OUZINKIE — Seven Alaska state senators flew to the small Spruce Island village of Ouzinkie on a rainy Wednesday afternoon to tour the town’s energy facilities and conduct a public hearing.

The seven senators were Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak; Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai; Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel; Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage; Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage; Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage; and Joe Thomas, D-Fairbanks. Sens. Hollis French, D-Anchorage; and Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, left after the events Wednesday.

The nine state senators Wednesday toured the Pillar Mountain wind turbines, Kodiak Launch Complex and conducted a public hearing with Kodiakans on energy issues in the Borough Chambers.

At Ouzinkie, the group met with workers from the Alaska Energy Authority in town to see the town power plant, built in 2007, and hydroelectric facility and dam.

After lunch in the tribal community center, several Ouzinkie residents had a chance to testify before the seven-member senatorial board that included members of the Energy and Resource committees.

Alex Ambrosia, Ouzinkie Tribal Council president, advocated for projects to be done with local help. He said he had, years ago, built the town roads himself. In addition, the tribal community center where the meeting was taking place was proudly built by local hands.

“We don’t need outside guys,” Ambrosia said. “You give us money, we’ll do it by ourselves. Seriously, we can manage.”

Like many of the speakers, he said he was glad to see Alaska legislators in the small town. He said the community was proud to show off its recent improvements.

“We’re coming from a long way up, we are,” Ambrosia said. “We are proving to the state of Alaska we could do it — local people could do it. I’m so proud for us, Ouzinkie.”

Ted Panamarioff, who serves on the Ouzinkie Native Corporation Board of Directors, gave the senators some historical perspective of the village’s old days. He said though he no longer resides in Ouzinkie, he maintains strong roots in his hometown where he lived the first half of his life.

“I lived here in a time where electricity went on at 7 o’clock in the morning and went off at 10 o’clock at night in an effort to save costs,” Panamarioff said. “We didn’t have 24-hour electricity. When I was young, for the first eight years of my life there wasn’t any running water unless Grandma handed me a bucket and told me to run and get it.”

Regarding village energy issues, he said even with the hydroelectric project, and relatively reliable 24-hour electricity, there still are shortcomings. He strongly advocated the Legislature help fund the village’s dock project which is badly needed to reliably bring in diesel fuel for the town. He said the current dock is approaching 50 years old and has outlived its usefulness.

“We recently got the fuel tank facility up to par for our needs, probably for the next 20 years,” Panamarioff said. “To be able to get (fuel) here safely, reliably — and for our community to get outside freight, other than on the airplanes like what you came on this morning — we need a dock. That is the lifeline of the community. Our airport is one thing, but it doesn’t compare to a dock.”

He said a dock project done by local workers could help Ouzinkie’s economy.

“There are a lot of communities that are losing their people because of economic deprivation,” Panamarioff said. “That dock will help to stabilize that a little.”

Ouzinkie resident Barb Anderson also testified.

“It was getting pretty hard to watch the state news, for me, because all I would see is Emmonak, Emmonak,” Anderson said. “I felt like, you know, there are other places in Alaska that you guys could come and evaluate, not just Emmonak. And why should they get all the help they’ve gotten?”

She said although she understood other remote Alaska village fuel-delivery problems, like in Emmonak, “We, too, have needs in this community. We burn wood in this house … I just can’t imagine how everybody here with families, children especially, I don’t know how they can afford the heating fuel. We couldn’t do it.

“And, like (Ted Panamarioff) was elaborating on, there are hardly any jobs, so it’s pretty difficult and especially in the wintertime. And our light bill especially is pretty high. So, you know, Emmonak is pretty great, but Ouzinkie needs help, too.”

Trying to help the local economy one little bit at a time is Sharon Anderson, project director of the Spruce Island Development Corporation. Anderson and crew recently started the Island Heritage Tours program, aimed at bringing in tourists from Kodiak to see the Alutiiq village in an affordable way. The tours begin next summer.

Anderson was born and raised in Ouzinkie, left the town for school, yet came back to help make a difference in her hometown. She, like others who testified before the Alaska senators, repeated the village’s concerns on energy issues.

She mentioned the town tried to start a fish-processing center some time ago, but the center’s energy needs were too much.

“All of a sudden, you start up the big freezer, what we’re doing is taking a lot of energy from the community,” Anderson said. “The community really didn’t have the capacity to run a fish operation as well as making sure that everyone in the community gets their electricity.”

Ouzinkie resident Larry Chichenoff questioned the seeming contradictions with Alaska fuel prices.

“The thing that I really wonder most about is that Alaska is an oil and gas state,” Chichenoff said. “Here, you watch the prices in the Lower 48, we’re always the last ones to get the prices brought down. That’s kind of amazing because here we’ve got oil refineries in our own state.”

He also advocated replace pipe from the village dam to the hydroelectric facility that is going on 20 years old.

Tom Quick, Ouzinkie’s vice mayor and utility manager, was not physically present at the meeting but said he would like to see funding of $50,000 for the Alaska Energy Authority to install a machine to collect wind data — data which could eventually lead to installing wind energy facilities; and $50,000 to address the integrity of Ouzinkie’s water distribution system, said to have leaky pipes.

Resident Nicholas Pestrikoff echoed the statements of others by expressing gratitude for the senators’ presence.

“I want to congratulate you people for coming and thank you for coming,” Pestrikoff said. “It’s very unique that a village will get this much of the state Legislature here, right on front of us face to face. That makes me feel good about you people coming here.”

He said Ouzinkie is uniquely situated to take advantage of most energy-making facilities. He added that he has always been interested in technology and energy issues

“I know tidal energy has great potential around here,” Pestrikoff said. “One of the fastest flowing bodies of water in the area is Whale Pass over there, right next to Port Lions. I think that the technology can be developed to take advantage of tidal currents.”

Once back in Kodiak that afternoon, the senators headed to the Comfort Inn for presentations by Bud Cassidy of the Kodiak Island Borough Community Development Department; local brewer Ben Millstein, who also serves on the Kodiak Electric Association board of directors; and Bob Foy, a researcher and manager at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center on Near Island.

Presentation topics were converting oil from deep-fat fryers into diesel, turning fish oil into diesel and the dangers of ocean acidification.

The senatorial group also will be in Haines and Dillingham in the coming days. The group has already toured Kenai and Fairbanks.

Mirror writer Bradley Zint can be reached via e-mail at bzint@kodiakdailymirror.com.