Sunset paints the mountains surrounding Hope. Record snowfall covered the town and contributed to power outages in the area.
Fayrene Sherritt/ Turnagain Times photo
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Sunset paints the mountains surrounding Hope. Record snowfall covered the town and contributed to power outages in the area. Fayrene Sherritt/ Turnagain Times photo |
By Fayrene Sherritt
Turnagain Times Hope Correspondent
The Hope Post Office changes the hours that the post office window will be open to the public. Beginning Jan. 15 the new hours will be Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., closed for lunch, reopening at 2 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. On Saturday the postal window will be open from 10 a.m. closing at 1:30 p.m. These new hours will allow a much needed lunch break for the all-day window postal person while the early closure on Saturday will allow time for that postal person to get the closing work completed on time. Written notices of these changes were placed in each postal box mid December.
Chugach Electric’s media representative Patty Bogan reported as of Jan.10 the power outages continue to plague the Hope area. While we had a series of outages that affected Hope-area customers during the last several months of the year, a storm that caused outages the weekend of Dec. 8 really began the current incident period as we define it. After repeated outages between Dec. 8 and 11, Chugach made a decision to put an emergency generator in Hope to provide power for customers. The generator has been running ever since, and Chugach has continued to work to keep the electric system intact as additional storms have swept through the area.
At times the Sunrise area has been without power due to sections of the line between that area and the Hope town site being taken down by storms. Chugach was unable to supply Sunrise for eight days at one stretch, and consequently we installed a second generator.
The series of events since Dec. 8 has caused customers along the Hope road at Sunrise and in Hope it self to suffer through repeated outages and caused Chugach considerable extraordinary expense. As of Jan. 5, Chugach estimates that it’s incurred more than $250,000 in repair and on-site generation costs in the greater Hope area.
The work is not finished yet. Chugach crews continue to work repair the line between Hope Substation located out near the Hope Cutoff/Seward Highway intersection and the Sunrise area. The tap line that serves the ADOT facility near the Hope Cutoff is also part of this project.”
Outages caused by severe weather are difficult as depending on the location of the outage, crews must come from either Anchorage or the Kenai Peninsula, and it takes several hours to assemble equipment and mobilize. Once crews reach the site, lines must be patrolled until the fault is found and cleared, and in most of the Hope instances there were multiple trees in the lines in various locations.
The Hope outages were largely a result of tree and ice problems. Beetle killed trees are now so weak that they cannot stand the rigors of winter. Trees from outside the cleared right of way frequently fall into the lines and take out power. The storms have increased the avalanche danger in the power line corridor, further complicating repairs.
According to Charlie Kimmel, Manager Substation Operations, Chugach has some very dedicated employees that have continued to make every effort to keep the system in Hope operational, and Hope residents have been very understanding.
While Chugach continues to work on the lines and to once again restore regular electrical power to Hope, the community’s residents are very appreciative of the efforts of the hard working crews and their time away from their families to make it all happen. A heartfelt thank-you to them only begins to express the community’s appreciation. The folks in Sunrise also appreciate the efforts of David Vaughn as he made phone calls to several agencies to see if there was any help available during the eight day power outage.
February 10 will be Bowman’s Bear Creek’s Valentine’s Dinner. The reservation will include dinner and a sleigh ride. Call for more information or to make reservations as the events have been sold out. Tito’s will do a Valentine’s Dinner Feb. 11 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Reservations are recommended too.
December 16 the Hope Christmas Potluck was a huge success. There was standing room only with at least 73 residents in attendance. For a third year in a row many in the village turned out to celebrate together. Shirley Wisdorf and Lynne Skogstad out did themselves again this year with the decorations in the Hope Social Hall. Gordon Wisdorf and Chuck Graham cut down the tree and set it up to be decorated by the gals. Did everyone figure out who represented Santa this year? Josh Anderson did a wonderful job as he talked with all the children and handed out bags of goodies. Thank you to all volunteers who helped again this year.
The school auditorium was packed and the audience sat back to enjoy the annual Christmas play when the Hope elementary and high school students presented “A Clue in the Library.” This was an adaptation of a play written by Craig Sodaro. The play was tailor made for Hope.
A dedicated team of young teenagers struggle to keep their town’s one and only library from being demolished on Christmas Day. The Save the Library Committee is praying for a Christmas miracle. Cast members: Tyler Motoyama, Cody Falcone, Susie DeFrance, Deana Shepherd, Kylie Falcone, Donna DeFrance, Stephen Finger, Jasmyn Calhoon, Ashley Motoyama, Alyssa Leisure, Dyllon Paquette and stage manager Brittani Motoyama. A special thanks is extended community volunteers: costume designer Jeanne Berger, set designer Gina Motoyama and director Agusta Lind.
Distance and low student enrollment made it unprofitable for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to operate a school lunch program at the Hope School, so it was canceled. Jeanne Berger reports, “This was a blessing in disguise, because it forced us to devise a plan to compensate for this loss. The Hope School will be offering cooking and nutrition classes to all middle and high school students starting Jan. 16.
Student will receive instruction in the following areas’ nutritional composition of foods, what constitutes a healthy diet, personal safety in the kitchen, safe handling of foods, meal planning, purchasing healthy food on a budget, actual preparation of some school lunches, attractive preparation of foods so they will be eaten, and careers in the food industry. Good training for the rest of the student’s lives!
A grant from the Alaska State PTA will pay for many of the foods that will be used, but donations from others will be gratefully accepted. Parents and other Hope residents are encouraged to participate. Contact the school for more information.”
Recently the community of Hope hosted John Parker, Executive Director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District. The purpose of this gathering was to begin creating a plan for sustainable economic development in Hope. Jeanne Berger submitted the following. “The newly named Hope-Sunrise Neighborhood De-velopment Association has been meeting on the first Thursday of each month. Under the tutelage of John Parker director of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Economic Development District, they have been devising strategies to create a sustainable economy in the Hope and Sunrise areas while still maintaining the unique environment that we value.
Twenty-one potential projects to achieve this goal were identified. The proposals ranged from generation of more affordable and reliable power from wind generation, hydropower and bio-oil to creation of a town square/community center with public toilets, shower facilities and parking to prevent the sanitation problems that we experienced last summer due to a large, unexpected, influx of tourists. A complete list of possible projects is available at both the Hope Library and the Post Office.
Their next meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1 at the Hope School. Free soup, bread and cookies will be served. At this time we will list the things that we value and those that we do not want to see in our neighborhoods. The various proposals will be prioritized with these values in mind. Everyone is encouraged to attend. Be sure to be there to help decide the future direction of Hope and Sunrise. If you don’t contribute you can’t complain!”
The Hope/Sunrise Advi-sory Planning Commission held their regular monthly meeting on Thursday, January 4, 2007 at the Hope Social Hall. The commission is awaiting a reply from the Kenai Borough regarding the status of the survey and time-line regarding subdivision development of selected areas 12 and 22. Existing trails in each of these areas require further discussion. Comm-unity participation is always appreciated at the meetings. Meeting minutes are posted at the Dacha Store, Hope Library, Discovery Cafe, and the Hope Post Office. The next meeting will be held Feb. 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hope School.
Two more dates to mark on your calendar: Hope Inc. meeting Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. at Hope Social Hall. Hope School’s Silent Auction has changed the date to Friday, Feb.16 at the Hope School. Donations for this event should be turned into the school as soon as possible. Angie Motoyama reports that she has collected some very nice prizes for this year’s event. Last year the Silent Auction, the Balloon Auction and the Chinese Auction raised over $4,000 for our students. It has become a very popular event.
Wednesday morning breakfast at the Hope Christian Church provides a free breakfast to anyone in our community who would like to attend. Doors of the church will open every Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. for coffee, with breakfast served from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Both cafes are closed for breakfast on Wednesdays.
The Hope students recently collected donated food for the food bank and their efforts are greatly appreciated. The Food Bank pantry provides basic food provisions to those members of our community that may have a need. The food bank is open after breakfast to 11 a.m. Those folks needing to take advantage of the food pantry outside the regular hours listed above please contact either Tom Burgin (350-1318) or Joyce Burgin (830-5307). If you are in need, please come utilize this free service.