Industrious learning — KPC grant will enhance growing degree programs

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Dominique Bonaventure, Ben Reaves, Stacy Whiteley and Mike Stacy came to Kenai Peninsula College from different paths. They’ve met there at different times in their lives. But they all ended up in the same program for the same reason: The prospect of jobs.

The students are seeking their associate degrees in process technology at the Kenai River Campus of KPC, one of several programs the college had developed to meet the developing needs of Alaska’s work force.

Bonaventure came to the program after working in the field for a year. Originally from France, now of Kasilof, Bonaventure got a math degree from the University of Alaska. He spent a year doing computer work for Chevron in Anchorage.

“I met a lot of engineers and saw what went on behind the labor. Since I’m more of a hard laborer I figured the field would be better for me than the office,” he said.

He’s now in his second semester of the two-year process technology degree program at KPC and expects it to provide options for him when he graduates.

“That degree is very versatile. You can work in almost any process industry. … It opens a lot of doors, industrywise,” he said.

“My real goal is three weeks on, three weeks off. That’s the goal.”

Reaves, of Soldotna, came to KPC right out of high school. A 2008 graduate of Soldotna High, Reaves got a $12,000 scholarship from BP to fund his education.

“Going straight into school without having to worry about money is pretty nice,” he said.

It took Whiteley more time and life experience before she decided to get into the process technology program. She originally went to school for business with the intention of working in the tourism industry, and took a break to raise her kids.

“I got here and decided this is not where I was 10 years ago,” she said.
She plans pursue a management position in the process tech field.

“I found my abilities fit this. It’s going to offer a great career,” she said.

Stacy is working toward a degree in process technology after getting his associate’s degree in industrial process instrumentation, also through KPC.

Coming from a farming and construction background in Arkansas 10 years ago, he now sees the process tech industry as being a good fit for his outdoors and mechanical experiences.

They all agree that the KPC program is a great way to prepare for the jobs they see on the horizon, especially with the prospect of Pebble Mine and a natural gas pipeline being built in the state.

Process technology is one of the fastest-growing fields at the University of Alaska. As of fall 2007, UA had more than 300 students enrolled seeking process tech and/or instrumentation degrees, according to the college.

With relatively small class sizes, hands-on training, field trips to industrial plants in Nikiski and even the North Slope, the students said they are confident KPC is preparing them for what’s to come.

“It’s really person-to-person,” Bonaventure said of the KPC program. “All these guys (instructors) worked in the field before. Now they’re teaching. They know what’s expected of us, what’s coming our way in the field.”

“It’s ever-changing and developing,” Whiteley said. “I like how they’re building onto it and adapting to how the industry is changing.”

Thanks to a $500,000 donation from Chevron, announced last week at KPC’s annual community barbecue, the program will offer even better opportunities for students in the future. Chevron donated $1 million in all, split in half between KPC’s process tech, instrumentation and computer electronics programs, and the University’s Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program in Anchorage.

KPC’s portion of the money will be used to upgrade teaching labs, purchase industry-standard training equipment and establish a scholarship program for those fields, according to KPC Director Gary Turner.

“I’m very grateful for the donation,” Whiteley said. “It will open up a lot of opportunities for us in training and simulations that will help us with realistic job experience.

“I just think it’s fantastic that they’re involved in the community like they are and they give us a purpose to drive for, and we have the right instruments to go for it.”

Stolen goods have hidden consequences — Shoplifting results in higher prices for every customer

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Even if they aren’t caught, shoplifters pay a price for what they take, and so do their parents, friends, neighbors and everyone else in their community.

That’s because the cost of shoplifting is factored into the price of goods. The more that’s stolen, the more the item will cost down the road.

“When someone shoplifts, in reality what they are doing is stealing from each individual customer,” said Jason Moulton, loss prevention director for Safeway, Seattle division, which includes Alaska. “Yeah, we are the victim today. But we’re a for-profit organization, so what we have to do is take that expense and build it into the cost of goods. So really they’ve victimized their parents, their family and all the customers of that store.”

The Safeway stores in Kenai and Soldotna got a boost in shoplifting prevention two weeks ago when a loss prevention team from Anchorage visited the stores.

“It’s a routine thing. We do it on a regular basis, unannounced and without any fanfare.

You may be able to shoplift one day and get away with it, the next time there will be an undercover person in the store and you are apprehended,” Moulton said.

It may be routine from Safeway’s standpoint, but it creates a dramatic spike in shoplifting calls for local police departments.

From Aug. 20 through Aug. 27, Soldotna police responded to 12 reports of shoplifters in custody at the Soldotna store. By comparison, there were two reports of shoplifters in custody from Aug. 28 through Sept. 4, and none from July 31 to Aug. 19.

Kenai saw a similar spike. From Aug. 1 through Aug. 19, Kenai police reported two calls to Kenai Safeway to pick up shoplifters in custody. From Aug. 20 through 25, 11 people were arrested or issued summonses to court for shoplifting at Kenai Safeway. From Aug. 25 to the end of the month, no calls were reported. Most of the reported thefts were under $20, with a few over $50.

“Shoplifting is a problem. It’s a problem we deal with every single day,” Moulton said.
Safeway isn’t alone. Other retailers face the same issue and deal with it in a similar way, by building the cost of stolen goods into prices. Moulton said that, nationwide, items stolen from retailers for the purpose of resale could exceed $40 billion a year. And that’s just things like tools, shoes, electronics or teeth-whitening strips taken to be fenced through eBay or some other method. That doesn’t even include items stolen for the shoplifter’s use, like cosmetics or candy bars.

All of it factors into what retailers call “shrink” — the difference between a store’s inventory and the amount of goods sold. Shrink for nonperishable items, like canned goods or cleaning products, can result from factors other than shoplifting, including employee theft, bad paperwork or stuff just getting lost. But shrink mostly means shoplifting, Moulton said.

The industry retail standard for a large store with millions of dollars in products is 1 percent to 1.5 percent “shrinkage,” Moulton said. He said that Safeway has one of the lowest rates of shrink in the food industry, but what they do suffer still takes a hit on the business’s bottom line, which in turn takes a bite out of shoppers’ wallets.

“It is not a small number. It’s a significant number,” Moulton said. “When you operate on the margins Safeway operates with, when you have any kind of uptick in shrinkage, that takes an awful lot of sales to make up for that item.”

If retail profit margins are only pennies on the dollar for products sold, it could take up to 20 additional items sold to make up for the one that walks off without a trip through the checkout line, Moulton said. At the end of the year, those costs are calculated and rolled into the prices of merchandise.

“Remember, ultimately, the victim is not Safeway. Ultimately, the victim is the customer. I think if people understand that, I think there’s more of an incentive in reporting it,” he said.

Customers do report shoplifting, Moulton said. Closed-circuit cameras also help, and store employees are trained to watch for shoplifting and deal with the situation. Good customer service goes a long way in preventing shoplifting, with clerks expected to make contact with customers in store aisles and ask if they need assistance.

A simple, “Can I help you find anything?” isn’t always enough to stop brazen thefts. Moulton said an emerging trend, especially in Washington State, is shoplifters filling up entire carts with meat, baby food or other items intended for resale, and just pushing them out the door.

That’s not as common on the central Kenai Peninsula, according to Sgt. Randy Kornfield, with the Kenai Police Department. It takes prior experience to get to the point where you’ve got the guts to try that.

Cost of living increases don’t have much of an effect on shoplifting rates, Moulton and Kornfield said, especially with a variety of social programs aimed at helping provide food to those who can’t afford it.

“When we catch people, I don’t see it as a desperation thing. I see it more as a lifestyle,” Kornfield said.

Mounting bills or climbing gas prices don’t necessarily make a thief out of an otherwise moral person, Kornfield said. It’s more of a learned behavior — caving to peer pressure among teenagers to steal something little, which can build to bigger or more frequent thefts if they aren’t caught or otherwise discouraged.

If they are caught, it can be a costly lesson to learn. Even misdemeanor thefts result in fines and can even include jail time. Stores can pursue civil restitution, as well, and ban a shoplifter from their locations.

Alaska statutes give retailers some power in combating shoplifting. For instance, it’s a crime in Alaska for shoppers to conceal merchandise, even if they don’t walk out of the store with it. That way store personnel can confront potential thieves before they get to the parking lot, where they have a better chance of getting away.

“You folks do have really good laws,” Moulton said. “And I must say your prosecution up there is excellent. We get excellent results. You guys in Alaska take theft seriously.”

At Safeway, a part of taking it seriously is the loss prevention teams, which come from a company that contracts with Safeway to provide the service. Loss prevention officers are undercover and trained to not attract any attention.

Shoplifters attempt to not attract attention, as well. Two weeks ago on the central peninsula showed loss prevention officers are better at it, unless they have a reason to contact you.

“You’ll know when they’re there,” Moulton said.

Editor’s note: Representatives from Kenai and Soldotna Safeway stores did not comment in this story per corporate instruction.

Missionaries hit high note in Instruments of Change

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

If a hole were drilled from Nikiski through the center of the Earth, it would come out near the Republic of South Africa.

“You can’t get any farther away than that,” said Verne Miller, of Nikiski.

Yet that’s where Miller and four others from the central Kenai Peninsula found themselves in August.

An eight-hour plane ride from Alaska to Atlanta, a nine-hour layover and another 20-hour flight later, the group arrived in Johannesburg, bound for Kimberly, South Africa, to share their knowledge of music and love of God with children there.

Mike and Angie Lyons, Yvonne Emery and Susan Shisler, all of Soldotna, joined Miller and two music professors from Texas, Mike and Beverly Steinel, to participate in the Instruments of Change missionary program Aug. 6 to 22.

Instruments of Change is an offshoot of the Covenant Children program, which provides safety, shelter, food, water, basic health care and education for orphans and other at-risk children and adults around the world, according to the program’s Web site.

A South African pastor had another vision of what Covenant Children could provide: music education.

“A music academy for the orphans and the street kids, so after they got out of school they would have something to do besides whatever other activities they had to be involved in, which usually aren’t good,” Miller said.

The decision to go to Africa was as roundabout as the plane trip it took to get there. The founder of Covenant Children, Ardith Blumenthal, and her husband, Andy, came from their home in New York City in March to visit Andy’s relatives on the central Kenai Peninsula. Word of mouth informed Ardith of Birch Ridge Community Church and its music program. She visited the church and gave a presentation about Covenant Children, the Instruments of Change program, and detailed the great need for help in the Republic of South Africa.

“The poverty down there is just pretty severe in a lot of the area,” Miller said. “AIDS is just such a huge devastator. Forty percent of the people are infected, so there’s a lot of orphans or soon-to-be orphans. … Some are fortunate enough to have grandparents, but most of them don’t.”

Only Shisler had prior missionary experience. But they all had musical and educational experience to spare.

Miller played with the U.S. Navy in 1983, the Kenai Community Band from 1994 to 1997, the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra since the early 1990s, the Kenai Dixieland Band and Dixie River Rats since 1994 and has been a member of the pit orchestra for Kenai Performers shows for years.

Mike and Angie Lyons studied music at Northwest Nazarene College in Idaho. He’s now a music teacher at Cook Inlet Academy, where she teaches kindergarten. Yvonne Emery just retired from a long career as a music teacher in Soldotna elementary schools, and now is a part-time vocal teacher at CIA. Shisler has taught music and been involved in the Youth With a Mission program, and did a summer tour with the Continental Singers missionary group years ago.

If it’s a woodwind instrument, Mike Lyons and Miller can play it. Mike and Angie Lyons play percussion, and Angie also plays trombone and sings. Shisler plays guitar, she and Emery play piano and keyboard, and all the women on the trip sing. Mike Steinel, from Texas, teaches brass instruments, so they had all the bases covered

But musical knowledge only goes so far without instruments to bring it to life. So the group set about collecting and repairing donated instruments for kids in South Africa. After a donation drive on the peninsula and Texas, the group was able to transport more than 40 woodwind and brass instruments, nearly 200 recorders, about 15 melodicas (an accordian-type instrument with a keyboard that you blow into to produce sound), nearly 50 pairs of drumsticks, and hundreds of copies of music lesson books that Steinel had written.

To start their music camp, the mission group gave a little concert, and got a sense for the native music used in worship services.

“They lit up. They really liked the music,” Miller said. “They were excited about what we could do. Music is a big part of their worship down there. They just put their whole heart and soul into it, and it was fun to watch.”

Two hundred fifty students from third grade up to high school participated in the music camp. After just a week of instruction, the camp culminated in a concert at a tent-revival worship service with about 1,000 people in attendance.

“That’s how quickly they learned,” Miller said. “…The church was very supportive. Just the look on their faces. I still look at those pictures, and it was just very rewarding.”

With songs like “Hot-Crossed Buns” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” the program would have been more conventional for a U.S. beginning music performance, but the African audience loved it just the same, Miller said.

“It wasn’t any concerto, but they all played and it was really fascinating. They were able to play these songs together. … You get 250 kids together singing at the top of their lungs, 200 recorders, and 45 drummers going at once, it’s pretty awesome, I tell you what.”

The camp and concert was enough to make the group want to go back. Touring the countryside after camp was over and hearing about the additional unmet needs there just put an exclamation point on their desire to continue the mission.

The group is planning another trip from the end of June through early July next summer. They hope to make the program sustainable by developing the older students’ talents, so they can teach the younger ones.

“We saw this as an opportunity to really help out, and give back to an area that really needs the help,” Miller said. “… We just felt that, for us, there was a need there and we were ideally suited to fit that need.”

Even though the group went to give, they got something in return.

“We could learn a lot — we did learn a lot,” Miller said.

“I was just impressed with the spirit of worship people have down there. They’re a very warm people and extremely appreciative of anything you can do for them. It was inspiring for us to see people living in conditions that are so difficult, yet they have a spirit that is very pleasant and upbeat. If we were living like that, we’d all be singing the blues.”

The group is collecting instruments for its next trip. Playable are preferred, but they’ll take and fix whatever they can get. Monetary donations can be made at Wells Fargo Bank in Soldotna, to the Instruments of Change, Covenant Children account.

Arts and Entertainment week of Sept. 10

Events:

Ongoing

• Art Works in Soldotna has photography by Bill Heath on display through September.
• Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna has art by Kathy Matta on display through September.
• Kaladi Brothers Kobuk Street in Soldotna has paintings by Melinda Hershberger on display through September.
• The Kenai Fine Arts Center in Old Town Kenai has Peninsula Art Guild’s annual Harvest Art Exhibition on display through September. The art will be auctioned to the public Sept. 27.
• Already Read Books In Kenai has a display of artwork by local artists, curated by Natasha Ala, on display through September.
• The Funky Monkey coffee shop in Kenai has artwork by Metal Magic on display through September.

Saturday

• The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank’s 12th annual Soup Supper and Auction will be at 5:30 p.m. at Kenai Central High School. Proceeds benefit the food bank. Call 262-3111.

Tuesday

• The Kenai Peninsula Photo Guild will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. in the computer lab at Soldotna Middle School. Open to anyone with an interest in photography. Bring five to 10 pictures or SRGB jpeg images on a CD or flash drive to share. Call Marianne at 398-3979.

Sept. 20

• The Kenai Elks will hold its ninth annual Oktoberfest at 7 p.m. with live music by Die Alaska Blaskapelle, food, and brews from Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop. Call Konrad Jackson, 283-7776 or 398-9121.

Sept. 27

• The Kenai Art Guild’s annual Harvest Art Auction starts at 6 p.m. for viewing with the auction at 7 p.m. Photography, paintings and works in stone, ceramic and fiber will be auctioned. Music and refreshments will be served. Admission is $20. Proceeds support the Kenai Fine Arts Center. Call 283-7040.

Nightlife:

DJ

• The Riverside in Soldotna has live DJ music every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m.

Live music

• The Clam Shell Lodge in Clam Gulch has rock covers by 9-Spine at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Funky Monkey in Kenai has bluegrass music by Them Other Shuckers on Tuesday night, folk music on Wednesday night, The Good Kind on Friday night and Sarah Superman on Saturday night. Music is from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
• Hooligan’s Saloon in Soldotna has rock covers and originals by The Mabrey Brothers at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna has acoustic music by Chris Towne on Friday night.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has live music by Turk, Gypsy and Randy on Friday night and acoustic classic rock by the Free Beer Band at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has acoustic music by Trapper and Sonny at 10 p.m. Wednesday.
• Mykel’s in Soldotna has acoustic music by Dave Unruh from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• The Place in Nikiski has bluegrass music by Them Other Shuckers around 7 p.m. Friday.
• The Rainbow Bar in Kenai has rock covers by Tuff-e-Nuff at 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
• Veronica’s in Kenai has open mic music at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and acoustic music by Dan Pascucci at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Karaoke

• 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at the Duck Inn on Kalifornsky Beach Road.
• 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays at the .406 in Kenai.
• 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Hooligan’s in Soldotna.
• 8:30 p.m. Friday at the J-Bar-B in Kasilof.
• 9:30 p.m. Monday at the Maverick in Soldotna.

Other

• BJ’s in Soldotna has free pool on Wednesdays.
• Moosequito’s in Sterling has a dart tournament at 9 p.m. Thursdays.
• The Maverick in Soldotna has pool night at 9 p.m. Fridays.

Editorial — Keeping money in community keeps PFD around

Friday will bring 3,269 reasons to be glad we live in Alaska — as long as we don’t think too hard about it.

The big fat permanent fund dividend plus state energy rebate will be cause for celebration for many when the money hits bank accounts, scheduled for Friday for those who opted for direct deposit, or in October for those waiting for checks to reach their mailbox.

The money comes at a cost. This year’s PFD amount is a result of high oil prices, which is good for state coffers, but bad for residents paying the associated increases in fuel prices. The extra $1,200 energy rebate is a further extension of just how high those prices have risen.

So the money comes at a good time and will be greatly appreciated by those walking a tightrope on a shoestring budget this winter. But be careful who you celebrate around. Those who don’t get the money, for whatever reason — checks are garnished, they haven’t lived in Alaska long enough or they missed the filing deadline — probably won’t want to hear about shopping lists, vacation plans or debt reduction.

But there is an indirect way to help those less entitled than you and have your money be useful even after it has left your bank account: Shop in town.

The dividend is a way to share the state’s wealth with its ultimate owners — Alaskans. Spending the dividend puts that wealth back into circulation. There’s no better place to start that cycle than here at home.

Local businesses contribute to communities in myriad ways. Business owners are generous in their support of school and sport programs, and the endless list of fundraisers they are asked to contribute to. Businesses provide a needed service of commerce by their very existence. Do you like being able to watch a movie, buy clothes or get a painting framed without having to drive to Anchorage? Then support the stores that offer the services you value.

In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, sales taxes go to support schools. Some retail prices may be cheaper in sales taxless Los Anchorage, but supporting education has value that’s worth every penny kept in the borough. And rising gas prices and postal rates are making it more economical to shop at home.

Share the wealth in a way that benefits your community. Shopping locally pays dividends all its own.

Guest editorial — Keep home-school money at home

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is proud to offer a high-quality, flexible and successful home-school program for peninsula families wanting to direct their child’s education.

Home-school families can do something positive for themselves, their neighbors, the school district and the entire peninsula by taking advantage of what the KPBSD Connections program has to offer.

Connections provides fully accredited, researched-based curriculum materials, computer equipment and all the resources needed for parents to successfully educate their children. Individualized learning plans are crafted with the help of certified, experienced teachers, and parents have ample flexibility in determining the course of their child’s learning. Connections offers options for fine arts and physical education, as well as opportunities for parents to design educational field trips and other enrichment activities.

Perhaps the best benefit of Connections is its ties with KPBSD. Connections students can participate in school sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities, and can take up to two classes in public schools without any impact to the student’s educational allotment. The full support of the KPBSD special services department is available to Connections students, and the district maintains Connections offices with trained personnel in all major peninsula communities — Soldotna, Kenai, Seward and Homer. Connections students also have a graduation ceremony on the peninsula, instead of having to travel to Anchorage or Fairbanks.

KPBSD believes enrolling in the Connections program is a benefit to home-school families that in turn benefits the entire peninsula. State funding for education is largely based on enrollment numbers. Last school year there were approximately 600 Kenai Peninsula students enrolled in home-school programs administered by other school districts in the state, primarily Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA) from Galena City School District, and Raven Correspondence School from Yukon-Koyukuk School District.

Those 600 students represent a potential $3 million in additional annual revenue for a school district. In KPBSD, those funds would go a long way toward improving educational opportunities in our home-school program and throughout our entire school system.

In the 2008-09 school year, KPBSD is instituting programmatic staffing, a new system of allocating resources based on envisioning education as it should be, not education the best we can afford it to be.

Programmatic staffing calls for staffing based on a school’s curriculum needs, with PE/health, foreign language and arts to be offered as core classes in all high schools with an additional 15 percent staffing for advanced opportunities, like specialty vocational education classes.

In all middle schools, foreign language, music, creative and fine arts, and industrial arts will be offered. Elementary and middle schools will be served by interventionists – people who monitor students for educational challenges and make sure problems are addressed and overcome as early as possible. Counselors also will be increased at the middle and high school levels to help promote student well-being and prepare students for life after high school.

Programmatic staffing resulted in hiring 45 new teachers in the district this year. That means new families moving to the peninsula. These families will be shopping in local businesses, supporting community organizations and paying property and sales taxes, which support government services and education across the peninsula. Additional funding from higher enrollments would allow the district to fully implement all the facets of programmatic staffing, instead of stopping short of what this exciting program has the potential to offer.

Home-school parents, please investigate what Connections can help you do for your student. KPBSD believes its home-school program not only connects families with a good education, but it better connects them to their community, as well.

Connections is a quality home-school program; buy local and invest in your community. For more information about the Connections program, please call 714-8880, e-mail Principal Lee Young at lyoung@kpbsd.k12.ak.us, or visit the Web site, http://connect.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/.

Melody Douglas is the chief financial officer for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

Frontier justice: All’s well that ends in a well

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

Jerry Hobart was sleeping peacefully on a cold, dark February night when he was awakened by the sounds of damage being done. It was about 1:30 a.m. in 1960. Almost immediately he knew that the place was being robbed.

A ticket agent for Pacific Northern Airlines in Kenai, the 22-year-old Hobart, his wife, Carol, and infant daughter, Katie, lived in a one-bedroom efficiency apartment off the back of the PNA office. Hobart quickly rose from bed, signaled to Carol to stay where she was, and headed for his gun.

“It was pretty evident what was happening,” Hobart said. “I could hear the guys talking.”

He speculated that the thieves might not have realized anyone was living in the PNA facility.

His rifle was hanging in its case in the bedroom closet.

“I went in and unzipped the case,” he said. “I didn’t know how many (rounds) was in the magazine, but I knew there was at least one. I didn’t keep anything in the chamber.”

His hands wrapped around his rifle — a bolt-action .308 used mainly for moose hunting. He moved quietly down a narrow passageway separating the apartment from the lobby.

“I went out into the lobby, and that’s when I jacked a round into the chamber,” he said. He got the immediate attention of two men behind the ticket counter busily attempting to break into what Hobart called a “tin-can type of cabinet (used) as a safe.”

“There was a night light so I could see ’em. I told ’em to get out from behind the counter and get down on the floor. And they did.

“I got ’em lying down, and the older guy, who was the one with the big rap sheet, turned out, he kept wanting to get up in somewhat of a sitting or squatting position. So I pointed the rifle near him — I don’t know that I pointed it right at him — and I told him, ‘Get back on the floor, flat on your stomach!’”

If the burglars wondered whether Hobart was prepared to shoot, they didn’t have to wait long to find out.

As Hobart was attempting to call for help, the older man took off running. “I shot at him, but I shot for the legs. I didn’t shoot for the torso,” he said.

Hobart was cradling the rifle at the time, so his shot came more or less from the hip.

“I missed him but sure took a lot of wood off the door jamb,” he said. “Then I turned back into the room, and the other guy melted into the floor. He wasn’t going anywhere.”

The thieves had left a car parked outside, and the escaping man fled for it. Assured that the younger man would stay put, Hobart poked his head outside. Judging by the taillights, he guessed the car to be an Oldsmobile.

Back inside, he called Stan Thompson, who at the time was the U.S. commissioner for most of the Kenai Peninsula.

In 1960, Kenai had no jail, no marshal or regular magistrate, and only sporadic highway patrol. On that day, the closest state trooper was in Anchorage, more than three hours away on a narrow gravel highway.

“I was the only judicial figure (in the area),” Thompson said. “I had to do all the law work and the prisoner work and everything. There weren’t any other officials out there.”
Thompson told Hobart to bring the prisoner over.

At the time, the PNA office was across from the current Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center, while Thompson was living with his wife, Donnis, above their Kenai Korners building materials store next to where Paradisos is now. Although the distance was not great, Hobart decided to enlist some help in escorting the prisoner.

“I figured if I’m going to march that sucker over there, I’ll put in a call to the MPs (military police at the Wildwood military base, where Hobart had served for two years) and see if I can get somebody to give me a hand.”

A short time later, two MPs appeared, with sidearms. Confidentially, they informed Hobart they were willing to help as much as possible but they wouldn’t be able to fire upon a civilian prisoner if he caused a problem. Hobart told them he was willing to do the shooting.

Once Thompson had the prisoner “in custody,” he called for trooper assistance and reached Officer Wayne Morgan. With Hobart’s help, he described the escaped burglar and his vehicle.

Thompson and Hobart then had to decide how to detain their prisoner until Morgan arrived. They considered several options before Thompson remembered the hand-dug well beneath the floor of his building.

They removed the floorboards covering the well and switched on the single bulb dangling in the cribbed 6-by-6 shaft. More than 10 feet down, on dry ground, sat an electric pump, and they sent the prisoner down a ladder to wait.

They also sent down a chair and some magazines. Just before they replaced the floorboards, they decided to increase the young man’s incentive to stay put.

“I told him I was setting my big dog right on top of the well, so he didn’t want to try to come out. And believe me, he didn’t,” Thompson said.

Instead of a big dog, they actually stacked crates of paint on top of the floorboards, Hobart said. Prisoner detention accounted for, Hobart walked back home and went to bed.

About four or five hours later, Officer Morgan arrived and took the prisoner into custody. Earlier, he had apprehended the older man at a roadblock on the outskirts of Anchorage, where he had parked his patrol car and watched for the suspect Oldsmobile.

Both men were tried and convicted. Later, FBI officials came by to examine Thompson’s well to see whether the prisoner’s treatment qualified as cruel or unusual punishment. They decided it did not.

Hobart ¬later briefly became a state trooper himself.