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Fayrene Sherritt/ Turnagain Times photo |
By Fayrene Sherritt
Turnagain Times
Hope Correspondent
No date has been announced yet for a meeting about correcting recent power outages and electrical line problems in Hope. When scheduled, it will include all parties involved with the powerline into Hope. It will be well posted once the final date has been set and all Hope residents are encouraged to attend. Some of the invited parties will include representatives from Chugach Electric Association, the new district ranger from the Chugach National Forest Service, the Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor’s office and others.
The meeting will cover very complicated problems of providing electrical power to Hope. There are some very serious decisions to be made, and it will be very expensive to make changes to the power line. The meeting, to be held in February, will be a discussion on the best way to make this happen and also whether relocating the power line should take place. Some segments of the power line are located in very difficult locations for maintenance and repairs, while most of the line is compromised by the narrowly cleared right-of-way, which allows beetle-killed spruce trees, outside the right-of-way, to fall across the power line and cause outages.
The Hope School’s annual fundraiser, a Silent Auction, will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Hope School. Along with the Silent Auction will be the very popular Chinese Auction and Balloon Extravaganza. The cost for each balloon is $5, with a limit of two per person. If any balloons are left over, they will then be sold to those who would like to purchase them.
Very generous donations have been given for the Silent Auction, starting with a nice $400 donation from Dennis Samut, given to the Hope School Parent-Teacher Asso-ciation for the purchase of four $100 gift certificates. Several items also include 100 gallons of fuel oil from Shoreside Petroleum and 100 gallons of propane from Suburban Propane. Both were very hot items last year. Another hot item was a donation from Alaska Railroad for two railroad tickets to Denali.
Other donated items include a half-day fishing trip with Angle 45; REI donated two good backpacks and a $100 computer map program. Diane Olthuis donated a one-year pass to the Wildlife Conservation Center (formerly Big Game Alaska) near Portage. A $100 gift certificate to Allure Day Spa and the list of auction items goes on. There will be dessert and punch served. The goal is to raise enough funds to go to Fairbanks for an all-school field trip later this spring.
Diane Olthuis reports that two Hope high school-aged students were invited to play on the Whittier Eagles basketball team. This winter, Stephen Finger and Brittani Motoyama traveled to Whittier once a week for practice. They report that Coach Jeremy Lancaster drilled them for four hours. Practice has paid off and they performed well against the Valley Crusaders, Anchorage Rams, Holy Rosary, Valley Christian, and Anderson teams.
The Small Schools Basket-ball Tournament was held Feb. 8 through Feb. 10 at Nikolaevsk. The Whittier Eagles were awarded the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award. Four Whittier teens were among the 10 tournament participants to receive a Most Valued Player award. Results of this tournament will be in the next issue. Whittier players had the opportunity to compete against and socialize with players from six other schools: Nikolaevsk, Port Lyons, Meade River, Valley Christian, Anderson, and Kenai Junior Varsity. The Whittier Eagles have three more games scheduled for this season, all in the Mat-Su Valley. Go Eagles!!!
Due to personal reasons, April Skaaren resigned as the Hope School secretary. Skaaren has been at the school for the past two school terms and will be missed. A huge thank you for all you have done for the school, students and staff. A warm welcome to Gina Motoyama who has been hired as the new school secretary.
As President of Hope Historical Society, Diane Olthuis provided the following report. The Anchorage Museum of History and Art’s auditorium was nearly full on Thursday, Feb. 8, for Dr. Rolfe Buzzell’s presentation on historic Hope and Sunrise. Hope and Sunrise Historical Society members filled the front seats, and throughout the audience were Hope cabin-owners. Dr. Buzzell’s power-point program displayed gold rush photographs and gave a clear account of the birth of Sunrise City and Hope City.
By presenting two or three images on one screen, he skillfully compared these to recent photographs of Sunrise ruins and Hope homes. Slides illustrated the enormous amount of work that Buzzell has done to map the ruins of the once-thriving city of Sunrise. The titles of his three excellent Sunrise publications were mentioned. Buzzell emphasized that Hope is the best-preserved gold rush community in Southcentral Alaska. He praised Hope and Sunrise Historical Society for their efforts to document the buildings and features of the Hope Historic District and producing a booklet defining the patterns of early Hope architecture. The Hope and Sunrise Historical Society are looking forward to have Dr. Buzzell repeat the power-point program at one of their meetings this summer.
Yoga instructor Shelly Cassidy has returned to Hope after spending several months in Colorado advancing her skills. Hope residents are eager for her to resume teaching yoga classes; when they are scheduled, notices will be posted around the community.
Hope-Sunrise Neighbor-hood Development Asso-ciation continues to meet on the first Thursday of each month. At the Feb. 1 meeting, there was a discussion of the values to living in Hope, including the natural resources, good people, peace, quiet, serenity, sense of community, self-sufficiency, school, library, museum and good year-round restaurants. Unwanted changes included more growth and artificial development of property. More people could bring disrespectful, rude people and trash along roadsides; more traffic and speeding on roads, more waste as well as unprepared visitors needing rescue and/or medical rescues. On the list of 21 potential projects, the group decidedly rejected a “call center.”
The group did vote, with the top five priorities being: moving the powerline, public restrooms/paid parking in the downtown area, a small rope-tow ski area near the Hope Highway junction with the Seward Highway, a spa/yoga center, and a bike path along the Hope Highway. The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. on March 1 at Hope School. Soup and drinks will be provided and the meeting’s project will be a vision statement for the community.
The Hope/Sunrise Adviso-ry Planning Commission meeting followed at 7 p.m. Marcus Mueller, from the Kenai Peninsula Borough planning office was not able to attend the meeting; however, Mueller reported to President Dave Scanlan that the borough has opened survey bids for a boundary survey, which will include all borough lands located in Hope. The survey will begin in early March and be completed by May 7. Once the survey is complete, officials are unsure how long the state process will take before further action proceeds. The next APC meeting is scheduled for April 5 at the Hope Social Hall. Community participation is always appreciated at the meetings. Meeting minutes are posted at the Dacha Store, Hope Library, Discovery Cafe, and the Hope Post Office.
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 Food Bank pantry provides basic food supplies to those members of our community who may have a need. It’s open after breakfast to 11 a.m. Those folks who need 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).