Month: July 2014

Council staffer keeps a close eye on terminal for last fourteen years

Tom Kuckertz, project manager for the Terminal Operations and Environmental Monitoring program, retired from the council staff in June. A member of the council’s staff for 14 years, Kuckertz worked closely with the council’s Terminal Operations and Environmental Monitoring Committee, which monitors potential sources of pollution at the Valdez Marine Terminal. During his tenure at … Read more

Anchorage administrative assistant position changes hands

Barb Penrose, administrative assistant for the council’s Anchorage office, resigned in June. Penrose had been studying towards a second career as a master sommelier, an expert in wine and other spirits. Penrose began working part-time for the council in 1998, during her summers off from her 22 year career as a teacher of deaf children. … Read more

Inspection and testing of secondary containment liners at terminal observed

On July 10, staffer Nelli Vanderburg visited the terminal to observe an inspection and repairs to drainage piping under the secondary containment liner. These pipes drain water from the secondary containment area after a rain. A manhole was also being installed. While the pipes were being repaired, Alyeska took the opportunity to inspect and test … Read more

The power of shared history – Chenega Bay

Community Corner:

Lisa Matlock
Lisa Matlock

By LISA MATLOCK
Council Outreach Coordinator

On June 6, nearly a hundred people gathered to commemorate the residents of the former Native Village of Chenega lost to the Good Friday earthquake fifty years ago. 26 residents, more than a third of the community’s population, died in the earthquake and its devastating tsunami. Survivors, family members of those who died, descendants representing multiple generations, and village friends gathered together at the site of the old village to share memories of March 27, 1964, to grieve for those who were lost, and to reflect on changes wrought by this event.

A beautiful bell, blessed for the occasion by Chenega Bay’s itinerant Russian Orthodox priest Father Christopher Stanton, tolled for the village’s losses before the gathered group shared a festive lunch. Father Christopher held a memorial service for the people of Chenega who lost their lives to the earthquake and tsunami and to “honor Chenega survivors whose faith, fortitude, and perseverance has kept the spirit of the Chenega Family alive.” It was an event of the heart, moving and sad, but uplifting as well.

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