Simon Lopez

Salaries for a handful of Kenai Peninsula Borough School District administrators are set for the next three years following unanimous school board approval; and The Kenai Peninsula Borough will pay an Anchorage firm nearly $400,000 to study the refurbishment and potential consolidation of some Soldotna-area schools.

Lower Kenai Peninsula residents can cut down their own Christmas trees this holiday season; folks donned ice cleats and mittens in Soldotna on Saturday to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season; and state lawmakers are starting to get organized ahead of the legislative session that starts next month.

Lower Kenai Peninsula residents can cut down their own Christmas trees this holiday season.

This month, Bear Creek Winery will host its annual “Garden of Lights” event; researchers in two Northern Alaskan communities want to study how electric vehicles – including electric snowmachines – could be incorporated into their isolated power grids; and police arrested a Kenai man late last month after they say he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl.

Two Alaska State Troopers each facing a felony assault charge will go to trial next June in Kenai; Alaska State Troopers arrested a Kasilof man on Tuesday after they say he sexually abused at least five teenage girls; and two cases of Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, have been confirmed in the Kodiak Island Borough School District this week.

A Nikiski woman faces manslaughter charges, after Alaska State Troopers say she provided methamphetamine last year to a man before he overdosed on it; and a bunkhouse at the Silvertip Maintenance Station and communication upgrades to the Seward Highway between Hope and Turnagain Arm are among the Kenai Peninsula projects funded in Gov. Mike Dunleavy's budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.

Soldotna Vice Mayor Lisa Parker is the new head of the Alaska Municipal League; and Alaska State Troopers are seeking information about a burglary at a Sterling liquor store.

Local chefs Teri Robl and Harrison McHenry, along with chocolatier and pastry chef Katy Manoff, joined Simon Lopez on the Coffee Table program to share their favorite recipes and holiday cooking tips.

The outages were caused by a winter storm that brought down trees and damaged power lines on the Lower Kenai Peninsula.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries has tweaked some regulations related to trawl bycatch in the Prince William Sound pollock fishery; and the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday recognized outstanding people and businesses on the central Kenai Peninsula.