February 3, 2015 Community Happenings

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 03 February 2015 11:33

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Fishing Vessel

Drill Conductor

Workshop on Tap

The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association will offer a 12-hour fishing vessel drill conductor workshop 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, and 8 a.m.-noon Thursday, Feb. 19, at NSRAA, 1308 Sawmill Creek Road.

The workshop is to give commercial fishermen and other mariners hands-on training with marine safety equipment and learn best practices for surviving emergencies at sea.

Instructor Mike Morris will cover: cold-water survival skills; EPIRBs, flares and maydays; man-overboard recovery and firefighting; immersion suits and PFDs, helicopter rescue, life rafts, abandon ship procedures, and emergency drills. The session on Thursday morning contains an in-the-water practice session, weather permitting. In-the-water practice gives mariners practical experience with PFDs and immersion suits, employing survival techniques, and righting and boarding an inflatable life raft.

The workshops meet the training requirements for documented commercial fishing vessels operating beyond the federal boundary line. It is offered to commercial fishermen at no cost, with support from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. For more information or to register, contact AMSEA, 747-3287, www.amsea.org.

Mariners First Aid,

CPR Workshop Set

The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association will conduct a first aid and CPR workshop designed for commercial fishermen and other mariners 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20, at Centennial Hall.

Instructor Eric Van Cise will cover CPR and automatic external defibrillators (AED); treatment of choking; medical emergencies; trauma; environmental hazards; patient assessment; medical communications; drowning and hypothermia; and common fishing injuries.

Attendees will receive a U.S. Coast Guard accepted, two-year certificate issued by the American Safety and Health Institute. The cost for the workshop is $95. To register, call AMSEA at 747- 3287.

LGBTQIA2S, Allies

Meeting on Tap

Sitka LGBTQIA2S and Allies meet 2-3:30 p.m. on the last Sunday of each month at Pacific High School.

Allies may be Marginalized Orientations, Gender Identities and Intersex or All But Straight.

Individuals meet in a safe and supportive atmosphere, share stories and friendship to help the community appreciate the diversity of the community. All ages are invited.

LGBTQ Sitka and friends is available on Facebook. Call 510-610-0075 for more information.

Hospital Names Osborne

Health Promotion Director

Sitka Community Hospital has named Doug Osborne as its new director of health promotion

“Sitka has the potential to be one of the healthiest small towns in the country; I’m so excited to be joining the SCH team to help make this vision a reality,” Osborne said.

In 1995, Osborne graduated from Colorado State University with a bachelor degree in social work and arrived in Ketchikan as a VISTA volunteer.  After his year of service, he worked for two additional years in Ketchikan as the violence-free schools project coordinator at a domestic violence shelter called Women In Safe Homes. Osborne spent the next year working abroad as an exchange teacher/ambassador in Ketchikan’s sister city, Kanayama, Japan.

After returning to Alaska, Osborne and his wife Jami moved to Anchorage where he taught substance abuse prevention classes to high school students. In 2003, he graduated from Alaska Pacific University’s master of arts program, where he studied health and education. He then moved to Sitka.

“My wife Jami and I decided to pick a good place to live and then find jobs, as opposed to the other way around which is what we’d done in the past,’’ Osborne said. ‘‘We took a couple of years and looked up and down the Northwest Coast. We decided that Sitka had the right quality of life mix: natural beauty, clean air, safe streets, trails, art, diversity, a good library, a sense of community, short commutes, etc. Picking Sitka was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.”  

From 2003 to 2013 Osborne worked as a health educator IV in SEARHC’s Health Promotion Department. After that he worked in SEARHC’s Human Resources Department for a year as the employee wellness, recognition and training coordinator.

Osborne has provided facilitation services to numerous teams, worked on Sitka’s bicycle friendly community project, served on the Sitka Local Foods Network board and been on the Sitka Health Summit coalition since its inception in 2007.

Osborne’s wife, Jami Guinn-Osborne, works in Sitka as a counselor and their daughter Darby is in Mrs. Bahrt’s fifth grade class at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School. 

Saxophonist, Composer Kostur

At Sitka Jazz Festival Feb. 5-7

Glen Kostur. (Photo provided)

Saxophonist Glenn Kostur will perform during the Feb. 5-7 Sitka Jazz Festival at the Sitka Performing Arts Center.

Kostur has performed frequently in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area. For three years Kostur was saxophonist, composer/arranger and musical director for jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, with whom he appeared on three recordings – “Big Bop Nouveau,” “Footpath Cafe” and “Live From London.”

As a freelance performer in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago and Albuquerque, Kostur has worked with jazz artists  Woody Herman Orchestra, the Louie Bellson Band, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Al Hirt, Joe Williams, Randy Brecker, Bobby Shew, Bob Mintzer, Slide Hampton and James Moody; and popular performers Tony Bennett, Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Olivia Newton-John, Johnny Mathis, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Joel Gray, Harry Connick Sr., Wayne Newton, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, and The Temptations.

He has been on the music faculty at the University of New Mexico as the director of jazz studies since 1995, conducting jazz band I, the premiere jazz ensemble in the program. He also teaches jazz improvisation and coaches jazz combos. As a jazz educator, Kostur has been a clinician and guest performer at schools throughout the United States, and recently conducted the All Northwest Jazz Band featuring high school students chosen from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington and Wyoming.

He has also conducted high school all-state jazz groups in Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota and Texas.

Now in its 20th year, the Sitka Jazz Festival works to bring professional jazz musicians from around the world to Sitka to teach, inspire, and perform. The festival strives to teach music appreciation, skills, history, artistic expression and cross-cultural understanding through jazz in a supportive environment.

Visiting artists and local educators provide clinics in jazz history, jazz theory, and jazz improvisation, as well as a variety of individual instrument and section-specific workshops. 

For more information go to www.sitkajazzfestival.com.

Clock Ticking on Enrolling

At Insurance Marketplace 

The Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace open enrollment ends Feb. 15.

To assist those who are not insured, SEARHC is partnering with UAS-Sitka Campus to provide the last two group enrollments and question-and-answer sessions.

After Feb. 15 individuals will not be able to purchase their own health coverage unless they meet special enrollment requirements, and possibly pay a high tax penalty next year. Signing up for insurance now will ensure coverage starts March 1.

The next two group enrollments/question and answer sessions will be 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, and 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, at UAS in the Student Success Center. Trained staff will assist with answering questions, creating accounts, adding required information, understanding eligibility for financial assistance, and explaining insurance options and enrollment.

Those who prefer free individual assistance can call SEARHC, a certified application counselor agency, at 966-8662 or 966-8883 to set up an appointment. This is a free service for everyone.

“Group enrollments are a great way to get your questions answered as you work your way through the www.healthcare.gov website,” said Andrea Thomas, outreach and enrollment Manager for SEARHC. “Now is the time to take care of your health insurance before enrollment ends on February 15.”

Anyone attending the group enrollment events must have an email address, household income information, dates of birth and Social Security numbers for all family members needing insurance, and immigration documents if applicable.

People enrolled in the Marketplace in 2014 received notices that their insurance premiums have increased. In order to receive the lowest price available, call the Health Insurance Marketplace at 1-800-318-2596 and provide 2015 income information, even if it has stayed the same. Tax credits will be increased and the monthly cost will be lower.

Three ways are available to apply for health coverage on the Health Insurance Marketplace – get individual assistance with SEARHC, call the Marketplace’s toll-free 24-hour line at 1-800-318-2596 to enroll over the phone, or go to  www.healthcare.gov and enroll online.

For more information, call Andrea Thomas at 966-8883 or Allison McIntyre at 966-8662.

‘The Lowland’

Read by Group

The Women’s Book Group will discuss ‘‘The Lowland,’’ by Jhumpa Lahiri, at the Pioneers Home Chapel 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10.

Those with questions may call Dorothy at 747-3412.

Love the Tongass

Gathering Feb. 15

Sitkans are invited to join the staff and board of the Sitka Conservation Society for an evening filled with food, conversation and idea sharing 4-6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, at the Swan Lake Senior Center.

The We Love the Tongass Gathering will discuss tiny homes, local wood, climate change, 4-H programming and Tongass timber sales. Ideas about how to promote sustainable communities in Southeast Alaska are needed.

The annual meeting is free and open to the public. For more information call 747-7509 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Family Skate

Set for Friday

Open family skate night will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, at Blatchley Middle School multipurpose room

The cost is $2 for students, $4 adults and $8 for a family. Limited skates and sizes are available for rent at $2 each.

For more information call Sitka Community Schools at 747-8670.

Sitka Skippers 

Chocolate Sale

The Sitka Skippers will be selling World’s Finest Chocolate 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, and noon-4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, at AC Lakeside Grocery.

All Heat Pump

Rebates Have

Been Claimed

The City of Sitka electric department is no longer taking applications for its heat pump rebate program.

The electric department has taken 66 applications from Sitka residents for the $750 rebate over five weeks, and  has now expended the $50,000 in available funding.

Call Carole at 747-4000 with questions.

Pistol Leagues

Set to Begin

The Sitka Sportsman’s Association announces the start of winter pistol leagues. Shooters of all ability levels are welcome.

The rimfire league will begin 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, and the centerfire league starts 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5.

The cost is $30 plus association membership fees and a range card, which covers range time and targets for 12 weeks. Membership and range cards are also required.

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