Director’s Report for August, 2009
A Report to the Council on Activities in Napaimute During the Month of August
Our man Jacob says: “Low Water, Holy Water, and Well Water”
(Also the month of the first chimney smoke along the River – nights are getting cool)
Summary:
August was a straight forward month. Your Director and employees had two main focuses in August:
1) Get the well driller and all of his equipment here to Napaimute for the well drilling at the airport commercial lots & the other private individuals that have signed on to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to get running water.
2) Use the down time in between the well driller mobilization logistics to get the Our Lady of the Trees Chapel finished up. (work on the Chapel while waiting for the plane over the course of several days)
Low Water:
Near-record low water in the River has made everything more complicated, challenging, and interesting. Barges with freight and fuel for Napaimute have been unable to get here or it has been too low in front of town for them to come in with a fully loaded barge. As of this report the barge with our fall fuel order has passed Napaimute, with the intention of delivering on its way down when the barge is sitting much higher in the water. Another with NVN freight turned back from Chuathbaluk.
Even picking up our own freight by boat in Aniak and unloading in Napaimute has been fun with the shallow water here.
Holy Water:
We were able to use the down-time in late August to wrap up one of our most important projects – the Our Lady of the Trees Chapel.
During the last week of July, Kalskag teacher, Marcus Dammeyer, brought up 3 of his students, Raven Levi, Frank Sam, and Jodi Samuelson, for 5 days of work on the Chapel. They were able to get most of the major items done such as insulating, installing the octagon window, installing the ceiling boards, sanding the walls, installing soffit, and putting in the chimney.
It took four plane loads stretched out over several days to move the well drilling rig, supporting supplies, and equipment from Shageluk to Napaimute. The in-between time, as well as a few days before and after, were used to do the finishing work on Napaimute’s first official place of worship.
This work included:
• Varnishing the walls & ceiling
• Laying down the plywood subfloor and prepping for the finish flooring
• Installing the vinyl flooring
• Cutting, planing, staining, varnishing, and installing the Interior trim work
• Cutting, painting, and installing the exterior trim work
• Overall painting of the exterior (it was scary painting the steeple & cross!)
• Manufacture of the stove and installation -we built the first fire and warmed the building on the evening of Sept. 2nd.
• A few other odds and ends
As the final touch, the crew hung the crucifix that Bea purchased from Italy.
We gathered for a little prayer, expressing our thanks for a safe, successful project, blessings for everyone that helped, and asked that our new chapel not be only for sad events such as funerals, but also for happy days like weddings and baptisms.
A more formal dedication is planned for 2010. In the meantime, we will work to complete the interior furnishings (electrical, pews, altar, pulpit, etc.) and exterior landscaping (benches, bell, flower beds, outhouse, etc.)
A special thank you letter written by Bea is in this week’s Delta Discovery.
Well Water:
What has turned out to be one of the most challenging projects that we have undertaken in Napaimute finally got underway in late August:
The drilling of the wells on the commercial lots we are developing at the airport – funded through a grant from the Administration for Native Americans with a large amount of in-kind and leveraged resources provided directly by the Native Village of Napaimute and its subsidiary, Napaimute Enterprises, L.L.C..
After months of back and forth phone calls between the Director and Luke Demientieff, Jr., the well driller we contracted for the Project, mobilization logistics were finally worked out to get the drilling equipment to Napaimute. With a few modifications (taking some parts off), the drilling rig could fit in an Arctic Transportation Services Sky Van – just barely.
The rig and all of the supporting equipment could be flown directly from Shageluk to Napaimute – the most efficient, cost -effective solution of the many Luke and I had explored over the preceding months.
It was exciting for us to witness the landing of the biggest plane yet to touch down on the Napaimute airfield.
Pilot, Mike Grey (sp?) did an excellent job of coming and going with the four heavy loads it took to get everything here.
The final Sky Van flight brought in the drill rig itself. Unloading it with only a few inches to spare on each side, was an interesting job that took good operator skill, communication with the ground crew, and a little old fashioned ingenuity.
Our favorite saying in Napaimute, one we inherited from the old-timers, is: “There’s Always a Way!”
With all of his equipment safely on site in Napaimute, Luke arrived on Saturday, August 22nd. The Director spent a long week end helping him get set up for the actual drilling. There sure is a lot of prep work to drilling!
Once the actual drilling got underway, we again found that this part of the project wasn’t going to be easy either.
Luke hit water right away at 15’ down, but this is surface water and under regulation he has to be below 40’ to get safe ground water that is not affected by water from the surface percolating down through the soil with its potential for carrying contaminants.
As he drilled deeper he hit a layer of sandstone that was very slow drilling and hard on his equipment. After a couple of days of fighting this layer, Luke stopped the drilling and ordered a special bit. This delay gave us all a couple of days to breath and take a break.
The new bit arrived on September 2nd and the next day (the day of this report) Luke started drilling again. A short time later he broke through the sandstone and hit the good water he was looking for. He is now working to develop (make better) the first professionally drilled well in Napaimute.
It is important to note that there are 4 existing wells in Napaimute, but these are all tapping into surface water.
Once again, we are doing what has never been done before in Napaimute.
This one has been especially challenging for everyone involved. In most places, when a well driller comes in to drill wells there is a Drill Log from previously drilled wells that gives a driller an idea of what to expect. There is no such thing for Napaimute, but after this project, we will have a Drill Log for future reference – a valuable thing.
We are also working with ANTHC to see if Napaimute can get some assistance with installing wells for our homesteaders while Luke is here with his drill rig. We have an opportunity before us to put in wells at a greatly reduced cost, since the transportation of the equipment in and out of Napaimute is already covered.
Luke’s well drilling equipment will stay in Napaimute over the winter, until the summer of 2010.
So if you know of anyone else that needs a well – pass the word!
Closing Note:
One final note to close this month’s report: We would like to congratulate, NVN Youth Worker, Jacob Wise on catching his first moose.
Jacob caught his first moose on the first day of moose season while at work (he had to take the rest of the day off to take care of it).
Good Job Jake!
Created By mleary on 09/04/2009 02:20 AM
Last updated by mleary on 09/04/2009 03:14 AM
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