the early king salmon run every winter, to give guides and fishermen a sense of what to expect before the summer starts.

This year, the department projects just 2,900 kings in the early run and 13,630 in the late run — falling below the goal range set by the Board of Fish of 15,000-30,000 fish. In a pair of emergency orders released Thursday night, the Department of Fish and Game said that meant it would close all sport fishing for king salmon in the river. Another emergency order closes Deep Creek and the Anchor River to sportfishing.

Changes have been hard on fishing guides who long relied on taking clients on king salmon trips. As counts have continued to decline and closures have become more common, they’ve pivoted to fishing for sockeye, halibut and trout.

But for set-netters, whose fishery also closes when the king sport fishery does, there’s no plan B.

Coleman said his phone has been ringing nonstop since the orders came out.

“They’ve been asking, is there any way to make a change? Is there anything mechanical that we can do, as set-netters, such as fishing less, or fishing shallower nets?” he said.

Legal action and out-of-cycle proposals to the Board of Fish both failed last year.

Coleman said the best they can hope for is that, in the middle of the summer, the department makes another assessment and gets to a point where it’s able to reconsider opening the fishery, at least partially. But he said that seems unlikely.

Firefighters say nobody was hurt when two commercial buildings collapsed in Anchorage over the weekend.

Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Boyd said crews responded to a single-story commercial building collapse at 570 Ingra Street at about 7:40 a.m on Saturday. Crews found a 200-by-50-foot section of the building’s front collapsed, with a wall pushed into a nearby street.

Then, early on Sunday, emergency crews responded to a partial building collapse near Dowling Road and C Street. The commercial building was not occupied at the time, said a statement from the Anchorage Fire Department.

City building engineers are still evaluating the factors behind the collapses. But, the fire department said, the incidents should serve as a reminder to building owners to evaluate the amount of snow and ice build-up on roofs.

“Recent winds may have moved snow from adjacent roofs, freeze thaw cycles may have obstructed drains, and other changes may have occurred that affected building loads,” said the department’s statement. “If in doubt or concerned, building owners should contact a building engineer to evaluate their structure.”

The Sunday collapse happened at a building that houses Quality Transmission Service, an auto repair shop. Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Boyd described it as a flat-roofed commercial building built in the 1970s or 1980s.

Anchorage police were initially called to the building shortly after midnight to investigate a possible burglar alarm and found there had been a collapse.

Anchorage has had above-average snowfall this winter. Less than a month ago, another roof collapsed in Anchorage, this one at a CrossFit studio. It left one person dead. Ice accumulation may have contributed to that collapse, officials said.

The fire department cautioned residents that signs of a building overload include sagging, new or worsening cracks, “nail pop” on the finished surfaces and doors or windows that have become difficult to open or close. If you believe a collapse is imminent, evacuate the building and call 911, said the fire department.