July 24 2014 NJUS Grapples with Rising Power Generation Costs by Sandra L
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Photo by Diana Haecker FRESH AND NATURAL— Fish hang to dry on a rack at the beach overlooking Grantley Harbor. Protection of the sensitive area was the mission of an oil spill drill last week. C VOLUME CXIV NO. 30 July 24 2014 NJUS grapples with rising power generation costs By Sandra L. Medearis a raise of two cents. However, fac- Berda Willson, board chairwoman The Nome Joint Utility System toring in lower cost fuel already on observed. board voted to increase the fuel sur- hand plus a rebate for fuel that tested charge on oil it is feeding into its below BTU values in the 2013 sup- Fewer kilowatt sold generators to light the town. ply lowered the average total cost per The revenue from kwh sales was At a penny a kilowatt, the increase gallon to $3.5387, halving the in- already down from 2013 by 10 per- slated for the July billing will take crease to one cent per gallon. cent, Handeland said Monday. A ratepayers’ costs up by $5 per 500 The board approved the increase major impact occurred when Rock kilowatts. July 16, but they were degrees cooler Creek Mine shut. A comparison of Sagging revenue numbers tell him than lukewarm on the issue. The ris- figures for January to June 30, year that Nome Joint Utility System ing cost of electric power has them on year, showed that, although the needs to raise the fuel surcharge to stymied. mine did not operate last year, main- the extent allowed by the current The board held their own feet to tenance, running pumps and the like, NJUS tariff, said John K. Handeland, the fire as well as Handeland’s, with had added to NJUS’ bottom line. utility manager. That means raising their oft-expressed—but unsatis- Add in energy saving moves by the charge to 21.51 cents, replacing fied— concern that a continued in- residents like installing LED light the current 20.5 cents. crease in utility costs would drive bulbs and the City’s installation of The increase would put $182,000 ratepayers out of town. LED street lighting. into the utility’s budget, the utility A continuing increase in power They thought the electric bills manager, said. costs would cause ratepayers to start would come down when the two The fuel surcharge accommodates turning off lights and to slow down giant wind turbines went up on Ban- rises in fuel prices. Based on 2014 their meters in other ways, with the ner Ridge, board members said, but fuel projections, the total cost per result that kilowatt sales would they have not. When the 900-kilo- gallon for new fuel received was droop, bringing down revenue. watted turbines started to spin, the $3.663, which would have raised the The revenue increase expected surcharge to 22.5 cents per kilowatt, from rate increases wouldn’t happen, continued on page 4 Bear and musk ox dispatched in defense of life and property By Diana Haecker cers Justin Timm and Jim Edson and sent to Fairbanks to be processed. Last week, on two separate occa- together they searched the area for Dunker said the hide will be auc- sions, a grizzly bear and a musk ox the bear, initially to no avail. tioned off at the Fur Rondy in An- were taken in defense of life and Dunker then drove north on the chorage. property inside of Nome City limits. Nome-Beltz Highway and spotted As for lessons learned, Dunker On Tuesday, July 15 at 2:30 a.m., the bear at Nome musher Kirsten said the public should not store food, a Checker Cab driver flagged down a Bey’s dog yard. He saw the bear had trash, animal parts or fish outside as Nome police patrol car and reported gotten into a container that stored those items may attract bears. Once having seen a brown bear near Bel- dog food. habituated to finding food near mont Point Cemetery and the dog Dunker called the NPD officers in human settlements, those bears are lots at Nome Gold land, according to and together they tried to run off the likely to become nuisance animals Nome Police Chief John Papasodora. bear by making loud noises, but that and most likely will be shot to pro- NPD notified Alaska Dept. of Fish didn’t have the desired effect. “At tect humans. and Game personnel. Bill Dunker, one point it looked like the bear was Kirsten Bey said she was out of Fish and Wildlife Technician with approaching one of the dogs,” town when the incident occurred. the department, responded. Dunker said. That triggered the deci- Her dog sitter texted her what had According to Dunker, he received sion to dispatch the bear. Dunker and occurred when he came in the morn- Photo by Bret Hanson the information that several loose one of the NPD officers shot the an- ing to find the food container SILVER MEDAL— Nome’s Elijah Cabinboy won a silver medal in dogs chased a bear in the vicinity of imal. knocked over and about 20 pounds the Alaskan High Kick, reaching 91 inches high. See more WEIO re- the AC store, the cemetery and the The animal was classified as taken of dog kibble scattered next to it. sults and photos on page 10. northern side of Little Creek Road. in defense of life and property. Its continued on page 4 He met up with Nome police offi- hide and skull were salvaged and Valuable lessons learned in Teller oil spill response drill By Diana Haecker But in the case of Alaska Chadux, barge equipment deployment held in Only rarely do oil spill removal the OSRO that set out last Wednes- Homer in May. It simulated the ini- organizations , OSRO for short, em- day to test how fast they could get oil tial response actions to be taken by brace bad weather, rough seas and spill response equipment from Nome onboard crew and Chadux respon- uncooperative elements. to Teller, bad weather was just what ders as they arrived on scene. they wanted and what yielded good Part two was a tabletop exercise results in terms of lessons learned. held in June. It involved an incident On the Web: Alaska Chadux conducted a drill management team comprised of per- www.nomenugget.net that simulated an oil spill at Port sonnel from seven member compa- Clarence. nies. They were tasked to create a E-mail: The drill was one component of a response plan to clean up oil during a [email protected] three-part exercise to test oil spill re- Teller scenario. sponse plans in place for Chadux Part three was to test the logistics members, consisting of operators of of getting oil spill response equip- marine vessels transporting fuel in ment stored in connexes in Nome to state waters, companies that operate Teller. large oil storage facilities and com- The intent of all three exercises Photo by Diana Haecker mercial fishing fleets. was to test member response capa- DRILL— Alaska Chadux response crew deployed an oil spill boom Part one of the exercise was a across the 200-ft. washout at the Teller sandspit as part of an oil spill continued on page 5 response drill. 2 THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2014 OPINION THE NOME NUGGET Letters Nancy with and went to school with him and there as a new shop in town and de- East Coast through the Northwest rules! If he can’t do the work, that’s Well, another summer has just have known Matt all their lives, and cided to go there. Passage with his family and stopped another story. about reached the halfway point, have had work done in his shop over I must say the work was first class, here on the way to SF! San Fran- And Matt, love you brother, but as with a nice June and just OK, July. the years and as the volunteer fire his shop clean, he and his employees cisco’s loss our gain! the Fire Chief of Nome, you need to The weather has been better than last dept. chief, admire his dedication and were polite and professional AND he Welcome to Nome Rolland, you be fair and honest, while working year to be sure, but hoping for more commitment to public service. Heck, was a little cheaper. bring the sprit, attitude and search for with your competition in the auto re- sunshine. I’ve known Matt for years, and have While talking to him I found him adventure that most of us were look- pair business. Everything is in full swing, with had work done several times on my to be smart, and very unassuming. He ing for when we made the decision to Let’s all pray for some more sun- the airport improvements, road re- old truck over the past 30 years I’ve mentioned that had moved here from locate here. shine. It’s not easy living in Nome! pair, gold mining and crabbing fleets lived in Nome. the East Coast and had stopped in Nancy, I just wanted to even the Your Neighbor coming and going, my favorite time But to award this contract on that Nome on his way to San Francisco. battle up a little bit, I can see both Terry Day of year. bases, is neither right nor fair. (How do you stop in Nome on your sides, but what’s right is right, we Nome, Alaska I’ve been following a story of On the other hand let’s look at way to SF?) need to let Rolland have this contract, David versus Goliath in The Nugget Rolland Trowbridge (David) He’s Well, he sailed a boat from the he bid on it fair and square, by the continued on page 8 the past month with interest, and only been in Nome for a few years; would like to make a few comments.