Beus indictment dashed hopes, dreams

We were more than a little saddened Tuesday to learn of federal charges brought against Kyle Beus.

If you didn’t read the news early this week on Frontiersman.com, in today’s print edition, here’s a recap: Beus, one of three founders and a co-owner of Valley Dairy, which operates here as Matanuska Creamery, was charged Tuesday in federal court with wire fraud and lying to steal money from the federal government. The allegations relate to federal money set aside to prop up the dairy business after it was poised to collapse in the wake of the dissolution of Matanuska Maid. Beus is charged with misdirecting some of that money.

We’ll be the first to admit that over the nearly five-year history of Matanuska Creamery, our support for the enterprise has been tested.

We have at times sided with the creamery’s critics. But our criticism was always tinged with apprehension for the enterprise’s future, rather than a hope for its demise. Through the ups and downs, we’ve rooted for the creamery — as we would for any local business, especially one that started as such an underdog.

We, like many in the Valley, were willing to forgive the creamery its missteps. We didn’t complain too much when the milk went sour too quickly. Or when the cheese wound up tainted with E. coli. We willingly shelled out more money for milk with a shorter shelf life in the name of supporting our local farming industry.

Beus’ indictment has come to personify our fear that the cheerleading we did for the creamery was misapplied.

There was a time when a journalist for the Anchorage Daily News described Beus as “the savior of the local dairy industry.”

That there are still people raising cows and selling milk here is probably due, at least partially, to Beus. He was, after all, one of the only ones to raise a hand and do the work to set up a dairy after the collapse of Matanuska Maid.

Dairy farmers at the time were pushing a simple message — we just want a place to sell our milk. Beus gave them that.

For Beus, this is another difficult chapter in his life that has been chronicled in the Frontiersman. His daughter still struggles with injuries sustained in a car crash. He was once the Valley’s biggest milk producer before he fell behind on loans and had to hand over his farm. Somewhere in this saga, too, is a failed restaurant and confectionary concern.

Beus and his family have had a rough go of things, and we are heart sick to see federal charges added to the list.

We hope that over the lifetime of this case facts will emerge that paint Beus in a different light. Maybe it was an honest mistake. Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation.

But what if this story doesn’t get better, if the picture painted of Beus remains as black, or worse, then it appears today?

In that case, like many of our Valley neighbors, we will just have to live with the disappointment of knowing that our hope, trust and cheerleading was misplaced.