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TURNAGAIN NEWS
Upper Photo: The Girdwood Rotary Club participates in a previous city-wide clean up along the Seward Highway. The 2024 Anchorage City Wide Cleanup lasts until June 2. (Photo by Jon Scudder)
Lower Photo: Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation is hosting the Natural History Symposium in Whittier, May 13,-14. (Photo by Michelle Goldstein)
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The Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation (PWSSF) is hosting their sixth annual Prince William Sound Natural History Symposium May 13-14, 2024, at the City Building in Whittier and online.
This year’s theme is “Hope for a Sustainable Prince William Sound.” Sessions on Monday, May 13th, are from 1-5 PM at the City Building in Whittier; this half day is geared towards the outdoor education and guiding community. Sessions on Tuesday, May 14th, will be presented in hybrid format (9AM-5PM at the City Building in Whittier and online via Zoom) and will feature the latest PWS news and research, including cultural history, marine life, landslide updates, and more. Both days are free and open to the public. Please register at https://princewilliamsound.org/2024nhs2024nhs. Recordings will be posted on princewilliamsound.org in June.
“PWSSF initially started the Natural History Symposium to provide high-quality information for the guides and other educators bringing visitors to our region. It quickly became popular with the general public and is now a highly anticipated annual community event with attendees from communities around Prince William Sound (PWS), the state of Alaska, and the Lower 48, as well as international viewers online,” shares Dr. Charla Hughes, PWSSF Executive Director. “The Symposium audience is not limited to day-of attendees: the session recordings we post each year are an excellent free community resource for educators and anyone interested in learning more about PWS.”
"I am so happy to see the Natural History Symposium continue to grow and evolve each year. This year we are expanding to two days of presentations with more than 25 experts. If you work or spend time in Prince William Sound, there is no better way to get informed and excited about the year ahead," says PWSSF Board Chair William Melton.
The PWS Science Center will also be hosting a watch party in Cordova on Tuesday, May 14th.
PWSSF is grateful to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the Oil Spill Recovery Institute at the PWS Science Center, the PWS Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, and their many partners and members for making this event possible.
(Article courtesy of Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation)
By: Brooks Chandler
TN Contributor
Girdwood's local government had a surplus of nearly $400,000 in its 2023 budget, savings that are a result of lower than expected costs for road maintenance, lower expenses for parks and the fire department's decision to hold off on buying a new fire truck.
Actual expenses for the Girdwood Valley Service Area in 2023 were $388,288 under budget.
This happy state of Valley financial affairs was reflected in a budget report prepared by Service Area Manager Kyle Kelley. The report was presented to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors on March 20.
Kelley identified several causes of the surplus, including lower than expected “intra-governmental charges”, a decision to retain $74,821 the fire department originally budgeted for an initial payment on a new truck, and lower than anticipated payments to the road contractor Western. Intragovernmental charges are what one Anchorage department charges the Girdwood Valley Service Area for work performed that either directly or indirectly benefits the service area. One example is maintenance work on buildings and equipment done by the Public Works department.
The fire chief had been concerned her department would run short of operating funds so the capital transfer for the fire truck was not made, Kelley told the Girdwood Board of Supervisors.
Ordinarily when it turns out the operating costs were on budget the planned transfer to capital would have been made before the end of the year. In addition, the budgeted initial loan payment of $80,000 anticipated to be paid in 2023 will not be due until the new vehicle is actually delivered in either late 2024 or early 2025.
Accounting staff shortages in the Anchorage Fire Department plus the need for the Anchorage Assembly to officially approve fund transfers prevented the pre-year-end transfer, Kelley said, adding that he anticipates the transfer will be made in 2024. The spread between budgeted and actual expenses for law enforcement was miniscule. The $807,619 police budget had a surplus of $3,703.14, an excess accounting for less than one-half of one percent of the budget. Mr. Kelley told GBOS the contract with the Whittier Police Department enables precise budgeting.
The Parks and Recreation budget had a 10 percent surplus of nearly $40,000. This surplus resulted in part from lower-than-expected intra-governmental charges and from the award of a grant from the Kenai Mountains Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area. The grant offset budgeted costs for work on the Beaver Pond trail.
Despite the vast amounts of snowfall in late 2023 the are road maintenance budget also had a 10 per cent surplus of $131,000. The road budget covers both plowing, grading and capital projects such as culvert replacements.
There will be a change in how capital projects are accomplished in 2024. Instead of working directly with the GVSA road contractor under the terms of a road contract, larger capital projects will be competitively bid Kelley told the board. He said this process is less efficient and whether it is more costly remains to be seen.
The entire $388,288 surplus is available for spending if GBOS makes a specific request to use the funds that is approved by the Anchorage Assembly.
Kelley said he recommends GBOS keeps $250,000 in “undesignated” funds for unanticipated expenses such as an equipment failure. Any amount above this could be kept in the bank, used for the first payment for the new fire truck, or spent on a capital project, Kelley said
During the March 20 work session GBOS members universally praised the fiscal management of Kelley and Margaret Tyler.
The full year end report can be accessed at https://www.muni.org/Departments/operations/streets/Service/GBOS/GVSA%202023%20Year%20in%20Review%20packet.pdf
By Brianna Sullivan
TN Contributor
Four Valleys Community School is organizing a team for participants from Girdwood. This is a free event with a fundraising goal for Breast Cancer Resources for women in Alaska.
The event is on Saturday, June 8. Register at AKRFWRegistration.org/team.
For information, email Beks at BBrumley@fourvalleys.org.
By Claire Stremple
Alaska’s American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against allowing local governments to punish people who sleep outside when adequate shelter is unavailable.
“Punishing a person who is forced to sleep in public because they have nowhere else to go violates our Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment,” the ACLU of Alaska wrote in a news release.
The organization joined a friend of the court brief in support of a lawsuit, Grants Pass v. Johnson.
Read the entire story at:
By Chase Berenson
TNews Contributor
Chugach Electric is anticipating 45-60 days of traffic control on the Seward Highway this May, June, and August to replace a transmission line between Girdwood to Indian, according to a March 12 presentation in Indian.
The 11-mile Girdwood to Indian section runs along the Seward Highway and is part of a 90.4 mile line running from Cooper Landing to Anchorage.
This line was built 62 years ago and is reaching its end of life.
Chugach has been replacing the line in sections. Thirty-six miles of the line and five sections have already been replaced. Once completed, this sixth piece of critical infrastructure will ensure reliability between hydroelectric plants on the Kenai Peninsula and power plants in the Anchorage area, according to a Chugach Electric spokesman.
The two primary presenters at the public meeting were Mike Miller of Chugach Electric and Jason Hodges of Northern Powerline Constructors (NPC), the project’s construction company.
They told 16 audience members that there will be only one planned outage to customers along the Turnagain Arm lasting 2-3 hours next year, there will be some travel disruptions on the Seward Highway this summer, and that safety is their top concern through the project. Work began earlier this month and is scheduled to conclude in April 2025.
Because the transmission line is fed by power sources to the north in the Anchorage area and the south on the Kenai, the flow of power into the Turnagain Arm communities largely won’t be directly impacted while the line is being replaced, presenters said. Girdwood, meanwhile, will still receive power from the south while Bird Creek and Indian will still receive power from the north.
Read entire story at:
https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/work-underway-on-girdwood-to-indian-power-line
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By: Brooks Chandler
Itching to get your fingers dirty and grow your own? Plots are available in Girdwood’s community garden. Though currently snow covered the Community Garden is soon to be a thriving green space located between the Girdwood Chapel and Girdwood Brewery on Girdwood Chapel property.
The garden is a project of Turnagain Community Services, Inc., a Girdwood-based non-profit organization. TCS President Alice Simmons said the garden aims to provide sustainability, unity and growth for Girdwood residents.
Betty Charnon, TCS board member and volunteer, manages the garden.
She said the garden includes one plot dedicated to growing produce for another TCS endeavor, the community Food Pantry.
The garden is more than just a place to grow food and flowers, According to Charnon.
“It serves as a gathering spot for neighbors to come together, share knowledge and build lasting friendships,” she said.
Annual fees to offset operating costs are $25 per season. Needs-based discounts are available.
Charnon said those interested in having a plot (which includes access to space in the new greenhouse!) can fill out the application form available at: https://www.girdwoodchapel.com/community-garden/ (or: email TurnagainCommunityServices@gmail.com or call 907-783-0127) to request an application form).
On May 18, the Community Garden is holding a plant sale fundraiser. The sale will feature mature and starter annuals and perennials and perhaps some veggi starts. The sale will be held at the Girdwood Brewery from 11 am to 4 p.m.
(The writer is a board member of Turnagain Community Services, Inc).
Change of Sitzmark Time is 12 to 3 pm Saturday.
Attorney and lifelong Alaskan Cabot Charles Christianson, 71, died on March 3, 2024, from cardiac arrest, while skiing with his family at Alyeska Resort. Cabot was born in Sitka, Alaska, on Dec. 20, 1952, where his parents homesteaded an island in Sitka Sound.
For Cabot, "The Island" was a magical place to grow up, which led to his lifelong passion for wild and natural places and the sea. He later moved to the Lower 48 to live with his mother during the school year, with summers in Sitka. Cabot graduated from high school in Norwalk, Conn. A scholar-athlete, he excelled in math, captained the chess team and won the Connecticut State Wrestling Championship. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1975, with a B.A. in economics with high honors. In 1978, Cabot graduated from Stanford Law School and moved to Anchorage, Alaska, to begin a 46-year law career specializing in commercial law and bankruptcy.
Cabot was an outdoorsman and adventurer. He kayaked from Seattle to Sitka in college, a 40-day, 800-mile voyage with a friend in a two-man kayak, subsisting on peanut butter, chocolate and clams. He hiked the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada and hunted mountain goat on Baranof Island.
In 1983, Cabot married Cynthia Pickering, also an attorney. For over four decades they skied, sailed and kayaked, and built and frequented their cabins, in Kliuchevoi Bay near Sitka, in Girdwood, Alaska, and in the San Juan Islands. One of their favorite trips was skiing and dogsledding at Wonder Lake. But, their biggest adventure was raising their three boys: Nicholas, Charles and Kieffer. Cabot is fondly remembered enjoying stories with his sons in the evenings, from Treasure Island to Sherlock Holmes.
Homestead life fostered the ingenuity and self-reliance which were hallmarks of the man Cabot became. His children refer to his ability to solve building and other off-grid challenges, as his "island boy skills." Cabot's work life as an attorney was no less creative, where his attention to detail and facility with numbers shone. Cabot was devoted to his clients and found great satisfaction in helping Alaskans with their businesses. From a recent client, "He took care of my company like it was his own."
Cabot believed in the power of education. He served as an elected member of the Anchorage School Board, and as trustee for schools and a children's camp.
Cabot was noted for his quiet charisma. His wife said "He had an elegant mind." Cabot's boys said that he challenged them to be the best version of themselves and encouraged them to attack seemingly insurmountable problems head-on.
Cabot is survived by his wife, Cynthia; children, Nicholas (Sarah), Charles (Courtney) and Kieffer (Josefin); grandchildren, August, Astrid and Estelle; mother, Faith Medlin; and siblings, Kord, Thor (Jessica) and Tanya. His father Warren Christianson predeceased him. A Celebration of Life will be held in Cabot's honor at the Sitzmark in Girdwood on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 3 p.m. A church service will be held at 10 a.m., on May 11, at Our Lady of the Snows in Girdwood. The family has requested that remembrances be made in the form of contributions in Cabot’s name to the Sitka Conservation Society, the Food Bank of Alaska or WildSalmonCenter.org. (Obituary donated by the family)
By Soren Wuerth
TNews Editor
A small avalanche broke loose in the early morning hours from Alyeska's headwall prompting the ski resort to close two ski lifts and its tram on the last day of the company's spring Slush Cup carnival.
"Just in the manner of safety," said Duane Stutzman, mountain manager for the Resort. "There were no injuries, no damage, nothing like that. Just a pure safety and cautionary move on our part to enhance the safety of our guests and our resort employees."
The slide, which occurred at 2 a.m., will not impact Sunday's Slush Cup activities and the Resort will still have its "Passholder's Day" Monday, albeit with only Chairs Three and Seven open, Stutzman said.
He said closing the lifts and the tram was a collaborative decision of the Resort's snow safety team and its mountain operations department.
"It's not how we wanted to end the season," he said. "We debated whether to not continue those two events [Passholder's Day and an employee party] and thought we should just go ahead and continue it just on a limited basis."
The slide is the second on the mountain in a year. An avalanche May 11 swept down the mountain from its north face to just behind Alyeska's hotel, displacing pond water from two kettles above.
In its final forecast for the season, the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Centerhas rated avalanche potential as "considerable" for the area.
"This is a spring wet slide, mother nature-triggered," Stutzman said.
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Great Land Trust has been working with Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) Heritage land Bank and GCI to conserve 300 acres of important hillside watershed features that are critical to sustaining the vibrant habitat of the Potter’s Marsh, located between Golden View Drive to the east and Old Seward Highway.
“We are thrilled how this project is proceeding and it is nice to be doing a project in Anchorage at this scale as these opportunities are few and far between,'“ said Dave Mitchell, Conservation Director with Great Land Trust.
“We select our projects based on prioritizations that look at wetlands and anadromous streams and adjacency to protected areas and we try to collect all the data we can and rank and put it into GIS and rank land based on conservation value,” he added. “This property actually ranked number one.”
Set between the old and new Seward highways, Potter Marsh is a portion of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge is Anchorage’s gateway to Turnagain Arm. The new Potter Marsh Watershed Park will be owned, operated and maintained by the MOA Parks and Recreation Department.
With the snowfall and on the brink of the thrilling world of winter sports, enthusiasts from Southcentral Alaska have the opportunity for skill enhancement through structured lessons at Alyeska Resort.
As Alyeska Resort staff gear up for the winter season, the demand for lessons is expected to soar. Whether carving down beginner trails or conquering advanced slopes, enthusiasts are increasingly recognizing the pivotal role of structured instruction in unlocking their full skiing or snowboarding potential.
Read the entire story by clicking the headline or at:
Alyeska Resort's owners laid out a sweeping vision for Girdwood's upper valley Thursday night, one of a "village", parking lots, recreational facilities, a conference center, a daycare center and other amenities.
About 150 people attended the meeting which was billed as a "town hall" meeting held amid platefuls of cookies and snacks in the weathered Sitzmark Bar, with its indigo paisley stained glass ceiling and worn, burnished booths.
The Girdwood Fire Department was amongst several fire departments to receive life-saving rescue tools aiding first responders in expediting the extrication of crash victims.
Family members of former Girdwood resident Dusty Green stand in front of the’Forest Fair ol Hoppin Barley Stage after being given a heartfelt upgrade with volunteer hours from Girdwood volunteer craftsmen.
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