THE
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA
MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64th Year No. 37
NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1963
Per Copy 15<f
House OK’s Raise
In ESC Benefits
From $45 to $50
JUNEAU UP — The House re
affirmed its approval today on a
bill which would raise the basic
benefit amount under the State’s
Employment Security program
from $45 to $50 a week.
The measure passed 23-17 on re
consideration and was sent along
to the Senate.
Yesterday, the bill was approved
25-15, but one of its supporting
votes was that of Rep. William
Boardman who switched to the
prevailing side so as to be in a
position to move for reconsidera
tion.
The only change in the voting
today came when Rep. Warren
Taylor who voted for the bill yes
terday changed sides today
Taylor said he was disturbed
by the fact that the bill raises the
benefits for those who make in
excess of $4,000 a year.
“Why pick this bracket?” he
asked. “Why not raise everybody
$5 a week? What about the guy
who only makes $500 a year who
has to pay into the fund but never
collects anything because he
doesn’t work enough quarters a
year?”
The House, which had debated
the bill for an hour and a half
yesterday added another half hour
of discussion today.
Backers of the bill reiterated
that ESC was, in effect, an insur
ance program.
“If the opponents of this bill
don’t like this measure, I challenge
them to come up with their own
program and raise the benefits
where ever they see fit,” said Rep.
John Rader.
Rep. Mike Gravel said that the
program was basically an economy
stabilization program.
He said that while the employ
ers pay a high tax rate under the
program, they can pass the cost
along to the consumers.
“But the employe, who pays the
highest rate of contribution in the
nation, cannot pass his cost on to
any consumer.
“He is paying a disproportionate
share, and this should be reme
died.”
List of Candidates
Running for Office
The complete list of candidates
for the city election to be held
April 2 is as follows with only
two positions having opposition.
For Mayor — Don Hoover, Einar
Henry, Roscoe Wilke.
For School Board — 5-year-term,
Doris Wilke.
For Utility Board — 5-year
term, Bob Lewis and Leonard An
seth. For 1-year-term, Barrow
Morgan.
For City Clerk — Robert Scott.
For City Council — 3-year-term,
Keith Hedreen, Dan Karmun and
Charles Frazier. For 1-year-term,
D. J. Reader.
WILL VISIT SISTER
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. —
Arthur Klaben was on his way
today to the Yukon Territory to
see his sister Helen — who sur
vived a seven-week ordeal in the
frozen wilderness — and bring
her home.
Klaben left his home here last
night for the trip to Whitehorse,
where his sister is hospitalized.
Klaben is an engineer at Pratt &
Whitney Aircraft, East Hartford,
a division of United Aircraft Corp.
k
Plan Special Meeting
Of Airport Officials
ANCHORAGE W) — Eugene
Roguszka, head of engineering and
construction for the State Division
of Aviation, and G. O. Kempton,
chief of the Federal Aviation
Agency’s Airport Division here
have been asked to testify tomor
row before a special meeting of
the legislature’s Joint Finance
Committee.
Both said today they plan to go
to Juneau for the meeting.
Roguszka, who last week sub
mitted his resignation from the
Division of Aviation, said he does
not know what the committee
plans to take up at the meeting.
Kempton speculated the meet
ing would concern appropriations
for federal aid to airports pro
gram of the state.
KING SALMON BECOMES
ALASKA'S OFFICIAL FISH
JUNEAU —A bill designating
the king salmon as the official fish
of Alaska, was signed into law by
Gov. Wm. Egan Tuesday.
It becomes Chapter 20, Session
Laws of Alaska, 1963.
U.S. Denies
Russian Charges
WASHINGTON UP> — The State
Department speedily denied today
a Soviet charge that the U.S. gov
ernment is responsible for a recent
hit-and-run attack on a Soviet
freighter in a Cuban port.
Even before the Kremlin pro
test had been officially received
here, State Department press of
ficer Lincoln White referred news
men to earlier U.S. condemnations
of the March 17 raid by anti
Castro Suban exiles.
“The U.S. government is doing
everything it possibly can to pre
vent such incidents from happen
ing from U.S. territory,” White
said.
The State Department spokes
man also denied that there had
been any agreement between the
United States and the Soviet Union
at the conclusion of last fall’s
Cuban crisis to prevent such in
cidents.
Today’s Soviet protest alleged
that the March 17 raid “contra
dicts the agreement reached be
tween the governments of the
USSR and USA on the settlement
of the crisis in the area of the
Caribbean Sea.”
President Kennedy last week
denied U.S. government involve
ment in the attack on the Soviet
freighter, the Lgov, and indicated
that a U.S. investigation had
shown the attack had come from
outside US. territory.
Living Costs Return to
Record Level in February
WASHINGTON UP> — Living
costs returned in February to the
record level set last September,
mainly because of higher prices
for food and clothing.
The Labor Department an
nounced today that its Consumer
Price Index rose one-tenth of 1
per cent to 106.1 per cent of the
1957-59 average. This is 1.2 per
cent above a year ago.
The figures mean over-all liv
ing costs have returned to their
highest point in history, first
reached last September. They
mean that the average household
must pay $10.61 for what $10
would buy in the 1957-59 era.
Yukon Heroine
Will Lose Her
Frostbitten Toes
WHITEHORSE, Y.T. UP — Helen
Klaben, informed by her doctor
she will lose her five toes, had
at least one bit of good news for
her mother in Brooklyn — she
should be home in about eight
days.
Dr. Nesta James said the Yu
kon’s 21-year-old heroine will be
able to leave the Whitehorse hos
pital next Wednesday.
Dr. James is treating Miss Kla
ben and Ralph Flores, the pilot of
the plane that crashed Feb. 4 on
a mountainside in the frozen
wilderness 75 miles south of the
Yukon-British Columbia border.
The doctor gave this report:
Miss Klaben suffered a broken
left arm, which apparently has
“healed in good position.” She
also suffered frostbite on the toes
of her right foot and on both heels.
The toes will have to be removed
but the heels seem to be improving
nicely.
Flores suffered a broken nose,
a broken jaw and frostbite on two
toes. He appears to be recover
ing from all his injuries.
Miss Klaben was full of laughs'
yesterday as chatted by telephone
with her family and close friends
from a wheelchair in the hospital.
Flores also was considerably
livelier than he has been since
Indian trappers found him Sunday
night near his distress signal that
a passing bush pilot spotted.
“I feel like a million dollars,”
said the 42-year-old electrician and
flier after a good night’s sleep.
Bush pilot Jack McCallum said
he had been reprimanded for mak
ing the risky landing which re
sulted in Miss Klaben’s rescue.
McCallum said he landed his
light plane in a narrow, tree-lined
clearing about three miles from
Miss Klaben’s campsite. The pilot
who had spotted the pair, Chuck I
Hamilton, had been cautioned
earlier by Indians not to try to
land in the hazardous flue. After
McCallum landed safely, Hamilton
followed in his plane.
McCallum, a pilot for the Cana
dian Department of Transport —
which corresponds to the U.S.
Federal Aviation Agency — said
he had been docked a half-day’s
pay — $15 — for making the land
ing.
Learned His Lesson
About Survival Gear
EDMONTON, Alta. (M — A
pilot, rescued after being lost 50
days probably won’t have to face
charges of flying contrary to regu
lations, a Federal Transport De
partment accident investigation of
ficer said today.
The officer, W. J. Dick of Ed
monton, said it was “my personal
opinion but I have never heard
of anyone being charged for fly
ing without survival gear.”
Pilot Ralph Flores and Helen
Klaben spent 50 days in an iso
lated spot near the British-Colum
bia-Yukon border after Flores’ air
craft crashed Feb. 4.
“It is usually felt the pilot has
learned a lesson from his experi
ence,” Dick said. “The resulting
publicity will also bring this to
many others.’
WEATHER OUTLOOK
Continued fair with little change
in temperature. Low tonight -10,
high tomorrow -15. In the last 24
hours: High of 6, low of -12. Sun
rise at 5:37 ajn., sunset at 6:39 p.m.
Wife Asks Search to Be
Resumed for Missing Pilot
ANCHORAGE UR — The wife
of a pilot who apparently was
forced to ditch his plane in the
Gulf of Alaska has asked the
Coast Guard to resume its search.
Mrs. Larry Nabozny of Moun
tain View called Monday for
“another search, a fair search.”
She said she didn’t think enough
time had been devoted to the ori
ginal search and expressed hope
her husband and his passenger had
made it to shore.
Nabozny and Lloyd Hughes of
Seldovia, disappeared March 14 on
a flight from Kodiak to Homer.
Nabozny had turned back because
of bad weather and later radioed
the plane’s single engine had fail
ed and he was ditching near Shu
yak Island.
The Coast Guard suspended its
search March 18, saying chances of
survival in the heavy seas and high
winds in the area were slim.
Lions Donate Another
$100 to ‘Glasses for Kids’
The Nome Lions Club, at their
Tuesday meeting, voted another I
$100 to the Public Health Nurse
for “Glasses for Kids,” in their
continuing sight conservation pro
gram which is a project of Lions
International — on a worldwide
scale.
The local project is administer
ed as a revolving fund by Public
Health Nurse Margaret Swanberg
who uses the money to pay for
glasses for children who cannot
otherwise afford them. Those who
can, return the money when they
are able, thus enabling some other
indigent person to secure glasses.
The Lions’ contribution is used to
keep the fund going when it gets
low.
A Ladies Night has been set for
next Tuesday, April 2, at 8 p.m.
A nominating committee has
been at work and election of of
ficers is set for Tuesday, April 9.
Fire Destroys
Boys’ Dormitory at
St. Mary’s Mission
ANCHORAGE UD — Fire whip
ped by strong winds raged through
St. Mary’s Mission near the
mouth of the Yukon River on the
southwest Alaskan coast yesterday.
Flames destroyed the boys’ dor
mitory and damaged the girls’
dorm, but no one was reported
injured.
The mission, a frame and cor
rugated metal building, houses 235
Indian and Eskimo students, two
Jesuit priests, two brothers and
nine nuns.
Word of the fire was received
by the State Civil Defense Office
here from Bethel, about 130 miles
from the mission. The Rev. James
A. Poole, superior of the mission,
radioed word of the fire by the
school’s shortwave set before it
was engulfed by flames.
A Civil Air Patrol plane main
tained communications from the
scene as it circled the mission, but
Civil Defense Director Don Lowell
said no evacuation or airlift of
supplies was needed immediately.
Two Northern Consolidated Air
lines planes flew fire equipment
and fire fighters to the remote
area from Bethel.
The cause of the fire and the
amount of damage were not im
mediately known.
New Power Plant
Proposed for Nome
Following the regular Council
meeting Monday night, a joint
meeting was held with the Utility
Board and a representative of the
Retherford Engineering Co. of An
chorage, Carl Steeby, who pre
sented a power study made by
the company with plans and pro
posals for the necessary expan
sion of the power facilities here.
Plan C of the proposed plans
was recommended to the Council
by the Power and Light Utility
Board, which is the construction
of a new plant.
The Council accepted the recom
mendation of the board and author
ized engaging the same engineer
ing firm to do the final planning
so that the necessary parts of the
plant can be ordered as soon as
possible.
This plan was favored by the
board and recommended by the
Retherford Engineering firm over
Plan A which would have rebuilt
the existing plant and Plan B
which would have been to take
over the USSR & M plant.
The proposed site is located
across the Snake River and near
the present bridge to the Sand
Spit.
1 The permafrost is 30 feet down
1 and the ground is well compacted
: 1 gravel. Buildings in the area show
no frost heave although they have
- been there since World War II.
: The shift of the local center for
, power, due to the FAA and Vo
’ cational School makes this a much
i more favorable location than the
» present site.
Fuel oil can be pumped directly
from barge to storage tanks or
directly from the Standard Oil
tanks.
The new facility should include
an office, vehicle storage, ware
house, meter shop and plant.
Additional power equipment will
include two new 600 KW units
added to part of the equipment
now in use.
The new plant is estimated to
cost $1,429,680, which is less than
it is estimated it would cost to
rebuild the present plant which
was estimated at $1,515,600 or take
over the USSR & M for $1,684,660.
$1,684,660.
The immediate need of the ex
pansion was clearly indicated and
the necessity of getting the project
under way as soon as possible
was realized by both the Utility
Board and the Council.
House Defines
Tax Exemptions on
Religious Property
JUNEAU UP — The House today
passed by a vote of 36-4 a bill ex
empting only that religious prop
erty which is actually in use from
real or personal property taxes of
political subdivisions of the state.
Religious property exempted
would include that property used
exclusively for places of public
worship, residences of the clergy
men, religious education institu
tions, and what adjacent land is
necessary for parking lots and the
like.
It would not exclude from taxa
tion lands held by religious or
ganizations which is not actually
used for the purposes listed.
The measure also provides for
pro-rated taxation of income from
rentals and other sources of sec
tions of the church property, such
as renting a basement for school
use.