A Gossip, says a writer, is
a person who suffers from
acute indiscretion.
Halley IFrnntiergman
PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE MATANUSKA VALLEY
4 1 PAGES
IL TODAY
VOLUME 5, NO. 2
PALMER. ALASKA. THURSDAY. SEPT. 20. 1951
PRICE. 10c
NEW SCHOOL BOND ISSUE CLARIFIED FOR PTA
COUNCIL TO MULL
PHONE PROPOSALS
IN CLOSED SESSION
After brief consideration of
Maynard S. Sand’s written pro
posal for a new improved tele
phone system for Palmer, city
council members decided to meet
in closed session next week, Sep
tember 25, to consider (1) the
merits of the two proposals re
ceived to date, (2) to set a dead
line for receipt of any more pro
posals, (3) to get the advice of a
qualified, unbiased expert on
telephone communications, (4)
and to ,§gt up specifications that
the council would like included
in the plan recommended for
franchise confirmation by the
electorate.
Sand’s proposal called for a 20
year franchise with no provision
for city purchase within that pe
riod. It covered installation with
in 40-120 days of franchise of a
common battery switching with
selective automatic ringing, to
gether with all necessary associ
ated equipment, which is now in
the possession of the Matanuska
Valley Telephone Co., Inc. The
proposal also stipulated construe- '
tion of a new cable plant in Pal
mer; negotiation with ME A for 1
joint use of their poles; the order, '
within 30 days of franchise, of
(Continued on Page 9)
C of C to Entertain
Anchorage Chamber
At October Luncheon
With a fair turnout of its mem- '
bership, the Chamber of Com
merce luncheon meeting in the
Co-Op club room yesterday fairly :
bristled with plans and sugges
tions for the next few weeks.
Most notable were those for a
joint meeting with the Anchorage .
Chamber of Commerce to be held
in Palmer the second or third .
week in October.
, It was hoped that a number of i
produce buyers in the Anchorage ;
area would be present for the
luncheon with the Anchorage i
Chamber so that a good “selling
job” on Matanuska Valley farm ;
produce might be accomplished.
A1 Hagen’s reminder of Fire
Prevention week, October 7 to
14, brought up a discussion of the
projected assumption of Fire As
sociation equipment and services
by the city January 1, 1952. A
letter requesting the city to con
tinue extending service to the ru
ral areas on the same basis under
taken by the Fire Association was
authorized. ,
♦ Mrs. Betty Mears suggested a
joint meeting of the Chamber
with the Kiwanis Club and mem
bers of the City Council to hear
Edward Crittenden talk on city
planning.
At the request of President Jim
(Continued on Page 9)
Ice Cream at 3 Gallons Per Minute
Co-Op Board of Directors President Roy Brock and Secre
tary-Treasurer Pcdt Hemmer sample ice cream from the new
continuous process plant which started production of ice cream
at 180 gallons per hour two weeks ago today. Shown filling a
gallon carton from the ice cream tap is A1 Brattian. Norman
Wallace places cartons in cooler. —Photo by Guyriak.
rwo Big Dairy Farms
Sold This Week
Two big dairy farms changed
lands this week in real estate
;ransactions involving the sale of
160 acres of Matanuska Valley
and.
Sold were the 200-acre Gust
Scheibl farm about a mile out of
;own on the Matanuska Highway,
rnd the 160-acre Fred R. Gaylord
jrade A Dairy farm across from
;he Kyger farm on Fish Hook
rtoad. Scheibl is one of the origi
lal Matanuska Valley Colonists, ,
md his farm is generally acknow
edged as having the most cleared
acreage of any farm in the Val
ey.
The Gaylord farm was pur
chased by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel
\. Boyd. They have been asso- i
ciated with the Alaska Native
Service for the past 16 years, he
as a carpenter and she as a teach
er. Last year they were at Chig
aik. Previous to that, they were
;ix years in Tanacross and nine
y^ears in Sitka. The couple have
six children—three girls and three
ooys, ranging from five through
12 in age.
The Boyds plan to take over
the farm this week-end. Mrs.
Boyd reports the children as be
ng very excited about living on
a real dairy farm. Until 1947,
when the family made a trip Out
side, the children had seen no
animals.
The Gaylords leave this week
end to drive down the highway
enroute to their former home in
Oregon.
The Scheibl farm was pur
chased by Rolland Grover, oldest
son of Clifton Grover. Rolland
(Continued on Page 9)
THE MIGHTY HUNTER
Johnny Reed and young
Johnny Bob, aged 13, went
up Lillie Susilna way yesler
day, where a parly of enlist
ed men had hunted in vain
for eight days, and a group of
civilians were still hopeful
after three days.
Within a matter of minutes
young Johnny Bob sighted a
big bull moose and nailed
him neatly.
The moose dressed out to
more than 850 pounds.
BRUNNER MAKES PALMER ALASKA'S TROPHY CENTER
Jerry Brunner has been in Al
aska less than 18 months, yet in
hat short period Palmer has be
come the hunting trophy center
if the Territory as a natural de
/elopment of his taxidermy busi
less.
With the open season on moose,
;aribou and mountain goat going
into its third week and the sheep
season a recent memory, Brunner
was working at his home work
shop last week-end on game hunt
ing orders brought in by more
than a hundred customers. Still
more orders from the no-closed
season on bear and the 1952 game
fishing season were in final stages
if becoming trophies fit to swell
with pride the chests of many Al
askan sportsmen
Skins, heads and horns coming
down out of the mountains and
out of the brush are so taxing the
taxidermist’s limited quarters
that he is casting about for possi
ble temporary quarters this win
ter until a new shop can be built
next year.
Site for the new shop across
from Rusty Dow’s place on the
highway near Knik bridge was
purchased last year. If a flaw in
the description of the 5-acre tract
had not held up the title, the
building would have been built
this year.
Steps in Processing
Meanwhile, a living room work
shop and a nearby shed are be
ing pressed into service for all the
various processes the good taxi
dermist employs in making fine
trophies. After the skinning comes
the fleshing out. All the fat and
surplus meat is scraped from the
skins. Then the flesh side of the
skins must be covered with salt
to dehydrate them of all fats,
grease and blood that would oth
erwise cause them to spoil. The
actual salting is only an over
night procedure, but following
this the hides must be hung up
for a week or ten days to permit
all moisture to drawT out before
they are sent Outside to a whole
! sale tannery.
Returned from the tanner’s, the
skins go to the workshop, where
flaws are cut out and repaired,
where all the work of mounting,
mothproofing, trimming, padding
and lining is completed. Only the
outer skin of the original head is
saved, so the mounting process
includes the moulding of a com
plete new head with mouth,
teeth, eyes and, sometimes, the
ears. Brunner makes his horns
smell better by giving them a
good 20-minute bath in boiling
water.
Game and Fur Animals
From the past month’s hunting
kill, Brunner has mounting jobs
for about 30 sheep heads, 11 goat
heads, and eight full head mounts
of caribou. Only one moose head
has been brought in so far. A doz
en bear heads and over 100 bear
rugs are also commissioned. Bear
rugs up to six feet long cost about
$12.50 a lineal foot; over six feet,
(Continued on Page 12)
HURLEY SAYS 'YES' VOTE ON OCT. 2nd
!$ PEOPLE'S PLEDGE OF FAITH
^WVW^VWVWWVW^WS^VWWVW^
KIDS' DAY REMINDER
Jim Hurley and Ed Smith
will be on hand at the Valley
theater at 2 o'clock Saturday
afternoon to greet Kiwanis
young guests attending the
free movie given in observ
ance of National Kids' Week.
After the show, members
of Beta Sigms Phi will finish
off the celebration in proper
style with an ice cream treat.
^VVSAiVN/V>A^VV\A^VVVVVVVVS^VVVVVV^
CONTRACT AWARD
ASSURES FALL START
ON EKLUTNA TUNNEL
Announcement was made this
morning from the Denver office
of bureau of reclamation’s district
engineer that a contract had beeiJ
awarded for the Eklutna tunnel
project.
The award was made to the
Palmer Construction Co. of Oma
ha, Nebraska, which is a firm
name chosen to cover activities of
three individual construction
companies which bid jointly on
the low level tunnel construction
contract. The three companies are
Peter Kiewit & Sons Co., Coker
Construction Co., and Morrison
Knudsen Co., Inc. Their joint bid
was $17,348,865. This was slightly
lower than the engineer’s esti
mate of $18,175,568 and was $4
million more than Peter Kiewit
and Morrison-Knudsen had pre
viously bid on the same project.
The successful bidders an
nounced two weeks ago that they
would start work this fall on the
tunnel project if the contract was
granted.
When the Eklutna bridge wash
out kept the scheduled speaker
from addressing the P-TA at its
first meeting Tuesday night,
School Board Member Jim Hur
ley was pressed into service by
President Betty Kindler for ex
temporaneous explanation of is
sues involved in the school bond
election coming up October 2.
To more than 100 persons who
filled to capacity the school cafe
teria, Hurley gave convincing as
surance that the school board is
not trying to coerce the people
into anything they don’t want and
that no extra tax levy will be
made unless it is absolutely
necessary. ,
“If you are WILLING to pay
an additional two percent to have
good school facilities, vote yes on
the bond issue”, he said. “This is
merely a pledge of good faith on
the part of the people of the com
munity, showing that they want
the new school facilities enough
to pledge their tax structure for*
the payment of their 50 percent
share of total construction costs”.
Other questions cleared up by
Hurley were as follows:
* • *
A YES VOTE WILL NOT RAISE
TAXES. The school board has
the power to raise taxes up to a
total limit of 30 mills under the
organic act of 1951. The election
issue, Hurley said, is whether or
not the people will give the school
board the authority to issue bonds
up to $1,000,000. In all probabili
ty the bonds won’t have to be is
sued at all, but authority must be
given the board by 65 percent of
the voters to issue the bonds in
case the government requests it.
(Continued on Page 9)