To the Editor:
This week the Girdwood Board of Supervisors bids farewell to our secretary of the last three years—Kris Malecha.
Kris jumped into the position when our former secretary resigned to run for the Board, and right away made us aware of how capable she was. She quickly made herself master of the maze of duties of her job, but soon became much more than our secretary.
GBOS members are volunteers and we all have full-time jobs and lives. Keeping up with community issues and following up with community concerns often takes that 25th or 26th hour of the day, and Kris became very much the glue that kept our far-flung Board together. She quickly established ties with the network of employees in Anchorage with whom the Board must work to provide services for you, and this allowed us to do a much better job for you than we could have otherwise.
In addition, she was always a smiling, upbeat, and professional face for us. She really knows how things work, both here in Girdwood and in the Municipality, of which we are a part.
Recently, as her contract came up for renewal, we discovered that, unlike most other municipal contracts, the GBOS had no authority to give value to her past service, and likewise no authority to opt for her if her bid were not the lowest. She was underbid by a very small amount of money ($360), and the bid was awarded to the low bidder. Kris was quickly offered employment elsewhere—that happens with talented people.
The community must know that the Board would certainly have retained Kris if at all possible and that every avenue to do so was pursued. It is now our intention to examine the evaluation guidelines for contract employees for possible modification so that the Board can retain a valuable contract employee in the future.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Kris Malecha from the bottom of our hearts for a job well done. Girdwood and the Board of Supervisors has been lucky to have had such a dedicated employee.
GBOS members:
Tim Cabana, Chair
Bryan Epley
John Gallup
Jake Thompson
To the Editor,
The Fungus Fair Committee was thrilled to get an article in the last issue of Turnagain Times to thank all the wonderful people who helped make this event a success. We were pretty satisfied that we had listed everyone who helped, but of course we now realize we forgot to thank some folks. We would like to thank John Trautner who donated one of his incredible photographs for the auction and for taking pictures at various events throughout the weekend. We would also like to thank the staff at Alyeska Resort. The Fungus Fair Formal could not have been possible without the help we received from Di Hiibner, Joy Hatcher, and Jay Bell. They set us up with a great venue and led us through the intricacies of event planning.
Although we believe our list is fairly complete we will probably think of other people later on. Hopefully you will forgive us and participate in another fun-filled event next year.
Fungus Fair Committee:
Kate, Jonnie, and Betty