Peek at the Past

Here’s what made news 16 years ago, from the May 3, 1995 issue of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

Printing mishap

If you thought you were seeing double last Friday when reading the weekend Frontiersman, don’t worry. You don’t need new glasses. Most of the newspaper’s 7,000 issues contained two Page A6s and no Page A10.

How did that happen, you may ask? Those were the exact thoughts of the Frontiersman staff late Thursday evening when the paper came back from the printer in Anchorage. Mistakes happen, we were told. No one here can remember a similar occurrence in the Frontiersman’s history.

All we can do is apologize to the advertisers who were affected and rerun the news items that were on the missing Page A10. Adding to the confusion is the fact there are a few hundred papers out there that were printed correctly. Toward the end of the press run, the printers realized their mistake, stopped the presses and straightened things out.

So, those of you fortunate enough to have a complete April 28 issue, hold onto it. Who knows, maybe some day it will be worth more than the 50 cents you paid for it.

(Note: The Frontiersman now prints from its own printing plant on site at the newspaper’s offices on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.)

Schedule change for Colony Middle School

Colony Middle School students will attend classes on a staggered schedule this coming school year to help ease overcrowding at the school.

The school board approved the new schedule after considering other options, such as keeping sixth-graders at Cottonwood Creek, Finger Lake and Pioneer Peak elementary schools. Under the new schedule, seventh- and eighth-graders will begin class at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., while sixth-graders will start art 9:40 a.m. and end at 4:25 p.m.

The new plan is expected to free up space in core facilities such as the gym, library and computer rooms for part of the day. Projections show an expected 1,033 students will attend the school, which was designed to serve 800.

Dog death to be a DQ in Iditarod

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Committee has approved a change to its rules that calls for the automatic disqualification of a musher who has a dog die during the race. The rule doesn’t apply when a dog’s life is taken by “external forces,” such as moose or snowmachiners.

The moved comes after two dogs died in this year’s Iditarod and controversy ensued when race officials didn’t report one of the deaths in a timely manner. The deaths did not, however, prompt the change, Iditarod officials said. It was a move that had been contemplated for years and shows that the committee takes the issue of dog deaths seriously.

It cost what?

According to advertisements, in May 1995 you could:

• Get a complete queen-sized mattress set for $280.

• Tune up the truck for summer with a 118-piece mechanics wrench set for $119.99.

• Feed the kids Tombstone frozen pizza for $2.99 each.

• Feed the adults with choice rib-eye steak for $3.59 a pound.