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Crimes rise with meth addiction

Newsroom — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:10:04 +0000

• Authorities warn of devastation of drugs and violence on community
by Naomi Klouda and Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
A 62-year-old Homer man was arrested and charged with second-degree assault in connection with a stabbing that occurred on Jenny Lane Saturday afternoon.
Alen Blatchford was arrested after he allegedly stabbed Michael Hanno, also of Homer, with a large kitchen knife. Hanno is recovering from his wounds at South Peninsula Hospital.
According to the felony criminal complaint lodged by the Homer Police Department, Hanno said he contacted Blatchford inside the defendant’s residence to “discuss arrangements of paying off a debt that he owed the defendant.”
Hanno said the defendant became angry with him, grabbed a large kitchen knife and stabbed Hanno on his “left side torso, between his lower rib and his hip.”
Homer Police have indicated that they do not know yet if meth was involved in this latest stabbing, but Blatchford was reported to be acting strangely prior to the incident.
As recently as July 14, two young Homer men were arrested in connection with the stabbing of a 17-year-old high school student. Police said meth played a role in that crime, and indicate that the drug continues to make its troubling way into to Homer.
It may even be on the rise.
The Cook Inlet Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction has known that meth is increasingly a problem in Homer, though it was much slower to reach here than in the Kenai-Soldotna area. CICADA Director Henry Novak said meth brings with it a variety of social problems.
“We’ve definitely seen the emergence of meth,” Novak said. “It seemed like back in 2000, it was an oxycontin problem. Now it’s meth.”
Novak called the drug, “very toxic.”
“You see people who — in just six month to a year — have trashed their bodies,” he explained. “It does a devastating number on the body, rotting out teeth and reducing them to skin and bones.”
Homer Lieutenant Randy Rosencrans agreed.
“Meth is physically addictive, so the body begins to need it in order to function,” Rosencrans said. “The chemicals begin to show themselves in the body through serious of scabs and lesions. It’s how the chemical leaches from the body.”
Rosencrans said that, while Homer continues to see some issues with heroin, he would still consider meth to be more of a problem on Homer streets.
“That’s the thing about drugs, you can’t eradicate a drug unless you eradicate the demand for it,” he explained. “As long as there is the demand for it, people are going to find it. That’s why we continue to work on demand-reduction strategies.”
CICADA counsels people trying to come off meth. The organization also works to educate the public about what meth is and its effect on people. Novak said users become agitated or erratic, and can experience severe mood swings. Long-term use and/or high dosages can induce full-blown psychosis and hallucinations.
“The frustrating thing for me is that there’s an acknowledgment of the crimes and the tremendous problems meth causes, yet the weakest area is in funding for treatment,” Novak said. “As a society, we pay for it sooner or later.”
Despite being able to target known drug dealers in Homer, police continue to fight the public misconception that they are doing very little to remove them from the streets. According to Rosencrans, it actually comes down to the way the drug laws work.
“It’s a very deep issue that goes way beyond the police,” he explained. “Most drug charges are not taken very seriously by the courts. We are taking these dealers off the streets, and then they are allowed right back out there.”
Rosencrans also indicated that the general understanding regarding the infusion of meth into the community is that it is being manufactured in super labs in the Lower 48, and shipped up to Alaska.
Novak said the Alaska Division of Behavioral Health will ask the Legislature to be more proactive about addictions by funding alcohol and drug treatment. Currently, Serenity House is the only residential treatment facility on the Kenai Peninsula, and has just 12 beds available. Some non-residential treatment programs are also available.
“All it needs is for some legislator to take it on as a project,” Novak said. “But it’s not sexy. There is the mentality that this is a self-inflicted problem, so we should just throw them in jail. There is a lot less empathy.”
According to Novak, CICADA is also seeing a high incidence of young women hooked on meth. He said Kenai Peninsula police used to comment that nearly every crime scene they went to involved oxycontin.
“Now they make the same comment about meth,” he said.

Enstar wants to start gasline

Newsroom — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:09:10 +0000

• Official outlines first steps of the process
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Enstar has agreed to build and install a pressure-reducing station in the first phase of a Homer gasline project, set to begin construction Sept. 1.
Rep. Paul Seaton and Charlie Pierce, Enstar’s southern division manager, spoke to the Homer City Council on Monday to clarify this beginning stage of a long-awaited natural gasline. The city will be spending its legislative appropriation of $525,000 on the pressure reducing station and the 3,260 feet of 8-inch pipe from North Fork Road to Chapman Elementary School.
The pipe costs $225,000, while the pressure-reducing station runs $300,000.
The next steps for the city include obtaining the grant from the legislature and completing a new scope-of-work agreement.
“In the meantime, we need to agree on a contract,” City Manager Walt Wrede explained about the process that is already underway.
For its part, Enstar is purchasing land at North Fork for the station, and will build a structure around the facility at a cost estimate of $300,000, Pierce said.
And while that gets Anchor Point started on the gasline, another 15 miles of pipe would need to be laid across the Anchor River and down the old Sterling Highway in order to connect to Homer. Pierce said he doesn’t yet have an estimate on that cost.
“We had to modify the plan,” he explained. “We put together a rough estimate, but didn’t design or engineer anything. We think we’re close, but we don’t have an exact cost at this time.”
Rep. Seaton wanted to clarify that the transmission line is being publicly funded, but the distribution lines to individual homes and businesses will be up to private owners.
“This grant isn’t to put gas in houses, it’s to build a transmission line,” Seaton explained. “If people want to be customers, they have to put in the distribution lines.”
The criteria when Enstar completed its engineering work was to target schools as key points, Pierce said. Chapman Elementary to Homer High School, with points in between to include West Homer and Homer Middle School, would be a start.
Seaton assured the council that he and Sen. Gary Stevens are committed to fighting for funding to get the line finished into Homer.
Pierce said Enstar can make a winter construction project of the building around the pressure station — as well as laying the line. The advantage is to wait for winter to freeze the boggy wetland terrain, he said. The project should create jobs if Enstar contracts out construction on either the Anchor Point portion or the Ninilchik segment.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assemblyman Bill Smith completed a cost analysis to quantify the savings between natural gas, propane and heating fuel. He found that Homer High School stands to save $100,000 a year on its fuel bill for heating the school.
That’s important, because the money to pay for utilities comes from the school’s operating budget.
“That’s money that could be used for teachers or adding programs,” Smith said.
In these planning stages, Seaton cautioned the city against creating Local Improvement Districts on the current city water-sewer model, which is expensive for property owners and is not self-sustaining.
“You might want to gasify the entire place at one time, instead of subdivisions taking a vote,” Seaton said. “For years and years, Homer has hollered for gas. You don’t want to have the situation like with water and sewer, where some are on it and some are not. There are low-interest loans available to help with that, but it is up to you.”

Two gray whales found dead on area beaches

Newsroom — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:06:46 +0000

• Juvenile whales beached at Bishop’s, Starisky stump biologists
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Sean Pearson - A gray whale washes ashore north of Bishop’s Beach off Kachemak Bay. Another whale was found beached off the Starisky area last week. Biologists are still working to determine the causes of death in both whales.

Two gray whale deaths on area beaches are under study, one the possible victim of a killer whale and the other whose cause of death is unknown at this time. Both were pushed ashore by tides.
One whale was found the weekend of July 17 at Starisky Beach, measuring about 36 feet in length. Another, measuring 27 feet in length, washed ashore at Bishop’s Beach on Monday.
Marine Fisheries biologists and trained volunteers through the Alaska SeaLife Center took tissue and blubber samples from the whales so that scientists might gain insight into the deaths. Two gray whale deaths within weeks in the same area may seem an unusual circumstance, but Dr. Debbie Tobin, a biology professor and trained Sea Life volunteer, said that considering the gray whale activity in the area, this may not be so unusual.
Taxi operators and other boaters off Seldovia remarked of a gray whale “acting strangely” in calls to the stranded mammal hotline at the Alaska Sea Life Center on Friday, but biologists are uncertain whether it was the same one to wash ashore on Bishop’s Beach, Tobin said.
“They initially reported it as a humpback whale, which is a common mistake,” Tobin explained. “But this one was hanging out in the shallows and behaving unusual.”
Adults are said to be 39 or more feet in length, while calves are born averaging 15 feet in length, meaning biologists can estimate this one was a juvenile.
Markings on the dead whale at Bishop’s Beach indicate teeth on its tail and pectoral fluke. It’s skin was torn away, tongue yanked out and part of the throat missing, Tobin said. These are indicative of Orca or killer whale maulings.
“But whether it was attacked prior to its death or post mortem, we can’t say,” she explained.
The larger gray whale found at Starisky had been spotted floating in the current from Anchor Point on down. Calls were made to the Sea Life hotline for stranded marine mammals, and a group of volunteers with biologists went to investigate it around July 18. No immediate signs gave clues to its death, Tobin said.
At one time there were three gray whale populations: a north Atlantic group that is now extinct, a Korean or Pacific stock, considered “very depleted” and an eastern Pacific stock — the largest surviving population.
Alaska’s gray whales belong to the Pacific stock, whose only major predators are humans and killer whales. According to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Notebook Series, in 1999 and 2000, a disproportionate number of gray whales stranded along the west coast but what caused that isn’t certain. The western Pacific group of gray whales were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Conservation Act.

Homer’s DeCino joins jazz greats

Newsroom — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:59:45 +0000

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Joe DeCino

Joe DeCino has a challenge ahead.
He is currently composing music for four trumpets, four trombones, five saxes and a string orchestra for an Aug. 7 jazz concert at Bunnell Street Arts Center.
“I like to compose music, but mostly I want to get to the point where I sound the way I want to sound on the trumpet,” DeCino said. “I don’t want to be foolish and think I will be just a player.”
That’s generally not the kind of talk a person might expect from a recent high school graduate, but DeCino is likely to be a name to remember.
The son of Michelle Waneka and Bob DeCino, this trumpet player is seeking jazzy inroads at the New York School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. There, he is majoring in jazz; an education that immerses him in the nuances of his own trumpet. The fact that it is located just northeast of Greenwich Village means he has access to the “gritty New York basement jazz places” and yet, isn’t too far from Julliard to see the upscale compositions at the Lincoln Center.
In fact, he was able to sub for a trumpet player in a Julliard Concert this past winter, due to his association with jazz friends there.
“New York is where a lot of jazz history began. Everything has happened right there,” DeCino said. “There are still plenty of people to keep it alive and keep it going.”
Homer is having something of a jazz renaissance of its own, said Bunnell Director Asia Freeman. Suited for small, intimate audiences ideal for the Bay’s romantic vistas, the Bunnell is a natural for jazz-centered events. Freeman said when she heard DeCino last year playing impromptu with Los Angeles jazz greats Marshall Hawkins and Markus Burger, she decided to build an event this year to focus on his talent.
“Joe is an outstanding young artist raised in Homer,” Freeman said. “He embodies exactly the talents we want to promote; artists pursuing excellence at any age.”
DeCino graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy with a diploma in jazz studies in 2009. He completed his first year of college at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music last fall.
As a young person growing up in Homer, DeCino might share a few traits with many of the town’s youth. This summer, he’s working for North Country Charters, filleting halibut down on the docks. He is earning money for school, which is especially expensive in New York City.
Growing up brought its fair share of trials for DeCino. An accident between his sophomore and junior years at Idyllwild resulted in a major health setback and years of healing.
“I had been kind of a thrill seeker, climbing trees and jumping off. I slipped off a balcony and hit concrete,” DeCino said. “I spent that summer in brain rehab, and I realized how suddenly my life could be gone.”
As he healed, DeCino made the goal to practice his horn more. He had been interested in instruments – starting with the piano – since the age of 11.
“I didn’t practice,” he said. “I just played.”
From junior year on, DeCino applied himself to his studies – and his trumpet. He set new goals based on his love of jazz, and was able to gain acceptance at the NYC jazz school. Though raised more on beaches and landscapes than any kind of metropolis, DeCino said he finds himself perfectly at-home in a big-city environment.
“I love it there,” he said. “I like to hang out with (jazz players) who are older than me. There’s this whole mix of people who found themselves musically. My output there is from all their incredible input.”

Three events are on tap, with Hawkins and Burger headlining as well:
• Marshall and Markus will play with Joe and others Friday for a free potluck dinner party and an open-jam session for piano, bass, drums, horns, vocals, etc. All are welcome.
• Aug 3 and 5, Bunnell collaborates with Songbee Music Studio to offer free master classes with Marshall and Markus. A limited number of spaces are available. Sign up by e-mailing asia@bunnellstreetgallery.org
• On Aug 7, musicians perform for an operations fundraiser for Bunnell Street Arts Center. Catering by Maura’s Cafe is paired Lawer Family Wines. This ticketed event has a goal of reaching $150 per person between admission donations and a small art auction.

Good Samaritans rescue 5 in Kachemak Bay

Editor — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:01:33 +0000

Staff Report
A pleasure craft that caught fire in Kachemak Bay on Thursday morning resulted in quick work on the part of a good Samaritan vessel and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The crew of the Happy Hooker Charter boat rescued five Kenai boaters aboard the 36-foot pleasure craft, “Snake River Red.” The boaters sent out a call for help as the boat became engulfed in flames 13 miles west of Homer at 10:50 a.m.
Greg Lindhartsen, Gloria Adkins, Linda Mullens and two children were pulled to safety just after sending their mayday call to the Coast Guard Sector Anchorage command center watchstanders. According to a Coast Guard news release, the call was immediately issued as an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast.

Photo by Sam Kuzmin/Homer Tribune - The M/V Snake River Red burns in Kachemak Bay. All five people aboard were safely rescued by a Good Samaritan vessel onscene.

The crew of the Happy Hooker responded and was on scene within five minutes to rescue the five people. The rescued boaters were safely brought to the marina in Homer at 12:25 p.m. with no reported injuries.
“We are thankful for the good Samaritan vessel Happy Hooker to swiftly and safely rescue the five people from their vessel that was on fire,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Sheli Lovelace, a communications controller in the command center at Sector Anchorage. “Good Samaritan vessels are often closer than Coast Guard assets and we are thankful for those who respond when a call for help is needed.”
The vessel was estimated to have 150 gallons of diesel on board. No pollution has been reported.
The cause of the fire is unknown.

Youth stabbed after giving men ride

Newsroom — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:19:37 +0000

• Homer senior says he will miss his varsity year of football
By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
Homer Police arrested two young men in connection with an early morning stabbing last Wednesday that sent a 17-year-old Homer High School senior to the hospital with a stab wound to the neck.
Richard M. Zielinski, 20, of Homer, was charged with felony, first-degree assault for his role in the attack. He was additionally charged with resisting arrest when apprehended.
Samuel D. Neace, also 20 and of Homer, was charged with hindering prosecution in the first degree for initially lying to police officers about knowing the identity of the suspect. In addition, Neace was charged with misconduct involving a controlled substance in the fourth degree, after officers discovered a white, powdery substance on a wallet he positively identified as his own. According to police documents, a field test on the substance showed a “positive presumptive reading for the presence of methamphetamine.”
The juvenile victim — identified by the initials R.F. because of his age — reportedly stopped to pick up two males, “Boomer” and “Shorty,” on East Hill Road after they offered him $10 for a ride. The two men allegedly asked for a ride up to Neace’s truck on Glacierview Court.
Just before arriving at the destination, R.F. stated that “Boomer,” who was sitting in the back seat, “punched” him in the right side of his neck.
The victim placed his hand over the area, and discovered a puncture wound that was bleeding profusely. He then lost control of his vehicle, driving off the side of the road.
“Shorty” and “Boomer” then allegedly exited the vehicle and ran away. R.F. went to a nearby residence for help, and was transported to South Peninsula Hospital.
According to their report, police observed and photographed an inch-long puncture wound on R.F.’s neck, and South Peninsula personnel stated they believed his jugular may have been nicked.
“He was taken into surgery, and then — due to the severity of his injury — transported to an Anchorage hospital,” the report said.
R.F. has since returned home, and remains in good spirits following the attack, despite the setback in his athletic career.
“This was my senior year of varsity football,” he said. “But because of the knife wound I can’t play this season. That is easily the hardest part of all of this.”

Tribe hopes economic stimulus can save Seldovia

Newsroom — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:16:43 +0000

• Kachemak Voyager sails through audits and speculation
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - The Kachemak Voyager features container space on the outer deck and a crane to lift the freight. One of the key findings of a feasibility study was the message from residents that freight and transportation costs hamper economic development in the community.

When the Seldovia Village Tribe began work gaining funds for a fast ferry, the Murkowski administration favored the idea of cutting back on expensive losses in the Alaska Marine Highway system by backing alternatives for towns.
The administration at the time glanced dimly on the state ferry system’s multi-million-dollar loss per year, recalled Clem Tillion, a retired legislator living at Halibut Cove who helped the Tribe pursue its plan to build a ferry.
“The Legislature had started to get upset about the cost of the ferry system,” Tillion explained. “For the Kennicott to go from Homer into Seldovia it cost $40,000 per trip. It was less for the Tustumena, but still a huge loss.”
Ferry operation costs are high, due to the need for three complete crews for 24-hour operations, as well as fuel, and amortization of the vessel. And crews are union labor, Tillion said.
There had been talk of closing down the Seldovia stop because of the expense, said SVT CEO Crystal Collier.
“If we didn’t have the Alaska Marine Highway, that would be a great concern to people here,” Collier said. “We started from there to see what would be a viable option.”
The Tribe pursued ideas to see what was most needed. According to a Kachemak Bay Ferry study presented in May 2007, the goal would be to keep it small. The ferry would make short runs between Jakolof Bay to serve Seldovia and Port Graham, along with docking at Peterson Bay to serve people there and at Halibut Cove.
“The Port Graham people would be able to access it via a 12-mile-road from Picnic Harbor and Port Graham,” Tillion said. “That’s an old road that would need to be updated.”
The original plan called for ramp-docks at Peterson Point and Jakolof Bay, but by 2006, Gov. Murkowski’s term was up. A new administration — with Commissioner Robin Taylor in charge of the Marine Highway — wasn’t so warm to the idea of funding a small ferry system in Kachemak Bay; especially if it competed with the state ferry system. The sinking of state funds into a competitor when its own system bled a constant deficit hardly seemed to make sense.
“Suddenly, the State changed its position, and didn’t support the ferry Seldovia wanted to build,” Tillion said. “Seldovia was caught with the money, but not enough to do the one originally planned, because the state felt it would be competing with them.”
Collier said the idea moved away from being a carrier vessel that competed with the ferry in response to Seldovia’s wishes as well.
“The public told us not to compete with the state ferry,” Collier said.
A sharp rise in the cost of steel and aluminum also worked to alter the original idea. Money awarded in 2006 didn’t stretch as far by 2009, when the Voyager was under construction, Collier said. But its essential role as a transportation/freight vessel never changed, she said.

The BIA gets involved
Under Congressional earmarks, appropriations to tribes are specified under “transportation” or “healthcare,” or other heading as part of the American compact to fund tribes. The Bureau of Indian Affairs office in each state monitors the projects to make sure funds are properly spent. In the case of the $12 million eventually awarded to SVT for the Voyager, the funding came as an earmark under “transportation” garnered for the Tribe by then-Sen. Ted Stevens.
The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Earl Devaney, wrote a report in Feb. 2009, cautioning that some Alaska BIA programs under the Indian Reservation Roads Program, were “mismanaged and lacking oversight.”
Devaney made a list of recommendations in light of new stimulus funding soon to pass through Congress, requiring that deficiencies be corrected.
Alaska’s far-flung villages were not being closely monitored, he complained to U. S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar.
“One of the investigations that prompted this review involved a village that was advanced over $2 million to build and repair critical road areas, but instead used the money to perform unauthorized work on another road,” Devaney wrote. Another example was the village of Circle, which was given $500,000 for a road, but instead used the money to buy a restaurant/saloon.
A third one, Devaney said, was the Seldovia transportation project that had been “arbitrarily changed without approval from the BIA.”
The current director of BIA for Alaska, Eugene Virden, said Alaska is now “taking corrective action” to fix problems perceived in Devaney’s report. They have reviewed all documents and invoices for the SVT ferry, and found nothing lacking, Virden said.
“The Inspector General’s office did audit the transportation program (SVT). They looked at it and didn’t find anything wrong. They do have some latitude as a self-determined tribe as to how they do their work,” Virden told the Homer Tribune Friday. “Earmarks give them latitude and they are a sovereign tribe.”
One of the main corrective actions the BIA is currently making at Devaney’s mandate is to hire more engineers who can go to the sites of transportation projects around the state and inspect them. Part of the problem is that Alaska wasn’t able to compete with private industry engineering wages and simply didn’t have enough project engineers. About nine positions had gone unfilled, which meant some projects lacked oversight, Virden said.
A backlog of $12-15 million in payments to tribes was then held up, due to the lack of engineering oversight, Virden said. That money is just now being awarded to tribes.
“We wanted to fix that,” he said. “We now have a real aggressive recruiting program, with measures like student-loan help and salary bonuses to recruit engineers.”
Virden said the gap should be filled by August.
“Our engineers from Juneau did inspect the SVT project,” Virden added. He said every invoice submitted is detailed before the BIA will pay out.

A shift in feasibility
While a feasibility report in the midst of the project showed that a ferry wouldn’t work, it did point to a community need to resolve the high cost of freight and transportation.
Soldotna tour boat operator Tim Cashman, whose boat travels to Seldovia, has voiced concern about the Voyager, contending “Homer tour boat owners cannot compete with the government-funded taxpayer subsidized tour boat.”
Rep. Paul Seaton requested that state matching funds of $1.5 million be looked into to make sure money was properly spent. Scrutiny for the project then fell on Alaska Commerce and Economic Development’s Curtis Thayer.
“This primarily was a federal project,” Thayer said. “We had a grant administrator look into this and they found it is exactly as described. We have not found anything that is outside the scope of what state funds were supposed to be used for.”
“There is economic distress in Seldovia. Everyone needs to work together to turn this around,” Collier explained. “Businesses are up for sale, the school is shrinking; we’re going to continue to dwindle if we don’t do something.”
The Voyager is meant to provide an “economic stimulus” for Kachemak Bay, as Homer will benefit not only from the ramp SVT is building for the harbor, but also taxes paid on it.
“For a nonresident to disrupt this community is really hard to take. We’re in the middle of saving Seldovia – we’re in that kind of a mode,” she said.

Creative yurt ideas keep expanding innovation

Newsroom — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:08:16 +0000

• Homer company climbs to 1 of nation’s top 3 yurt manufacturers
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Jess and Lee Tenhoff

Every year, people from all over Alaska make the trek to Homer to check out Nomad Shelter Yurts up close.
“Are they built warm enough to withstand the cold?” is often the first question asked of yurt designers Lee and Jess Tenhoff.
“How much snow can they handle?” runs a close second.
Even from notoriously cold Fairbanks, the customers arrive.
“Each year, we hear from at least one Fairbanks woman wanting to buy her yurt,” Jess Tenoff said.
They’ve sold yurts to residents of Nome, Cold Foot and White Mountain; really cold places, as well as heavy-snow areas like Valdez.
“We have our designs down so these are considered the best on the market,” Jess Tenhoff said. “The concept of yurts has really taken off.” In fact, Homer’s local yurt manufacturing business is considered one of the top three yurt companies in the nation.
One reason may be their collaborative brainstorms spent tinkering with their now 15-year-old designs.
This year, Nomad added innovations: a new 40-foot diameter yurt that offers 1,256-square feet. It’s an expansion over the 30-foot diameter design, which is 703 square feet. A device called the lever-action vent was recently installed to let air in the top — and keep bugs out. And design is complete on a greenhouse that extends the growing season for producing food.
“We wanted to add diversity, and had talked about what would be the best ways to do that,” Jess said.
The appeal is a warm, Alaska-friendly shelter for the price of a car: ranging from $4,500 for the 12-foot, to $30,000 for the 40-foot. It’s movable from one site to another, can be shipped and assembled anywhere, and the ancient round design embodies a low-impact environmental philosophy that has been around for 4,000 years.
It hasn’t always been easy to keep the business afloat.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Carver, artist Bill Kitzmiller designs these wood-framed vent openers for the top of the Nomad Yurts. The innovation lets in air at the top, and untraps bugs that sometimes congregate there.

Since banks don’t automatically extend loans on non-traditional homes, the Tenhoffs had to find their capital base from elsewhere. And while Nomad will finance a certain percentage for buyers in-house, it relies primarily on cash purchases. Yurt cabins in state parks provide another source of revenue, as does supplying retail space at the Alaska Yurt Village on the Sterling Bypass.
The Tenhoffs moved to Homer from Nome in 2000, where they had developed the yurt engineering designs in their kitchen with the help of an Alaska Science and Technology Foundation grant. Jess is a teacher, while Lee is a commercial pilot, miner and woodworker.
“During a trip to Homer, we wanted to gauge whether people here would be interested in yurts, so we placed a classified ad in the Homer Tribune and received an overwhelming response,” she said. “Homer has always been very supportive.”
The family found just how supportive the community can be, when a fire consumed their home and business at the end of Grubstake two years ago.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - The Alaska Yurt Village on the Sterling Highway attracts visitors wanting to know more. It’s also a cozy spot for retail shops as they show off the designs, including a yurt greenhouse.

“It happened at the worst time possible; the beginning of spring when you’re gearing up to get going,” Tenhoff recalled. “We lost all our materials. But it was really nice to see the community support that we received to get it all going again. We didn’t miss a season.”
The business was completely rebuilt at the site of the Yurt Village, and production kept momentum. Nomad manufactures 40-50 yurts per year, and ships them everywhere from Michigan to Vermont to Costa Rica.
An Oregon manufacturer called Pacific Yurts was able to boost its business with the sale of 200 yurts to Oregon State Parks. Though increasingly consulted for their cold-climate expertise in constructing the yurts, Nomad hasn’t yet caught the attention of Alaska State Parks. That’s a detail they are hoping changes in the near future.
Tenhoff said the Homer workforce of 8-10 independent tradespeople working on the yurts could easily train others, creating more local employment.
“We could quickly ramp up and sell more orders,” she said, if the demand for yurts rose.

Homer attempts to avoid social faux pas

Newsroom — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:50:44 +0000

• City council takes Teshio funding issue back to a vote

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/File Photo - Members of Homer’s Sister City Delegation pose with Teshio representatives during a 2007 visit to Japan.

As plans gear up for a visit from Sister City Teshio, Japan, a group of Homer folks aren’t quite sure what to do.
A social faux pas could be in the making.
The City of Homer has $25,000 set aside that is dedicated to funding exchanges between the sister cities. But Mayor Jim Hornaday and other members in charge of an August visit from Teshio citizens and dignitaries can’t spend the money.
At least, that’s what they were told when an appropriation of $10,000 was turned down in a vote of the Homer City Council.
“Everything is on hold,” Noko Yoshida said. “It will be very sad if we can’t reciprocate.”
The visit of some eight people is less than a month away, but the Homer planning committee isn’t able to rent formal dinner facilities or map out festivities without funds. Visits of Homer delegates to Teshio in previous years showed a red-carpet treatment for Alaskans: stately dinners, tours of key landmarks and gifts.
“We want to do it graciously, the way they treated us,” Yoshida said. “They were very warm and welcoming.”
Steve Yoshida started the relationship between the two cities 25 years ago as a way to foster international understanding and goodwill.
A Samurai sword decorates the wall behind Mayor Jim Hornaday’s seat in the Homer City Council chambers. A glass case in the back is filled with memorabilia from the 25 years of gift exchanges, symbolizing the friendship of the cities.
Teshio is located in northern Japan on the western coast of Hokkaido. Its population is approximately 5,000 and — like Homer — is a fishing community. It is also known as the “Dairy Kingdom” of Hokkaido, due to its large, modern dairy industry.
Recreation also plays a central role in the community.   Tourist opportunities include Kagaminuma Seaside Park, the scenic forests of the Kawaguchi Ruins (where aborigine pit dwellings have been restored), and the Otowa Garden, famous for its cherry blossoms. Teshio is becoming known as the “Original Tourist Town for Hands-on Experience” due to clam-gathering and other interactive events.
A new ordinance to be introduced at the next city council meeting Monday will bring the topic back to the council for a vote. Mayor Hornaday and Council member Beth Wythe plan to bring up the topic again, believing the matter was misunderstood the last time it was voted on.
City Manager Walt Wrede said the fund was set up and then added to over three budget cycles. The advantage of having a fund, rather than a yearly appropriation, is that the money — if unused — would be available when it is needed, rather than asking the council for each separate appropriation.
If the council votes it down again, Hornaday and other event organizers say they will have to figure out something.
“This could be a real loss of face,” Hornaday said.
The public will have an opportunity to testify on the ordinance Monday night at the Homer City Council meeting.

Machete attack one of July 4th arrests

Newsroom — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:15:07 +0000

• Police, troopers ramp up for visitors, but residents end up being biggest problem
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
As Kachemak Bay communities welcomed hundreds of visitors in early July, it also saw dozens of incidents involving conflicts with the law, ranging from a machete incident in Seldovia to numerous domestic violence complaints.
In light of traffic concerns over the addition of the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol sent extra officers to the Lower Kenai Peninsula. Added to those were five Alaska State Troopers and two wildlife officers for the full July 4th weekend of duty work.
Yet, most of the arrests that resulted over the period of July 1 to 10 weren’t visitors. They were residents, according to court documents listing the charges.
The incident in Seldovia on July 4 resulted in a third-degree felony assault charge against Steven W. Beling, 33. According to police charging documents, Chief Andy Anderson was called out at 2:30 a.m. to Outside Beach Park, where a fight had occurred between three males. A campfire visit began with a wrestling match and grew into a confrontation. A man that witnesses told Anderson resembled Beling returned later and “was swinging a two-and-a-half foot machete over the victim’s head and yelling and screaming.”
In Anchor Point, another incident had police busy that involved the arrest of Roy Nattress Jr., for third-degree felony assault. According to Alaska State Trooper reports, Nattress allegedly pointed a gun at his neighbor.
“At about 12:28 (p.m.), I contacted the victim at her residence. She stated she had gone over to a neighboring residence on her ATV to feed their chickens and check on her horses that were out grazing,” Trooper Ryan Browning wrote. A conflict between the neighbors ensued, resulting in Nattress pulling a revolver from his pocket and pointing it at the woman’s head.
When questioned, Nattress told the trooper he pulled the gun in self-defense after the woman nearly ran him over with her ATV.
In Ninilchik, the owner of Alaska Angler RV Park reported his Coca-Cola machine had been vandalized, but that he also had installed a video camera earlier and so was able to capture the suspect in the act. When troopers analyzed the video, one man was seen holding up a dark coat in front of the camera while a second man broke into the machine.
That incident resulted in the arrest of Vincent John Wulf, 46, and Edward Savage, 51, on charges of second-degree criminal mischief. When arresting Wulf, police found he was wanted for walking away from custody at a correctional facility on June 21.
The week of police work numbered more than a dozen domestic violence complaints, many of which resulted in arrests, and dozens of driving violations.