We would like to thank the many residents of the Kenai Peninsula Borough who contributed to the relief funds collected on behalf of our Sister City — Akita, Japan, in response to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, which impacted the northeast portion of Japan. Donations to our Sister City were received through Bridges. We were very pleased to be able to wire the $3,010 to Mayor Motomu Hozumi of Akita, Japan.

Without so much as a warning cry, the Lowe’s in Kenai closed its doors this week.

Shuttered, painted over and locked-up after consistently missing sales projections from the time it opened, the store left a community wondering.

Sure, businesses close all the time, but the sudden and unexpected nature seems to have whipped residents into a mixture of anger and concern.

Anger at a business for cutting off 79 residents’ paychecks on a day’s notice.

Concern about the conditions that caused the closure.

Once upon a time there was a  “Big Corporate America store” named Lowe’s. Lowe’s moves to a peaceful kind town in Kenai, Alaska and brings shiny toys to buy and gives jobs to 79 of the people in the town. Many very kind hearted people, especially the managers Rose, Amber and Mike who work very hard and treat their employees very kindly. The employees work diligently day and night and take pride in their work, and reach their goals as a team, all seems business as usual.

Totem Ocean Express assisted the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank with transportation of a freezer/cooler unit from Tacoma to Anchorage recently. Weaver Brothers delivered the equipment from Anchorage to Soldotna. The new unit allows expanded freezer and refrigeration storage at the Food Bank’s facility located off Kalifornsky Beach Road near Soldotna. The facility is undergoing extensive expansion and improvements as more families are asking for food assistance each month.