Western

The Bethel City Council is appealing the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board’s rejection of their protest of the Bethel Native Corporation’s package liquor store application. The council met in executive session Thursday evening for three and a half hours.

The ABC board July 1 called the city’s protest of the proposed Bethel Spirits license “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” sparking outrage from the council. The board is required to honor protest unless it meets those criteria. Mayor Rick Robb says he’s personally in favor of local sales.

“But I do not think the protest was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. I think the protest was valid, based on community standards, debate, process, public hearings, past votes, planning on future votes. All of those things were taken into consideration. The protest was very well thought out,” said Robb.

The board has not decided on the status of the license and plans a public hearing in Bethel after the October election in which citizens will again advise the council on whether they want to see a liquor license of some variety. And in that same election, it’s possible that voters could choose to go back to local option with a city-run store.

In the council’s Tuesday meeting, they could introduce a move to hold a binding vote in October on the possibility of opening city-run liquor store through local option. Councilman Chuck Herman is sponsoring the action and cited local control.

“Especially now with this uncertainty over what we can do as a community, I think that is what at this moment forced my hand. I don’t believe we have the power any more. It doesn’t seem like the ABC board is going to uphold our ability to control our own community. I think the only way we can get that power back is by going toward this local option with the ability to have a city-run liquor store,” said Herman.

Before it goes to voters, the measure must make it through council. The city did away with local option in 2009. Citizens in a 2010 advisory vote rejected several types of liquor licenses and the city successfully protested several licenses. Citizens again rejected going back into local option in May of that year.

For now, October is shaping up to be a busy month and the timing of the city’s appeal is uncertain. The board hasn’t formally issued their finding to the city, which they need before proceeding. Leif Albertson is Bethel’s Vice Mayor.

“The stage we’re at right now is we directed counsel to appeal the protest, and they’re going to put together what they feel is a good appeal. That’s going to involve legal research,” said Albertson.

Councilman Zach Fansler says he wants to get the conversation rolling in advance of the fall vote.

“The last thing we want is people to be making these decisions thinking they’re going to get something they’re not going to get out of it. I think there (are) a lot of half-truths, or 75 percent of the facts, but not the whole story and you think you might be able to do this or that. I think it’s incredibly important and I think it’s going to take up a lot of everyone’s time to make sure everyone is as informed as possible and knows exactly what they’re choosing when they’re voting,” said Fansler.

That vote is Oct. 6. Separately, 17 months after the city launched an expensive third-party investigation into contracts, purchasing and personnel issues, there’s still more to discuss. Michael Gatti, a former city attorney and the man who led the third-party 2014 city investigation was at the meeting. Mayor Robb gave a brief update following executive session.

“The council received an update from our legal team about the investigation, considered litigation and other options. We will continue to look at ways to improve operations of the city. The city will address some of these issues in upcoming public meetings,” said Robb.

Another executive session item concerned potential litigation regarding real estate taxes. The city’s next meeting is Tuesday night.

Subsistence fishing is open indefinitely on the Kuskokwim River. But that hasn’t been the norm this summer, as the river underwent two management regimes —state and federal—and strict closures for two species. Lower river fishermen are adjusting to the new reality of Kuskokwim subsistence, where conservative management is now the status quo.

On a sunny Saturday after a four-hour subsistence opener, Joe Green and his two children shuttle salmon up the steep banks at the Bethel small boat harbor from the skiff to the back of their pickup.

These openers are critical for Green as he fishes for four families.

“This year we’re shooting for anything. The feds and the government shock you. They screw up everything for you. So we get what we can,” said Green.

On top of his chums, he caught just shy of a dozen red salmon and says he’ll be freezing fish for the first time this summer. It’s a summer of flexibility on the Kuskokwim. Unprecedented king salmon restrictions were followed up by more closures to protect a weak chum run, which so far at the Bethel Test Fisheryranks among the lowest in recent history.

Alissa Joseph works on the fisheries staff for Bethel’s Tribe, Orutsararmiut Native Council , and is traveling the river to talk with fishermen in fishing camps throughout the Bethel area.

“We don’t go to fish camps to look at their racks, we go to get their information and how they did. We don’t need to know how many fish they got. We just want to know how subsistence is going, how it’s working for them, and how we can be of assistance as advocates for them,” said Joseph.

The information goes to state and federal managers and the Kuskokwim Working Group.

Joseph was checking in on subsistence fishermen like Nicholai Evan. At his Napaskiak fish camp, his whole family is cutting and preparing caught in the opening. He normally catches 100 kings every summer. So far this year, he’s only caught 10. How he plans to make up the deficit?

“Caribou, moose, seal, geese, swans. My part of life is subsistence, I hardly go to the store, once in a great while,” said Evan.

Nearby David Nicholai reports that his family also got significantly fewer kings than normal—but it’s enough for them to get by.

“Enough, good enough for fish, there are lots of fish out there. Lots of chums, lots of reds, some king salmon,” said Nicholai.

Besides being large, rich and historically abundant, king salmon are also prized for their immaculate timing. They’re first, when the weather is clear and dry. But this point in the season, it’s clear that things have changed.

Under the roof of Marie Andrew’s drying rack, the Napaskiak resident is busy putting chums and reds up to dry. The Kuskokwim red salmon fortunately this year came on strong, and relatively late. But this time of year, Andrew is starting to see flies.

“During that smoky time, when the wild fire smoke was around there wasn’t that much, but lately I’ve seen lots, like today when the sun was out,” said Andrew.

She says that she’s typically done by now in a normal king year. Near Bethel, Sugar Henderson is looking forward to silvers. She says her family took part in the limited community permit system at the start of the year and was allocated a dozen kings.

“I normally do strips with my kings and dryfish with my silvers. But knowing I’d only get 12 kings I did all dryfish. And then with our pressure cooker, we figured we would try strips with silvers. Kind of backward,” said Henderson.

After several rocky years of poor king returns and the stop and go restrictions, Henderson has had to adapt.

“We’ve learned to adjust to what we get. I’m not one yelling and screaming ‘we need our kings, we need our kings’! We do need our kings, but I understand the fact they need to replenish, so we’ve just adjusted ourselves, our lifestyle, to what we could get,” said Henderson.

And as long as Kuskokwim salmon runs and regulations defy prediction, summer fishing plans will remain a moving target.

The research vessel Sikuliaq docked in Nome July 21 and opened its doors to local visitors. While touring the ice-capable ship — owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks — visitors asked questions of the crew and learned about their upcoming missions.

The Sikuliaq will be working in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas through November on three different research assignments, according to the vessel’s master, Capt. Mike Hoshlyk. He explained the Sikuliaq’s water sampling system, which can measure the properties of water as deep as 10-thousand meters.

Just how deep is that?

“The height of Everest. Deeper than Everest,” said Hoshlyk. “You could go to the Marianas Trench.”

Peter Worcester is the chief scientist on one of the upcoming missions. He won’t be researching the world’s deepest trench, but he will use the Sikuliaq to gather data on ocean acoustics, which could shed light on the changing conditions of Arctic waters and sea ice.

“The basic idea is very simple,” said Worcester. “If you have a sound source here and a receiver here, and you measure very accurately how long the sound takes to travel that distance, that’s a very good measure of the average temperature.”

Faster sound means warmer waters — and valuable information on how ocean temperatures are changing. Several visitors were curious about climate change, including how the Sikuliaq itself may contribute. One visitor asked, “With the disruptions up there is [the Sikuliaq] contributing to the climate change?”

Those “disruptions” referred to oil exploration and drilling — two things the Sikuliaq doesn’t do. While the research vessel can cut though roughly 3 feet of ice, Joan Braddock says it’s not an icebreaker. Braddock is the Dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF and says the Sikuliaq only works in seasonal ice, which is less invasive.

“I think the impact — at least at this point – of research vessels is pretty minimal. But you’re right. As there are more and more ships, there’s going to need to be thoughtfulness,” said Braddock. “We’re certainly going to be a part of the discussion to make sure we’re doing things right with this ship — so that we’re answering questions that are important to Alaskans but not causing problems.”

The Sikuliaq shipped out Thursday to tackle those questions. But the vessel will be back in Nome for the U.S. Arctic Research Commission meeting during late August.

Representatives from four agencies arrived in Wales recently, equipped with 40 pizzas and a slideshow on polar bear deterrents. It was one of the final meetings in a yearslong effort to start a community-run polar bear patrol with help from the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, the North Slope Borough, the World Wildlife Fund, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Events kicked off June 14 and continued all week with training sessions and discussions of patrol logistics.

There aren’t many polar bears passing through Wales, but the community has had several close encounters. During one session, people shared stories of opening the front door to find a polar bear just outside and even seeing one chase a teacher into the school.

For Christine Komonaseak, school safety is a key reason for creating the patrol. She’s a cook at the Wales School and said she worries about students during the winter when they walk to class in the dark.

“The kids who have been beating me to work — I want the safety for them, because they walk from up here to down there,” she said. “The bears have been spotted by the parsonage, by the school. The one that they last killed — I spotted that one below the house eating on a walrus. That was the one they killed by the playground.”

The patrol’s mission is to minimize conflicts between people and polar bears for the safety of both. If bears do enter the community, the patrol will scare them away with noise, light or nonlethal ammunition. Protecting the people comes first, but conserving the bear population is important too, given their status as a threatened species and their role as a subsistence resource.

When the volunteer patrol starts, as early as December, Greg Oxereok will be on the squad. He said creating a patrol in Wales just makes sense as a proactive safety measure.

“Safety should be No. 1, especially somewhere like this where it’s rural and it’s hard to get transportation and facilities,” he said. “It’s good to try to stop a problem before it starts. It just makes sense to protect and try to serve our community.”

For now, details are still being discussed — where the patrol will be based, when it’ll sweep the town’s perimeter, and how many patrollers will be on duty at a time. While the agencies are providing equipment like ammunition, radios and a snow machine, the Wales community will manage the patrol itself. The IRA will take the lead, but the City Council and the Wales Native Corporation are also involved, with all three bodies recommending patrollers for the job.

Jack Omelak, executive director of the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, emphasizes the patrol is a Wales initiative. The community makes the decisions and the agencies are there to help with training and supplies.

“We get our authority to work on your behalf from you,” Omelak told the community. “We don’t just take it upon ourselves to do it. So we need to be informed and people (from Wales) need to be involved.”

That includes letting traditional knowledge shape the patrol’s strategy. Craig Perham, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, encouraged patrollers to work with elders and learn how the community has dealt with polar bears for generations.

“Certainly, there are biologists like myself in Anchorage, and we can help when we can. But you’ve got that experience right here — the older guys who have been out hunting,” he said.

Oxereok, who’s 30, says he looks forward to connecting with elders through the patrol, especially since he doesn’t have much firsthand experience with hunting or warding off polar bears.

“There is a generation gap. And this might help dispel some of that distance between the older generation and my generation,” he said. “The more we can work together, the more we can grow as a whole.”

The four agencies will evaluate the Wales polar bear patrol once it’s up and running to identify what works and what doesn’t. Omelak said they’re treating it as a pilot program for a polar bear management plan that will develop over 10 years and cover the Bering Strait Region.

The skeleton of the new Phillips Ayagnirvik Treatment Center, PATC, is coming up quickly and aims to be closed in for a winter of work. Kris Manke is Director of Construction for the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, which is leading up the project. He says about 15 crew members are working now, including close to 70 percent local Alaska Native hires.

“We do all of our own electrical, mechanical, framing, siding, we self-perform all of that,” said Manke.

The $12 million, 16,000 square foot facility is under construction for a second time following a fire in October that destroyed it when it was 90 percent framed in. YKHC doesn’t want to take chances the second time. A chain link fence surrounds the site and a 24-hour security team stands watch. Big floodlights shine at the building at night. Manke says having to start from scratch is hard on his team.

“It was hard for me because they all are my guys, but for the guys who were actually building it, we should ask them the question. It’s gotta be really hard, I mean guys were crying when they saw their work burning up that night,” said Manke.

YKHC is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of those responsible for the fire that destroyed the alcohol treatment center. YKHC says it was a criminal act that started the blaze last October during construction.

An investigation from the state Fire Marshal’s office said the cause of the fire was ‘undetermined’. Though investigators ruled out all possible mechanical and electrical causes, their summary does not explicitly rule out arson.

The goal is to turn over the new facility in October 2016, but there’s a lot of work before that happens.

“Our winter goal is to be dried in October, middle of October, that’s always our winter goal. We usually get really close, I think we’re going to do it this year, that’s the plan,” said Manke.

This winter they will rough in the electric and mechanical systems. Drywall starts around first of the year, while the finishing work happens in springtime.

In 1967, Larry Davis snow machined from Nome to Cape Espenberg, about 150 miles north. When he returned, he brought with him 200 reindeer — a herd that would eventually swell to 10,000 in the 1990s. But that’s just a piece of recent history.

Larry’s son, Bruce Davis, is the owner of the Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch. On Monday, he sat down with members of the Reindeer Club to talk about the big picture.

He asked: “What year do you think reindeer herding came to Alaska?”

The Reindeer Club is a program borne from collaboration between Davis’ ranch and Nome Eskimo Community. Now in its second summer, the club meets Mondays to learn about different aspects of reindeer herding.

Davis focused on history, explaining how reindeer were introduced to Alaska in 1892. He touched on topics from corral construction to vaccinations to the lichen his reindeer like to eat.

His goal is to educate young people on the ins and outs of reindeer herding. He says it’ll take time for Alaska — having herded for just over 100 years — to catch up to places like Chukotka, Norway, Finland and Sweden, countries that have been refining their techniques for 4,000 years.

“We’re trying to revitalize the reindeer industry again, but it’s dying out,” Davis says. “So we have to get the young people involved again, it takes a while. This is part of our outreach — to let you guys know that reindeer herders are still here.”

For the Midnite Sun Reindeer Ranch, “here” means 13 miles out on the Kougarok Road. The ranch opened in 2010, and its herd now includes 100 reindeer. The most beloved is Brownie, a yearling that was orphaned before being adopted and domesticated by the Davis family.

While the kids in Reindeer Club called Brownie back to her trailer on the ranch, the rest of the herd ranges across an area 50 miles wide and 30 miles deep. Davis says he eventually hopes to grow the herd to 3,000 or 4,000 reindeer, a process that could take 10 to 15 years. He also has plans to evolve the small summertime club into a larger 4-H program.