thesewardphoenixlog

Historic Alaska railcar makes tracks to Lowell Point Road

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:01:00 -0800

Out on Lowell Point Road, in a freshly bulldozed area affording prime views of the bay, rests the Alaska railcar that sat on the corner of Third Avenue and Jefferson Street for more than 40 years.

Anchorage businessmen Jack and Mark Powers purchased the car last fall after the Chamber of Commerce put it up for sale.

Powers, 66, and his son Mark, 38, recently opened the Silver Derby Campground and RV Park on a 20-acre plot of land two miles up Lowell Point Road.

They plan on converting the railcar into a diner.

“The Silver Derby Diner,” Powers said with enthusiasm.

The diner will seat 45, and a kitchen a storage area will soon be built on to the back. The car already includes a single bathroom, still intact.

“It’s ready to be plumbered up,” Powers said.

If all goes well, the father-and-son team hopes to open the family-oriented diner by June 2009. They’ll serve standard breakfasts and lunches; they are still undecided as to what they’ll do about dinner.

“It isn’t going to be upper class,” Mark Powers said. “It’s going to be comparable to the Village Inn.”

Powers agreed.

“I see a place for locals,” he said. “I see people coming in before fishing and eating a nice breakfast.”

Historic beginnings
The railcar, appropriately named The Seward, was built in 1916 and placed in service with Northern Pacific Railroad in 1936. It was used by the Alaska Railroad until 1954, when it was then donated to the city.

The car was moved to the lot on Third Avenue and Jefferson Street in March 1964, right before the earthquake. According to historic documents relayed through Laura Cloward, executive director of the Seward Chamber of Commerce, the railcar was the only piece of railroad equipment that wasn’t damaged in the 1964 earthquake.

The chamber opened it as an information center on July 4, 1965. It was initially run by volunteers, and in the mid-1990s, downtown merchants got together and refurbished the car; the chamber had been unable to afford the maintenance and repairs.

“It was unrealistic to think that every five to 10 years, we could do a fundraiser,” Cloward said. “It became more of a drain on our resources.”

The information center was shut down about 10 years ago and was reopened every Fourth of July, to commemorate the original concept.

Last fall, the chamber decided to sell the land and apply the proceeds to pay off the mortgage at the new derby headquarters down at the Small Boat Harbor.

“By moving the revenue to that property sale to the derby, we’re releasing the property back into the Seward hold,” Cloward said. “It’s more productive for someone else to open up a business instead of having a business or area we can’t maintain.”

The chamber opened up the car for sealed bids last fall. They received a half a dozen offers.

Powers put in a winning bid of $4,000. He wasn’t sure if the amount was too conservative.

“I thought I might get it, but then again I thought I might not,” he said.

Neon lights and salmon surprise
The Powers plan to remodel the car in its original format and are presently surfing the Internet for information and ideas. They’re unsure at this point how much this will cost.

“We plan on keeping it as much as possible as it is,” he said. “It won’t change. It will just look nicer.”

According to Cloward, the train is a nostalgic piece of the city.

“There’s mixed messages on how it feels now (that it’s gone),” she said. “I know that for members of the community who live nearby, they definitely feel that void. When something’s been there so long, it becomes apparent when it’s gone.”

The Powers felt it was important to keep the railcar in the community.

“It’s been here since before the earthquake,” Mark Powers said. “It’s part of what Seward is.”

There are also rumors affiliated with the car that spice things up. As Mark Powers told it, supposedly President Harding ate in the dining car when he came up to Alaska in 1923.

“There’s even a rumor that he ate tainted salmon on this dining car, got back to Washington and died,” he said.

If that turns out to be true, the Powers plan on naming a meal after him.

“Salmon surprise or something like that,” Mark Powers said.

Powers plans on outlining the diner in neon lights so that the people in Seward will see it and think, “There’s the Silver Derby Dining.” But his dreams don’t stop there.

“Within four to five years the Food Network is going to be calling and asking if they can do a cooking demonstration on Resurrection Bay,” he said.

“And I’ll say, ‘Sure, come on up.”

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

‘There’s nothing I can do. We’re helpless.’

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:56:00 -0800

Ross Mullins did everything a man could do.

He worked hard as a fisherman, starting with a small outfit in 1963, fishing for herring and pink salmon in Cordova.

When a pipeline was proposed to be built to Valdez, he publicly spoke his concerns for fishermen: that there wasn’t enough baseline scientific data to determine what was lost if an accident should occur and that human fallibility and oil tankers were a combination that eventually could spell disaster.

He grew his fishing business. He helped invest in the pink salmon hatchery the community pulled together to build.

The year 1989 was looking to be a good one. Cordova was expecting its biggest run in history. The hatchery was rolled out and ready to go. Prices for fish were good.

Like many others in the community, Mullins had invested in a new engine and gear to make good on the catch.

It didn’t happen all at once. The pieces of Mullins’ life fell apart slowly over time, like a column that retains its stance after a blow until the cracks racing around its surface presage chunks of falling debris.

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, the lawyers came, the media, the promises.

Mullins’ 2007 YouTube video posting shows what he recorded in 1989 three days after the spill: An Exxon representative promising, “We will consider whatever it takes to keep you whole.”

Exxon contends it compensated fishermen directly impacted by the spill for their losses through a $300 million payout in 1989. Many Alaskan fishermen thought the compensation wasn’t enough because of heavy losses, attributed to the spill, which they incurred in the years following 1989.

Lifeless water
In the years after the spill, Mullins said, the water in Prince William Sound was crystal clear.

But Mullins said it should have been thick with life.

“I could stand on the deck of my boat, look down in the water and see the bottom 50 feet down just as clear as looking through a window,” he said. “It never was that way before. The water was always soupy and green with life, with plankton, all the basic ingredients that make up the soup of life in the ocean that higher invertebrates feed on.”

In 1992 and 1993, the pink salmon and herring fisheries in Prince William Sound collapsed. The pinks rebounded in a couple years; the herring, not so. Commercial fishing for herring was closed in Prince William Sound in 1993 through 1996, and again from 1999 through 2006.

Mullins saw many a fellow fisherman go out of business after the early ’90s pink and herring fisheries collapse.

“You got payments of $15,000 to $30,000 a year to pay your boat mortgages,” he said. “You get two years where you don’t even break even, where you can’t hardly cover your insurance. What do you think happens? You’re in arrears.”

Some never recovered from the one-two punch of having no fish and plenty of bills.

Mullins saw some very quick changes in his community of Cordova fishermen. Some boats were repossessed; some folks went bankrupt. Those who were more fortunate were able to refinance their boats.

Mullins hung on.

But the pieces kept falling.

Road to bankruptcy
After the fisheries collapses, Mullins went through a divorce. His finances kept slipping.

Finally, in 2004 he filed for bankruptcy.

Researchers say that when a person is impacted by a manmade, or technological, catastrophe, the psychological fallout is different from that of a natural disaster.

“The problem is there’s a responsible party,” said Steve Picou, a researcher with the University of South Alabama who studies the social and psychological impacts of catastrophes. “There’s anger, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression; communities really fragment.”

Unlike the celluloid heroes embedded in the American cultural consciousness, Mullins couldn’t just fight a “bad guy” and be done with it. He had to wait.

Living on Social Security and close to the edge, Mullins did what he could. He made symbolic gestures, participating in community events memorializing the oil spill. He tried to get the word out on the Internet.

Early on, he organized plaintiffs directly affected by the spill in an effort to get a fair shake for directly impacted fishermen. He fought the good fight. He held out hope.

Survivors of a technological disaster face denial of their experience, in a way that survivors of a natural disaster don’t, said Duane Gill, a co-author with Picou on social research on the impact of catastrophes. When toxic contaminants are involved, they tend to be invisible, and debates can ensue over whether toxins are related to ongoing problems.

Gill and Picou investigated Cordova after the spill in their research.

“Survivors of a technological disaster have a difficult time because people don’t want to hear about it,” Gill said. “They say, ‘Why don’t you get over it.’ Well you couldn’t get over it when the litigation’s still open or when the fishing hasn’t returned the way you think it should, when you go out and see fewer sea birds, or whatever it is that reminds you this event happened and hasn’t healed yet.”

On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court returned its ruling that the 32,677 plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez punitive damages suit would spread $507.5 million among their number instead of the $2.5 billion returned in 2006 by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Faith shattered
Mullins said he felt betrayed; his trust in the government and its justice system, shattered.

He said his share of the award won’t even cover payments for his bankruptcy proceeding.

“I was hoping for this settlement to help bring me to a level where I could finish my life with some dignity,” he said. “That’s not going to happen. There are many people in a similar situation.”

Gill said many survivors will be able to find closure after the Supreme Court ruling, because at least it will be over. But closure is more likely for those who retained strong social and economic resources after the spill, he said.

“It’s not a type A personality can get over that and a type B or C can’t,” Gill said. “It’s at a social and economic structural level as well.”

Gill said he and Picou pioneered peer listener groups that have helped many develop greater resilience in the face of disaster.

“People need to think of what they have. They need to look at their friends and family, the people that love them. And they need to be very strong and understanding that they will be able to cope with this decision and go on with their lives,” Picou said.

That may well be in the future for Mullins and other plaintiffs who have come under financial strain in the years since the spill. But on June 26, a day after the Supreme Court ruling on the Exxon suit, Mullins, who’d done everything he could do, was still reeling.

“There’s nothing I can do,” he said. “We’re helpless. This is a corrupt system that we’ve got.”

Mary Lochner can be reached at (907) 348-2438 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.

Residents sound off on prison expansion

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:53:00 -0800

Seward residents are split over plans to expand Spring Creek Correctional Center by 144 beds and additional improvements.

The state and city of Seward recently agreed to begin the expansion. Combined costs of the project are expected to run about $22.8 million, and construction is scheduled for completion in 2010.

When the maximum-security prison was originally built in 1988, it was intended to house 412 long-term inmates. It now holds more than 500.

The expansion will provide a medium-security wing at the north end of the complex on the 328-acre site off Nash Road, according to City Council member Willard Dunham.

“This is just a continuation of what we started years ago,” Dunham said. “It won’t answer all of the correctional system’s housing problems, but it’s a partial solution. The biggest area of need right now isn’t for maximum but for medium security.”

Dunham, who more than 20 years ago helped push to get the prison established in Seward, said that the expansion is expected to add about 15 employees. The facility, which originally cost about $45 million to build, employs more than 200.

The Log interviewed residents concerning plans for the new expansion. Their e-mailed comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Disadvantages
Jerry Dixon
When they first built the prison, they said the wives/girlfriends of the prisoners would not come to Seward. When I taught here in Seward I found out about an extended family of 23 that came to Seward from Pennsylvania because a woman had a boyfriend in prison. Several of the women had seven or eight children and no jobs. Seward has the highest percentage of low-income housing in the state; 35 percent of those who go to the hospital ER room have no insurance, which is three times the state average and six times that of Anchorage.

Kerry Romig
I guess fundamentally I do not like it. I think that the prison brings a huge amount of negative energy to our area — why increase that load? That being said, it can be counteracted with an excess of loving kindness. On a bigger note, I guess it would be good for the economy because it would create a few more jobs. What other benefit could there be — a few more kids in the school?

Patty Linville
“If we build it they will come.” Where will it end? Will the Department of Corrections be back in town in 2020 looking for more space? In January 2007, the Alaska Judicial Council stated that “prison is the most expensive choice ... to promote public safety.”
Have we considered using expansion moneys for prevention measures such as Village Public Safety Officers in small Alaska towns? Might they be able to diffuse some volatile situations before they become murders?
What about supporting social services that help families to deal with problems before they escalate into criminal offenses? We should question the motivation behind building or expanding any prison.
At the very least if we quit referring to the prison industry as a “growth industry that will balance the local economy” we would see the futility of rehabilitation — more than 65 percent of Alaska ex-convicts relapse into criminal behavior — and more of the promise in prevention.
Do we truly need to continue to create a monument of our failure to educate and care for each other? It’s time to consider positive actions and alternatives that will enhance not only the bottom line but our ability to be proud of ourselves for righting wrong, instead of enabling it.

Advantages
Tom Swann
The main economic growth in Seward over the last 10 years has been a result of tourism, which is strong in the summer but almost nonexistent in the winter. In the long run this growth will not be healthy for the city. It is imperative to compensate the growth in tourism with other year round economies. I am all in favor of the prison expansion.

Ronn Hemstock
I would say that as for industry in Seward, this is a great thing. We will hopefully have some new jobs in the construction field during the construction, and as for lasting employment (albeit they don’t always hire in town), some more jobs for locals. I have for years said that the prison brings people to town — often people move to Seward to join incarcerated loved ones, and we can use more students at the high school.

Marianna Keil
From an economic perspective, the expansion is a positive. I believe it will help and possibly even prevent Seward from feeling the recessionary effects from the slowing economy that are plaguing the Lower 48.

Sgt. Doreen Valadez, Seward Police
I don’t have a problem with it. The prison is already in place, it’s not like a whole new entity will be coming to town. It will just be expanding what we currently have and maybe employ a few more local people.

Gail Richards is a Seward artist and freelance writer. She can be reached at 224-2426 or gail@gailrichardsart.com.

Coast Guard cutter Mustang changes command

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:50:00 -0800

On June 13, inside the Chinooks Waterfront Restaurant, next to the large windows overlooking the harbor and a massive octopus sculpture, the Coast Guard cutter Mustang held a change of command ceremony.

Lt. James D. Stoffer was leaving to pursue duties at Afloat Training Group Pacific Northwest in Everett, Wash., and Lt. Gregory M. Haas stepped in to take command.

The ceremony featured 15 crew members, two officers and the incoming officer going through salutes, call to order, colors and an invocation.

Capt. Mark DeVries offered his remarks on the Mustang’s performance under Stoffer in which he praised him as a competent commander. Stoffer and Haas read their orders out loud, followed by Haas’ salute to Stoffer.

Stoffer then assumed leadership to Haas.

According to Sara Francis, public relations officer for the Coast Guard, the ceremony was developed centuries ago, most likely for battlefield commands, where impersonal conditions warranted officer recognition.

“It’s really for the crew of the vessel so they can formally recognize that a new form of command is being appointed,” Francis said. “It gives them a chance to say goodbye to the current command.”

The standard tour of duty on the 110-foot Mustang is two years.

“It’s a nice time to get comfortable and good at things,” she said. “More often than not they want to stay longer.”

Stoffer enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1980 and was assigned as a seaman aboard Storis in Kodiak. He worked his way up through the ranks, was promoted to lieutenant in May 2005 and has received numerous awards including the Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal, five achievement medals, five good conduct medals and three humanitarian medals.

He’s moving to Everett with his wife, Diana, and daughter, Sarah.

Haas, a 2001 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, was the past operations officer of the cutter Hickory in Homer. He’s received the Coast Guard Achievement Medal, the Commandant’s Letter of Commendation and various other honors.

He and his wife, Janice, have a young daughter, Madeleine.

The Mustang was launched in September 1986. It’s the 10th 110-foot Island Class Patrol Boat built and the first to serve in the Pacific Ocean. Two months later, it relieved the Cape Jellison as the Coast Guard’s northernmost patrol boat, stationed in Seward.

The Mustang spends approximately 150 days a year at sea conducting homeland security, federal fisheries law enforcement and search and rescue missions.

The vessel has traveled more than 12,000 miles in the past two years and is named after Mustang Island, located east of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Five additional 110-foot Island Class patrol boats are based in Alaska: The Anacapa in Petersburg, the Liberty in Juneau, the Roanoke Island in Homer, the Long Island in Valdez and the Naushon in Ketchikan.

‘The Family Foot Care Book’ holds practical tips for the unshod

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:49:00 -0800

This week’s Weird Book is dedicated to all of those that love freedom. If you were just inspired to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance by all means do so, but before we start singing “America the Beautiful” in three-part harmony, I should tell you that we’re talking about a different kind of freedom today.

As some of you may have noticed, our little town has become inundated lately with interesting people from all walks of life. We have quite the global community these days, and I’m thankful for the youthful vigor and enthusiasm brought by so many.

But whether they hail from Russia or Roanoke, Va., there exists, here among us, a group that has taken their love of freedom to a new high. They are breaking barriers, burning socks, and toeing the line to victory one bunion at a time.

So say goodbye to freedom fries because there’s a new American hero in town:

Freedom Feet.

Now I know this might run contrary to public opinion, but not all who travel naked below the ankles are wild, liberal, tofu-chomping hippies. And even those that are, are still entitled to wave ol’ Betsy with the best of them.

I have lived among the midst of these kind people. I have seen more toes than there are stars in the sky. And if I know one thing to be true, it’s that these loyal patriots of podiatry could benefit from a chapter or two from “The Family Foot Care Book.”

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the word family, foot care is never far from my mind. When you have the whole gang gathered around the dinner table each evening, chowing away, fielding questions about the day, the closest parts of your body may be your feet.

Doesn’t it make sense then to make sure that you and those you love have happy and healthy ones. No one wants a neglected pair of tired old dogs to ruin a pleasant evening.

Not like the Thanksgiving of ’88. Without going into too many details, let’s just say that my cousin Pete still bears the scar of Grandpa’s hangnail. It was a mean one.

So this Fourth of July, why not gather the whole family together for a Freedom Feet parade down Fourth Avenue? When I think of all that flag waving with bare ankles, why it’s enough to make old George Washington himself blush three shades of crimson. My goodness, what a country!

But make sure you stop on by the library and catch up on a few foot-care tips before your big day. We wouldn’t want to scare any little kids now would we?

Ryan Reynolds can be found at the Library smelling old books and sometimes wearing argyle socks. He can be reached at 224-4082 or rreynolds@cityofseward.net.

Exxon decision like a bad dream for subsistence users

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:46:00 -0800

Reaction among Alaska Natives to the Supreme Court’s decision to slash damages in the Exxon Valdez case to $507.5 million ranged from bitter disappointment to relief — however bittersweet — that it’s over.

Cordova resident Patience Andersen Faulkner, president of a group representing Prince William Sound communities affected by the oil industry, lay down in bed after she heard the news early Wednesday morning, June 25.

“I felt sick, physically sick. After a half an hour, I said I’m OK, I’m not going to throw up here, I’ll be OK,” she said.

To her and other Alaska Native plaintiffs who expect to collect money for their subsistence claim, the damages don’t come close to recouping what was lost.

About 4,500 subsistence users from the Sound to Kodiak and Chignik Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula will split about $22.5 million of the award, said Lloyd Miller, attorney for those plaintiffs.

That’s $5,000 per person.

Interest will roughly double that average, Miller said.

Individuals from the most impacted communities, such as Tatitlek and Chenega Bay in the Sound, will get the largest payouts, because they were the closest villages to the grounded tanker at Bligh Reef.

About 20 tribal governments representing the subsistence users will split about $2.5 million, said Faulkner, a former legal technician with the litigation team for the plaintiffs.

The subsistence class was one of 53 groups that made claims in the lawsuit, she said.

Faulkner, who is Chugach Aleut, said the money won’t be enough. The greatest tragedy of the massive 1989 spill is how it changed the closeness of the region’s Alaska Native families, she said.

The sprawling slick devastated subsistence foods such as seal, clams and herring, ending or sharply reducing social activities such as the seal-butchering and clam-gathering that involved friends and family.

“I don’t drag anyone along with me to the grocery store, so you miss that camaraderie and the health checks on each other, the children learning from their grandmother,” she said. “That’s where the largest damage is. It makes us too much individuals and not enough togetherness.”

Some subsistence foods haven’t returned, such as herring, at least not in significant numbers, Faulkner said. And residents are still reluctant to eat some of the foods, including mussels from the Sound, fearing they may be polluted.

Losing those foods was more than just socially destructive. It was a huge financial blow.

Despite the slashed award, Faulkner felt more thankful than angry. She paid close attention over the years as Exxon Mobil Corp. made gains. The oil giant’s lawyers persuaded courts to reduce the original, jury-set punitive damage award of $5 billion in 1994 to $2.5 billion in 2006.

“The bottom line is I’m relieved it’s over because I don’t know how much more I could have taken,” she said.

Chenega Bay’s tribal government won’t end up with much, said Pete Kompkoff, president.

“Like a slap in the face to us,” Kompkoff said.

After the spill, Kompkoff could see the oil sheen from his windows. The damage forced him to sell his boats and get out of fishing.

Last week, no one in the village of 80 was happy about the Supreme Court ruling.

“People are just devastated by the amount it was reduced,” he said.

Bob Henrichs, president of the Eyak tribal government in Cordova, first heard about the spill when returning from the Lower 48 in his crab boat. After entering the Sound through Hinchinbrook Entrance, he was some 30 miles from Bligh Reef when he smelled oil.

“It smelled like shellac,” he said. “I knew we were in trouble.”

Henrichs owned two tender boats that delivered fish to processors. He said he ended up selling them because fishing prices dropped – in part from perceptions that the oil had tainted seafood.

Herring and king crab fisheries have also been closed since the spill.

“It meant the loss of our culture and our way of life,” he said.

Last week, he said he had no idea what the tribal government could expect as part of its subsistence claim.

“I haven’t thought about it,” he said. “Exxon has not been at the head of my priority list. I got better things to do with my life.”

Alex DeMarban can be reached at (907) 348-2444 or (800) 770-9830, ext. 444.

Stopping by the cemetery on a twilight evening

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:44:00 -0800

It’s late at night during the summer solstice, and I’m standing in the Seward American Legion Cemetery with 40 or so other people. We’re dressed in jackets and hats; the smell of bug repellent spreads out among us, mixed with the scent of grass and clover.

We’re here for Lee Poleski’s third annual Summer Solstice Cemetery Tour. It’s a strange thing to do on the longest day of the year, and we are undoubtedly a strange lot.

But no matter. We are here to learn more about the people buried in the city’s cemetery.

The grass is very green, the trees lush, the sky a lavender blue twilight that lends a mysterious air.

As we move from gravestone to gravestone, we stand apart from one another, and we don’t talk much. Poleski’s voice is authoritative but warm as he reads pieces of history intertwined with obituaries.

With his long white beard, wrinkled brown coat and glasses sliding down his nose, he looks like an eccentric professor.

The second grave is that of Nold Neal, a 37-year-old man who committed suicide on Aug. 7, 1937. No one knows why he did it, and as we all lean in closer, we are fascinated by the idea of someone taking his own life, we want to know more.

But alas, history can only tell so much and soon we move to the next gravestones:

Eugene Moe Lanier, former Seward mayor, 1917-1977.

Harvey Sullivan, U.S. Marshall, 1874-1936

Derek Lane, 1874-1938

It’s alluring to hear small pieces of these peoples’ stories. We gather in a circle, closer now, as if all this talk about death is drawing us together. The old-fashioned obituaries are eloquent, and they lend a bittersweet air:

“Death visited Thomas … ,” Poleski reads, “Death visited Seward and took Claudia Sexton ... .” We nod our heads because for some reason it feels right to hear death talked about in such a solemn way.

Then it is time to traipse through trees and around lush spreads of violets and over to the gravestone of what Poleski calls “the only Seward poet to read his poem in front of a U.S. president.”

The story of Sven Lundblad, 1863-1933, is as strange as the evening. He was a poet of rather dubious talent who did indeed read his work to President Harding though, as Poleski points out before reading the said poem, “He may not have been a good poet.”

And he wasn’t. The poem is awful in its enthusiasm and feigned grandeur. It is a poem like life itself: Too big and smug and self-conscious to be taken seriously.

We all laugh. We draw even closer. We talk and whisper amongst ourselves while in the grass beyond us, a small girl in a bright patchwork dress laughs and runs on chubby legs.

The last story is a grisly one, “And what better way to end the evening,” Poleski chuckles.

John Timberlake Madnick, 1800-1831, was another probable suicide. His decomposed body washed up to the shore, and he was dressed in dark, every pocket filled with rocks. Seaweed tangled around his body.

For some reason, this cheers us up, not the fact that Madnick died but that we are all still alive.

Maybe it’s a result of the solstice, or the energy of the night, or the knowledge that we will die too but probably not for a long time, for the mood changes. As we walk back to our cars, we are no longer quiet, we talk and laugh. A few of us run.

Our hearts beat faster. We are giddy with the grace of those long-ago deaths.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

Seward athletes race to front in Special Olympics

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:44:00 -0800

Athletes from 10 Alaska communities competed in the 2008 Special Olympics Alaska Summer Games in Anchorage June 13-15.

Events included basketball, weightlifting, track and field, swimming and gymnastics.

Athletes qualified for the games by competing in local community summer games. Some of the competitions, such as basketball, were presented as unified teams, made of up both Special Olympic athletes and partners without intellectual disabilities.

Seven athletes from the Seward area participated.

The Special Olympics program serves more than 1,500 athletes throughout Alaska and is comprised of the summer games, a fall tournament that includes unified bocce and golf, a bowling tournament and the winter games in March.

More information about Special Olympics Alaska programs and volunteer opportunities plus final Summer Games results can be found at www.specialolympicsalaska.org.

Five times might be a charm for mountain racer

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:42:00 -0800

Cedar Bourgeois has never run a road race.

She’s never worked out in a gym or set foot on a treadmill either.

Yet the 32-year-old single mother has managed to win the past four Mount Marathon races, with a top time of 51:44 in 2005.

“It’s not the running per say I love,” she says. “It’s being in the mountains and woods.”

She started running after graduating from high school, when she joined a hiking group with friends.

“All that time I was in school, I was basically doing indoor sports,” she said. “I ignored the trails.”

Climbing up elevation in the outdoor air, she soon understood, was where she wanted to be. She ran her first Mount Marathon race in 1997 and placed a surprising third.

She then got sidetracked with marriage and two children; she didn’t return to the race until 2002.

It wasn’t the best run of her career. Training with young children proved challenging, and she devised ways to include daughter Coral, now 7, and son Zen, 8, in winter ski sessions (sled) and summer bike rides (carts).

Her diligence paid off, and she placed third in 2002 and second in 2003.

“I’ve made running fit into my schedule,” she says. “I make it happen. When it gets close to racing, I become a little crazy mom.”

She credits family, friends and her ex-husband with helping to free up training time.

“I still feel guilty about spending so much time and energy running,” she says. “I’ve heard negative comments about it.”

She hopes her children use her dedication as an example to follow their own passions.

“I want my daughter to see me as a strong woman,” she says. “I hope she knows that she can make whatever she wants happen.”

And Bourgeois has made it happen, fitting hikes, runs, cross-country ski sessions and biking around children and work responsibilities. She’s presently the only female line-cook at Rae’s Waterfront Restaurant, where she shucks oysters and takes care of salads and deserts.

“The mountain running really helps this job because I feel like I keep calm under pressure and have the stamina to keep up when it gets crazy,” she says.

She isn’t sure why she wins — she doesn’t believe in natural talent.

“It’s being out there all the time, in every single condition. I train year round. I never stop,” she says. “It’s the thing I do for myself. It keeps me sane. It’s my medicine.”

It’s also a lack of fear.

“Some people won’t run out there with the bears alone,” she says. “Of course I know they’re out there, but I don’t worry about them.”

She runs with a Labrador retriever named Ital she adopted from the shelter. The name is a Jamaican term meaning pure life and living, she explains.

This year she’s had a tough time gearing up for race mode.

“It was snowing in June up there, and I was mad at the mountain and not in a good mood,” she says.

She didn’t run the Bird Ridge mountain race this year, normally her second-strongest event.

“I keep wanting to pull something out of myself that I haven’t yet,” she says. “I’ve love to run a race when I’m not saving something.”

This year the snow cover should make for a fast downhill, Bourgeois’ strongest part of the race. She hoping to hit beat her 51:44 best from 2005.

“I hate for it to be all about winning, but oh, this mountain is so special to me,” she says.

It’s more than training or racing times. Heading up that mountain is a spiritual journey for Bourgeois.

“Just being out there and seeing that beauty is enough,” she says. “Sometimes I’m blown away running through those trails.”

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

Huge and hefty halibut takes lead in Seward tourney

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:41:00 -0800

The Seward Small Boat Harbor was abuzz the evening of June 24 as Tim Berg of Soldotna presented his 319.6-pound humdinger at the official weigh-in station.

Caught aboard the Grande Alaska, this behemoth has set a new high for the tournament, raising hopes for the appearance of more trophies in the days to come. The giant was reportedly teased onto the vessel using 40-pound test and salmon gear.

Christopher Lafe of Wasilla now holds second with his 178-pound treasure, caught with Glacier Fishing Charters, and Jared Funk, of Auburn, N.Y., falls to third with his 173.7-pounder caught aboard Crackerjack Sportfishing Charters’ Crackerjack Voyager.

The 2008 Seward Halibut Tournament runs through June. The angler with the heaviest catch nets $10,000, with a $5,000 and $2,500 second- and third-place prizes. In addition, the angler bringing in the heaviest fish daily catch wins a seat on a June 2009 Seward-based halibut charter.

Daily tournament tickets are $10, or $25 for three days. For updates, see the Seward Chamber of Commerce website, www.seward.com.

When she isn’t recording halibut weights, Laura Cluberton can be found working at the Seward Chamber of Commerce.

Gillilan to head Alaska Masons’ program for young men

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:40:00 -0800

There’s a new Masonic Lodge representative in town.

Dale Gillilan of Seward was appointed personal representative for the state of Alaska by Patton Hart, grandmaster of the International Supreme Council Order of DeMolay.

Gillilan, who is master of the Masonic Lodge in Seward and member of the Kenai lodge, will be responsible for overseeing all DeMolay chapters in the state.

Gillilan is also a member of the Kenaitze Indian Tribal Justice Council and teaches martial arts for the tribe’s Yaghanen youth program.

“I am very passionate about helping our youth realize their inner power so they can have meaningful lives,” Gillilan said. “I have seen the impact DeMolay can have on young men, including my own son, and am excited and honored to help this program grow in Alaska.”

DeMolay is an international organization for young men founded by Freemasons in 1919. It focuses on developing civic awareness, personal responsibility and leadership skills through hands-on experience. Open to males between 12 and 20, it is one of the several Masonic organizations geared for boys and girls.

“Masonry is for the whole family,” Gillilan said. “It is designed to make all participants better citizens by being more ethical, more responsible and more involved.”

$700,000 gift to produce more Native PhDs

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:35:00 -0800

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has pledged $700,000 to the University of Alaska Fairbanks over the next five years to provide financial support to students in the dissertation writing phase of their doctoral programs. The aim of this gift is to increase the number of Native students earning doctoral degrees.

"The Mellon Foundation’s total commitment to eradicating disparities in our Ph.D. faculty and students goes beyond benefiting UAF," said Chancellor Steve Jones. "This is an opportunity that impacts our entire state, because educational attainment is closely related to economic and political prosperity for Native peoples. We are proud of our convergent goals and of the strong partnership we share with the Mellon Foundation."

The "Dissertation Fellowship Program for Alaska Native Scholars and Others Committed to the Advancement of Indigenous Alaskan History and Culture" will fund up to four competitive graduate fellowships for doctoral students in the dissertation-writing phase this fall. Recipients are eligible to receive a $30,000 stipend, research and travel funds in addition to tuition and fees.

"This is extremely important in having a national foundation support Alaska Native education, especially in a public institution," said Bernice Joseph, vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education.

The academic and public benefits will be especially apparent in the areas of language, culture and leadership, said Joseph. "To be able to have public materials, articles and [a] curriculum that are focused on Alaska Natives from an Alaska Native point of view would be incredible."

"The Mellon Foundation’s thoughtful gift allows UAF to become a national leader in assisting scholars interested in the advancement of Indigenous Alaskan history and culture to complete their doctoral degrees" said Bryan Brayboy, president’s professor of education at UAF, and a member of the program’s advisory board. "This is an important and timely award, and UAF is ideally positioned to complete this important work."

The need for programs like this is vital across the United States where there is significant under-representation of indigenous peoples on the faculties of colleges and universities, and UAF is no exception, said Brayboy. In Alaska, Native peoples comprise close to 20 percent of the state’s population and 16 percent of the student body, but they hold only three percent of faculty positions. Lack of educational credentials is often cited as contributing to this scarcity.

With this support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UAF is poised to increase not only the number of Alaska Native students who graduate with doctoral degrees, but to address the underlying social, economic and educational factors that have been shown to inhibit completion of the dissertation. In doing so, UAF has the opportunity to assist rural Native communities in Alaska in meeting their educational, economic and political goals.

The award was preceded by a $40,000 planning grant provided by the Mellon Foundation in 2007. In addition to funding from Mellon, the program is also supported by $500,000 in matching funds from UAF, plus additional fundraising.

Professional development opportunities for fellowship students will focus on sessions to learn how to prepare for conference presentations, grant-writing and writing for publication, successfully completing doctoral dissertations, as well as the tenure and promotion process. The program will also offer mentoring activities in indigenous studies and leadership, and salary support for the program’s faculty members.

The funding is designed to provide support to increase the number of Alaska Native faculty members. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s grant-making philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, developing long-term collaborations with grant recipients to accomplish their goals and achieve meaningful results.

Fat flatfish takes lead in Seward Derby

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:48:00 -0800

The Seward Small Boat Harbor was abuzz the evening of June 24 as Tim Berg of Soldotna presented his 319.6 pound hum-dinger at the official weigh-in station.

Caught aboard the Grande Alaska, this behemoth has set a new high for the tournament, raising hopes for the appearance of more trophies in the days to come. Reportedly teased onto the vessel using 40-lb test and salmon gear, the catch is a testament to Seward fishing at its best.

Christopher Lafe of Wasilla now holds second with his 178-lb treasure, caught with Glacier Fishing Charters, and Jared Funk, of Auburn, New York, falls to third with his 173.7-pounder caught aboard Crackerjack Sportfishing Charters’ Crackerjack Voyager.

The 2008 Seward Halibut Tournament runs through June. The angler with the heaviest catch nets $10,000, with a $5,000 and $2,500 2nd and 3rd place prizes. In addition, , the angler bringing in the heaviest fish daily catch wins a seat on a June 2009 Seward-based halibut charter.

Daily tournament tickets are $10, or $25 for three days. For updates, see the Seward Chamber of Commerce website, www.seward.com.

Kayaking from San Juan Islands to Glacier Bay

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:04:00 -0800

Moved by a passion for the ocean, local Outward Bound employees Mik Jedlicka and Mark Dalpes — who have worked summers in Alaska for several years — craved a big adventure.

They wanted a journey so huge that it would be filled with surprise and adventure: the surprise of not knowing where they’d spend each night, and the adventure of what might be encountered during the day.

So in April 2007, the two kayaking experts set out for an 80-day paddling trip from the San Juan Islands in Washington to Glacier Bay, Alaska.

At 7 p.m. on June 28, they will be presenting a documentary about their trip at Resurrect Art Coffee House Gallery on Fourth Avenue.

“Kayaking the inside passage was so many things for us,” said Jedlicka, who teaches mountaineering and kayaking courses for Outward Bound. “We wanted to explore the Pacific Northwest, its people, flora, fauna and waters. We wanted to visit some of the First Nations villages, talk with people, share in their traditions and hear their stories.”

Traveling by kayak gave Jedlicka and Dalpes an opportunity to intimately explore the biologically diverse environment of the northwest coast, she said.

“We wanted to leave behind the phone, computer and vehicles in exchange for a slower paced human-powered experience,” she said. “The goal to use and promote human power was actualized in two ways: First, we raised some money for the Renewable Energy Alaska Project through a pledge letter sent to family and friends; second, we commuted to our summer jobs in Alaska from Washington using our own renewable energy.”

This is the kind of enthusiasm that puts a whole new light on one’s procrastination to ride a bike one mile to the market for groceries.

Jedlicka and Dalpes stopped about once a week to beef up their own groceries and supplies at accessible villages or towns along the way. The longest wait between resupply stops was two weeks, Jedlicka said.

“We also mailed a couple of boxes to ourselves so we could enjoy some yummy favorites toward the middle and end of the trip,” she said.

The adventurers saved money for two winters in preparation for the exploration that ended last July. They also benefited from the sponsorship of eight different companies that donated gear, including Outward Bound, a nonprofit outdoor educational organization with the mission to inspire character development and self-discovery in people of all ages.

To individuals with a notion to paddle in their wakes, Jedlicka advises potential adventurers to take more time than she and Dalpes did.

“There is so much to explore along the northwest coast,” she said. “There are an infinite number of coves, bays, beaches and adventures to be had. So, I would say take as much time as you can, plan on paddling 15 miles a day at the most and take lots of rest days.”

Gail Richards is a Seward artist and freelance writer. She can be reached at 224-2426 or gail@gailrichardsart.com.

Music, beer and sunshine combine for jammin’ solstice party

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:02:00 -0800

It was all about toe rings, baby. Bare feet and sandals. Tank tops and tanned shoulders.

The 30th annual Moose Pass Summer Solstice Festival brought out folks from as far away as Anchorage and Wasilla to drink cold brew, chow grilled hamburgers and dance in the cramped beer garden.

At least that’s what the adults did. Children played games and painted their faces and dug for coins in a wading pool filled with mulched dirt.

By late afternoon, all the baked goods had been sold, and some of the auction items looked a bit weary from all the attention: The “Baitful Dead” t-shirt sagged, the edges of “Where the Wild Things Are” crinkled, but in the corner, the chocolate moose apron looked as it wanted to get up and boogie.

Outside, bands such as the Whipsaws and Alderbash blared good time rock ’n’ roll, and even the older, over-40 couples took a whirl. It was all about kicking up the beat and acting crazy and enjoying the long summer evening.

’Cause the music was good, the sun was hot and baby, the beer was oh so cool.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

The sun slowly sets in Seward

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:00:00 -0800

It’s just after midnight on June 20, and the sun set minutes ago. The sky is lavender, the water silver, the mountains across Resurrection Bay shadowed with blue tint.

It’s late, but very few are asleep. The twilight is too beautiful, and it’s filled with a strange, haunting energy that makes walking the beach or reading by a campfire seem perfectly normal at one or even two o’clock in the morning.

Groups gather on the beach to collect stones and watch a sea otter, which swims by on its back, its legs waving in the air. Two young men rollerblade on the paved trail that runs along the water, while a mother pushes a stroller and watches three children play on the swings at the nearby playground.

Down around the bend, RVs stretch as far as the eye can see, hundreds of them, one after another after another. Most of the passengers are still up, roasting marshmallows or hot dogs, playing the guitar and singing.

Everyone is friendly and relaxed, it’s like one party, one big family of people escaping city life and job stresses and family obligations and stretching out, for one night or two, in front of the bay to listen to the tide come in.

When it does, the waves are soft and lulling. The sky deepens but doesn’t darken, not quite and not yet.

It slowly quiets as people straggle back to their houses, RVs and tents. Soon, only a few of us remain. We sit by our campsites staring out at the silver gleam of the bay.

We know we should go to bed, but we don’t.

The air smells of campfire. The sky is lavender.

And the night is too long and beautiful to miss.

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

Grizzly sow attack interrupts quiet morning of mushroom picking

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:58:00 -0800

It’s been one week since 54-year-old Jenne Danzl’s harrowing bear attack, and she isn’t lying in a hospital bed or resting on the couch.

She’s serving homemade strawberry rhubarb and green tomato pies to her boyfriend Roger Long, whose 67th birthday falls the next day on the solstice.

After the pie is served (“Try the green tomato,” she says. “It tastes like apple but better.”) Danzl, Long and friend Joanie Merritt move to the living room. With the dog curled cozily in her lap, it’s difficult to imagine that seven days ago a grizzly’s teeth were bearing down upon her ribs.

But that’s exactly what happened.

It began the morning of June 13, when she and Long decided to hunt morel mushrooms out by Skilak Lake. It was, she says, a typical day. They got up early, had breakfast, drove over, put up the camper and unloaded the trailer. After they beached the boat on the opposite side of the lake, they started walking through the burned out vegetation paralleling the lake.

“I’m always yak, yak, yakking,” Danzl says. “But this time I was concentrating on mushrooms and wasn’t talking nearly as much.”

“You have to know that the moss is like walking in really nice carpet,” Longs says. “You don’t snap twigs or make a sound.”

Danzl was about 20 yards behind Long when she noticed the bear scat.

“And I said, ‘Oh Roger, this is a really fresh pile of scat.’ And Roger joked, ‘Why don’t you taste it and see how fresh it is?’”

Danzl joked back that she’d pass, and that’s when she heard the three woofing grunts. Seconds later a sow charged.

“My first thought was to run, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to run, so I threw up my hands and was waving my paper bag and yelling,” she said. “I thought I was being authoritative.”

Danzl dropped down, covered her head with her arm and assumed a fetal position.

“She was standing up and she came down and straddled me, and her one claw got my arm and grazed it. Then she bit me on the side.”

The sow bit her again, harder this time, on the rear end.

“I thought, oh, that hurt really bad. I hope she hurries up and kills me fast.”
She didn’t move. She waited.

“About five years ago I had a car accident and almost died,” she says. “What I thought at the time was ‘I wish I had my will done.’ This time I thought, ‘I think she’s going to eat me but I’m glad I have my will done.’”

Nothing happened. Danzl waited longer.

“I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to rise up and she’s going to bite me in the neck,’” she says.

Then she noticed Long screaming and waving a stick. The sow had moved away, accompanied by a couple of older cubs — Long estimates they were about 2 years old.

He ran up to Danzl, afraid she might be dead.

“Oh, you should have seen the look on his face,” Danzl says. “If I ever had any doubt that he cared about me, I don’t anymore. The look on his face!”

He asked if she was OK. She said she had been bitten twice and needed a hug. He told her they had to get out of there.

“And I said, ‘No, I need a hug,’” Danzl says with a laugh.

Danzl was taken to Central Peninsula Hospital where she underwent six hours of wound cleaning.

“They used almost five yards to gauze to fill the holes,” Long says.

A week later, the wounds are in the process of healing but still have to be dressed once a day.

“It’s stings, it’s uncomfortable and it hurts,” she says.

Still, Danzl doesn’t blame the bear.

“She was doing what she had to do,” she says. “It was me, not making enough noise.

I almost always talk.”

Long also blames himself. He had become complacent, he says. He used to carry a side-arm but stopped.

Things happen, Danzl says with a shrug. The bear attack was traumatic and emotional but that’s just part of life.

“Someone asked me, ‘Are you going to hunt for morels again? I’ll bet you’ll never go in the woods again.’”

She and Long laugh — they have plans to pick morels the following day, but in a less remote area.

“I live every day to its fullest,” she says. “That’s what I was doing that day. If I had died, it would have been doing something that made me happy.”

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.

Home improvement loans available in rural Alaska

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:48:00 -0800

The United State Department of Agriculture Rural Development announced earlier this month it wants rural Alaska homeowners to apply through its agency for low-interest loans to make home improvements.

To be eligible for the program, applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal aliens. Applicants must also show they don’t have the financial capability to meet their needs and currently own or occupy a single-family home in need of repair in a rural area.

Loans are available to homeowners who meet “very low income” criteria and live outside Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and other “urbanized” areas.“Often, a relatively inexpensive repair or project can make a big difference in energy efficiency in a home,” said Chad Padgett, acting USDA Rural Development state director.

Eligible projects are many. Repair loans are available for up to 20 years at 1 percent interest and loans may not exceed $20,000. A limited amount of grant funding is available for very low-income seniors age 62 and older. Grant assistance can’t exceed $7,500.

USDA Rural Development has an office in Bethel and a state office in Palmer. More information and lists of eligible projects can be found by calling 543-3858 or 761-7705 or going online to www.rurdev.usda.gov/ak/.

Just a funky old shack and I gotta get back

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:43:00 -0800

Clouds roll in from the Gulf. Dark, turgid sky udders intent on drowning the town beneath. Huddled low beneath a sagging tarp, you watch helplessly as your spirits fall with each passing drop.

Small rivers form and flow beneath you, around and through your shelter until all is saturated, cold and clammy. It’s another beautiful day in Seward, and yet, any day that begins with wet underpants gets a frowny face in my book.

But no worries. Look yonder! A solution breaks through the clouds faster than a greasy halibut chunk through a wet napkin. Mr. Beard is in the building!

No, he’s not Mr. Clean’s arch nemesis or even a razor salesman, though I believe he did star in a few Herbal Essences commercials back in the ’60s.

But no, my friends, Mr. Beard, besides having perhaps the coolest name this side of the Chugach, is also an expert in shelters, shacks and my personal favorite, shanties.

Which brings us to this week’s book, “Shelters, Shacks and Shanties,” by D.C. Beard.

With the seasonal housing crunch in play and rent prices rising here in Seward, there has never been a better time to construct your own shifty shack or shingled shed.

Single? Married with kids? Seventeen cats? No matter what your living situation, Mr. Beard has an abode for you.

If I might make a recommendation, the “Barbara” is quite lovely. This ancient Bering Sea coast design emphasizes a spacious, warm and inviting interior complete with a vintage Streisand-esque motif that is simply to die for. There’s also room for expansion should there be a few more kittens on the way.

For the hermit or floodplain resident, how about the “Bog Ken?” Perfect for marshy ground, this humble residence has everything a lone wolf could need.

The options are as endless as your imagination when you reside an imperial 4-1/2 feet above ground. This model also comes with optional “varmint guards” that are highly recommended. As they say in the business, “They won’t get you none if you got your gun, but for the times you don’t, there’s varmint guards.”

So what do you say? With a book this good, there’s no reason not to move on up to the East side.

That’s over near Mount Alice here in our town I suppose. And hey, don’t forget who introduced you when you get that bigger piece of the pie. Could you ask for rhubarb?

Ryan Reynolds can be found at the Seward Library smelling old books and sometimes wearing argyle socks. He can be reached at 224-4082 or rreynolds@cityofseward.net.

Power generation changes to be blowing into Seward soon

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:41:00 -0800

After searching high and low for an alternative to the skyrocketing costs of fuel and electricity, Dennis and Theresa Butts finally found a reliable source of affordable energy for their business, Quality Marine of Alaska.

They purchased a Skystream 3.7 wind generator.

The wind generator, often called a turbine, is promoted by owners of the product as being quiet, unobtrusive, economical and Earth-friendly. It also periodically produces a surplus of energy that flows back into the local utility grid for other residents to use.

Here’s how the system works, as interpreted from information on the product Website, skystreamenergy.com:

The wind turbine is connected to a home or business by an underground 220 volt line that channels electricity first through a safety disconnect switch, then into the property owner’s breaker box and building where the energy is eventually used.

Since this particular system requires a building to remain connected to public utility lines, property owners always have power if the public utility is working, as the utility serves as a back-up supply of power if the wind stops blowing.

When the wind turbine is producing power, the building automatically uses that energy first. If more energy is needed, it is drawn from the public utility.

When high winds blow for a long time, or if a building’s energy use slows, power flows back into the public utility, which causes the electric meter to spin backwards. This energy can then be used later when there is no wind, or it may be transferred to other users.

In 37 states, where people are implementing similar systems for generating sustainable, renewable clean power, many utility companies are offering credit, or even paying for excess power that flows back into their grid for other residents to use.

In Alaska, even though no law requires it yet, Golden Valley Electric in Fairbanks offers such a program. According to Butts, Homer Electric is currently establishing a similar method of compensating independent energy producers as well, although at the time this story went to press calls to the utility for verification of this fact had not been returned.

The Butts and Cliff Young — who said that he’s been trying since May to get permission from the electric utility to connect the same model of wind generator to the grid at his Box Canyon Cabins — claim that they don’t want money for extra power that their systems generate.

They simply want the nod to erect their own sources of power in preparation for what is perceived as a never-ending escalation of energy costs, according to both parties.

After the Butts purchased their wind tower from Susitna Energy in Anchorage, they had Metco pour a concrete base, which was designed by an engineer of the tower’s manufacturing company, Southwest Windpower.

Certified technicians from Service Electric were scheduled to install necessary electrical components last week.

The only item left on the Butts’ to-do list before putting their alternate source of power to use was to gain a stamp of approval from the city utility manager for connecting their wind generator to the existing power grid.

“The turbine won’t work if it’s not connected to the utility grid,” Theresa Butts said.

“One of the main concerns that the city seems to have about these systems is the issue of safety when they’re back-feeding into the utility lines,” Young said. “But not only is the turbine designed to shut down if the power goes out, it can be manually shut off at the building by flipping the disconnect switch if it makes the repairmen feel better when they’re working on the lines.”

Young, who estimates the total cost of buying and installing a Skystream 3.7 at nearly $13,000, said that he suspects the city is nervous about getting in a position where it might have to pay residents money for power that’s generated through independent systems.

“That’s not why I’m doing this,” he said. “I’m not trying to get them to pay me for my power. I’m trying to get ahead of the power curve — to offset high costs. Things are getting so expensive anymore, and I figure, according to the prices we pay for everything right now, we’ll have the thing paid for in about four years.”

Utility manager Tim Barnum said that the city is not intentionally holding up the installation of wind turbines.

Instead, delays appear to be the result of residents being ready for a change in power production before the utility has policies in place to accommodate those changes.

“The electric utility is attempting to work with (the Butts) and others that have made similar requests,” he said. “The process of interconnecting with a utility grid is somewhat complicated. The requirements to ensure safety and to determine the rate structures are detailed,” Barnum said.

“The electric utility does not currently have a tariff for purchasing ‘non-firm’ power from any potential power suppliers. We have not been able to develop the full scope of requirements for equipment, testing, verification and payment schedules needed to allow any interconnection to take place,” he said.

The Butts, who were scheduled to meet with Barnum and City Manager Phillip Oates after this article was written for further discussion, said they want communications about the issue to remain positive.

“I see this as a really great thing,” Theresa Butts said. “This turbine is the cream-of-the-crop, designed specifically for grid connection, and is being used successfully across the country. We anticipate being able to accommodate any reasonable mandate by the utility without much trouble.”

Gail Richards is a Seward artist and freelance writer. She can be reached at 224-2426 or gail@gailrichardsart.com.