How is the Unalakleet-based Bering Strait School District's effort to crack down on truancy by fining parents going this month?

Carl White, a special assistant to the superintendent, sends this note:

Savoonga: AVEC photo.
Meera Kohler, president of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, has this update on the recent Savoonga outages:

We are concerned that this extraordinary sequence of events could occur in another Arctic coastal community and are developing a plan to retrofit other systems to prevent recurrence of similar outages.There are many non-AVEC communities that could potentially encounter similar salt-icing events and we hope that our experience will be educational for other utilities.

There have been no more unscheduled outages in Savoonga since Jan. 3, she said.

Meantime, Savoong resident Darcie Kingeekuk sends along these photos.

"Here are a few pictures of the disaster. ... Two of the pictures were from a few days ago, when the wind picked up again and caused part of a roof top to come off and hit another home's window," she wrote.

All photos courtesy of Darcie Kingeekuk

Get ready for another shift in school leadership at one of Alaska’s largest rural hubs.

Nome Public Schools Superintendent Jon Wehde says he’s leaving the job after turning down a one-year contract extension offered by the Nome school board yesterday.

Wehde – superintendent for the past two years -- said he’s completing a master’s degree and will seek another job in education in Alaska. “It’s just that magic moment when the little voice inside says, ‘You know what, lets go. Let’s see what’s over the next hill.’”

Meantime, Wehde said he learned this morning that school board member Barb Nickels has resigned.

Wehde said he was “reticent to speculate” on why Nickels is leaving the board. But the board member said in an e-mail today that she’d hoped to see Wehde offered a longer contract extension at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I am saddened to be connected to a School Board that continues to successfully inflict personal vendetta's on our School District that threatens the success of our schools and kids!” Nickels wrote. “Even as a member of the ‘majority’ wishing to renew Jon's contract, the minority prevailed through the offering of only a one year contract extension. This is less than his initial two year contract and certainly would adversely hamper his leadership for successful implementation of our recently developed FIVE YEAR Strategic Plan and administrative consistency. The offer spoke volumes and Jon heard it loud and clear.”

Last year was a tense one for the school board, with voters petitioning to recall the entire board after board members moved in January to oust the junior-senior high school principal.

Nickels had voted to keep the Nome principal, Janeen Sullivan, who remained a member of the superintendent's leadership team, according to the Nome Nugget.

I’d like to hear more from people in Nome. E-mail me at khopkins@adn.com.

A Yup’ik Eskimo mask bought by a New York art dealer for as little as $160 in the 1940s is up for sale and could fetch what may be a record price of more than $2.1 million, the Wall Street Journal reports:

The 34-inch tall "Donati Studio Mask"—known to the Yup'iks as "the mask that brought the south winds," and therefore spring and sustenance—is for sale at the Donald Ellis Gallery in Dundas, Ontario.

The Yup'iks of western Alaska made elaborate masks for their ceremonial dances, and Mr. (Donald) Ellis's windmaker mask is one of a dozen bought from the tribe in 1905 by trader Adam Hollis Twitchell. He sold the mask to George Gustav Heye, a collector whose purchases became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.

But instead of ending up in the Smithsonian, this mask was apparently sold when “the museum got into financial trouble” in the '40s, the Journal reports. The mask could break what experts consider to be a record set for Native American artwork in 2008, when a Tlingit war helmet sold to a private collector for more than $2 million.

Here’s a dumb question: Any chance any of that money will go to a Yup’ik tribe or organization whose ancestor created the mask?

There’s a federal law that allows Native people to reclaim human remains and cultural objects, but my understanding of those rules is that you can only make claim to items that are owned by museums or agencies that get federal funding.

The mask will appear later this month at the Winter Antiques Show in New York, the Journal says.

By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com

The vice president of a volunteer search and rescue team in Kodiak died after falling through the ice of a popular local lake, a member of the group said today.

Kerry Felton, 40, began ice skating at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday on Island Lake, just north of town, his wife told troopers.

Felton lives along an arm of the lake where the ice was as much as 1 foot thick earlier in the day, said Nick Szabo, treasurer for the Kodiak Island Search and Rescue group.

But as Felton skated toward the main body of the lake, the ice may have softened, Szabo said.

“As he got out toward the mouth of the arm, the ice all of the sudden just pretty much disappeared,” he said. “It was just barely an inch thick. And so apparently he didn’t see that in the dark and went off into the thin ice and then went underwater.”

Felton’s wife, Karen, called troopers at about 11:10 p.m. Sunday to say her husband hadn’t returned from ice skating.

Trooper divers and the city and Bayside fire departments began a search, but silt from the lake made it hard to find the body in the dark, Szabo said. Employees at a Kodiak dive shop also helped in the rescue attempt, said trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters.

At about 1:50 a.m. today, the search was called off until morning, troopers said. Szabo and other members of the volunteer rescue team walked the perimeter of the lake for another hour in hopes that Felton had survived and crawled to shore, Szabo said.

They found no sign of their teammate, who was vice president of the roughly 20-person search group.

“Had it been someone else, (Felton) would have been one of the first ones on the scene,” Szabo said.

The search resumed this morning. Using an underwater camera owned by a Kodiak dive shop, troopers found Felton’s body at about 10:25 a.m. in what looked to be roughly 10 feet of water, according to Szabo and state troopers.

"The trooper diver was in the water surface swimming and holding the device. Another person was monitoring the camera images and providing directions to the trooper," Peters said.

The body was about halfway up the northeast arm of the lake, according to Szabo, who lived along the lake for decades and said his property was used as a staging area for the search.

Island Lake is a popular spot for skating, cross-country skiing and snowmachining in the winter, Szabo said. But there are soft spots as well. “This isn’t the first time the lake has claimed a life," he said.

Kodiak has seen relatively warm weather over the past two days, said Courtney Webster, a salesman at Orion's Sports, a local mountain sports shop. “Yesterday was pretty nice. Today is cloudy and it’s been probably around in the mid-30s.”

Related: Click here to read a story by the Kodiak Daily Mirror describing Felton and his teammates rescuing a group of construction workers caught in a mountain blizzard in late 2008.

By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com

Jimmy Paul, tribal administrator for the Southwest Alaska village of Kipnuk, heard the call over the VHF radio at about 1:30 p.m. today. There was a problem at the runway.

More than 30 villagers arrived to find a Cessna 208 had plowed into the snow with five people on board. No one was hurt, according to safety investigators.

“I think it ran out of runway,” Paul said.

It’s at least the third time an aircraft has been damaged landing or taking off in Alaska villages this week, but this time something unusual happened. An FAA weather cam caught the whole thing on camera.

Check out the shots, each taken 10 minutes apart:

Note that the times imprinted on the top of the photos are not Alaska time. The accident came at about 1:26 p.m., according to the NTSB.

We have a larger version of the pics here.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Josh Cawthra hoped to talk to the pilot tonight to learn more about what happened.

“All I really know is he was landing on runway 33 at Kipnuk airport and for some reason exited the runway surface area,” Cawthra said.

This is the first time in his career that Cawthra has seen pictures of an accident appear on a weather camera, he said.

“From what I understand … damage focused to (the) right wing and possibly the engine and propeller, but that’s just looking at the photos that we can see on the web cam.”

Paul, the tribal administrator, took a look and figures the plane could fly again with repairs. Villagers drove the passengers –- including a woman and infant -- to the clinic on snowmachines just to be safe, he said.

The flight was arriving from Bethel, about 85 miles to the northeast. The flight was operated by Hageland Aviation, doing business as Era Alaska. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the flight was operated by Era Aviation.

Location: Pilot Point, Alaska, 2010. Summer time basketball at the old cannery. Photo by Heather Kalmakoff.

More b-ball photos please!

Post 'em here.

From the people who brought you "Alaska State Troopers."

Can there be any state where more residents are appearing on film or television, per capita, than Alaska?

Next week may be crammed with Bush pilot television. Three episodes of this NatGeo show are scheduled to air back-to-back Monday night, according to TV Guide, followed by "Flying Wild Alaska" on Friday, says the Discovery Channel.

Or not. I'm getting the idea that cable channels tend to change these air dates out of the blue.

Click here for the National Transportation Safety Board's six-page letter today to the Federal Aviation Administration calling for the FAA to closely inspect all emergency locator beacons on non-commercial airplanes.

The goal: Keep the life-saving beacons from coming loose during accidents.

The transmitter on board Stevens' plane was functioning, but was of no use to searchers because it had become dislodged from its mounting bracket and antenna, the NTSB says.

A para-rescuer found the beacon on the floor of the plane.

"In this case, the airplane was equipped with a functioning 406 megahertz ELT, which can be a tremendous aid to search and rescue operations," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a prepared statement. "But this vital life-saving technology won't do anyone any good if it doesn't stay connected to the antenna."

An Alaska Island Air Piper Cherokee carrying five people crashed on landing at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near the Platinum runway, according to state troopers.

No one was injured, the troopers and FAA say. The plane was damaged, but it's not clear how badly according to trooper and FAA reports.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

“Apparently they have a new runway at Platinum and in the low visibility it appears that they may have landed on the old runway," said Larry Lewis, an investigator for the safety board in Anchorage.

Platinum is a community of fewer than 100 people on the Bering Sea coast, more than 120 miles southwest of Bethel.

Meantime, Lewis said he's still gathing information on this Monday afternoon cargo flight crash at New Stuyahok.

Lewis said he's spoken to the pilot of the old Beechcraft E-18S, who asked to respond in writing, and is looking to talk to someone who witnessed the runway crash.

The Air Supply Alaska pilot did say that there didn't appear to be any mechanical problems with the plane before the accident, Lewis said.

“This appears at face value just to be loss of control on landing," he said.

Not a lot of hills around here: A musher pushes through strong wind on the sea ice between the Shaktoolik and Koyuk checkpoints March 17, 2009. (Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News)

I loved cross-country running as a teenager in Skagway -- even the heartbreaking hill runs that sent us jogging out of town and up the Klondike Highway toward customs.

But what's a running coach to do when his team trains in a Norton Sound village surrounded by pancake tundra?

The latest issue of Running Times magazine reports on the training habits of the three-person Shaktoolik cross country team who drove a caravan of ATVs 40 minutes down the beach and along the Iditarod trail in search of a little hill work:

Travel between towns for competition is by nine-passenger plane for all teams, but this year budget constraints made it look like the cross country team wouldn't be able to go to the one big invite on their schedule before regionals. Fortunately, Palmer Sagoonick, grandfather of team captain Tory, stepped up and offered to take the team to the Unalakleet Invite in his 16-foot home-built fishing skiff. The 40-mile trip to Unalakleet in the open boat took two hours.

The exact cause of the holiday power outages in the Yupik village of Savoonga has been a bit of a mystery. Winter storms and whipping winds are nothing new on St. Lawrence Island, after all.

But could changing temperatures be the culprit? And if so, are more power failures to come?

Today the chief executive for the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative said the utility has concluded that a "lack of sea ice was a major contributor" to the outage.

That's because winter winds may have carried sea salt from waters that are normally covered with ice, coating and freezing to power equipment, said AVEC executive Meera Kohler.

"This could very well be climate change impact but determining that is above my pay grade," Kohler said in an e-mail. "I do think that the state climate change subcommittee (if they still exist) should consider launching some sort of forensic investigation into this and, if climate change is determined to be a factor, suggest what the state should do to adapt or mitigate."

Here's her latest update on the Savoonga outages, emphasis added:

From state trooper reports:

Location: Sitka

Attempt to Take Big Game with Electronic Night Vision Scope, Laser Sight, Artificial Light, Attempt to take Big Game with a Rimfire.

On 12/31/10, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Sitka Post contacted Mitchell R. Young age 26, and Lester P. Widmark, age 28, both of Sitka, on Harbor Mountain Road. Investigation revealed both men were attempting to take deer during hours of darkness using an electronically enhanced infrared scope in conjunction with a laser sight and artificial light. Additionally, Widmark was hunting with a .22LR rimfire rifle while attempting to take deer. The use of a rimfire for taking deer is prohibited. Both men's rifles were seized and they were summoned to Sitka Court with arraignment set for 1/11/11.

New Year’s Day update:

Electric service has been restored to all locations in Savoonga as of 1:00 pm today.  The crews are working on localized service issues, such as “half-power” to some locations.

The weather has improved with temperatures up about 15 degrees over yesterday, but winds have picked up again.  Blizzard conditions are forecast for today.  The freezing salt spray situation seems to have abated.

If power remains stable over the next day, crews plan to schedule short-term outages tomorrow to transfer loads back to C phase to restore balance across the system.

At this point, no damaged transformers or other hardware have been identified and the outages seem to be due solely to freezing salt spray that caused arcing across the system.

AVEC will accept donations of food and other essential supplies for Savoonga residents at our office – 4831 Eagle Street – during normal work hours next week.  Call us at (907) 561-1818 if there are any questions.  Lynden Air Cargo is providing free transportation to Nome and Era Aviation (and possibly Bering Air) will provide free shipment to Savoonga.

-- Meera Kohler, Alaska Village Electric Cooperative

Happy New Year.

Here's a meeting that Leland Barger, of Kotzebue, hopes to see sometime in 2011:

Picture a room full of Inupiaq elders and fluent Inupiaq speakers plugging holes in their language by inventing brand new words. Words for the kind of things their ancestors never had any reason to talk about.

"Computer."
"Television."
"Microwave."

Friday afternoon update:

"The reconnected sections of town held through the night and weather conditions are slightly improved today. Our crews (who are assisted by local village labor) are continuing work to clear faults and reenergize the last 40 services in New Town.  I expect to know more in a couple of hours."
-- Meera Kohler, AVEC

By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com

About 40 homes remained without power in the St. Lawrence Island village of Savoonga tonight, with Mayor Myron Kingeekuk expecting electricity to return as early as this evening.

Temporary outages could continue as the National Weather Service predicts wind chill as cold as 45 below and up to 40 mph winds overnight.

“It’s possible tonight the whole community is going to be on, but they’re going to be turning it off and turning it on whenever they receive parts for repair,” Kingeekuk said.

The village of about 700 people reported widespread outages beginning Sunday night. As of Wednesday, pipes had burst in at least 30 homes and more than 100 people sought shelter at the local school, according to Kingeekuk and the American Red Cross of Alaska.

“We are reasonably certain that freezing salt spray is, to a large extent, at the root of the problem," said Meera Kohler, chief executive of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, in an e-mail. "We are cautiously optimistic that predicted snow and slightly diminished winds tomorrow will help resolve or further narrow down the problem."

The utility sent a third lineman to the village today with another expected to arrive tomorrow.

“Telecommunications, airport lights and the gas station were restored early this afternoon and continue to be operational,” Kohler said.

The Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the island through tomorrow, with winds of 25 to 40 mph expected through the night.

But even with the power on, dozens of frozen homes will be uninhabitable until repairs are made, said Michelle Houlihan, chief executive for the Red Cross in Alaska.

"They have temperatures of 10 below or colder in them," she said.

"Check out these photos! One of AVEC’s journeyman linemen took them in Savoonga about three weeks ago. The tail is about 10' across; the ball next to it is 18". He said the whaling captain is awarded the jaw bone for the hunt, seen in photo No. 5. There's some nice baleen there, too. It took a CAT D8 bulldozer to pull it out of the ocean."

-- Diane Brownlee
Operations Work Order Specialist
Alaska Village Electric Cooperative

Been looking forward to this report from KYUK in Bethel featuring John Chase and John Pingayak -- two of the Alaska Native actors who recently wrapped "Everybody Loves Whales."

John Pingayak leads the Chevak Dancers at the Cama-i Dance Festival in 2005 in Bethel. ""Hunting experience ... subsistence lifestyle, it was part of my portrayal in this movie as being an Inupiaq elder," Pingayak recently told KYUK of his "Whales" role. (Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News)

The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE — The village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea is continuing to struggle with power outages.

The Alaska Division of Homeland Security says the power outages began Monday when lines became laden with ice and winds caused arcing.

Electrical technicians have been able to restore power to the new section of town and most of the old section, but about 25 homes and the village store remained without power Wednesday. Phone communication also has been affected, and some pipes are frozen.

Homeland Security spokesman Jeremy Zidek says at one point about 90 percent of homes were without power. He says some people are staying at the school.

About 700 people live in Savoonga.

Here's more from the Alaska Dispatch.

Off topic:

I'm going to take this story as an opportunity to post a few photos that Savoonga principal Roxie Quick recently e-mailed from the village's successful fall whaling season. (It's dark because it's night here, not because the power's out.)

I've been trying to get photos from the hunt over the past couple weeks. If you have any to share, e-mail me at khopkins@adn.com.

Location: Nondalton, Alaska, 06/06/59(?)