Southwest

A new aircraft mechanic school is coming to Bethel. The program’s main goal is to cater to the region’s needs and create jobs that help make that possible.

Everything for the program — from the fleet of bush planes to the exams — are ready. All that’s needed is a full classroom.

The aviation maintenance school’s approximately 700-square-foot hangar is filled with ready-to-go toolboxes, old plane engines and an electrical switchboard.

There are pilot cabinet gauges, air pressure simulators and two bush planes.

The hangar is a training area and is designed to prepare the 15 students entering the Regional Aviation Maintenance School for real world success.

Aviation mechanics help ensure planes are functioning properly and up to code. They’re the people that check the plane before takeoff.

Jeff Hoffman is the school’s manager and he’s been spearheading this project for more than half a decade.

“Our brochures just said, ‘coming soon, coming soon,’” Hoffman said, “and we’ve been yelling that cry for just about three and a half years now.”

Now that the program is ready to begin next February, Hoffman said the goal is to fill seats.

“The need for aviation mechanics and pilots—that are from the region and want to live here is far and few,” Hoffman said.

Since the Yukon-Kuskowim Delta is off the road system, planes are highly relied on for travel and medical emergencies.

The application itself is two pages. Students who qualify for financial aid and other scholarships can use the funds to pay for the school fee, which is $40,000.

The fee pays for the course, textbooks, transportation and dormitories. The dorms themselves were built using sustainable resources and technology and will test how well these types of materials work in the region’s climate.

After prospective students submit their applications, they’ll undergo a brief interview. If successful in the program, students will enter a field where the average salary is about $60,000 in Alaska.

The program lasts 18 months. Classes are expected to run about six hours a day, and although there aren’t extended holidays, the program accommodates subsistence lifestyles.

“We have dedicated time off in the spring time when the fish and the geese come back, as well as fall time — moose hunting,” Hoffman said. “I know if we did not do this, we’d lose the majority of our students.”

Hoffman said he hopes the program will benefit young adults looking for a career. Above the hangar is a small classroom with the dozens of textbooks, reference binders and a small set of computers.

Ken Wallace is the course instructor. He said he’s just putting the finishing touches on the curriculum.

He said if students work hard, there shouldn’t be a problem.

“I just don’t see that any student that wants to learn and is applying themselves, can’t do it,” Wallace said. “We’re not out to fail students, our goal is for them to pass the program.”

The equipment the students will work on has either been designed specifically for the course or has been decommissioned — like some of the engines or even Wallace’s own plane.

“So the students will be learning on the same equipment they’ll be working on once they graduate here,” Wallace said.

The school began accepting applications last week. As of Monday, five potential students have applied.

 

The Bethel City Council has declared a local government disaster following the Kilbuck fire that incinerated the Ayaprun Elitnaurvik Yup’ik immersion school and damaged the Kuskokwim Learning Academy school and dorms.

The fire raged for over 12 hours last week and demanded extensive city resources from the fire, police and public works department, which hauled over a quarter million gallons of water to the site.

The declaration asks the governor to declare an emergency and allocate recovery funds to the city to help rebuild the school and repair city equipment, among other requests, including help with property reclamation from asbestos, a carcinogenic mineral.

The school district informed the city and fire department two days after the incident that the demolished school contains asbestos. The school district has to hire certified crews to clean up and dispose of the rubble. And emergency personnel involved in containing the fire were possibly exposed to hazardous materials.

City Manager Ann Capela said the accident opens an opportunity to update the municipal code and require buildings to post notices of dangerous substances.

“It’s certainly opened our eyes on having the ability to know what is in the building when you’re fighting the fire,” Capela said.

The city owns the land where the fire occurred and the school district owns the buildings, entwining the entities in the environmental recovery process.

Tuesday morning, Capela met with various groups including the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Section and Department of Health and Social Services to discuss the clean up process and options for city employees potentially exposed to asbestos.

Capela said the site might also contain PCBs and lead.

“The site is secured, and the site is in possession of the school district. So the school district is the lead on that,” Capela said. “We, the city, stand ready to assist. And our first responsibility is to our employees. We will act in accordance with OSHA and notify and do any communications with our employees.”

Capela developed the disaster document with the Department of Homeland Security, and Gov. Bill Walker said his subcabinet had readied itself to receive the declaration when he visited Bethel last week to view the disaster site and meet with city and school officials.

 

Bethel City Council has passed laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for city employees and contracted workers.

The ordinances passed quickly and unanimously on Tuesday without resistance during council discussion and public comment.

Council member Chuck Herman introduced the measures.

“It’s a needed protection,” Herman said. “It’s something that is very important both symbolically and for the well being of our employees.”

The ordinances add sexual orientation and gender identity in the city’s protected class alongside others like national origin, age, and religion.

These protections do not extend to the private sector.

 

Authorities have arrested Aaron Fedolfi, the former Bethel Police Officer that was on the run.

Officials arrested Fedolfi Tuesday evening in Anchorage. He was arraigned at the city’s courthouse Wednesday afternoon.

He’ll be taken back to Bethel for future court appearances.

Fedolfi is charged with attempted third degree sexual assault and third degree official misconduct. Both of these are classified as Class A misdemeanors, which can carry a one-year jail sentence and up to a $10,000 fine in Alaska.

In early September, Fedolfi reportedly picked up an intoxicated woman while on patrol in Bethel and took her near the city’s dog pound. He then tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.

The woman was able to get away and notified the Alaska State Troopers.

Fedolfi at first denied the claims against him but later changed his story after authorities were able to obtain video from a local pizzeria that showed Fedolfi picking up the woman.

Fedolfi was later placed on administrative leave. It was during this time that he quit in early October. He had worked for BPD for about two and a half years.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2:44 a.m. Nov. 12 to include more information about the charges.

The Bethel Warriors placed second at the Anchorage Christian Schools Wrestling Invitational over the weekend in Anchorage.

Many top-ranked high school teams in the state competed in the tournament, including the Homer team that claimed first place in this year’s event, and the defending team from last year, the Kotzebue Huskies, who took third in this year’s tournament.

Bethel High School and the Kuskokwim Learning Academy represented the region well, with several medals being brought back to the YK Delta.

Bethel Warrior Tristen Evan came in first in the 113 lbs. weight class, and teammate Aaron Olsen came out top wrestler in the 132 lbs. weight class.

Two Bethel Warriors took second place: Thomas Dyment in the 98 lbs. weight class and Avery Hoffman in the 106 lbs. weight class.

KLA’s Brandon Evans brought home the gold in the 126 lbs. weight class.

Last month at Katmai National Park, the final hours of two brown bears played out in front of an online audience of thousands. The two animals laid down and died within days of each other.

Bear-cam viewers are acting as both eye-witnesses and detectives in this curious case.

Oct. 21 started as a normal fall day at Brooks Camp. Bears were fishing, preparing to den up. A sow and two cubs wandered in front of a camera close to Naknek Lake.

Then something strange happened, something that might have gone unnoticed if it weren’t for the thousands of bear cam fans who are always watching.

“We could see the cub stumbling, and its legs not really working, and then it kind of collapsed.”

That’s Diana from Maryland, a 3-year veteran bear-cam watcher who goes by the online name LovetheCams. She was paying close attention when spring cub started acting strangely. That evening, she says, the comment board was swirling with confusion.

“Like, what’s happening to this cub, what’s going on? The first day the cub moved a little, but it didn’t ever return to its feet.”

Diana says she took careful notes, counting each respiration. The cub took its last breath Friday.

Troy Hamon is the Chief of Resource Management for Katmai National Park & Preserve. The staff decided to have the cub autopsied, so a few of his colleagues boated out and collected the 60-pound carcass.

“Which is surprisingly heavy… and we shipped it to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin.”

This is uncharted territory for Katmai rangers. Hamon says they’ve never had a bear necropsy done, because they’ve rarely — if ever — witnessed a bear die of an unknown cause.

“We see bears being killed by other bears; we also see occasionally adult bears killing each other… But our understanding of the non-traumatic deaths is fairly uncommon.”

From a biologists’ point of view, this was a unique opportunity to learn about bear mortality.

And they were about to get twice the opportunity.

“The situation is, when our staff pulled up to collect the cub, there were some webcam viewers that clipped images from the video of our people arriving,” says Hamon.

This compulsive documentation paid off when a few hours later, viewers looked at that same location, and saw a big dark bear-shaped blob where there hadn’t been a dark blob before.

By comparing the before and after photos, they could pinpoint just when the dark shape had parked itself out on a sand spit. Hamon says this caught people’s attention –

“… Not because the bear laid down, but because it was still there the next day… and the next day. We have bears that lay down and sleep for six hours, or even sleep for a day, but when a bear lays down for two days, it’s dead.”

Rough weather kept the wildlife staff from returning to the second body for a few days, but Hamon says he and other soon rangers determined that the deceased was an adult male. They knew because they’d seen another mother with cubs walk by, take one look at the body on the ground, and bolt.

“The bear hierarchy system is very funny — a very important bear remains very important even after death.”

Meanwhile on the comment board, people now had two bears to grieve – and two mysterious deaths to investigate. As viewers hashed over details and re-constructed a timeline of events, Diana says they were in full-on speculation mode:

“I’ve read everything from, you know, foul play – has someone poisoned them? Could it have been something chemical that leaked from a boat or left by a park visitor? Is it the plants, is it the mushrooms? Could it be disease? Could it be neurological?”

Ranger Michael Saxton is one of the bear technicians who collected the cub’s body. He says so far only a few things have been ruled out by the lab in Wisconsin.

Rabies is negative, >toxoplasmosis is negative as well… that’s just a disease they check for, a contagious disease.”

Samples from the adult male were sent to a state veterinarian, but the tissue was too decayed to do most diagnostic tests.

Diana says many bear-cam watchers were deeply affected by the deaths, especially that of the spring cub. And there’s a tension in the comments – between those who are mourning the bears as you might a pet, and those who see themselves more as citizen scientists.

Diana is hungry for more information. But her mind keeps returning to certain moments, like when the sow and her healthy cub returned to where the cub lay dead.

“She would sniff near the cub and approach the cub near its muzzle, and seemed to be checking for things. And as a mom, I understand that – checking for things, looking for clues as to what’s wrong. And I would like to have some answers to that.”

Those answers may or may not come with the results of the necropsy.