Photo by Diana Haecker IDITAROD TRAIL— The Iditarod trail at Farley’s Camp about two miles east of Nome has barely enough snow to allow for smooth traveling by snowmachine or dog team. C VOLUME CXV NO. 8 February 26, 2015 Port of Nome in the finals for Arctic deep-draft port By Sandra L. Medearis mid-1980’s, an additional 2,100 feet long dock to go on the harbor side of northern waters. While climate change has caused The U.S Army Corps of Engi- farther into Norton Sound to better the causeway extension to provide “This is a historic beginning for receding ice to open millions of neers Alaska District has released a serve increasing numbers of deeper moorage to vessels requiring depths the Alaska Arctic, its people and our square miles of circumpolar waters study that calls for an estimated $118 draft vessels coming to arctic waters. of minus 28 feet. nation,” Nome Mayor Denise to red hot interest in resource recov- million deep-water port to be built in Additional work would include The study is a segment of an on- Michels said Monday in a statement. ery, increased marine shipping and Nome’s harbor on Norton Sound. removing the existing spur that turns going consideration of navigation “Together we can forge a strong reductions in time and cost for trans- The selection is tentative, subject southwest at the end of the breakwa- improvements as part of a larger sys- economic center for the region, ference of goods along the Northern to further analysis including exami- ter and dredging the entrance chan- tem of port facilities in the Arctic and strengthen our national security, in- Sea Route, additional navigation in nations by an independent agency nel to a depth of minus 28 feet Mean sub-Arctic region. crease marine safety in this remote the Arctic has also exposed a dearth and a peer review. Lower Low Water. The project A larger deep-water port at Nome area, and protect our food resources of infrastructure for meeting life and The proposed deep-draft arctic would deposit dredged materials to could be among the answers to and environment through responsi- death issues of search and rescue and port’s navigational improvement the east of the existing harbor to aug- needed marine infrastructure to meet ble mineral resource development.” oil spill prevention and response. would take Nome’s 2,700-foot exist- ment the beach. safety and supply issues coming Nome had been working with the ing harbor causeway, built in the The draft plan includes a 450-foot from increased shipping traffic in Corps since 1917, Michels said. continued on page 5 Man arrested after shooting spree By Diana Haecker walls. The boy stated that his uncle A 22-year old Nome man went on Jordon Lyon was inside the home a shooting rampage inside his home alone. Police took up position out- on Tuesday, February 17, firing off side the residence and directed Jor- at least 30 guns shots inside the don Lyon to step outside. home and through the window in the Lyon followed police commands direction of the Children’s Home to leave the home, placed his hands across the street. on his head and was arrested without Jordon Lyon was arrested by incident. Nome Police and was charged with The 22-year old had shot at least firing a gun inside dwelling, a class 30 .22-caliber gunshots inside the B felony, Reckless Endangerment house. Six shots were fired through a and misconduct involving weapons window, busting the glass and trav- while intoxicated. eling towards the Children’s Home, Police responded to a call from where five children ages 2 to 16 and Joe Lyon at 4:01 p.m. stating that his two adults were at the time. Nobody son Jordon was shooting off a gun was hurt in the incident. One shot inside his home at 203 C West C was fired out the east window. Street. Lyon admitted to have been Three officers, including Nome drinking and his breath alcohol con- Photo by Keith Conger Police Chief John Papasodora, re- tent was .244 – three times the legal CHEERING THEM ON— Members of the 2015 Nome Cheerleading squad root for the pink Lady Nanooks sponded and found a juvenile wait- limit of .08. as they play the Barrow Lady Whalers on Saturday night at the Nome-Beltz gym. Jadyn Otten looks to pass ing in the street for them. The young Lyon is in custody and was ar- the ball to Rayne Lie (right), while Taeler Brunette backs her up in the corner. The cheerleaders are (from boy said that when he came home, raigned on February 18. A prelimi- left to right) Kalani Suemai, Trisha Llesis, Cydney West, Kelsey Immingan, Allaryce Agloinga, and Bailey he smelled gun powder in the house nary hearing is set for February 27 at Immingan-Carpenter. See story inside. and saw several bullet holes in the 1:30 pm. Weird weather: Very rare “thundersnow” strikes Nome By Diana Haecker and thunder happened right over down after a record-breaking week- In a series of unusual weather Nome, followed by another lighten- end of high temperatures. On Satur- events involving unseasonably ing strike at 8:14 a.m. “This is a life- day, Feb. 21 Nome set a new record warm temperatures, Nome saw time event,” said Jerry Steiger, with 40°F, shattering the old one set something that has not been meteorologist-in-charge at the Nome in 1957 at 36°F. Saturday saw some recorded in its 106-year old weather post of the National Weather Service. snow fall, but that turned into rain on data history: a mid-winter lightening Meteorologists call the phenomena Sunday. Sunday tied the record of and thunderstorm. “thundersnow” and works just like a 35°F set in 1940. In terms of precip- On Tuesday morning, February regular summer thunderstorm: a itation, Friday saw an inch of snow- 24 at 8:10 a.m. a lightening strike pocket of warm air rising, clashing fall, on Saturday it snowed one with cold air and the friction causes and-a-half inch and on Sunday, it lightening and thunder. rained .05 inches. On Sunday and Steiger said he did not see the Monday, the Weather Service reports On the Web: lightening bolt but saw the sky light record high minimum temperatures www.nomenugget.net up. “It was windy and gusted before hovering just above the freezing the strike happened, but our station mark. Monday saw a temperature E-mail: didn’t record any big increase of 36°F, breaking the previous record [email protected] wind,” he said. However, the thun- of 33 degrees set in 2011. dersnow was accompanied with a Jerry Steiger noted that the week- brief dump of heavy snowfall. end saw 48 hours with temperatures Steiger said, many people saw the above freezing. In combination with event and called the NWS office to rain, this translated into quickly de- report it or ask for an explanation teriorating trails, overflow and slush Photo by John Handeland what they’ve seen. on lakes and rivers. Steiger said that A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT— Front Street in Nome turned into a This comes as weather cooled continued on page 4 river during last Sunday’s warm spell. 2 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015OPINION THE NOME NUGGET Letters An open letter to all Alaskans re- the world at approximately daily as do those through the depart- “educational zealots.” One comes dards”, but any reasonable assess- garding Common Core in Alaska, $22,000.00 per student. When you ment.” away with a sense that the profes- ment would indicate that they are 95 factor in the Taj Mahal brick and Commissioner of Education, sionals are in place to promote the percent compliant to Common Core, Today we are on the precipice of mortar structures, we have no finan- Michael Hanley has made statements monopoly of an average educational so much so that the federal govern- determining whether Alaska should cial competition. We get the financial all over the map regarding whether experience and nothing more, which ment has been willing to shovel follow the guidance of Commis- “Blue Ribbon” with very little ac- the State of Alaska is Common Core brings me to my next point. some educational dollars into our sioner of Education Michael Hanley countability, which brings me to my compliant, and whether or not our Common Core is being “sold” to coffers all with the idea that we will and Alaska School Board President next point. children’s personal data has been the Alaskan legislature and to the cit- be a “good little state” and be com- Esther Cox as they direct our entire Most people do not know that shipped away to a national database. izen’s of Alaska as the “new” best pliant. Why do I hear that catchy educational K-12 foundation to align the Commissioner of Education does His changing testimony over the last way forward. I find it disconcerting tune from the movie Chicago play- with the national and international not answer to the Governor in the few years has been less than stellar that Bill Gates recently stated that ing in my head “Give them the old standards and curriculum of Com- state of Alaska. To add insult to in- and one could certainly argue ex- Common Core is a 10-year experi- Razzle Dazzle....,” which brings me mon Core. jury, neither does the Alaska School tremely deceptive and definitely not ment. One must wonder if we should to my final point.