Moose Passings

By Willow Hetrick
Turnagain Times
Moose Pass Correspondent

Moose Pass Elementary Hits the Slopes

Thanks to a generous donation by the Moose Pass Sportman’s Club, the Moose Pass elementary kids are able to travel to the Alyeska Ski Resort to learn how to ski and snowboard every Thursday for the next few months.

Moose Pass Kids Make Seward High School Honor Roll

Thirteen Moose Pass students made the Seward High School Honor Roll in 2010. Jaz and Carson Odhner, Mile and Kara Knotek, Lindsey Kromery, Brooke Estes, Leon and Anne Hood, Jared and Gretchen Lindquist, Derek Crain and Meg and Tannen Berry all finished up 2010 with academic honors.

Moose Passer Excels in Seward High School Sports

Jared Lindquist scored 16 points against Houston in the annual. Delta Junction, Houston and Skyview were the other teams that attended the tournament. The Seahawk boys won the Seward Seahawk Classic tournament. Keenan Prochazka scored 20 points against Kenai High School and 16 points the next night against Nikiski.

Meg Berry of Moose Pass has played great games against Nikiski, Kenai and Grace Christian; she scored 18 points against Nikiski. The lady Seahawk’s won the Seward Seahawk Classic tournament. Meg had 13 points in the tournament. The ladies beat Skyview in the tournament with a highlighted 10-point performance by Moose Passer Gretchen Lindquist.

The Seward Seahawks Athletic Booster Club raised over $800 during a silent desert auction held during the Seward Seahawk Classic tournament. Many thanks to all who baked/donated goods and who worked the booth.

Miles Knotek came in first place on the Seward High School Junior Varsity ski race. We are looking forward to Miles’ next race!

Fundraising Opportunities for Seward High School Sports

Karen Savoca does acoustic blues/funk/soul fund raiser for Seward High School Nordic Ski Team. Singer, Songwriter, and Musician Karen Savoca will be playing with Pete Heitzman

On Thursday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at Seward High School. Attend to support our Moose Pass skiers.

The Seward Seahawks Athletic Booster Club has scheduled its annual golf tournament for July 30th, 2011 at Birch Ridge Golf Course in Soldotna. If you would like to take advantage of accommodations available at the golf course, please contact Birch Ridge Golf Course at 907-262-5270 as soon as possible, as the cabins are filling up quickly. If you need further information about the tournament and to sign up please contact Kim Reierson at 224-3228. This golf tournament is such a great time and raises money to support all Seward High School sports.

Moose Pass Community Hall Makeover

Rose Hetrick recently painted the walls inside of the community hall. The doors on the inside were also stained and new switch-plate covers installed. Aside from looking cleaner, the new paint color makes the space more welcoming as well. The Sportsman’s Club also purchased new chairs for meeting and events held at the community hall and threw away the old uncomfortable metal ones. It looks great, special thanks to Rose and Judy Odhner for driving to Anchorage to get the supplies and cleaning and organizing the space.

U.S. Forest Service Winter News

By Irene Lindquist

Overall conditions on Seward Ranger District winter used trails have greatly improved from all access areas/trails, except access into Snow River due to warm temps and broken snow bridges. And one of our favorite activities, ICE SKATING is wonderful on Kenai and Upper Trail Lake.

Please be aware of the several pressure ridges from Kenai Lake Work Center to Cooper Landing, these have expanded and contracted a number of times in the past few weeks, study the areas you want to cross, there is a lot of open water out there.

Resurrection Pass Trail South (use winter routes for overnight access) is in wonderful condition to Swan Lake with the addition of 2-3” new snow this week.

Anticipate windblown untraveled trail above Swan Lake through the pass.

Lost Lake Trail received 6-plus inches of heavy, wet snow this week.

Currently the icy hills are in good condition, however, we anticipate these to be back down to ice once a number of machines travel it.

Snug Harbor Road access to Lost Lake should be good for the weekend. For those of you who like skiing on groomed trails please continue to check outSeward Nordic Ski Club’s web page: http://www.sewardnordicskiclub.org/page5/index.html and Cooper Landing Nordic Ski Club’s web page: http://grooming.cooperlandingnordicskiclub.org.

There may be a pleasant surprise for you in the next day or two on the Cooper Landing page please check it out.

Trails Update

By Stephen Hmurciak

Over the past few days we’ve gotten small amounts of snow mixed with rain at lower elevations. This has helped somewhat to improve upon the ongoing icy conditions on Lost Lake and Primrose Trails. Larger amounts of snow have fallen at higher elevations.

Kenai Lake and Trail Lakes were covered with water which is beginning to refreeze. A light coat of new snow on top has hidden this pocket of water from view. Give these lakes a couple more days of cold weather to refreeze before venturing out on them.

Some of the higher elevation lakes have experienced overflow, sometimes hidden under a layer of snow. Lower Russian Lake is one of these, making the access to Barber Cabin a tough choice right now between the winter trail leading to the overflow lake and the summer trail which passes through avalanche paths that are below recently loaded slopes that have yet to release this winter.

A couple days of cold weather should help to firm up both the lake and the snowpack. The trail in received a few inches of wet snow as did the lower parts of Bean Creek, West Juneau, and Res Pass South Trails.

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Report – January 18

By Sue McClure 

It was another short meeting We passed Resolution 2011-002, establishing our federal legislative and funding priorities for fiscal year 2012.

The top four federal projects are: Homer solid waste transfer station, Seward safe district development study, Cook Inlet beluga whale mitigation, and a shore and bluff line erosion on Cook Inlet study.

The top four federal transportation projects are: Road Service Area paving program, Road Service Area gravel road upgrades, Nikiski/Kenai Spur access trail road extension (to Gray Cliffs/Moose Point), and the Lowell Point road (for $18 million).

Most of the Assembly will travel to DC in March to discuss these with our Senators and Congressman.

We received an update on the Hope Land Sale. The sale was held on Jan. 15, and there was an apparent high bidder for each of the 22 lots offered.

Since there was a restriction of one parcel per bidder, the offering process will be prolonged, and the sale should be completed between March-May.

The Borough’s Land Management website will be updated as each benchmark is reached. In his report, Mayor Carey stated that he is discussing the creation of a Veteran’s Cemetery with Senator Murkowski, which would be outside of any city in the borough.

Five contracts have been signed for school roof replacements. At the close of the meeting he announced that Duane Bannock will be the interim General Services director, and that it might take up to 8 weeks to finalize selection of the new director.

We had two ordinances up for public hearing, with no public comments and unanimous approval: Ordinance 2010-19-28 which appropriated $291,000 to cover additional costs for design and estimates for the new Homer transfer facility, and an appropriation from the Dept. of Interior for a Coastal Impact Assistance program project.

We moved several ordinances to public hearing on March 1, including another appropriation of $36,272 from the Dept of Interior, this time for recreation area sanitation programs under the CIAP, which will focus on the River Center and Hope.

Ordinance 2010-19-34 was moved forward for shortened hearing on Feb. 15, which will appropriate $154,000 into the school revenue capital project fund for installation of 100-plus new smart boards in borough schools. Our next meeting is Feb. 15, and as always information is available at www.borough.kenai.ak.us, and you can reach me at suemccl@gmail.com or by phone at 224-6784.