Running after the Mayor

By: Charise

Our mayor is Leo Rasmussen. He was born on April 15, 1941 in Grand Rapis, Michigan. He took care of our town in 1977 to 1985 and from 1999 to the present. He also served two terms on City Council 1971-74 & 1992-1995.

The mayor enjoys many things about being the mayor, “It gives me the ability to represent all of Nome's residents at every level of government and enterprise. The selling of Nome as a place to come to visit, to hunt, to bird [watch], or to drive a dog eam just doesn't happen because you wish it to happen,” he said.

“Having more than one job isn’t that bad, because you don’t get bored,” says Mr. Rasmussen. A mayor has a lot of meetings, “I have three to four teleconferences a week,”says Mr. Rasmussen. A teleconference is where you have a conference on the phone with more that one person.

Randy Romenesko says about working with the mayor, “It’s good, I try to support him in his work.” He also said the term for a mayor is two years and that the mayor only goes to City Hall for a few hours a week.

Laws regarding the mayor are in the City Ordinances of Nome, 12-96. As it states, “The mayor shall preside at meetings of the City Council and shall be recognized as the head of the City Government for all ceremonial purposes. The mayor shall preserve order and decorum and shall decide all questions of order. The mayor hall preside at meetings of the city council. The mayor acts as ceremonial head of the city government, executes official documents of authorization of the City Council, as authorized by the Nome Common Council , and is responsible for additional duties and powers prescribed by the City Council and by the Laws of the State of Alaska.” It also states, “The salary of the mayor shall be seventy-five dollars per-month.”

The mayor has many goals, “There are many things that I want to do, however the most important is to create a stable new economy that will hire as many people of and in Nome. An economy that will give us the assets to be able to afford living with a high quality of lifestyle and the facilities to give all of us a healthy mental and physical life.” The mayor also wants to see the following projects completed; a railroad built from the lower 48 to Nome and Russia, more playgrounds for kids, a multi use indoor-outdoor recreational facility that is not heated; to finish paving the streets of Nome, the Port Facility to Deep Water; and a far more representational museum cultural center complex.

Rachel's Adventures in New Zealand

By: Rachel

I've been going to school for the last two weeks at Onehung Primary School. I was in Miss Hodgkinson's 5th/6th Year class with about 20-25 other kids. The kids come from many different cultures and religions. Both my teacher and one of my best friends were from England. Some of my other friends were from China, Korea, South Africa, Samoa and Thailand. The kids from N.Z. call themselves "Kiwis" whether they are Maori or Pakeha (European descent). When I first went to see the school, I was really scared, so Mom and Dad had to encourage me (twist my arm) to get me to go. But, when I got there, the kids were really nice and I made 5 good friends right away, on the first day. Here are some things that I found were different at Onehunga Primary School:

*You have to wear a sun hat to protect you from the hot sun when playing outside. You can't even go out at recess or snack break without one, because you'll get a bad sunburn in just a couple minutes.

*You do not have to wear shoes to school. Many people who were in my class went barefoot all day. Even if you do wear shoes, you take them off before you go into a classroom.

*You call your teacher Miss, Maam, or Sir to be polite - you don't always use their last name.

*Normally I am one of the tallest in my class, but here I was one of the shortest.

*They don't go by grades but instead, by years. My class was a mix of 5th and 6th Year students. Since you start in 1st Year when you're 5, I would be in 6th Year, 5th grade in the US.

*They don't have professional baseball or football teams in N.Z., but they learn how to play softball in school. They do, however, play rugby, cricket, and soccer in both professional teams and at school.

*I had one teacher for everything. Miss H. taught us all the regular classes, math (called Maths here), P.E. (called Fitness here), art, and music.

*You had to take your own lunch every day, there wasn't any hot lunch to buy at school. You could buy a sandwich, or a roll (a sausage inside a bun), or a slice of pizza, but they were all cold. There wasn't a cafeteria, you just ate outside your classroom on a bench. You also had to bring your own snack for tea at 10:00 AM.

*There was only one computer in the classroom and some of the kids had never seen a lap-top.

*Instead of calling roll call and answering here, the teacher says ciao to the person(s) and they answer however they want. So, some students might answer ciao or kia ora (kay orah) which is "hi" in Maori.

*At the end of the school year, most of the classes take a field trip. The 5th/6th Year classes get to have a campout just like my school had, except its at the end of their year instead of the beginning.

There were lots of different things, but there were also some stuff that was the same as in Nome:

*We studied the same sorts of things - they even call reading time SSR (sustained silent reading) just like at home.

*Any teacher who wanted your attention clapped a rhythm and you had to clap it back. It is a little different here, though, because all the adults use clapping to get your attention, not just some of the teachers.

It was the very end of the school year. We did lots of fun things because the students had already finished most of their tests. All the kids were thinking about what they were going to do over their summer break. They have 6 weeks vacation from Christmas to the end of Jan. and then they start their first term of the new school year. They have 4 terms in the school year with 2 weeks vacation between each term.

They recently studied about the South Pole (Antarctica) so they knew a lot about the kinds of weather, like snow, that we have in Nome, even though its too warm to snow here.

The students were really nice to me, all of them. It was like I'd been going to the school all year.

Dad attached some pictures, so you could see my school and classmates. I really miss them already, and I hope to see them over the summer (Christmas)holiday! Tomorrow we are going on a trip further south on the North Island for 10 days. We are going to rent an RV (called a motorcoach here). It sounds like its going to be a lot of fun.

Hospital Turns Up the Heat

By: Ramon

It was a calm Nome night at the Norton Sound Hospital, or so it seemed. On November 9, 2001, Louis Murphy, an in-patient nurse at the hospital, went to work thinking it was gonna be a normal night shift. At around 8:45pm, Louis noticed smoke developing from the critical care area.

When Mr. Murphy saw the smoke, he told the nurses working, to get everyone evacuated from the critical care area and move them to the inpatient rooms. Meanwhile, the smoke started getting thicker and thicker, so Mr. Murphy told the nurses to evacuate everyone across the street to the Lutheran Church.

People from all over town showed up and started evacuating patients and equipment needed to make a makeshift hospital across the street in case the hospital burned down. There were so many Nomites wanting to help that Mr. Murphy recalls a little boy asking, “Can I carry your boots Mr.?”

It was determined that a heater for the intake water pipes caught fire. Thanks to the Nome Volunteer Fire Department, they were able to put out the fire quickly and reduce the damage.

By around 11pm, the smoke was cleared from the hospital and they started moving patients back into the building. The damage was minor and was estimated to cost $50,000 for the repairs.

No one was seriously hurt, but there were 6 patients treated for smoke inhalation. Mr. Murphy, said, “I was very relieved that the damage was minor and no one was seriously hurt, the hospital is one of the best things in Nome and I’m glad it was saved. I personally think it’s the jewel of Nome.”

Student Profile

By: Kellen & Ben

Lauren is a fifth grader at the Anvil City Science Academy. She was Born in Santa Monica, California and was raised there for two years and then in Anchorage for one year. Lauren likes Nome the best. “ I like Nome the best because there’s no accidents and earthquakes and stuff like that,” says Lauren.

Lauren's first favorite subject is art, her second favorite subject is language arts, and her third favorite subject is history. Lauren said she likes art because, “I like drawing.”

At home with her two parakeets, Lauren likes to “ draw, play baseball, run relays and build with blocks and things like that.” Lauren is a good student and a very nice person.

Mrs. Leeper’s Keeps Students Hopping After School

By: Natalie & Lauren

Second through eighth graders are meeting at the Nome Elementary School once a week for a jump roping class. Students seem to be having a good time while exercising.

After school jump roping starts on Friday afternoons at 4:00 and ends at 5:00. The coach is Mrs. Leeper, who is also a teacher at the Anvil City Science Academy. At jump roping class, kids have contests, learn new jump roping techniques and just plain jump rope.

Some of the kids that go to after school jump roping are Richelle , Katie , Hailey and Diana . “I love learning new jump rope techniques and jump roping with my friends at jump roping class,” exclaims 10-year old Richelle.

Mrs. Leeper has been jump roping since she was in 5th grade. She has been teaching jump roping for about 10 years, but only 2 years in Nome. She has won a lot of awards in jump roping. Her best award was when she was a sophomore in high school and her team earned a national award.

Kids love going to Mrs. Leeper’s jump roping class! If you like jump roping and you are in 2nd- 8th grade, you should give it a try.