Beringia – KNOM Radio Mission http://www.knom.org/wp 96.1 FM | 780 AM | Yours for Western Alaska Mon, 27 Feb 2017 18:10:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.2 http://www.knom.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cropped-KNOM-K-Logo-512px-square-32x32.jpg Beringia – KNOM Radio Mission http://www.knom.org/wp 32 32 59285469 Humidification of New Nome Museum, Library Approved by City Council http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/05/15/humidification-of-new-nome-museum-library-approved-by-city-council/ Sat, 16 May 2015 05:45:51 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=16403 Alongside an amicable meeting with Nome Public Schools, the city council on Monday agreed to spend roughly $420,000 to add full-building humidification to the planned Richard Foster Building.]]>

The Nome City Council is moving ahead with plans to add humidity controls to the city’s new library and museum project.

At the council’s meeting Monday, May 11, the first order of business was hearing from Nome Public Schools and how much the city is being asked to contribute to school funding. A change in property assessments means a smaller “ask” by the schools—in all, a request of about $2,014,000—about $28,000 less than last year.

What was surprising at the meeting wasn’t the shrinking request, but rather the amicable tone between the council and the schools. Compared to last year’s hawkish questions, council members were doves.

In explaining the cuts to state funding and other sources of revenue, cuts that will require the school district to use more than $300,000 of its own fund balance (commonly referred to as the district’s “savings”) to make ends meet, Superintendent Shawn Arnold began by explaining the shuffling of staff at the pre-K level wouldn’t result in anyone losing a job, but it would reduce the number of teachers in Head Start and pre-kindergarten by one.

“Our biggest hit this year was our preschool,” Arnold said. “We would have lost two positions at Kawerak Head Start and one at Nome Preschool.

“So if I gave you an extra hundred thousand,” council member Stan Andersen interjected, “you would do what with it?”

Arnold said he’d have to consult with the school board on how any additional funds would be spent. The council has until the end of May to decide just how much they’ll contribute to Nome’s schools.

The council then shifted gears from schools to museums: with construction on the Richard Foster Building ramping up for the season, the question came to the council: will the building have a humidification system? Council members discussed three options to add humidity controls to the new museum and library building that will also house Kawerak’s Beringia Center. Initial plans did not include humidity controls, but Amy Chan—the city’s new museum director since February—said it’s a vital part of any new museum.

“Humidity for museum collections is really important,” Chan stressed. “Being able to regulate those levels will really help us to attract external funding on down the road, and beef up our programming. It’s also a big draw to donors, to let them know that we have a really good museum environment, that we can protect their objects if they are going to donate them to the museum.”

For its part in the project, Kawerak says it’s prepared to chip in a proportional share of the extra operating costs—on top of its annual lease—for humidity control.

Ultimately the council drafted an ordinance to add controls to the entire building—at a total cost of just under $420,000. The extra funds will come from the landscaping fund—protecting a roughly $230,000 contingency fund for the project. Engineers say the building is set to be “substantially complete” by the end of the year.

Utility Manager John Handeland checked in with the council, saying more than half a million dollars will be coming back to the city after water system loans were approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. But in the wake of high-level April evaluation that painted a troubling picture for utility finances, council member Andersen pressed Handeland to sort out the utility’s billing and collection issues.

“Just because it’s a public utility doesn’t mean that we’re not in a business,” Andersen said. “I see where these people owe thousands of dollars, they’re still drawing juice. So, why aren’t we cutting those off, are we putting liens on their property?”

Andersen said measures in the past few months to make the utility solvent, efforts that trace back not only to the April RUBA report but also the $2.2 million line of credit the utility took out in November, are still “ignoring a problem that has festered for a long time.”

Andersen challenged the utility board to draft a new tariff, or swore he would. And he said it would set strict rules that will do away with permissive billing in what Andersen dubbed the “good old boys network” of Nome.

“And the only way I see it doing that is [by] putting something in writing,” he said, “so whoever is the manager, this is what they have to follow, and if they don’t follow it, they get fired.”

Handeland says a tariff review and change in policies is needed, especially after the short-term rate increase for utility customers, the first in decades, is due to sunset at the end of next month.

The council ended their meeting with plans for more work sessions on the city budget, currently set for Thursday, May 21 at 12 p.m.

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NSEDC Grants $1.5M for Nome’s New Library, Museum, Cultural Center http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/15/nsedc-grants-1-5m-for-nomes-new-library-museum-cultural-center/ Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:37:18 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=11248 When paired with a $1.3 million grant from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Richard Foster Building has most—but not all—of its funding needs met.]]>

The final piece of funding for Nome’s new library, museum, and cultural center is in place after a $1.5 million grant from Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation.

On Tuesday, NSEDC’s board approved the one-time donation through its outside entity funding. The money will go toward Kawerak’s Beringia Center, a major part of the planned Richard Foster Building. NSEDC Director of Communications Laureli Kinneen said making the building happen satisfies the corporation’s mission of bringing economic opportunities to the region.

“This $1.5 million will be used to complete the construction of the Richard Foster Building,” Kinneen said. “This creates jobs during that construction phase.”

Funding of the Richard Foster Building has been contentious, with Nome’s City Council divided over whether or not to advance the project before all funds were secured. Ultimately the council voted unanimously to approve the project. Now, after $1.3 million from the Rasmuson Foundation earlier this summer, NSEDC’s grant surmounts the final funding  gap for major construction.

Kawerak president Melanie Bahnke says that there are still fundraising efforts to finish interior work for the new building, but NSEDC’s grant means much of the pressure is now off.

“Thanks to NSEDC’s substantial support for the project, we’re now going to have a space to protect our cultural collections, to build education programs for the region,” Bahnke said. “We’re nearing the finish line … we have been ramping up our joint fundraising efforts [with the City of Nome] and will continue to do so until every last dollar has been secured for this project.”

Construction of the Richard Foster Building remains on track to be completed by 2016.

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Parnell Signs Bill Opposing Beringia International Park http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/14/parnell-signs-bill-opposing-beringia-international-park/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/14/parnell-signs-bill-opposing-beringia-international-park/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2014 22:41:37 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=11223 Governor Sean Parnell has signed into law a piece of legislation to stop development of the Beringia International park. Senate Joint Resolution 15 urges the federal…]]>

Governor Sean Parnell has signed into law a piece of legislation to stop development of the Beringia International park. Senate Joint Resolution 15 urges the federal government to end efforts “pursuing the creation of an International Park” stretching from Northwest Alaska into Russia.

“This is a park that has been going forward quietly over the years. It sounds like such a laudable goal,” said state Senator Cathy Giessel, who sponsored the resolution, and wants an end to the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Russia out of concern over Alaska’s resources. “My concern however is it’s a United Nations designation that could affect the use of our natural resources.”

But in actual terms the resolution’s passage into law does very little to the National Park Service’s work on the Beringia Shared Heritage Program.

“It was stopped because of the situation in the Ukraine with Russia,” explained John Quinley, a spokesman for the National Park Service. “The United States government suspended almost all its bilateral engagements and negotiations with the Russian Federation, including negotiations about the Beringia MOU.”

In February NPS sent a letter to pointing out a range of factual errors and mistaken assumptions in the language of Geisel’s resolution, as well as the reporting of it.

One such claim is that the state of Alaska and U.S. Congress haven’t been able to give input as the federal government pushes the memorandum of understanding through. The Parks Service’s letter, however, points out the state provided a range of comments—some as recent as 2012.

Geisel introduced the legislation in December, before government sanctions against Russia. And her chief worry is a repeat of what’s playing out with the proposed airport road in Cold Bay, with international bodies dictating how Alaskans use their land.

“Would we then be limited in resource development and use of fishing and game resources?” Giessel asked.

The Park Service letter tried to correct conclusions like that one, laying out misunderstandings in the bill’s grasp of the Beringia Shared Hertiage Program’s scope, goals, and basic legality. Section eight of the MOU, for example, spells out, “This legally nonbinding Memorandum is not an international agreement and does not create any rights or obligations under international law.”

In spite of the legislative rhetoric, much of the environmental and cultural research underpinning the goal of an eventual shared park is set to continue.

“Research about the archeology, subsistence uses, and how sea ice and other climate issues are changing and evolving in that area. We think that work is important and should continue, we’re continuing to fund some of it,” Quinley explained of upcoming research work under the Beringia Shared Heritage Program. “We think the idea of learning about the area is important.”

The memorandum of understanding with Russia has no timetable for resumption until Congress lifts sanctions placed on the Russian government.

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City Council Mulls ‘Sin Taxes’ to Balance Books http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/06/04/city-council-mulls-sin-taxes-to-balance-books/ Wed, 04 Jun 2014 22:04:41 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=9515 The city is hoping an 8% tax on tobacco and alcohol will help pull in revenue, but any new tax would have to go before voters.]]>

Facing increasing budget strain, the Nome City Council is turning to sin taxes for relief.

Fresh from delivering more than $2 million to Nome’s schools—hundreds of thousands of dollars more than what the council had initially wanted to spend—the Nome City Council met for a noon budget work session Tuesday to hash out a draft budget that relies heavily on assumptions of new revenue.

The new budget would assume a five percent tax for utilities (up from four percent), and also assumes a new eight percent tax on alcohol and cigarettes. The council further wants to look at taxing personal property like aircraft, though that oft-floated idea showed little sign of advancing at the meeting.

Any tax on tobacco or alcohol would have to go before voters before it starts generating money for the city; if voters rejected the tax, by the city’s calculations, it could leave their budget $550,000 short.

With about $1.3 million dollars in city savings at the beginning of the year, the current draft budget would call for using just over $240,000 of that savings to balance the city’s books, even if all hoped-for taxes are implemented and collected.

It’s a precarious financial situation that’s pushing council members like Stan Anderson to once again go through the budget and look for anything to trim.

“I don’t want to take any money out of savings,” Anderson told the assembled council members, “so I have to go through this budget and find a certain amount of money. I’m going to make amendments to this budget, but I need to know …”

“How much to cut?” city finance director Julie Liew said.

“Right,” Anderson replied.

The council will pick the budget clean before reviewing at their next meeting on Tuesday, June 10.

In addition to the work session, the council took care of some official business, awarding the general contracting and construction management bid for the Richard Foster Building—the future home for the city museum and library, and Kawerak’s Beringia museum—to ASRC SKW Eskimos, Inc.

Despite some confusion on the numbers, the council unanimously approved the bid for a total cost of just over $12.1 million; a cost that’s already been budgeted for.

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New Home for Nome Museum, Library Inches Closer http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/05/01/new-home-for-nome-museum-library-inches-closer/ Thu, 01 May 2014 19:09:52 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=8706 The 15-year push to give Nome’s museum and library a new home inched closer to completion Wednesday, as prep work for the new structure continued and first…]]>

The 15-year push to give Nome’s museum and library a new home inched closer to completion Wednesday, as prep work for the new structure continued and first steps were taken to design the museum’s inside.

“At this point in time the team is looking now to what goes on inside the building,” said Brian Wakelin with Public, a Vancouver, Canada-based design firm helping create new exhibits for the 8,000 square feet the new museum will eventually occupy.

Wakelin said expanding the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum is about telling Nome’s story by shaping how people move through the new building, an experience he said needs to be crafted and built as carefully as the museum itself.

“It’s about designing an experience,” Wakelin said. “We use space to do that, we use exhibits to do that, we use atmosphere to do that. Those are things you have to gather and sort of seek out by being there yourself.”

Visiting Nome allowed Wakelin and others involved in the project to meet with Nome residents, to discuss their thoughts on what the museum should include. The museum director, Laura Samuelson, also gave the visiting designers through a tour of the current museum, as well as a glimpse at items in the museum’s collection that currently can’t be displayed due to space limitations.

“We’re gonna have a lot more room to tell Nome’s story,” Samuelson said of the new museum and library space. “Our new gallery will be … the size of Old St. Joe’s as we know it today, and half again larger.”

As Wakelin met with Nome residents in an open house on Tuesday to discuss what should be inside the new building, lead architect Brian Meissner said the site for structure itself—on the north end of Steadman Street—should be cleared and have utilities piped in by the end of the summer.

That puts the building on schedule to break ground by the end of the 2014 construction season.

“We want to be able to (have) materials in Nome in time for a contractor to start assembly of the building this fall, when the site’s ready,” Meissner said.

If all goes according to plan, Meissner said the new building could be completed by the end of 2015, with enough time to get the library moved in before the end of that year.

The city museum and Kawerak’s Beringia museum would follow in 2016.

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Update News: April 22nd, 2014 http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/04/22/update-news-april-22nd-2014/ http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/04/22/update-news-april-22nd-2014/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:16:16 +0000 http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=8479 In Tuesday’s news:

  • Three ballot measures pushed back to Nov election, casualty of extended legislative session;
  • Lawmakers have still not reached agreement on school funding, budgets, and more;
  • US Senate candidate Joe Miller kicks off campaign in Wasilla;
  • Aftershocks continue rattling Northwest Alaska;
  • Gambell hosts Bering Straits School District’s annual Native Youth Olympics Tournament;
  • Visiting researcher speaks in Nome tonight on human migration in the Beringia region.
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Update News: September 30th, 2013 http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/09/30/update-news-september-30th-2013/ Mon, 30 Sep 2013 19:26:46 +0000 http://www.knom.org/news/wp/?p=2914 In Monday’s news:

  • Beringia Days Festival in Anadyr, Russia concludes;
  • Gary Ballot to plead guilty to attempted murder charge connected to July shooting of VSPO in Buckland;
  • Region I North high school cross-country meet took place in Nome on Saturday.
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Profile: What Caused Mammoths to Go Extinct? http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/08/07/profile-what-caused-mammoths-to-go-extinct/ Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:53:00 +0000 http://www.knom.org/news/wp/?p=958
A wooly mammoth, as seen at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia.

A wooly mammoth, as seen at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia. Photo by Tracy O (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Wooly mammoths once roamed across Europe, Northern Asia, across the Bering Strait and throughout Alaska and Canada. But they mostly disappeared from North America around ten thousand years ago—and around four thousand years ago, they had vanished entirely.

Scientists have long debated what ultimately caused the extinction of this unique arctic mammal. Dr. Glen MacDonald, a professor of geography and ecology at UCLA, recently published a new paper with colleagues in Russia and the US in the journal Nature Communications that says mammoths disappeared gradually, over tens of thousands of years. And he says several factors came together to push mammoths over the edge.

 

 

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