District may give free gas cards during a bus strike
+What to do in Mat-Su, another opening on Palmer City Council
Welcome to your weekly Mat-Su Sentinel newsletter!
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers …” Oh wait, that’s supposed to be about the Postal Service.
But it can also be about your intrepid Mat-Su Sentinel team, which now includes me, our freelancer Matt, and our new business and funding support employee, Sophie! Thanks to your contributions and a competitive grant we won from a national funder late last year, we get to take just a few of the tasks of running this news business off my plate. Thank you.
But there’s always more to do, and I’m grateful for the ever-so-slight decrease in urgent news January has gifted me. I’m working on some behind-the-scenes projects and longer-term stories. In the meantime, I have a trio of interesting headlines for you this week.
But first! Mat-Su Sentinel supporters make our world go ’round -- and by that, I mean your local financial support keeps the doors open and the lights on. The Sentinel is free to read, but it is absolutely not free to operate.
Here are just some of the bills I paid this month: $45 to prepare tax forms for the contractors who helped me last year; $1,100 for a new iPhone to make sure I can keep taking your calls and responding to your emails on the go; $80 for a new iPhone case so the fancy new phone doesn’t break when I drop it while trying to carry all of my various reporting items to and from my car; $100 for the Tiny News Collective membership that covers the costs of our website platform; $20 for ChatGPT to help me edit news stories and crunch data.
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OK—now for the news and insider scoop. (Looking for just the headlines? Scroll down!)
🚌 Mat-Su school district may offer gas cards if bus drivers strike. It’s an old idea remade into a new proposal: If bus drivers strike next month, the Mat-Su School District might give parents gift cards for gas to help soften the blow.
A little background: Bus workers and the bus contractor, Durham, have hit a wall in negotiations for a new worker contract. Just what is holding up the process depends on who you ask. Union officials say the stalemate is primarily about safety, including driver training and whether workers need to pay out of pocket for additional medical checks, which the union says are unnecessary. Officials with Durham’s parent company say the hold-up is all about salary, including wage and pension increases.
But one thing is for sure: The issue could result in a worker strike—a step that would leave bus-reliant students without a sure way to get to school and parents and guardians scrambling to problem-solve. The district has funding set aside for transportation, including subsidies from the state. Any money it doesn’t spend funding buses now can be saved for next year—or it can use a portion of it to help parents pay for fuel.
The Mat-Su School Board wants the district to have a plan ready in case a strike happens. That wasn’t the case in 2023, when a strike warning turned into a no-warning midday walkout (something the union says won’t happen this time). The board and district spent about a month chewing on a what-to-do plan and had nearly settled on gas cards when the strike ended. This time, the board wants that plan in place before a strike starts. When the board and district make a decision, I’ll tell you about it.
🔦 Inside reporting this story: I wasn’t covering Mat-Su news in 2023, but I was a parent with an elementary student who rode the bus each day. The walkout followed months of a bus driver shortage that meant we only had reliable transportation a few days a week. Just when the district announced it had enough bus drivers to fully staff routes – bam, a strike started. We figured things out by organizing a rotating parent carpool among a few neighbors with kids at the school and help from school staff, but not every parent was so fortunate, and plenty of kids simply weren’t in school because of the hang-up.
📋 Applications open for Palmer’s third council vacancy in less than a year. Want to try your hand at Palmer City Council? You have yet another chance to snag a spot without actually running for office.
This latest seat was vacated when Council member Victoria Hudson resigned earlier this month. City law says Palmer seats are filled through direct mayoral appointment, and the chosen individual gets to sit in the chair and vote on city issues until the October election, when they must vacate or run for the seat.
This will be the third seat filled by mayoral appointment in less than a year. The first was created last spring when Council member Richard Best resigned in a swirl of council contention, and the second was left empty when then-Council member Jim Cooper was elected mayor.
Applications are open to city residents through Feb. 9.
🔦 Inside reporting this story: Get elected to the Palmer City Council and be a part of my news coverage. Who can resist? But before you apply, make sure you’re actually a Palmer resident. City officials last year received nearly a dozen applications for Cooper’s vacated council seat, but several were disqualified because the filers lived outside Palmer city limits.
🐐 What to do in Mat-Su (Jan. 29–Feb. 1): Carnival, music, saunas and farm show. After a little post-holiday event lull, the action is back in Mat-Su this week. Freelancer Matt has a great lineup for you in our weekly “what to do” roll-up. Your opportunities for fun are plentiful and include the infamous Willow Winter Carnival, a singalong up in Talkeetna, a free sauna day at Meier Lake near Wasilla, a music festival in Palmer, and the annual farm and garden event on the Alaska State Fairgrounds. How are you ever going to choose?
🔦 Inside reporting this story: This weekend, I am afflicted with the plight of Alaska parents whose kids participate in what seems to be literally any organized sport: driving to Fairbanks. Were I free to follow my heart, I’d be afflicted with an entirely different problem: choosing between the outdoor fun of the Willow Winter Carnival and free sauna time at Meier Lake.
Now, just the news!
What to do in Mat-Su (Jan. 29-Feb. 1): Carnival, music, saunas & farm show
If you’re looking for a quiet weekend, look elsewhere. The Mat-Su will be proudly loud this weekend, with everything from a community singalong in Talkeetna to fireworks in Willow to a music festival in Palmer guaranteed to turn up the fun.
Luckily for the low-key crowd, there are also a couple of more relaxed offerings, including a farm and garden show in Palmer and a chilled-out sauna event complete with calming hot cocoa.
Mat-Su school district may offer gas cards if bus drivers strike
The Mat-Su School District may give gas gift cards to some parents if school buses stop running during a bus driver strike that could begin as early as next month, officials said.
Members of Teamsters Local 959, which represents most Matanuska-Susitna Borough school bus workers, voted Jan. 13 to authorize a strike if contract negotiations with Durham School Services, the district’s primary bus contractor, fail before the current contract ends Feb. 4.
Applications open for Palmer’s third council vacancy in less than a year
Palmer city officials are once again seeking a resident to fill a empty seat on the City Council.
The seat was vacated earlier this month when City Council member Victoria Hudson resigned, due to what she said was a range of ongoing conflicts with city staff, including what she described as accountability concerns.
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