2011 a memorable year for Valley news

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series looking back on what made news in the Valley in 2011. Look for part two in Sunday's Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Visit Frontiersman.com for more top stories of 2011.

MAT-SU - From capturing an escaped prisoner to a controversial high school principal selction to the story of an 8-year-old brought back to life after a snowmachine accident, 2011 was eventful in the Valley.

But you don't have to take our word for it. The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman's website - Frontiersman.com - is a popular choice for local stories and breaking news. In 2011, nearly 1.8 million visitors to the newspaper online viewed more than 4.7 million pages of local news.

As 2011 comes to a close, we look back on the most popular news, according to you - our online readers. The top-viewed stories each month are featured.

JANUARY

Escaped prisoner captured

PALMER - Having taken apart one fence and scaled another, cutting his hand and abdomen in the process, Kent Matte was able to buy himself about six hours of freedom Wednesday.

Matte's run from the law, which began at 8:05 a.m. at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in downtown Palmer, took him as far as Meadow Lakes, where Alaska State Troopers arrested him at around 2:30 p.m. as he fled from a home near Stanley Road and Parks Highway close to Church on the Rock.

Two dead, one critical following head-on crash

WASILLA - Two people are confirmed dead from injuries in a head-on collision that closed Knik-Goose Bay Road shortly before noon.

Mat-Su Borough Emergency Services Director Dennis Brodigan said the call to respond to Mile 12.3 of the road came in at 11:13 and responders were on scene at a collision between a pickup and an SUV 10 minutes later.

Longtime Point MacKenzie community organizers Aryls "Art" and Beulah "Boots" Scates died in the head-on collision. Two other people in the crash survived. Neither Scates was driving.

MTA board director resigns after scolding

PALMER - A special meeting of the Matanuska Telephone Association Board of Directors to discuss negative statements made about the management of the cooperative by Board Director Chuck Foster ended in his resignation.

The five-member board gathered in its Palmer headquarters board room to discuss the possible negative impact of a Dec. 24 Frontiersman story about MTA CEO Greg Berberich granting all 350 employees a $1,000 holiday bonus. That story included statements from Foster saying the management of MTA has kept information from its members that should be public.

FEBRUARY

Father seeks son last seen on Thursday

WASILLA - Joshua Croghan, 34, seeks the public's help in locating his 13-year-old son, Joshua Soosuk, who was last seen Thursday, Feb. 3 at Wasilla Middle School.

"It's been a nightmare," the worried father said. "Right now all I care about is for him to come home."

He was supposed to come home on the bus that afternoon, but never made it, Croghan said.

Anchorage Police Department officers found the boy Wednesday morning hiding out at his mother's house in Anchorage. She reportedly dropped him off at his grandparents' house in Mountain View after seeing a news story about her son's disappearance.

Wasilla teen battles tribal law to get son back

WASILLA - Tiane Knott, 17, has been living amidst domestic abuse and dysfunction for most of her life. Growing up in a home plagued with alcoholism and domestic violence in her native village of Galena and in Wasilla, it became the norm for her.

So it's not surprising the delicate, dark-haired beauty ended up falling in love with an Aleut boy from Port Heiden who also grew up in a similar environment.

They also have an 18-month-old baby boy named Traves in common. Knott says her fiancé, Dustin, was rough with her even when she was pregnant at 15.

Palmer teen recovering after accidental shooting

WASILLA - A Palmer High hockey standout is in stable condition after suffering an accidental gunshot wound Saturday afternoon in Wasilla.

A bullet struck Ivan Good, 18, in the thigh after a .45-caliber pistol misfired while Good and a friend were in a car in the parking lot of the Wasilla Sportsman's Warehouse store. Good's father, Andrew, said the incident was purely accidental.

"(Ivan's) buddy went to put away the pistol, pointed it downward, and it misfired," Andrew Good said.

The bullet ricocheted through the top of the center console, into the seat and into Ivan's leg, Andrew Good said.

MARCH

Christy makes Alaska visit

ANCHORAGE - A Pennsylvania man accused of stalking Wasilla residents Sarah Palin and Kristan Cole made an uneventful trip to Anchorage Friday and Saturday.

Shawn Christy, 19, of McAdoo, Penn., made his first trip to Anchorage - and first trip on a jet plane - on an Alaska Airlines fight that landed early Friday morning. He stayed in a Spenard hotel, had lunch at the Fancy Moose in the Millennium Hotel that afternoon and flew home to Pennsylvania Saturday morning.

MEA OKs power plant

PALMER - Matanuska Electric Association is past the point of no return on building a power generation plant near Eklutna, and its board has agreed to the first significant financial outlay to put the wheels in motion.

The MEA Board of Directors voted unanimously last week to approve a limited notice to proceed authorizing contactor CH2M HILL to start its preliminary work, including securing an air quality permit. With a June 30 deadline fast approaching, securing a permit is paramount, MEA officials say.

Some upset with WHS principal selection process

WASILLA - The Mat-Su Borough School District superintendent's decision to ignore the recommendations of Wasilla High School staff and community members to hire Wasilla High School Assistant Principal Mark Okeson to replace retiring Principal Dwight Probasco has sparked anger and frustration in that community.

Superintendent Kenneth Burnley decided to transfer Wasilla Middle School Principal Amy Spargo into that position instead - to the chagrin of more than 100 staff and community members who signed a petition protesting the way the decision was made.

APRIL

Boy dead for 40 minutes lives to tell about it

PALMER - Christian Aldrich, 8, tells his story this way. "I died and I went to heaven. That's what I say."

And usually, that's when the room falls silent.

"I was dead for how long?" he asks his mom, Amber Aldrich.

"Forty minutes," she answers.

"And they brought you back?" his hairdresser asked recently.

"No, they didn't bring me back," Christian said. "God brought me back. He healed my heart, my lungs, my brain and I was out of the hospital in three weeks. This (his right leg in a cast) is all that's left and I'm learning patience."

Assemblyman blasts school district

WASILLA - Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Mark Ewing held up his Wasilla High School diploma and gave school district Superintendent Ken Burnley a piece of his mind during a joint meeting of the Assembly and School Board last week.

"This last week's been very trying for me," Ewing said regarding Burnley's recent decision not to promote WHS Assistant Principal Mark Okeson after Principal Dwight Probasco retires at the end of this school year.

"I've gotten a lot of phone calls and I'm probably the only one sitting around this table who has one of these - a Wasilla High School diploma. Mr. Burnley, I can tell you I was very upset with the decision made by you and the school board," Ewing said.

Opening near for new Valley theater

WASILLA - Considering his movie theater is opening in a week, it's no wonder John Schweiger is a busy, busy man.

Thursday, as he spoke about the upcoming grand opening - Friday, April 22, if you haven't heard - he stopped mid-sentence numerous times to solve little problems and take care of some details.

"Where are the signs? Are there two Dumpsters out back or just one? Will someone please throw away that garbage?"

Schweiger is Chairman and CEO of Oregon's Coming Attractions Theaters. Since ground broke on the multiplex next to Walmart he's been splitting his time between Wasilla and Ashland, Ore.

MAY

Choir, school caught in a landslide over Queen song

WASILLA - When members of Wasilla High School's symphonic jazz choir heard Friday it wouldn't be singing the popular Queen hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" at this year's graduation ceremony after working on it all year, the students couldn't get their heads around it.

WHS Principal Dwight Probasco reportedly had received a complaint from at least one parent that the 1975 hit written by Freddie Mercury wasn't appropriate for the ceremony because Mercury was gay.

Complaint cries foul on Matanuska Creamery

WASILLA - The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights has ruled that discrimination and wrongful termination complaints filed against Matanuska Creamery by two former employees have merit.

Former creamery office administrator Kay Schaugaard and former pasteurizer Amy Moore, who are both Mormon, allege company co-owner and Chief Financial Officer Karen Olson made disparaging remarks about Mormons and not wanting "any more (expletive) Mormons" working for the company. They also claim co-owner Kyle Beus did not take their discrimination complaints seriously before they were fired more than two years ago.

The case will now be heard by an Anchorage court judge, which could rule the company owes them back wages and more than $15,000 in other expenses.

Pastor, wife killed in Arizona

PALMER - An administrative secretary at Colony High School and the pastor of a local church were killed on Mother's Day while walking down a sidewalk in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The parents of four former and current CHS students, Doris and Randy Bjerken reportedly were on a Matanuska Assembly of God retreat at the time of the Sunday morning incident.

According to KNXV television news in Scottsdale, a 23-year-old male driver had driven a GMC sport utility vehicle onto the sidewalk and struck the couple and a power pole. Both were later pronounced dead at nearby hospitals.

JUNE

Musher found safe in Cantwell

CANTWELL - Alaska State Troopers confirmed Saturday that missing Talkeetna-area musher Melanie Gould had been found and was on her way to Palmer.

"I can verify that Melanie Gould contacted troopers in Cantwell and we are now transporting her to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center," AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

"We are so blessed to have her back safe and sound. She is tried and needs her rest now, but otherwise good. I thank you all for everything! I do ask that you all respect her privacy now, though. Her family will be here to help her though this," volunteer search coordinator Amanda Olson wrote on Facebook page set up to help coordinate the search.

Bjerken children hold onto each other, faith

WASILLA - He may be the oldest man in their parents' Palmer home now, but Corey Bjerken isn't putting himself in the role of "dad" when it comes to taking care of his two younger sisters.

"I will never be dad," Bjerken, 24, said Sunday as he and sisters Courtney, 20, and Kenzie, 16, gathered around their kitchen on East Times Square Circle. "What I can do is be a big brother and look out for you guys. We're all just trying to work together here."

It's been seven weeks since their parents, Randy and Doris Bjerken, were hit by a car on Mother's Day while walking down a sidewalk in Scottsdale, Ariz., and were pronounced dead shortly afterward.

Winged mammals take over attic, displace homeowner

BIG LAKE - When the first little brown bat entered the living room of her log home off Musk Ox Street in Big Lake three years ago, she laughed it off as a sign of good luck.

"My mother was a traditional Irish woman who'd view the strangest things as good omens," Julie Busch said. "We were so nice to that bat, being careful not to harm it after we'd heard how beneficial they are and how good their guano is for plants. But if I knew then what I know now, I would have killed every last one of those suckers!"

More than $50,000 in abatement costs and re-roofing expenses later, the former University of Alaska Anchorage reading professor hopes her story will serve as a cautionary tale for other homeowners oblivious to the destruction the furry winged mammals can cause.