MEHS Founders Week
Dear Editor: The 2013-2014 Mt. Edgecumbe High School Founders Week was a success. I am proud to say that there were a multitude of people who came together to help me plan such a wonderful event, and for that I am grateful.
First of all, I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. John Pingayak and Mr. Bill Stevens for spending their valuable time with us here at our campus; we took away so much knowledge from your visit here. From all of us here at MEHS, thank you.
I would also like to acknowledge the following people for their hard work and dedication: without you, Founders Week wouldn’t have been the same: Michael Mahoney and our amazing MEHS student council, Bobbi McNeley and Shanelle Afcan for stepping up and being awesome members of the Founders Week planning committee, the both of you helped make Founders Week happen.
I want to thank the very talented members of Haa Toow’u Litseen, the Gajaa Heen dance group, the Noow Tlein dance group, the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi dance group, the Sitka Kaagwaantaan dance group and our very own members of the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Inupiaq dance group and their adviser Naomi Rambo, and last but not least, the members of the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Athabascan dance group and their adviser Kristin Scotchmer. Every single member of these beautiful groups made our opening ceremony a performance to remember.
I don’t want to forget to express my appreciation to my co-workers here at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. John Wathen, you and your crew made an excellent founders banquet, thank you. To Andrew Friske and Carl Blackhurst, thank you both for making sure all of the odds-and-ends were taken care of, your time and efforts were much appreciated. Also, a warm thank you to Shirley Perkins, Kristin Scotchmer, Allison Sayer, Jacob Stappler, Tony Haskins and Bryn Calhoun, thank you for lending a much needed hand during the various events fo the week. Once again, thank you, everybody. I hope next year’s celebration is just as great and memorable.
Blossom Twitchell,
Cultural Coordinator,
Mt. Edgecumbe High School
One of a Kind
Dear Editor: It is still hard to believe that Carolyn Westover Hammack has been taken from us here on earth. So many memories of Carolyn and her family over the years. Carolyn’s family owned and operated Lakeside Grocery here in Sitka for, I believe, 50-plus years.
I had the pleasure of working for and with Carolyn for 12 of those years. I have to say she was one of my best bosses and a true friend. She had high standards and work ethics for her employees and also truly cared about the health and well-being of not only the people who worked for her, but also the community of Sitka. I consistently witnessed her giving of herself to those around her, whether it was an ear to listen to those struggling with problems or giving groceries to people who didn’t have money or giving money to people to get them through until payday. She epitomized what it meant to be your brother’s keeper.
She knew most everyone in Sitka and she didn’t hesitate to get involved when she felt the need. I remember one occasion where a mother with five kids left the store and left one of her kids behind (evidently didn’t do a head count.) Carolyn took the child in her car to try to find out where the girl lived and return her to the mother. Another time a confused resident of the Pioneers Home locked their keys in their still-running car, so Carolyn called the Pioneers Home while calming the resident. There are numerous stories like these. Carolyn will truly be missed but will live on in our hearts.
Deanna Rogers Bennett, Sitka
White E Donation
Dear Editor: This week Sitka Counseling received a generous donation from the White Elephant.
The donations included our Family Center, Harbor Lights, Clinical, Mary’s Place and Aurora’s Watch programs. This donation will be used to grow our programs. Family Center has asked for supplies and activities for youths in the spring and summer programs. The Harbor Lights programs will be planning some extra adult client activities and lunches. The clinical program will be using the funds for client books, supplies and food. Mary’s Place will be purchasing household items, art supplies and bus/gym passes for the women. The Aurora’s Watch program will use their donation for client toiletries, graduation ceremony items and activities for the men. Sitka Counseling would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the Sitka White Elephant Shop for their continued support of our agency.
Amy Zanuzoski, Executive Director, Sitka Counseling
and Prevention Services
By Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Alaska State Legislature
Like a good story, most legislative sessions have a narrative. Last session’s narrative was simple and wholesome: the passage of a multi-billion dollar tax cut for oil companies. And by golly, we got the job done with SB 21, which passed the Senate 11-9, and fulfilled its unfortunate destiny by a vote of 27-12 on the floor of the House of Representatives at 2:07 a.m. in the wee hours of April 14, 2013. (I was among the dozen dissenters.)
Fast forward to 2014. ConocoPhillips just reported $2.3 billion in annual profit from its Alaska operations. BP and ExxonMobil are each suffering in similar fashion. My bleeding heart is practically hemorrhaging with compassion.
Meanwhile, having surrendered billions of dollars of Alaska’s oil to BP, Conoco, and Exxon, the State of Alaska is contemplating the meaning of a $2.2 billion deficit.
2014: The Deficit Session
So we’re short $2.2 billion. What’s the big deal anyway?
It means we’re going broke. We’re sitting on $16 billion savings, so we’re not broke yet. But we will be soon — around 2024, give or take a few years.
What are we going to do?
Choose your cliché: “tough choices”; “hard decisions”; yadda yadda yadda.
What are the tough choices in real and specific terms? Within the next decade, the Legislature needs to:
– slash the state budget (by billions and billions) in a way that would make the Demon Barber of Fleet Street blush;
– reclaim a fair share of the billions of dollars coming from our God-given oil resource on the North Slope;
– dramatically increase oil production;
– raid the $50 billion lying ever so innocently in the Permanent Fund and use the interest — or if we’re incredibly short-sighted, the principal — to pay for government;
– establish a statewide income and/or sales tax;
– align the stars and (perhaps more difficult:) BP, Conoco, and Exxon and build the much ballyhooed $45 billion natural gas pipeline that will generate ~$2 billion in annual royalties and tax revenues; or
– pick some combination of the above.
Talk about a buzzkill, huh? It’s a menu for the political masochist, although some of those choices are more palatable than others, and one of the choices you, dear voter, will make when the SB 21 referendum appears on the August ballot.
Weird Weather
On Jan. 27, Lake Clark recorded a temperature of 62°F. That’s the highest temperature recorded anywhere in Alaska in January – ever.
Juneau weather – particularly the fog – has been funky, too. Don’t laugh! I appreciate that “Juneau fog” is the opposite of an oxymoron. But Juneau-ites who’ve lived here for 60 years say they’ve never seen fog this bad. For the 90 days of session, Alaska Airlines runs the Alaska equivalent of the Berlin Airlift, shuttling citizens, lobbyists, staffers, legislators, and curious onlookers in and out of the only roadless capital city in the United States.
But when the Mendenhall fog rolls in, and when it lingers for days and even weeks, the planes don’t fly and Juneau fills with political refugees. People in the capitol were muttering that upwards of 1,000 people were stuck in Juneau waiting for flights out, and that hundreds more were stuck in Sitka, Ketchikan, and Seattle waiting for flights in. (Clearly, President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State Seward got it right by crowning Sitka as Alaska’s capital before Juneau swiped it from us in 1906.)
In a shameless maneuver for higher ratings, Gavel-to-Gavel, which normally carries live TV coverage of the legislature, started broadcasting a live feed of the weather at the Juneau Airport.
