The Phoenix Chapter of the Alaska State Firefighters Association would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many local businesses that donated to support our dinner cruise and auction on Saturday, August 25.  The Phoenix Chapter is a combined effort of Bear Creek, Moose Pass and Seward Fire Departments, and Seward Volunteer Ambulance Corps, in a joint association to provide advanced training and education for our emergency responders.

Thanks to a sold-out boat full of great community supporters and our generous auction donors, we raised nearly $8,500 that will support firefighter and EMT training in the Seward/Bear Creek/Moose Pass area.  We would specifically like to thank the following businesses for their contributions, with a special thanks to Kenai Fjords Tours for making this event possible for the third year in a row!

• A Touch of Glass / Gary Cornwell
• Alaska Railroad Corporation
• Alaska SeaLife Center
• Alaska Shop
• Authentic Alaskan Gift Shop
• Bay Traders/True Value
• Best Western – Edgewater Hotel
• Breeze Inn Hotel
• CAP Construction
• Chinook’s Waterfront
• Christo’s Palace
• Cover-to-Cover Books
• Donna Glenz
• Helly Hansen
• Hotel Captain Cook
• Hotel Seward
• Icicle Seafoods
• IRBI Knives
• Irvin Pottery
• J-Dock Seafood Company
• Jane Schultz
• Jeff and Wendy Bryden
• Kenai Fjords Tours
• L.N. Curtis & Sons
• Liberty Theater
• Liz Bowen
• Lois Daubney
• Loren Larson
• Marriott Anchorage
• Northern Nights B&B
• Odom
• One Shot Photo
• Oriental Garden
• Phoenix Log
• Pit Bar
• Ray Bulson/Wilderness Visions, Inc.
• Rocky Buttieres and Eric Saucedo
• Safeway
• Sailing, Inc.
• Salmon Bake Restaurant
• Sea Bean Café
• Sew ‘N’ Bee Cozy
• Seward Area Quilters
• Seward Brewing Co.
• Seward Resort
• Specialty Truck & Auto Inc.
• Spenard Builders Supply
• Stanley George
• Thorn’s Showcase Lounge
• Turning Heads Kennel
• Twigs & Tweeds
• Yukon Bar

Sept 13 Council Report By Heidi Zemach

The Seward City Council moved another step forward to update and expand the city security camera systems that are monitored by the local police. At Monday night’s council meeting they unanimously passed a resolution authorizing City Manager Phillip Oates to enter into a contract agreement with Service Electric, Inc for $345,000 to immediately begin designing and implementing the new system, using Homeland Security grant funding. Absent from the meeting were Council members Jean Bardarson, and Marianna Keil, an opponent of city-sponsored camera surveillance.

The majority of the cameras will be installed in areas of critical city infrastructure, according to a Federal Emergency Management Act security inspection. Eight cameras are already operating in places such as the boat harbor and Seward Marine Industrial Center. But the new cameras may also be temporarily placed in other areas where the police suspect illegal activity may be occurring.

In March 2010, the council passed a resolution updating the city’s camera surveillance policy. Keil had been the lone vote against that resolution, voting against it even after successfully amending the resolution to put in certain protections. The policy adopted specifies that the police must notify the city manager of their intention to place cameras at a temporary location prior to doing so, and that the city council must be informed of the use of surveillance cameras 24 hours AFTER an arrest is made in connection with the use of those cameras. Keils’ amendments also guarantee that the surveillance cameras in public areas are accompanied by signs notifying the public of their presence, and that any city employee suspected of violating a citizens’ privacy must be immediately suspended– at least until the outcome of an internal investigation into the matter.

At Monday’s meeting council member Vanta Shafer questioned why the lengthy contract with Service Electric Inc failed to mention any of these things or specified where the cameras would be placed. “People have a right to know where cameras are, Shafer said. “This is an area where abuse is possible and where the council needs to be diligent.”

“I have nothing to hide,” countered Councilman Bob Valdata. Pointing to the short timeline listed for the work to be accomplished by the local contractor, and calling the plan an economic shot in the arm he said, “We can’t stop this now.”  The city and police will abide by the updated surveillance policy, and council resolution, Oates assured Shafer.

In other matters, the council adopted a resolution establishing a repayment schedule for the General Fund to repay the City Electric Enterprise fund $1.8 million over time, and appropriating $227,000 toward the repayment from the 2011 Revenue Sharing Funds. Since 1996, councils had transferred that funding out of the electric fund to pay for shortfalls for the hospital and SMIC. Electric fees were increased by more than 5-percent in 2010 year, and will be increased by another 5-percent plus in 2011 to help fund power line, transmission, and other infrastructure improvements. Using three clichés in a single sentence Valdata admitted that the city had been “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” but also said that that maybe the city was “crying wolf” in regard to the need for deferred maintenance. To that, Oates replied that it was not “deferred maintenance” as there was never a maintenance schedule established. It’s “capital projects replacement,” he said.

Parks and Recreation Director Karin Sturdy reported on the success of the solar-energy run automated parking meters this summer, and of the Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling program. Senior Center Director Dana Paperman reported on the center’s many important services to the elderly and its kitchen renovation plans. She requested that the city list $150,000 to help complete that project on next year’s legislative priority list.

Forget the fair – we’ve got two events this weekend and next you don’t want to miss!

Due to popular demand, the ASFA Phoenix Chapter Rummage / Quilt / Bake Sale is being held over to this Saturday! 

Location:      Seward Elk’s Lodge
                    419 Fifth Avenue
Date:            Saturday, August 28
Time:            10:00 am – 5:00 pm

We’ve got something for everyone –

• Handmade quilts & wall décor – made by Seward area quilters
• Hand tools, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, vehicle parts, shelving, etc.
• Clothing & shoes for men, women, and children (all you can fit in a grocery bag for $5)!!
• Toys and baby stuff
• Bicycles & helmets
• Kitchenware, glassware & housewares
• Holiday decorations & costumes
• Computer equipment
• Exercise equipment
• Books
• And more!

Also remember that the Phoenix Chapter – thanks to Kenai Fjords Tours – is also hosting a dinner cruise to Fox Island next Saturday, September 4!  For only $50 you get a cruise to Fox Island PLUS prime rib dinner!  Visit www.alaskafireconference.com for details and to purchase tickets.

By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News

The rock

A giant rock, weighing nearly 17 tons, will be lowered into place Monday night (around 7 p.m.) between the Old Depot building at the end of Third Avenue at the Alaska Sea Life Center parking lot. It will become the base for a monument dedicated to the National Iditarod Trail, in honor of its centennial. The rock was donated by Al Schafer of Afognak Logging Inc, and the crane to be used to extract it, and lower it into place, was donated by Seward Dry Dock owner Jim Pruitt. The crane will be operated by Dennis Gault, with the help of a city flatbed truck and the volunteer labor of several city workers. The rock was originally removed from the city quarry at Fourth of July Creek.

“If things go right, we’ll have the base in place and not have spent a dime of our resources,” said Dan Seavey, Founder and President of the Historic Iditarod Trail Alliances’ local group spearheading the Iditarod monument effort. The cost of putting the massive rock in front of the new visitor’s center at Exit Glacier was more than $5,000; Seavey said That rock also was donated by Al Schafer.

The Iditarod Trail group has been working with a noted sculptor, who will estimate the size, design, and cost for a statue to sit atop the rock, and informational plaques will be placed on the rock face. The preliminary design is of a bronze statue of a prospector with a walking staff, and a freight/pack dog following close at his heels. Far more prospectors with small groups of one to three dogs actually walked the trail than dog mushers with dog teams ever did, said Seavey, a noted musher and former Seward history teacher, who helped Joe Redington, Sr found the Iditarod Sled Dog race in 1973.

The local Iditarod group plans to dedicate the completed monument on August 28 2012, Seward Founders Day, and the hundredth anniversary of the discovery of gold in Iditarod Country. The trail committee has been working for 28 years on trail-related projects, including clearing brush from the trail, building the bike path along the beach front at Iditarod Trail mile-zero in downtown Seward, and creating the Iditarod Mural in 2003. It has received help from the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Currently in the midst of a four-year centennial celebration, group members also wanted to create a local monument that will last at least another 100 years, Seavey said.

The Sea Life Center is donating the Iditarod monument site, but the City of Seward presumably will take over ownership of the rock and statue when it is completed, so that it can be preserved for posterity, Seavey said.

The 1910 Seward-to-Nome Iditarod trail was originally a mail trail, surveyed by the U.S. Army’s Alaska Road Commission. Thousands of people and tons of gold, mail and supplies were carried over the trail between Seward and the Iditarod mining district until the 1920′s when mining declined, and the airplane began to replace the dog team. Yet for most Americans today, the “Iditarod Trail” refers solely to the annual long distance sled-dog race between Anchorage and Nome. Those who would prefer that the monument portray a musher with a sled dog team rather than a prospector may share that popular misconception—Seavey said.

Tonight you will undoubtedly be encouraged by words from the City Manager and the allegedly unbiased “Fluoride Committee” to pass an “advisory vote” resolution regarding adding Fluoride to City Water.

(more…)

What a Surprise! A vote on the Fluoride “Advisory Ballot” right after the first weekend of Summer.

Can anyone imagine a better time for a thorough investigation by the public into this complex and controversial issue?

And with a full five day’s notice I’m sure everyone  is updating their calendars: 1) Mow lawn 2) figure out what to do with kids now school is out 3) Investigate, study and reflect on complicated bio-science of contentious public health issue and give testimony at council meeting.

The cynicism and arrogance of this paternalistic administration knows no bounds. What’s worse? They’re likely going to get away with it.