2010 in review

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series looking back on what made news in the Valley in 2010.

MAT-SU — From the arrest of a protester at the Alaska State Fair to a man accused of stalking Sarah Palin, the last half of 2010 had the nation’s eye on the Valley.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. The Internet has become a leading source of information, and the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman’s Web site — frontiersman.com — is a popular choice for local stories and breaking news. In 2010, some 1,855,230 visitors to the newspaper online viewed 4,718,959 pages of local news, a marked increase from 2009, when 1,487,846 visitors viewed 3,980,489 pages.

As 2010 comes to a close, we look back on the most popular news, according to you — our readers. The top-viewed stories each month are featured.

JULY

Troopers make drug bust

posing as FedEx delivery

Alaska State Troopers intercepted a box containing 129, 80-milligram Oxycontin tablets intended for a Wasilla man. An affidavit that trooper investigator Mike Ingram filed in the case against Vladimir Bochkovsky, 28, says the package, addressed to a Mikey Sheeby, was sent overnight via FedEx from Everett, Wash., to an apartment on Heather Way.

The Mat-Su Narcotics Team intercepted the package at FedEx in Wasilla on July 2 and a drug-sniffing dog was brought in to confirm it contained drugs. Acting on the confirmation from the dog’s nose, troopers seized the box and obtained a search warrant. Inside they found Oxycontin with a street value of $10,320.

Teen injured in ATV crash succumbs to injuries

A teenaged driver in an ATV accident succumbed to her injuries. According to an Alaska State Trooper press release, the ATV rolled at around 4:30 p.m. after crossing a driveway on the trail alongside Lucille Street near Schrock Road. Medics initially took Cheyanne M. Jorge, 17, of Wasilla, to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center along with her passenger, Zackery S. Potteiger, 17, of Wasilla. According to a report troopers issued Friday, Potteiger was treated and released, but Jorge died of her injuries. Troopers say neither the driver nor the passenger was wearing a helmet.

Avs moving to Palmer?

The Alaska Avalanche are looking for a new home and the Junior A hockey organization just may find one in Palmer.

Avalanche general manager Dave Boitz said the team has officially parted ways with the city of Wasilla and the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, which has been the North American Hockey League team’s home since 2005. Boitz said team officials have been working with the city of Palmer on a deal that would make the Avalanche an anchor tenant at the Palmer Ice Arena, a 5-year-old facility located off East Cope Industrial Way in Palmer. Boitz said team officials were unable to come to terms with the city of Wasilla on a new lease agreement that would keep the Avalanche at the Menard sports center.

Well collapse kills Palmer man

A cave-in killed a 46-year-old Palmer man working in a water well. Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen identified the man as Steven Ziegler.

Clint Vardeman, the Mat-Su Borough’s deputy director of emergency services, said rescuers were summoned to a construction site across the road from the Goose Creek Correctional Center. The borough called in Anchorage Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team to stabilize the trench before trying to locate Ziegler, Vardeman said. By 4 p.m., emergency responders had recovered his body.

Feds indict Wasilla couple

Federal prosecutors charged a husband and wife from Wasilla with crimes related to what was described as a six-year, $1 million marijuana growing operation.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney in Anchorage identified the man as Trace Thoms, 46, and his wife as Jennifer Anne Thoms, 36. The couple was arrested after a federal grand jury chose to charge them with money laundering, manufacturing marijuana, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and maintaining a building in which to manufacture marijuana. Prosecutors allege that between March 2006 and February 2010, the couple grew and sold marijuana.

AUGUST

Protest leads to arrest

at state fair

Sidney Hill, 52, of Palmer, who was arrested while protesting at the Alaska State Fair, is a minor YouTube celebrity. He is familiar to local residents as the man who stands at the corner of the Palmer-Wasilla and Glenn highways with his large “Impeach Obama” sign.

When he brought that banner to the first day of the fair, he drew a crowd. An altercation with fair security, caught on a more than nine-minute video and posted on YouTube, led to his arrest on charges of fourth-degree assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing, said Cmdr. Tom Remaley of the Palmer Police Department.

Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears said her office decided not to prosecute Hill on the assault charge, but is going forward with the charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. She also asked for, and was granted, an order Hill not return to the fair.

Hill’s attorney, Josh Fannon, hushed his client’s one attempt to address District Court Judge William Estelle, who reduced Hill’s bail from $500 to $250.

The online video sparked criticism that state fair security personnel used excessive force in detaining Hill and spawned a lively debate about free speech vs. private property rights.

Wasilla men among victims of crash

The man who was the driving force behind the development of Wolf Lake Airport was one of two Wasilla men who died in a cargo plane crash in Denali National Park. John Eshleman, 52, and Paul Quartly, 66, died in the fiery crash of the Fairchild C-123, along with ”Wild” Bill Michel, 61, Delta Junction, the owner of All West Freight Inc. and the plane’s pilot. At about 3 p.m., the large multi-engine cargo-type aircraft crashed into the south-facing slope of Mount Healy within a mile of the park headquarters and about 200 yards north of Denali Park Road. When the first personnel arrived on scene minutes later, the wreckage was already engulfed in flames, NPS officials said.

KGB re-opened

following accident

Knik-Goose Bay Road is open again after being closed for nearly six hours in both directions at Fairview Loop following an evening collision that sent two people to the hospital.

Emergency responders arrived at the scene at about 7:40 p.m. to find a Ford Explorer had collided with an F-series Ford pickup towing a horse trailer carrying four horses. The horses and occupants of the pickup escaped without injury, but the driver and passenger in the Explorer both received medical attention. The passenger was transported to the hospital by ambulance and the driver, after being extricated from the SUV, was airlifted by LifeMed.

Alaska State Troopers investigated the accident scene until about 1:30 a.m., before re-opening the road to traffic.

End of an era

For the first time in nearly two decades, John Klapperich isn’t beating the streets of the Valley as the passionate, energized owner of KMBQ FM 99.7 radio. He’s still as passionate and energetic as ever and — technically — still owner of Spirit of Alaska Broadcasting Inc., but is left on the outside looking in as a court-appointed receiver has taken over Wasilla’s locally owned radio station.

Klapperich says it was expansion over the past five years — it purchased KBYR AM 700 in Anchorage and AM 1430 in the Valley — that eventually led to the corporation’s financial troubles. A $2.1 million loan from California-based Wells Fargo Foothill Inc. issued April 12, 2005, included money to pay off KMBQ’s debt and $700,000 to purchase the Anchorage AM station, Klapperich said. But it was an implied agreement to finance the new Wasilla AM station that was the final straw.

september

Accused stalker’s dad: ‘He is not in Alaska’

The father of an 18-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of stalking Sarah Palin said that his son is home with him and hasn’t left the state. “He is not in Alaska and he’s never been to Alaska,” Craig Christy said Wednesday of his son, Shawn R. Christy.

Palin, 46, filed a request for a protective order in Anchorage District Court against Shawn R. Christy, a man she says began stalking her by e-mail and phone in the summer of 2009. Palin’s friend, Kristan Cole, 48, filed for and received a similar protective order against Christy. Anchorage Magistrate Colleen Ray granted both women 20-day protective orders that prohibitd Christy from following, approaching, confronting, watching or otherwise staking or threatening to stalk or assault Palin or Cole. Palin and Cole also requested and were eventually granted long-term protective orders during a separate court proceeding.

Café owner injured

in Parks crash

A local restaurant owner was airlifted to Anchorage after an allegedly drunk driver rear-ended him on the Parks Highway. Alaska State Troopers report the wreck was called in at 5:36 p.m. near Mile 50. The highway was closed for hours while troopers investigated and cleaned up the crash.

Bob Andres, 61, of Wasilla, was northbound driving his 1998 Dodge Dakota pickup when he stopped to make a left turn onto Marigold Drive. Andres is one of the owners of the Windbreak Café. He has also worked to promote lake fishing in the Valley and to shed light on the state’s finances and the Alaska Permanent Fund. Troopers say Craig Stacks, 46, of Palmer was the driver of a 1991 Chevy Blazer that rear-ended Andres. Andres was flown by helicopter to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

New restaurant,

theater going

up in Wasilla

If all goes according to plan, the Valley will see a new Red Robin restaurant and a 12-screen movie theater open this winter. John Fabiano, vice president of Anchorage-based Gourmet Ventures, said Wasilla’s new Red Robin restaurant is scheduled to open Dec. 13 and will employ about 100 to 150 people.

John Schweiger, CEO of Coming Attractions Theaters Inc., the company based mostly in California and the Pacific Northwest that is building the theater next to Wal-Mart, was in the Valley most of the summer overseeing the construction. A year ago, he said the theater was aiming for Christmas 2010, but that construction was delayed by rainy weather and a neighbor’s unwillingness to grant a temporary easement that would allow gas and electric utilities access to the site. The new target opening date for the 12-screen, 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art theater is sometime before April 15, 2011.

Wasilla woman faces drug charges for

texting Soldotna girl

Megan Mclemore, 19, of Wasilla, faced drug charges in Kenai after mistakenly texting a 12-year-old girl to arrange to sell her a bag of marijuana, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The girl’s father called Soldotna troopers and reported that his daughter received suspicious text messages about a drug sale. “Troopers went to the girl’s home and were in the living room area during the back and forth,” trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said in an e-mail.

That “back and forth” took place in texts between the troopers and someone named “Megan,” who texted that she would meet the girl outside the Soldotna Holiday store and sell her a bag of marijuana. Troopers contacted Mclemore at the Holiday store and found that she had been texting the 12-year-old by mistake. They found three bags of marijuana inside the car. A man accompanying Mclemore, Joseph Keeton, 19, of Anchorage, consented to troopers’ search of his backpack where they found several Percocet and Vicodin pills.

october

1 threat doesn’t deserve another

The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman received a tip that Sarah Palin and her friend, Kristan Cole were granted 20-day protective orders against a Pennsylvania man they said had been threatening them for a year.

Palin testified that Shawn Christy, 18, threatened to track her down at book signings in the Lower 48, told Palin “that she better watch her back,” said he was buying a one-way ticket to Alaska and sent a gun-purchase receipt.

Even after the Frontiersman broke the story that Christy was not in Alaska and has never been to Alaska, threats against him continued in reader comments on the paper’s website and Facebook page. Folks even asked the paper to post a picture of the young man so “decent” people could hunt him down and kill him.

But Christy does not hate Sarah Palin. He is a big fan. He donated to Palin’s political action committee. He also spent $200 of his savings buying a ticket to an Aug. 27 Pennsylvania event where she spoke.

There is no crime this young man could have committed, been charged with and convicted for that would give anyone the right to hunt and kill him as so many of those leaving comments on the Frontiersman’s website suggested.

October borough

and municipality

election results

Mat-Su Borough

Warren Keogh won the assembly seat representing Sutton with 857 votes. Noel Woods won the Palmer seat with 819 votes. Susan Pougher ran unopposed to retain her seat on the school board. Neal Lacy received 4,832 votes to win a seat on the school board. And Lynn Gattis won with 4,981 votes. Voters rejected the strong-manager form of government and bonds for roads and sports facilities improvements.

Voters approved bonds to repair aging schools, and they voted to have officials continue filing financial disclosure forms with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

City of Wasilla

Colleen Sullivan-Leonard was elected to the city council with 419 votes. Steve Menard won with 245 votes, and Dianne Woodruff won with 459 votes. Wasilla voters also chose to have their politicians continue to file financial disclosure forms with APOC.

City of Palmer

Palmer voters chose the Palmer Museum of History and Art director DeLena M. Johnson as mayor. In the city council race, Edna DeVries and incumbent Kathrine Vanover were elected to the two open seats. And voters approved a ballot proposition to spend $3 million to buy the old Mat-Maid dairy property in downtown Palmer.

Woman involved in

2 KGB accidents

A woman driving toward Wasilla was involved in two separate vehicle accidents early Monday morning that delayed traffic for at least an hour on northbound Knik-Goose Bay Road.

At about 6:45 a.m., the Hyundai sport-utility vehicle the woman was driving struck a moose and rolled off the south side of the road, near Mile 2. Chief James Steele of Central Mat-Su Fire Department said the accident trapped the woman — who was conscious — inside the car for about 25 minutes.

An ambulance carried the woman away. But as it turned from KGB onto the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Extension, a southbound car turning left from KGB onto the highway extension hit the back of the ambulance.

Teachers want to be

in the classroom,

not on the picket line

Teachers in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District were unable to engage the district in meaningful contract negotiations prior to the end of the last school year. But with new superintendent Kenneth Burnley in place, teachers felt that fruitful negotiations would render both sides a contract that would keep schools open and teachers in the classroom with the students where they belong.

Not so fast.

MSBSD is broke. Teachers have been told by the district, the school board and Burnley that there is no money to keep teachers working. This is the same district that ended the last school year with a $3.4 million surplus. This is the same district that was given $3.5 million by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The truth is simple — teachers want to be in the classroom — not on the picket line.

From an opinion piece by Thom Richards, a teacher at Wasilla High School and member of the Mat-Su Education Association.

november

Snowmachine vs. vehicle crash pins

boy under truck

Responders are crediting a quick response for a sunny prognosis for an 8-year-old boy who was pinned under a pickup truck after a wreck on Soapstone Road.

“From what we could gather, the child was on a snowmachine, came out of a driveway in front of a person who was on the road driving a pickup truck,” said Palmer Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Axtell. “The pickup truck and the child and the snowmachine wound up in the ditch on the other side of the road.”

The wreck was called in at around 2:30 p.m. and happened near the intersection of Soapstone and Smith Street. Axtell said it looked pretty bad at first. “The tire of the pickup truck was actually on the child’s chest and stopped his breathing,” Axtell said.

It also stopped his heart. The boy’s father used a winch to move the pickup off his son’s chest. Then medics went to work doing CPR.

Baristas bare

too much

To the editor:

A bikini coffee stand recently opened a new location near Trunk and Bogard roads. This is about a half mile from Colony high and middle schools in the same location a coffee stand was robbed at gunpoint in the last year or so.

When I drove by on my way to work, I saw a full-body-length glass window with a girl in a bikini sitting there. The position I saw her sitting in, in my opinion, was suggestive. I saw way more than I wanted, or wanted my kids to have seen. I really hated my daughter seeing that — yes, she too could grow up to serve coffee almost naked.

We are fortunate to live in a world with free enterprise, and I can admire a person trying to earn a living, but please conduct business in an appropriate area, not a residential area with two schools and a church within a half mile, and right on a school bus route.

When speaking to the owner of the business, he stated that he was not “displaying girls;” however, the Facebook page for his business features new baristas and not new coffees or beverages.

I will say to anyone out there who believes this to be harmless, look to my hometown of Everett, Wash., and its battle with bikini baristas. It became pasties and thongs, and now some are being charged with public indecency and prostitution.

I do not believe this is happening now in the Valley, but where will our lines be drawn?

Missy Titus

Wasilla

Shooter claims

self-defense

Samuel E. Clark, 40, of Talkeetna claimed self-defense after he shot and killed Dirk Fast, 53, also of Talkeetna, at Latitude 62. Alaska State Troopers report the incident happened on a Friday around 9 p.m. at Latitude 62, a longtime bar and restaurant. Clark told troopers that he and Fast were sitting together at a table. Clark was telling Fast about trying to move to Missouri to find work, but he was having trouble getting across the Canada border due to a previous drunken driving charge.

Clark told troopers he pulled his gun and fired. “Clark further indicated that he meant to shoot Fast and that he intended to kill him,” according to an AST report. Talkeetna medics pronounced Fast dead at 9:30 p.m.

Bar patrons told troopers what kind of vehicle Clark left in. Around 15 minutes after the shooting was reported, troopers Terrence Shanigan and Dan Valentine spotted the vehicle at the same time at Mile 7 of the Talkeetna Spur Road. The troopers conducted simultaneous traffic stops. Clark was charged with first-degree murder.

Wasilla couple

killed in Kenai

car crash

A Wasilla couple was killed in a vehicle accident on the Kenai Peninsula. Alaska State Troopers report responding to a crash at 10:16 p.m., at Mile 118 of the Kenai Spur Highway involving a 2000 Honda CRV driven by Paul J. Trissell, 68, and his passenger and wife, Pamela A. Trissell, 55, of Wasilla.

The investigation indicates that a “Peterbilt semi-truck without trailers driven by Clifford Henderson, 35, of Anchorage, was headed northbound when the truck crossed the center line and crashed head-on” into the Honda carrying the Trissells, according to the trooper report. Paul J. Trissell was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife was transported to Central Peninsula Hospital, where she died at 12:48 p.m. Henderson was not injured in the crash.

No charges for woman who killed husband

A grand jury chose not to indict a woman for murder in the October shooting death of her husband. Jason Donlon, 39, was found shot to death Oct. 7 in the Palmer area. “Lisa Donlon called 911 saying she shot her husband,” Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said, recounting the facts as presented to the grand jury. “He had been shot six times and he was in bed at the time.”

Kalytiak said there was a lot of evidence presented regarding what led up to the shooting. “Lisa Donlon told the [Alaska State] Troopers that her husband had been abusing, and more particularly torturing, her over the preceding few days and had threatened to continue that behavior that particular day,” Kalytiak said. “She told the troopers that in her attempt to escape the torture, she shot him.”

december

Wind warnings extended

Strong wind gusts topping 80 mph toppled a semi near Wasilla Lake and blew another conex off its transport near Wal-Mart on the Parks Highway in Wasilla. Luckily, the driver of the Lynden Transport vehicle that was blown over by Wasilla Lake was not injured.

The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning that continues through 9 p.m. for the Matanuska Valley communities of Palmer, Wasilla, Sutton and Chickaloon. Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele said he showed up on scene of the toppled semi on his way to work. While he was there he watched the wind wreak more havoc.

“As I was coming to work and was looking at that truck there’s a pickup with a full camper in the bed of the truck that was coming through the intersection at Crusey (Street) and Parks (Highway) and the camper just flipped out of the bed of the truck from the strong winds,” he said.

PHS grad murdered in Michigan

Palmer High School graduate Amy Chesbro, 35, died Friday, Dec. 17 of multiple gunshot wounds sustained in a shooting in the parking lot of her Michigan employer, according to a press statement from the Livonia Police Department in Michigan.

She is the daughter of James and Patricia Chesbro of Wasilla. Patricia Chesbro is the head of the Matanuska-Susitna Democrats and is a former Mat-Su School District Superintendent, former Palmer High School principal and former teacher.

Julie Ann Hopwood, 56, allegedly drove more than 600 miles from her home in Charlotte, N.C., to Ypsalanti, Mich., where her brother, PJ Redbird Tworavens, lived with Chesbro, his fiancée, police there say.

According to Livonia Police, Hopwood waited outside the payroll company where Chesbro worked and when she arrived, Hopwood shot her multiple times while she sat in her vehicle in the parking lot of her office.

Livonia Police said Hopwood faces homicide-felony murder charges and is being held without bond. A preliminary hearing was Dec. 28, in 16th District Court in Livonia, Mich.

Alaskans treated

to lunar eclipse

Butte astrophotographer Jim Egger took a series of images with his telescope the night of a lunar eclipse.

“It was pretty neat,” Egger said. “Half the world was able to see it.” And he said Alaska had good seats to the show — a clear night and a good position on the globe to watch as the moon moved into the Earth’s penumbral shadow. This type of eclipse happens when the sun, Earth and moon are aligned nearlexactly and the moon passes behind the Earth and through its shadow, according to the NASA website. “Unlike solar eclipses that can last for only a maximum of about seven minutes, the umbral (darkest) portion of a lunar eclipse can last for more than an hour,” the website says.

Early morning

snowmachine

crashes kills one man, hospitalizes another

A pair of grisly early morning snowmachine crashes left one man dead and another hospitalized over the weekend.

The first came just before 2:15 a.m. when Jason W. Scott, 34, of Chugiak, lost control of his machine turning from Horseshoe Lake Road onto West Lakes Boulevard. According to Alaska Tate Troopers, Scott hit the ditch then launched over the bike path and down an embankment where he was found, pinned under his snowmachine. Scott was rushed to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and later airlifted to Anchorage. Troopers say they believe alcohol played a role in the crash.

The second crash came almost a day later shortly before 1:20 a.m. on the bike path along Big Lake Road. According to troopers, Mark R. Forbes, 53, of Anchorage, was northbound on the path on a 2008 Bombardier snowmachine when he hit a pole alongside the bike path. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful and Forbes was pronounced dead at the scene.

Secret Santas add joy, smiles for Valley

Every day, thousands of Mat-Su Valley residents pass by the junction of the old and new Glenn highways during tedious morning and evening commutes.

As you travel under the Old Glenn headed for Anchorage, look to your right and you’ll see a seasonal treat three Mat-Su Valley men have conspired to give their neighbors for the past four years. In the summer, the lone spruce doesn’t turn heads. But in the winter, it’s one of the bejeweled highlights for drivers facing the daily 50-plus-mile commute to Anchorage and back.

And it all started on the commute to work when Ben commented — readers asked the Frontiersman not to reveal the Secret Santa’s names — to Lucas on a lonely spruce that could use some Christmas lights.

Ben says Lucas’ experience with life in remote Alaska gave him the technical expertise to use a 12-volt battery and a power inverter to light a Christmas tree miles from the nearest electrical receptacle. Two years ago when Ben went out to the tree at the end of the season to retrieve his gear, a Grinch had stolen everything. It was then the two decide they’d give up lighting the tree. But another Secret Santa had other plans.

On his Dec. 12 commute last year, Jason noticed his favorite Christmas tree was still dark. So the next day he took his own battery, lights and power inverter to the tree and lit it, he said.

All last winter, it was Jason who stopped at the tree on his way to work and on his way home to change out the battery.

On Christmas Eve last week Ben stopped at the tree and was surprised to find someone had left gifts under it for the three Secret Santas. The packages included homemade baked goods, a box of chocolates and gift certificates to a local restaurant.