Appliance Repair in Dunlap, CA

SAN ANTONIO – Mike Dunlap flashed a smile, but a serious countenance quickly returned. How did he get to Milwaukee? It started after the 2019-20 season with a discussion about offensive rebounding and the zone defense, two of Dunlap’s specialties.

Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer recalled how he would follow Dunlap around with his notebook as a young coach, and the pair have been friends for decades. So it was natural that Budenholzer would call him. Perhaps just as naturally, it’s why he called back a day later to see if Dunlap would join the Bucks coaching staff.

“I said, hell yes,” Dunlap said. “Two days later I was a Buck. Never looked back.”

He smiled again.

“You know when you’re incredibly lucky and when you’re in golden patch,” he said. “I know that I’m in the best, best place.”

The 2020-21 season was Dunlap’s first in Milwaukee – a charmed season that resulted in an NBA championship – an accomplishment that has had him thinking of his first best place: Home. In Fairbanks, Alaska.

“I think everybody does (reflect),” he said. “For me, of course, yeah. Because it’s Fairbanks, Alaska, you’re aware of the guy to the right and left, of where they come from. Nobody was from there (in coaching).”

Dunlap left his home state a long time ago for a nomadic life in the sport, but he’s carried the Last Frontier state with him thanks to a work ethic instilled by his parents, Lawrence and Betty. They founded the Tanana Valley Clinic in Fairbanks, and his father was chief of staff at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

“I was blessed to have great parents to say, hey, give back – if you get out there, get up that mountain as high as you can,” he said. “That was important to them and that was important, I think, to the community of Fairbanks to say, hey, what happened, how did you do that?”

Mike Dunlap has many firsts as an Alaskan

Dunlap developed into an all-state high school basketball player and two-time state champion at Lathrop High in Fairbanks before heading to San Fernando Valley College in Woodland Hills, California, and eventually Loyola Marymount University in 1978.

And with that – the simple act of playing ball for the Lions – Dunlap began a lifetime of firsts for Alaskans. He was the first to:

“Carrying Alaska, the 49th state as the ‘first,’ and there’s a whole host of firsts and as an Alaskan I’ve been very proud of that, quietly,” Dunlap said. “People say, ‘I’m from a great state’ in terms of resources, the education up there for kids, etc. I’ve always quietly, humbly, said you know what, I’m Alaskan. And I’m going to be able to have an opportunity for other Alaskans to say this is possible in a very humble way. That’s what’s happened.”

Dunlap already has been inducted into the Colorado Sport Hall of Fame, along with Metro State and California Lutheran University’s, and this year he has been nominated for induction for the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor,” he said of the nomination. “I still have a lot of my boyhood friends live in Anchorage – the majority have migrated from Fairbanks to Anchorage. I smile every time I think of the journey because to get out of there and have the luck and have the mentors – it’s been an incredible run. A big-time run.”

Dunlap and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer are longtime friends

That run continued when Dunlap and Budenholzer finally came together on the same team.

They first crossed paths in the 1990s, when Dunlap was coaching at Cal Lutheran and Budenholzer was playing at Pomona College as members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. It started a life-long mentorship and friendship.

“On a personal level, somebody that I’ve known probably since I was 20 and very much looked up to as I was a young coach,” Budenholzer said with a smile. “I was actually still playing college ball at that time, aspiring to be a coach, aspiring to be a college coach. He was incredible in giving me time and energy and returning my letters and answering questions after clinics. He’s an amazing clinician.

"As a young coach, I was just like in awe of him, just followed him around with my notebook and my notepad. And always stayed in touch with him. So for me, personally, it’s like pretty cool to have him on the coaching staff, have him help our players, help our coaches, help me. He’s really good for me. He can say things to me and talk to me just on a different level. So, he’s been really, really good.”

As for Dunlap’s nomination in his home state, a selection panel of nine people, along with a public vote, will determine if he will be one of 10 people elected. The public can vote through November at alaskasportshall.org/election/candidates. The panel will meet Dec. 4 and the class of 2023 will be announced Dec. 5.

The induction of the Class of 2023 will be held April 27 at the Anchorage Museum.

“It’s just amazing to have kind of the wealth of knowledge and experience that Coach Dunlap brings,” Budenholzer said. “He’s really kind of seen and done everything, been at every level, had success at every level. And his ability to kind of communicate with us and share with us and just his – like you’re feeling like you’re getting lessons every day.

"And for the staff, I think it’s similar. We’ve got, I think a relatively young staff – I still think of myself as relatively young. The records are starting to show different but he’s just, I think, a really great sounding board, great guy to bounce things off of and share your thoughts. And he can support you or tell you no and what he’s seen and experienced. I think just everybody loves him, players, coaches.”

TWIN BRIDGES, Calif. —

With the turn of the calendar seems to have come a turn in Northern California's weather.

Over the past 24 hours, many Sierra ski resorts picked up close to a foot of heavy, wet snow. That's perfect timing as crews gear up for the start of ski season just a few weeks away.

That opening day has been long-awaited for the team at Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, which has spent more than a year making repairs and removing dead trees following the destructive Caldor Fire in 2021.

Communications manager Shelby Dunlap said this natural snow is key in a timely start to their season.

"At Sierra, we always rely on Mother Nature to help us determine opening day. We're in a really great location that allows for mostly organic snow," Dunlap said.

According to Dunlap, 8 inches of snow was measured Wednesday morning at the resort's base. Snow showers continued to come in waves through the rest of the day.

The resort doesn't currently have an opening date scheduled. That will depend on how the next couple of weeks play out. For now, the outlook is good with more snow in the forecast over the next week.

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"At the beginning of the season, we're really looking for that wet, heavy snow that's allowed to be packed down to give us a really good base," Dunlap said.

Meanwhile, toward the north end of the Tahoe Basin, managers at Sugar Bowl Resort are counting down the days until their opening day on Nov. 25.

"Our team is buzzing. We can feel the season is right around the corner and we're really getting to work," communications manager Jon Slaughter said.

And they'll be working hard over the next couple of weeks, not only moving around natural powder but making plenty more of their own.

According to Slaughter, the ideal temperature for making snow is right around 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The right humidity and wind conditions also play an important role in effective snow-making.

Last year's season brought a false start with a major storm in late October that then quickly melted away with mild and dry conditions throughout November. Slaughter said this year, the timing seems much better, and there's a lot of optimism for the season ahead.

"We're feeling really good. And we're a lot closer to the season than we were last year," Slaughter said.

As excited as snow sports lovers are this time of year, Slaughter stressed that the public needs to stay away from the slopes until the official opening day. Crews will be using a lot of heavy machinery and snow lines during the next few weeks and there are a lot of rocks under the snow base that is currently still shallow.

But, if the current forecast for more snow holds, opening day could come even sooner than expected.

As of Wednesday evening, Heavenly and Northstar anticipate opening as early as Nov. 18 and Kirkwood plans to open Dec. 2.

Army veteran Aaron Rasmussen, who served in Iraq, and advocates for other military veterans and his community through Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4748 in Tuolumne, led a prayer at the start of a Veterans Day gathering and ceremony Friday morning at the 9/11 Memorial next to Tuolumne Veterans Hall.

“Thank you for this day, thank you for our veterans, thank you for the community that we serve,” Rasmussen said. “May this ceremony bless everyone that’s here, and those that have departed.”

Chris Henningsen, who served in the U.S. Marines from 2000 to 2007, including deployment to Iraq, defined Veterans Day for the audience of about 100 people who came to say thanks.

Veterans Day came from observances of Armistice Day at the end of World War I in Europe, where hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918. Armistice Day evolved to Veterans Day to celebrate veterans of all wars, living and deceased, in 1954.

“Today, this very hour, marks the 104th anniversary of the end of World War I,” Henningsen said.

Henningsen listed out the military’s six service branches: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. He invited veterans in the audience to stand and introduce themselves.

Frank Smart, who served in the 1st Cavalry, U.S. Army, in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, introduced Susan Escallier, a retired, Airborne-qualified brigadier general in the U.S. Army, who served 32 years on active duty. Smart has helped coordinate the funding and building of several veterans memorials, and he has recently helped with the Tuolumne County Women Veterans Memorial in Twain Harte.

“I was in the process of putting together a group of women veterans to help me with that,” Smart said. “It’s their memorial and I want them to have a say-so… I invited Susan to come join our group, and she has become basically the keynote speaker for us, going out into the community, and talking to the Kiwanis clubs and Rotaries and different women’s organizations and telling them about this memorial we’re going to build on Fuller Drive in Twain Harte.”

Escallier is proud of her service, Smart said. Coming into the military on an ROTC commission and rising to the rank of brigadier general is no small achievement, and she shattered a few glass ceilings on her way up, Smart said.

In addition to her deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Liberia, Escallier jumped out of perfectly good airplanes with the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne, “and the ladies on this committee we have call her a badass,” Smart said.

Escallier spoke about how in recent years, she and other military veterans have served at a time when the military is respected and appreciated by the American public, but that has not always been the case. She asked the audience to join her in a round of applause for all generations of military veterans, to thank them for their service.

Many veterans attending the Tuolumne gathering served during the Vietnam War, when some soldiers, sailors, and airmen returned from Vietnam to be vilified at home by people opposed to U.S. prosecution of the controversial war.

“The time that I served in the military, it was always a volunteer force,” Escallier said. “I will tell you that we continue to get outstanding Americans who want to serve their country, who want to enlist, who want to become officers. I thinkin this audience you probably encourage people you know to consider service to the country, and I would ask you this Veterans Day to think about having a conversation with a young person about the benefits of military service.”

Near the end of the gathering, Barbara Persson, 87, of Tuolumne, came to the microphone and expressed gratitude and pride in her four brothers who all served in the military during the Korean War.

Persson attended Summerville High School in the early 1950s, and she is one of the oldest members of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians. She said her brothers Jesse James, Leonard James and Harold James served in the Navy, and her brother John A. James served in the Army.

Persson said she also has a son, Fred G. Persson III, a grandson, A.J. Persson, and a great-grandson, Joshua Dunlap, who have all served or are serving in the Navy. She wore a T-shirt displaying the names of more than 45 family and friends who are military veterans.

“I had to say something, honey,” Persson said, “because they’ve done so much and I’m so proud of them.”

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. —

Sierra-at-Tahoe is preparing to open for its first ski season since the Caldor Fire burned through the area along Highway 50 in El Dorado County last year.

"A lot of activity is going on all across the mountain right now, seven days a week," said Shelby Dunlap, communications manager for Sierra-at-Tahoe.

A massive restoration operation has been underway after the Caldor Fire swept in from the west in August 2021, damaging chairlifts, burning a maintenance shop and changing the landscape of the mountain.

"It was a true test for us," Dunlap said. "It was a moment where we could have easily turned away and instead we leaned in with our employees, with our community, with El Dorado, RCD, U.S. Forest Service to say, 'This isn't the end of Sierra. This is going to be the next chapter in our history.'"

| Read More | Caldor Fire, One Year Later: A look back at the destructive blaze that burned into Lake Tahoe Basin

Since then, crews have worked to fix up chair lifts and take down trees.

"Helicopter operations have started, and they're really focused on getting the logs that are in hard-to-access areas down to a staging area," Dunlap said. "Then, from there, either the logs are chipped on site or they're going down to a mill down in Carson."

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The work started on the west side of the mountain and has now moved to the east side. Crews are hauling about 50 truckloads of fire-damaged trees off the mountain each day.

Still, Sierra-at-Tahoe is on track to open all 47 trails this winter, even if things may look a little different on the slopes.

"This is going to be the largest inbound expansion in sierra's 75-year history," Dunlap said.

While the upper east side, including Huckleberry and the backside, did not sustain a lot of damage, guests can expect some wider runs and new terrain elsewhere on the mountain.

"I think people are just really excited to get back to their mountain and explore what the new landscape looks like," Dunlap said.

Sierra-at-Tahoe has not set its opening date yet. The ski resort relies heavily on natural snow, so it will depend on the weather. It typically opens in early December.

by Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]November 10, 2022

Another round of hearings in Georgia Power’s rate case concluded Thursday with the final day dominated by a debate over whether the utility should expand its popular rooftop solar program.

Georgia Power is pushing for a 12% increase in electricity rates over the next three years, along with other requests over the next year that could saddle ratepayers reimbursing for higher fuel costs and the snakebitten nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle.

The Public Service Commission hearings feature testimony from experts for Georgia Power, consumer advocacy groups, environmental organizations, solar power groups, government agencies and energy consultants. Next month, state regulators will decide how much more the company can charge its 2.7 million customers.

Starting next year, Georgia Power’s plan would increase residential customers’ monthly rates by $14.32 if state regulators approve it. Eventually, the monthly cost to keep the lights on would reach $16.29 by 2025, or about $200 per year.

In order to transition to cleaner energy generation and newer technologies, the company plans to invest $12 billion in infrastructure development and ramp up spending to retire its coal-fired power plants.

On Thursday, the company’s plans for rooftop solar was the dominant theme, with the company opposing expanding a popular rooftop solar program while also proposing to add a $200 rooftop solar connection fee to its customers.

Georgia Power and commissioners have expressed concerns about some solar companies misleading customers with false claims such as free solar and free electricity.

The company has also said that its proposal of rate options better ensures that the non-solar customers aren’t footing the bill for the homes powered by solar panels.

Several Georgia Power executives and managers testified during the initial rate case hearings in September. Final hearings are scheduled for Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 15, with the case to be decided by the five-member PSC on Dec. 20.

On Thursday, Commissioner Tim Echols asked how the 5,000 customers participating in the behind-the-meter solar program might benefit the rest of Georgia Power’s customers.

Echols proposed a motion in 2019 that led to Georgia Power expanding the rooftop solar program to 5,000 customers, which costs relatively little to subsidize. Meanwhile, Georgia Power benefited from billions of dollars of profits after the PSC approved a higher return on equity and stronger capital structure.

During the summer’s hearings for Georgia Power’s long-term plans, Echols failed to get the support needed to open the solar program to 75,000 customers. He said that he was willing to compromise on this proposal while asking solar experts Thursday if they can quantify how all customers might benefit from the solar rooftop households.

“Is there value to everyone,” Echols asked panelists on hand to make the case for solar power. “The company says no, but is there value, in your opinion?”

“I don’t mind compromising or negotiating if we want to expand it,” Echols later said. “How do we avoid mistakes that California and others are making? We don’t want to follow them and have to claw back in the future.”

Kevin Lucas with the Solar Energy Industries Association said Georgia can learn from the experiences of other states on how to deploy rooftop solar in a way that benefits the entire grid.

When there is more solar on the grid producing and when there is less demand on the electric system, it allows a company to build and plan its infrastructure in a different way, he said.

“Instead of a level up (higher) it has to build to a level that’s slightly lower and that’s savings, resources it doesn’t have to plan, facilities it doesn’t have to build, upgrades it doesn’t have to make,” Lucas said. “It has a monetary value associated with it.”

Larry Legg, Georgia Power’s director of pricing and rates, testified that the company is advocating for moving customers to a rate that recognizes the cost of solar. Legg said analysis shows that each net metering customer shifts an average of $1,356 yearly of costs onto other customers.

“Georgia Power is a large electric utility that has to build billions of dollars worth of facilities available to all of our customers, regardless of whether they use them or not,” he said.

A key concern beyond the rate case is that Georgia Power is expected to request three additional rate increases over the next year to recover higher fuel costs and for the expense of bringing two additional nuclear reactors to Plant Vogtle online.

University of Georgia engineering professor David Gattie recommended that commissioners not extend the monthly pilot program that compensates solar customer-generators for excess energy exported onto the grid.

“I make this recommendation for a variety of reasons, including the discrepancy in value placed on electricity exported by solar customer-generators onto the grid, the lack of consensus on the use of monthly net metering as a policy tool in other states, and because disproportionately compensating customer-generators as a means to increase solar development does not align with Georgia’s energy policy goals,” Gattie testified Thursday.

A looming rate increase not part of the current proposal also has consumer watchdogs wary. Georgia Power achieved a milestone last month when the third unit at Plant Vogtle went into production.

However, the nonprofit consumer advocate Georgia Watch said Thursday that Georgia Power has been collecting billions of dollars in costs related to Vogtle for years. Providing Georgia Power with a higher profit margin would also place a significant financial burden on ratepayers, Georgia Watch executive director Liz Coyle said.

“Are you aware that residential customers have been paying the lion’s share of that tariff since it began collecting in 2011,” Coyle said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.