Monthly Archives: June 2008

When: Friday, July 4 from 11:30 am – 4 pm
Where: Behind the Sullivan Roadhouse Museum

• Event kickoff with Ft. Greely Color Guard Flag Presentation and
  patriotic song by Marion Gauntt
• Contest sign up begins
• Lumber Jack Challenge practice begins (Delta Friends of
  Agriculture)

Noon 4th of July Crazy Hat Contest

12:30 pm – 4 pm Traditional games (open to all ages & prizes awarded):

• sack race
• hula hoop contest
• egg race
• watermelon seed spitting contest (tentative)
• bubble gum blowing contest
• water balloon toss
• buffalo chip throwing contest (tentative)

1 pm Lumber Jack Challenge begins (open to those 18 & over)

All Day

Highways End Farmers Market, Sullivan Roadhouse open, music by DJ Jack Carlson, door prizes (must be present to win), Carol McNabb’s homemade funnel cakes & ice cream, Delta Soccer Association fundraising booth, & more!

For more information contact the Delta Chamber of Commerce at 895-5068 or e-mail deltacc@alaska.net

The DMV will be closed July 5th. We will reopen on Tuesday, July 8 at 1:00.

For our wedding Anniversary this year I got my wife something really expensive. It was a necklace. At the end of a simple cotton cord was suspended a small glass vial in which was sealed nearly ½ cc of actual gasoline! She’s not going to wear it in public, of course. That would just be an open invitation for some lowlife to try to pilfer it. I’m not terribly concerned about it being stolen, because I had it insured with Lloyd’s of London, but I don’t want my wife to be injured in the mugging process.

I also served her an expensive meal of fried rice and Vienna sausages that I had cooked on our wood stove. We ate it by candlelight. We haven’t splurged like that for a long time. You should have seen the glow in her eye when I told her the candles were to create a romantic ambience. It was only a little white lie. Unfortunately the mood was broken when she suggested we snuggle up on the couch afterwards and watch a chick flick. It was then that I had to admit that in order to afford the gasoline necklace I hadn’t been able to pay the light bill. We played a game of tick tack toe instead.

To read the rest of the story we invite you to browse our Chinook pages.

I underwent my forty-second birthday in June. I’m still working through the grieving process. Birthdays have turned into harrowing ordeals ever since I turned forty. I remember when they used to be festive celebrations. My mother would still be scrubbing cake frosting out of the carpet and picking up piñata fragments when I begin whining, “I can’t wait ‘til my next birthday!” Nowadays, however, my birthday parties are muted, embarrassed affairs. My wife or son will sidle up to me and awkwardly press a birthday card into my palm as if it were a breath mint that I badly needed. “Happy…you know…’B-word’.” they murmur, and then wince as if expecting me to slap their mouth.

I can’t eat birthday cakes any more. The sugar in the frosting gives me a hyperglycemic reaction, the smoke from the candles exacerbates my facial eczema, the chocolate stokes my GERD and I am lactose intolerant of the ice cream. A couple years ago, my wife thought she had found the solution. She got an idea from a baby shower she attended where somebody made the “most darling” simulated cake out of disposable diapers. So for my next birthday, as everyone shouted “Surprise!” my wife walked into the room carrying a cake she had made out of Depends. I think she frosted it with Preparation H. The guests really enjoyed themselves that year.

To read the rest of the story please visit our Chinook pages.

The winner of last week’s mystery photo is Karen Sutherland. We had 25 correct entries last week.

Karen will receive a gift certificate from the Buffalo Center Diner, Courtesy of Ed and Ann Richards.

Thank you for each one that submitted their entry, along with mailing address.

Please remember to include your mailing address with each entry. DNW will not accept entries without mailing addresses. We do not store your address from week to week.The photo was taken at Smith Green Acres RV Park, and it was correctly identified as the motorhome on top of their RV/campground sign.

Good luck as you look for next week’s photo.

Be as creative as you wish in designing your hat, the only rules are that it have a 4th of July theme and that it be wearable. A $25 Chamber Gift Certificate (redeemable at many local Chamber Member businesses) will be awarded to the overall best hat. A second and third place prize may be awarded depending on participation.

The Crazy Hat Contest will take place at the Old Fashioned 4th of July Celebration

To sign up, contact the Delta Chamber @ 895-5068 or deltacc@alaska.

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment will conduct hand-grenade training July 8 and 9 on the small arms range adjacent to the Richardson Highway.

The unit will train with the grenades from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Area residents in the vicinity of the range and travelers on the Richardson Highway may hear the noise.

(June 26, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska) – Judge Mark Rindner, of the Third Judicial District in the Superior Court of Alaska, today granted Defendant Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell’s summary judgment motion and denied Plaintiff’s motion regarding the establishment of an initiative to establish the Alaska Clean Elections Act and to create an oil production tax as the funding source for the program. Today’s court order refers to the initiative filed in May 2007, also known as the Public Funding of Campaigns (07COGA) initiative.

Lt. Governor Parnell denied the (07COGA) initiative last year stipulating it violated constitutional and statutory mandate confining initiatives to one subject (the “single-subject rule”). Plaintiffs alleged their constitutional rights were violated by the denial of the initiative.

The only issue before the Superior Court today was whether the (07COGA) initiative violated the single-subject rule. The order concludes the (07COGA) Clean Elections Initiative is a substantial and plain violation of the single-subject rule, and the Lt. Governor’s decision to deny the initiative did not violate Plaintiffs right to initiative.

Plaintiffs for the case are: Eric Croft, a private individual, and ALASKANS FOR CLEAN ELECTIONS, an initiative group, and Tim June, Steve Cleary, and Joe McKinnon, initiative sponsors.

This court outcome should not be confused with another initiative, Public Funding of Campaigns II (07CASE) also known as Ballot Measure No. 3 on the 2008 Primary Ballot.

A copy of the court can be seen here.

Delta High School was robbed and vandalized last weekend, sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Thieves took dozens of student laptops, new desk top computers, the school security system and a large video monitor, all worth at least $80,000. Vandalism to windows and doors is estimated to be $6,000. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Delta Trooper post at 895-4800, or the Fairbanks Troppers at 451-5100.

More from the Fairbanks Newsminer

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – The Fairbanks public is invited to the July post-wide yard sale here Saturday, June 28, from 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Post residents will sell from their homes in the housing areas, or from booths at the Lemon Lot at Neely and Meridian, across from the Post Office.

Military retirees, civilian employees at Fort Wainwright and military families who live off post may secure spaces at the Lemon Lot. Forms are provided, and spaces are $10 each (money should be placed with the form into the self-pay box at the lot. Tables are not provided.
A sign will indicate a special lane for yard-sale visitors. Visitors should tell the gate guards they are here for the yard sale, and must show proof of insurance, valid driver’s license and vehicle registration. The gate guards will give each visitor a post pass for that day and a map. The pass should be kept on the dashboard in the front window of the vehicle.

There is no need to stop at the visitors’ center. Military police will strictly enforce speed limits in all areas.

For more information, call 353-6612.

The DHS girls summer softball clinic was cancelled Monday due to rain.

We will be at the fields again Tuesday at 3:00p.m. If you haven’t already picked up a registration form they will be available tomorrow.

Parents please be sure and arrive with your daughter to sign the medical waiver.

We are looking forward to fun and improving skills on the field!!

See you tomorrow – June 24.

The winner of last week’s mystery photo is Christina Bush. We had 30 correct entries last week.

Christina will receive a gift certificate from the Buffalo Center Drive In, Courtesy of John and Linda Sloan.

Thank you for each one that submitted their entry, along with mailing address.

Please remember to include your mailing address with each entry. DNW will not accept entries without mailing addresses. We do not store your address from week to week.

The photo was taken at Granite View Sports and Gifts, and it was correctly identified as the ampersand on their sign on the side of the building.

Good luck as you look for next week’s photo.

The Better Business Bureau today is warning business owners in the restaurant, retail, and hospitality industries nationwide that an internet-based company from Denver called Galasource, Inc. (www.galasource.com ) appears to have closed, leaving thousands of dollars’ worth of paid orders unfilled across the country.

The company web site appeared to be up and running, however, as of June 19 –posing a risk for further loss from unsuspecting business owners. The products include appliances, furniture, and a range of supplies for restaurants. “A company that isn’t filling orders that have been paid for, or not responding to questions–but simultaneously continuing to market to new customers–is a huge red flag,” said Jean Herman, BBB Denver/Boulder president and CEO.
BBB Denver/Boulder, where the firm is based, reports that businesses from 15 states have filed complaints about the company in 2008 – with complaints originating from 11 of those states just since June 1.

BBB believes that a principal of the company is Gary Baker and that the firm operated from 3890 Elm St. in Denver, CO 80207.

A restaurant owner in North Carolina paid the firm in full for $13,870 in equipment that did not arrive, while a tavern owner in Washington is waiting for a $3,387 credit for an order that originally totaled more than $10,000. Calls and emails to the company from customers and the BBB have gone unanswered.

Problems with the company’s service are relatively new. The firm had been a BBB Accredited Business in Denver/Boulder, although the BBB suspended the firm’s accreditation on May 29 pending further investigation, and the report is currently unsatisfactory.

Across the U.S. and Canada, BBB is an unbiased, non-profit entity that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. Businesses and charities that earn BBB accreditation contractually agree and adhere to the organization’s high standards of ethical business behavior. BBB provides objective advice, free business reliability reports and charity Wise Giving Reports, and educational information on topics affecting marketplace trust. BBB also offers complaint and dispute resolution support for consumers who need help with unfair or unethical business treatment. The first BBB was founded in 1912. Today, 128 BBBs serve communities in North America, monitoring more than three million local and national businesses and charities. Please visit www.bbb.org for more information.

Officials will dedicate Monterey Lakes Memorial Park at a ceremony here Wednesday. The park will be dedicated to fallen soldiers from all conflicts.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield, commanding general of United States Army Alaska, and Col. Michael Shields, commander of the 172nd SBCT during its deployment, will unveil the monument and lay a wreath to honor the soldiers lost during the unit’s deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from August 2005 to December 2006.

The Stryker Brigade here at Fort Wainwright has been reflagged as part of the 25th Infantry Division. It was here at Fort Wainwright that the Arctic Wolves trained for, deployed to and returned from 15 months of combat operations in Iraq. It is here at Fort Wainwright where we dedicate this memorial that forever pays respect to the 30 Americans who did not return from the mission – 26 from the 172nd SBCT and four from the Alaska National Guard.

The soldiers honored at the ceremony are Cpl. Lucas Frantz, Spc. Daniel Bartels, Staff Sgt. Stephen Sutherland, Pfc. Christopher Alcozer, Chief Warrant Officer Chester Troxel, 1st Lt. Jamie Campbell, Spc. Michael Edwards, Spc. Jacob Melson, Staff Sgt. Christopher Morningstar, Sgt. Jeremiah Boehmer, Cpl. Patrick Herried, Spc. Joshua Pierce, Spc. Dustin Harris, Cpl. Shawn Creighton, Sgt. Kenneth Hess, Spc. Raymond Henry, Staff Sgt. Mark Wall, Spc. Aaron Latimer, Cpl. Jeremy Loveless, Sgt. Benjamin Mejia, 2nd Lt. John Vaughan, Sgt. Bryan Luckey, Sgt. Irving Hernandez Jr., Staff Sgt. Eugene Alex, Cpl. Alexander Jordan, Sgt. David Davis, Staff Sgt. Jonathan Rojas, Sgt. Nicholas Sowinski, Sgt. Kraig Foytek and Cpl. James Bridges.

The dedication ceremony is open to the public. Visitors will need to pick up a day pass at the visitors’ center near the main gate. Driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance are needed.

This is the last chance to register for the DHS girl’s softball program summer clinic.

The clinic starts Monday and runs till Friday 3:00-6:00p.m. The camp costs $25 and will focus on team building and individual skills.

Registration forms are available at the Drive-In.

The Cummings Sawmill softball team was recently bumped up to the top league in Fairbanks and played the two top teams last night…7-6 for the first game and 9-7 was the score for the late game.

We will be playing in a tournament in Anchorage this weekend.

Wish us Luck!
MJKingston

The June Membership Luncheon will be held at noon on June 19, 2008 at the Trophy lodge. Lunch is $15.00 Please RSVP to the Chamber office at 895-5068.

Guest speaker is Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell. Parnell was elected as Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor in November, 2006.

Prior to serving as Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, Sean served in both the Alaska House of Representatives and the Alaska State Senate from 1992 to 2000. He served on the House Finance Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, the Energy Council, and chaired numerous budget subcommittees. Sean has been an attorney since 1987 and is admitted to practice in Alaska and Washington D.C.

Sean and his wife, Sandy, have been married for 20 years, and live in Anchorage, Alaska with their two daughters, Grace and Rachel.

If anyone is interested in a great motorcycle ride, we are departing Delta Junction on the 2nd of July and riding to Homer, returning on the 5th.

We will overnight in Anchorage the 2nd, Homer the 3rd, Anchorage the 4th, and returning to Delta Junction on the 5th. Anyone is welcome to come along.

This is not an organized ride and anyone may ride all or part of the way or branch out on your own. We will make frequent rest and gas stops and speed is adjusted to the slowest rider.

Currently we have three Harley Davidson’s scheduled, but all bikes are welcome.

Plan on departing the Buffalo Service station at 9:00 AM on the 2nd of July. Motorcycle maintenance, food, gas, lodging, it’s everyone for themselves!

Contact Joe Clark at 460-0629 if you have any questions or wish to come along.

The results are as follows…
Morley Electric (14) Vs. Clearwater Lodge (4)
R. Lester’s (13) Vs. Granite View (10)
Morley Electric (15) Vs. R. Lester’s (6)
Granite View (19) Vs. Clearwater Lodge (4)

The current standings are…
Morley Electric: 4-4
R. Lester’s: 3-4
Granite View: 1-4
Clearwater Lodge: 0-4

We invite you to come out and watch our next games on Monday, June 23, starting at 7PM.

The winner of last week’s mystery photo is Tim Lenon.

Children and young people ages 6 and up are invited to become “More than Conquerors” at an interactive Bible Village that will be hosted by Living Waters Assembly of God. The theme features the Armor of God, and there will be plenty of stories, games, contests, prizes and activities.

The VBS will be held daily June 23-27 from 9:30am to 1:00pm. On Friday evening, parents are invited to attend a special program where their children will be honored with awards including a special “Knighting” ceremony for those who have worked hard to earn their Knighthood.

Holbrook’s popular Bibleland will be lending their expertise to manning and coordinating the interactive village with its craft and food shops.

During the week, Delta Christian Drama Association will contribute dramatic reenactment with costumes that include real Roman armor. They will also be providing décor for the half dozen or so simulated 1st Century shops that will comprise the village.

Children under 6 must be accompanied at all times by a responsible adult. Register as soon as possible, as availability is limited. To register your child or for further information call 895-5289 or 895-1909.

A funeral will be held for Wanda Perrigo
Location: Delta Cematary
Time: 1:00 PM
Date: Saturday, June 14th