Business
So, You Want to go Fishing? You can in Seldovia, with “Salmon Annie”!
by Jenny Chissus
I had the true pleasure to run into our very own “Salmon Annie” at the docks in Seldovia the other day. She and her family have started an exciting new business here in Seldovia, focused on the bounty and beauty of our Alaskan waters. “Salmon Annie” as she is lovingly called, began a guiding service, giving others a glimpse into her family’s set netting experience on Seldovia Bay.
Some folks like to come to Seldovia to have lunch, walk around a bit, take a hike on the Otterbahn trail, tour the museum or shop in our stores, but others… are looking for a little more adventure, or an opportunity to see the beauty of Alaska up close and personal, and are not afraid to get a little wet, or dirty in the process!
Annie is hopeful that this will be an opportunity for folks to see how people live in Alaska, get a taste of how set netting works, setting the nets, picking the fish and enjoying being out on the water! She also hopes that the local folks will enjoy sharing this experience with their visiting family and friends who are looking for an authentic look into the Alaskan lifestyle.
For more information about this great new adventure in Seldovia, please check out Salmon Annie’s website here at www.SalmonAnnie.com. I threw a few additional questions her way to explain the beginnings of this idea, and how Annie is working to share the excitement of fishing while maintaining a family business!
Gazette: You’ve been set netting since 2001 – was that on your own, or did you start with your family?
Annie: I actually started set-netting here with Seldovian, Dave Chartier. I would deck hand for Dave, Alex, and Brian. I lived on Powder Island in my tent that summer and learned to fish with their family operation. I would set-net every summer and go back to school at University of Northern Colorado every year. I fished with Dave one summer and the rest of the summers I was fishing with a family on Isthmus Island out in Little Tutka Bay. I enjoyed being a deck hand and a nanny for a family operation – my friend had two little baby boys. I learned a lot about fishing, marriage, family, life…
Gazette: You’ve been set netting in Seldovia since 2006 – how did you pick Seldovia?
Annie: I was about to graduate college and after doing my student teaching, landed a job at Homer Middle School. I started talking to all the fisherman on the “line” – from Seldovia to Halibut Cove seeing if anyone wanted to sell. I would bake cookies and bread and go chat with them for a possibility of purchasing sites.
Gazette: What’s your favorite thing about fishing?
Annie: I love being on the water. It calms my soul. I also love to work hard. There are no “I can’t”s in fishing. Things have to get done and you just do it. It was also the perfect complement to teaching during the school year which was so emotionally draining – to then having a physically demanding job such as fishing. Mostly, I love the water.
Gazette: How is it fishing with the kiddos? Do they love being in the skiff?
Annie: Joy LOVES it. She grew up in the fish tote – one without fish in it of course. She is very good at identifying the species. Obadiah gets tied onto the bow line – he is so busy – and he doesn’t like it like Joy does. He is glad when we are all done. And the baby? He is happy as long as he is with us.
Gazette: Having fished for over 13 years – have you seen a difference in how you fish? The amount of fish? The types of fish?
Annie: Yes – My role in fishing has changed from deck-hand, skipper, wife, mother… so this new business guiding is in one way – a way for me to get on the gear more and hopefully pay for our nanny so I can be fishing. Also, yes, much less Kings and more pinks earlier in the season, as far as Seldovia Bay goes. Jacks are back this year for the first time since about 2007!
Gazette: What made you decide to be a guide?
Annie: For the reasons I stated above and also because fishing has become less profitable for us, we needed to find a way to make it more profitable. I also wanted people to have something to do in Seldovia when they are here.
Gazette: What do you think people will get out of this experience of fishing with Salmon Annie?
Annie: Well, that’s sort of all on the website –www.SalmonAnnie.com – so check that out! But, in short, hands-on commercial fishing experience, memories, views, etc. Very personable fishing and handling of each species…
Gazette: What is your season? From when to when?
Annie: We fish June and July. But we are guiding into the second week of July.
Gazette: Then folks better Call now and secure their spot – as days and time frame is limited! First come, first served!
Gazette: Is this a good experience for any age? Do you have any restrictions? Age? Ability?
Annie: All people. Any age or ability. Totally inclusive!
Gazette: Give Annie a call – She’d love to share this great experience with you! You can reach Annie at: 907-756-1110 or email her directly at: AnniePeel@yahoo.com
HEA Experiences Peninsula Wide Outage
by Joe Gallagher
Homer Electric Association (HEA) members experienced a system wide power outage late Monday afternoon.
The outage started at 4:15 pm when a fault occurred on a high voltage transmission line that runs from the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Plant through Homer and on to Soldotna.
The fault appeared to take place somewhere between Bradley Lake and Diamond Ridge in Homer. The incident was serious enough to create a loss of voltage on the entire HEA system and resulted in an outage from Kachemak Bay north to Nikiski.
HEA was able to restore power to Nikiski, Kenai, Beaver Creek, Ridgeway, and Sterling by 5:45 pm and had restoration to the rest of the HEA system completed at 8:25 pm.
The duration and size of the outage was compounded by the fact that there are two transmission related construction projects underway. A small section of the transmission line between Soldotna and Funny River is out of service due to construction work at the HEA substation in Soldotna. In addition, both HEA and Chugach Electric are working on the transmission system between Soldotna and Cooper Landing. This situation complicated and delayed the restoration efforts from Soldotna south to Homer.
An overflight of the transmission line between Bradley Lake and Homer failed to locate any obvious cause for the fault on the line. Possibilities include a lightning strike, a tree on the line or a possible bird contact. HEA will continue to investigate the cause of the outage.
There’s a Bakery in Seldovia!
by Jenny Chissus
Seeing the light in the window and the OPEN sign at the Tidepool Cafe was a wonderful treat after over 6 months of quiet! We have all heard rumblings that the Tidepool was going to be under new management, and that we would see the doors opening “soon” – but until Saturday – the situation was officially unknown! Not any more!
Sonny and I had the opportunity to be the second customers in the door on opening day – to enjoy a coffee and the freshly baked croissants Michel Bieri has been talking about! He has been a chef for almost 50 years, since June 29, 1965! Michel has owned and operated hunting and fishing lodges, restaurants, the Linwood Bar and Grill, and created a very successful bakery in Anchorage among others! We are so fortunate to have a chef of his experience and caliber here in our little community of Seldovia!
Michel is not new to Seldovia either, as he married one of Seldovia’s own, Liza Colberg Bieri and has been operating his fishing and hunting businesses down in the Kodiak area with Seldovia as his home base. Besides opening the Tidepool, Michel is also working diligently to lease the new building on Dock street to bring in the equipment to produce his salmon product “Seldovia Wild” right here in Seldovia!
The Tidepool is going to be open 7 days a week, from 7:30am to 3:30pm for breakfast and lunch. The menu will be a bit limited these first few weeks, as he’s just getting started training and organizing the kitchen and wait staff with the new menus and systems. Michel is thankful that a few of the original Tidepool staff will be opening the restaurant with him, including Stacy in the kitchen and Sirena managing the front, making for a smooth transition. Michel promises that even though he’s not rolling out his full menu quite yet, it will all taste delicious and that you will be happy about the prices! Because of his other work, he’ll be traveling to Anchorage weekly to get supplies, ensuring that all the produce is fresh and that he will never run out of product. Michel himself will be cooking/baking in Seldovia 5 days a week!
You will also eventually see the moving of equipment and additional showcases to house the wide variety of baked goods Michel is planning to offer Seldovia! When we visited, he stressed to me that this will be a bakery/cafe, making fresh bread daily in Seldovia! “When people walk in you will know that you are in a bakery! It will smell like a bakery!” Michel will have retail priced baked goods, croissants, baguette, puff pastries, tarts and even cakes! Making the bread on site will keep the prices inexpensive, and his hope is to match the Anchorage prices – right here in Seldovia!
Michel is all about taking care of the local clientele as well as the folks who are visiting for the day. The prices that he is proposing are very reasonable! The standard hamburger with fresh bun and fries will be $9.95! The butter croissants are under $2, and the delicious reindeer sausage puff pastry is $3.95!
To give you an idea of the menu for breakfast, here are a few teasers: ham and cheese croissant with black forest ham and swiss cheese, reindeer sausage Dijon butter puff pastry, chocolate croissant, butter croissant, pancakes, eggs, omelets and many specialties like eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, french toast and breakfast sandwiches. There will certainly be something on the menu for everyone!
His lunch menu looks just as spectacular with the standard hamburger and cheeseburgers with mushrooms and avocados, corned beef, roast beef Philly and French Dip, turkey and chicken, meatball and even italian sausage sandwiches all with fresh bread and homemade french fries!
Michel will be bringing many French favorites to the menu like the Croque Monsieur (Black forest ham, swiss cheese with sautéed mushrooms, Dijon mustard and lettuce on grilled white bread with Bechamel and gratinee parmesan cheese on top!) There will even be a few Italian-style pasta specials like fettuccine, linguine and spinach ravioli! All this to say that he will have a nicely varied menu – with some uniquely international flavors to tempt all types of customers!
Another big focus to the restaurant will be the availability of fresh seafood! Michel is adamant about getting fresh fish: cod, bass, salmon and halibut to the Tidepool tables for you – along with mussels, oysters, crab, shrimp – whatever he can get his hands on! This will be a fabulous addition to the Seldovia cuisine, as many people coming to Alaska want to savor our bounty from the sea – and Michel will do a masterful job of preparing it so that they will remember Seldovia and Alaska seafood with appreciation!
So, grab a friend or loved one and head on down to the Tidepool and enjoy a nice breakfast or lunch! Soon, you too will greeted by that amazing French bakery smell when you walk in the door.
A bientôt!
Thank You Seldovia
by Jeremiah and Angela Campbell – The Boardwalk Hotel
We would like to thank everyone in the community who attended the open house that was held recently at the Boardwalk Hotel. What a beautiful day we had to visit and meet on the Boardwalk’s front deck!
The support from the community has been overwhelming and we are very appreciative of the positive feedback that we have received. We want everyone to know that we are doing our best to get things up and running with the pub & grill, but the priority has been to complete all the guest rooms. For the most part, the guest rooms are now finished, and we are focusing on the pub & grill areas.
Based on some of the comments that we received at the open house, we want to make it clear to everyone that the hotel, pub & grill will be open year round and open for the general public every day, not just serving the guests of the hotel. In order for the hotel, pub & grill to be successful, we will absolutely need the support of the local people in the community. The Boardwalk Pub & Grill will be opening soon for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
We are still putting up old town Seldovia pictures and other items (most items donated from local families) around the hotel. We welcome you to stop by the hotel anytime to check out our new displays.
Seldovia Time
