Turn your FM radio dial to 91.7 these days and you’ll hear some interesting old ragtime, Dixieland, big band, swing, and variety of other music predating the 1960s, along with local weather, and international news. Seward’s own new community radio station KIBH-91.7 FM, with help from local radio techie and broadcaster Wolfgang Kurtz, started broadcasting from an antenna atop a building on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seward Tuesday, via a 100 watt low-power transmitter with a license assigned to Kenai Educational Media Inc. Kurtz’s low-power transmitter will be moved to another, much more powerful 1000 watt transmitter, and placed on a tall tower located on Kurtz’s father’s hillside property in the Camelot Subdivision, and will broadcast over FM and AM. Its signal will eventually be carried clear out in Moose Pass and beyond via antennae on buildings or towers established along the Seward highway, Kurtz said.

Annette Shacklett, the Seward Phoenix Log Publisher is the current corporate board president for Kenai Educational Media, and Jeff Hetrick is its vice president. The KIBH-FM board has been holding monthly planning meetings to discuss operations, and they are always looking for more people to volunteer, Kurtz said.

Doug Grant, of Grant Electronics, runs his own small AM station. He’s helping KIBH-FM by offering his music, programming, and temporary office space. Heidi Zemach photo.

For now, Doug Grant, of Grant Electronics, who donated temporary office space for the new radio station he runs inside his shop, has been programming the radio station’s content. For the past two years he’s already been broadcasting his own AM Radio station, Grant Electronics Radio, inside his own shop and immediate surroundings with the music he enjoys. So that’s what has been aired at first on KIBH, along with news and local weather.  Grant also has donated his office space to the new radio station until the board can find another permanent office downtown.

Kurtz, the editor of the Seward Phoenix Log, has set up several commercial radio stations across Alaska, and more recently a low-broadcast commercial radio and Pacifica Radio-affiliate station behind Becky Dunn’s feed store a few miles outside of town. He dismantled that station following last year’s flood, but hopes to get the new station it has evolved into going and licensed as a National Public Radio-affiliate so that it can offer NPR programming blocks well known to NPR listeners such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and more. Kurtz said the advisory board also would like the station to become affiliated with Alaska Public Radio Network which brings programs like Talk of Alaska, Kids These Days, and the Alaska News Nightly, with reporters spread out across the state. Those shows would be interspersed with locally-produced music and public affairs programs, weather, and live coverage of local events and emergency broadcasts, depending upon volunteer’s time, money and interest. The board of directors will choose the station’s direction and programming content, and volunteers will take on the responsibility—and fun—of fundraising and making the station theirs, with programming of their own.

KIBH-FM can be a small, entirely automated operation with all of the music of all genres that Kurtz already has access to, or it can be whatever the community wants to make it become, he said. He’s hoping it will offer as much local content and information as possible, as that’s what Seward is lacking right now, Kurtz said.

Dining table at Cabin #4 at Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat on Kenai Lake. Heidi Zemach photo

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News

The Moose Pass Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau held its first ever progressive open-house event Tuesday, April 30 to showcase area mom and pop businesses. Wait a minute! Moose Pass has a Chamber of Commerce? Where?
Actually, it doesn’t have a building, but it exists online, has local members, and is kept going by the handful of residents who meet at one another’s homes every so often to strategize. Its online presence is being increased by being put on Facebook recently. The dozen plus business owners who showed up for Tuesday’s open house demonstrated a renewed interest in making the chamber, their own businesses, and Moose Pass generally a place that people don’t just drive past, on their way somewhere else, but a place where they will stop, spend some time and money enjoying it.

Most of the little places showcased Tuesday evening might be tucked away, out of view of the highway, but there are actually more small mom and pop businesses going on in Moose Pass than one might think.  They’re very quaint, rustic, well thought-out, and run by friendly people who aim to show their clients a good rural Alaska experience.
Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat

One of Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat’s cabins and owner Gary Glasglow. Heidi Zemach photo.

The tour started at Renfro’s Lakeside Retreat, located off Seward Highway, off Mile 20, on the Kenai Lake. Host Gary Glasgow bought it from its former owners two years ago. It has eight rustic cabins, five right on the lake, and three in the spruce trees near the lake. It also has 10 R.V. sites. Glasgow said he bought it as his answer to a “mid-life crisis,” after he retired from a job as Senior Manager of Discover Card in Salt Lake City, Utah. The choice was either to come run a lodge in Moose Pass, Alaska, purchase a place in Talkeetna, or a dude ranch with 40 employees in Cody, outside of Yellowstone National Park. h. He seems very happy with the choice he made. The cozy lakeside log cabin he showed the group, typical of the rest, had a wooden back porch that overlooked a drop-dead gorgeous view of the beach and the emerald lake. The beach had a stylish fire pit for camp fires.  The cabin had its own small kitchen and dining table with the same view, and an upstairs sleeping loft.
“This year’s summer bookings are awesome,” Glasgow said. He’s already three-quarters booked for the entire summer season, and last year, his first, wasn’t too bad either. His R.V. park was filled with road construction crew workers.

Last year’s flooding of Kenai Lake was unfortunate, however. All of the rental cabins were partly submerged when the lake overtopped its banks, but luckily only one sustained real damage. It will be repaired and ready to go by tourist season.

Teddy’s Inn the Woods’ owner Teddy Berglund with one of the cute inset twin beds. Heidi Zemach photo

Many of the area business people on the open house tour were there either to get better acquainted with one another, or better acquainted with what the other might have to offer them or their clients. Several knew one another, but had not been inside their workplaces, or shared what exactly they do.
Teddy’s Inn the Woods

Teddy’s Inn the Woods is another stylish home-like cabin, owned and run for 17 years by Teddy Berglund and Tom Prochazka, out of immediate view of their own home. You have to climb up one story to get to it, and then there’s a nice porch with a colorful outdoor carpet with table and chairs, and a majestic view of the snowy mountains and trees. There’s a nice master bedroom, and in the main living sleeping room there are two single inset beds that children especially love, a window seat one can sleep in, and fold-down futon bed.

The building used to be a pole barn with an old wood stove, Berglund said. She and Tom fixed it up to provide extra income for the family, and to allow Teddy to be home with their children during the summertime. Berglund was a food service provider at the Moose Pass School. But now that the kids are grown and gone, she does a patchwork of jobs. She substitute-teaches in Seward, makes jewelry for another woman to sell, and helps Judy Odhner (of Blue Moon Baked Goods) to cater weddings.

Trail Lake Lodge owner Dave “Steamer” Fulton talks to fellow business owners about staying open late. Heidi Zemach photo

“How late can I have people call you when we have an overflow?” asked Dave “Steamer” Fulton, the owner of Trail Lake Lodge. His chef, Tripp, had set out a sampling of their famous mammoth size hamburgers, chicken wings, and some wraps in the restaurant. People in Anchorage often look at their map and believe Moose Pass or Seward is closer than it really is, he said. They start driving south on the Seward Highway late at night, when it’s still light, and arrive at one or two in the morning, ready to drop and looking for a room. “Call us any time,” replied all the cabin owners, and really meant it. They, in turn asked Fulton whether he would allow folks to eat dinner after their official closing time as Trail Lake has the only restaurant in town. People frequently arrive just as Tripp has cleared up and is heading out the door, Fulton said. But he’s often willing to stay longer and whip them up something quick, knowing that folks have to eat somewhere.

Teddy’s stylish outhouse. Her guests have a real bathroom indoors however. Heidi Zemach photo.

It’s that friendly, can-do attitude that make Moose Pass business owners special.

(We’ll have more in Part II on Trail Lake Lodge, Keen Eye Anglers, AlpenGlow Cottage, Gone Again Charters and more)

Welcome Crystal Symphony, Seward’s first cruise ship of the season!  Most of the passengers were in Seward today on a port of call and will continue on to Southeast Alaska and then to Vancouver, B.C.  Several new passengers joined the ship in Seward for this voyage to Vancouver.  This is the only time a Crystal Cruises ship will come to Seward in 2013.  Built in 1995 and refurbished in 2009, the Crystal Symphony can carry up to 952 passengers and 566 crew.  More information is at their website.

Click here for the 2013 cruise ship schedule.

Crystal Symphony in port at Seward, AK
Photo by: M Tougas

Nichole Feemsters’ mural is going up on the South side of the Library Museum building.  The install is being conducted by Harmon Construction.  The vibrant colors of the mural match the colors that change with the light on the siding of the building.

Nichole’s design is centered on the idea of stories.  We are beginning to see a family, sitting by a fire sharing a story.

Stop by to see the mural come to life, who is listening in while the ‘story’ is being told?

Photo’s by: M Tougas

Harmon Construction starts the install.

Panels joined and starting to tell a ‘story’.

The mural panels painted during the paint weekend got their last top coating this Saturday.  The ‘Top Coat Gang’ has now placed a top coating three different times to get all of the panels ready for their install.  Nichole Feemster would like to thank all the volunteers that have come out to help with the mural that she has spent months working on.

Watch for the mural to start it’s install phase on the South side of the Library Museum building this next week.  The museum exhibit opening will be coming in May and the mural will be in place!

Photos are taken in the Hertz of Seward garage, where the ‘Top Coat Gang’ has been hard at work…can you recognize anyone?

The ‘Top Coat Gang’
Photo by: M Tougas

“Missed a spot here!”
Photo by: M Tougas

Carefully following a line
Photo by: M Tougas

Nichole Feemster thanks the wonderful community folks that signed up and stopped in to help with the panels this last weekend.  18 panels, size 4×8, were given their first, second and sometimes third coats of paint during the paint weekend at the cruise ship terminal.  Thank you to the Alaska Railroad and the City of Seward for the space to set up and paint, and the Library Museum volunteers for helping to move, set up and help with the weekend details.  Nichole was on site each day to oversee the painting and directing the helping hands.  She would like to thank the volunteer painters, some came more than one day, and a *special Thank You to Mary Daniels for soups and baked goods, Yum!

The panels are getting the artists final touch and will then have a top coating applied before they are ready to go up on the white walls of the South side of the Library Museum building.  Our helping hands:

Come help paint the Library Museum mural panels today and Sunday at the cruise ship terminal! Snacks and goodies provided by some wonderful volunteers ( thank you Mary Daniels and Mary Huss).  Meet Nichole Feemster, the local artist, and help with the completion of the mural panels that will be placed on the South side of the Library Museum.

All supplies are provided, just wear comfortable clothes that can handle a little paint and comfy shoes.  Adults and teens welcome.  We are offering community service time to all Seward High students that come by complete a time slot.  Painting will take place at the cruise ship terminal.  Thank you to the Alaska Railroad and the City of Seward for their help with the location to do this community event!

Special thanks to the folks already signed up, public can come and drop in to give a hand anytime, we will be there.  A good way to ignore the new snow outside.  Or, just stop by to see the work in progress. She has her color drawings out for viewing of the entire project.  We’ll have the coffee on!

This is the largest mural to be worked on in Seward and Nichole Feemster has been busy.  She needs some extra hands to get the final panels ready.

Saturday, April 6 ~ 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.  (drop ins welcome)

Sunday,  April 7 ~ 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.- need some hands for clean up and break down @ 2pm!!

Cruise Ship Terminal

Come help paint the Library Museum mural panels April 5, 6 & 7.  Meet Nichole Feemster, the local artist, and help with the completion of the mural panels that will be placed on the South side of the Library Museum.

All supplies are provided, just wear comfortable clothes that can handle a little paint and comfy shoes.  Adults and teens welcome.  We are offering community service time to all Seward High students that sign up and complete a time slot.  Painting will take place at the cruise ship terminal.  Thank you to the Alaska Railroad and the City of Seward for their help with the location to do this community event!

Sign up in person at the Library Museum or call 907-224-3646 and give your name, email and a phone contact.

Friday, April 5 ~  5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, April 6 ~ 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.***

Sunday,  April 7 ~ 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.***

***Need folks for these slots!!

 The Library Museum Volunteers

This week only, the scheduling for high school classes will be revised. (See the chart below)  Students are asked to be on time for testing.  This is mandatory attendance for all 9th and 10th grade students for the Standards Base Assessment (SBA) and the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam (HSGQE).  Upper class students, grades 11 & 12, will follow the afternoon schedule.  For more information call the Seward high school office at 907-224-3351.

Seward High blog site: http://sewardhighschool.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/wpmu/

Seward Town Hall Meeting

Saturday, March 23^rd

4 pm – 6 pm

Representative Mike Chenault

Speaker of the House

Please join in the discussion at a

town hall meeting with your

local state representative on

Saturday, March 23^rd, from 4 pm to 6 pm

at the Seward Library Museum located at 239 6^th Ave.

If you have questions call the Kenai office at 283-7223.

Come help paint the Library Museum mural panels April 5, 6 & 7.  Meet Nicole Feemster, the local artist, and help with the completion of the mural panels that will be placed on the South side of the Library Museum.

All supplies are provided, just wear comfortable clothes that can handle a little paint and comfy shoes.  Adults and teens welcome.  We are offering community service time to all Seward High students that sign up and complete a time slot.  Painting will take place at the cruise ship terminal.  Thank you to the Alaska Railroad and the City of Seward for their help with the location to do this community event!

Sign up in person at the Library Museum or call 907-224-3646 and give your name, email and a phone contact.

Friday, April 5 ~  5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, April 6 ~ 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Sunday,  April 7 ~ 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

**We need individuals that can help with sanding and painting primer on the panels to get them ready for design painting, leave your name and contact information, Nicole will call and schedule you to give a hand!

The Library Museum Volunteers

IMPORTANT REMINDER *** YOUR VOICE, OUR SCHOOLS  SURVEY CLOSES TOMORROW!!

Please take it soon if you haven’t yet, as the members of the Seward Schools Site-Based Council need &  value your input. It is a confidential survey. Demographic information in the survey is gathered for the purpose of understanding the audience that replied as a whole.

IMPORTANT REMINDER *** YOUR VOICE, OUR SCHOOLS  SURVEY CLOSES Monday, March 18th!!

Please take it soon if you haven’t yet, as the members of the Seward Schools Site-Based Council need & value your input. It is a confidential survey. Demographic information in the survey is gathered for the purpose of understanding the audience that replied as a whole.

IMPORTANT REMINDER *** YOUR VOICE, OUR SCHOOLS SURVEY CLOSES Monday, March 18th!!

Please take it soon if you haven’t yet, as the members of the Seward Schools Site-Based Council need & value your input. It is a confidential survey. Demographic information in the survey is gathered for the purpose of understanding the audience that replied as a whole.

By Heidi Zemach for SCN

Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Moose Pass Volunteer Fire Department, Alaska State Troopers and Seward Volunteer Ambulance Corps personnel helped rescue an injured snow machine rider along the Primrose Trail at Lost Lake late Tuesday afternoon, Feb 5th. The 911 dispatch alerted State troopers who then alerted them at about 5:30 p.m., saying help was needed for a man with back and leg injuries.
“We responded with our rescue trailer and 12 people from Bear Creek Fire Department. Moose Pass (Fire Department) responded with six personnel,” said BCVFD Training Captain Jim Wiles. At the Primrose Trailhead we sent up a ‘hasty team,’ two riders on two sleds with a medical bag, who took off right after the pre-brief on the location, injuries, number of people.” They took their snow machine up the trail with radio communications. The injured man was located about nine miles in.
“The trail was in really bad condition. It was really icy, really bumpy, plus it was dark. It got dark really fast,” Wiles said. It’s dangerous terrain up there, requiring advanced riding skills, he added.

Meanwhile, the second rescue group, which had three people, prepared a second rescue sled, with additional medical gear, one capable of bringing the patient out. The equipment included an Evacu-U-Split, capable of immobilizing the entire body.

The victim, Thawatchai Labnonsang, 38, of Soldotna, did not appear to have received life-threatening injuries, but did have injuries sustained when he and his snow machine went over an embankment, a drop estimated to be about 40 feet, said Alaska State Trooper’s spokeswoman Megan Peters. He was carried out, stabilized and brought out on the sled to the Primrose Trail head, where an SVAC ambulance transported him to the closest hospital. He was later Medivaced to Anchorage. The two other riders with him were uninjured.
It was the second backcountry rescue for BCVFD this winter, Wiles said. Last year there were none.

On December 29th 2012, Bear Creek and Moose Pass rescued another injured snow machiner who had crashed into a tree along the Primrose Trail, said Peters. After Kevin Cabana, 19 was injured, his friend had to drive several miles to get cell reception and call for assistence. A Life-Med flight was requested, but was unable to respond due to weather conditions. But Helo-1, the powerful state trooper helicopter based in Anchorage, did manage to make it on scene, and fly him out to a hospital. Last night’s weather conditions, such as its low ceiling in that location, did not make a helicopter rescue possible, Peters said.
The state troopers are much appreciative of the well-trained local volunteer help they can receive for such back-country searches and rescues, Peters said. But Cpt. Wiles expects that the number of calls for help will increase. In addition to the dangers of the terrain in that area, today snow-machiners don’t just sit down and drive along the trail much anymore, he said. They like to stand as they ride and do tricks like speeding up, and jumping their much faster, lighter performance machines 60-100 feet off steep ridges. As the technology advances, horsepower increases, and machine suspensions allow them to do more, riders take greater risks, he said.

Bear Creek Fire Department personnel pose recently for a photo. They hope to retire their old truck, behind them, soon.

Press Release from: USDA Forest Service Chugach National Forest

Chugach National Forest officials announced today (Jan 31) the beginning of the first phase of a three year planning process to revise the 2002 forest plan under a new National Forest System Planning Rule. The forest plan provides direction for managing resources and activities such as recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, historic and sacred sites, vegetation, mineral exploration and development, and timber.“The Chugach National Forest is the backyard for nearly half of Alaska’s population and provides opportunities for residents and visitors to live, work, and play across its 5.4 million acres. It’s an important place, and forest plan revision is the process in guiding management over the next fifteenyears,” said Forest Supervisor Terri Marceron.

During phase one, also known as the “assessment,” the Forest Service will identify and evaluate existinginformation about ecological, economic and social conditions and trends related to the Forest and Southcentral Alaska. The resulting assessment report will provide a solid base of current information for phases two, drafting the revised plan and developing an environmental impact statement (EIS), and three, developing a monitoring strategy.

“Many trends and emerging issues like demographic shifts and climate change will require lookingbeyond our forest boundaries,” Marceron noted.

“In the coming weeks and months we’ll be reaching out to other agencies, state and local governments, Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations and the public to make sure our plan takes into consideration the larger landscape around us.” The public is invited to learn more about the process and provide feedback at nine ForestPlanning Forums across the region.”

During the forums, the Forest Service will ask:

How the public uses the forest now, how might use and users change over the next fifteen years

What the public sees as emerging issues and trends.

How the public can best be involved in the revision process.

Last February the Chugach announced that it was selected as one of eight national forests across the country to revise its forest plan under the new planning rule. The Forest was selected because of its robust engagement with the public during development and implementation of the 2002 forest plan.“Over the past decade, we’ve seen projects like the Spencer Whistle Stop and Chugach Children’s Forest emerge out of our previous collaborative planning efforts, and I’m looking forward to building on that tradition. These planning forums are just the beginning, and over the next three years we’ll be meeting with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, and working to get new voices, like youth, involved in theprocess,” Marceron explained.
Meeting Dates:

Thursday, February 7 Alaska Forum on the Environment, Dena’ina Center (Anchorage), 9-10:30am

Wednesday, February 20 Girdwood Community Center, 6:30-9pm

Thursday, February 21 Seward Public Library, 6:30-9pm

Soldotna Sports Center, 6:30-9pmSaturday, February 23

Chugach National Forest Supervisor’s Office (Anchorage), 10am-12:30pmMonday, February 25

Cooper Landing Community Center, 6:30-9pm

Moose Pass Community Hall, 6:30-9pmWednesday, February 27

Cordova Masonic Hall, 6:30-9pmThursday, February 28Prince William Sound Community College (Valdez), 6:30-9pm

For more information, please visit:Chugach Forest Plan Revision “Spotlight” at www.fs.usda.gov/chugachNew Planning Rule background at www.fs.usda.gov/planningruleTo request information or sign up for the mailing list, email chugachplanrevision@fs.fed.us••

Contact: Sara Boario, 907-743-9444 or Don Rees, 907-743-9513