News in Brief

Endeavour still at dock

A planned departure on Tuesday did not happen for the jack-up rig Endeavour-Spirit of Independence. The rig, operated by Buccaneer Alaska, had been given a March 26 deadline by the city of Homer to leave. Harbormaster Bryan Hawkins extended that deadline after Jay-Brant General Contractors and Hopkins Brothers Construction, Seldovia, said work could be delayed. 

“It’s not problematic at the moment, with the assumption those guys are going to be gone in three days,” said Bob Brant of Jay-Brant.

Tugboats are standing by to move the rig. Buccaneer has all its certificates to move the Endeavour to the Cosmopolitan oil and gas lease permit site off of Anchor Point. Hawkins did not want to predict an exact time and day when the Endeavour would leave.

 

Comments sought on spill plan

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has put out a call for comments on the Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan, or C-Plan, for Buccaneer Alaska’s West Eagle well site off Basargin Road. Buccaneer has applied for an amendment to the C-Plan at that project two miles from Basargin Road off East End Road.

Comments on the project, state contingency plan number 10-CP-5182, can be sent by mail to Laurie Silfven, Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Spill Prevention and Response, Exploration, Production and Refinery Section, 555 Cordova Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, by fax to (907) 269-7687, or by email to laurie.silfven@alaska.gov.

The comment period opened March 26 and is open until April 24. Requests for additional information must be received by April 19. Copies of the application and plan are available for public review at Homer City Hall and at DEC offices in Anchorage and Soldotna.

DEC may hold a public hearing if it determines there is good cause to hold a meeting. Area residents or local governing bodies may request a public hearing by writing DEC before April 24.

 

School project gets state grant 

The Kenai Peninsula Borough has received initial approval from the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development for a $154,000 Community Development Block Grant to develop a Kachemak Selo Educational Specification Plan, according to Brenda Ahlberg, community and fiscal projects manager for the borough. 

This is a step toward construction of a new school for Kachemak Selo, a community at the head of Kachemak Bay that currently has 64 K-12 students who are taught in three privately owned buildings leased to the district.

The grant, combined with an in-kind contribution of borough and school district staff and 25 percent cash match, will make possible the Ed Spec, as the plan is known, required by the state if a borough and school district request state construction dollars for a school. Work on the plan will begin once a municipal process to accept the grant has been approved.

 

Ice Age program set for today

Evidence for Ice Age mammals on the Kenai Peninsula will be presented by local author and historian Janet Klein and Soldotna geologist Dick Reger at the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies at 6:30 p.m. today. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 235-6667.