Staff ReportNEWSROOM

@NEWSMINER.COM

The FBI announced Monday it is offering a $5,000 reward for information about a 2013 arson at Plack Road Baptist Church in North Pole.

State fire investi-gators determined the fire was inten-tionally set, causing roughly $200,000 in damage, according to an FBI news release. The fire reportedly occ urred be tween 5:15 p .m. Dec . 3 , 2013, and noon Dec. 4, 2013.

The church’s pastor reportedly noticed a door open in the church on the after-

noon of Dec. 4. When he went to investigate, he saw significant damage and called 911, according to the news release.

The FBI is involved because defacing,

damaging or destroy-ing religious proper-ty may constitute a federal crime if the property was targeted because of its religious nature, according to the release.

“Someone knows who started the Plack Road Baptist Church fire,” said Marlin Ritz-man, special agent in charge of Alaska’s FBI Division. “We hope the reward money will give that person the extra incentive they may need to do the right thing and let us know who the arsonist is.”

Anyone with infor-mation about the arson is asked to call the FBI at 276-4441.

The reward is being offered for informa-tion leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or peo-ple responsible for the crime.Contact the newsroom at

459-7572.

SOURDOUGH JACK:

“White Christmases are OK, but green ones are better.”

The weather.

Today: Clear. Highs

18 to 27 below, except

about 3 below on the

hills. Light winds.

Tonight: Mostly clear.

Lows 24 to 33 below;

except about 8 below

on the hills. Light

winds.

High today .............-21

Low tonight .......... -28

WEATHER » A7

GOODMORNING

Classified » B7 | Comics » B6 | Dear Abby » B5 | Obituaries » A3 | Opinion » A6 INSIDE

• • •

Boy Scouts honor two longtime Fairbanks residents as Distiguished Citizens. »A3Inside Today

• • •

COLTS ARE IN LUCKQB recovers from

concussion to lead

rout of NY Jets.

SPORTS

Page B1

• • •

Aurora forecast.

Auroral activity will be

moderate. Weather per-

mitting, moderate dis-

plays will be visible over-

head from Utqiagvik to

as far south as Talkeetna

and visible low on the

horizon as far south as

Bethel, Soldotna and

southeast Alaska.

This information is provid-

ed by aurora forecasters at

the Geophysical Institute

at the University of Alaska

Fairbanks. For more infor-

mation about the aurora,

visit http://www.gi.alaska.

edu/AuroraForecast

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSING DEPT.?President-elect

Donald Trump picks

cardiologist Ben

Carson to lead HUD

Nation

Page A7

newsminer.comOne dollar TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2016

Council OKs Jewkes, bonusesBy Kevin Baird KBAIRD

@NEWSMINER.COM

The Fairbanks City Council unanimous-ly approved Christmas bonuses for employ-ees of the Public Safety Employees Association — which represents Po l i c e D e p a r t m e n t employees — Monday night at City Hall.

The council also unan-

i m o u s l y approved D e p u -ty pol ice Chief Eric J e w k e s as police chief.

U n d e r the resolution that was approved, fu l l t ime employees of the PSEA will get a $2,000 bonus, and part-time employees will get a $1,000 bonus.

The bonus was intro-duced by Councilwoman Joy Huntington as a way for the council to extend an olive branch to the Police Department. The council and PSEA are in the midst of a labor dis-pute that recently was appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

“Everyone wants some progress to move for-ward with the PSEA,” Huntington said. “It is

frustrating to be in this position and have this contract on the table, and be in a major dis-pute. A lot of times it doesn’t feel like we have solutions and we only have problems. I think we have to keep offer-ing solutions until we get to the big solution. I’m happy to take a few steps.”

A few members of the public said that could be

unfair to other employ-ees at City Hall.

Councilman Jerry Cle-worth said employees in other labor unions at City Hall received pack-age increases since 2014, while the PSEA employ-ees have not.

“I think this is jus-tified,” Cleworth said. “But it doesn’ t catch them up.”

Serial burglar gets 10 years in prisonBy Dorothy ChomiczDCHOMICZ@NEWSMINER.COM

A Two Rivers man charged

with attempted murder and 38 counts of theft, burglary and assault will serve 10 years in prison as the result of a plea deal.

According to a criminal com-plaint, Levi Retynski, 37, bur-glarized a Chena Hot Springs Road home Oct. 12, stole fire-arms, a truck and other items, and left another truck on the property. Alaska State Troop-ers were inside the home investigating the thefts when Retynski returned to the prop-erty and told residents he was there to pick up a truck. When confronted by one of them Retynski threatened the man with his own gun, pointed it at the man’s head and pulled the trigger.

The gun did not go off because it was a single-action revolver and Retynski did not know he had to cock it before the first round could be fired, according to the complaint. Retynski was subdued by the residents and troopers at the scene. He was charged with attempted murder, three counts of felony third-degree assault, nine counts of sec-ond-degree theft, two counts of first-degree burglary, four counts of first-degree vehicle theft and one count of fifth-degree criminal mischief. All but the criminal mischief charge are felonies.

At his change of plea hearing in Fairbanks Superior Court on Monday afternoon, Retynk-si — who participated by tele-phone from Anchorage, where he is awaiting trial for escape, assault and coercion charges for an April 2015 incident there — pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree assault, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of second-de-gree theft for the Oct. 12 inci-dent.

Retynski also faced a total of 19 burglary, theft and vehicle theft charges in three addi-tional cases from 2014 and 2015. He pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree theft, two counts of first-de-gree burglary and one count of second-degree theft in those cases.

Retynski’s agreed upon com-posite sentence will be 201/2 years, with 101/2 suspended. He will be formally sentenced January 19.

AFTERNOON FLIGHT

A helicopter flies along the horizon as Mount Hayes looms in the background as seen Monday afternoon from Farmers Loop. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER

Reward offered for 2013 fire info

This image shows damage from a 2013 fire to the Plack Road Baptist Church. PHOTO

COURTESY OF STACI FEGER-PELLESSIER

Search for man focuses on Elliott Highway By Sam FriedmanSFRIEDMAN

@NEWSMINER.COM

The search and res-

cue operation for Ice Alaska founder R. “Andy” O’Grady has moved to the Elliott Highway based on evi-dence he bought gas Friday night in Fox.

Alaska State Troopers issued a Silver Alert on Saturday for O’Grady, who is 89 and has Alz-heimer’s disease.

Friends last saw O’Grady at 5:30 p.m. Friday near the Phil-lips Field Road ice park. Video surveillance later showed he was at the gas station in Fox on Friday night, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said. O’Grady’s cellphone last pinged

o f f a c e l l -p h o n e t o w e r n o r t h of Fox a l o n g t h e E l l i o tt Highway at about 11:30 p.m. Friday, indi-cating O’Grady may have been driving north on the highway.

A Civil Air Patrol air-plane was searching the highway Monday for O’Grady’s truck, and troopers’ R-44 helicop-ter also was searching the area, Peters said.

O’Grady is a former city public works direc-tor who in 1988 helped found the ice carving competition today known as the BP World Ice Art Championships.

The pond used to har-vest the sculpture ice is named after O’Grady at both the old and new ice parks because O’Grady applied for the permit that allowed the organization to harvest its own ice on-site, Ice Alaska chairman Dick Brickley said.

Brickley considers O’Grady one of three founders of Ice Alaska. The other two are Wal-ly Cox and Ethel Stow-man.

The Ice Alaska com-munity is watching the search for O’Grady closely. Brickley said he’s been happy with the search effort.

“Every time we call troopers to suggest something they ’ve already done it,” he said.

Brickley said it didn’t surprise him that O’Grady headed north.

“I know he loved to drive up the haul road. That was one of his favorite places to go,” he said.

O’Grady was driving a silver 2009 Chev-rolet Silverado with license plate FPC726. He is white, has gray hair and hazel eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall, and weighs 185 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray Carhartt jacket and gray overalls.

Troopers ask any-one with information about O’Grady’s loca-tion to call the Silver Alert hotline at 1-855-745-8799 or the Fair-banks Alaska State Troopers office at 451-5100.

Jewkes

O’Grady

T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A

COUNCIL » A8

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INTERIOR

Boy Scouts honor longtime FairbanksansA

photograph of CB Bettisworth and Kar-en Perdue, enjoying a

day on the water in Alaska, is the perfect portrait of the couple being honored as Dis-tinguished Citizens by the Boy Scouts of America, Midnight Sun Council.

The couple will be honored Wednesday at a special ban-quet that begins at 6 p.m. at the Westmark Gold Room. Tickets are $100 per person with everything beyond the $30 meal cost tax-deductible. This is the Boy Scouts’ 34th annual Distinguished Citizen Award banquet.

Both are longtime residents of Fairbanks and are just as busy in retirement as they were when they were working.

Karen Perdue was raised in Fairbanks and graduated from Lathrop High School. She is also a graduate of Stanford University.

In Fairbanks, she worked at her parents’ store, Per-due’s Jewelry, became a cub reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and also worked as a Teamster on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. In the late 1970s, she went to work as a press secretary for Sen. Ted Stevens.

That job launched her career in public service.

She spent 25 years working in state government in Juneau, including seven years as the state commissioner of the Department of Health and Social Services.

CB Bettisworth was born

in Seattle but grew up in Fairbanks. He also attended elementary school here and graduated from Lathrop High School. He earned a profes-sional degree in architecture from the University of Ore-gon in 1967 and worked as a laborer for his father, Bob Bettisworth. After graduation, he worked for Philleo Archi-tectural and Engineering and for Grey Rogers Meyer and Morgan, now known as Design Alaska. For three years, he worked as the borough plan-ner in Ketchikan.

In 1976, he formed Bettis-worth North Architects and Planners and was the sole own-er until he sold the business to three employees in 2007.

Bettisworth and Perdue retired in 2014, but they remain as busy as ever, vol-unteering throughout Fair-banks and statewide. Bettis-worth is an active member of the American Institute of Architects and was inducted to the College of Fellows in 2015. He is a member of the Fairbanks Rotary, is a mem-ber of the board of directors of the Golden Heart Com-munity Foundation, and the Juneau Capitol Foundation. Perdue is a trustee of the Greater Fairbanks Hospital Foundation, Commonwealth North and also is busy with

her antiques business and the cooperative Blue Door Antiques.

The couple has four children and six grandchildren, most of whom live in Fairbanks.

Bettisworth was an active Boy Scout and Explorer Scout. He counts his attendance at the 1957 Boy Scouts of Ameri-ca Jamboree as one of his most formative experiences. Perdue was a Girl Scout and a den mother for her son’s Cub pack.

For banquet tickets or more information, call the Midnight Sun Council at 452-1976.

Santa’s HelpersSanta’s Helpers is busy col-

lecting items for families in

need and it has a few special requests.

“We are still in need of dona-tions for infants and 9- to 17-year-olds,” organizer Bill Hunt said. “We also still need cash donations.”

Checks can be mailed to Santa’s Helpers, P.O. Box 57009, North Pole, AK 99705 or donations can be made online at the North Star Com-munity Foundation website.

Santa’s Helpers also stillis looking for referrals of families in need and is recruiting drivers to deliver boxes to those families Dec. 18, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Deliveries will be made out of the Food Bank. But the group is currently staging at the JP

Jones Center.

Pioneers ChristmasPioneers of Alaska will hold

their annual Christmas dinner and dance at 5:30 p.m. Satur-day at the Convention Center in Pioneer Park.

Music will be provided by Chatanika Songbird Theresa Bauer. Tickets are $30 and can be bought at Stella’s Pawn Shop, Wilbur Brothers Sheet Metal Shop and The Ornamen-try until Thursday.

All Pioneers of Alaska and their guests are welcome.Reach columnist/community editor

Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.

com. Call her at the ofice 459-7546. Follow her on Twitter @FDNMKris.

Kris Capps

COMMUNITY EDITOR

kcapps@newsminer.com

CB Bettisworth and Karen Perdue. PHOTO COURTESY BOY SCOUTS MIDNIGHT SUN COUNCIL

MORE OBITUARIES » A5

OBITUARIES

Laura Withrow

Laura Withrow, 83, died Dec. 1, 2016, in Fairbanks. A full obituary will be published at a later date. Legacy Funeral Home-Chapel of Chimes is in charge of arrangements.

Tiffany ‘Tiff ’ Ann Lamken

Tiffany “Tiff ” Ann Lamken, 21, beloved daughter, devot-ed friend and animal lover, left us Nov. 26, 2016. Tiffany was born June 17, 1995, in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. She grew up in Encin-itas, California, and loved the beach.

Tiff attended Paul Ecke ele-mentary school, and enjoyed being a Girl Scout, Pop War-ner cheerleader, playing the flute and having fun with her friends. Tiffany really loved her pets and had birds, turtles,

cats, guinea pigs, a lizard, fish and a bun-ny while living in Encinitas. She attend-ed Diegueno Middle School and especially enjoyed science. Tiff ’s sum-mers were spent on the beach as a junior lifeguard with her friends.

She graduated from San Dieguito Academy in Encini-tas in 2013. At the academy, her favorite subjects were chemistry and Japanese. She was a lab assistant for her chemistry teacher, and

photography was her favor-ite extra-curricular activity, especially animal subjects. Tiff ’s affection for the ocean prompted her to achieve scu-ba certification completion as an open water diver.

After high school gradu-ation, her love for animals brought her to University of Alaska Fairbanks to study wildlife conservation and biology. Tiff and her dog, Smokie, an Airdale-lab mix, loved taking walks and hang-ing out with friends around campus in between her class-es. She had employment on campus at the Wood Center and in the lab. Most recently,

she was a barista at McCaf-ferty’s, and really enjoyed recommending new flavor combinations for her regular patrons. Additional duties at McCafferty’s included baking, which she loved. Her friendly demeanor and beaming smile will be sorely missed by all. Tiffany was a vibrant, bright, beautiful girl taken from us way too soon, dearly missed, adored, and will never be for-gotten.

Tiffany is survived by her father, Scott Lamken; mother, Alison Frerichs; grandpar-ents, Ernest Lamken, Patricia Manning and Mary Frerichs; aunts and uncles, Richard and

Phyllis Evans, Ed and Becky Lamken, Patti Ann Lamken, Paul Flynn, Lorinda Lamken- Fiinnell, Lisa McCabe, and Lori and Kevin Allcox; cous-ins, Katie, Amber, Shane, Judy, Brooke, Brittany, Nick, John, Jessie, Sly, Kellie, Travis, Jake, Conner and Spencer; nieces, nephews, many friends and Smokie, her loving companion and troublemaker.

In her passing, Tiffany joins her grandfather, Roger Frerichs; aunt, Alicia Lam-ken-Flynn, and uncle, Charlie Lamken, in heaven.Please visit www.legacy.com/

obituaries/newsminer to sign an

online guest book.

Christopher CoganChristopher Cogan, 55,

passed away Nov. 28, 2016, in Fairbanks.

Christopher was born Jan. 15, 1961, to Jerry and Vivian Cogan in Salida, Colorado. He later was diagnosed with an intellec-tual disability, believed a com-bined result of his mother being kicked by a cow when he was in utero and of not given oxygen soon enough after his birth. The family moved to Fairbanks in 1963, when Chris was 2.

Christopher was a happy child, full of adventure. As he grew, his parents and older brothers continually had to search for him as he would wander out of the home and into others houses. Health issues and worrying that his wanderings might result in his harm caused his parents to look for help, and Christo-pher was admitted to API in

the children’s psychiatric ward when he was 6. He later moved to Harborview in Valdez and then, as a young adult, to Fairbanks in a series of homes, assisted by FRA, being taken care of by many individ-uals whom he has counted as friends across the years.

Chris had many nicknames. To his mom he was Chris-topher Robin, after the boy with the soft teddy bear, Pooh. Christopher Aloysius is what his older brothers and sister fondly called him. His younger siblings often called him Chris-topher Lewis after that famous comedian Jerry Lewis. He was loved by every name including Chrissy, Rascal and Fuzzy-Wuzzy.

Chris loved to go fast, he walked on his tip toes and ran

at full tilt, he rode bikes as fast as he could pedal and the fam-ily had to be real careful keys were never was left in cars. It was his lifelong dream to get his driver’s license and always had to be told it cost too much, his latest sum being $365,000 because there are 365 days in a year.

We always will remember his petting soft dogs to sleep; his love of horses, to the point even of equestrian riding for the Spe-cial Olympics, offering to give ooey-gooey mud baths, pen-nies and poker chips, weather reports, recitation of grocery store commercials, counting and shooting stars, drinking coffee and guzzling Diet Coke, lessons in driving semi-trucks, how windshield wipers work and how to start chain saws. He was a source of joy that knew no bounds and we’ll miss him indefinitely. Chris enjoyed mak-ing a noise and so we send him

soaring with a tribute; 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 … blast off!!!!

Christopher was preceded in death by his parents, Vivian and Jeremiah Cogan. He’s sur-vived by brothers John (Nory), Jeremiah (Carolyn), Michael (Jenny), Patrick (Julie), Andrew (Elizabeth), David (Denise) and Daniel (Dawn); sisters, Vivian Wiley (Marshall), Ruby Tramel (Donald) and Ruth Sonnenberg (Paul); and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and nephews.

The family would like to extend a special thank you to all the prior and present staff of FRA for all their loving care during the years, and the doc-tors and nurses who helped with Christopher’s care at FMH.

Services will be announced at a later date.Please visit www.legacy.com/

obituaries/newsminer to sign an

online guest book.

Lamken

Cogan

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