February 10, 2016 - Glacier City Gazette

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VOLUME 1 / ISSUE 1
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016
LOCALLY OWNED AND PRODUCED IN GIRDWOOD, ALASKA
Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarlene
An 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
By Marc Donadieu
Glacier City Gazette
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
ANCHORAGE, AK
PERMIT NO. 26
ECRWSS
Postal Customer
Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette
Governor 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 fundraiser of the year.
Gov. Bill Walker and First Lady
Donna Walker were in attendance
at the annual Girdwood 2020 Banquet on Jan. 30, held at the Alyeska
Resort. Anchorage Mayor Ethan
Berkowitz was also there, as were
many prominent business leaders from the area. The banquet is
Girdwood 2020’s largest fundraiser
of the year, and the proceeds go toward advancing the organization’s
mission.
Sen. Dan Sullivan was originally
supposed to be the keynote speaker, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski was
scheduled to attend, but both needed 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 silent 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 snowmobile tour for two from Glacier City
Snowmobile Tours; a Spencer Glacier float trip for two from Chugach
Adventures; a private, 1-hour Nordic 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 Hotel in Girdwood and how his wife’s
minor skiing accident caused a major change in the evening’s plans.
After the governor had the audience
engaged, he turned to serious matters 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 declaration died down, Walker began
identifying different ways of viewing where Alaska is fiscally, especially 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 riverbed 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 written in hand, ‘Governor, this is what
we’re doing. We’re pulling together,’ 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 Girdwood do? They said, ‘We’re going
to get our own police department
going, take care of ourselves.’ That’s
See back page
Glacier City Gazette
Page 2
Welcome to the first issue
of the Glacier City Gazette.
We are a new, communityoriented newspaper covering the Turnagain Arm
region and its people in a
fresh, exciting way.
The Glacier City Gazette
will be published on the second 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 photographers to feature their work
about this region. We have
a lot of interesting and talented 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 enthusiasm with others, inspire them, and show you
the results.
One way to do that is to
emphasize excellent photography from talented local
photographers who capture
the area’s beauty throughout
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
The Glacier City Gazette Begins
Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette
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
Looking for
Photographers
and Writers
The 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 photos from Rainbow, Indian, Bird Creek,
Girdwood, Crow Creek, Portage, Whittier, 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 Turnagain Arm communities and feature
the work of local writers and photographers 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
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.
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 changes that will come.
As the paper grows and
hits its stride in the upcoming 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, knowledgeable, and well written because credibility and reputa-
tion are essential. We also
want features, profiles, photos from events, and other
news bits that are interesting, playful, and creative
to showcase the Turnagain
Arm communities.
The same idea applies to
photography. We want images that are thoughtfully
composed and have dramatic 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 editing. Then there is my wonderful wife Lesley de Jaray,
who has been incredibly
supportive in untold ways.
My last thanks go to Matthew Bailey, our graphic designer/webmaster who has
given me invaluable ideas
and help, and Marlene Buccione, our Chief Photographer, who has been incredibly helpful with her advice
and support.
We’re off to an exciting
start. I hope you enjoy the
Glacier City Gazette as it develops in the future. Let the
journey begin!
Marc Donadieu
Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
>> IN THIS ISSUE
Chelsea Holmes
These days, 29-year-old
Girdwood-born Nordic
skier Chelsea Holmes can
afford to sleep in until
seven...
Page 4
Girdwood History
That change should be the
only constant is a sentiment
commonly echoed among
the epochs. As humanity’s
footprints tread across...
Page 5
Nic Petit
In 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 Girls
A fundraiser for Girdwood’s Iditarod musher Nic
Petit was held at the Glacier
View Bed and Breakfast...
Page 7
Hope Highway
With 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
Goldstitchers
Charitable giving through
collaborative art stepped a
pace forward on Thursday.
At the Gerrish Library...
Page 9
Federal Grant
You may have seen the
signs, gone to our website
or even heard some talk
about the Girdwood Clinic
becoming...
Page 10
Neil Fried
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...
Page 11
Published the second and fourth
Wednesdays 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
Glacier City Gazette
Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016
Page 3
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.
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 progressed?”
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.
Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette
Steve 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.
Steve Norwood Q&A
By Marc Donadieu
Glacier 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 music. 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 upcoming 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 occasionally 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?”
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 going 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 music?”
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 lifetime 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 record?”
Steve: “Now that we have this studio atmosphere, producing 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.”
Glacier City Gazette
Page 4
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Girdwood native Chelsea Holmes finds path to success
is close to home
By Lex Treinen
Special to the
Glacier City Gazette
These days, 29-year-old
Girdwood-born Nordic skier 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 Internet will work well enough
to Skype with Luke, an Alpine 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 professional 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 skiing 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 coffee shop.” After a summer of
unstructured training, working and coaching, Holmes
jumped in the traditional
season-opening races in
West Yellowstone, Montana, and surprised everyone 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 January she got her first chance
to start on the World Cup,
the highest level of Nordic skiing in the world. She
finished 37th in the 10-kilometer skate race in Nove
Mesto, Czech Republic. A
top thirty result is something
of a benchmark for World
Cup racing, and Holmes’ finish—just 17 seconds behind
the top thirty—was especially
impressive considering she
had finished racing in Michigan, 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-kilometer 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 childhood in Girdwood. Her
parents, Larry Holmes and
Kathy Joy-Holmes, took
Chelsea and her sister, Nikki, backpacking and biking
throughout the trails of Turnagain 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 really stopped him [my dad],”
she said, “There was no ‘we
might just stay inside and
have cocoa instead of going
out.’” Holmes said this attitude, whether she wanted it
to or not, stuck with her to
today. “I don’t mind rain or
bad weather. That’s the lifestyle that’s encouraged and
supported in Girdwood,”
she said. Another adventure
Thomas O’Harra / Special to the Glacier City Gazette
Girdwood’s Chelsea Holmes stands atop the winner’s podium after the SuperTour 10-kilometer classic mass start race in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Thomas O’Harra / Special to the Glacier City Gazette
Girdwood native Chelsea Holmes (center) of the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Team begins the SuperTour
10-kilometer classic mass start race in December.
Kathy recalled was a threeday ride over Resurrection
Pass with her two daughters 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 Winter 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 desire to win,” said APU assistant coach and wax technician Mike Matteson. “She
won’t accept anything less
than first place.”
Chelsea says that even
when she was not appreciating the rigorous work of
training, she still had a hyper
focus when it came to intense 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 season.”
Since joining Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski
Center in 2014, her results
have continued to rise.
APUNSC is an elite, Anchorage based ski team that
travels the world competing. She finished the 20142015 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 Republic. When the World
Cup makes an eight-day
tour through Canada this
March, Holmes will be starting. 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 immediately found a friend and
mentor in her.
“She truly cares about her
teammates and working together as a team to succeed
together,” said Frankowski,
“She took an unconventional path from college skiing to professional skiing.
That she continues to chase
her goals is really inspiring.
Chelsea is not only a teammate and friend, but a mentor whom I look up to.”
Glacier City Gazette
Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016
Page 5
Gazette Reflects Upon Namesake
By P.M. Fadden
That change should be the only constant is a sentiment commonly echoed among the epochs. As humanity’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 metamorphic tourism industry, television and film appearances, 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 different 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, justification for the name swap is historically excluded. However, public records show that Girdwood’s resulting
course has been a timeline of constant change; a passage of evolution and adaptation that arrives, in these
pages, full-circle to Glacier City.
Courtesy photo
The Old Town site of Glacier City-turned-Girdwood. The town would be destroyed and later relocated in the wake of the Good Friday Earthquake.
A look back at the week that was…
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 interview 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 automobiles 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.
George Grantham Bain collection / Library of Congress
Cars lined up for the start of the New York to Paris Race in 1908.
Alyeska at a Glance
By Shannon Markley
Special 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 neverending powder days, and
these epic jam sessions are
only set to continue throughout the rest of the season.
Alyeska Resort is excited
to announce the return of
Great American Taxi, coming up February 12th and
13th. Great American Taxi
is a Colorado-based Americana 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 Grateful 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 switching 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 Alaskan performances this year,
so you do not want to miss
out.
Next on stage for February is the favorite Irish-JigHavin’ 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 modern rock. Current members include lead vocalist
and acoustic guitarist Keith
Roberts, bassist and vocalist
Brendan Holmes, guitarist
Bob Boulding, drummer David Ingraham, and the multifaceted 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 album. This album was 100%
created by the band and financed by fans rather than
outside sponsorships and
labels. The band is proud to
say that they had total creative freedom and control on
this album for the first time
in the band’s history. These
guys are quite possibly Celtic 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 Girdwood, then continue back to
the states to tour non-stop
until October. These traveling Irishmen are here to get
your Irish-Jig perfected, so
grab a partner. We’ll see you
on the dance floor!
Glacier City Gazette
Page 6
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Nic Petit and Emily Maxwell take
second place in Denali Doubles
By Marc Donadieu
Glacier 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 riders 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 toward the finish line. The race’s goal is to pair an experienced
musher with a novice musher to allow them to work together 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 disengaging 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 runners 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
Glacier City Gazette
Page 7
GLACIER CITY
GOLD RUSH GIRLS
✭ Nic Petit Fundraiser ✭
Photos by Marc Donadieu / Glacier City Gazette
Connie Larose
Stephanie Thompson
Selita Rios
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 Gazette
Page 8
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Hope’s hazardous winter road conditions
MORE INFORMATION:
Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities Statewide
Maintenance and Operations
Winter Road Maintenance
Priority Map
http://www.dot.alaska.gov/stwdmno/wintermap/
Wesli Dykstra / Special to the Glacier City Gazette
A typically icy stretch of the Hope Highway near Mile 2 after road crews had recently passed
through.
By Julia Isaac
Staff 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 without rafters, RV campers or
fishermen. Only an occasional drive down the Hope
Highway may be necessary
for supplies; however, this
winter Hope residents have
found that occasional drive
dangerous and unpredictable due to inconsistent
road conditions.
The community’s side
roads are diligently maintained by local residents
Rob and Willie Davidson.
Plowing and sanding duties on the Highway are the
responsibility of the State’s
DOT trucks, and they are
having a difficult time keeping up this winter. Budget
cuts across the state affect
the road crews at the Silvertip Station, but we’re not the
only ones.
According to Jill Reese,
spokesperson for the Alaska
DOT, budget cuts are “affecting 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. According to Reese, the road crews
continue to clear until the
weather event ends, so there
isn’t really a way to determine how many man hours
it takes to make the road
drivable. Even though the
Hope Highway is considered
a level 2 road (the same priority 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 traffic,” she stated. “There are
just more people trying to
get down the Seward Highway than the Hope highway, 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 process of putting together a
presentation for the Alaska
state legislature to explain
how changes in our weather patterns affect how the
DOT might go about handling the variable road conditions. 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 concerned about de-icing and
less concerned about where
they are going to put all of
the snow.
The road to Hope is particularly difficult as it has at
least three distinct microclimates 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 mitigate conditions differently
according to what their encountering on the road.
Without many people,
there is not much maintenance. The way the information 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 ambulance service to access anyone who is sick or injured,
unless an emergency helicopter 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 positions 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 differences in priority decisions
are resulting in a less drivable road this year than in
years past.
Local businesses feel the
crunch of a poorly maintained 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
A Dall sheep munches on dry grasses above Turnagain Arm.
year because the hill was so
slippery she didn’t want to
drive down it. She didn’t expect anybody else to want to
either. Hope Junction Trading Company has stayed
open despite the roads, but
on those icy days owner
Kristy Peterson has seen a
difference in how many customers she has. Locals can’t
even get around town to patronize 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 unofficial 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 nothing was going in or out for
days, but this year it has just
been a matter of going slow
and being cautious.
Hope residents understand and expect that their
commute might pose more
challenges, as living in a
remote community often
does. This year, however,
they would like more answers as to how the Alaska
Department of Transportation is going to handle these
new weather patterns and
the dangerous road conditions as the community
grows and moves towards
the future.
Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarlene
Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016
Glacier City Gazette
Page 9
Girdwood Goldstitchers create to help the community
By P.M. Fadden
Staff Writer
Charitable giving through
collaborative art stepped a
pace forward on Thursday.
At the Gerrish Library, sewing group Girdwood Goldstitchers unveiled its latest
piece “Bountiful Baskets,”
the group’s twelfth completed quilt. The Goldstitcher’s
combined talents represent
over 460 years of sewing experience, with 230 years in
quilting.
“Since almost all of us are
transplants to Alaska, the
women in our group have
become our extended family,” said Goldstitcher member Judy Onslow. “In 2007,
we decided to become a
more formal group and have
a group name that incorporated Girdwood, Gold, and
Quilting. We had 10 original members, and we now
number 14 committed community 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 Committee, the Girdwood Clinic,
the Meadows, Little Bears,
Girdwood Center for Visual
Arts, Challenge Alaska and
the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to the tune of
$24,000 dollars in donated
funding.
P.M. Fadden / Glacier City Gazette
Gathered 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 Community Library.
versations, more auditions,
some arguments, more auditions, and many opinions.
Finally people cut, some
sew, some press, and slowly
“If you think about each
quilt, it’s really raising a
lot of money.”
– Judy Onslow
“We meet most Wednesdays as part of the FVCS
Glacier Valley Quilters class
held at The Meadows Community 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 pressing 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-
the quilt top emerges,” said
Onslow.
Depending upon the
quilt’s complexity, completion 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 quilters, 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 project.
Quilt donation unfolds as
follows: Goldstitchers decide which nonprofit they
would like to create a quilt
for. In a close-knit community, Goldstitchers may
already know of a special
area need, if not, a reference
list is at hand. That group is
then contacted to gauge interest in a quilt.
“No one has ever said,
“No”, said Onslow.
Goldstitchers decide on
theme as well as coordination 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 Library will be raffled by Girdwood Food Bank and Girdwood Chapel. Local Food
Pantry organizer, Sheila Denuptiis was on hand for the
quilt’s unveiling.
“[The quilt] itself is so
pretty and the colorful fruits
stitched into it look absolutely delicious,” said Denuptiis. The monthly pantry
is proud of the Girdwood
Goldstitchers efforts.
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.
“I’m excited just thinking
about it,” said Denuptiis.
Every group receiving a
quilt accepts responsibility for the organization of
the corresponding raffle.
Current raffle details are
awaiting finalization, but
Goldstitchers suggests that
groups sell at least 500 tickets, pricing each ticket at $5
per or offering 5 tickets at a
$20.00 rate. The concept envisions the raising of at least
$2,000.00 for the recipient
group. Upon raffle completion, the Goldstitchers request $300.00 be returned
to the group in recompense
of backing, batting, and machine quilting costs.
Girdwood
Goldstitchers 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 accomplishment, and a commitment to community are all
reasons that our group continues to thrive,” said Onslow. “[Goldstitchers] have
created a dozen community
quilts for non-profit organizations 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 quilters,” 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.
Glacier City Gazette
Page 10
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Girdwood Health Clinic puts $1 million federal grant to use
By Ken Waugh MS, PA-C
Special to the Glacier City Gazette
You may have seen the
signs, gone to our website 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 documentation, reams of paperwork 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 vocabulary. But most important, it
means that we can keep the
doors open for the foreseeable 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 excellent relations with the
best medical professionals in
Anchorage. It is also important to know we are transitioning from reactive to
proactive health care. This
new Health Care status has
allowed for enhanced staffing, which in turn facilitates
lots of new programs designed to make Girdwood a
healthier place.
First we hired an Executive 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 Ashford. They are here to assist
should you want to know
what your options are based
on eligibility under the Affordable Health Care Act,
commonly called Obamacare. 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 Jackson RN, BSN, and a medical 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
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.
can help with Medicaid enrollment if you or your child
qualifies. They have been
circulating in the community 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. Unfortunately, this is a pilot program,
so the state is not accepting
labs from those who do have
insurance at this time. However, we are still happy to do
the screen, have a commercial 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 control website at http://www.
cdc.gov/hepatitis/hcv/
guidelinesc.htm to see the
complete screening recommendations. 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 clinical staff in Hope remain the
same, however, there has
been a bit of a role reversal at the Girdwood clinic.
Kerry Dorius has now become 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 limited 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 particularly beneficial for the
community, please let us
know. After all, we are here
to help you.
Glacier City Gazette
Vol. 1, Iss. 1 | Feb. 10, 2016
Page 11
Economist Neil Fried tells Girdwood community about
Alaska economic forecast
By Marc Donadieu
Glacier 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 expected 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. Glacier 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 presentation by saying he would be
happy to answer questions
about Alaska’s economy
and economic forecasting.
However, he emphasized
would not answer questions 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 nobody can predict what the
state legislature will do to
address the economy. Despite 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. Sometimes 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 beyond anyone’s control.
Fried’s forecast for Anchorage in 2016 is a slight
loss of jobs, less than 1
percent, but that some sectors like tourism could have
modest growth. He says
2017 is when the municipality should be very concerned
because nobody, economists
included, really knows what
will happen. There are too
many unknowns and variables, but they don’t look
promising.
“I’m just worried about
the more cumulative effects
of what is already beginning
but could manifest themselves even more as the year
goes on with the new budget cycle, the price of oil unless it changes dramatically.
That’s what I’m worried
about. Things can change
very rapidly.”
Marc Donadieu/Glacier City Gazette
Economist Neil Fried of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research
Section, explains data trends on a slide.
If you wish to understand Alaska’s fiscal crisis in more detail,
Diane Kaplan, President and
CEO of the Rasmusen Foundation, will be presenting at the
Girdwood Community Center
from 7-9 p.m. on Feb. 22. She
will speak about Alaska’s financial situation and lead a discussion about choices for getting
through it. The presentation is
being sponsored by Girdwood
2020; Girdwood, Inc.; the Girdwood Chamber of Commerce;
and The Rasmuson Foundation.
Girdwood Rotary Club
Service Above Self
Meeting schedule:
1st & 3rd Thursday of
each month at Challenge
Alaska 7PM
girdwoodrotary.org
Visit our Facebook page.
Glacier City Gazette
Page 12
Feb. 10, 2016 | Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Girdwood 2020
Continued from front page
the Alaskan way. That’s the
thing we have to remember 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 proactive vision other Alaskans
can learn from in these challenging fiscal times.
“When I come to an organization that’s about resilience 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 unless 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 beginning in 2000.
Livingston
explained
why Girdwood 2020 was
formed. “There was a perceived need for an organized
group to identify and define
problems and issues and infrastructure 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 organization does. Girdwood 2020
has a synergistic relationship 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 cannot.
“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 supervisor to Juneau to meet with
legislators or to spend any
money at all advising legislators 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 coordinated efforts, Girdwood
2020 has a long list of past
successes in obtaining funding for infrastructure used
by the community. There
is the Gerrish Library and
Community Center building, the Roundhouse rehabilitation that turned it
into a museum and visitor
center, the parking area on
Holmgren Ave. across from
Thriftwood, and maintaining the Girdwood Pedestrian 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 addressing 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 businesses that depend on the
Seward Highway to discuss
safety issues, find constructive 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
Marlene Buccione / AlaskabyMarlene
A bull elk raises his head as seen from below at the Alaska Wildlife
Conservation Center.
safety issues and find ways
to correct them,” said Livingston. “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 phenomenally expensive project,
they are working to address
the safety issues in smaller
increments.”
Getting to where Girdwood 2020 is today took
some time to develop. One
of the first steps was getting the rest of the state to
recognize Girdwood was
much more than its stereotypical reputation from the
past.
“The first thing that everyone 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 working on that ever since.”
One way Girdwood 2020
addressed the identity issue
was creating the Go for the
JACK SPRAT
165 Olympic Loop
Girdwood Alaska
Serving Carnivores & Vegans
for 15 years!
Reservations
907-783-5225
DINE IN —TAKE OUT
Monday — Friday
Saturday & Sunday Brunch
Saturday & Sunday Dinner
Gold program to support
Olympic caliber athletes
living in Girdwood. Nordic
skiers Chelsea Holmes and
Lex Treinen were among
Go for the Gold 2015 recipients, 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 destination resort,” Livingston
said, “but to make it an attractive place for people to
live and work and hopefully
recreate.”
www.jacksprat.net
5 – 10
10 – 2:30
4 – 10