Railbelt Mental Health & Addictions

Nenana Wellness Coalition

Meeting Minutes

May 25, 2004

 

Our meeting was officiated this week by Milt Haken, and

Opened with prayer by Milt Haken

Followed by the pledge of allegiance

There were 22 people attending

 

Cliff Wilson   Oxford House

          Has opened eleven houses so far in the state of Alaska.  He learned there are funds from Rasmussen and matching funds available for Nenana to start one of our own recovery centers.  He came to encourage us by giving us a pep talk regarding recovery homes for alcoholics and addicts.  He again offered his help and his advice. He heard that some people in the community have been thinking about making it a co-ed home, where males and females share the same home. He thinks it is better to keep the homes segregated into men’s homes and women’s homes. It is difficult enough having to deal with alcohol or drug addiction issues in segregated homes and co-ed homes make it even more difficult. They end up adding jealousy and other sexual relation issues into the situation. It is best to avoid adding those issues into the situation. What the residents of Oxford House learn in treatment is that they need to change their habits and their environment and that includes the people they associate with. Living in an Oxford House gives them a chance to do that. The average time spent in these homes is about 15 months.  The nationwide success rate for Oxford House is over 80%.  So far the success rate in Fairbanks 56%.  They are opening more homes over the summer in Anchorage, Dillingham and Fairbanks.  Cliff will be more than happy to come to Nenana and help set up a home here.  He suggests that we start with a men’s house first.  He suggests that we let them run the house themselves and that we not try to put a paid “boss” into the house with them. The usual number of residents in a house is from six to eight.

Cliff is now training Gary Rotzler to be able to teach others how to run a home.

 

Gary Rotzler    Oxford House

          41 years old from Anchorage and Holy Cross.  When his mother died he was 12. He lived with a foster family who owned one of the taxi companies in town. By the time he was 14 years old he was bootlegging and doing drugs (The taxi companies in Bethel are known for bootlegging and drug dealing).  When he was 17 he went to Willow and then went to Oregon but was still drinking and drugging.  At 18 he returned to Bethel and continued bootlegging for about 5 years or so.  At 24 he was heavy into Cocaine and lost nearly 30 lbs in just 3 months.  He called his sister in NY and flew there in 1988 for ten years.  While there he was caught stealing (in order to get more drugs) and was put in jail after which he stayed sober for about two years.  The next time he got sober he stayed sober for nearly seven years.  After returning to Fairbanks he was caught speeding and tried to stay sober and during this time he visited the Oxford House where his brother was staying.   He liked the idea of what they were doing there and started to help them find furniture for these homes.  Gary persisted to try and get into the Oxford House but they were full.  He did get permission to sleep on the couch for a while and eventually he was admitted when they opened the second house in Fairbanks.  Gary is now adding another bedroom onto this house for additional people to join them.  

 

Endil Moore  YBL

          First two boats went out on Monday.  Two more left this morning.  The first one made it 3/8 mile before being stuck.  He’s out now.  There will be more freight coming into town by rail for the Ft. Yukon run.  The road construction has begun and will continue with trucks going from 6^th to D to the riverfront.  The H&H project will continue until July.

 

Miles Martin - Chamber of Commerce

          There is room for 16 venders for the Open Air Market starting May 29 next to the visitors center in Nenana.  First come - first serve at this point.  Hours are 10 – 7.  Chamber Meeting Thurs evening the 27^th at 7:30 or 8:00 at the Senior Center.

 

Margaret Sanders - Seniors

          The seniors went on a riverboat ride on Friday the 21 of May and the Shriners are going to sponsor the River Daze in Nenana this year.  We would like to have the Color Guard march in the parade along and have the children decorate their bikes and participate in the parade. We’d also like all the organizations in town to enter a float of some sort.  The parade will start at 1:00. 

          The Veterans were contacted to fix the signs on the river bridge and other things around town.

 

Gary Edwin - Environmental Tech

          Gary is now looking for two assistants to help with a beautification program for Nenana.  This is mostly a hands-on cleaning up of the town.  There was a good turn out for the free dump day and the availability of trucks to haul things away to the dump for residents.  He would like to do this a couple of more times over the summer.  He is hoping to find some young people that may be interested in finding this as a career choice.  Gary would like to find the modified burn barrels that will burn trash at a higher temperature and thus reduce the pollution.  He really needs community input and support for this program to work.  He will also need this support to maintain and retain the funds for this project.  Gary wants to see this project continue in Nenana and not be shut down because of lack of interest on the part of the community.  At this time they have cleaned up 36 cars that are now at the drop off point waiting to be taken to the crusher and there are at least 200 more to go.   He will be doing a presentation at the next Community Planning Committee meeting.

         

Gary said that his wife may attend our meeting next week to share some concerns she has about the school not complying with the requirements of a grant for the native dance program.

 

Bear Ketzler  -  Native Council

          There is a committee to discuss the Aunties House in Nenana.   They are trying to decide if there is any housing in Nenana available or if something can be built for this.  There is also property near the Post Office that the Tribe owns that may be available for this.  Rasmussen will match around $50,000 for this project.  One of the first questions to address is whether the housing should be segregated, as suggested by Cliff, or dual housing. The consensus seemed to be for segregated housing.

                  There will be a meeting tonight at 6pm at George Hall to address gas exploration in the nearby Minto Flats.  This meeting will be at 6:00 Tues May 25 at George Hall

Another meeting will follow immediately thereafter. It will be a 90% complete meeting that is required by BIA and will be addressing the proposed road improvements in Nenana. This meeting will be at 7:00 Tues May 25 at George Hall.

          There is a trailer available from the Tribe for someone to use in the parade if needed.  Check with Bear.

          No approval at this time from the Denali Commission for the full recreation center, so for now native council will go ahead with the teen side of the new recreation building.  This would be the office, showers and recreation part of the building. 

          The lawsuit against the alcohol industry is going ahead.  Bear is now drafting a letter to other tribes to see what kind of support he can muster for this suit.  It may take two or three months to get a response from these other villages on their decisions.

            How much vegetable mass does it take to make a gallon of gas?  200,000lbs.

 

Christy Kerny - Alaska Railroad

          Federal Transportation will be distributing a draft on the realignment of the railroad.

 

Jason Mayrand    City of Nenana

          No drag racing at this time at the airport from the Racing Lions. He just got a letter of denial and has written an appeal that will be sent out within the ten days allotted.

Question from the floor - Would it help if other organizations in town wrote letters to support this event?

          Yes, Jason thinks it can always help to have more letters for them to read.

The new snow blower will be in the parade for River Daze.

          Last week Jason filed for House District 6 and we will be hearing more from him in the future on this issue. 

The airport project is almost complete. The runway has been painted, the electric is in, and the grass has been planted.  There is wood already cut and stacked at the airport and free for the taking.  It is for public use and not to be sold by anyone.

          Jason has presented a balanced budget for passage and it includes our police force in tact as is. A few council members are pushing to force the elimination of one police officer from the budget which would reduce the force to just one officer. There will be a budget work session on June 3 at 6:00 PM at the Senior Center and a regular meeting will be held as well on June 7.

 

Milt

          One member of the city assembly has proposed a 30% cut in the police department.  There will be a meeting at the Senior Center on Thursday May 27 @ 6:30 to discuss the budget for the City of Nenana.  If interested please attend this meeting to voice your opinion.

 

Nita Marks  - Native Council

 

There will be a parenting class sometime in June.  Foster parents are needed at this time. 

 

Paul Verhagen

          After sharing with our group for several months his enthusiasm for the information included in a national best seller entitled Crucial Conversations, Paul described how he met one of the authors of the book while at Denali this past week.  It was an amazing chance meeting that he described as miraculous.  The author is willing to consider coming to Nenana for a lecture and also told Paul about their new book entitled Crucial Confrontations that will be coming out in September. 

          Another group Paul has been in contact with sets up humanitarian service projects and they are interested in coming to Nenana to help with a project.  Paul suggested they help with the Living Center.  They will consider this suggestion and thought that an endowment would be the long term answer. The head of this group, Ted Dodge, has offered to come and meet with us at his own expense in June if we would like him to.

          Paul suggests that in order to obtain support for various things we should follow the example of national organizations that have been very successful at getting what they want. One way they do that is to write letters for their constituents to sign and then have their constituents sign them. This is similar to the way things are done in the court system. Each side submits with their motion an order worded exactly how they would like the judge to word it. That way, if the judge agrees with them all he or she has to do is sign it. If the judge doesn’t like their wording he can have his clerk re-write it and then sign it - but this approach greases the wheels and helps move things along. He suggests that we follow these examples by having someone pre-write letters so that they are worded the way would like them to be and then giving them to the people we hope will sign them and offer to pick up the signed or modified letters for mailing a few days latter. Since the city council is unanimous on the issue of using the airport for drag racing a few times each summer (how often does it happen that our, or any, city council is unanimous on anything?) it might be good to begin with that issue.

****Is someone interested in volunteering to write these letters?*** 

 

Milt Haken     Nenana Police Dept.

          From the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) training that Milt attended in Oregon this past month Milt learned that in responding to accidents or other related calls they involve drugs much more often than previously thought.  There were two other police officers from Alaska that attended this training and these other officers will be helping out up here during the Blue Grass Festival this summer.

To date, there are no DRE’s certified in Alaska and Milt intends to continue his training so that in the next few months he will be certified in this field.  He is determined to be an outspoken proponent for this program throughout Alaska.  

 

Bryn McElroy    Tobacco Educator - RMHA

          There will be another Sober Dance on Friday June 4.  This will start with a meal at 6pm and the dance will have a live band with “The Flyers” from Fairbanks. It will be held at the Tribal Hall and will be non-alcoholic and smoke free. 

 

Next week Endil Moore will officiate the meeting and Diane Carson will be gone for the next three weeks so someone else will have to help with the minutes.

 

Meeting adjourned at 2:12 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted by Diane Carson and Paul Verhagen.

Please send corrections or modifications to paulverhagen@prodigy.net or call 378-5454.  

 

Nenana Wellness Coalition Minutes

May 18, 2004

 

The meeting was opened with prayer by Jack Coghill

We all recited the Pledge of Allegiance

 

The meeting this week was officiated by Rose Allen

 

There were 25 present

 

Guests: Teresa Hall  Railbelt Mental Health

          Gary and Michelle from ABDC

 

Endil Moore,  Seniors:

The Seniors are looking for more revenue from the Wellness Meeting and we would like to raise the price to $4.00 per meal.  Everyone here thought that was still a good price for lunch.

The seniors will be going on a riverboat ride on Friday May 21.  The cost will be $5.00 and the bus will leave Nenana at 8:30 am. 

 

Endil Moore,   Chamber:

          The Chamber is gearing up for the Open Air Market to start on Sat. May 29 which is Memorial Weekend.   

There will be a meeting on Thursday the 27 of May for the election of officers with everyone bringing finger food. 

Mr. Don  Carter is taking down a building on his property and the chamber would like to look at it first because it is one of the oldest buildings in Nenana.  They would like to see if it is movable and maybe they could use it for the Chamber Office.

Endil Moore,   Yutana;

          They are looking at a lot of freight to be moving around town and this will continue all weekend.  They will be loading the barges as soon as possible.  The ice is mostly cleared out of the river with just a few patches here and there.  The first barge will be leaving Nenana by May 24.

Endil Moore,   City Council;

Endil is on the Nenana City Council and tried to introduce three new ordinances this past week.  He noted that Alaska law allows for the forfeiture of vehicles of those who are convicted of multiple DUI’s. Endil would prefer to see these vehicles forfeited to the city rather than to the state but some council members were not in favor of this. More people need to attend these meetings so the community as a whole can discuss the problems and issues that are being dealt with in our town.

Other items up for discussion were reducing the package store hours and closing the bars earlier as a means of reducing crime in Nenana. This was not looked on favorably by some of the council members either. These issues should be discussed. The council may vote against them but they should at least be open for discussion. These issues may need to be put to a vote of the community.

Another issue is that the mayor presented a balanced budget including the police department as it currently stands. However, some members of the city council insisted that it be changed to reduce the police force to one officer.

 

Milt Haken     Nenana Police Dept.:

          In cases where alcohol is a factor the statistics show the liquor was purchased at package stores after 10pm.  He would like to see the package store hours more limited in Nenana to help reduce the alcohol related incidents. He does not see the same need for reducing the hours of the bars.

 

Rick Martin:

          Rick stated that if we loose one of our police force we will see an increase in crime.  He agrees that curtailing the hours on a liquor store would help with alcohol related crime.  Nenana remains an attractive place to those from Fairbanks because our bars are open later and they tend to drive here after closing in Fairbanks to finish out the night.  This increases Nenana’s vulnerability to crime and accidents on the highway from those not living here. 

 

James Brown;

          He likes the idea of the wellness meetings each week.  When he first heard about them he was not real impressed with the idea of attending another meeting.  After showing up the first time he was surprised to see so many community members show up.  James can see a connection of body and brain in almost every situation.  In the case of the city assembly the council would be the body (the take the action) and the community would be the brain (the provide the input for action).   Since there are not many community members showing up at the city meetings this requires the Assembly to make all the decisions on their own.  When James was gone Milt had to do all the work and while Milt was gone James had to do all the work. If these circumstances happened with only one policeman in town we would be without any police protection for undetermined periods of time.  Our police force is also responsible for the dispatching of all calls coming in to their office.  Some are for the police department, some are for the fire department and some are for other city offices that are closed.

 

 

Alvina Fowler    Nenana Native Council:

There are many people in our community who are walking around Nenana right now because of the co-operation between Milt Haken and Paul Verhagan.  She wanted to thank them for their persistence in continuing to help the community of Nenana and its citizens.

 

Jack Coghill;

          The first weekend in June is still set for River Daze in Nenana.  The Riders for Sobriety will be showing up at noon and The Riverfront Club Diner will be having  a BBQ.  The Shriners are helping with this event and would like to have a parade as well.

Suggestions for finding kids to be in the parade were Robin Campbell, the  PTA and James Brown with his  Tai Kwan Do class.

 

Rose Allen     RMHA:

          There will be a dance at the Tribal Hall the first weekend in June.

 

Lois Law     Ch’eghutsen’:

          She will be having a wreath making demonstration from 3-6 on Friday and Saturday May 21 & 22 at The Tribal Hall.

          Kat and Lois have been working together to try and find a treatment center location for Nenana. They are still looking for this location.  Any help from the community would be appreciated.

 

Bear Ketzler    Nenana Native Council:

          Michelle and Gary are visiting with us today from the Alaska Business Development Center.  They are here doing a financial planning class in our community this week.  We would like to see them have another class like this in the evenings so that those who work could attend.

          Bear would like to add the Environmental Report to our Agenda so Gary Edwin can share his information with us.

          Bear apologized to Endil for not showing up at the City meeting where Endil tried to introduce a couple new ordinances like junk cars being removed from property around town and liquor control.  Things may have gone differently if more concerned citizens had been notified and had been there.

Robin Campbell has been hired as a Tribal Specialist and she can help by being the focal person to help co-ordinate or make posters for any community-wide function.  She could not be here today as she drove the Native Council van to Minto.

 

 

UP COMING EVENTS:

 

          Tuesday May 25^th  there will be a public hearing from 7-9 PM at the Tribal Hall for a “90% Architectural Engineering Completion Meeting” This is to talk about the 9^th street and K street hookup (the K street extension to the waterfront).

          Thursday May 20^th there will be a meeting at the Tribal office with representatives from Doyon coming down to try and find employees for the Kantishna Roadhouse and Denali Cabins. They must be 17 or older.  Resumes may also be dropped off if you cannot be there is person.

Thursday May 20^th Yukon Telephone will be in town on Thursday to start working on the new phone service in town.

The Colonel from Clear Air Force Base will be at the Tribal Council for a meeting on Wed. May 19. The meeting will start sometime after lunch maybe 1:30, 2:00 or 2:30. Call to be sure.

June 1^st will be the next Community Planning Meeting @6:30 PM at the senior center.

Last year there was a Memorial Day Picnic and Bear would like to have one again this year but is not sure which day is good, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

The Tribe has one cabin left across from the school on third street for sale  they will help pick it up and put it on your trailer for removal.  The price for this is $2,500 or Best Offer.

The second Thursday of each month is the City Council meeting but on June 7^th there will be a special meeting at 7:30.  We are planning to have the wellness meeting at 6:00 on this night and stay for the council meeting as well.

August 10 thru 13 the Yukon River Watershed Meeting will be held in Nenana.  This will start with an evening meal on Tuesday.

On Monday May 25^th there will be a public meeting at George Hall at 6:30 pm to discuss the exploration of oil and gas in the Nenana Area. 

 

Paul Verhagan;

          Paul would like to see more community members show up at the City Council Meetings so that the council hears from a good cross-section of the community.

There was a court hearing this past Monday in Healy for a young lady from Cantwell who is on our new electronic monitoring program.  There were a lot of people from up and down the Highway that showed up in support of this young lady and she found out there were several people concerned about her and that she still needs more help to get over her addiction.  It was a good meeting to show her she had support and to know there were people to help her whenever needed.       

          MRT Training will be in Fairbanks Monday thru Friday May 24 thru 28.  The cost is $600.00.  This is a very good class if anyone can attend.

Paul’s’ cousin is coming to Alaska the first week of June and would like to be a guest speaker at our Wellness meeting.  He has a great life story to share with all of us.

Dr. Gooding hopes to join us as a guest speaker at the next wellness meeting Tuesday May, 25, 2004. (Dr. Gooding got called out to Nome)

Thanks to all our guests for coming to our meetings and spreading the word about communities working together for progress.

 

 Milt will officiate at the next meeting on Tuesday May, 25 at the Senior Center @12:00.  Remember lunch is served and the cost will now be $4.00 per person.

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Diane Carson and Paul Verhagen. If you have additions or corrections please email them to paulverhagen@prodigy.net

 

May 11, 2004

 

Nenana Wellness Coalition Minutes 

 

27 People attending

 

Our meeting was opened with prayer by Rose Allen

And we all recited the pledge of allegiance

 

Jason Mayrand Officiated our meeting today

 

RBMH

 

Tracy Wiggens:

            RBMH is interested in using the Bar Building that is for sale in Nenana but do not have the funds to purchase it. It could be purchased by another party and donated to RBMH.   There are presently two bids on this particular site but there are other sites for sale in Nenana for the project of Aunties Place which would be a place for Sober Transitional Housing.  This type of housing is needed in a semi-rural area like Nenana to help continue their support of recovery.

            Ken Eggleston stated that this is true for the students at the living center as well.  They would like to stay in Nenana year around so they can continue to keep themselves from returning to the environment of abuse in their home communities.

            RBMH is looking for any location at this time to start working on Aunties Place.  If anyone has a suggestion of a building in our community that may work please let them know.

            Traci stated Kat was the volunteer of the year at their meeting in Anchorage.  They had 10 people in attendance from Nenana and were very well represented.

            Bear had been in contact with the bank holding the $110.000 first note of the bar but the second note is going for bid first on May 12 for  $25,000 plus interest.  The bank said whomever purchases the $25,000 second note would be in line to purchase the first note for the $110.000 from the bank.  This includes the buildings that are included with this estate.  There is also a liquor license that is still open for purchase.  There are numerous notes against the property and the liquor license at this time.

 

Floyd Terry;

            Fairbanks has a problem with drugs in the hotels and motels and bomb scares in the area.  Floyd has been trying to start a roller rink in North Pole and knows that kids in any town need something to do like a roller rink, or a bowling alley.  There are only two roller rinks in the state of Alaska that he knows of and they are both in Anchorage.  He has information available on these projects if anyone would be interested in talking to him about promoting these ideas.  He would like to see Nenana promote more activities to attract tourists and create jobs for local residents.

Types of activities that would promote family oriented fun.

 

Bear;

            Bear received a call from the state of Alaska because the Tribe had applied for funding for a homeless shelter last year but did not receive funding.  The Tribe has approved to put money in from this type of housing project to be matched by The Rasmussan Fund.   AHFC would have to approve the site, site control, the size and would it accommodate men, women or both.  This proposal is due in June so they must get started now.

 

Alaska Business Development Center from UAA is interested in holding a class on financial literacy in Nenana. They would like to have this class at George Hall, no age limits, no cost held on May 18, 19, 20.  Robin Cambell will be the person to contact for anyone wanting to sign up for this class.

Bear brought a flyer from Rita Pierce about the Alaska Native Culture Days.  This will be held on Wed. and Thurs May 12 & 13 from 8am to 2:30 pm.

 

The land transfer from the state of AK to the Minto Tribe has been approved so Nenana has been invited to come to a large celebration on June 18 in Old Minto.  They would like to see lots of boats float to Old Minto to join them for this.

At Tribal council meeting next week Wednesday, May 19 @ 1:30 there will be a tribal liaison joining to talk about the tearing down of buildings at the Clear Air Base this summer. 

Denali Commission sent a letter to Nenana to let us know they turned down the request for the Teen Center.  Nenana will now appeal this decision.  There is a  CDBG deadline coming soon and there is a chance to tie this funding into the Teen Center along with the money the Tribe has set aside.

 

The Tribe has put a letter in for the SIDNE project.  This is a request to receive the equipment for impaired driving simulator.

 

Kat McElroy;

            Who is the Denali Commission?  They are very influential and are in the process of deciding which communities in Alaska are viable (meaning that it is likely to remain in existence for many years). If they decide that a community is not viable they will not fund projects in the that community (which may, of course, help lead to the community’s demise and make their prediction a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy). Because of their influence their ranking of our community is very important. It is important that they are convinced that we are a viable community and such things as our location on the highway system and the water route to the rural communities is significant for that purpose.  It is also very important to keep our wellness meetings going and to welcome more people from the surrounding areas to meet with us in order to be considered and important community in the minds of those in control of our state.

 

Ken Eggleston;

            There is a meeting tonight Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at 6:30 at the pit a school.  This is to let everyone know two things.

One, the state has changed bus funding so that Nenana can no longer fund bus routes with state money.  Basically the state has decided to stop being in the bus transportation business.  The state will now allot $500.00 per year per student and the local school system must decide how to transport students on their own. 

            Second The Living Center- It does not look good for the passage of the House Bill to fund the Center.  The school is now looking at the cost per student.  The students are very worried about not being able to come back to Nenana to school next year if it closes.  Of the seniors this year 13 are registered at a higher education facility, 2 are going to internship at a hospital and 4 are going on to Job Corp. It will cost the state of Alaska $318,000 more to send these students home to their own villages to go to school than if they stayed at the Living Center.  There are some students that would like to find families in Nenana to live with so they can continue to go to school here instead of returning to their villages. If the boarding school closes attendance in the Nenana School will drop from 115 students to 45 and a resulting loss of the economy of scale which will result in fewer programs and benefits for our local students.

 

Karen Lord;

            The end of April parents, students and teachers went to Juneau to visit the senators.  The students went to see as many senators as they could the day the bill was read on the floor and the Govenors wife stated the Living Center sounded like a great place to be and gave her support for the bill. 

 

Bear;

            If the Living Center were run by the Tribe would it have as much trouble with the state of Alaska supporting it as it does now?  BIA helps fund Mount Edgecomb school and other federal money is available as well.  Bear thinks three or four community members should go back to Washington DC to see what can be done to save the Student Living Center. The Tribe is in the position and has connections or political leverage to see what can be done.  It must be done now to have funding secure and available by Oct. 1.  This would channel the money through the Tribe to the school.   

 

Alvina;

            She went to a three day workshop for substance abuse and mental health and felt that the most impressive thing that occurred was how many people came up to her and commented on the number of wonderful people in attendance from Nenana.  They were interested in growing their own counselors like Traci Wiggens has done for Nenana.  Traci has made sure her co-workers get the training and support they need to continue the great program they have going in Nenana.  Traci said they tried to meet as many people as they could to keep Nenana on their minds and urged us to do the same whenever we come in contact with people.

 

Jason:

Clean up day is Friday May 14 and free dump day is Saturday May 15.  The city and the tribe will be using dump trucks to pick up any trash set out by the street.   The local paving is going to start the week of May 17^th. Watch out for road pattern changes around town.

 

Paul Verhagan;

            The organization the published the book Crucial Conversation has contacted him and are willing to put on a training session in Nenana in September. He urges us to take advantage of this offer since they will already be in the state. They have also asked if we have suggestions for an organization or program that could use some help. If we notify them about a need they may be able to include Nenana as an area where they perform humanitarian service.

 

James Brown;

            Milt is still in Oregon at this time for training as a Drug Recognition Expert.  James teaches Ty Kwon Do at the school and they took 26 kids to Fairbanks. There are four girls that did their pattern blindfolded and this will change how other teams do their routines.  They took first place in this event.  They returned with five or six firsts, twelve seconds and lots of third place winners.  They did very well. 

            James is on the school board and this is a very sad time for them but he can still see a good ending to this event.  It may take some time to recover but the school  will not be totally left by the wayside.  This is just a test.

 

Endil Moore;

 

Seniors - Friday May 21 the seniors will be taking a boat ride with the Discovery.  The bus will leave Nenana at 8:30 am.

 

Chamber of Commerce - Endil would like to run for this board again and they have several projects at this time.  They are working on the open air market. Virginia Young will be taking up the lead on this project and she can be contacted for times and places.  Chamber meeting will be on Thurs May 27 of May for election of officers.  

 

YBL - has the coast guard checking the barges at this time for their summer use.  There is going to be a lot of equipment moving to rural villages for summer work and a lot of fuel going out as well.  If you have any complaints about the increase of traffic please contact Endil or Jason.

 

Allen

            Just finished his rural development at UAF and learned an important fact.

We must remember to not only do as Tracy suggested (which is to continually remind people about Nenana and what we are doing with our wellness coalition but to also regularly refer to ourselves as a HUB CITY.

 

Eileen Holmes;

            Mayor of Anderson said they are now adding a subdivision and are expecting about 20 new families to move into the area this summer.   Things are going well so far.   They have also been contacted about using their airport for racing but it is a state owned airport and they cannot get permission to use it for racing.

 

Nina DeRoche

             Is visiting and is going to teach grass weaving at the Nenana Living Center on Wed May 12.  She enjoyed visiting with us today and thought this was a great meeting.

 

Mike Anderson will chair our next meeting at noon April 18, 2004

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Diane Carson and Paul Verhagen. Please send corrections or additions to paulverhagen@prodigy.net