After a community meeting in Stebbins between community members, the Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative and STJ Inc, Alaska State Troopers arrested two teens responsible for the incident on the 5th of this month.

Earlier this month, at 2 am on August 5th, two 17-year-old teens in Stebbins scaled a fence and stole a four-wheeler from the work yard of STJ Inc, a contractor for AVEC.

An STJ employee saw the theft of the ATV, and pursued the two teens on another four-wheeler. The fence was damaged as the teens crashed into it then made good their escape. The teens continued through the village at high speed, and according to troopers , on one occasion used pedestrians walking on the road as a barrier against being caught by the pursuing employee.

Eventually, the teens rolled the ATV. The employee stopped to reclaim the overturned bike. As he did this, the ATV he was riding was taken from him.

A short time later, back near the yard, the employee found himself surrounded by eight or nine teens from the community. The group began intimidating him, spitting in his face and running into him. Concerned for his safety, the employee took shelter in the fenced off area of the worksite and locked himself into the cab of a front-end loader. Using his cell phhone the employee called two electricians on the job to come to his aid.

The incident resulted in STJ Inc pulling its employees off of the job and transporting the workers from the community.

The shut-down of the project has the potential to cause very serious problems for the community. Most of the fuel storage for the community was suspended as the new 800,000 gallon tank farm was being constructed. The new farm was nearing completion when this incident occurred.

The resulting shut down would have meant that the community would have to fly in their winter fuel, meaning much higher fuel costs.

A community meeting on Thursday averted that probability when the community, AVEC and STJ Inc came to an agreement for the safety of the workers and the completion of the project. Workers will begin returning on Sunday.

According to a spokeswoman from AVEC, the contractor will complete the project using their own security personnel until a third juvenile connected to the incident is taken into custody. The community also pledged a village public safety officer as protection for the workers.

Alaska State troopers, who responded to the community on Wednesday, attended the Thursday community meeting. On Friday, they arrested two of the offenders. The two were arrested and transported to Nome’s Youth Facility and charged with three counts of Assault III, three counts of Vehicle Theft, Assault IV, Harassment, Reckless Driving, and two counts of Criminal Mischief III.