Remembering Little John
Dear Editor: It was the spring of 1977, when I first met J.P., Little John, or as most in Sitka know him by, John Polivka. We were stall mates at Old Thomsen Harbor. He had a beautiful new troller, the Sunse, which looks every bit as good now as it did back then. He went to great lengths to keep her looking and running as good as new.
Over all those ensuing years, I hardly ever fished around John. Mostly because he was always where the fish were, and I wasn’t. For me, fishing was a way of life. For John, it was his life. He was totally obsessed and consumed by it. I think he thought that every fish in the ocean was his, and he would do just about anything to catch every last one of them. He was one of the first to leave the harbor and one of the last ones in. His relentless passion persisted all the way to the very end. It is only fitting that he spent his final hours on his boat in one of his favorite spots, during his favorite time of year.
There are plenty of John stories to go around and I know there are some fishermen who won’t miss him out on the drag, but John also had another side that a lot of people don’t know about. Quite a while back, a good friend and fellow fisherman was dying of lung cancer and John went to see him every day, even after he couldn’t respond, and he did the same for other ailing friends through the years. He did a lot of good things for his family, and helped out friends, whether in need, or simply because he wanted to support their endeavors. He was indeed a compassionate man.
About 15 years ago, John started coming down here to eastern Oregon for our annual hunting trip. He usually stayed about 10 days, hunting chuckars, ducks, and geese. Most of the time John didn’t get anything, so we just called John’s skunk days, a John. “Oh, John got a John,” we would say. He was fun to tease and always took it in stride. He did get a few birds, though, and was pretty happy about it when he did, especially when my dogs brought his ducks to me to pick. I guess even the dogs couldn’t believe he could actually hit one of them.
The last couple of years he was here, he was having some health issues, so we spent most of our time duck hunting right by our house, close to where all the food was. For a guy that barely weighed a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet he could really put away the groceries. My wife would always make sure John had plenty of chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, cakes, and pies. He loved those sweets, but he wasn’t bashful about eating just about anything. I know he enjoyed the food and the companionship as much as the hunting.
For the past two years, John wasn’t able to come here due to his medical issues, but we stayed connected via the phone and visits during the August closure. In fact, just a month ago I got to visit with John at Crescent Harbor a few times. I had no idea it would be for the last time.
In all the time John spent down here we hardly ever talked about fishing. Most of the topics were religion, politics hunting, family, sports and friends. He was genuinely concerned and interested in my kids and grandkids. Over the years, I got to know John pretty well. He was definitely one of a kind. He was good company, and a good, caring, decent man. We became good friends, and I will dearly miss him, as will a lot of others. As for the fishing fleet, it just won’t be the same without Little John on the Sunse, bow poles pointing at your bow, scooping up the salmon, winter, spring, summer and fall, in the waters of Southeast.
I will always be grateful for the time that we shared, up in Alaska and down here. We had some good times and made some great memories. And every time I get a “John,” it will bring some of those memories back. Whoever thought that getting skunked could be such a good thing.
Dennis Beam, Richland, Oregon
Supports Himschoot
Dear Editor: We are supporting Rebecca Himschoot for a seat on our local Assembly this year. Rebecca has demonstrated her commitment to Sitka through her long residency in our town and her years of dedicated service as a teacher at Keet Gooshi Heen.
These are difficult times. As owners of a business that has been seriously impacted by the pandemic, we are deeply concerned about the future of tourism in Sitka and our local economy as a whole. We need Assembly members who will listen to business owners and partner with us to solve problems. Our company leaders met with Rebecca to share our concerns, and we believe she will take a thoughtful, nonpartisan approach to making sure our city government does what is right for Sitka.
Dave and Lauren Allen,
Owners, Allen Marine Tours
& Alaska Dream Cruises
Divisive
Dear Editor: Like many people in our community, I am deeply troubled by the words and actions of Marshall Albertson.
He seems to cling to an idea that he is representative of a bygone era, and that his divisive and hateful rhetoric will somehow help bring our town back to a simpler time of hard work, good pay, and minimal government oversight. He is so firm in his beliefs that he will readily insult and threaten his neighbors with death if they disagree.
Albertson is not a symbol of the old working class, he is the unfortunate product of our modern divisive social media culture.
Alaska has always had our fair share of outlaws, sure.
We have been, and always will be a state full of tough and often opinionated people, but we have to support one another to live in a place like this.
Liberals and conservatives have lived side by side in this community for years because everyone acknowledged that you had to be damn tough to live here.
Whether you vote Democrat or Republican, chances are you spend a good amount of your time hunting, fishing, or harvesting – and dealing with a lot of adverse weather to do it.
It takes a lot of grit to survive on this rugged coastline, which is why most of the liberals here own guns too.
Most of us have so much in common.
Unfortunately, Albertson has been convinced by modern partisan politics and social media conspiracies that anyone who disagrees with him is weak.
He has chosen to look past our common ground and instead bully and threaten anyone with an opinion he doesn’t like.
If he somehow gets elected he is going to have to come face to face with a community that is much more intelligent, tough, and resilient than he ever imagined.
I for one don’t believe he is up to the task of constructively serving this community.
Local government is not about being bullheaded and loud, it’s about listening and working together with people that you may disagree with. He has no track record of any such behavior.
Luckily, we have multiple other candidates that I feel would be valuable additions to our city Assembly.
Crystal Duncan and Rebecca Himschoot have both very much impressed me with their longtime dedication and service to this town and its future.
They have both been putting in work for years to make Sitka a better place for ALL of its community members.
I hope you will join me in ignoring the loudest voice this election, and choose the most thoughtful and articulate ones instead.
We all work hard to live here. Let’s elect people who work hard for us back.
Rowan Chevalier, Sitka
Sitka Kitch Benefit
Dear Editor: On Aug. 19, the Sitka Kitch hosted a takeout fundraising dinner with vegetarian Indian food prepared by Beak Restaurant, along with an online auction. The Sitka Kitch advisory team wants to thank everybody who helped make this event a major success.
This event originally was scheduled to take place as a sit-down dinner and silent auction event in mid-March, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We decided to change the format to a takeout meal with an online auction in July, and had about a month to get everything in order for our rescheduled event. We ended up serving 78 dinners, twice the number we could have served in a sit-down event.
Renée Trafton, owner-chef of Beak Restaurant and a member of our advisory team, spent a couple of days in the kitchen preparing the food, with assistance from her husband, Math, and daughter, Zoe. Additional thanks go to advisory team members Keith Nyitray of the Sitka Food Co-op, who helped get the food order in, set up the online auction site, and helped serve; Jasmine Shaw, who helped serve, secure auction donations, and helped plan the event; Chandler O’Connell and Charlotte Candelaria, who helped secure auction items and plan the event; and Charles Bingham, who helped with publicity and event-planning. Thanks also go to Toby Campbell and Grace Brooks for preparing the dessert.
In addition, we want to thank the people who donated auction items and trivia contest prizes – the Sitka Conservation Society for two art pieces, of a tufted puffin and a peregrine falcon, by Rhonda Reany; Keith Nyitray for a framed Eric Bealer woodcut print; Joshua Houston for a 30-minute drone lesson; Lione Clare for a 30-minute photography class; Kitty LaBounty for a fall mushroom walk; the Sitka Local Foods Network for an unsigned copy of Mark Winne’s book Food Town USA (which features Sitka), a 2020 Sitka Local Foods Network tote bag, and a 2019 Sitka Farmers Market tote bag; Carolyn Rice for a fresh-baked loaf of sourdough bread; Andrew Jylkka of Southeast Dough Co. for four small loaves of brioche bread; Renée Trafton for a signed copy of Mark Winne’s book Food Town USA, two Barnacle Foods kelp/seaweed samplers, and a Beak Restaurant gift certificate; Ted Howard for two music lessons on mandolin, fiddle, or guitar; Jasmine Shaw for a guest spot on her Transglobal Music Express radio show on KCAW-Raven Radio; Sarah Lewis of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service for two pots in any of her fall virtual cooking or food preservation classes; the Sitka Food Co-op for two organic chocolate gift baskets and a Sitka Food Co-op annual membership; and Spinning Moon Apothecary for a custom tea blend and a body care product as door prizes.
Finally, we want to thank all of the people who participated in this event by ordering a vegetarian Indian food meal (or two, or five) and buying items during our online auction.
After our expenses, we still raised more than $3,000. That will help us continue to offer cooking and food preservation classes, either virtually for now or back in the Sitka Lutheran Church kitchen when it’s deemed safe to return indoors. Please watch our website, www.sitkakitch.org; our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SitkaKitch; and our online registration page, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com, for when we start offering new classes.
Thanks again,
The Sitka Kitch advisory team
Chandler O’Connell,
Jasmine Shaw, Renée Trafton,
Keith Nyitray, Charles Bingham, Charlotte Candelaria
Airport Parking
Dear Editor: The overflow parking has been cordoned off for quite some time. Today I called the city and asked why. They referred me to the state.
I called the local state office. The person I spoke with said the land belongs to the state and the building belongs to the city. The state intends to keep the overflow parking area off limits because they don’t have the means to ticket or to tow those who take advantage and leave vehicles for long periods of time. Apparently the city used to provide that service but no longer does.
I then asked the state about the vehicle sitting by the side of Halibut Point Road and being systematically vandalized. Same story, the state said they don’t have the means to tow or ticket and the city isn’t helping them.
It was extremely hard to get to the airport early enough to find a spot in the seven-day parking near the terminal to begin with, and overflow parking, while not convenient was better than no parking. We had hoped the closed area meant expanded parking, not less.
I’m disappointed the city and state can’t come to an agreement for the betterment of travelers.
Alice Wolcott, Sitka
