Years Ago

Published 9:30 pm Wednesday, November 19, 2025

20 years ago

To Alaskans used to burning up $1,000 permanent fund dividend checks in a weekend, the chore of spending $7.1 million in less than a year might not seem that hard. For the Kenai Peninsula Borough to spend that much on the South Peninsula Hospital expansion by Sept. 30, 2006, is a different matter. Can the borough solve problems with a cost overrun on the expansion design, put out bids, start construction and pay contractors 85 percent of a 2003 bond by next fall? “We don’t see any way possible,” said Borough Mayor John Williams.

— From the issue of Nov. 24, 2005

30 years ago

An environmental monitoring program conducted this summer has found only very low, background levels of hydrocarbons at six testing stations in Cook Inlet, a spokesperson for a federally mandated oil-industry watchdog group said this week. The levels found at testing sites near Trading Bay, East Forelands, Kachemak Bay, two in the Kamishak Bay area and another in a gyre east of Kamishak were barely high enough to detect, said Ruth Post, science coordinator for the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council.

— From the issue of Nov. 23, 1995