- GLACIER CITY -GAZETTE

LOCALLY OWNED AND PRODUCED IN GIRDWOOD, ALASKAVOLUME 1 / ISSUE 1 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016

By Marc Donadieu

Glacier City Gazette

Gov. Bill Walker and First Lady Donna Walker were in attendance at the annual Girdwood 2020 Ban-quet on Jan. 30, held at the Alyeska Resort. Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was also there, as were many prominent business lead-ers from the area. The banquet is Girdwood 2020’s largest fundraiser of the year, and the proceeds go to-ward advancing the organization’s mission.

Sen. Dan Sullivan was originally supposed to be the keynote speak-er, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski was scheduled to attend, but both need-ed to be in Washington D.C. Sen. Sullivan’s wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, gave the keynote speech instead.

The evening began with everyone gathering and greeting each other while examining the items for si-lent auction arrayed throughout the room. Bidders wrote their names and price on a sheet of paper until only the highest bid remained. Some of the items in silent auction that stood out were a half-day snowmo-bile tour for two from Glacier City Snowmobile Tours; a Spencer Gla-cier float trip for two from Chugach

Adventures; a private, 1-hour Nor-dic Ski Lesson by Chelsea Holmes; and a snow bike adventure for one on Girdwood trails with Burntski, Brian Burnett.

After the Caesar salad was served and consumed, Gov. Walker took to the podium smiling broadly and looking relaxed. He spoke for about 13 minutes, starting off with funny reminiscence about beginning his honeymoon at the old Sitzmark Ho-tel in Girdwood and how his wife’s minor skiing accident caused a ma-jor change in the evening’s plans. After the governor had the audience engaged, he turned to serious mat-ters facing Alaska.

“It’s important in tough times we don’t lose focus of our vision,” Walker said. “We still have a great Alaska. We still have the best state in the union.”

After the applause from that dec-laration died down, Walker began identifying different ways of view-ing where Alaska is fiscally, espe-cially with the plunging price of oil. He challenged listeners to view Alaska’s financial predicament as an opportunity and as a chance to bring Alaskans together. As an example, he described a photo given to him by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallot.

“We need to be pulling together,” Walker said, “just like the picture I talked about in the State of the State. When Byron gave me this picture of Metlakatla with people in the river-bed with the rope. It looked kind of confusing to me. It was early 1900s. That’s how they pulled stumps in Metlakatla in the 1900s. The whole community got together and pulled on the ropes and pulled the stumps up. On the bottom, Byron had writ-ten in hand, ‘Governor, this is what we’re doing. We’re pulling togeth-er,’ and he’s right.”

Mayor Berkowitz followed the governor and spoke for about three minutes to encourage the audience to look at the positives in Alaska in face of a bleak economic forecast. In his call for fresh thinking, he cited the predicament faced by Girdwood residents when the Alaska State Troopers pull out of the Girdwood post on June 30, 2016.

“I think of Girdwood with what’s happened in the last six months,” said Berkowitz. “The trooper post got closed down. What did Gird-wood do? They said, ‘We’re going to get our own police department going, take care of ourselves.’ That’s

Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarleneAn ermine at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center peeks its head from underneath its shelter in one of the fur bearing mammals exhibits.

Girdwood 2020 Banquet brings Governor Walker to Alyeska Resort

Marc Donadieu / Glacier City GazetteGovernor Bill Walker speaks during the annual Girdwood 2020 Banquet. The case of Dom Perignon champagne at the governor’s feet was up for auction later at the organization’s largest fund-raiser of the year.

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Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 2 Glacier City Gazette

Welcome to the first issue of the Glacier City Gazette. We are a new, community-oriented newspaper cov-ering the Turnagain Arm region and its people in a fresh, exciting way.

The Glacier City Gazette will be published on the sec-ond and fourth Wednesdays of the month, sent to P.O. boxes, and distributed to businesses throughout the area.

The Glacier City Gazette was formed to work with other writers and photogra-phers to feature their work about this region. We have a lot of interesting and tal-ented people here, so why not give them a chance for publication? There is so much to learn and so many varied experiences to be had while covering local news. We wish to share this en-thusiasm with others, in-spire them, and show you the results.

One way to do that is to emphasize excellent pho-tography from talented local photographers who capture the area’s beauty throughout

the seasons. Turnagain Arm is dynamic region where the light, tides, and weather are always changing, which leads to amazing photos. Our goal is to celebrate them on the front page and throughout the paper.

The same concept applies to the people who live here

and to the influx of people throughout the seasons. This region attracts people from all over the world, so there is always something new and different in the mix. We strive to cover the new and familiar while looking ahead to the chang-es that will come.

As the paper grows and hits its stride in the upcom-ing months, there will be ways to get it more engaged with the community and be responsive to its needs and concerns. We want news that is accurate, knowledge-able, and well written be-cause credibility and reputa-

tion are essential. We also want features, profiles, pho-tos from events, and other news bits that are interest-ing, playful, and creative to showcase the Turnagain Arm communities.

The same idea applies to photography. We want im-ages that are thoughtfully

composed and have dra-matic impact, whether it is a skier jumping, a stunning landscape, people playing, or wildlife.

I wish to thank my mother Phyllis Donadieu, who was an elementary teacher who taught me to read and write. I thank my father, a career newpaper editor, who gave me my first chance to get published and showed me the value of rigorous edit-ing. Then there is my won-derful wife Lesley de Jaray, who has been incredibly supportive in untold ways. My last thanks go to Mat-thew Bailey, our graphic de-signer/webmaster who has given me invaluable ideas and help, and Marlene Buc-cione, our Chief Photogra-pher, who has been incred-ibly helpful with her advice and support.

We’re off to an exciting start. I hope you enjoy the Glacier City Gazette as it de-velops in the future. Let the journey begin!

Marc DonadieuPublisher / Editor-in-Chief

The Glacier City Gazette Begins

Glacier City Gazette© 2016 Roaming Wolverine Media, LLC

We cover the communities of Rainbow, Indian, Bird Creek, Crow Creek, Girdwood, Portage, Whittier, Moose Pass, Cooper Landing, Hope and South Anchorage.

Published the second and fourthWednesdays of the month

Email:marc@glaciercitygazette.net

Mailing Address:P.O. Box 1903

Girdwood, Alaska 99587

Marc Donadieu – Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Bailey – Graphic Designer/Webmaster

Marlene Buccione – Chief Photographer

Julia Isaac – Staff Writer – Music/Hope News

P.M. Fadden – Staff Writer

>> IN THIS ISSUELooking for Photographers and WritersThe Glacier City Gazette is looking for writers, photographers and advertisers. If you know of something newsworthy, please let us know.

We are interested in articles and pho-tos from Rainbow, Indian, Bird Creek, Girdwood, Crow Creek, Portage, Whit-tier, Moose Pass, Cooper Landing, Hope and South Anchorage. We are also looking for a local music columnist, an outdoors columnist, and a food and drink columnist.

The Glacier City Gazette’s coverage will include issues important to the Turn-again Arm communities and feature the work of local writers and photog-raphers to reflect the dynamic, vibrant area we live in.

Pitch your writing and photography ideas in a cover letter and send a resume to marc@glaciercitygazette.net

GoldstitchersCharitable giving through collaborative art stepped a pace forward on Thursday. At the Gerrish Library...Page 9

Federal GrantYou may have seen the signs, gone to our website or even heard some talk about the Girdwood Clinic becoming...Page 10

Neil FriedWith the price of oil plung-ing and the state of Alaska dependent on oil revenue, residents are rightly con-cerned about the effects a weak economy... Page 11

Chelsea HolmesThese days, 29-year-old Girdwood-born Nordic skier Chelsea Holmes can afford to sleep in until seven...Page 4

Girdwood HistoryThat change should be the only constant is a sentiment commonly echoed among the epochs. As humanity’s footprints tread across... Page 5

Nic PetitIn the dark, early hours in Cantwell on Feb. 6, Iditarod musher Nic Petit and his girlfriend Emily Maxwell finished in second place...Page 6

Gold Rush GirlsA fundraiser for Gird-wood’s Iditarod musher Nic Petit was held at the Glacier View Bed and Breakfast...Page 7

Hope HighwayWith the mild summer days turning to the long cold night of winter, most folks in Hope cozy into their homes and hunker down... Page 8

Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016 Page 3Glacier City Gazette

By Marc DonadieuGlacier City Gazette

Steve Norwood has been a bartender at Chair 5 for nearly 15 years now, but he has been working as a musician for much longer. Living and playing in Girdwood and touring with musicians from there allowed him to develop musically to where he is writing, playing and producing all of his mu-sic. He wants to keep developing new ideas while producing CDs for other musicians and passing along his knowledge and experience.

I caught up with Steve on a slow Tuesday night at Chair 5 for a short interview to learn about his music and his up-coming projects.

GCG: “What influences song choices for a solo acoustic show?”Steve: “Mostly the people that I listened to growing up, from Jerry Garcia to Paul Simon. And then I was influenced by the band the Photonz I was in for a long time, and occa-sionally am. I’m trying to create a lot of originals these days and record and throw out my music.”

GCG: “How were you influenced by the Photonz?”Steve: “The Photonz kind of came about in the fall of 1996. Me, Pete Townsend, and Romero Begay were doing open mic at Max’s before Maxine’s. Anyone who has been in Girdwood for more than 10 years will remember Max’s. We started out as a trio, soon joined by Tony Restivo on bass, and soon thereafter by Benjamin Robinson on drums, and also singing and songwriting. From there, we were officially a band in 1997 and picked up popularity quick and were touring all over the state of Alaska by van next summer.”

GCG: What can you tell me about the new material you have?”Steve: “I just produced my first solo CD. It came out in August. It’s called King of the Mountain. Most people in Girdwood already know about it, but I’m trying to spread it to the world, so it’s available on iTunes, Google, cdbaby, Amazon, anywhere you want to go you can find my music.”

GCG: “What are you looking to do with your music?”Steve: “ I just want to share it with the world. I’m going to continue to write, continue to record, continue to produce and look for other artists to help produce as well.”

GCG: How would you describe your writing process?”Steve: “I have no true process. I usually capture a ditty, an idea, and I’ll record it onto my phone or my iPad. In the studio, we’ll just run it through a track, and I’ll keep it. On a rainy day, I’ll always visit that. Either it comes into a song, or it gets put on the backburner until a fresh ideas comes or something gets invented to go with the idea.”

GCG: “What do you do to generate new ideas?”Steve: “With the album I just put out, a lot of the songs are really old. Some of the lyrics and music structures go all the way back to high school. I graduated ’89, so that will give you an idea of how old some of these songs are. A couple of the tracks are a little bit newer, like the song Flood and the song The Fall are actually within the last couple of years, but most of the songs are pretty old. I revisited them and wanted enough material to make an album.”

GCG: “What did you see in those old songs from when you were young?”

Steve: “I knew that they were keepers when I wrote the words, when I wrote the music. They were tweaked a little bit as my musical ability progressed and my songwriting abilities progressed. I always kept my words, and I always kept my ideas.”

GCG: “How would you describe how your ideas have pro-gressed?”Steve: “For one, my guitar playing skills have gone from very elementary. When I met Pete Townsend from the Photonz, I knew maybe only 10 to 15 songs. It’s 60 or 70 now. Just playing and experience has given me the ability to grasp new ideas and have a more creative song.”

GCG: “When I was reviewing photos from your solo show at the Silvertip, the musculature in your hands really stood out. How often do you practice?”Steve: “I try to practice at least three or four times a week, more if I could. Life gets in the way of that. There are things called skiing and an eight-year old, housekeeping, a dog, and a life outside of music that keeps me from playing as much as I’d like to, but I play as often as I can. I’m currently starting a second CD project next month.

GCG: “Could you please describe that project?”Steve: “My friend Benjamin Robinson and I have a studio at his house. We built it together, mostly him, but I helped. I was his first ground zero to one hundred percent project as far as recording, editing, producing and seeing the whole CD through. Now we’re starting another project. I’m still writing some of the songs that are going to go on it, but I have seven songs already prepared to start recording.”

GCG: “What is it you look for in a song you say you are go-ing to record?”Steve: “Just write a good song, something from my heart, something from my experience. It’s not always a true story. I try to create imagery and visions and follow it up with good rhymes and quality music to go along with it. I’m very folky. I don’t have a lot of jazz or music theory experience. I just go with what I feel.

GCG: “What do you enjoy the most about playing live mu-sic?”Steve: “Just to see people getting into it, people that enjoy a song. To hear them yell afterwards or sing along or paying attention.”

GCG: “What is something you would like to accomplish musically?”Steve: “I would like to produce at least three CDs in my life-time of all original music and help other people record some of their dreams as well.”

GCG: “What is it you like about helping other people re-cord?”Steve: “Now that we have this studio atmosphere, produc-ing has become a new vision and a new dream, so I want to see other people’s projects through as well by helping them out.”

GCG: “What have you learned about producing?”Steve: “It’s a whole lot of work. There’s a lot of listening and over and over and over. It’s a great experience.”

Steve Norwood Q&A

Steve Norwood will be playing a solo acoustic show on Saturday, February 13 at the Silvertip Grill.

The Photonz will be playing The Sitzmark March 31, April 1 and April 2.

Marc Donadieu / Glacier City GazetteSteve Norwood plays a solo acoustic show at the Silvertip Grill in Girdwood. Valentine’s Day is Steve’s 15th year as a bartender at Chair 5. Be sure to wish him a happy anniversary.

Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 4 Glacier City Gazette

By Lex TreinenSpecial to the Glacier City Gazette

These days, 29-year-old Girdwood-born Nordic ski-er Chelsea Holmes can afford to sleep in until seven. On a typical day on the road, she grinds her coffee with a hand powered travel grinder, fills her Aero Press coffee maker and logs on to Skype to talk to her husband Luke. He is perhaps thousands of miles away and she might not see him for two months at a time. If she is lucky, the In-ternet will work well enough to Skype with Luke, an Al-pine ski coach working in Banff, Alberta, from a hotel room in the Czech Republic or a cabin in Montana. If the situation is just right, they make an effort to share a cup of coffee together.

Holmes’ life now as a pro-fessional ski racer is a far cry from what it was growing up when she would wake up at 5:30 to take the bus to Anchorage for high school and not get home until after ski practice at 6:30. It’s not what she expected after she graduated from University of Nevada in 2009 after ski-ing there for four years and finishing as an All-American one year.

“I was unsure of where I wanted to go,” said Holmes. “I went back to Truckee and started coaching Mighty Mites and working at a cof-fee shop.” After a summer of unstructured training, work-ing and coaching, Holmes jumped in the traditional season-opening races in West Yellowstone, Mon-tana, and surprised every-one with a 5th place finish. At that moment she said, “I decided I want to ski race. I want to see how far I can take it.”

By now she has taken her dream pretty far. This Janu-ary she got her first chance to start on the World Cup, the highest level of Nor-dic skiing in the world. She finished 37th in the 10-ki-lometer skate race in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. A top thirty result is something of a benchmark for World Cup racing, and Holmes’ fin-ish—just 17 seconds behind the top thirty—was especially impressive considering she had finished racing in Michi-gan, six time zones away, less than two weeks before.

A week later, she was back racing in the United States at the Supertours at the Olympic venue in Lake Placid, New York where she finished third in a 10-kilo-meter classic race. It was a disappointing result by her high standards, but it was a national-level podium finish.

Holmes’ love for the out-

doors goes back to her child-hood in Girdwood. Her parents, Larry Holmes and Kathy Joy-Holmes, took Chelsea and her sister, Nik-ki, backpacking and biking throughout the trails of Tur-nagain Arm. When Chelsea was in 4th grade, they hiked the 27-mile Crow Pass Trail from Girdwood to the Eagle River Nature Center.

“Rain or bad weather or a big mountain, nothing re-ally stopped him [my dad],” she said, “There was no ‘we might just stay inside and have cocoa instead of going out.’” Holmes said this atti-tude, whether she wanted it to or not, stuck with her to today. “I don’t mind rain or bad weather. That’s the life-style that’s encouraged and supported in Girdwood,” she said. Another adventure

Kathy recalled was a three-day ride over Resurrection Pass with her two daugh-ters on single sprocket bikes. “It’d be rainy and muddy and you’d have to walk your bike up the hills, you’d have to bribe them,” said Kathy, “I would tell them ‘to enjoy the downhill you have to do the uphill’”

Metaphoric lessons like that don’t always come easily to high school kids, and Holmes admitted that through most of her high school athletic career she had no interest in skiing. “My dad said I had to pick a sport in the winter, so I skied,” she recalled “I hated it my first year and tried to quit. My dad didn’t want his kids ‘half-assing’ anything—I remember those words.” Despite her dad’s best ef-

forts, Holmes still said she would hide in the woods on the hard interval training days. Her coaches’ giving her training logs and programs had no effect in getting her to put in extra effort.

The winter of her junior year, a competitor asked Holmes if she was going to Junior Nationals. At the time, she didn’t realize that there was such an event for Nordic skiing and was told she would never have a chance to make the team if she didn’t train over the summer. The summer of her junior year she started training with Alaska Win-ter Stars, an Anchorage based ski training club. The next winter, she skied well enough to think about competing in college. Even though she didn’t enjoy the

skiing when she started in high school, she developed an intensity at competition.

“The first thing that comes to mind [when I think of Chelsea] is her de-sire to win,” said APU assis-tant coach and wax techni-cian Mike Matteson. “She won’t accept anything less than first place.”

Chelsea says that even when she was not appreci-ating the rigorous work of training, she still had a hyper focus when it came to in-tense training. “Whenever I was in the moment, I was a hard worker. With gate training for three hours, I was the hardest working one,” she said, referring to her early career as an alpine racer. “At running practice I was the hardest worker, but I never ran outside of the six

weeks of the running sea-son.”

Since joining Alaska Pa-cific University Nordic Ski Center in 2014, her results have continued to rise. APUNSC is an elite, An-chorage based ski team that travels the world compet-ing. She finished the 2014-2015 season ranked second in the overall Supertour list behind her teammate Rosie Brennan, who is now racing on the World Cup. Holmes started out the 2015-2016 season by accumulating enough points to guarantee a start spot in World Cups in Slovenia and Czech Re-public. When the World Cup makes an eight-day tour through Canada this March, Holmes will be start-ing. Fortunately for Holmes and her husband, the event

will end in Canmore, near her husband’s hometown.

Holmes says that the constant competition that brought her to APU has been invaluable, but she is also leaving a mark on her younger teammates. Rosie Frankowski, who also joined the team in 2014 but is five years younger than Holmes, said that she imme-diately found a friend and mentor in her.

“She truly cares about her teammates and working to-gether as a team to succeed together,” said Frankowski, “She took an unconven-tional path from college ski-ing to professional skiing. That she continues to chase her goals is really inspiring. Chelsea is not only a team-mate and friend, but a men-tor whom I look up to.”

Girdwood native Chelsea Holmes fi nds path to success is close to home

Thomas O’Harra / Special to the Glacier City GazetteGirdwood’s Chelsea Holmes stands atop the winner’s podium after the SuperTour 10-kilome-ter classic mass start race in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Thomas O’Harra / Special to the Glacier City GazetteGirdwood native Chelsea Holmes (center) of the Alaska Pacifi c University Nordic Ski Team begins the SuperTour 10-kilometer classic mass start race in December.

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016 Page 5Glacier City Gazette

By P.M. Fadden

Monday, February 8 – The Boys Scouts of America is incorporated, 1910.Tuesday, February 9 – The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1964.Wednesday, February 10 – Famous beer brewer, Adolph Coors, is kidnapped in Golden Colorado, 1960.Thursday, February 11 – KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offers Monica Lewinsky $5M for inter-view discussing her role in the definition of “is”, 1998.

Friday, February 12 – Alaskan Proud: Start of the New York City to Paris auto race (crossing Alaska & Siberia). George Schuster wins after 88 driving days, 1908.

Saturday, February 13 – Car manufacturer, General Motors, reports redesign of automo-biles to run on unleaded fuel, 1970.Sunday, February 14 – St. Valentine’s Day! Marked by celebrative feasting honoring two 5th century Christian martyrs (both named Valentine) purported to have been beheaded on this day. Sending handmade “valentines” became custom during the 17th century and first commercialized in the U.S. by the 1840s.

This week in history that was is happily brought to you by the Glacier City Gazette in the hopes that the current week is just as noteworthy. Cheers.

A look back at the week that was…

By P.M. Fadden

That change should be the only constant is a sen-timent commonly echoed among the epochs. As hu-manity’s footprints tread across both regions and time many things, indeed, change.

For case in point, look no farther than the growth of fair Girdwood.

The town’s evolutional influences include: a meta-morphic tourism industry, television and film appear-ances, local Olympians, a settlement-relocating 9.2 earthquake, the birth of a ski resort, and a gold rush.

Once upon a time, Girdwood even went by a dif-ferent name.

It was just over a century ago when the town lost its original moniker, Glacier City, to an Irish linens magnate with aspirations at mining gold. “Colonel” James Girdwood (historical reference sporadically omits rank) arrived to Turnagain Arm a wealthy man in a remote area and forerunner to a time of racing change.

Before that decade’s close, James’ influence had spurred the town’s renaming and set a new course for the settlement with his last name. Curiously, justifica-tion for the name swap is historically excluded. How-ever, public records show that Girdwood’s resulting course has been a timeline of constant change; a pas-sage of evolution and adaptation that arrives, in these pages, full-circle to Glacier City.

Gazette Reflects Upon Namesake

Courtesy photoThe Old Town site of Glacier City-turned-Girdwood. The town would be destroyed and later relo-cated in the wake of the Good Friday Earthquake.

By Shannon MarkleySpecial to the Glacier City Gazette

While it is inevitable that life will slow down after the holidays, you can always count on The Sitzmark to keep things moving and keep the momentum going strong. February is another month of some amazing music to keep you amped after these never-ending powder days, and these epic jam sessions are only set to continue through-out the rest of the season.

Alyeska Resort is excited to announce the return of Great American Taxi, com-ing up February 12th and 13th. Great American Taxi is a Colorado-based Ameri-cana band that was formed by Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon in 2005. While Vince has since left the band and a few lineup changes have oc-

curred over the years, it hasn’t changed the band’s core sound, and has quite possibly enhanced it. This original and diverse rock band has a sound that parallels cultural icons like The Band and the Grate-ful Dead, yet it also ties in the sounds of current artists like Wilco, Nico Case, Spoon and Ryan Adams.

Some new additions to this eclectic rock band include Arthur Lee Land on guitar, banjo and vocals, along with both Duane Trucks from Widespread Panic and Nate Barnes who will be switch-ing back and forth on the drums. Veteran members include Brian Adams on bass guitar, Jim Lewin on vocals, and Chad Staehly on vocals and keyboard. This two-night set is a line-up of amazing talented musicians who consider Alaska their “Home Away From Home.”

The Sitzmark will be Great American Taxi’s only Alas-kan performances this year, so you do not want to miss out.

Next on stage for Febru-ary is the favorite Irish-Jig-Havin’ Young Dubliners, which will get feet moving on the dance floor without a hitch. This Celtic Rock band was formed in Los Angeles in 1988 and is known for their fusion of traditional Irish instruments into mod-ern rock. Current mem-bers include lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist Keith Roberts, bassist and vocalist Brendan Holmes, guitarist Bob Boulding, drummer Da-vid Ingraham, and the multi-faceted Chas Waltz whom you will find switching it up between violin, keyboard, harp and mandolin.

While the “Young Dubs” have released 10 albums

since their inception, their newest album “9” is their first completely independent al-bum. This album was 100% created by the band and fi-nanced by fans rather than outside sponsorships and labels. The band is proud to say that they had total cre-ative freedom and control on this album for the first time in the band’s history. These guys are quite possibly Celt-ic Rock’s hardest working band, playing hundreds of shows a year across the U.S. and Europe.

Their current tour, which just started on February 5th, will start in California, make its way to Juneau and Gird-wood, then continue back to the states to tour non-stop until October. These travel-ing Irishmen are here to get your Irish-Jig perfected, so grab a partner. We’ll see you on the dance floor!

Alyeska at a Glance

George Grantham Bain collection / Library of CongressCars lined up for the start of the New York to Paris Race in 1908.

Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 6 Glacier City Gazette

Nic Petit and Emily Maxwell take second place in Denali DoublesBy Marc DonadieuGlacier City Gazette

In the dark, early hours in Cantwell on Feb. 6, Iditarod musher Nic Petit and his girlfriend Emily Maxwell finished in second place at the Denali Doubles sled dog race. Their time at the finish line was within one minute of the race winners Peter Kaiser and Lucas Salsburn, who beat sixteen other teams.

The Denali Doubles is a unique sled dog race that has teams with up to 20 dogs pulling two sleds and two rid-ers over a 226-mile course on the Denali Highway, which is closed in the winter. The race begins in Cantwell where the snow plowing stops on the Denali Highway. Mushers proceed toward Paxon to the Tangle Lakes Campground, where teams turn around and head back the same trail to-ward the finish line. The race’s goal is to pair an experienced musher with a novice musher to allow them to work to-gether through the challenges on the trail.

Petit and Maxwell took out a full team of 20 dogs, which made for an impressively long gang line. It was Maxwell’s first time competing in a sled dog race and her second time at a race start. She and Petit attended the Northern Lights 300 start in Big Lake a few weeks back.

Maxwell has received a crash course in sled dog handling and racing since she moved here from Iowa in early January. She and Petit met over the summer in Girdwood, and they kept in touch. She visited over the Thanksgiving holiday and decided to move to Alaska to work with Team Petit’s Iditarod sled dogs while preparing for the Denali Doubles.

At the race’s 4 p.m. start time, the temperature was around 8-degrees Fahrenheit and slowly dropping with the setting sun in the cloudy distance. The light, steady breeze kept Petit and Maxwell covered in gear to stay warm. Before the race was a scramble to complete last minute preparations before hitting the trail. Petit declined to have his team anchored to a snow machine to get to the starting line because he has his team trained to be under his vocal control at all times.

Petit had some difficulty undoing the heavy rope that held his sled to his large pick-up truck’s front end. A race official jumped off of his snow machine to assist Petit in disengag-ing a piece of wood used to connect the ropes. After a few frantic tugs, the wood piece was loose and Petit jumped on his sled. With a quiet signal, Petit told his team it was time to run, and they were off.

Eighty dog paws with booties padded by as the sled run-ners hissed on the packed snow. There was no stopping at the starting line. Twenty dogs, two blue jackets and two sleds faded off into the white distance. Petit and Maxwell were off on their way down the Denali Highway in the dead of winter, working together with the dogs as a winning team.

Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Levi, Nic Petit’s other wheel dog, raises his head after nosing around in the snow. Emily Maxwell, Nic Petit’s sledding partner in the race, goes into his dog box to grab some gear. Carhartt, one of Nic Petit’s wheel dogs, howls with anticipation at the start of the Denali Doubles.

BELOW: Team Petit’s sled dogs wait patiently for the start of the Denali Doubles in Cantwell. Twenty dogs were attached to Nic Petit’s gang line.

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016 Page 7Glacier City Gazette

A fundraiser for Girdwood’s Iditarod musher Nic Petit was held at the Glacier View Bed and Breakfast on Saturday, January 23 and 30. Connie Larose, Connie Cooley, and Gail Hille converted the garage

and the rest of the house into an Alaska Gold Rush themed event. Attendees dressed in costume, a two-piece band played, and a sheriff playfully walked around arresting people on bogus charges

and demanding bail be met before release.

GLACIER CITY GOLD RUSH GIRLS✭ Nic Petit Fundraiser ✭

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Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 8 Glacier City Gazette

By Julia IsaacStaff Writer

With the mild summer days turning to the long cold night of winter, most folks in Hope cozy into their homes and hunker down for a peaceful time with-out rafters, RV campers or fishermen. Only an occa-sional drive down the Hope Highway may be necessary for supplies; however, this winter Hope residents have found that occasional drive dangerous and unpredict-able due to inconsistent road conditions.

The community’s side roads are diligently main-tained by local residents Rob and Willie Davidson. Plowing and sanding du-ties on the Highway are the responsibility of the State’s DOT trucks, and they are having a difficult time keep-ing up this winter. Budget cuts across the state affect the road crews at the Silver-tip Station, but we’re not the only ones.

According to Jill Reese, spokesperson for the Alaska DOT, budget cuts are “af-fecting every highway this year…it just takes a little longer to service the roads because we don’t have the overtime hours, and that is something we have had in the past.”

It is variable how many hours it takes a crew to clear the Hope Highway. Accord-ing to Reese, the road crews

continue to clear until the weather event ends, so there isn’t really a way to deter-mine how many man hours it takes to make the road drivable. Even though the Hope Highway is considered a level 2 road (the same pri-ority as the Turnagain Pass from Girdwood to Seward), Reese admits it does not get as much attention as the main highway.

“It’s just a matter of traf-fic,” she stated. “There are just more people trying to get down the Seward High-way than the Hope high-way, so [road maintenance operators] take them in line and use their judgment as to what roads take priority.”

State budget cuts are not the only reason roads have been difficult to deal with the last several years. The DOT is currently in the pro-cess of putting together a presentation for the Alaska state legislature to explain how changes in our weath-er patterns affect how the DOT might go about han-dling the variable road con-ditions. According to Reese, in the last several years we have been moving towards this barely freezing ice, then thaw, the back to freezing. Even when the temperature of the air is above freezing, the road is still frozen and car tires act like a Zamboni, creating a layer of ice that is super slick.

Any gravel that crews might put down onto roads

in this condition sinks straight to the bottom and doesn’t do a whole lot of good after a while. That leaves the DOT making judgment calls as to how to mitigate the roads according to the micro-climates that occur all along the highway. This year they’re more con-cerned about de-icing and less concerned about where they are going to put all of the snow.

The road to Hope is par-ticularly difficult as it has at

least three distinct microcli-mates in the 17 miles from the Seward Highway to the end of the Hope Highway. Reese says, “it’s kind of a moving target.” They miti-gate conditions differently according to what their en-countering on the road.

Without many people, there is not much main-tenance. The way the in-formation is presented on the DOT road map, Hope Highway is a yellow road, and according to the map, as

important as the Turnagain Pass. Hope residents would agree, as the Hope Highway is the only way for ambu-lance service to access any-one who is sick or injured, unless an emergency heli-copter is dispatched.

The locals’ feelings are summed up by resident Lori DeFrance simply saying, “it’s our only way out.”

But according to one of the equipment operators at the Silvertip Station, there are more factors in play than just budget cuts. Some supervisory roles amongst employees at the station have been shuffled around this year due to promotions and injuries. In the pas,t some of the supervisory po-sitions were held by people who were either residents of Hope or who took an active interest in the small community. This year those people are no longer in charge making priority calls at this maintenance station. It seems that those differ-ences in priority decisions are resulting in a less driv-able road this year than in years past.

Local businesses feel the crunch of a poorly main-tained road as well. Susan Anderson, who runs the gift shop at the Hope Library, says she has closed the gift shop a couple of times this

year because the hill was so slippery she didn’t want to drive down it. She didn’t ex-pect anybody else to want to either. Hope Junction Trad-ing Company has stayed open despite the roads, but on those icy days owner Kristy Peterson has seen a difference in how many cus-tomers she has. Locals can’t even get around town to pa-tronize shops when the DOT fails to maintain the last three miles of the highway.

Postmaster Linda Graham says the mail is still being delivered per the USPS’s un-official motto, not allowing “snow nor rain…nor gloom of night” to make Hopes residents wait for their mail. Graham says she has seen worse winters where noth-ing was going in or out for days, but this year it has just been a matter of going slow and being cautious.

Hope residents under-stand and expect that their commute might pose more challenges, as living in a remote community often does. This year, however, they would like more an-swers as to how the Alaska Department of Transporta-tion is going to handle these new weather patterns and the dangerous road con-ditions as the community grows and moves towards the future.

Hope’s hazardous winter road conditionsMORE INFORMATION:

Alaska Department of Transporta-tion & Public Facilities Statewide Maintenance and Operations

Winter Road MaintenancePriority Map

http://www.dot.alaska.gov/stwd-mno/wintermap/

Wesli Dykstra / Special to the Glacier City GazetteA typically icy stretch of the Hope Highway near Mile 2 after road crews had recently passed through.

Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarleneA Dall sheep munches on dry grasses above Turnagain Arm.

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016 Page 9Glacier City Gazette

By P.M. FaddenStaff Writer

Charitable giving through collaborative art stepped a pace forward on Thursday. At the Gerrish Library, sew-ing group Girdwood Gold-stitchers unveiled its latest piece “Bountiful Baskets,” the group’s twelfth complet-ed quilt. The Goldstitcher’s combined talents represent over 460 years of sewing ex-perience, with 230 years in quilting.

“Since almost all of us are transplants to Alaska, the women in our group have become our extended fam-ily,” said Goldstitcher mem-ber Judy Onslow. “In 2007, we decided to become a more formal group and have a group name that incorpo-rated Girdwood, Gold, and Quilting. We had 10 origi-nal members, and we now number 14 committed com-munity quilts enthusiasts,” she said.

Since 2004, the ladies have produced 12 quilts. Proceeds gathered from the raffling of those intricate creations have benefitted area non-profits such as Four Valley Community School, the Girdwood K-8 School, Gerrish Library, Girdwood Trails Commit-tee, the Girdwood Clinic, the Meadows, Little Bears, Girdwood Center for Visual Arts, Challenge Alaska and the Alaska Wildlife Conser-vation Center to the tune of $24,000 dollars in donated funding.

“We meet most Wednes-days as part of the FVCS Glacier Valley Quilters class held at The Meadows Com-munity Center at Our Lady of the Snows Chapel,” said Onslow. “When we work on projects for one another, we stitch with the same care and skill that we would use if it were our own,” she said.

Requiring time to be spent with a machine as well as hand sewing, the quilts undergo an initial design phase, followed by days of cutting, sewing, and press-ing by as many as 10 people. A finished quilt typically measures 80 x 90 inches.

“We designate days and times to work and then move forward. First we choose fabrics, put up a design wall, move fabric around to audition different looks, redesign, lots of con-

versations, more auditions, some arguments, more au-ditions, and many opinions. Finally people cut, some sew, some press, and slowly

the quilt top emerges,” said Onslow.

Depending upon the quilt’s complexity, comple-tion of the top portion alone can require a time frame stretching from a few days to several months of careful collaborative planning and sewing.

“After the top is done, then it is off to the quilter for the machine quilting,” said Onslow. “Sometimes it is custom-quilted here in the valley by Denise Gallup, and other times sent off to another of our favorite quil-ters, Jo Ann Gruber in Eagle River. Once it is back from the machine quilter, the binding is attached and then finished by hand.”

When finally hung for display, onlookers can seek out the iconic signature marking to every Gold-

stitcher quilt--bands of gold seamlessly concealed amidst the overall imagery of the finished piece. The group’s calling card serves as both watermark of their craft and incentive for in-depth exploration of the artistry, which goes into every proj-ect.

Quilt donation unfolds as follows: Goldstitchers de-cide which nonprofit they would like to create a quilt for. In a close-knit com-munity, Goldstitchers may already know of a special area need, if not, a reference list is at hand. That group is then contacted to gauge in-terest in a quilt.

“No one has ever said, “No”, said Onslow.

Goldstitchers decide on theme as well as coordina-tion of, design, pattern, and colors. Fabrics and borders are acquired as needed and often donated by group members.

Machine worked by Jo Ann Gruber, the 2015 quilt on displayed at Gerrish Li-brary will be raffled by Gird-wood Food Bank and Gird-wood Chapel. Local Food Pantry organizer, Sheila De-nuptiis was on hand for the quilt’s unveiling.

“[The quilt] itself is so pretty and the colorful fruits stitched into it look abso-lutely delicious,” said De-nuptiis. The monthly pantry is proud of the Girdwood Goldstitchers efforts.

“I’m excited just thinking about it,” said Denuptiis.

Every group receiving a quilt accepts responsibil-ity for the organization of the corresponding raffle. Current raffle details are awaiting finalization, but Goldstitchers suggests that groups sell at least 500 tick-ets, pricing each ticket at $5 per or offering 5 tickets at a $20.00 rate. The concept en-visions the raising of at least $2,000.00 for the recipient group. Upon raffle comple-tion, the Goldstitchers re-quest $300.00 be returned to the group in recompense

of backing, batting, and ma-chine quilting costs.

Girdwood Goldstitch-ers include: Kate Chandler, Cleary Donovan, Liz Dow, Ally Goens, Stephanie Goens, Rorie Hammel, Lori Landenburger, Mary Lynn Nation, Judy Onslow, Susan Opalka, Rebecca Reichlin, Beth Sirles, Kathy Trautner, and Donna Welch.

“Friendship, teamwork, laughter, a sense of accom-plishment, and a commit-ment to community are all reasons that our group con-tinues to thrive,” said On-slow. “[Goldstitchers] have

created a dozen community quilts for non-profit organi-zations to raffle in the Four Valleys Area and are starting back through our list of local nonprofits as well as looking for new possibilities.”

“We welcome all who are interested in joining us as knitters, spinners or quil-ters,” she said.

Newswriter/Novelist, P.M. Fadden is an avid traveler and skier who has made a livelihood of wordcraft. He lives in Girdwood with his wife and daughter.

Girdwood Goldstitchers create to help the community

“If you think about each quilt, it’s really raising a lot of money.”– Judy Onslow

Kathy Trautner / Special to the Glacier City Gazette (Front to Back) Susan Opalka, Liz Dow, and Kathy Trautner hand sew touches upon a Goldstitcher’s quilt.

P.M. Fadden / Glacier City GazetteGathered for a good cause: (L to R) Judy Onslow, Liz Dow, Ally Goen, Sheila Denuptiis, and Cleary Donovan pose before the latest Golden Stitchers quilt at the Gerrish Commu-nity Library.

Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 10 Glacier City Gazette

You may have seen the signs, gone to our web-site or even heard some talk about the Girdwood Clinic becoming federally funded, but what does it really mean? On August 11 last year, Girdwood Health Clinic became a Federally Qualified Health Center. For us at the clinic, it means a mountain of new docu-mentation, reams of paper-work to prove we are in compliance with standards and trying to decipher the alphabet of quality measures required as a new health center. Acronyms like UDS, PQRS and meaningful use are now part of my vocabu-lary. But most important, it means that we can keep the doors open for the foresee-able future.

This news is great for the community as we are your local resource for urgent health care needs. Want an x-ray to rule out fractures, got a cut that needs fixed, or are you so sick you just can’t make it to town? We are always here for you. If it is something that needs a specialist, we maintain ex-cellent relations with the best medical professionals in Anchorage. It is also impor-tant to know we are tran-sitioning from reactive to proactive health care. This

new Health Care status has allowed for enhanced staff-ing, which in turn facilitates lots of new programs de-signed to make Girdwood a healthier place.

First we hired an Execu-tive Director, Tawny Buck, to keep the clinic and staff on track as well as help out with the huge amounts of paperwork. We added two new Certified Application Counselors (CAC) Linda Mankoff and Celina Ash-ford. They are here to assist should you want to know what your options are based on eligibility under the Af-fordable Health Care Act, commonly called Obam-acare. These two women can help with enrollment through Healthcare.gov and finding a plan that fits your needs. This funding also let us hire a nurse, Clare Jack-son RN, BSN, and a medi-cal assistant, Nicole Olsen NCMA, EMT-III. These new hires are really exciting as they expand our outreach into the community.

As you may have heard, MODA is pulling out of the Alaska marketplace, which has created some confusion. but Mankoff and Ashford can update you on current available coverage as well as what future options might exist. I also understand they

can help with Medicaid en-rollment if you or your child qualifies. They have been circulating in the communi-ty at various places but can always be contacted through the clinic.

In conjunction with the States Virology Lab, we will begin to offer Hepatitis C screening for little to no cost to uninsured and underin-

sured people. Unfortunate-ly, this is a pilot program, so the state is not accepting labs from those who do have insurance at this time. How-ever, we are still happy to do the screen, have a commer-cial lab do the testing and bill your insurance for this important test. Hepatitis C can lead to liver cancer and other complications. Go to

the Center for Disease con-trol website at http://www.cdc .gov/hepat i t i s/hcv/guidelinesc.htm to see the complete screening recom-mendations. Please stop in to discuss it, but if you were born between 1945 and 1965, it is recommended you have a onetime test for this disease.

The front desk and clini-cal staff in Hope remain the same, however, there has been a bit of a role rever-sal at the Girdwood clinic. Kerry Dorius has now be-come the part time clinician working two days per week while I do the rest. Our schedules rotate a bit, so it is always best to give us a call to see who is here or to set up an appointment with whomever you want to see. If you need a DOT physi-

cal, please try to schedule in the morning. I’m sorry, but I am the only option for those. We do have lim-ited in house labs, and the rest are sent out for testing. Friday afternoon is a bad time since it is difficult to get testing to the lab before they are no longer viable. Melissa will be happy to answer any questions you might have about labs or schedules. Please give her a call.

We have future plans for diabetic education, weight management and enhanced vaccination surveillance. Should you have any ideas for health initiatives that you think would be par-ticularly beneficial for the community, please let us know. After all, we are here to help you.

Girdwood Health Clinic puts $1 million federal grant to useBy Ken Waugh MS, PA-CSpecial to the Glacier City Gazette

Photo courtesy of the Girdwood Health Clinic(from left to right) Selita Rios smiles on her son Henry after being tended to by Ken Waugh.

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016 Page 11Glacier City Gazette

By Marc DonadieuGlacier City Gazette

With the price of oil plunging and the state of Alaska dependent on oil revenue, residents are rightly concerned about the effects a weak economy will have on state and local governments. People want to know how bad Alaska’s economic situation is ex-pected to get and how they might be affected. How are such forecasts created and are they reliable?

The topics of economic predictions and accuracy are where Economist Neil Fried comes into play. He works for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research Section, and he visited the Girdwood Community Center on Feb. 3 to speak about Alaska’s economy and answer questions. Gla-cier City Realty sponsored Fried’s presentation, as it has for the past few years. The hour-long talk drew about 50 people, and it began with baked goods people brought and coffee and tea provided by The Grind.

Fried began his presenta-tion by saying he would be happy to answer questions about Alaska’s economy and economic forecasting. However, he emphasized would not answer ques-tions about economic policy such as would a sales tax or income tax be better for the economy.

He stressed that there is a lot of information we just don’t know yet and that no-body can predict what the state legislature will do to address the economy. De-spite the generally so-so information he provided, he did so in a clear, upbeat manner, which included donning a Bart Simpson bowtie.

Then he identified two key areas of uncertainty in Anchorage’s economy, which is tied to oil prices.

“One big uncertainty is how is the industry going to react to these lower prices. We know they’re going to cut their workforce. They’ve already begun doing that.

How much are they going to cut their work force? I don’t know the answer to that question. The other one is the whole fiscal story. What is going to happen there? I can’t answer that one either. I can guess.”

Fried was forthright about the unpredictable nature of economic forecasting that tries to divine the future by examining a wide swath of past and present economic data and trends to make an accurate prediction. Some-times he nails it and other times he fails, but he keeps a sense of humor about the many variables of economic forecasting that are far be-yond anyone’s control.

Fried’s forecast for An-chorage in 2016 is a slight loss of jobs, less than 1 percent, but that some sec-tors like tourism could have modest growth. He says 2017 is when the municipal-ity should be very concerned because nobody, economists included, really knows what will happen. There are too many unknowns and vari-ables, but they don’t look promising.

“I’m just worried about the more cumulative effects of what is already beginning but could manifest them-selves even more as the year goes on with the new bud-get cycle, the price of oil un-less it changes dramatically. That’s what I’m worried about. Things can change very rapidly.”

Economist Neil Fried tells Girdwood community about Alaska economic forecast

If you wish to understand Alas-ka’s fi scal crisis in more detail, Diane Kaplan, President and CEO of the Rasmusen Founda-tion, will be presenting at the Girdwood Community Center from 7-9 p.m. on Feb. 22. She will speak about Alaska’s fi nan-cial situation and lead a discus-sion about choices for getting through it. The presentation is being sponsored by Girdwood 2020; Girdwood, Inc.; the Gird-wood Chamber of Commerce; and The Rasmuson Foundation.

Girdwood Rotary ClubService Above Self

Meeting schedule:1st & 3rd Thursday of each month at Challenge Alaska 7PM

girdwoodrotary.orgVisit our Facebook page.

Marc Donadieu/Glacier City GazetteEconomist Neil Fried of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research Section, explains data trends on a slide.

Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1Page 12 Glacier City Gazette

the Alaskan way. That’s the thing we have to remem-ber as we move ahead. We can’t wait for Washington D.C. to rescue us. Juneau has got its own difficulties to work through, and we’re hoping they get us through, but we’ve got to take care of ourselves.”

Berkowitz also paid a compliment to Girdwood 2020 as being an example of an organization with a pro-active vision other Alaskans can learn from in these chal-lenging fiscal times.

“When I come to an or-ganization that’s about re-silience and sustainability and growing an economy,” Berkowitz said, “it resonates with me because that’s the vision we all ought to have.”

But what is Girdwood 2020’s vision and how does Girdwood benefit from it? Diana Livingston, Co-Chair Girdwood 2020 Board of Directors, readily concedes that the organization’s behind-the-scenes work is not easily recognizable un-less you know what you are looking for. Once you do, you recognize Girdwood 2020’s fingerprints are on every infrastructure and capital improvement project in Girdwood since begin-ning in 2000.

Livingston explained why Girdwood 2020 was formed. “There was a per-ceived need for an organized group to identify and define problems and issues and in-frastructure needs within the community and then communicate the needs to local, municipality, state and federal elected officials who could help do something about them,” she said.

Girdwood 2020 works behind the scenes and with a lobbyist to accomplish its goals, so the process leaves the community seemingly unaware of what the organi-zation does. Girdwood 2020 has a synergistic relation-ship with Alyeska Resort and the Girdwood Board of Supervisors because they all have the same objectives. Because the organization is an independent non-profit, it can do what GBOS can-not.

“We really fill a role for the Board of Supervisors,” Livingston said, “because they cannot use any of the budgeted tax money to, for example, send a supervi-sor to Juneau to meet with legislators or to spend any money at all advising legis-lators of issues. Girdwood 2020 can do that for the community, and it really fills a role that would be unfilled if it were not for Girdwood

2020.”As a result of these coor-

dinated efforts, Girdwood 2020 has a long list of past successes in obtaining fund-ing for infrastructure used by the community. There is the Gerrish Library and Community Center build-ing, the Roundhouse re-habilitation that turned it into a museum and visitor center, the parking area on Holmgren Ave. across from Thriftwood, and maintain-ing the Girdwood Pedes-trian Safety Corridor. A $10 million grant from the late Sen. Stevens provided for work on Crow Creek Road, a new bridge, work on Townsquare and address-ing miscellaneous drainage issues.

The 3-year old Seward Highway Safety Committee is developing one of their current long-term projects. It brings together a larger group of stakeholders such as the trucking industry, the tourism industry and busi-nesses that depend on the Seward Highway to discuss safety issues, find construc-tive ways to address them and lobby legislators and government officials for support.

“We’ve held periodic meetings with federal, state and local officials to communicate to them the

safety issues and find ways to correct them,” said Liv-ingston. “Our ultimate goal for the Seward Highway is a four-lane, divided highway at least from Anchorage to Girdwood. While they let us know in no uncertain terms that that’s a phenom-enally expensive project, they are working to address the safety issues in smaller increments.”

Getting to where Gird-wood 2020 is today took some time to develop. One of the first steps was get-ting the rest of the state to recognize Girdwood was

much more than its stereo-typical reputation from the past.

“The first thing that ev-eryone identified was that nobody knew anything about Girdwood except that it was a place where people went to ski and hang out and party,” said Livingston. “We’re talking 20 years ago. There was a big identity issue to solve before anything else could happen. We’ve been work-ing on that ever since.”

One way Girdwood 2020 addressed the identity issue was creating the Go for the

Gold program to support Olympic caliber athletes living in Girdwood. Nordic skiers Chelsea Holmes and Lex Treinen were among Go for the Gold 2015 re-cipients, and both of them have expressed gratitude for the support that allows them to train year round to compete with the world’s best Nordic skiers.

“Our mission is to make Girdwood not only a desti-nation resort,” Livingston said, “but to make it an at-tractive place for people to live and work and hopefully recreate.”

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Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarleneA bull elk raises his head as seen from below at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Continued from front page

Girdwood 2020