Welcome!

Member Information

Contact information

Search Articles

Director’s Report: Mid February to Mid March

Summary

The past month since our last meeting has been a time of continued pursuit of the goals set by the Council at our January Work Session, as well as project preparations for the upcoming longer warmer days of spring & summer.
It has also been a time of trying to keep on top of the President’s Economic Stimulus Program and the benefits it may bring to Alaska, Alaska’s tribal governments and the Native Village of Napaimute in particular. Energy issues have also required much attention as Rural Alaskans have struggled through a long winter of record fuel prices.

Forest Firewood

A great deal of time was spent completing the final research and purchasing for the Firewood Business. This is what has been done to date:

• Napaimute’s Firewood Processor has been paid for and its manufacture with a few custom modifications was recently completed. It will soon be trucked to Seattle where shipment on the first barge has been arranged & paid for.

• A good supplier for firewood mesh bags was found in Canada, the first 100 bags have been ordered and are on their way. Also the steel to build the bag stand has been purchased & shipped. We will build our own rack for less than half of the price of purchasing one.

• Additional supplies including tarps, strapping, logging cables, etc. have been purchased and are being brought to Napaimute as they arrive.

• A source of pallets has been established with A.C. Company in Aniak. Each time we are in Aniak on other business we pick up a few for back haul to Napaimute. We have a pretty good stack growing in Napaimute, now.

• The small loader in Fairbanks has been paid for and trucking to Anchorage to meet the first barge has been arranged. This should be a good machine for logging; handling pallets of firewood and bundles of sawmill lumber. It will also be ideal for continued work on the Kolmokof Mine Clean Up Project.

• During the clearing of the airport lots a large amount of spruce and birch was stockpiled for the firewood business. To get a head start on drying firewood for sale in the fall we have leased a simple log splitter and are stacking split firewood to season over the next several months. A small moisture meter has been purchased that allows us to monitor the firewood so we know when it is ready for sale.

Briquette Making Demonstration Project

Related to the Firewood business is our Briquette Making Demonstration Project. Figuring out how to make this Project work with the small, but appreciated, award from RurAlCAP has been a time-consuming challenge as well. As of this report we have purchased and arranged shipping for the Hydraulic Briquette Press and the Grinder.

The big difficulty has been trying to find an electrical generator large enough to power this equipment that would fit into the award budget. We were finding it almost impossible, when RurAlCAP notified us of an additional award that will cover the price of the generator. This was a great boost to what could become a very important part of Napaimute’s forest products division. The purchase of this generator may also open up other power options for Napaimute.

Airport Project Update

Another major focus of the past month has been our work to establish the commercial lots at the airport funded through ANA. The RFP for the well drilling closed on February 20. Initially there had been good interest from contractors towards submitting bids for this part of the Project, but at the close of business on the 20th we had only one formal bid that was over twice the budgeted amount ($76,000). In the meantime I had been continuing conversations w/ Mr. Roy L. about the possibility of him doing the work. He asked me to stop by Geertsville and take pictures of his drill rig, which I did and expressed mailed to him in California.

Today Roy finally told me that he just couldn’t do it. But another driller has contacted me with an alternative proposal:
If we could lease a drill rig, he and a partner would come and do the wells for time and materials. We calculated what this would be and it comes in with in the budgeted amount so I am currently pursuing this route. I have another lead as well so believe that in the end we will find a way to get it all done.

Mitch has also prepared a material list for the septic portion which we will be ordering soon to get on the spring barge.

We took advantage of the mild weather during parts of February and early March to complete the actual site preparation – the clearing and leveling of the area where the gravel pads will be built. This portion of the project went very well and we are now ready to begin laying gravel after break up. An added bonus to doing the work at this time of the year was the big stockpile of CLEAN wood that was salvaged.

The pictures below show the intial planning for the commercial lot area that was done in September, 2008 and the cleared area in March. 2009.

For a reference, the arrow points to the same tree in both pictures. The area cleared is 100’ X 400’ (40,000 sq. ft.)

GCI Direct Service Comes to Napaimute:

March 6th was an important day for Napaimute. This was the day phone service was restored to Napaimute after an absence of nearly two years by GCI. And so far, this looks like the most “normal” phone service we have ever had in the community. Voice quality is very good and the Internet is faster. We even have wireless! It is so good to be able to pick up a phone and talk to someone with no interference or dropped calls.
There are still issues with voice mail and people being able to call into us, but GCI is working to correct these and I believe as we use the system more it will all get worked out. There is a phone in the office and one in the Community Building. This one will be for public use and has long distance restriction on it (calling card only). Anchorage calls are local. A policy is already in place for $1 / phone call (NVN tribal members & employees exempt).
I have asked Mitch to look into what it would take to power this system while the generator is off (battery/inverter).
In preparation for GCI coming to Napaimute, the runway had to be plowed and their freight had to be picked up in Aniak. Hageland transported GCI’s tech to and from Napaimute. The pilot said our runway was in good shape: “better than some of the other narby villages”
In hindsight, the people in the outlying areas who are on the UUI digital system that we tried to have installed last spring are very dissatisfied - poor call quality.

Aniak 180 Dog Race

One last important event was the Aniak 180 Dog Race held March 6th-7th which used Napaimute as an official checkpoint along the 180 mile route to Georgetown and back. Shelly did some great cooking, our guys helped out with the trail marking, and the community building was opened up to mushers, race officials, and spectators. It was an enjoyable time that brought people to Napaimute that we don’t usually see.

It was also a good small-scale practice run for us as the Kusko 300 is scheduled to come to Napaimute in 2010. The Napaimute people that were there for this race talked about how we could better accommodate the much larger K-300 coming to our community.

Donlin Creek Meeting in Aniak

This meeting proved to be more of what Napaimute’s Administration had been looking for. It was a chance to meet one on one or in small groups with the technical experts (biologists, geologists, chemists, engineers, etc.) to ask more detailed questions that gave us a much better understanding of the level of investment that has been taking place by Project Managers to understand our environment and minimize impacts the development a world-class open pit mine could have on our region. We will look to our Environmental Director for a more detailed report on this important meeting.

These are some of the more interesting activities of the Napaimute Traditional Council Office for the past month. The remainder of the month was taken up by the everyday chores that it takes to keep our little organization running and moving forward.

Thank you.