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AEA hopes the dam will be licensed by 2017, with construction completed by 2023.  That timeline would aid the State’s goal of supplying 50% of Alaska’s energy needs with renewables by 2025.

A number of studies must be completed before the actual licensing process begins, and Dyok said the next 11 months would be spent working to satisfy FERC’s pre-application requirements.

In an effort to maintain transparency, AEA has scheduled four public scoping meetings around the state in March, making presentations in Anchorage, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Fairbanks. These meetings are the only outreach to railbelt communities scheduled so far. Representative Saddler asked what efforts were being made to further engage the public, Dyok said there was more work to be done in making the case for the dam, saying the steady energy prices and more jobs were enough to persuade Alaskans. The AEA is searching for a public relations team to put together an outreach campaign to the tune of five-hundred-thousand dollars.

Dyok said a number of studies are still necessary to evaluate transmission needs, access routes, compensation and environmental impact studies. The Dam’s price tag was an estimated 4.6 billion dollars, but Dyok told committee members a clearer picture on that estimate would be ready sometime next week.

Representative Tuck, a Democrat from District 29, wanted to know why the proposed 700 foot height of the dam includes a possible 150 foot expansion. He questioned why the dam wouldn’t be built to the larger size in the first place, citing a larger dam proposed in 2009 that would have been 850 feet tall and produce 200 percent more power at only a 22 percent increase in cost of the dam. Tuck added that he would like to see gas power made obsolete through hydropower.

AEA’s consulting attorney said they would be engaging in talks with Native corporations in the next few weeks over issues of land ownership as well as surface and mineral rights.

Dyok said that the Susitna Hydro project was still operating on 2011 funding, and would not be requesting additional money during this session.

KTNA and Members present:

The Decadent Dessert Auction

Sunday, February 12th to Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

In support of KTNA and the Upper Susitna Food Pantry

With contributors Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union and

Cubby’s Marketplace

Hear ye, hear ye! Chefs, bakers and dessert lovers!  It’s time for KTNA’s 16th Annual Decadent Dessert Auction. For years, residents of the Northern Susitna Valley have kept the phones ringing for a chance to bid on delectable, locally made creations such as Sour Cream Peach Pies, Hot Milk Cakes, Lemon Glazed Butter Logs and, of course, Chocolate Rum Cakes.  Perhaps you have baked or eaten a Decadent Dessert. We invite you to do so again!  For every dessert sold for more than $75, Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union or Cubby’s will make a contribution to our local food bank.

If you or your business would like to provide divinely delicious and exquisitely appetizing desserts during the Auction, let KTNA know well in advance.   Call Deb at (907)733-1700 or email her at wessler@ktna.org with any questions you may have. Consider being a volunteer.  Here is your opportunity to purchase a decadent dessert for your loved ones in anticipation of Valentine’s Day.  Show the love while supporting Talkeetna Community Radio!

Senator Lisa Murkowski co-authored an editorial with Senator Mark Udall, a Democrat from Colorado, criticizing partisan dysfunction that has national legislators isolating themselves from members of the other party. They continued, saying that the traditional seating by parties during the State of the Union address is a type of “boarder rivalry” that belongs in a sporting arena, not in congress.

Murkowski and Udall hope this symbolic step towards improving communication and relations across the aisle becomes a permanent tradition during the State of the Union address.

Rich pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, which were condensed down from the 50 counts he had originally been charged with. During his probation period he cannot own or care for any animals.

In January 2011, Alaska State Troopers seized 168 dogs from Rich’s property. Nineteen dogs were found dead, according to veterinarian Katrina Zwolinski. In court Zwolinski testified the animals were emaciated, and many had parasites, cancer and wounds.

At least 20 other dogs were euthanized, before some of the seized animals were adopted out.

Rich had appealed the dogs’ seizure. He declined to comment following his sentencing, but during the hearing he told the judge he loved his dogs and they were like family.

Looking back, he said he now understands he had too many dogs and needed help. He testified he spent up to $36,000 a year on dog food.

As with most high-snow years, moose killed on roadways and train tracks go up. According to the Anchorage Daily News, moose killed this year on Mat Su roadways are way above average. The numbers are up for the railroad, too.

Alaska Railroad manager of external affairs Tim Sullivan says when trains strike a moose, they notify the troopers and, in situations when the moose are struck in roadless areas, they make effort to get the kill to within reach of the road system. Sullivan says that the Railroad takes measures to help reduce moose kills, even going so far as to pack trail alongside the railroad tracks to give the moose an alternative place to walk.

According to Sullivan, 152 moose this winter have been struck by the railroad as of 5 a.m. (this morning / Tuesday January 24^th). Of those, more than half have been struck along the 66 miles of track in the Talkeetna-Willow area.

The Alaska Energy Authority filed the Pre-Application Document to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on December 29^th, and is currently preparing to report to the Alaska State Legislature’s 2012 session.

Also at the Chase Community Council meeting, which took place at the Roadhouse on Thursday night, two new board members were elected to the Community Council: Johnny Murdock and Kip Boers.

In conjunction with the herbicide spray, the Railroad plans to use a wetting agent called Agri-Dex, which is an oil-based surfactant intended to increase absorption of the pesticide into the leafy plants.

A public hearing in Talkeetna will be held on February 2, 4:30 at the Northern Susitna Institute.

Jennifer Probert competing in the 10 Dog Class

The two-days of dog-sled races at the Montana Creek Dogmusher’s Association’s Su-Valley Championships were cut a day short after high winds obliterated the trail on Saturday morning. Trail groomers worked around the clock to get the trail back in shape to race on Sunday, and all competitors were able to get one last day of racing in to close the Montana Creek season.

With temperatures around zero degrees for most of the day, the temperatures were just right for a sprint race. Kim Wells from Anchorage took first place in both the 4dog and 6dog class, while Rebecca Knight snatched first place from Becky Voris by a mere 1second.

10dog class saw Dori Hollingsworth take first place over Egil Ellis, and Salcha sprinter Arleigh Reynolds finished in front, winning the open class by 1minute and 51seconds over Nathan Sterling who took 2^nd  and then Egil Ellis took 3^rd.

Arleigh Reynolds says the Su valley Championships are the first step towards ending up where he wants to be in a season with two big races coming up in February: the Exxon Mobile Open, and the Fur Rendezvous.

Download audio file (1DogMush.mp3)

Full Results:

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/sue/Library/Mail%20Downloads/jan2212%20results.doc

4-dog (6miles)

1.Kim Wells 19:03

2.Jennifer sterling 19:18

3.Amy Maclean 19:44

4.Doreen Hadele 20:08

5.Kathy Faryinarz 21:39

6.Melissa Owens 22:40

Skijor (6miles)

1.Rebecca Knight 19:45

2.Becky Voris 19:46

3.Greg Jurek 20:13

4.Emilie Entrikin 20:24

6-dog (8miles)

1.Kim Wells 23:28

2.Ami Gjeston 24:05

3.Bev Stevens 24:33

4.Greg Sellentin 24:53

5.Kris Rasey 25:29

6.Jennifer Sterling 25:30

7.Evelyn Beeter 26:22

8.Melissa Owens 27:31

9.Adam Tindill 28:15

10.Paul Gregory 29:08

10-dog (10miles)

1.Dori Hollingsworth 28:25

2.Egil Ellis 28:58

3.Jennifer Probert 29:03

4.Evelyn Beeter 29:33

5.Jennifer Sterling 30:09

6.Jeff Conn 30:10

7.Marvin Kokrine 32:09

8.Michael Tetzner 34:25

Open (15miles)

1.Arleigh Reynolds 44:37

2.Nathan Sterling 46:28

3.Egil Ellis 47:19

4.Greg Sellentin 48:18

5.Eric Renneberg 48:50

6.Bill Kornmuller 50:00

7.Michael Tetzner 50:08

8.Marvin Kokrine 51:04

9.Mike Fields 55:10

An agitated moose ran down and stomped a well-known Bush pilot from Willow, but he was saved when his wife grabbed a shovel from their pickup truck and whacked the big animal until it backed off.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, George Murphy, 82, and his wife, Dorothea Taylor, 85, were at the Willow Airport around 10:30 a.m. They were running their dogs when Murphy was charged by a moose. Without trees or cover to hide behind, Gorge dove in to deep snow, and the moose began to stomp and kick.

Taylor was sitting in her truck when she saw the moose rear up and strike at something on the ground with its front hooves. She didn’t know that her husband was down or that the moose was stomping him. Taylor got out of the truck, thinking the moose was stomping on of the dogs, and the moose charged her. She found a shovel in the back of the truck and managed to hit the moose, and kept swinging until the moose went away. She found her husband in the snow, bloody and unable to stand. Taylor returned to the Hangar to call 911, and the Willow volunteer fire department responded and stabilized him. Murphy was then rushed by medical helicopter to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he is recovering from gashes to his head and left leg as well as seven broken ribs.

Hatfield playing his fiddle at Peace in the Park, 9/11/11 in Downtown Talkeetna. Image courtesy Holli Papasodora

Long-time Talkeetna resident Paul Hatfield has passed away, and many of Hatfield’s friends and fellow musicians are mourning the loss of a man who was known for his love of playing a fiddle, and his friendliness. A Memorial service for Paul Hatfield will be held at one o’clock on Saturday, January 28^th at the VFW Post. Many more stories are sure to be shared as people remember a good friend and member of the community.

Rick Shear has known Hatfield for most of his life, and shared some memories with KTNA

Download audio file (HatfieldPKG.mp3)
Rick Shear talks about Paul Hatfield

Hatfield’s Obituary from the Durango Herald

Representatives for Seven out of the eleven proposals attended Thursday night’s Council meeting, and those proposals were discussed. No decisions were made at Thursday’s meeting, and the allocation of funds will be decided by the general public of Trapper Creek. The proposals are at the library in Trapper Creek, and residents can vote for the projects they prefer through February 8^th at the library.

Download audio file (Jan20amnews.mp3)

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Governor’s Choose Respect at the State of the State Address(5:50″)

Full script

Governor Parnell outlined elements of his proposed budget during Wednesday Night’s State of the State address, including budget items for public safety and the Choose Respect campaign, an effort to stamp out and eliminate Domestic Violence:

Download audio file (18govspeech4DV.mp3)

Parnell presented the proposed budget in December, which awaits approval by the Legislature. The budget would allocate funding for screening and services for victims of domestic abuse or sexual violence, housing assistance, support for shelters, prevention, and increased supervision of felons convicted of domestic violence.

Sunshine Clinic’s Behavior Health provider Cici Schoenberger is involved in the Clinic’s Domestic Violence Awareness program and provides domestic violence services in Talkeetna. She says Parnell’s consistent emphasis on prevention of Domestic Violence is in itself and excellent step towards prevention.

Download audio file (18govspeech4DV1.mp3)

Domestic violence typically sees a spike in January that coincides with  the Superbowl as well as the close of the holiday season when people are feeling a financial pinch.

Download audio file (18govspeech4DV2.mp3)

Recent studies have reported that 6 out of 10 alaskan women will face domestic violence situations in their lifetimes. Schoenberger adds that one in seven Alaskan men will also face domestic violence, but those numbers are more difficult to verify because men tend to be less likely to seek help.

Download audio file (18govspeech4DV3.mp3)

There are a number of ways people can get support for domestic violence, either by visiting Sunshine Clinic, joining the Clinic’s domestic violence support group, which meets every Wednesday afternoon from three to four, or by giving her a call at the clinic. People interested in assisting the Choose Respect initiative are invited to join the Choose Respect rally events in Talkeetna and Willow this March. At last year’s march, participants made “Flags of Awareness” that are taken up to Mt. McKinley by climbers.

Download audio file (18govspeech4DV4.mp3)

Paul Hatfield sings Act Naturally while George Ortman engineers in KTNA’s first year on the air. Photo courtesy Anchorage Daily News

Talkeetna has lost another good friend with the sudden passing of Paul Hatfield. Hatfield was instrumental in the early days at KTNA, and is remembered by his many friends and fellow musicians. KTNA will provide more information as it comes available.

Doug Geeting recalls Paul with this story:

More then a Friend. A brother, or ‘Brudda” as Paul would always greet whoever he met wherever he went. We all get into circles of friends, and Paul’s circle encompassed all circles. He just jelled well with everyone. If you met Paul one time, you felt like you knew him your whole life.  He built, or helped to build many of our  homes, contributed much of his time for free to help others with their construction projects.

I remember the first time I met Paul out at the ball field. He was around the third base area squeaking out some fiddle tune and I was trying to learn some right thumb thumpy style on guitar around the bleacher area. Both of us were sounding like two cats fighting on a hot tin roof. It sounded pretty awful back then. And Paul came up and said, ” Ya know, I don’t think we will make anyone’s ears bleed playing out here.” Later on, with Tom Waite’s Talkeetna Travelers, we played every chance we had. Steve, Jonathan, Murray, Jim, Carl, were the usual culprits, a “True Band of Bruddas.”

He had developed his own style of playing the fiddle and you could hear his heart and soul poor out of the music. His enthusiasm and encouragement to the new players was well known. He was a teacher, and a positive influence to those wanting to learn how to play.

His hand was extended to those who were new to Talkeetna, strangers,  who Paul would always be one of the first to welcome them in and make them feel that they belonged.  I never ever heard Paul talk bad about anyone. Paul had no cold shoulder. A gentleman, so genuine and wore no disguise. I always hear his rendition of Whiskey Before Breakfast rolling round my brain.  It was Pauls time to cross over to the other side of the river but his tracks and trails will never fade in hearts of all of us who were so very fortunate to have have known him.

In a press release today, Senator Murkowski says PIPA was envisioned as a way to fight intellectual property theft online, but says the bill raises serious concerns about civil liberties.  Senator Begich also issued a statement, saying that The theft of intellectual property and copyrighted material is a serious problem and solutions should strike an online balance between creativity, property protection and Internet freedom.

With a Senate vote scheduled for next week on the PIPA, many high profile websites such as Wikipedia and Google have staged an online protest over concerns that PIPA, along with the Stop Online Piracy Act being discussed in the House of Representatives, would limit free speech and allow for censorship of electronic content.  Critics say the bills are forms of censorship, particularly because they could lead to sites being “blacklisted” if they allegedly distribute pirated content. Supporters say something has to be done to stamp out piracy.

District 7 Assembleyman Vern Halter said the ordinance was pulled  because any new ordinance would need to be seen by the Talkeetna Water and Sewer Board before it could be submitted to the Assembly.

Halter added that the Assembly has looked in to using $75,000 of Bed Tax money to help balance the utility’s books, but the Borough returned a legal opinion that ruled Bed Tax funds as ineligible.

The Ordinance would have amended borough code to limit audience participation to one hour, but would have given the assembly the option of extending the hearing when audience participation would last longer than one hour on any one topic.

Download audio file (Morning-news-Wed-Jan-18.mp3)

Clip: 1Lonnie – 1:07”

Download audio file (1LonnieDupre1.mp3)

Dupre recounted the dangers he faced while exiting the 14,000-foot camp towards lower altitudes in the dark, under extreme winds that almost swept him off the mountain.

CLIP: 2Lonnie – 2:37”

Download audio file (2LonnieDupre.mp3)

On Monday night Dupre presented a slide show to a full audience at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, where he showed images and video that recounted some of the highlights from his 25 years of arctic exploration. Among other adventures, Dupre has walked to the North Pole twice, circumnavigated Greenland by dog team and Kayak, and followed 3,000 miles of coast on the arctic ocean, from Barrow Alaska to Churchill, Canada.

Dupre didn’t give any hints as to what his next adventure might be, but he said he’s going to take whatever comes down the road. In the meantime, he’ll be promoting his new book: “Life on Ice: 25 years of Arctic Exploration” that recounts his many expeditions.

The boys varsity team won all 4 games they appeared in, and overcame Kotzebue to win their championship game. Kotzebue is known for having a consistently strong basketball program, and Sickler credits the boys’ coach Michael Matthews with doing a good job of scouting the Kotzebue team and coming up with a plan to shut them down.

Four boys and three girls received Individual Player Recognitions at the tournament. Dawson Matthews, Stone Krueger, Mitch Drover and Nick Hogan all received medals for the boys team, and Sebrina Jurasek, Emily Hartley, and Bailey Stevenson received medals for the girls team. Stevenson also received the tournament’s MVP award.

The Rams next major tournament is the Nenana Invitational Tournament during the first week of February, and Sickler says it is the best small-school tournament in the state. At the end of February the Rams will host their own three-day tournament, the Crowley Classic.

Ordinance 11-078, which was aimed at recouping financial shortfalls of the Water and Sewer utility, was defeated unanimously at the Assembly’s December 20^th meeting. Assemblyman Vern Halter called the ordinance an impossible proposition for the people of Talkeetna, who would not be able to afford the rate increases.

But the Borough comptroller had the ordinance reintroduced as ordinance number 12-015, in order to maintain the borough’s required balanced budget. Future assembly meetings will discuss how the defecit can be addressed. Halter has asked that a portion of Bed Tax revenues be used to cover a portion of the outstanding balance, but the legality of using bed tax revenues to cover the utility’s shortfall is uncertain.

The ordinance will be re-introduced at Tuesday’s meeting, and will likely be discussed at the meeting on February 7^th, after the Talkeetna Water and Sewer board has a chance to discuss the proposals.