Anchorage Assembly: Military and Veterans Affairs Commission September 8, 2025

I'm just going to start out with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Right. Do you have a copy of the agenda?

What's that? I got digital, but now I don't see any out. Is anybody on team? Is anybody on team? No.

Give me copy. Give me copy again. I have my own copy. Yeah, I made it. You couldn't make it to that today, or not information?

When we get down to the The board's at before Evelyn starts doing that. Okay, stand by here then.

She, she going to make copies. All right, all right. So while we're waiting for that, uh, um, let's go ahead and do the— what is the— the roll call, and so we establish a quorum. Okay, we're going to go ahead and do the roll call now.

We got Dave Foley is present, Eleanor Lawson is present, myself present, Helen Presbaugh, Amal is present, Olivia—. She said she was coming—. And Robert Sherrill is present. So we do have a quorum, Mr. Chairman. All right, begin the meeting.

Outstanding.

Um, did everybody get a chance to look at the minutes and the agendas that were sent out? And then, um, does anybody with the minutes— does anybody have, um, any corrections or any problems with the minutes as they were sent out?

Okay, then not hearing any, uh, objections, will, uh, minutes will be passed by unanimous consent. Um, anybody have any problem with the agenda that was sent out?

I would—. No, you'll see I added a couple of things. 9/11 Was one of the upcomings. Um, we also had through your flyer the, uh, stand down, um, what was not on the upcoming events. It was on the second one that I sent out.

With the flyers, because that was the one— if you notice on the, on the email, I said that I had, uh, had missed one event and I added the flyers. And well, there was something on the 19th, but it wasn't the stand down. Yeah, yeah, there was a powwow, and then this is— yeah, I call it stand down.

Thank you.

Good.

That's weird, it didn't save on the agenda either. Do you have the flyer? I saw the flyer. Yeah, the flyer was on. The flyer was there.

I typed it in the upcoming events. I guess it didn't save. All right, all right, so let's go. Let's introduce guests. I noticed that we have a few guests Um, we lost a couple, but we still got two.

Uh, oh, there's Jason. Here's Jason Simmons. Um, Mr. Simmons, you want to go ahead and, uh, tell us about yourself and what you're here for, what you Absolutely, yeah. I had applied to join the commission and just got invited for, for today. Couldn't make it in person this time, but I'm a licensed clinical social worker with the— currently embedded with one of the active duty squadrons on base, the 773rd Civil Engineers.

Prior active duty Marine, did 8 years, '99 to '07. Just wanted to see how I could potentially get plugged in and kind of impact the community.

All right. So, Diane, you know anything about his application?

I do not, but I can check in with Marie. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, if you, if you could please, that way we can, uh, find out and keep him abreast. Okay. Of what's going on with it. So we'll check with, uh, Maria on that.

Okay. All right. Um, and Sans Notetaker.

Is that you, Sam Garcia?

Sam's right here, he's walking right now. Oh, hey Sam, is this, is this your thing? Sam's Notetaker? Is that me? That might be.

I'm gonna admit you in, but it's going to be I might be—. Let me figure out how to get rid of that.

Going, guys. How's it going? Good. For people that are new, don't know, like Sam Garcia works with a bunch of the different, uh, um, agencies around town and that, but we're trying to help with, uh, well, you name it. Yeah.

Um, Veterans, active duty for substance use treatment, mental health programs. Also a number of different community and outreach events to try to get our people help.

And Sam, Sam Kelly, Sam was with the Commission for a short period of time. Thank you. And still does a lot of things to help out or give us information and that, and we greatly appreciate everything he does for us. I see out there we got Kyle Huffman. Hello, Kyle.

I see her on the side. Yeah, it's just mic is on. I mean, sorry, off. Kyle, do you want to turn off your mic? Turn on your mic?

She's muted right now. She might be busy. And we got a Jason Porter. Jason Porter, can you hear us?

Yeah, I'm here, just, just listening in.

Okay, so you're just here to listen in and get adjusted to the meeting? Yes, sir. All right, well, welcome.

All right, I don't see anybody else. That's our guest. And of course, yes, Mr. Brett, Mr. Chair, could you, could the staff check on William, I forget that's the first or last name, but he also put an application in a couple months ago. I forget his other name.

Okay.

All right. And we have from the Military and Veterans Affairs, Over on JBARE, we have Jeffrey Slacu here, who's one of our regular advisors, representative advisors. That's who Kyle Huffman is. And also, I just noticed that Angela Laflamme has joined us also from the Military Veterans Affairs.

Welcome, Angela. She said, apologies, I don't have a microphone.

Okay. All right.

So we're going to start off with the committee reports, which is pretty much what we've got. What's— what the heck's going on with this thing?

The—. I'm going to start off before we get with the actual committee. We have some information, so I'm going to turn it over to you.

Good afternoon, I'm Laurel Foster. I am a member of the Alaska Air National Guard and also a member of the Alaska National Guard Officers Association. We received a grant from the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs from Bertie Bowden in the amount of $17,000 for a memorial to commemorate the Alaska Territorial Guard Our additional funding source fell through, so we're no longer able to use that funding for what it was intended purpose was. So now the association is looking for a place to put that money, and your organization with the 11th Air Force Memorial reconstruction came up. I can present it to our board.

It's the first Wednesday of the month. So I would not be able to present the official idea to our board until then. But before I do that, I wanted to get y'all's thoughts and put that up for discussion if that would be something you'd be interested in. It will be competing with other ideas for the board to vote on. Can we submit more to you?

I do need to get, um, As far as like funding requests? Yeah, because I have an ATG statue that needs the bronze plaque on the front side versus the back side, and that's what I'm—. That would actually be more in line with what our intent was to commemorate the territorial guard. So if you want to submit more ideas to me as well, you can do that. And then, um, and you're located where?

N49,000. So we don't have an official office at the headquarters, but that's where our mail is sent to. But I can give you one of my business cards and you can send it to me via email. And I'm from the Alaska Veterans Museum. Okay.

So maybe you and I just need to connect. Yeah. But so that's what I had for that piece. I'm happy to other ideas as well, but it will go before the board in our October meeting to vote because we do— we have been holding on to those funds for a number of years and they need to be used. Okay, you have to close it out with Ferdy.

Yes, I do. He is on my case.

Yeah, so in your meeting in October Did you want somebody to be there to talk about the 11th Air Force Memorial, or how do we get your request to you? That would be most appropriate, I think. If you have any, like, development plans, any information, background information on the memorial, or any other idea you'd like to present, you could email that to me and I can get it on the agenda for the board meeting. And then I can also send the meeting invite to whoever's going to represent your organization to provide a quick, like, 3-minute briefing on, on the project. Where do you usually meet?

It's via Google Meets, so we don't do in-person. It's all online. Elmer, our chair for the Evan Airport Committee. So you use Google Meet? So that, that's not Zoom, that's not, uh, it's a different type of meet?

Yeah, Google Meet's similar to Zoom, but it's done through Google. I can do that. Yeah, I haven't used—. Can I get you to, uh, send us the information for the meeting so that—. Yes, I will send the information.

Um, who's— I guess Marie has the contact info. We have the contact. I have the contact. Yeah. Um, and then If you hold on a second, I'll grab business cards for you all.

Hello, Miss Libby, how are you today?

All right, so while we're waiting for the— let's go ahead, uh, with the report, um, what you've got. And then we can also, while we're doing that, we can discuss this.

All right, well We, uh, we've got in process the letters for signage.

Uh, is going to give us the original statement. Okay, thank you. Okay, correct the nursing home on the signage. So we'll give her a minute when the time comes. In the meantime, um, the airport management, Merrill Field, has done an amazing job cleanup, and then what repairs can be done or have been done for now.

There's still a little bit left. Olivia, myself, and Al went out there right after the meeting last month to do a little sightseeing. We looked at all the things that still need to be done. And especially the pavement is still in bad shape right underneath the monument. The monument itself has taken on way too much weight, I think, or something, because it's just kind of come apart.

The concrete needs to be redone or somehow stabilized. Lights. In the ground and, uh, so forth are still around the pavement in the roundabout. Those all still need to be done, and that's all just going to take a little time. But, uh, technically speaking, it has been cleaned up very nicely.

Uh, the lights have been fixed, uh, by the airport manager. And as far as the electrical, electrical's been also done. So, fixed. It was a real mess and updated. Clear that up.

It's also been updated. So, we are on track with some things. It's just going to take a little bit more time. And I just— the young lady left the room, but I think that's a really great opportunity for us to possibly get some finance. Financing for the— for this, so it doesn't have to all fall on the airport.

Yep. The, uh, do we have anything on the, uh, the grant request, assisting with the grant request?

That's the two things that we were working on, that the committee was working on, was assisting with, uh, We're getting, you know, putting in grant requests for things for the memorial, which she's offering up, you know, possible chance. You missed this, but the lady that was just here, Laurel Foster, she's part of the National Guard Officers Association, and they got a grant set up several years ago for a memorial that they were going to be doing for the Eskimo Scouts, and some things have happened and they can't do that. And Birdie is on them about using the money. So they got $16,000 that they're looking to, uh, do something with. And, uh, but he says 16, 17.

Well, now that Bob has jumped in there, probably only be 16 left.

Why I'm here. But, um, so, but for Verdi, for an additional grant, they make their decision in the December, right, the December meeting. Yeah, yeah. So we need to have that grant proposal in before that.

So we need to really look at what we're going to do with that. And then the other thing was the, uh, the working with Merrill Field on the grand reopening. What's the latest with that?

There would— there really isn't anything right now because we still have It's not going to be until next year, probably around the same time. Well, more like August, hopefully. The—. That's about the only time. With winter coming, you know, we might not be able to do a lot of the work.

But even so, what we've got accomplished so far and what we can also do by springtime next year, uh, I—. I was thinking that September might be better timing just because you might be able to schedule it on either on 9/11 or on, uh, Air Force birthday. Either way, that— yeah, depending on combining it. Yeah. Yep.

Okay. The, uh, so let's, uh, let's talk about the, uh, um, her proposition with, uh, the money they have available. We will— we would have to come up with, uh, some kind of plan. And we can't tackle everything in it, not going to have enough money for everything. Then we need to concentrate on safety items, uh, the pavers going between the circle and the monument, you know, they, they dip down and they come back up from where the ground has settled.

Um, so those need to be fixed. And also getting with, uh, getting with the director at Merrill Field. Everybody make sure your phones are silenced, please. Um, to put something around the bottom, the base, like they did with the flagpoles, putting something around the base of the monument to cover up all of that concrete. And of course, those safety pieces of doing something with ends of it.

To where people can't be trying to jump up on, step up on top of it, and then hurting their leg like I did. I don't know what happens. Yes, somebody could tell me how to turn this thing off.

Just turn all the way off. Put it on the floor. Just have fun. It'll be fine. Oh, okay.

So that's something to probably I want to add to it, add to the, the things that we're looking at with the 11th Air Force Memorial, and that is putting something together for them. Um, and you figure we have to— it's going to have to be broken down doing this for the memorial, for, you know, then put all for safety pieces and getting a price of what it would cost for somebody to come in to do it.

You know, we'll have to have something to give them to— okay, we need this amount of money and we need it for pavers are going to cost this much, skirting the bottom of the, the, uh, monument this amount. Um, we can look at what it might cost to, to caulk or something the cracks in the monument, but I think that's going to take us over the amount that they have available, but we can try, see how much it would cost to repair the cracks so they still looks good, right? Because you have especially the one that goes through the apartment— excuse me, part of the wall— it's got— they've got to be filled with a type of caulking that also is an adhesive, and that fills it, sticks to them, and, uh —can withstand the elements.

We're not too worried about the monument falling. There's enough concrete in the ground underneath of it that it's not going to go anywhere. They've actually— Merrill Field has had engineers come over and assess it, and they said don't worry, this thing's not going anywhere. But the problem is it's cracking, and that's just from the weather and shifting and the ground dropping. Um, it is cracked and it's got that one big crack.

It was two pieces and then it was put together in the center. Uh, and, um, if either side, you know, has like an earthquake or something, there is a possibility right now that one or the other could fall, or both maybe. Uh, but it is pretty pretty sturdy. Yeah, if you— if you said— if you go to the— the Ellsbilt and you look at the— the connections and the pile of concrete that's underneath the ground, um, you'd be— it'd take a lot to take that. I mean, like a dump truck driving or something.

And did last through 7.1. Yeah, few years ago. I think that's— I think that's mainly for what's caused the that and the fact that it's sitting on top of the old dump. Take the two of those together and that's why it's— the ground fell, doesn't drop. But it gives it a, a chance that the ground is soft enough to be dangerous, but also for the monument to stay where it is.

So who knows, anything can happen. I was just trying to look, look from I have a question about the people that we're going to get to help us. There is a Historic Preservation Commission, and what we don't have, from what I can tell, is that cadre of folks to tell us who to go to. And I think that's a good liaison from one commission to another to say, I know you've we've got guys who do this all the time, and we borrow them to come and do our assessment. Because I don't know who does papers.

I don't— I can get them, but I think that's a good source of names to get some. Okay, is that good? All right, we'll do that. I certainly do. It says so, right?

Tom Davis. We have, we have And that's the other part she put. They meet on the first Wednesday of the month, so we have until the first Wednesday of October to get this put together, what we want to present to them. Well, you know, you've got a lot of information here if you'd like to parse it out. I have to the committee.

Oh, okay, fine. But anyway, you have stuff to choose, to just pick that you want to do this and this and this, so We will, we'll handle it that way. Yes. Okay. And I think the airport manager probably has— might have some, uh, connections too, because since he does a lot of the work, he does.

You know what, I—. He might have already done assessments on it. He has. He might already have people who's given him prices, and we could just get those from him. Yes.

And say, okay, this is how much it'll cost for this. And he might already have that. But you know what, I promised him because of his little incident the other day, I promised him I wouldn't bother him until October. So he's up to his eyeballs in his own things. So he did promise me time, so I'll tell him I need to push that up to like the 1st of October.

Yeah, just to, just to get with him. Have you gotten prices on anything? If he's got anything to give us, then, but we can sit back and go through. And like I said, his little incident happened And I just said, you just go take care of that and we'll take care of this over here. So that's where we are with him.

When Al has, uh, he wrote— he made up the letter, um, about, uh, the signage that we've had. Uh, I know what he was talking about, but I think Olivia's got some questions. I can refer you You sent me a thing last night about— oh, the signage. I just sent you the pictures. I went to the monument because they're in— or they're in the wrong order.

Um, the, the, the people who know more about traffic in, uh, event— not event areas, but display areas, I'd say is Disney. So I would fall on them. Their rule is person goes up to a thing, they're going to turn right first, and people do. I've watched them. So when they come around the monument, 1946 is first, 30, uh, 40 whatever is next, and on and on.

So when they get to the end, they finally see 1939. That would make sense if you were coming the other way, but that's not how people do it. So all I'm saying is to be display correct, we want to put them in the other order. I have pictures which I sent you of the back of them. I, I sent them this morning, but like a few minutes ago.

Are you talking about the pieces of the monument? Yeah. Yeah, I have no idea. We got little—. We're tired.

We're talking— those things are wrong. We're not— we're talking— that's not ours. No. Okay, good enough. I thought you were talking about signage for the to the street.

That's out. Okay, right, but that's what I thought. No, no, that's talking about—. No, blow my mind. Different signs.

Okay, no worries. Let me talk about this letter. Yeah, I got mail to all— talk to all of you. And, uh, I want to thank Bob. Uh, he did find one, one error in the, uh, fourth, uh, line down, second paragraph after rationale.

Anyway, I corrected that. So now I've got the revised letter, and, uh, that I— for Eleanor and for Dave to sign today if we all agree with it. But I did do another revised one, a slight revision, uh, where I had, in order to enhance the public awareness, I just put that— I put— I added an action in, in, in bold letters there. Uh, to— for that to stand out. So that's the only thing I've added to the letter besides making that correction to the, uh, one spelling error, which was grand— grand was spelled wrong.

So if you're all okay with it, uh, I'll give the letter to, uh, Eleanor and Dave to sign and to pass on to the mayor. Uh, I think the one with action in it is better, but what do you guys think? I did too. Yeah. I think you did an outstanding job on that.

Agreed. So, Eleanor, if you want to do the action one, there's— that's all I had right there. Um, you think you're down here, then Dave, when you want to do it, then you can— Dave can pass it on to the mayor. Go ahead. The, uh, what that letter was, for people who aren't familiar with it, is Right now, well, until a few months ago, we weren't aware that the memorial was even there until Dave mentioned it at one of our meetings.

And so then we got the 11th Air Force Committee and got that established and everything. But I've been here, living here over 40 years, and I never knew it was there. Why? Because of no signage. So the committee did a letter up, our committee, 11th Air Force Committee, asking the mayor to have signage put from all directions so people know about it.

Even if nothing else is done, it doesn't— there's no ground open or anything else, at least we need to let people know about it. Even the wing commander wasn't aware of it when I talked to her. So, uh, that kind of gist of the letter is we want to work with the city to get some signage put up. All right.

We were at the American Legion last week, week before. They had a special thing going for the senators.

Senator Sullivan. Senator Sullivan. And it was after she left, but I did get a chance to talk to him, and there's several folks were standing right around him. That were working with him, and I happened to mention that we've got this project going. None of them knew there was a memorial there, including the Senator.

So I said, you guys need to just go up there, look, take a look, read about it. It is part of a history that is so forgotten, it's sad. Uh, and so, well, and I gave him my card.

We can always pick on him. Exactly. Yes, he's a very big supporter. Yes, he is. All right, so that is where we're sitting.

You guys going to work on that for the, for the meeting, see if we can get some of that money for the memorial? All right.

Um, we have no old business, we have no new business right now. Um, we do have some upcoming events, and with the upcoming events, I'm going to start off and I'm going to let Sam, uh, that's because I waited because I know a couple of things you wanted to talk about was a couple of these events. Oh yeah, so yeah, so actually this Saturday we have Fall Fest on base. It's at the Army National Guard training hall down there. In the parking lot, there'll be hayrides, big maze for the kids, a bunch of games.

If I'm able to get pumpkins, we have a big trebuchet, or however you say it, trebuchet, so we'll be launching hopefully pumpkins. However, it's very early, so they might be oranges with Look like pumpkins. I don't know yet. Costco's selling pumpkins. They have the big ones.

Oh, do they? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they— yeah, so I'm hoping some people were supposed to start getting some this week. So we'll see. Hopefully we'll be chunking pumpkins and—.

But oranges are also orange, so— Two sentences of the army card. Yep, yep, yep. Uh, which is on—. I know where they are, but they're so hidden that—. Yeah, I see them on freeway every day.

Yeah, and I mean, so on the flyer, which I'll—. Oh, you're talking about the headquarters building? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the big, the big—.

Say the big, the big building.

4,900. Yeah. So, uh, and if people type it in, like, they'll be able to find it. It's, um, are they gonna, are they gonna have the gate open for them? It's the Armory.

Armory. It's the Armory. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah, the big Armory.

So, uh, people shouldn't have— I mean, just follow the road all the way down. And, uh, yeah, military families, lots of stuff for kids. Uh, that is one thing to have them check though. Make sure they have the gate open for— yeah, like they do for Memorial Day at the ceremony at the cemetery. Yeah, otherwise people will show up and won't be able to get in.

Oh yeah. Um, yeah, so I'm pretty sure Susie's on, on the gate duty. She's, she's working all that out. Okay. Um, what day did you say this was?

This is this Saturday, 13th, and it's on the— it's the first one on the upcoming events. So it's from 1 to 4. I'll be there earlier setting up, but yeah, so that'll be fun.

Uh, there's the VA Stand Down coming up, which is the 19th. The 19th. —So people can— veterans can go get resources for a number of things, for anything from— lots of times they have a bunch of donations like clothing, different sorts of vouchers, different programs for vets.

I think it'll be at the airport again this year. Yeah, yeah, North Terminal. North Terminal. And then, Chairman, sorry to interrupt, Jason Porter had a question. Had his hand raised right here.

Yeah, um, Jason, you said you wanted—.

Here we go, let's see here. Oh, had him unmute himself.

Sorry about that. I don't know if you guys can hear me now. Yes, we can hear you.

Jason Simmons and Jason Porter. Yeah, so you said you're with the American Legion Post 29, Sergeant Arms though. We haven't received info about the memorial post level.

Oh, he got off. He might be having technical difficulties with his mic. Let's see. Oh, he's sending.

Oh, maybe he's gonna come back. There he is.

Welcome back again. Sorry about that. I sent in the text, but going back when you guys were talking about the American Legion and about not hearing about the memorial, I know I'm the Sergeant at Arms at Post 29. I know post level we really haven't heard anything about it. I was going to just invite you guys to our post on the next town meeting, which is the 16th at 7 PM.

If you guys want to have someone stop by and talk about it, I'll volunteer for that. Oh, to give the information about the 11th Air Force Memorial? Yes. Okay, do that. I'm an engineer.

I'll be happy to do that.

Where's, where's he, uh, the post located?

Yeah, yeah, 29. So yeah, it's 29, so it's there off of Muldoon next to O'Reilly's.

All right, we have, uh, Olivia has volunteered to come and talk to you guys.

All right, go ahead, Sam, you got the, the The one on September 16th? The 19th. So, and that was for the VA stand-down. Yeah. But didn't you also have the 1% of separation?

Yes, the one at— Post 1. Post 1, that will be happening.

See, where is that one at? Here we go. Yeah. So that one, is on the 16th from, it's all day. And they also have a show in the middle there.

It's a comedy show. Yep. From 11 to 12:30. But yeah, from 9 to 4:30 PM, they're having the mental health summit. So there'll be a bunch of resources for mental health for veterans.

So as in, you have flyers for that one, uh, the stand down and the, uh, and then the stand down too. Oh, you got both? Great. All that I sent out in that email to everybody. Yeah, yeah, they got stand down from, uh, the commander over at, uh, 1685.

He sent me copy of the stand down and I got two from you for the other two.

Perfect. From last, last meeting, we still have September 18th is the Pulwama Day and observance to honor the 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel who lost their lives serving in India. In India.

Okay. Heard that. Yeah.

And there's the stand down. I'll try to— POW/MIA Day. Yep. And the 19th is also National Powhomiya Day. Is Kyle still with us?

Doesn't look like Kyle's online. No, she Yeah, I was going to tap in to see. I was hoping that maybe she had any, some information. I'll see if I can get a hold of her and I'll, or somebody else, just if I find anything I'll put up. They used to do something on Jay Bear every year for Pow Mia Day.

It ranged from having a big thing out in one of the hangars, you have a little small thing in the workout hangar where they're exercising and running around the track and doing other stuff. So it's just, the problem is it's different units that do it every year, and sometimes it's bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes it's non-existent. They just go for ruck marches and ruck runs. So if I find out anything, I'll put that out. Sam, did you have anything else you wanted to put out to us?

Uh, as far as event-wise, that is all I have going on for the moment. Um, new program— I think the last time I was here, I talked about a new program, and because I moved from Banyan to start what we were supposed to do but with a different organization. So we have 7 buildings on the east side. It's going to be a whole recovery campus And a portion of that is gonna be for veterans and active duty. So we'll have detox, residential, all the levels of outpatient, recovery community center, mobile crisis team.

And the goal is to really be able to support somebody wherever they're at. And eventually we'll have mental health services as well, which is something that's lacking.

So what organization are you with now? It's called Luna Health. But the, the program itself is the Anchorage Recovery Center.

Say N-U-N-A or L-U-N-A? L-U-N-A. Luna Health Group. You said it was the Anchorage Recovery Center.

So we got lots of, lots of construction going throughout the winter, and by the end of winter we should have We should have our detox and residential online. We already have 32 beds. In the next few months, we should have around 72. By the end of winter, we should have almost 200. That's civilian, veteran, and active duty.

Now, where is this at? Over between Boniface and Bégaud. It used to be the Arctic Turn-In. Which, you know, the history of that building, it's pretty cool to get to turn it around. And so we have the Arctic Turn-In, and then we also have the rest of the property to the right.

That's all being created one big campus. So, that's the one that's all the construction behind the gas station. Yep. Yep. So, that gas station is going to be leveled.

That's going to be a recovery community center to bring people together for barbecues. Sober events, just bring the community together. Okay. Yeah, that's pretty impressed. Yeah, excited about it.

Your old Shell station, right? That the one? The Shell station? I don't know what cars—. No, so it's over off Tatu Drive.

Cars. So if you're, if you're driving down the highway and you look over, you can see that kind of— it looks like a lot cabin type building. It's just— that's just the sighting. Uh, so we have that hotel and the rest of the property to the right, including the old gas station. I don't remember what it was, but it's been abandoned for like 20 years.

Yeah, just sitting there. Yeah, it's on, uh, it's like the frontage road, right? Goes across the highway. Foundry, that is. That's— that's the ang— foundry.

Taku. Boundaries on the other side.

All right, this is on paper 19, just recognition, recognition. Okay, I thought maybe somebody doing something.

All right then, um, anything for the good of the commission?

I, I do have the, uh, 11 October Saturday, uh, is the Alaska Veterans Museum's annual dinner and auction. That will be at AMVETS II. $50 For single, $90 for a couple, includes membership. With the museum.

You can call to the museum and somebody can process your credit card if you want, or you can send it direct to me and I will do it for you and send you a receipt.

Basics that we would need is name and phone number and email. So, but that's out there. And I said, I, I did bring some, uh, applications for next year if anybody's interested. Olivia? Yes.

Um, so, uh, the museum's there to— for all the military, but all for the, the whole citizenship, really. And I said, our major projects that we're working on right now is to be able to do sound bites on YouTube for all the school children throughout all of Alaska. So I'm working on a grant proposal for that to the Veterans Administration— Veterans Affairs. But that's one of those challenges that we have to do, and we've kind of lined our grant proposals over this the next several years.

And doesn't that— you tell me that if the dinner, the price then also includes your membership for the next year? Yeah, for the yearly memberships. And that's the best discount you'll ever get because the meal costs like $30, and for $20 more you got membership instead of the normal $50 for family or $30 for individual. Did you say that was Ambence 2? Yeah, Ambence 2.

Yeah, right there, Midtown. How's your traffic for the museum there? The traffic actually is decent for downtown. Our challenge is, you know, if they want to walk in, and, you know, I try to get the cruise ships— we do tell them about our timing, and they call us when they're going to have a cruise ship in. But a lot of people want to come in and run through a museum in 10 minutes.

And this museum, I mean, average docent tour is an hour. And if you get Sue Ellen, it's 2 hours.

So, and Sue Ellen's one of our historian emeritus. So Most people kind of know Sue Ellen over the years. Sue Ellen, she also, if you haven't had it done yet, a verbal history. She'll come to your house and she'll— with me it took a couple hours— and she'll do a taping and she'll interview you. It's fantastic.

So that's an opportunity we're doing. Any military to do, tell your story. We have pre-questions to help you out, to kind of prepare you to think about it through. And I guess the reminder is you don't have to have been shot at because everyone contributed to what's going on and your contributions were very important and stories are fun to tell too. But we offer that up and we will come out to you.

So many folks with the, that we tell them, hey, you know, let's put you in for a Quilt of Valor. And I said, well, no, I don't want this. I didn't do that. Yeah, I didn't do the hard work or get, like you say, shot at. I go, no, sir, you served, or ma'am, you served.

That's it. You served. You deserve this. You know, the same with the Honor Flight. People, I tell everybody about the Honor Flight and they say, well, you know, I'm not handicapped and I'm not this and that.

That is irrelevant. You're a vet. Right now the age kind of cutoff is 76. However, they take younger ones. Honor Flight?

For the Honor Flight. I just had, um, I just had Carla, uh, talk to my group, uh, and she said 79. 79. 79 Is the beginning, uh, they won't take anyone under 79. Well, they will, but you can help.

Yeah, you can Anybody can come and help, but in order to get onto the airplane and go to D-side—. Let me give, uh, uh, Jason, do you have any questions or anything you want to say? Jason Simmons?

Couldn't find the unmute. Uh, no, um, kind of just, just seeing what things are like today. All right. How about you, Jason Porter?

No, I'm good.

All right. Angela doesn't have a microphone, but if—. Hey, isn't Angela one of our representatives at Biden? She's typing something up right now. She comes every month, right?

Oh, she said nothing from me today.

Me and Angela, we both work in the same department. Yeah, but she's the legislative liaison for the, for the commissioner, and I work for Office of Veterans Affairs, right? For different aspects under the same department. Okay, next meeting, next meeting, the first Monday is the 6th of October. 5, 5, 5 Days.

Is everybody good with the 6th of October?

Same place, same time? We'll be doing it remotely, but, uh, try to hook on. I'll be in the Midwest. Okay.

Um, I entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion adjourned. Second. All right, everybody all in favor? Aye.

All right, Jason and Jason and Angela, thank you for coming to the meeting. Jason Simmons, we'll, uh, hopefully your, uh, application will get processed quickly.

Sometimes they go real fast, sometimes you got to keep bugging them. Nice to meet everyone. Okay. All right. Yeah.

Goodbye. You have like your business card with you? Okay, all right. Yes. Do you want a copy?

Yeah, one. Yeah, you go ahead and do. We met a while back. Yeah, and I, I'm a musician. I do a lot of things around the city.

Okay, I'll be at Stand Down. I've, I've been there for the last I'm not going to slow down because I believe in it. It's one of the—.

Getting better at that sport. I am. I got a link in there, the teams now. Click it in the PDF file and go right to teams. That's all I'm thinking.

See, mine keeps going out. Has that ever happened to anybody? Yeah, it just kept going. I couldn't get in. Well, I was doing it all on my phone and then trying to see that All right, didn't I do that?

What's I going to do this? I don't know.