Sports

A task force says the city’s Treadwell Ice Arena needs an advisory board, not an empowered board.

The city created the task force in August to look into an empowered board for Treadwell, either under the Eaglecrest Board of Directors or one of its own.

Assemblyman Loren Jones chairs the task force. He says an advisory board will bring focused attention to the rink’s management that the facility hasn’t gotten before.

“We want them to look at marketing. How do we increase the number of users? If we can increase the number of people that want to learn to skate, the number of people that show up at open skates, the number of people that are involved. Is there other ways to raise revenues?” Jones says.

The board would also be tasked with finding where operational efficiencies could be made and helping to ensure all users had equal opportunity on the ice.

During public comment at a recent task force meeting, Chris Mertl said he likes the idea of an advisory board, which could help the ice rink become more cost effective.

“But at the same time, you have to maintain the big picture is that it is a Parks and Recreation facility for everybody. There are going to be times where you’re not going to be making maximum money on every hour of sheet time. That mom and dad and the kids will be there from time to time and I know those aren’t your big money makers but we still need to provide a facility for them,” Mertl says.

Mertl is on the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee but said he was speaking for himself.

Treadwell recovers about half of its costs. In fiscal year 2013, it spent around $650,000 and brought in about $350,000. Attendance has dipped in the last five years.

City manager Kim Kiefer is also on the Treadwell Arena Task Force.

“I’m not looking at Treadwell as being 100 percent cost recovery. I don’t think that’s realistic. What I want is I want to make sure that we have a facility that is accessible to the public. What Treadwell is there for and why we built it was to provide a safe place for people to go skate,” Kiefer says.

The last round of budget cuts hurt the Parks and Recreation Department, including Treadwell Arena, which became a 10-month facility instead of year-round. As the city looks to make more cuts to total $9.2 million, Kiefer couldn’t say specifically if Treadwell would be further affected. She says everything is on the table.

The task force’s recommendation for a Treadwell advisory board will be passed on to the mayor and the Assembly. Jones hopes the board can be formed by May.

The state’s first-ever girls wrestling meet took place Saturday during the Southeast Region championship. Alaska is now one of a several states with a championship meet for girl wrestlers.

Sophomore Alisa Heller from Wrangell High School won first place. “It was the first time in a long time that I got first at a tournament,” Heller says. It was also the first time Heller only competed against other girls. Her win will give her a shot at the state championship.

Unlike past tournaments, where girls competed with boys, the region finals alternated girls and boys spotlight matches. Mt. Edgecumbe High School wrestling coach Michael Kimber says he first proposed a girls wrestling championship seven years ago.

“I saw a lot of girls who were more technically sound than boys,” Kimber says. “The problem is they just don’t have the muscle mass. At anything above about 120 lbs. it really starts going in favor of the boys.”

Kimber says giving girls their own regional and state meets would provide more opportunities for them to succeed “because they can wrestle against the boys and raise their level. And then when it comes down to the regional time, they can have their own regionals where they can showcase their talents. It also allows our girls to be highly recruited for college (wrestling).”

There are more than 40 girls on the Mt. Edgecumbe team. Other teams in Southeast brought one or two, if any, girl wrestlers to the regional meet. Wrangell wrestling coach Jeffrey Rooney said making girls wrestling official would encourage more to join the team.

“I have girls in the stands, I have girls on the sideline that are looking in, peering in from the outside, and you can see the interest growing,” Rooney said. “I think next year we’re going to have a pretty nice influx, and I think it’s just going to grow from there. I really do.”

Girls wrestling champ Heller says she looks forward to that. “I’ve wanted another girl on my team for a long time.”

Eaglecrest Ski Area General Manager Matt Lillard says workers have generated enough man-made snow to open the Porcupine Chairlift and the Muskeg trail on Saturday.

“People can come up and get some runs in, get a burger, move into their lockers and pick up their passes,” Lillard says.

He says there’s only 18 inches of natural snow at the very top of the mountain. That’s not enough to open the other lifts yet.

Lillard says the area accessible by the Porcupine lift is the only portion of the mountain that can operate with 100 percent man-made snow.

“So, a year like this where it’s kind of a late start to winter and we don’t have enough natural snow, at the very least we can get the Porcupine area open on man-made (snow). It’s not abnormal, but there’s certainly been years where they’ve opened later and much later. We hope that this is not one of them and that winter starts really arriving, and staying cold and starting to snow more,” Lillard says.

The retail, rental and repair shops will be open this weekend, and the snowsports school will hold beginning ski and snowboard lessons.

Lillard also says they had hoped to move into the new Porcupine Lodge before the holiday season, but its opening may be delayed until sometime in January.

The 2015 Iditarod winner will take home the race’s biggest payday ever — $70,000.

Announcing the winning purse for the 2015 race—the largest payout for the first musher to Nome in the history of the race—the Iditarod Trail Committee notes the sum is $19,600 more than the $50,400 paid out to Dallas Seavey when he was first under the burled arch as the winner of last year’s Iditarod.

The extra money won’t only go to the top winners, however; second through fifth place will also see an increase over last year’s payouts. The second-place musher will take home $58,600, a jump over last year’s second-place take of $47,600. The third place finisher will net $53,900, just $100 shy of last year’s first-place prize.

All told, race officials say an extra $50,000 will be spread among the top five finishers, with $700,100 set to be paid out among the top 30 mushers. Mushers finishing behind 30th place each receive $1,049, a symbolic amount based on the race’s “official” – but often fluctuating – trail length.

So far 78 mushers signed up for the 2015 Iditarod, which starts in downtown Anchorage Saturday, Mar. 7.

The Juneau Douglas High School ice hockey team swept visiting Kenai, 5-2 and 2-1 over the weekend at Treadwell Ice Arena. It was the home opening series for the Crimson Bears.

All photos by Steven Quinn.

On Tuesday, Iditarod musher Karin Hendrickson was injured when a Talkeetna woman lost control of her vehicle and struck the ATV that Hendrickson’s dog team was pulling.

Alaska State Troopers received a call just before 7:30 on Tuesday evening that a vehicle had struck the ATV ridden by musher Karin Hendrickson near Mile 91 of the Parks Highway. Troopers say that Mabel Quilliam of Talkeetna was driving northbound on the highway when her vehicle left the road and collided with Hendrickson’s ATV. Hendrickson was being pulled by her sled dog team on a training run. Quilliam was not reported as being injured. Hendrickson was taken from the scene by Talkeetna EMS and eventually to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. Maliko Ubl is Hendrickson’s handler. She says she spoke with Hendrickson on Wednesday about her injuries.

“I talked to her this morning. She sounds pretty good, but it sounds like she–something in her back is broken…and she also has a broken leg,” she says.

Shortly after the accident, word spread quickly on social media. The dog team got loose as a result of the collision, and Maliko Ubl says the Willow mushing community was quick to assist in rounding them up again.

“The mushing community really rallied around us and came out and helped. There were several people out with trucks and trailers, and the last dog finally showed up here, on her own, at about 6:00 this morning. She looks like she’s in really good shape,” says Ubl.

Maliko Ubl says that only two of the dogs showed any signs of injury.

“One dog, Spartan, had a pretty good laceration on his foot. And the, Fly, who has actually been Karin’s main leader up until this year…he looked like maybe he got wrapped up and drug a little bit, but no broken bones or anything like that–just some bruising and abrasions,” Ubl says.

The team has been checked by a veterinarian, and Maliko Ubl says she is keeping an eye on all of the dogs to make sure they’re healthy.

Early in her mushing career, Karin Hendrickson worked as a handler for Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Vern Halter. Halter says he wishes Hendrickson well, and that the accident was a result of unfortunate timing.

“Karin is just exceptional. She works in Anchorage, full time job. She probably commuted home last night, got home 6:30 or 7:00…You can imagine, fifteen seconds either side of this…” she says.

The severity of Hendrickson’s broken bones is not publicly known. She is listed in “fair” condition by Providence Alaska Medical Center. Hendrickson is signed up for the 2015 Iditarod, and has run the race six times in the past. It’s not known yet whether her injuries will keep her from her seventh attempt next March.