JTEL survey and some thoughts on the library

In the course of the last few years and working on the library, it's struck me how much the vision of what the Ester library should be has grown: we've gone from viewing the library as a glorified book exchange (by "we," I mean the ECA library committee and the JTEL board) to working hard to create a true library and community space. Any venture like this, where many people from a large cross-section of the local population are involved, eventually takes on a life of its own and grows beyond what the founders or early participants envisioned or even wanted. It starts to become part of the community itself, to be defined by it and also to help define what the community is. Events and institutions are shaped by people, but people are also shaped by those events and institutions. I think this can cause some discomfort—all people may not necessarily like where it's going, or where it means the community is going.

Personally, I think that this growth of vision is fantastic. I've always liked Ester, in an abstract sort of way as the village closest to my childhood home on Ester Dome Summit. It's felt like a place with a center, a heart. Yet, it also has all the flaws of a small town, which I've reluctantly had to accept, and I've seen Ester divide into some ugly pieces during crisis, as well as come together in a neighborly, noble way during other crises. The problem with small towns is that they can become parochial, suspicious and jealous places where difference of opinion or change is unacceptable. The people living there can become so fond of the image of the place that anything that exposes or challenges or changes the image—the messenger—becomes the enemy, and never mind if the image is true, or if the image and/or the reality could be better.

Yet no place is perfect, and a neighborly, friendly, independent yet welcoming community is not something that just happens. You have to create it, tend it, rather like a garden. I think that's one vital function served by the Ester Community Association: it tends that neighborliness by helping to maintain the social fabric of Ester through events and through tending the actual physical environs of the village.

The Ester Community Park is another really good example. It's maintained by volunteers and the ECA. It's a physical center to the village. Any town needs gathering spots, locations that people can come together in. Ester is small, but it has the Golden Eagle, the post office, and the park as physical "market squares" where people interact. The physical structure of a place helps determine whether it encourages meeting and talking and all those other community-building events (parties, barbeques, hanging out), or whether it does the opposite and discourages human interaction. The park actually creates a space to meet—and thus creates community, village life. That's one reason why farmers' markets are so important: they strengthen communities because they create a physical space where people actually talk and hang out and do things together—which is what a community does. A place with a bunch of buildings in it, a "bedroom community," isn't a village. It's not a destination, it's a place where people store themselves in between the times when they are in some other spot where they really live—living being all those things you do when you are interacting with people, creating things, enjoying your life. The park, and gathering places like it, helps create a place where we live.

Those spaces in Ester each have their devotees, their clientele. They aren't neutral, because no place can be all things to all people. The Ester market is an example of something that happens at the park that attracts a certain group of people that you won't see at any other events or places. The same thing is true of the rink and the soccer field. The entire park brings in quite a variety of people, but some people never go there, or go only once a year. Same thing with the post office, or the Eagle, or Hartung Hall. The music jams at the hall and at the bar bring yet another group. In the Ester vicinity, there are other community-creating spots, like the Annex, or Calypso Farm, or Gold Hill Liquor. All of these add to the liveliness and sheer pleasure of being part of the Ester community. If we only had the Eagle, or only the park, or only the post office, our town would be poorer for it—and we'd have to create something that would fill that void, or lapse into being a suburb of Fairbanks.

The library just hasn't been able to be a gathering spot, really. It's been too small, too crowded. Now, however, with the Ida Lane Clausen Gazebo finished, that's beginning to change. We've got a new hang out, a new and different place to create and tend our community life. The fundraisers we sponsor are important for that community-building, and are held at places that themselves help enhance village life: the Eagle, the Malemute, the Annex, the gazebo.

When the library building is done, the dynamics of the village will change further—there will be yet another spot where community can be created, and it will reflect some of the characteristics of existing gathering spots, but it will also be different, because it will attract its own clientele, new people who may have lived in the vicinity but never participated in village life before because there was nothing really here that was right for them. So the new building will in fact change Ester. I think it will make it better, stronger, a nicer place to be. This is something that the Noel Wien Library and its library van simply cannot do for us. They can enhance our intellectual life, and the van can enhance our social life once a month, and if we go all the way downtown we can do our living at the library, in Fairbanks—but having a library, a real library, right in the village, will add something wonderful to the village and much much larger than the books and movies on the library's shelves. Being a vibrant part of Ester's community life is what the Ester library is growing into, and it will be far beyond what the JTEL has been over the last decade. It's becoming much more than what I ever envisioned, certainly—and I'm very glad of that.

The survey that the JTEL is conducting right now, about the library and the community, and what's important about libraries, has me thinking about all this. Working on the budgets and the plans and preparing for grants and writing up policies and all that has been a contributing factor, too. We're creating something larger and better than ourselves, something that will outlast us, and, I hope, make Ester grow into something better than it is now. That's worth working for.

Addendum: I spoke with Judy Stauffer this evening about my essay above, and she reminded me of an important point. Part of the reason that we continue to have a post office with a postmaster, and not just a Fairbanks contract station, is because we have a library here in the village. Libraries, like schools or museums, are considered cultural institutions, and such institutions are the mark of true municipalities (as opposed to, say, suburbs of towns or cities). At least, we were told that this was one of the requirements for maintaining a post office in a village back when Ruth Jasper retired as postmaster and Ester was faced with the potential loss of its post office—or the demotion of its only legal existence to a Fairbanks station-for-hire. The other institutions that we needed were: a village government or community association, a newspaper, a park, and a fire or police station. This may no longer be the case (I haven't been able to verify or refute it). Still, it IS something to consider.

Grantwriting workshop

This week I've been taking a five-day intensive workshop on grantwriting for the John Trigg Ester Library from the Alaska Funding Exchange, and it has been well worth it. Man, what a lot of information. We're covering how to write letters of inquiry, grant proposals, budgeting, timelines, grants management, finding funders, various resources relating to grants and grantwriting.

We've already gotten one grant,the state appropriation, and this course is going to be very helpful for managing it. This sort of thing has always seemed so, I don't know, obtuse, and now it actually it seems if not fun, certainly satisfying and interesting. The information I've learned will be good for the Republic, good for the Ester Community Association, good for Ester at large, potentially. One particularly exciting thing that I've learned about is the Alaska Community Foundation.

Ye Olde Independence Day Celebration and Hoo-Roar

Yes,it's that time of year again. The annual 4th of July parade & picnic is about to deluge Ester with gazillions of people who aren't into the militaristic display at Pioneer Park or the (now not-happening) Fairbanks parade. Folks who like a bit of political and social satire (well, okay, a LOT of satire) with their floats come out to Our Fair Republic for a lot of beverage-through-the-nose-snorting fun on Independence Day here where Progress Is Our Least Important Product. For those unsuspecting innocents who don't realize that off-color and politically incorrect silliness is the usual fare at this event, consider yourselves forewarned.

After the parade comes the Park Picnic, put on by the Ester Community Association. A large roast beast (usually a pig) is served up to the public, purchased and cooked by the Ester Volunteer Firefighters' Auxiliary, along with the usual hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, et cetera, from the ECA. Be prepared to bring a large side dish full o' your most succulent potluck food, and to shell out a donation. The money raised at this event (also known as Organized Eating and Fun & Games) is used to help Ester firefighters in the aftermath of a fire, keep the park ship-shape, and pay for all that food and beverage and flatware provided to the public.

Details: parade check-in (for participants) 11 am, Main Street & Ester Loop. Kids on bikes should wear a (preferably wildly decorated) helmet. Getcher paper plate when you sign in so the judges can tell who you are so's to give you a Fabulous Award. Don't forget to bribe the judges early, well, and often.

The parade starts at noon for all you Designated Spectators, and the picnic starts after the parade reaches the park. Be prepared for Silly Games and Water Sports (willing or non).

Rumor has it that the Red Hackle Bagpipe Band will be back and in surprising costume. The Banana Girls will return but may not be as organized as last year. There is also a rumor that actual Republican candidates will walk this year. Let's hope they're not as serious as the Democrats have been. Other than that, the Publisher has no word of the contents of aforementioned parade.

See you there!

A land planning alert from Roy Earnest

The Department of Transportation has several Ester-area projects on its slate. Roy Earnest sent me this note about the plans:

The STIP (Statewide Transportation & Improvement Program) is money set for the future at best and money that can be pulled at any time when it is at its worst. Please keep in mind that nothing is for certain when looking at monies set to future programs. The Gold Hill Bike trail in probably the firmest of the three projects that fall under STIP. Futher letters from the community are helpful but the ranking (or points given to the program) are high and the project looks like a go.

The Old Nenana and the Potter road project are both well place point wise but letter or comment to the DOT (specifically to Margaret Carpenter) are needed and necessary.

First, the Potter road to Destiny Drive (Name: Cripple Creek Road upgrade has an ID number 24522. The upgrade will use asphalt concrete to pave the existing gravel surface, including realignment of the substandard series of curves. The road will give better access to VFD and residents. The project is slated to begin and end work in 2010. If this upgrade interests or affect you directly please let Ms. Carpenter know at margaret.carpenter@alaska.gov.

The Old Nenana/Ester Hill Rehabilitation Project has an ID number of 7461

Project Description:
Rehabilitation along the ONH will include improving shoulders, drainage, signage, and guardrails.

Issues:
1. The Old Nenana Highway has steep grades, narrow roadway (20-22 feet), poor pavement conditions, and steep slopes. The sharp curve at the bottom of the hill is an issue to the DOT so they are looking into safety-related improvemnets. Because this area is especially hazadous in the winter when the road gets icy, there is probably going to be some kind of change in this area.

2. Recreation traffic on the ONH has increased ten-fold. The UAF ski team, Fairbanks Cycling club and walkers are all users of the road. A bike trail would be the most safest answer the money nedded for this kind of upgrade is large.

3. Fairbanks North Star Borough continues to sell off large tracts of land. They are in the process of trying to build a subdivision with 31 lots on it. The increase trafic load in the next 5 years alone are staggering.

Answers:

Widen the ONH wide enough for driver visibility and recreation users dafety. Upgrade the road to a asphalt surface that does not come apart every year due to substandard chipseal and poor foundation. Either a trail on the side or standalone seems appropriate.

The deadline for public comment is Friday, October 16. Please comment!

Ester fire department meeting

Just got back from the annual meeting of the Ester fire department/district. It was pretty good turnout this year. Kate Billington is the newest EVFD, Inc., board member; Bill Kopplin stepped down and Margaret Rogers and Nancy Burnham got re-elected. George Riley spoke on the fire commission. Mark Simpson invited the assembled to the upcoming Ester Community Association meeting (Oct. 11, 4 pm at Hartung Hall), and recommended that the two boards (ECA and EVFD) get together and look at ways for the two groups to work together better. It was a pretty interesting meeting. Good door prizes, too. I'll have more on this later, when I get my notes organized.

The Fourth of July Parade

Jesse Hensel made this excellent little slide show with interviews about the Fourth of July parade in Ester.



This is an intriguing and very positive contrast to some of the comments that were posted on the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner's blog in reaction to Rebecca George's article about the parade. I thought her article and the background piece on the Ester Community Association's role in the picnic were overall very good, although the Ken Kesey reference at the beginning played right into the stereotypes associated with our village, as exemplified by the Hippie Chick character in the Malemute Saloon variety show. Funny that Ester used to be considered a redneck area, and now is considered an Evil Liberal Nest of Perversion. Sheesh.

Anyway, I've been receiving some excellent photos; I'll be posting some here and on the Republic's Facebook page as soon as I make sure it's okay with the photographers.

I, as readers of this blog may know, was in the Banana Girls Marching Ukelele Band, and had a heck of a good time, although my coordination on singing, playing, and marching suffered somewhat in actual performance as opposed to practice.

Ester Fourth of July information

Every year this time, I get lots of people calling me wanting to know when the parade starts and how they sign up. I'm not sure why folks are under the misapprehension that I know what's going on, but they keep calling, and I am afraid that I have not clearly qualified well enough that I don't (or didn't) know what was going on.

So I found out. For those curious folks out at Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks, et cetera, here's the skinny:

The Fourth of July Parade: starts at noon. This is an irreverent, sometimes risqué, off-beat, and pretty impromptu event. DO NOT EXPECT: glorification of anything except a good time; child-safe language or G-rated requirements of any kind; tastefulness; respectfulness for ANY institution or individual. ON THE OTHER HAND: don't rule it out, either. Anything goes. We've had Revolutionary War soldiers, a Visqueen statue of liberty, leather-and-whip wielding fishnetted literati, giant puppets, men in drag and mops, dogs in costume, pigs in porkmobiles, fake politicians with real bribes, real politicians with fake bribes, dance troupes, couch potatoes, marching bands, gaggles of kids, horses, extremely loud firetrucks, etc. You're going to get a huge range if you come to watch our parade. It is never a serious or somber event, although the lampoons may be pointed at serious issues.

Parade check-in time: 11 am. Sign in up by Hartung Hall to get a paper plate with your number. Be prepared to give your name and the name of your character, float, or whathaveyou. This is so that once the judges have been properly bribed and made up the awards, they can identify you down at the park and present the award. Also, so the publisher of the local paper can list you and your award in the next edition of The Ester Republic!

Suggested bribes: Ester parade judges, usually drafted the night before, are eager and willing to accept bribes of all sorts. Cash is always useful, but it's a little, well, crass, so it is not often provided (and it's a little embarrassing when it is). Fine beverages, power tools, and inventively appropriate widgets or other items are the rule. (Well, I'm not actually sure that power tools have ever been used for bribes, but I've seen everything from root beer floats to books to radishes to poetry recitals by short pirates—not your typical bribery.) NOTE: one perennial award is the Best Bribe (sometimes also the Worst Bribe) award. Another coveted award that has been given several times is the Golden Banana Award. The other prizes vary hugely from year to year, and are made up on the fly.

Picnic at the park after the parade. This is a fundraiser for the Ester Community Association. It's our biggest fundraiser all year, and helps the ECA maintain the park and the community hall, pay the heating and electric bills (not cheap these days), buy goodies to feed people when they come to work parties or Cleanup Day, and so on. It is a potluck. We ask that you don't just help yourself to the food without donating something to the meal (and chips or dip don't count--please bring an actual dish of food) and/or to the ECA. The ECA sets up a table every year with a big sign and people man it to take donations; please contribute! That nice soccer field takes a lot of work and moola to keep up.

Emma Creek West: they still haven't fixed that public planning process

Attention Esteroids! The borough (read: the Land Management department) is planning to go forward with Emma Creek West. From the Butteris:

I did talk to Karrie Shaw, and she confirmed that they are indeed going to try and push through the subdivision, as a considerable amount of money has already been spent in the planning process. She did mention the possibility of putting in some sort of firebreak down the hill to mitigate fire hazard, and both State Forestry DNR and the Borough Division of Emergency Services confirmed that they have been approached by Paul Costello regarding this. She did not have much more information (for me, anyway) than that when I talked to her.

Paul Costello, the head of the Land Management department, contacted Bruce Jamieson to let him know that there will be a public meeting June 22, 6:30 pm at the Noel Wien Library to discuss the plan and listen to comments from the neighborhood. There is no agenda as yet.

[Addendum: Costello has cancelled the meeting. It will be rescheduled for sometime in July or August. For more information, contact Bruce Jamieson at 479-4673.]

As we have seen in past attempts to develop land around here, there have been many flaws in the designs of subdivisions, not least of which is a disregard for the impact of traffic, small size and poor proportions of the lots involved, and a lack of notification and engagement of the neighborhood. This time, it looks like Costello is making an effort to let the Ester Planning Committee know with sufficient advance warning, which is nice. Still, the word is trickling out rather slowly.

One large problem observed previously was a disconnect between the Department of Land Management and the Department of Community Planning;also, the public doesn't have much input to the whole process until fairly late in the game. When the first brouhaha over land on the Old Nenana Highway came up, the Ester Community Association and the borough mayor, Jim Whittaker, met at Hartung Hall. The outcome of that meeting was that Ester needed to come up with a land use/community plan to determine the best use of the land, and get it approved by the borough, or else the borough would simply develop piecemeal with the land nomination process it has (see the borough's parcel nomination map and guide—a 13-page PDF). Without that plan, the borough bulls ahead and we go from crisis to crisis. Voila, here we are again: another crisis brewing.

Two Rivers came up with a community land use plan; we can do the same. Unfortunately, when the chair of the ECA's community planning committee, Roy Earnest, left town, and the dust settled from Emma Creek East, the committee more or less dissolved. One good thing that remains from the original committee, however, is the e-mail list, and people have been keeping an eye on the borough so we don't get surprised again. Bruce and Sandy Jamieson and a few others have been keeping in contact with Costello et al., which has helped, and now Roy Earnest and family are back, and Roy's ready to plunge right back into the planning whirlwind (Roy had served on the planning commission or an advisory board with the borough, too, if I recall correctly).

The borough provides a handy guide to the public planning process, How to Participate in Land Use Decisions (another 13-page PDF). There are several places where meetings are supposed to be listed; this one at Noel Wien is not in the public notices, nor anywhere else that I could find, even though this is supposed to happen next week.

The borough certainly did not notify the local paper!

Ester Community Market!

Or maybe it's the Ester Farmers' Market, or the Ester Village Farmers' & Craft Market, or just the Ester Market. Whatever it is, it's coming to a community park near you, very soon!

A weekend of gardening

Taking advantage of this amazing heat wave, I've been doing a LOT of gardening this weekend, mostly in the form of watering and transplanting. On Saturday Kate Billington and I took some greenery down to the park and planted sunflowers, nasturtiums, pansies, petunias, a cosmos, calendulas (possibly--we weren't sure what they were, actually), peas, and a whole lot of perennial seeds and some anemone corms. It was quite the production, hauling the water from the fire station (after spending some minutes filling up the jugs and pitchers and the washtub borrowed from Lisa Sporleder) on the little cart (also borrowed from Lisa) up through the driveway and along the bike path and then down to the park itself, all ever so slowly so as not to spill that precious water. Kate's been working on getting a big tank for the park (the Valentines may loan theirs, which is 250 gallons, or the ECA may just buy one from George, although that one's only 100 gallons) so we don't have to do this elaborate haulage routine. Kate's also planning on buying George's old truck to use for, among other things, park work.

I've been having to do much more watering than usual, as many of my plants are in small containers (particularly those I am readying for the Ester market) and dry out quickly in this heat: baby's breath, nasturtiums, and my infant late-sprouting nightshades. The tomatoes are hardened and a nice dark green, but they've started robbing their cotyledons of nutrients, so I mixed up some worm castings tea to fertilize them with. I'm hoping that will help.

On Monday, Kate and I went up to Calypso Farm for their spring plant sale, where I picked up some cauliflowers and summer squash, and one acorn squash. (Also a t-shirt.) I had finally given up on my own squash, French Ronde zucchinis and patty pan squash, as I had planted them a month ago and they hadn't done anything. Ironically, upon returning from Calypso, I discovered that two of the French Rondes that I'd saved from seed the year before had sprouted just that morning! The new seed packet of French Rondes still haven't come up. Now, however, I have hope that they might come up after all, if I can just keep them watered enough. The new squash, Magdas, I planted in the bed by the firepit benches, since the Chioggia beet seeds that I'd planted there earlier didn't appear to be doing anything.

This morning I brought in one of my currant tomatoes to Jeff Werner at the university; he's been looking for a small sweet tomato that can be grown in the area, and hadn't heard of this type. It's a different species than your regular tomato: Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium. The plant is really tiny, just getting the second of its first set of true leaves, but it's a nice dark green and looks pretty healthy. I get my tomato seeds from Tomato Growers Supply or Seeds of Change. These ones came from seed I bought from Tomato Growers Supply. I found an interesting history of the tomato on the web while looking up currant tomatoes.

Christmas events

'Tis the season for happenings, parties, events, and crowds! So, starting the weekend, the Ester events are:

Christmas lantern-making, at Hartung Hall, 3 pm, this Saturday, December 13. Adults can come but must be accompanied by a kid. Hans did this a couple of years ago and decided he wanted to do it again. It's a paper lantern-making workshop, essentially. There's a German holiday, St. Martin's Day, in which a man dressed as St. Martin rides a horse and leads a procession of kids (who all carry candlelit paper lanterns) through the streets. This takes place on November 11, but Hans figured it would be fun to do it for caroling.

Caroling and Stone Soup starts at the Eagle on Sunday, 4 pm, December 14. Bring your parboiled vegetables or already cooked meat for the pot, and come sing. (Singing usually starts a little later.) We have songbooks that include Christmas songs, old pagan songs, Hannukkah songs, and just plain old winter songs.

The Cookie Exchange is at Hartung Hall again this year, Tuesday the 16th, at 6 pm I think. This is lots of fun. Bring a few dozen cookies, and take away a few dozen.

The Office Christmas Party and White Elephant Exchange at my job SNRAS is a heck of a lot of fun. We're holding it on the 17th this year, so I have to find a good white elephant gift to bring. Not in Ester, of course, but I'll be going to this. Unlimited steals!

Putt & Bob are having their solstice party on the 20th, Saturday.

Solstice is on Sunday the 21st! The Eagle is hosting a beer tasting on this night.

The Golden Eagle White Elephant Gift Exchange & Party is on Christmas Eve, which is Wednesday. (Only three thefts allowed.) We go up to my dad's place and slay a tree to ensure the return of the sun.

Christmas Day feast and paper-thrashing extravaganza.

New Year's Eve at the Eagle!

The EFL Snow Bowl and, probably, the EHL New Year Skate-A-Thon (or whatever we end up calling it) are on New Year's Day.

Lots o' fun, food, and silliness.

ECA park meeting on Sunday

At the Ester Community Association Meeting, there turned out to be a lot of park-related issues to discuss, so a separate park committee meeting was scheduled for Sunday, 3 pm, at Hartung Hall. Ye Olde Paper Plate went up in the local pub last night, and you'll probably see posters for it at the post office today. I called Mark Simpson last night to confirm that it really was happening (before I went to the Eagle and found Hannah drawing up the paper plate announcement).

Topics include: an Ester bus line, work parties, the rink, possible hockey boards, the kiosk, refurbishing the pavilion, park committee members, parties, etc. If you use the Ester Community Park, this is your chance to get your two cents in. Come on down!

Halloween trick-or-treat

The Ester Community Association is putting on its annual Halloween event for kids tonight, 6:30 pm at Hartung Hall. The trick-or-treating starts at 7 pm.

Lots o' parties tonight. I'll go as the plague, I think....

Running in the snow

Well, the last library fundraiser of the year is OVER. The Readers on the Run 5-k footrace through Ester took place on Sunday, in the thick white snowfall and cold breezy weather we had that morning, and I'm pooped. It was pretty exciting watching the runners come tearing around the corner of Old Nenana and Village Road, though. That and the start (and the arrival of Stanley, Red Lantern Award winner) was about all I saw of it--after that, I was too busy copying down the participants' magnetic poetry.

It was fun, though, even if I was half-frozen by the time it was over. We had twenty racers, and a dog or three, and a ton of poems and t-shirts. And the gazebo got used for the first time. Lots o' fun!

Now the only official event left for me this year is the ECA meeting on the 19th!

Ester market today

Yep, the third Third Thursday is upon us, and the August Ester Village Farmers and Craft Market. We've had two so far, one in June and one in July. They've been fun, and last time we had live music, too. Here's some photos from the previous ones.



In June, Tobias (ye olde Badde Whyte Dogge) became cover dog for The Ester Republic with this classic canine pose (photo taken by Amy Cameron).

The market was pretty small to start, but we did better than expected and it was a nice sunny day. We set up on the lawn off the village square. Kate Billington and I shared a tent; I sold books and papers and plant starts and library t-shirts, and she sold spices and plant starts and library t-shirts. We did pretty good.



In July, we had several new vendors (twice as many, in fact). This was Jessica and Sammi's table (photo taken by Monique Musick).

And of course, we had greenery, from Matt Springer and Rosie Creek Farm, and other food items (honey, spices, etc.). I spent too much...



This is Amy and her kids near the Rosie Creek Farm stand (photo by Monique).

Planting day, gazeboed, and sunny sunny summer

WHEEEEEE! Oh, man, it is sunny and warm and feels GREAT! I just LOVE this time of year: not too many bugs, the butterflies are out (saw my first one, an Alaska blue, down by the post office a few days ago--here's another nice photo), no smoke, hardly any rain, very few tourists, and it's not too hot! Well, the frost the other night was a bit chilly, but still!

A whole bunch of people turned up (late, of course, most of them--no need to hurry) for planting flowers around the village on Sunday. (This was the first EMCE event.) Mayor Hannah and Monique went off to Plant Kingdom to buy a bunch of flowers for the Eagle and the village, so at first it was just me and my nasturtiums and sunflowers and Scott Allen. Then Kate showed up, and then Maggie, and then the ball got rolling. Richard Gumm brought a bunch of vegetable-rated municipal compost. George Gianakopoulos showed up in straw hat and with a humongous amount of nasturtiums, marigolds, lettuces, sunflowers, and mysterious mixed whatnots from Calypso Farm, donated to the village! Dwight Deely brought petunias. Then Hannah and Monique came back with a whole flat of lobelias and some other goodies. (I took a bunch of photos, but now of course I can't find my camera so you'll all have to wait until later to see the festivities.)

So we were mixing dirt and sand and compost and peat and putting it in buckets and pots and old oil drums and boxes and who knows whatall and then planting a dizzying selection of flowering greeneries. Hannah and I planted stuff in the buckets around the old post office/library annex (that's officially the Old Post Office Espresso Library Annex, or OPOELA for those of you who like acronyms). Scott drove Kate and I down Village Road, stopping every twenty feet or so so that we could unload yet another basket or bucket and place it by the roadside. It was a blast, and I forgot clean about going over to Molly's at 3 to review the paperwork for our ECA nonprofit status. I was planting until after 6 pm!

Kate and I went down to the park and planted a couple of the planters. One of them we stuffed full of sunflowers. Somebody, Ruth, I think, had prepared the soil (but there was no sign of the perennials we'd planted last year, so they may have gotten dug up by accident, alas). She'd planted a park planter before the big frost, but everything looked pretty good, actually.

We brought eight hanging baskets down to the gazebo to hang up once we get hooks (and the rafters have been varnished). The old partially collapsed 55-gallon oil drum that was there and filling up with leaves we cleaned up a bit and filled up with dirt, and planted with a selection of mystery plants. Plus a nasturtium. Or two.

Hans has been working like mad on the gazebo, and now all the copper is on the cupola and the edge of roof, and a lot of the siding has been given its first coat of stain (I did a bunch of it yesterday afternoon and will finish it up tonight). He finished up the bracing yesterday (it looks so COOL!) and is going to work on the rough sanding tonight. Kate gave him some iced tea from the planting day; we drank some that day and then took the rest home. I took home the leftover pots and flats and a few flowers that didn't get planted, and then yesterday planted the remainder. Hannah and I brought the last few pots over to the OPOELA.

And I finally planted my garden, such as it is, with some of the leftover lettuce starts. My sunflowers and nasturtiums are finally coming up--I've got flats and flats of them. I'm going to be in real trouble once they start needing permanent homes. The squash seeds I saved from last year, French ronde de Nice that I got originally from Seeds of Change, FINALLY started to sprout. I was afraid that they'd maybe not ripened enough and were infertile, but nope, it looks like I'm going to be zucchiniing the neighborhood later this summer...

ECA meeting: jam packed

Interesting phrase, that: "jam packed." Packed like berries in jam?

Anyway, that's how it was in the spring ECA meeting at the hall, to which I was late because I forgot to print out the copies of the agenda and the bylaws proposal and remembered to do it only about five minutes before the meeting started. There were more people there than I think I've ever seen at a spring meeting. The EMCE was made an ad-hoc committee of the ECA, the park budget was raised to $500 a year (gas and fertilizer prices have shot up), and the Boy Scouts asked for $1000.

They didn't get it.

A few of us were sort of shocked. I mean, aren't the Scouts all about self-sufficiency and figuring out ways of doing things themselves? We voted to give them some seed money (I proposed $50 but a couple people suggested upping it to $100) for fundraisers, and then gave them a ton of ideas on how to raise money and do good for the community at the same time. One of the ideas was for a spaghetti feed or some such, combined with a new clean-up work party at the park.

That was another issue of some importance. Mark Simpson (park czar) said that only about three adults showed up, all day long, for the work party. The next day, 100 people showed up to play at the park, and left a mess. Mark was EXTREMELY discouraged, and proposed turning the park over to the borough. After all, he said, if there's not interest in maintaining it for the community, perhaps the park has outlived its usefulness as a community park and has become an albatross instead.

This is a real problem. There are a ton of people who live around here and use the Ester Community Park. Those people need to show up and work. Otherwise, it isn't really theirs, and they're just freeloading. These work parties are VERY important, and there are only one or two of them a year. That's not much to ask from the public, and when the attendance is as abysmal as last weekend's was, it can really wear down the core volunteers and make them wonder why the hell they even try.

So, folks, SHOW UP the next time there's a work party at the park! And there will be one soon—the park crew got less than a tenth of their tasks done. Watch for posters at the post office and Gold Hill. I will post a notice here, too, and on the web page for the park once I know for sure when it is.

Mark's discouragement let me know that I wasn't the only one feeling let down. I brought up the problem of the library: there's no point in trying to build a library if we can't get people to maintain it. And right now, I am the ONLY one cataloging and shelving books. So I brought this up, and explained that even though I've publicized this need, it's not getting answered, and so I called for volunteers to help shelve books. I whined and pleaded a bit, but I got three people to commit to helping out on a regular basis. Yay! Jan Ohmstede, Melinda Harris, and I think it was Cécile Lardon all volunteered. Jan and Melinda met me after the meeting and I showed them the routine at the library.

Matt Reckard said, and I agree, that it's ludicrous to try to build a library when we can't even maintain the community hall. The floor needs refinishing desperately and there's a couple of dangerous outlets that need fixing, plus the walls need repainting (the last time was when we had the first Blank Slate show there, I think). There's been materials waiting under the porch to redo the foundation for SEVEN YEARS! He said he's willing to work on it this summer if he has some help on it. I volunteered to work with him on this. So did a couple of others.

So, o people of the Ester area, we have our work cut out for us this summer. Ester's cool events and places don't just spring up on their own. They require work—they require YOU. You, personally, are responsible for them. That doesn't mean, however, that work parties are drudgery, although judging by the lack of attendance lately, you all seem to think so. That just shows that you haven't been to any! Ester work parties are among the best parties we have! And I mean that--good food, good drink, good companionship, music, etc. These things are parties, folks. (That's why they call 'em parties!) And of course, the best thing about them is that, rather than having just a hedonistic good time (nothing wrong with that, by the way), you get the sense of accomplishing something really worthwhile and meaningful to you and your community. Making Ester a better place means it's better for you.

This sense of community spirit is one of the reasons I moved to Ester in the first place, and it's what keeps me here. So: see you at a work party soon!

Gazebo supplies

Hans has been getting a LOT of people stopping and commenting on the gazebo construction. The day before yesterday he started running out of materials. Eric Glos and Don Cameron saved the day with 2 x 4s and plywood, and yesterday Matt Reckard pitched in with some tar paper. Bill Akiss threw in some cash for the cause, and Joe Geiss donated the money for the roofing material.

If you want to help, we still need logs peeled and sanded, and varnish or stain for the final finishing. We'll also be creating a cork board for it, and that will take a lot of gluing (we've got the corks!).

Lots of projects are starting up around the village today. The park cleanup party is today (always a big task), too!

Ester Ministry of Community Enterprise

or EMCE. This is a group of business owners that have been getting together this last week in response to the worrying question, "What'll we do to attract business now that the Ester Gold Camp has closed?" Well, after several of the People's Republic's biz owners mulled it over for a bit, Monique Musick of Photosynthesis took the initiative to call a meeting at Hartung Hall last Sunday. We hung out on the porch and brainstormed on several fronts for a while, with a few items being discussed (details in the upcoming May Ester Republic). Among these were:

• the library and the gazebo (more on that in the next post) as points of information for the tourons or others interested in visiting Ester businesses

• a website for Ester businesses (domain reserved by yours truly, site already in preparation, just needs the host to ready the nameserver for it and me to upload the pages)

• forming a sort of Ester "Chamber of Commerce"

• a craft/farmer's market (we settled on the Third Thursday of the month, starting June 19, 4 to 8 pm in the village square)

• a walking map of Ester points of interest and/or commerce

So then we met again last night (I'd forgotten about it until Nancy Burnham reminded me) at the Eagle, and did another bit of brainstorming, coming up with the name above (lots of other names were tried, some completely boring, some completely silly) and a mission statement. Maggie Billington brought a list of points of interest throughout Ester (historical, business, recreational, etc.) Monique will be making a little presentation to the ECA about the EMCE this Sunday (4 o'clock at the hall, folks), and brought some info on forming a nonprofit.

David Stone suggested having an old/antique car day, perhaps at the first Third Thursday market. This is done every year on opening day at the Ester Gold Camp, so the tradition is already established. It'll just be a bit delayed this year, and in the Golden Eagle parking lot instead of the Gold Camp parking lot.

Ester applicants to seat F

According to today's News-Miner, both Mark Simpson and Mike Musick are among the 28 applicants to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly seat vacated by Terry Aldridge. I didn't recognize any of the other 26 on the list as Ester-area residents, but Kate Billington tells me that Sally Andersen, a fisheries biologist, also lives in the area. If anyone knows of other candidates living in the Greater Ester Area, please let me know.

Both Mike and Mark have lived here a long time and are active members in the Ester Community Association and the village. I'll see if I can interview the three people above for the paper, along with any other Esterites.