Food pantry needs help

On a recent trip to the Chugiak-Eagle River Food Pantry, I was surprised to find the shelves were practically empty. Even the 16,000 pounds of food collected during Scouting For Food only lasted 2 weeks. They are in desperate need. It would be wonderful if everyone would gather up 20 or 30 items each and drop them off at the food pantry located in the Eagle River Presbyterian Church building (next to Fire Lake Plaza). It is so difficult to believe how many hungry people live right here in our neighborhoods. Please help!

Items that are most needed: tuna fish; items with protein like beef stew, soups, corned beef hash, etc.; pasta; tomato sauce, tomatoes, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce (they can never get enough of these); peanut butter. Everything is needed but these are the items that are most in need.

--Linda Stimac

Eagle River

Fiscal fight is not over

I'm extremely displeased with the income tax and Permanent Fund measures that passed the House floor May 2. Though the legislation is intended to close the fiscal gap, it's the wrong approach and amounts to theft of the public.

We should focus our efforts on major spending cuts instead of taking more money from hard working Alaskans. Do my colleagues really believe we've made government as efficient as it can be? I don't think so. The provisions of my 10-point alternative budget plan are where the attention should be, and they ought to be put in place immediately. My plan would cut $1 billion out of the operating budget (oil and federal sources), focus on funding essentials like roads and schools and public safety, reject new taxes and protect the Permanent Fund from being spent.

May 2 was a dark day in Alaska's history. A lot of people are struggling financially, so for politicians to rob them of their hard-earned money is immoral, especially when you realize it's going to sustain a wasteful, bloated bureaucracy.

But the fight is not over. I intend to lobby the Senate to defeat both measures and encourage my constituents to do likewise.

--Alaska Rep. Vic Kohring

R-Wasilla/Peters Creek

Subsistence the Great Divide

There are many good people on both sides of the subsistence issue. When you talk about allocating fish and wildlife resources where some will have a preference and some will not, you will always have disagreement. All men have been created equal (on paper), but in Alaska all villages are not created equal. In some villages the most basic needs are barely being met. Villages like Lime Village warrant a subsistence priority. Larger villages and towns on the road system do not warrant a subsistence priority. It is easier to identify the areas where a subsistence priority would not be necessary. However, by identifying the characteristics and demographics of a village such as Lime Village and applying those criteria to other villages, this process would result in only those areas lacking the basic needs the bulk of Alaska has today.

In discussing this with Floyd Tepton, one of the Native leaders who agrees with this approach, I suggested a Subsistence Area be created around Lime Village. If we can create a buffer zone to protect the Denali wolf pack, we can create a subsistence zone around areas like Lime Village. I think reasonable people on both sides of the subsistence issue will agree with this approach and we should spend our energies identifying those areas like Lime Village that need a subsistence priority.

--William. H. Martin

Eagle River