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The cunning of the Cuskoo quim 300 sled dog races just underway. Thirty-mushers, one of the smallest fields ever for this race, began the Emperor of Earth trek with Swedish measure, Bo Berglund and Steve Licati of Knek first out of the shoot at noon today, both are rookies. Berglund, one of two international mushers, is driving the team that took my renanksman of Bethel to a record victory in the John Berg race race in Minnesota just a few weeks ago. We classify eight of the eighty-seven field for the Cuskoo quim 300 as rookies, but nearly all of those are experienced mushers who have earned reputations and shorter races. Also entered our half dozen well-known Ididarod names. There are a lot of good mushers in this race, but right now Rick Mackie of Coldfoot has to be the favorite. We won this race two years ago, took top otters in the first ever Coldfoot classic the year before that, and is the Ididarod champion of 1983.

Earlier this week, Mackie was asked how he sees his chances this year. I've got a good team here, best one I've ever entered a race with, the way I see it. I don't know though, it's kind of a test for sure because it's my dad and I have pretty much trained together this year. You know, I've been up at Coldfoot the whole training season. We just moved up there, Patty and Brendan on dogs, and I have about fifty dogs at home, but all the ones we're training. And now I have eight of my dogs here in seven of his, and you know, they're the best damn ones we've got. But Mackie says it's a dog race. Anything can happen. He also said he hoped to test this team against Rick Swenson's dogs. Swenson, winner of multi-Ididarod's and twice the K-300 champ, was signed to show here, but the report is handler problems have kept him at home. Who else does Mackie see his major competition? Well, in the lists are Harry Sutherland of Delta Junction, Guy Blankenship of Fairbanks, Sue Furman of Flathorn Lake, and at least one other. Wonka, I'll never count him out, you know, and he's probably getting better dogs every

year and learning a lot too. He definitely, it's his race of the season, and any of them kind of guys, you know, you got always watch out for him. Like a lossily from New Stoyahuck and Bristol Bay area was second to Mackie in 85. Weather conditions for the race are guardedly favorable. The teams wouldn't like the temperatures a bit cooler. They may get them that way before the finish. Snow is excellent on the downriver end of the trail. The ice is reported rough between Kalsgag and Antioch, and the snow is said to be thinner on the Whitefish Lake trail. Last year, many mushrooms said the 300 trail was the best marked of any race. Same crew did the job this year, and we're looking for another fast race, especially on the downriver lakes. For the Alaska Public Radio Network, this is Ed Andrus in Bethel. The

The mushrooms in the Costco Queen 300 sled dog race have passed a halfway point. Five and a liters were last seen about 330 this afternoon nearing the white fish-like checkpoint, some 140 miles from the finish line in Bethel. Leading the pack is Swedish-musher Bo Berglund. Berglund, a rookie, is driving the team which Myron Anksman recently jolved the victory

in the John Berglies race in Minnesota just two weeks ago. Berglund left Antioch with 13 dogs, right behind Berglund is Rick Mackie with 14 dogs, Mackie the only former K-300 champ who's in the race, and Berglund both seem very strong and may be starting to pull away from some of the other mushrooms. Right behind Mackie is John Massick of Willow with 12 dogs, Sue Furman of Flathorn Lake, also with 12 dogs, Willie Fittka from Marshall, again with 12 dogs. Those are the five mushrooms who seem to be contesting the race at this moment. Earlier today, Jan Massick won the $1,500 half-way prize awarded by a last-com. Massick pulled into Antioch at 5-01 this morning more than an hour ahead of Harry Southerland of Delta Junction.

Southerland is currently running in six positions, having passed a guy-blankenship on the trail between Antioch and Whitefish Lake, Blankenship was stopped along the trail. The local mushers, Steve Chamberlain of Antioch, is in eighth position, Gus Chachnop and Bunker Wastly of Nustoyahawk, a running 10th and 11th. Walter Williams is in 12th position and looking good with 10 dogs, and Terry Hoffman of Antioch is currently running in 13th place. The total purse for the race is $50,000, $10,000 of that awaits the winner at the finish line. The race record of 44 hours and 24 minutes set by Myron Anksman last year is not considered to be in jeopardy. The pace of the race is slower this year due to a recent snowfall. The race is expected to end sometime around noon tomorrow, and will be carried statewide on the Bush satellite and locally here live on KY UK, will go on the air as soon as a

musher is within 10 to 15 minutes of battle, so you'll just have to listen to the radio, listen to the hourly updates we have 24 hours a day, and that'll let you know when the mushers are going to get in. Reporting from the K-300, this is Rich Shottoff and KY UK News. With the finish line, hundreds of race fans and KY UK's Richie Goldstein were on hand to cheer this year's champion. Here he comes, Rick Mackie, the winner of the 1987, Cusco Prince 300 sled dog race. No man's land to here, which is horrible, horrible. I just had a pump and run all the way, even though the wind anybody pushing me that hard. Yeah, I haven't got a boot on any of these dogs, no problems, no problem.

The environment was pretty darn easy on their feet, actually. It was just a fast pace for the trail conditions, that was the hardest part, you know. It was a cat and mouse, pretty much from any act right through a cow's gig, and then you started pulling away, got in front. Yeah, it's hard to say, I don't know. I think I kind of won the race going into Tulisack, and then I just had to hang on to it from Tulisack to here. I got a jump while I was only 11 minutes in front of Sue and 30-sum in front of Ball. But that's when I really took the lead to take it. Mackie was considered the race favorite. From the start, he was right to that title, was challenged throughout the event, fellow I did her on veteran's Jan Masik and Sue Furman, pushed the face into every checkpoint. And when Mackie declared his six-hour layover in Kelskeg, Masik pushed on in the cool of the night to take the halfway prize at any act. No one has yet taken both the halfway and finish line trophies in the same cusp of

Quim 300 race. This year was no exception, as Masik faltered on the downriver run was passed and passed again and finished six. It wasn't the veterans who gave Mackie a 1983 Ididarod winner the most trouble. A measure from Storlin, Sweden by the name of Bo Berglant, running his first race, came from back in the pack to full within four minutes of Mackie as they started downriver again. Berglant was a rookie, but an exceptional one. More importantly, his dogs were veterans, owned by Bethel, Masher, Myron, Anxeman. The team more, at least some members of it, set the record time for this trail last year and had just won the John Bergris race in Minnesota weeks before. This team always has put on its best performance when heading home to Bethel. Berglant challenged Mackie, but was happy with his finish. I know it's a word class dogs, you know, last season, a lot of innings and beginning this season with the first place and second place is the dogs, dogs down a lot and Myron's coaching too.

Only 12 minutes separate the two teams. Where could Bo have made up that time if at all? Well, he lost it. He was, he lost about a half-hour or 45 minutes between two exact and Kalsgag last night, and Kalsgag in two exact. Yeah, he was in front and he had later problems, and by the time we get him scored away, he was 38 minutes behind. Berglant didn't pass Mackie, but he didn't show enough speed to catch and pass another good team, that of Sue Furman, the Flathorn Lake, Masher also stayed with Mackie almost, but not quite to the end. She finished third in her first race here in 1985, the same spot earned her $5,000 this time. He was. He was. Where did he pass you? Uh, down on the river, about two, three miles from the bank, I guess, a couple miles from the bank. Yeah, he was heading home fast. Berglant was 29 minutes behind the winning time and 17 minutes behind Berglant. Fourth and fifth places went to Ididarot and Kuskoo Quinn 300 veterans, Guy Blankenship of Fairbanks, and Harry Sutherland of Delta Junction.

They were just 21 minutes apart and about two hours behind Mackie across the line. Gen 6 was massive of willow past twice in the last 50 miles of the race. The Kuskoo Quinn 300 yields a first of $50,000 with $10,000 going to Mackie. Welcome to the continuation of the Kuskoo Quinn 300 sled dog race awards banquet, we're at the Kuskoo Quinn men with our 21st and last finisher Ron Southern, who finished the race in 97 hours and one minute to take the traditional Red Lantern award, and we're having a banquet with he and his family. He's seated with his son, Hubert, and we have race committee members and officials and sponsors here to honor Ron for completing the race for the second time. Ron, tell us about your trip down the river. Well, here at the Kuskoo, it was pretty hard, but it was pretty uneventful after that and there were no problems, but I got way behind in between Kuskoo. Were there any officials or spectators or friends for you out there in the trail?

Between here at Kuskoo, there was a quite a crowd there at Akiak and two of Kuskoo when I got there. On the way home. On the way up, but it got pretty lonely coming back by myself. Did you see anybody out in the white fish loop on your trail? The National Garden was out there on a maneuver when I talked to them. Were there any checkers in the way home? None. How did you determine your two-hour mandatory at Tulig site? I declared it with Joe DiMando. And did you have any particular problems, or did they just get a little behind and decide to go a little slow? Well, I had five of them fighting after they slowed down a little bit, but five of them trying to make love and three of them pulling. And then later on, I got wore out fighting with them and they're getting tangled up by the time I got the two of them. Because I was wore out and we went through Bogus Creek. I hit a tree and ricocheted into a stump and wiped the sled out and took a lot of time

to get out of there with no handlebars on the sled. But after we got out on the main river again, there was no more problems. Well, on behalf of the committee, I'd like to say that the may not have been a lot of race support for you at the end and the way of veterinarians and other race officials. The committee wants you and others like you to race the race every year and we don't care when you come in. If you come in a week from now, we're still going to have a banquet for you or anybody else is running back at the pack. We don't ever want to have a rule that prevents people from running the race at whatever speed they want to run. And we enjoyed your race and we hope you enjoyed it too and we have some awards to make you. Well, the traditional red ladder, actually all that's read about it is the container. But that's the honorary award for last place in the race and that's yours. And we have a belt buckle for the 1987 finisher, the 21st finisher, that's yours.

And we have a check for $100 which is prize money for 21st place and that's also yours. Do you have any sponsors or anybody else you'd like to thank? Not this time. Okay. We have a couple other matters of business to take care of today. Those of you who were at the banquet or listened on the radio on Sunday heard that we had a delay the drawing for the Flemi South, two tickets, wherever a last-care line flies winter. Today we're going to do that. So I'll ask Arlen Fagerstrom of a last-care line to give the tickets one last spin and we'll have our red ladder and winner run southern, reach in the pot and then pick out the winner of the two free tickets to wherever a last-care line flies. Go ahead, Ron. And there's the winner and I'll read it.

The winner is Wendy Groves of Box 723 Bethel. So Wendy, get in touch with us or our last-care lines and we'll take care of your tickets and you can head south. I'd like to thank you all for coming here today. Thank you, Ron, for making a good race for us and we'll see you next year. Leave back, watch out. The Governor told each department to submit a budget that had a 20% cut. Our total cut was 18.6% from what dollar amount last year to this current dollar amount? From about $137 million last year to about $123 million. I've got the details. I don't know. The big cuts that came out of our budget was there

was 20% of the revenue-sharing municipal assistance budget was cut. This isn't the Governor's proposed budget. That's about $22 million. Also we proposed the elimination of some tax rebate programs. There's some programs where we give money back to the municipalities so that disabled veterans and senior citizens don't have to pay their property tax. In the proposed budget, that's eliminated. The reason for that is that it was our decision that there's just certain things to stay can't afford to do anymore and rather than having across the board cut that we should decide that some programs just have to be eliminated so that others can survive and we can do a good job with other programs. Why don't you focus in on what an 18.6% decrease in funds is going to mean for the delivery of services and grants and programs out here in the Delta?

In my proposal, it means absolutely nothing because the Governor told me and I've told everybody that the regional offices aren't going to get hit at all. Now the legislature passes the budget in terms of what I'm submitting, they're not going to get hit at all. So the staffing will remain the same, the delivery of services will remain at the same level. That's what the Governor's budget proposes. Here again, it seems to me it would be stupid to cut back staffing in the rural areas for the department that's supposed to deal with rural areas. That's just the opposite. In fact, other departments of state government are having to pull out of the rural areas so it's more important than ever that we stay out here. So I've told people that before they eliminate a bus job, they better eliminate funding for my job because of the most important jobs in the department are the ones in known Cotsubu, Bethel Dillingham and Kodiak.

That's where the real interface with our clients happen so we've got to have a strong presence out here. When the governor made his speech, he quickly touched on programs that will be increased or kept at full funding and those which will be reduced or deleted. If you weren't listening close enough, it's possible that you might have missed one sentence which could affect every man, woman, and child in Bushel, Alaska. State funds for the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Public Radio and Television, and the Rural Alaska Television Network were deleted. The leading the budget for the Rural Alaskan Television Network could mean the end of television viewing in most Bush communities. The deletion of funding for public television affects both rural and urban Alaskans but is of special concern in this area where KYUK is the only source of local programming and news in particular.

I spoke with KYUK's General Manager, Jerry Brigham, about the governor's proposal. He explained what would happen to KYUK if the state did indeed cut all funding for public broadcasting in Alaska. Turn out the lights, the party's over. It really, the station would go off the air. State funding for KYUK is about 65% of its budget with the federal government picking up about 25% and local funding about 10% we couldn't survive. No station in the state could survive if state funding was gone with the exception of maybe Anchorage. How much money would be lost to the whole state and federal funding? The fall state funding was lost to radio and television stations. The state would lose $3 million in federal funding. With the state having to provide such services as health aides and the village public safety officer program in this area, is public broadcasting that important?

Yeah, I think it is. If we were in Chicago or if we were in New York public broadcasting would be a frill and frills do get cut when the budget gets tight. But here it is more than a frill. It is a basis of life. It is a very important service. It's the communication link that ties with 56 villages and we are the only choice out there. We are life and death for a lot of our residents and I think we are in a sense a part of health and a part of social services and a part of the whole quality of life for this whole area, it is very very important that we stay instead of being considered as just a nicety that people sit down with when they get off work. What if K why you can't have a shut-its-doors for a year or say? And then the state was able to get some more money and we were able to get the money back to start the station up again. Would that be a problem?

Well yeah it would be a problem if the station is off the air for a year we would have to apply again for licenses the equipment would have to come out of storage. What you would have to be sure you did was that when you close the station down everything must be put back in such a way that it would not deteriorate, that it could be brought out and it could be reused. Of course another problem with that is after a year much of the equipment might not still be there. A lot of the equipment at K why UK was purchased with federal grants and as such it belongs to the federal government for ten years and they might well repossess it. Broadcasting equipment for the most part is a real boon on the market and if the state wanted to get their money back off of it they could very quickly. So I don't know what would be left after a year. But the public is concerned about losing K why UK and radio and television in this area in general.

What can it do? I know the public is concerned about it. I don't know if it's really sunken what their lives would be like with no TV and radio but when it does sink and I hope what they will do is contact their governor and their legislators immediately and tell them how important it is and ask them to reconsider this zero cut and put the money back that it's necessary that communications stay alive and well in the bush. In future news cast we'll take a look at the effects of the governor's proposals on other services the state provides to this area. The K why UK news I'm Mitch Trotto. Some of those who spoke were in favor of keeping the city manager and others were against the idea. The reasons cited for the terminating whittoms contract included his poor judgment regarding placement of the seawall safety letters, the illegal street use of the city's fuel truck and his unwillingness to work with one of the seawall engineers.

Those in favor of keeping the city manager felt Whittom had done a good job at managing the city and its budget and they believed it was because of his hard work that the city was getting on the right track. The public comment session was followed by the council vote with Diane Carpenter, Ben Dale, Helen Edge and Jerry Cortheus voting in favor of Whittom's termination. After the decision was made councilman Fran Rich announced he was resigning and left the meeting. Whittom showed a degree of humor in spite of his situation. Before leaving the meeting he presented councilman Cortheus and Dale with the license plates from the city's fuel truck. The council briefly discussed who should manage the city while they search for a replacement for Whittom. They finally decided to hold a special meeting this Thursday to make that decision. That meeting will be held at 730 tomorrow in the Bethel City offices. In other business council decided to send the draft zoning ordinance revision back to the Planning Commission to be reworked.

During a public hearing on that item several Bethel residents voiced their opposition to the zoning proposal saying it was too complicated for a community like Bethel. Many people address specific sections of the ordinance and the city council requested that the Planning Commission review those concerns when they begin their next revision. People also decided to hold a work session tomorrow following the special meeting. That will be to discuss whether a study should be done regarding operation of the cargo dock. Finally the council decided that only two capital projects should be included on the legislative priorities list. The number one priority will be rock bottom protection and the second water and sewer projects. Looking for KY UK, I'm Anita Hawkins. Well many of the entries are traditional native foods that we have in this area of the fry bread and a goudic and dry fish and some canned salmon but we had an unusual entry

I thought it was unusual anyway. This is pickled moose heart that was entered and it has onions and looks like green peppers and then the pieces of moose heart and I thought that was sort of an unusual entry, partly because it was something very new this year. Thank you. . .

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. . . . . . . . . the environment. Major Ivan and Captain Atzregg explained how close to a real world these trainings are if one should break out some day. Whenever we're in training we strive for realism wherever possible and to the maximum mobility. We try to make our trainings as realistic as possible in all areas, that effort is common throughout all the forces that train and exercise this is. They make an evaluation of how the people react and call environment, particularly those people that are not acclimatized such as we are, and they evaluate how the equipment functions and how the people react and then they make recommendations how these things

can be improved in a real world environment. During military training exercises such as brim frost, additional aviation equipment is brought in from other companies such as the 1898 Aviation Company. But as far as training is concerned both men commented on what the 21,000 men and women need to know, first major Ivan. We have an annual training program which basically starts around September and throughout the year the individual soldier is taught the tactics, weapons and other individual soldier training program and then that goes off the throughout the training year and at annual training that is what we test to see if the individual had picked it up and

to see if we need more improvement than what were the weak areas and then we look at that for the next year to develop our training plan. Depends upon the soldiers or what they call a military occupation specialty. The train is medics, infantrymen, aviators, lirts, pilots and aviator mechanics, drivers, maintenance people, supply people, so it depends upon what the individual soldiers specialty is. The brim frost exercises began on January 17 and runs until February 1st. Reporting for KY UK, I'm Lillian Michael. We're at the finish line of the Cussell Queen 300 where 21 mush is just recently completed the trip to Antioch and back. The final mush around Southern came in on Monday, but he wasn't the last competitor to complete this year's Cussell Queen 300.

Bingo is an 8 year old wheel dog who has competed in 6 Cussell Queen 300s winning 2 in the team belonging to Myron Aksman. Not being able to keep up the pace with the rest of the Aksman's team, Bingo was one of 8 or 9 dogs. The Aksman gave to Bethel mush a Brian Sanders for this year's race. Bingo did a good job for Sanders on the way up to Antioch, but had to be dropped. He got sick between Kelskag and Antioch. I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with him. He's eating up until then, but he bought halfway up there. He just quit working and got sick. Apparently, Bingo recovered after Sanders left and decided he didn't want to be left behind. So he headed down the trail back to Bethel. Apparently, he slipped his collar, which is one of his more famous tricks around the dog yard when he wasn't quite happy. If he didn't think he was getting enough chow or enough exercise, he just slipped his collar and take off.

Now it's not known if Bingo completed the loop around Whitefish Lake, but he did show up over the weekend at the Cuskag checkpoint. On Monday, Myron told me that he'd been caught in Kelskag. He checked right into Kelskag. He found the checker, checked in there, and maybe took a little rest, and they decided to tie him up. But Bingo had other ideas. Having already taken his six-hour mandatory layover in Antioch, Bingo decided there was no reason to stick around. So he slipped his collar once again and continued on the trail back to Bethel. We're not sure if he took the mandatory two-hour in Tulex Act. He looked pretty fresh, so we figured maybe he took a stop there and wondered whether that was. I'm sure he found enough to eat along the trail because a lot of the mushrooms will just throw their dogs a snack and half of them won't eat on the way home anyway because they're kind of tired. And he'd gotten into my porch and made sure that he got a good dessert.

He'd torn up all my garbage and made quite a mess when I found it. But he ran right up to me and looked pretty happy, looking no worse for the wear anyway. So Bingo has returned home. Maybe not an amazing story as some dog starry's go, but one thing's for sure. This is one determined dog, the dog who wouldn't be dropped. Okay, why you came, Bethel, I'm Rich Chata. Over 50 skiers of all ages and physical disabilities used specially adapted ski equipment to experience the thrill of skiing. All were participants in the handicap learned to ski clinic held at Highland Hills, Minnesota. The clinics held all through the winter at ski areas around the country. They're organized by the National Handicap Sports and Recreation Association and sponsored by the Southland Corporation, parent of 7-Eleven stores. The instructors many disabled themselves are specially trained in adaptive ski techniques.

Those without use of their legs are taught to maneuver sit skis by shifting their weight and dragging small ski poles in the snow. Skiers with limited leg use use a ski brace to hold skis in proper position. Those with just one leg use one ski and two outriggers or poles with small skis attached to them. Participants learn more than skiing at the clinics. They learn to have confidence despite this amount. Ron Hopper was a ski racer until an accident 20 years ago, left him confined to a wheelchair. Today, Ron is an NHSRA organizer, six ski instructor and champion sit ski racer. Can you imagine what somebody who's been in a chair 15 or 16 years, who'd never dreamed of being on the top of a mountain sign, who can grab the snow that can breathe the air. And then you can get up speeds to 40 or 50 miles an hour, I mean, it is such a rush. It's such a high cookbauer executive director of NHSRA and a lifelong skier lost a leg in Vietnam but regained his confidence by returning to ski.

And we have a motto, if I can do this, I can do anything. And it's a real confidence builder. It really does help a person to regain self confidence and rebuild that self image. After a half a day of ice fishing on Tuesday, the awards were given to the senior citizens

who entered the Derby Wednesday. First place went to Marie Wozleukat, seven fish in the largest pipe. Marie received a trophy and is certificate for place in first. Also placing first for the next largest pipe cut was many Francis of Bethel. Two women tied for second place, Elsie Active and Lucy Jacob, who were given certificates for having caught six fish each. And third place went to Marie Hunter Wozleukat 3. All of the participants of the senior citizens ice fishing derby received certificates. We spoke with Dan Bergman of the Parks and Recreation Department about the annual State Fair event. Good? Went pretty good. Good. It was the day, the weather was great, there was some snow drifts on the way down, but it was pretty easy.

It was fun. Let's do it again. Were you, did you yourself go fishing? Yeah, I tried. I didn't have any luck though. Our congratulations to Marie Wozleukat this year's senior citizens ice fishing derby winner. Turning for KYK, I'm Lillian Michael. Senator Binkley explained that one of the most important areas proposed for cuts by the governor is in the revenue sharing and municipal assistance programs. This is money the state provides directly to municipal governments, such as the city of Bethel and local village governments. When a Cooper proposed a 20% cut in that budget, he also indicated he favors decreases in the longevity program, which is money the state provides for Alaskans over 65. The longevity bonus, the proposal by the governor was to reduce the payments from $250 down to $200 and then to establish a needs-based program where anybody who made more than

$20,000 in a person over 65 that made more than $20,000 would not be eligible for the program. We've suggested some changes that instead of reducing the payment, monthly payment from $250 to $200, keeping it at $250 and reducing the limit on income from $20,000 down to $15,000 or some other number that we give us the same savings. One of the governor's other budget proposals includes not opening the recently completed Youth Detention Facility in Bethel. Binkley said he is trying to come up with a way the facility can be opened in a limited capacity, perhaps not utilizing all the detention beds. Not have all the beds in detention, but some of the beds in residential care, and maybe four beds dedicated to detention, hopefully we'll be able to come up with a solution

that will get that facility opened and utilized. Drug abuse grants, alcohol abuse grants, and mental health grants were all reduced. The drug abuse grants by 5%, alcohol by 10%, and mental health grants by 15%. Again, these were the first proposals that the governor presented, and there's a lot of oppositions to many of those, and so he's going to reconsider some. Power cost equalization was reduced by 20% in his budget. The BPSO budget as well as the troopers budget was reduced by 10%. However, it appears that most of the BPSO reduction was in administrative and oversight functions of those departments. Domestic violence and sexual assault, that's the funding that goes to organizations like the Tundra Women's Coalition that was reduced in his budget by 17%.

The correctional facility in Bethel was reduced by about 7%. On the area that he did increase in his budget was daycare, that was increased 28%, not by the amount of daycare assistance given to an individual family, but hopefully to reduce the waiting period or the waiting line that people have to get assistance for daycare. So that was one encouraging note in his budget. The senator said another encouraging note could come in the LKSD budget. He says although money to local school districts is slated for cuts, a new funding formula which is under discussion can actually increase the LKSD budget by 3%. Vickley said the main difference between the governor's proposals and what may come out of the Senate's finance committee is that some senators feel that the governor's proposals

shift the burden of paying for services from the state to local communities. The Senate would like instead to cut down the government bureaucracy and keep the programs which deliver services directly to the people and the communities who need them. Vickley said he agrees with a state income tax and using the earnings from the permanent fund especially to retire the current $850 million deficit in the fiscal 1987 budget. However he cautioned that if the state shifts responsibility for delivering services to local communities who will then have to raise taxes in order to pay for these services, levy in a personal income tax on top of that could cause serious damage to an already weakened economy. In that though, I'm Rich Toronto. You're not born with respect, you are an act. That is a theme the VPSO program is concentrating on during training in order to bring out

the leadership qualities in these times of budget declines. The program's coordinator Gloria Simians is those involved in public safety are a necessity in rural Alaska. But what happens if the program should have to close? I don't know if the VPSO program was defunded, then we'd go back to the old law enforcement system of depending on the state troopers to come in. The village people would have to call the troopers and have them come in for any major crimes that happen. The governor has recommended that the trooper academy and sit be closed down. The VPSOs are trained at that academy. How many explains what would happen if it closes down? I don't know how in the world we would manage to train the VPSOs for that critical training that they received down in Sitka. Unless we started using our local resources, the college, whatever, because right now the public safety academy is the only police training available in the state of Alaska.

What we're trying to focus more on regional problems and training the VPSOs in dealing with those will have a regional training session for a week at the end of April to the first of May and we want to focus on suicide intervention and prevention. Child sexual abuse, basic reporting that the VPSOs are required to do to the Department of Public Safety. One thing that's new is we want to do something to build up the leadership skills in the VPSOs. Our VPSOs are leaders in their communities and there's a lot that they can be doing as far as crime prevention and education in the community. So we want to get those skills from them and build them up to where they're comfortable in their role as a community leader.

If the region was returned to the old law enforcement system, Simeon says the village police officers or VPSOs would have the same powers of VPSOs but there is no training available in the state for VPSOs. In fact, I was talking to Lieutenant Godfrey who was in charge of the VPSO program statewide and he said that when the VPSO program was in place, they'd go and train the VPSO down in Sitka but it was very rare that a VPSO ever saw the state trooper. In comparing the VPSO program to the old system, Simeon favored the VPSO program because the officers are training emergency situations, CPR and others. She says the VPSOs are usually the first to respond to crime scenes and they can analyze the situation and call the troopers if they are needed. All in all, Simeon hopes for some type of law enforcement for rural Alaska but with these declining revenues is we're going to be looking more at those villages that have non-productive VPSOs and non-supportive councils when we have to start making those cuts.

Reporting for KYUK, I'm Lillian Michael. The granting program which is called preventative services that funds a lot of programs like ours has been cut completely. So we don't even have a fund of money to which we can apply. If that doesn't change, there is no funding available for this program. Established in 1981, the Swapsa program pursued three main goals, clever and identifies those objectives. We provide prevention education to children throughout the Delta, education to professionals and education to the community at large to parents and to other concerned people. We also provide treatment and intervention with cases of sexual abuse and we work directly with the children to provide treatment or at least support and counseling to assist them through the immediate consequences of the abuse itself.

And then we also work to try to provide some village-based services for children. In the last seven months alone, Swapsa has made 61 educational presentations and has seen 36 children and seven parents. We asked Cleven how critical this program is and she says that like many of the budget cuts which people are facing, it's a step backwards. The program now has systems in place whereby they can go to schools to teach children prevention education. Cleven says the schools can implement the same type of programs but the teachers might not have the time to focus on them due to other priorities. Cleven sees one particular type of service as being very important. The services to child victims will be more critically hurt. There is little in the way of counseling support for child victims with the exception of mental health and usually the most severe cases are reserved for mental health because they are already overloaded.

Swapsa is able to step into the intermediate sort of range of children who have been traumatized and certainly every child has been sexually abused has been traumatized and we can help all the children who are referred to us. Cleven says last year they were able to obtain additional funding when the legislators came up with re-appropriated money out of the governor's budget. However this year that money doesn't look too promising as other programs with similar financial problems are trying to keep their services alive. Reporting for KYK this is Marie Jankowski. At that meeting the Fish and Wildlife Service led by Dr. Rogers proposed that hunting on Emperor Geeseby closed in 1987. The Waterfowl Conservation Committee felt that by itself it can't make that decision. The Waterfowl Conservation Plan is made up and accepted by and run by the villages and

only if the villages agree to something like a closure could there be a closure? Landry says as a result of the meeting the WCC told Fish and Wildlife to hold meetings in 12 coastal villages. Dr. John Rogers the Assistant Regional Director for Refugees and Wildlife is also involved. Dr. Rogers is responsible for wildlife programs on refuges and also the migratory bird programs both on and off refuges in Alaska. He says for the last four years the Emperor Geese populations have been declining now numbering about 57,000 birds. The Yukon Cusco and Delta Goose Management Plan has a provision in it that if the geese fall below that number then the season would be closed. And so we have proposed to the Waterfowl Conservation Committee that would be closed. We discussed this with the committee last spring when we first became aware that the

numbers had decreased. But the village meetings for this week and the next won't be all about emperors. The discussions will also cover the three other species in the Goose Management Plan. Our recommendation would be that the hunting of Emperor Geese sees entirely as it is right now of course under the provision of the plan Emperor Geese are not supposed to be taken once nesting begins and there would be no taking until the birds are back on the wing again in late summer. Right now the plan permits hunting in the spring before nesting begins and again in the fall after the birds are back on the wing. If the provisions of the plan are violated and we become aware of that we join with the Waterfowl Conservation Committee and the Association of Village Council Presidents and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to visit the area where the violations occur and explain to the people what explained to them what the plan calls for and to urge

them to obey the provisions in the plan and explain why that's important that everybody do that. Landry says those traveling to the villages are very interested in what the villagers have to say and how they feel about Emperor hunting this year. The Waterfowl Conservation will listen to what the villagers have to say and they'll be meeting with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game probably sometime in February to decide exactly what to do. Those involved will finish negotiating the Goose Management Plan this month and in March. Reporting for KY UK, Arnele and Michael. For thousands of years Eskimos from both sides of the Bering Sea lived a common existence. They hunted together, they traded with each other and they married. Then suddenly 40 years ago the Russian government banned travel across the Bering Straits separating friends and family until this day.

Last year the Alaskan Performing Artist for Peace broke that barrier by traveling to Russia to perform and now the group is ready to continue to break down the walls that separate people who once shared a common existence. Casey Valtter, Co-chan of the Group, explains the plans for this year's trip. This summer we hope to bring seven Soviet Eskimos from the village of Whelan which is located directly across the Bering Straits to Alaska, the short way which is actually only two miles between the Diametes by skin boat. By skin boat. We're going to bring them some way. They might have to go all the way around but it looks very positive at least now from the Soviet side that they'll be able to come the short way for the first time in 40 years. Is there a young people, there are dancers and singers that it's a dance group actually called White Sail to travel to Greenland last year. Yuri Rütke, a Jukchi author, recently visited St. Lawrence Island and spoke about what he found there.

First of all, I was very excited when I read List of family names from Unezi, it's an old name of Novochaprina, where the guided people just the same who live now in St. Lawrence Island. And many of them recognize the relatives and some of them describe this as my little brother, maybe any kind of relatives. And as my impression, they still dream to visit their brothers. And also many people told me that they are ready to be first examples to improve relationship between our countries.

And I already should mention that our leader, Gorbachev, in his speech in summer in Laguosto, said that we can make this remarkable place, there's a example for improving relationship on other fields of our relationship between the countries. This evening there will be an evening of discussion and slides in preparation for the summer visit of the Siberian Eskimos. The talk begins at 8 p.m. at the Tundra Drumms Building and the public is invited to attend. In Bethel, I'm Rich Trotto. This board is an instrument of history, like all of us who swept up in a strong current

of modern history and carried along by it, hopes of our time. Today, one of those dominant ideas is conservation, and Alaska, when someone says that, you immediately think of it. You know, I asked him to call him a fishy in checking a chicken, or a ball chum chum chum chum movement in the summer. This particular problem dates back in 1980 to this reason, the board stated that development of our expansion of mixed-top fisheries should be discouraged. However, in the same policy statement, the board recognized that in case the ball standing in the mid-stop fisheries, where it is not feasible to be located, and where a local economy has been developed around the fisheries, such fisheries may continue to fire that the fishing have been on the mid-stop, and does not increase in the harvest rate, not that the amount of individual spots.

Ball's passes are only about 15 p.m. in the ball's pass area. This program will take a look at this complex problem, who excerpts from the hours and hours of testimony presented to the board during four full days of deliberation time requests. In doing so, we'll also see how the board of fish reaches a decision on a complex issue such as this. The consequence is that the customer's conditions co-op explains that the issue is more than just an allocation of income from fishing for their four-year national and out of what they get from fishing. The after-pay is at first. Following the testimony, Guy Gondberg of Alaska Department of Fish and Gains summarized the performance projections with all terms on the Yukon River next year. We learned that in the Yukon River this year, we're up in 1986, that if we only get 300, I'd call for the question on the closing of 139.

It wasn't fair with the motion to adopt a proposal number 139, saying the vibration right now. The polls following the decision, board chairman Ron Joel and selected a committee made up a advisory board chairman involved in the issue. What you just heard is a sample of the type of event which would normally be sponsored by the Bethel Council on the Arts. The program's director, Renee Patton, describes what it might be like without further state funding. If there was no funding from the State Arts Council next year, then there would be no performances, there would be no exhibits, there would not be no arts and crafts sale, there would be no piano visits, piano tuner visits to Bethel and surrounding villages, everything would

have to be coordinated on a volunteer basis. Of those services affected, there are those which are likely to be impacted the most. The Econcelain the Arts provides a performing tour to Bethel and surrounding villages sometimes. That would be greatly cut, that would be the program that would suffer the most under this. We wouldn't be able to bring in as many performers. Last year we had 11 performances. We will have five and next year we might be able to bring in two. So that program will be cut a lot. The puppet theater, musicians John McCutcheon and writers in the sky are examples of performing tours which were brought to Bethel by the Arts Council. Another service which will be affected by the cuts is the artist in residency program. This program allows Alaska school children to learn from professional artists. Captain doesn't think the school district can come up with the matching funds needed

to keep this program going. She thinks the number of artists visiting the schools will diminish. Word of the governor's proposal to cut a funding for the Alaska State Council on the Arts has prompted some reaction from a group of concerned citizens. The group is small but their aim is clear as stated by patent. We are going out here locally informing an arts advocacy group to try and come up with ways to work on getting the state arts council reinstated in the budget for next year. Pat and says that although the local arts council is small they usually are able to come up with matching funds year after year. They are also fortunate in that they have a lot of volunteers who keep the program going reporting for K. Y. K. this is Murray John Kowski. Thank you.