3-on-3 Championship

By Annie Sanford
Teams around the district gathered in Northway, Alaska on November 20, 2014 to participate in the 3-on-3 basketball championship. Set games were played all throughout Thursday afternoon to determine Friday's schedule.

Eagle, Dot Lake, Mentasta, Tetlin, Tok, and Northway middle school and high school teams played 20 minute half-court games with one 30 second time-out.

After a long afternoon of playing and stomaches filled with dinner, all six teams were able to attend a dance Thursday evening.

When asked what she thought of it and how she felt about how her team preformed, Brittney Alsup said,"I thought that the 3 on 3 championship tournament was really fun! I thought my team played really well! Everyone hit some awesome shots. It was also pretty fun to watch the other teams play each other. I had a great time playing!"

Blake Sanford had this to say, "It was very fun and I think my team did great!"

Congratulations to the high school Tok Blue team, Katrice Thomas, Shawn Frank, Colton Peet, and Kia Thomas, for taking first place. The Northway high school team took second place and Mentasta took third place.

Tok Biomass

By Annie Sanford

Biomass

Over the past decade, the community of Tok and the outlying communities have been threatened by wildfires. The Alaska Division of Forestry has worked toward a safer environment by creating a bio-energy project. The project became a reality in 2010.

The dense forests surrounding Tok was made into renewable fuel for the wood chop fired boiler. The boiler is able to heat the school, saving the school thousands of dollars in heating costs.

The 17 foot, 6 foot wide, and 12 foot long boiler is fed by a conveyor belt carrying wood chips that were previously shredded in a Rotochopper grinder. The dense forests were able to be thinned out by the Alaska Division of Forestry specially for the biomass.

The schools maintenance team is responsible for keeping the biomass working smoothly. Thad Tucker takes care of the wood chipping and Randy Warren is the main person that overlooks the running of the biomass.

When asked her opinion about the biomass, Ariana Eschenbacher said, "It doesn't work very well in the winter."

The school is very large and takes a lot of wood chips and time to make sure the whole school warms up.

On the other hand, Jacob Kaus had this to say about the biomass operation,"When it's on it's really hot and I enjoy it."

Thanks to the support of the Division of Forestry, the Tok community, Alaska Gateway School District, the Alaska Energy Authority, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and funds from a 3.2 million dollar state renewable-energy grant and approximately 750,000 dollars from the Alaska Legislature. The biomass is still working today to save the school district money while heating the school.