Chamber Wants to See Advisory Committee Meetings

by Dan Davidson

The Dawson City Chamber of Commerce has proposed that it come to the aid of the town's administration. Outgoing president Martin Gehrig surprised the assembled members the annual by announcing that he had agreed to provide the town with a video camera so that public meetings in the council chambers could once again be televised.

The town has been televising its biweekly council meetings for about a decade now and Trustee Ray Hayes had committed to following that pattern with his advisory committee meetings, but the camera was stolen from the Robert Service School during the summer. It had been used there to broadcast the nightly fire briefings in July.

"I think we should give the City of Dawson $1,000 to buy a camera so that the bloody council meetings - or the advisory board meetings - can bed on TV again," Gehrig said.

"I think information is important. The rumour go around too much and it's crazy. So if we have this live ... What's a thousand bucks. This is nothing to be able to reduce the rumours around town when we have the cameras going. It would be better for the information flow and the whole town.

"Is there any objection to that? Well, actually I already agreed to do it with the city. If you don't want to spend it I'll pay it myself."

Gehrig had to take some ribbing from his fellow executive for committing to such an expense without consulting them,

"I make a motion that we get him off the hook here," said Jon Magnusson, of Dawson City B&B.

"We should add that this is the last time we let him use the company credit card and after this we impeach him," joked Jorn Meier, in a reference to political events in Dawson earlier this year.

New executive member Stephanie Cleland (Curly's Hairdressing)asked for an amendment which would make the camera available to the town, but have it remain the property of the chamber. The motion passed with that wording.

Dick Van Nostrand of the Downtown Hotel voted for the motion, but added, "When the chamber of commerce has to come to the city to be loaning a camera, I think that the way the financial thing is being brought forward, both to the businesses and to the chamber and to the members of this community is absolutely ridiculous."

Trans Canada Trail to be Restored

by Dan Davidson

Until this summer there has, for several years now, been a walking/biking trail known as the Klondyke Millennium Trail which was established

Photo by Dan Davidson.

by a local committee as part of the Trans Canada Trail system, and seen through to construction by the Klondike Centennial Society (KCS).

The trail ran along the side of the Klondike Highway and provided a safe route for bikers, walkers, joggers and even skidoos in the winter.

When the project to widen the Klondike Highway along that same stretch of road was first proposed it soon became clear that the roadwork would destroy most of the existing trail. This was raised as a primary concern at the open houses dealing with the project.

In its dealings with the highway construction company and the territorial government before April 13, 2004, the former Dawson council believed that it had hammered out an agreement which would guarantee the restoration of the trail after the highway work was completed.

The tone and content of reports coming back to the public through the current town administration seem to indicate that this understanding got lost somewhere in the transition between council and trusteeship.

Much of the discussion about this topic at meetings of the trustee's advisory committee has involved committee member Kelly Miller (who organized the trail construction in the first place) sounding very frustrated about the situation and trying to reach new understandings based on the old ones.

At the most recent committee meeting, on September 2, committee member Corrine Gaudet reported that some things had been resolved.

"Basically last night was the first time that we've had anything positive from them (the government and the contractor), stating that it's going to go back."

This still left members of the public with questions and comments to make.

"When the highway was to be upgraded," said Jon Magnusson, former chair of the KCS, "they agreed to put the trail back at the same level of construction as it was if they hadn't disrupted it.

"Over the summer, dealing with the current contractor and YTG - they're over budget, behind schedule, and all the rest of it - it (the agreement) seems to be getting out of whack and may not happen. But they did agree originally."

One of the conditions for restoring the trail is to keep it all on one side of the highway. The original wandered back and forth, depending on where there was room to build it at the time.

Magnusson recalled that the trail was to be relocated to the right hand side of the highway (when heading south) to solve this problem.

He was pleased to see that the project looked like it was finally coming together as promised.

"They've recognized that they do have an obligation."

Dick Van Nostrand of the Downtown Hotel wanted to known why the town was being forced to provide free gravel to the contractor in order to get him to live up to his commitment.

"We don't have to be providing gravel," said Trustee Ray Hayes. "As a gesture of good faith, we made a decision. They wanted ... a better gravel than was used on the other trail. They've been hounding us for months and months and we thought this would help get them to move, to work with us to get this thing done."

Van Nostrand was not satisfied, indicating that he felt a town in such dire financial straits as Dawson has been seen to be during the last year, should be selling its gravel rather than providing it free to a contractor who was already obligated to do that work.

Sherwood presents “Songs and Grooves from the Road”

by Dan Davidson

Ian Sherwood has been playing saxophone at Gerties for the last four summers, but he is not generally known a singer-songwriter, and it was that side of his musical talent that was on display in St. Mary’s classroom just at the end of August for another in the series of centennial celebrations put on by the church and Klondike Kate’s restaurant.

Ian Sherwood is better known for his saxophone playing but he has another side as well and recently joined up with Konrad Pluta to show it off. Photo by Dan Davidson

Ian joined forces with keyboardist Conrad Pluta to put on an afternoon concert of music, “Songs and Grooves from the Road”, which was refreshing in its variety and depth. Sherwood is experimenting with a wide range of styles in his work, which is sometimes introspective, sometimes hilarious, sometimes jazzy and sometimes not.

There were instrumentals, sad love songs, angry love songs, songs about the business, about travelling and about summer live in the Klondike.

As for styles, Sherwood mines the standard repertoire of the guy with the guitar, from pop to folk, with a hint of the blues, country and a touch of rock and roll. One deliberate swipe at the overblown masculinity of “new country” came out sounding a bit like the late Jim Croce, while a piece he claimed was inspired by listening to Bruce Cockburn was actually reminiscent of the Barenaked Ladies.

Sherwood is inspired by many things. One delightful tune (“Hands and Feet”) was a sort of tribute to Rowf the dog from the Muppet Show, while one of the instrumentals was brought on by the effect the howling dogs of Dawson can have on those who have to sleep from 3 a.m. to noon in order to work at night.

After a verse of two of this tune Conrad Pluta launched into another of his inspired keyboard solos while Sherwood set aside the guitar and reached for his sax for a song and a half of jazzier material, the second song being called “Porch Dog”, another obvious Dawson connection.

As Sherwood got ready to head south for other work, he was also getting set to record his first CD, which he and Pluta (also a recording engineer) have been working on over the summer, recording and practicing in Gerties during the day. He hopes to have it ready for a Maritime tour in the New Year and for a run at the summer festival circuit in 2005.

The evening was catered in fine style by Klondike Kate's.