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A LOOK AT THE SUNNY SIDE
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MIGRATION STATION
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One dollar and fifty cents
Business » C1 | Classified » E1 | Dear Abby » D2 | Obituaries » A4 | Opinion » C4 | Sports » B1 | Sundays » D1INSIDE
Trump’s lawyers compose secret letter to Mueller challenging subpoena. » A5Inside Today
newsminer.comSUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2018
T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A
Here we grow again
By Robin [email protected]
Motorists are about to lose another option for driving east to west through Fairbanks.
At 8 p.m. today, Phillips Field Road will be closed to through traffic for a three-month, $3.2 million safety-improvement project. The road will be closed between Pioneer Way and Fox Avenue, but business access should remain open throughout the project, said Caitlin Frye, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation.
“It’s closing Sunday evening; it’s going to be in place for the Monday morning commute,” she said.
The skinny road is sandwiched between rail-road tracks to the north and the Chena River to the south — a slight S-curve section with almost no shoulders has been notorious for causing car crashes in the winter.
A retaining wall will be built along the river-bank to allow for a wider road, new shoulders and increased pedestrian safety.
SOURDOUGH JACK:
“My guitar-
playing driver
missed a gig once.
He had a Fender
bender.”
• • •
GOOD MORNING
WEATHER » A5
The weather.
Sunny, along with a
few clouds. Tonight
will be cloudy.
High today .............. 74
Low tonight ............48
Sunrise: 3:26 a.m.
Sunset: 12:12 a.m.
CLOSURE » A3
A sign instructs travelers Saturday to take Airport Way instead of Phillips Field Road, which will be closed starting 8 p.m. today for three months of construction.ROBIN WOOD/NEWS-MINER
Jeannie Creamer-Dalton, left, and Patricia De Nardo Schmidt pose Tuesday in front of the Riverboat Nenana. They have launched an effort to preserve the sternwheeler. AMANDA BOHMAN/NEWS-MINER
Saving the SS Nenana
Despite financial challenges, two women refuse to abandon the decaying ship
By Amanda [email protected]
Patricia De Nardo Schmidt was stunned after learning how the
Riverboat Nenana has dete-riorated over the years. For Schmidt, the relic represents a special time in Alaska histo-ry, when river transportation was the main way people got around the Interior.
“For it to be in this condition now is horrendous,” the retired bookkeeper said. “History is important to me. If you don’t know your history, you don’t know where you came from.”
So she started a Facebook group, Restoring the SS Nena-na Sternwheeler, and teamed up with fellow history buff Jeannie Creamer-Dalton, a retired secretary.
The iconic red stern wheel of the Riverboat Nenana at Pioneer Park is seen March 22. The riverboat was declared structurally unsound and is not open this summer. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER FILE PHOTO NENANA » A3
Interior Department talks ANWR in UtqiagvikBy Ravenna KoenigALASKA’S ENERGY DESK
U T Q I A G V I K — H u n -dreds of people, includ-ing organized protesters, turned out in Fairbanks and Anchorage early last week for U.S. Interior Department meetings about plans to open the Arctic National Wild-life Refuge to oil and gas exploration.
A much smaller group
gathered Thursday night at the Interior Department’s meeting in Utqiagvik, on the North Slope. In a departure from the oth-er meetings, the primary focus was on the details to consider as development moves forward, rather than whether it should happen.
A b o u t 6 0 p e o p l e showed up at the Inupiat Heritage Center to weigh in on the Trump admin-istration’s plan to develop
an oil and gas lease pro-gram in ANWR’s coastal plain.
Some community mem-bers expressed enthusi-asm about employment opportunities and addi-tional revenue for the North Slope.
Gordon Brower is with the Planning Department of the North Slope Bor-ough.
“I think the village cor-poration and the regional
corporation in these areas may be the only ones that have been disenfran-chised from their lands and the ability to use their lands since Native land claims,” Brower said. “And I think it’s exciting to see the ability of landowners to be able to look forward to what they had envi-sioned in how to use these resources.”
ANWR » A3
Phillips Field Road closing for 90 days for widening
