Soldotna

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is wrapping up the first year of its new Senior Companion Program. The program pairs volunteers with fellow seniors who live on the Central Kenai Peninsula.

Volunteers provide help with day-to-day tasks, like grocery shopping and budgeting. Those involved in the program, however, say the companionship is just as important.

Kenaitze Indian Tribe in Kenai is taking an innovative approach to drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention. In addition to more overt prevention efforts, like signs and education, the tribe offers culturally-relevant healthy activities through their Yaghanen Youth Center, located in Soldotna, including a moose camp in the fall for young men.   

Invocations, or prayers, will continue to be said at the beginning of Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meetings, despite recent debate about whether they are appropriate. 

The Assembly voted at their regular meeting on Tuesday not to introduce an ordinance that would have eliminated the invocation and another that would have changed the invocation to a moment of silence.

But that was only after impassioned testimony from deeply divided residents.

Tonight, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Vice President Brent Johnson plans to introduce an ordinance that would replace the invocation, or prayer said at the beginning of meetings, with a moment of silence. Earlier this month, an invocation by a member of the Satanic Temple was offered before the assembly. The prayer sparked a protest, and a counterprotest.

Farmer’s markets are going virtual. Soon Kenai Peninsula residents will be able to buy locally grown food online. The new marketplaces are called ‘Food Hubs’.

There’s still snow outside, but Emily Garrity is prepping for the growing season inside her passive solar greenhouse on her small farm at the top of Ohlson Mountain just outside Homer.

Soldotna is getting a new look thanks to an arts initiative. That's according to KDLL Public Radio Reporter Jenny Neyman: