Southwest

Four children broke into the Bethel Community Garden Thursday evening. They stole tools and wrecked vegetables that were reaching their peak after the growing season. Leif Albertson, the coordinator for the community garden, inspected the damage this morning.

“Somebody’s definitely been in here. Some plants are ripped out, zucchini are destroyed and spread around, carrots are lying in the aisle that have been destroyed, and there are some plants that have knocked over,” Albertson said.

Around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, John Sargent, one of the active gardeners, heard about a break-in at the garden’s shed and began combing Pinkies Park with his kids.

“We kept on scanning the park and I saw two kids hiding in the trees. I said, ‘Hey, were you at the community gardens?’ We started talking to them and drew them out. I told them to show me where the tools were. They had thrown the tools into the bushes and the trees. We would not have found them for a long time,” said Sargent.

The two kids reported that two others were involved. Sargent estimates they were between the ages of 8 and 13. A chain-link fence surrounds the garden and has a locked gate.

Bethel police say charges are pending. This is at least the second act of vandalism by Bethel juveniles in the past two weeks.

A Bethel preschool is nearly back to normal after a week of cleaning up after vandals.

Lower Kuskokwim School District Superintendent Dan Walker says students were back Monday.

“While it was a very negative event, it was quite heartwarming to see the outpouring of support. It really renewed our faith for the community as a whole coming together when there is something ugly like this that happened. So, we’re quite pleased with that, and we’re really happy we could get back up and running in a week. That was a really monumental effort,” said Walker.

Vandals trashed preschool classrooms and smashed windows in 13 of the Lower Kuskokwim School District’s vehicles earlier this month. Crews had to remove chemicals that were left when fire extinguishers were emptied. After extensive cleaning, preschool staff came in Thursday and worked through Saturday to get classrooms ready. New computers and smart boards will arrive soon.

Walker says the current estimates of damages hovers around $125,000, but it may grow to $150,000. Insurance will cover some, but the district may be on the line for $75,000 to $100,000, says Walker.

Police identified five juveniles, ages 10 and 13, and forwarded charges to the department of juvenile justice. Walker says the district will consider adding more security cameras on top of those that helped them find suspects.

“We certainly are going to be looking at adding additional lighting, and taking a look at the campus in general where the district office is located with the schools around it. We’ll be looking at areas that might be vulnerable to vandalism,” said Walker.

The local teacher and staff association is making a donation to teachers to replace supplies destroyed by the vandalism. Walker says there has been offers from around the state and even the Lower 48 to send supplies.

We’ve all seen things in our respective hometowns in this region that need fixing. Who among us hasn’t thought, “If we could just get some people together and maybe a little money or material, I bet we could fix that.” Recently six guys and a truckload of donated cement made a major fix at Dillingham’s Animal Shelter, and it didn’t cost the city a dime.

Last year, two dogs died and another was sent to Anchorage after an outbreak of parvovirus at the animal shelter. Parvo is highly contagious, mostly affects dogs, and can be deadly. The old outdoor pens had dirt floors and couldn’t be easily cleaned.

So this week a group of volunteers got together to do something about it, to make the shelter a little better.

Dillingham’s animal control officer Dan Boyd guided the city’s move from the old shelter up Lake Road to the location at the harbor where, hopefully, more people will notice the impounded dogs as they come and go from downtown. That’s part of the purpose of the outdoor pens.

“But we weren’t able to clean and sanitize them like you really should do at an animal shelter like we can do on the inside,” Boyd said. “We got a concrete floor in there that I can sanitize every day, just make it a clean environment for the animals.”

Budgets are tight, so Boyd was thrilled when the volunteer group opted to take on the task. The price tag was basically $0, except for his hours on the clock as a city employee.

“Everything’s been donated, volunteer-wise,” Boyd said. “The lumber, the pegs that hold the forms in the place, the wire, has all been donated. The help has all been donated.”

The effort was spearheaded by Paul Liedberg, who’s retired except for his role as a city councilman. He could’ve tried to push this project through officially, put it out to bid, see the contract awarded. Instead, he rounded up helping hands and asked around for some cement. As he and another volunteer nailed a frame together he seemed proud to see it happen.

“I think the key things are, there’s just lots of support for this facility, lots of volunteers that do many things to help the community,” Liedberg said. “And this is just one of them.”

Liedberg said about a dozen or more people helped, including folks who gathered supplies and prepped the pen sites, and the guys who showed up for the concrete pour.

After a few hours Wednesday, Liedberg said there’s not much left to do.

“Take the forms off, and then we’ll add a little material around the edge of the forms just to slope it, material being gravel, just like this, and that’ll be about it. So in a few days it should be totally complete,” Liedberg said.

It may be a simple project – pouring concrete slabs at the dog shelter. And it may go largely unnoticed. The volunteers don’t want credit or attention. They do want to see this job done and maybe set a small example on how to tackle the next ones.

Yupiit Nation tribal members at an event Friday made a last second push for advancing sovereignty in Alaska. A few dozen members signed on to a letter to Gov. Bill Walker asking him to stop the state’s fight against putting lands into trust.

A brief is due in court Monday.

“We are urging, imploring, that the Governor drop the appeal on this litigation,” said Mike Williams Sr. of Akiak, the Yupiit Nation chief.

Williams calls Yupiit Nation a consortium of federally recognized tribes. Formed in 1978 with 19 tribes, there were people from eight tribes signed in Friday at the ONC meeting hall. The core of the group is centered in a section of the lower Kuskokwim River and includes Akiak, Akiachak, Tuluksak, and Kwethluk.

While tribes could see clarity on trust lands, the next steps for tribal governance are elusive after the Calista-led process lost steam and ran out of money. Calista leaders say that the matter is now in the hands of tribes. Their attorney, however, participated Friday. Williams wants to keep momentum.

“We’re making progress toward fixing our lives and savings our lands and ourselves. Nobody is going to save us. The state of Alaska isn’t going to save us. Federal government is going to save us. We are the ones that are going to save us,” said Williams.

At the Calista-led March convention that never reached a quorum, leaders asked tribes to consider resolutions supporting a new regional tribal government or strengthening the Association of Village Council Presidents. Long past the deadline, Calista has heard from just nine tribes, including three that oppose any new changes. With some overlap, six wanted a new tribal government and two wanted to change AVCP. Opponents worry that a new government undermines existing tribes.

Ivan M. Ivan of Akiak urged reaching out and bringing more people up to speed.

“Any questions they have could be answered in this process. However slow it is? Just keep moving forward,” said Ivan.

After a long discussion Yupiit Nation members wanted to maintain efforts to advance a tribal government structure and to push the issue at this fall’s AVCP convention.

The community of Chevak in Southwest Alaska has been breathing a collective sigh of relief after the arrest of a man in July for the murder of Roxanne Smart. The 19-year-old was found stabbed to death in the middle of town last August. But it was a tough year for the tight-knit Cup’ik community as they waited for law enforcement to make an arrest.

Smart’s friend Kerri Tall stands by a memorial beside the old Chevak health clinic where her friend was found.

“At night, it’s not that busy, at night it’s a different story,” said Tall.

Tall explains there’s a midnight curfew for 4-wheelers, the main form of transportation here, so there would have been fewer people around when Roxanne Smart was killed in the middle of the night.

A wooden cross bearing her name leans up against the building supports along with a black and brown stuffed animal puppy, a coffee mug covered in forget-me-nots, and personal notes weighted down with rocks.

Tall says Smart was a quiet woman who loved her new baby and had a soft spot for dogs. And Tall says she can’t think of why anyone would want to hurt her.

She was really shy, quiet. She always had a puppy to play with and she didn’t deserve any of what she received,” Tall said.

What led up to Smart’s murder isn’t clear, but court documents say she was found naked from the waist down and stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest. Alaska State Troopers reportedly arrived soon after and took DNA samples from several suspects.

“It was hard on me. I mean, she’s my age. I felt like he was out there and I was scared,” Tall said.

Tall didn’t want to sit idle and started a Facebook page to keep attention on Smart’s case before it went cold. She and two other women from Chevak kept the page updated with images of their friend, calling it “Justice for Roxanne Smart.”

The town had to live for nearly a year with a killer among them while they waited for the lab samples to come back.

Lt. Christopher Thompson, the deputy commander of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation who oversees all major crimes investigations, didn’t want to go on tape for this story, but he says investigators went to Chevak three times between August 2014 and July 2015 and identified several people of interest in the case. He says a rape kit was administered. No arrests were made during that time.

Tall walks past the bustling corporation store to her Auntie’s house, kitty corner to the old health clinic where Smart’s body was found. Her Auntie, Etta Tall, says Roxanne was a regular at her “teen nights” where she did positive activities with young people.

“She was with my youth group in the beginning. She did the fry bread power day, we had fry bread power day, and she was so happy. If I would ever do a program, she would always want to be there to help out. She was that kind of a person,” Tall said.

Investigators returned to Chevak July 23 to interview Samuel Atchak, one of the original people of interest. They say the 19-year-old admitted to placing Smart in a “choke hold” that night with his arms until she blacked out and to raping her. But he denied stabbing or killing Smart. The next day, while he was being arrested and charged for assault and sexual assault, an affidavit says Atchak admitted to stabbing and murdering Smart that night. Tall says that changed the dynamic in Chevak.

“I think it’s like a relief and a release. When I first heard about it, it was very thick here; the atmosphere was different. But now I come back I can feel like a relief here in Chevak,” Tall said.

Larry Barker is the superintendent of the Kashunamiut school district in Chevak.

“My biggest question is why it took 11 months for the DNA testing to take place,” Barker said.

He says everyone in the village wonders what took so long.

“Because it did leave the village with concerns and lots of questions. You know, no arrests were taking place and the whole village was wondering what was going on and you know, probably a little scared,” Barker said.

Troopers says it took 11 months to charge the suspect because they were waiting on DNA samples that were first sent to the state crime lab and then to another out-of-state lab, for further analysis.

Senator Berta Gardner has called for an audit of Alaska’s crime lab, citing a huge backlog, specifically of rape kits.

Lieutenant Thompson, with the Troopers, says the last lab report came back June 25th, which gave investigators enough evidence to confront the Atchak in July. Troopers say more details will come out in court.

Atchak was arraigned in Bethel Superior Court August 4th. He pleaded not guilty. His case will be back in court in October.