The Pogo Mine mouth is at the top center of this picture. 
 Photo by Steve DuBois.

A temperature of 35 below zero didn’t keep local residents from enjoying the Community Choir Christmas Concert held December 16th. Ft. Greely Chapel hosted the well-attended annual event.

Audience members heard a wide variety of traditional and popular Christmas songs. There was even a little glimpse of the whimsical side of the choir as they treated the kids to renditions of "Frosty" and "Rudolph." Becky Riche, Maribeth Miller, Michelle Trulove, and Autumn Abbott were the piano accompanists.

"It was hard to tell who enjoyed the evening more...the choir or the audience," said Choir Director, Kathy Sharp. Rehearsals brought out everyone’s delightful sense of humor. This was the biggest and best choir ever, and many audience members echoed that comment to me after the performance."

There is still an opportunity for community members to participate in Community Choir. By popular demand, an Easter concert is now in the planning stages. Rehearsals will be on Thursday nights and the concert will be scheduled on a date that does not conflict with religious services at the local churches. Choir membership is open to all adults and mature high school students in the Delta/Greely community. The ability to read music is helpful, but not a requirement for membership. Anyone interested in joining the choir for Easter should contact Kathy Sharp or Ft. Greely Chapel in mid-January.

December 17, 1999

CALL TO ORDER - ROLL CALL

PLEDGE AND PRAYER

EXECUTIVE SESSION – to discuss attorney/client privileged information about lawsuit against the City from Allvest II, mediation and CAD v Ellis. Discussion to hire additional counsel. (2 hours approximately)

AMENDMENTS TO AGENDA - APPROVAL OF AGENDA

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETINGS

November 16, 1999 regular meeting

PUBLIC COMMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS

COUNCIL COMMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS

CORRESPONDENCE

Letter about ambulance bill to Council

REQUEST TO SPEAK

Dan Beck and Steve DuBois – about funding for Hockey Rink

REPORTS

Airport – Lou Heinbockel

BTO – Dick Anderson/Joyce Duff

Cemetery – Mary Leith-Dowling

City Clerk/Treasurer – Pamela Ellis

Corrections Facility – Roy Gilbertson

Economic Development Dept. – Peter Hallgren

Finance – Nat Good

Hockey Rink – John Sloan

ILRA Advisory Committee – Donna Gardino

Landfill – Roy Gilbertson

Lands – Susie Kemp

Library – Mary Leith-Dowling

Park – John Sloan

Personnel – Roy Gilbertson

Public Health and Safety – Rick Johnson

Public Works – Susie Kemp

OLD BUSINESS

Finalized legislative funding list

NEW BUSINESS

Deltana Representatives to the Advisory Committee

ADDITIONAL PUBLIC COMMENTS

ADDITIONAL COUNCIL COMMENTS

ADJOURNMENT

December 3, 1999

Curtis Taylor Jr,, Kelvin Rama and his son, David Johnson, Glen Johnson, Curtis Taylor, and Steve Fields at "Stand in the Gap" in Washington, DC two years ago.  Photo by Marta Rama.

Here is the planned publication schedule for the Delta Wind as reported in the November 23 issue: December 9, December 23, January 13, January 27, February 10, and February 24. 

November 24, 1999

Matanuska Glacier south of the Glenn Highway on the way to Anchorage.  Photo courtesy Brian and Kay Eaton.

Boys attending the Jamboree for the first time were Jason Morgan and Tyler Zachgo. Also Paul Bealer, Caleb Parker, Matt Sharp, Jack Zachgo, Mike Vecchiarelli, and Alex Pennington.

Fronty Parker -- November 26, 1999

The fur hat order looked like any of the others at first. Then Alaskrafts owner Steve Fields saw the shipping address -- Antarctica. Fields is accustomed to shipping products all over the United States and even abroad, but the South Pole order really highlighted for him the commerce revolution that is affecting businesses in even small communities like Delta Junction.

Fields and his wife Kathy operate their business out of their home and "the Fur Shack," a small building near the Tanana River Bridge in Big Delta in the summertime. At first, their ten-year old business relied on local orders and sales at shows. With the acquisition of The Fur Shack, they broadened their business to include visitors travelling on the Alaska Highway.

Today, Fields is attracting lookers – and customers – travelling another highway. He says his business is currently attracting about 10 visitors per day from the World Wide Web, the so-called "Information Superhighway."

The Fields’ business specializes in custom fur products and porcelain dolls. Fields said Kathy makes fur mittens, mukluks, moccasins, hats and other custom products. She also makes several different types of porcelain dolls, all with an Alaska flair.

Initially Web sales were pretty slow, Fields said. Orders came in only sporadically. Even with fair numbers of visitors to his homegrown website, relatively few were actually purchasing their carefully pictured and described products.

That all changed by an order of magnitude when Fields added an "electronic commerce" system from Outdoors America Communications, another Delta Junction business.

"We’ve received almost $6,000 in orders since the first of October," Fields said. "What seems to make the difference is that now we can take credit card orders over the Internet."

Here’s how it works: a potential customer goes to Fields’ website  and decides to order a product. Clicking the "order hyperlink" sends the customer to a summary page that shows what products have been put into the "shopping cart." If that is correct, the customer clicks the link to the next page. This page is "secure," meaning that the credit card and other information being sent over the Internet by the customer is encrypted.

Within seconds, the computer system taking the order generates a confirming e-mail to the customer and a second e-mail telling Fields that he has an order waiting. The next time he logs onto the Web, he views his orders on another secure page. He copies the order information and processes it as he would a credit card order that came over the telephone or by FAX. If the fur product or doll is in stock, he sends it out through the mail, or if not, lets the customer know that it will be shipped within a few days.

Fields built his own Web pages, but he admits that he probably has a better-than-average understanding of computers and software. DHS graduate and UAF student Glen Johnson designed the secure order system. The same system is also used successfully by another Delta Junction Web business, The Outdoors Alaska bookstore.

"What I like about this is that we are no longer limited by our location," Fields says. "We want to live here in Delta, and Alaskrafts is an important part of our family income."

"The World Wide Web makes it possible to sell local products anywhere in the world – even the South Pole."

David M. Johnson -- December 10, 1999

Moose survey season is long, sometimes arduous and occasionally dangerous.  Here pilot Troy and Delta Area ADF&G wildlife biologist Steve DuBois share a smile in the cockpit of Troy's Robinson R22 helicopter they are using to count moose in the area.  Photo courtesy Steve DuBois.  December 6, 1999.

This is the Robinson R22 helicopter contracted by ADF&G for moose surveys in the Delta area.  Photo by Steve DuBois.

Here's what moose surveys are all about.  Biologists record the size of bulls (small, medium or large) and the number of cows and calves observed.  When the data are analyzed wildlife workers can estimate the size of the moose population and something about its health.  Photo by Steve DuBois.

One sees all kinds of interesting things from the air during game surveys.  Steve DuBois snapped this picture of trees forming a heart pattern on a Delta area hillside.  The darker trees are apparently growing in moister drainages.  

Many wild animals run from aircraft; not this coyote.  Biologist Steve DuBois got a close up as they went by during their moose survey.3

The scenery along the way on moose surveys can be pretty spectacular.  Here's a picture of the helicopter with the Alaska Range far to the south.  Steve DuBois took this picture in the Goodpaster River drainage north of Delta.

Donna Gardino took this photo of a small pod of moose on the day before Thanksgiving on Sawmill Creek Road and the Alaska Highway.

Here's a great photo of snowmachine action near Delta.  This picture appears to have been taken down in Isabel Pass.  Picture courtesy of Gary..... don't have the last name. 

These pictures were taken at the winter Jamboree at Glass Park in Fairbanks recently. The theme this year was "Yukon Quest" and the competition between the troops was related to Dog Mushing.

Dave Munson, who won the Yukon Quest a few years back, came and showed his retired lead dog that won the Quest.  He talked to scouts about dog racing.  

Delta's Troop 56 attends the Midnight Sun bi-annual Jamborees on a regular basis. There is always a competition between the troops and the grand prize is the coveted Council Honor Patrol award that is shown in the indoor picture below.

This standard is kept by the troop until the next Jamboree. Troop 56 won this prize by their outstanding teamwork and outdoor skills.