Saying good-bye to another Alaska summer

Football practices have begun. School starts in a couple of weeks and the state fair is just around the corner.

Nothing says good-bye to summer more than those indicators. Unless it’s the fireweed, and those blooms are just about gone.

Who knows, maybe it’s best we look ahead to fall and put this past few months behind us.

Consider:

• The governor quits in the middle of her term for reasons many don’t understand.

• Again, king salmon fishing was shut down in almost all the streams and rivers that can be had by road.

• A teen is presumed dead after a drinking party went bad along the Matanuska River.

• Mayhem ensued following the opening of the once family friendly Talkeetna Moose Dropping Festival. Another life lost to an Alaska river during the festival.

• Tourism was down yet another year.

• Wasilla’s chamber of commerce went through a turbulent period and is still trying to recover.

• Disgust with the borough by Wasilla and Houston officials and residents has led to talk of making two boroughs out of the one.

• Water main in Palmer blows a hole in the street. Then other weaknesses were found. The main drag looks like a bad sandbox.

• We had to replace a beloved borough mayor with a special election in June. A pathetic 7 percent voted.

• A borough sales tax that has no chance of going anywhere was approved and then vetoed.

• Man dies trying to save his dog from an oncoming train. Dog dies too.

• A new school was built, but complaints rang loud about how to get the students and others there without causing problems in neighborhoods.

• A new prison broke ground, but it’s too bad it’s needed.

• Gas and diesel prices started their way back up.

• Smoke from distant fires filled the air.

• Swine flu came a-calling and looks like it won’t stop until whenever.

• Two men, one a part-time resident, die in a fiery plane crash.

• ATVs get a bad rap for several injury accidents and irresponsible use in quiet subdivisions.

Yes, many good things happened over the summer. Farmers enjoyed good crops. Still no murder investigations, that we know of, in the Valley. Redoubt didn’t blow and bury us in ash — yet. The Miners won the Alaska Baseball League title. Though dry, not many significant fires here.

Who knows? For some, this may have been the best summer ever.