Kenai Conversation

On this week's Kenai Conversation, host Jay Barrett speaks with long-time Alaska cannery boss Rusty Roessler, who spent 14 years as the manager of Pacific Alaska Shellfish in Nikiski. Today (Aug. 16) is Roessler's last day, and he's retiring after 36 years managing seafood processing plants around Alaska. This is an extended version of the conversation that aired.

Retail cannabis has been available on the Kenai since late last year. How's business? Is everyone playing by the rules? What challenges have growers and sellers faced? What's a dab? 

On this week's Kenai Conversation, cannabis entrepreneurs Patricia Patterson (High Bush Buds), Dollynda Phelps (Peace Frog Botanicals) and Leif Abel (Greatland Ganja) talk about their burgeoning industry, how it's contributing to the local economy and its prospects for the future.

On this week's Conversation, host Shaylon Cochran speaks with Stephanie Queen, director of Economic Development and Planning for the city of Soldotna, and Tim Dillon, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, about what kinds of jobs and industries might be making their way to central peninsula in the future to compliment established industries like fishing and resource development.

Managing the state's fisheries is a big responsibility. On this week's Conversation, we sit down with Robert Ruffner, one of the newest members of the state Board of Fisheries to talk about what challenges lay ahead in managing salmon fisheries on the Kenai Peninsula.

More and more people on the Kenai Peninsula are realizing its potential as a productive agricultural center. Now, backyard gardens are giving way to farmer's markets, food hubs and specialty growers. For this week's Conversation, we spoke with Lou Heite and Steve Dahl of Eagle Glade Farms in Nikiski and Ken Kynes, Executive Chef at The Flats Bistro in Kenai about how the local food movement is changing, growing and what needs to happen to make it sustainable.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough is looking at a future with less investment in energy and an aging population. How do we weather the current storm of low oil and gas prices (and the corresponding dips in state funding) while not losing the services already provided? Borough Mayor Mike Navarre and his Chief of Staff, Larry Persily, discuss those challenges, the prognosis of the AK LNG project and more on this week's Kenai Conversation.