By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Girdwood held its annual school district-wide cross-country running last Wednesday. 

Fifteen athletes representing Girdwood K-8 School raced the three kilometer loop amid hundreds of others competing in six categories.

Local volunteers help ready the course and stay to take down markers, flags and signs. 

"The last few years Bob Mucha has been a critical volunteer in setting up the course and breaking it down. Also, numerous parents volunteer to help the race run smoothly," said Girdwood cross-country running coach Maggie Donnelly. 

For the past five years, Donnelly and coach Dawn Murphy have awarded the top five finishers with hand-painted rocks. Yes, rocks. 

"A big shout out to Deb Essex for her support," Donnelly said. "Thanks to her also for gifting each athlete with a pair of socks!"

Click here for results:

https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/286338/info.

Photos from the event are here:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/way-to-go-grizzlies-photo-story

By Brooks Chandler

TNews Contributor

Girdwood Brewing staged its third ever dog race this past Saturday.  Contestants were limited to lovable weiner dogs.  100 or so damp spectators surrounded the short bunting lined paved track on a portion of the brewery parking lot.  Racers included Rambo, Pistachio, Fiona, June Bug, Loki, Noodles Ferdinand and Dunkel  and many other skinny pooches. 

Race Marshall Tim Ball ran the event “Olympic Style” with preliminary heats, 2 semi final tilts and a final each featuring 3-4 racers.  Noodles edged out Ferdinand and Ronnie in the final. 

Tim told TN he originally hails from Ohio.  His idea for racing daschshunds  in Girdwood was inspired by a similar event held each Octoberfest in Cincinnati.  According to Tim and the Cincinnati Visitors Association Cincinnati’s Octoberfest is the largest in the world after Munich.    After participating in a daschund race in Ohio ,  Tim pitched the idea to Girdwood Brewing and races were incorporated into GBC’s 2024 Octoberfest.  Judging from the level of participation and enthusiasm, wiener races will remain an annual fall festival event.

Tim and his wife are parents to Dunkel and signed Dunkel up to compete.  Unfortunately Dunkel was distracted by a pile of spilled french fries scattered close to the starting line and did not advance past the prelims.  Maybe next year! 

See more pictures at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/dashing-dachshunds-duel-during-fall-festival

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

A grove of cottonwoods were cleared next to Girdwood's Mercantile in the past couple months to make room for a triplex of condos and commercial space, the latest of several developments to crop up in downtown.

Priced between $875,000 and $899,000, the three condos are already spoken for, according to realtor Kelleigh Shea. 

Characteristic of the community's high-demand housing market, the forthcoming "Trevi Flats" condos, along with a cluster of 10 built west of the post office and completed earlier, sold quickly.

Eric Trevithick plans to begin building his eponymous "Trevi Flats" complex this fall with work expected to be completed in August 2027. The condos, adjacent to Town Park, include a rooftop with wiring for a hot tub. 

Likely due to interminable winter rain and snow, there are few new buildings with rooftop patios in Girdwood. Trevi Flats is "designed to take advantage of park and views", Trevithick said, with  rooftops built for snow load and tenants responsible for snow removal. 

Trevi Flats will be "more compact and multifamily" with "more housing per square foot" than the custom homes Trevithick has built over the years in Girdwood, he said. It is the first "mixed use" development he's built.

So far, no one has laid claim to a commercial space that could host up to two businesses, she said. That building, planned to be 1,500 square feet, will sell for $800,000, or the spaces could be rented, according to the developers.

Construction along the highway will continue through November only to resume in May, according to the state transportation department. 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/seward-highway-construction-to-continue-through-fall

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

A three-judge panel of the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled Friday that state prosecutors misled grand jurors who indicted a Whittier resident for allegedly voting illegally.

Had jurors received accurate information, the court said, “the grand jury likely would have declined to indict.” 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/alaska-appeals-court-dismisses-noncitizen-voting-case-against-whittier-woman

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

 When notices appeared on doors in downtown Girdwood last week cautioning users to boil their water for sanitation, some worried about the dependability and safety of water from a 61-year-old well system run by a cooperative.

It was the same water system, after all, that froze last winter forcing residents of Skiview Condos to rely on a hose from a nearby restaurant for water. 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/test-results-give-downtown-water-system-all-clearnbsp

By Chase Berenson

TNews Staffwriter

Whittier residents may have to wait until Sept. 5 or later before the flow of gas resumes through a pipeline connecting the port town’s gas supply to Anchorage.

Read the entire story and more photos at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/whittier-natural-gas-shutdown-shows-vulnerability-of-communities-outside-the-anchorage-bowl

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor 

A sunlit ceremony held Saturday for Girdwood firefighters began with an almost unwavering rendition of Star Spangled Banner by 10-year-old Madison Woods, a fifth-grader at the local school.

Firefighters in sharp, pleated outfits, some donning white dress caps, waited through commendations to receive badges recognizing milestones in their training. 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/local-firefighters-recognized-for-trainings-and-service

Leafhoppers Suddenly Everywhere

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

They flecked car windshields, flitted clumsily into doorways, flung themselves into hair and sucking sap from anything from willow to cottonwood.

Leafhoppers descended into Girdwood valley like a green snowfall during the past week. There were especially numerous in the Crow Creek's upper valley, a "plague" not seen in years, or ever. 

Their larvae coated roads like grains spread by sand trucks. The little creatures speckled windows and screens. They were everywhere all at once.

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/tiny-green-bugs-hop-into-town

By Chase Berenson

TNews Staffwriter

One of Girdwood’s beloved winter traditions is the Mount Alyeska Snow Classic, hosted by Four Valleys Community School (FVCS).  Almost everyone in Girdwood knows that the premise of a snow classic is to purchase a ticket, guess how much snow will have fallen by a certain date, and then win half the pot of money if the guess is right.  But outside of Girdwood, snow classics are unknown to many Alaskans.  When Alaska legalized snow classic betting in 2012, they only legalized one snow classic in the entire state.  Alaska Statute (AS) 05.15.690(47) reads: “‘snow classic’ means a game of chance in which a prize of money is awarded to the closest guess of the total snow accumulation on the ground at a specific location on Mount Alyeska on a specific date and time and is limited to the Alyeska Snow Classic operated and administered by Four Valleys Community School, Inc.”

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/fvcs-led-the-state-with-alaskas-first-and-only-snow-classic

By Andrew Gates

TNews Contributor

In late July, Four Valleys’ “Walk and Talk” series held its final session—a lichen nature walk, headed by Howard Earl. It started at the Winner Creek Trailhead at Alyeska around eight, and there were around 20 people there. 

You could immediately tell Howard was incredibly passionate about the topic, at the very start explaining how lichens were a hybrid of fungi and algae growing in a symbiotic relationship. People started walking, but a few minutes in, he stopped the group to give a lecture on the different types of lichen, giving “Fairy Barf” as an example of crustose lichen, a variety found growing on rocks, flush to the surface. 

The group then stopped on a boardwalk where he took time to explain lichen age. 

“There are lichens that are 50, even 100 years old,” he said, before pointing out a rock with a lichen that had been there since the 1970s, to nearly everyone’s fascination. 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/walk-and-talk-series-ends-with-lichens

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

The crowd that formed to toast, with cups of sparkling cider, Saturday's grand opening of Girdwood’s new early learning center had something more in common than many likely knew. 

"If you've gone to Little Bears [Playhouse], have a child who's gone or have a grandchild who's gone please raise your hand," the center's director asked the crowd. 

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/new-childcare-center-opens-doors-to-community

Public Notification of Risk Limited

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor 

For a pair of Swiss travelers standing on a beach opposite Portage Glacier the German word for "landslide" sounds like something harsher:  "erdrutsch".

Informed about the threat of "erdrutsch" and tsunami, a menace now widely reported, the couple took a last look at the glacier across the lake and quickly began their hike out.

On a Monday in late July there were dozens of hikers on an out-and-back, two-mile trail that crosses an 800-foot pass to Portage Lake. It was just over a week after a torrential rainstorm raised concerns about a looming landslide abutting the glacier.

Read the entire story and more pictures at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/portage-visitor-center-closes-during-mid-july-rainstorm-that-raised-landslide-threat

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Girdwood's Cosmic Party (formerly known as The Photonz) returned to Southcentral Alaska after three years playing gigs in Eagle River, Anchorage, Hope and Girdwood. The group even played on a boat in Prince William Sound.

The band played original songs—jams and "psychedelic funk"— to an enthusiastic crowd Monday at the Raw Market in Girdwood. 

Although the band began in Glacier City nearly 30 years ago, its music is still familiar to locals.

On Monday night a crowd of teens gathered near the front of the stage, some of whom are children of band members, and sang aloud to Cosmic sounds.

When a call came out for a show of hands from those who travelled from out-of-state to see the band, dozens of arms went up. 

The six-member band includes singer/guitarist/drummer Ben Robinson, Peter Townsend (mandolin and electric guitar), Tony Restivo (bass), Steve Norwood (guitar, drums), Romero Begay (electric guitar) and Benjamin Trocki (percussion).

By Yereth Rosen

Alaska Beacon

The western Prince William Sound town of Whittier is small, with only about 250 residents packed into a narrow slice of land between the mountains and the sea. But it accommodates a huge number of travelers who move in and out by cruise ship, ferry, railroad, car, bus and truck.

In recent years, according to city officials, Whittier has gotten about 700,000 visitors annually: tourists, recreational users, seafood workers, cargo shippers and others. That number is expected to increase substantially in the coming years.

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/quirky-once-isolated-alaska-town-is-eyeing-a-transportation-system-upgrade

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Across decades and hundreds of vendors, the Forest Fair has had its share of knitted, cross-stitch, embroidered, and crocheted patterns and fabrics. 

Weaving with wheat may be a first of its kind at the fair, but it certainly isn't a new craft.

Read the entire story at the link below:

https://www.turnagainnews.org/articles/what-is-a-corn-dolly-an-irish-tradition-hangs-as-tan-ornaments-at-the-fair