Alaska News & Discussion

[USAPatriot]

Fairbanks residents shocked, angered by Palin's announcement
By Chris Freiberg
Originally published Friday, July 3, 2009 at 6:29 p.m.
Updated Friday, July 3, 2009 at 11:37 p.m.
The Fairbanks News-Miner
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Sarah Palin(R) in downtown Fairbanks.)

FAIRBANKS — A sample of Alaskans interviewed on Friday reacted to Gov. Sarah Palin’s surprise resignation announcement with shock and a bit of anger.

Standing in front of the downtown Co-op Building, Lawrence Everette said he had supported Palin as governor and in her unsuccessful for bid for the vice presidency last year, but he said he “lost trust” in the governor after she said she would resign by the end of the month.

“The spotlight is on her, and it’s not going to go away,” he said. “She needs to stick it out and go through the long haul. You don’t go run and hide when the going gets tough.”

Almost from the day in November when Palin and Arizona Sen. John McCain lost their bid for the nation’s two highest offices, pundits have speculated that Palin might skip running for a second term as governor in 2010 and instead seek the presidency in 2012.

Further fuel was added to that fire Friday, as Palin hinted at seeking higher office, closing her speech in front of her Wasilla home with the words, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”

However, Everette said he could not support her for the presidency now.

“Not without the follow through,” he said. “And I actually like the lady.”

Sipping coffee at a downtown cafe, Fairbanks resident Crystal Hurbi said she was “shocked” to hear of Palin’s plan to turn power over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who is expected to be inaugurated as governor July 26 in Fairbanks.

“It depends on the reason why she’s leaving, but I feel that if it’s to go on to the national level, for that, she needed to finish her term,” Hurbi said. “People voted for her to be governor.”

Palin has been a visible and mostly popular figure in Alaska since she was swept into office in 2006 as a reformer. However, Alaskans seem less familiar with Parnell, an Anchorage lawyer who served in the state House for two terms, and who narrowly lost the Republican primary for the U.S. House last year against longtime Rep. Don Young.

“He strikes me as being more level-headed, but I thought (Palin) was until these past six months,” said Anchorage resident Anne Adasiak-Andrew as she chatted downtown with her mother, Jan Adasiak, and her aunt, Karen Brown.

The weekly meeting of the Interior Republican Luncheon at the Westmark Hotel opened with the announcement that Palin would soon resign.

Beka Zerbst, president of the group Fairbanks Republican Women said she was “stunned” by the resignation, but hopes that Palin can promote Alaska issues such as opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration on a much larger national stage.

“There is also a brilliance to her move that now she’s able to go out and do interviews on the national circuit,” Zerbst said. “I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Sarah Palin.”

[USAPatriot]

70 active fires burning in Alaska, Minto Flats is largest
By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com
Published: July 8th, 2009 04:49 PM
Last Modified: July 8th, 2009 10:51 PM
The Anchorage Daily News
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Minto Flats without fire.)

Fueled by hot, bone-dry weather, wildfires have taken off across the state this week, smothering much of it in a haze of smoke as they consume thousands of acres of forest.

The thickening cloud of smoke in Anchorage on Wednesday prompted city officials to declare a health advisory late in the afternoon for people with health sensitivities.

"There's several fires sort of ringing Southcentral, and actually, quite a bit of that smoke is crossing the Alaska Range and heading down south," state Division of Forestry spokesman Matt Weaver said.

By far the largest and potentially most dangerous fire is the Minto Flats South fire burning untamed about 13 miles northwest of Nenana. By Wednesday it had consumed more than 125,000 acres and was threatening nearly 70 structures and outbuildings as well as a drilling rig, according to the forestry division.

More than 190 firefighters, including some from the Lower 48, were on the defensive against that lightning-sparked blaze Wednesday, most of their effort focusing on protecting the properties, Weaver said.

Nine new fires broke out Tuesday, bringing to 70 the number of active fires reported across the state. Seven of them were staffed with firefighters, according to the forestry division.

The Alaska Interagency Coordination Center reported 363 fires have burned 629,730 acres so far this year. At this time last year, 267 fires had burned 24,912 acres.

Anchorage, which for days has been under a veil of smoke from fires burning in just about all directions, has not escaped the action. Fire department forester Sue Rodman said some two dozen brush fires have broken out around town since Friday, all of which have been caused by humans.

The latest flare-up occurred in Tikishla Park just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. The fire, estimated at between a half acre to one acre, was reported off a bike trail near 20th Avenue and Rosemary Street. Firefighters descended on it in force because of the dry conditions, department spokeswoman Cleo Hill said.

Firefighters on the ground moved in on the fire with hoses and engines and in minutes knocked down flames bursting up lengths of black spruce, Rodman said.

A department helicopter was called in and was dropping loads of water on the smoldering and charred woods Wednesday afternoon as crews on the ground stirred water into the dry woodland floor. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

A high-pressure system lingering over Southcentral -- causing the high temperatures and keeping the haze in place -- was expected to weaken and shift in coming days, National Weather Service forecaster Bill Ludwig said.

"Cooler temperatures are right around the corner. Rain is going to be another story," Ludwig said. "There are going to be some showers in inland areas basically north of Anchorage and east of Anchorage, mainly confined to the mountains, and then some of them are going to be thunderstorms, which could actually start more fires."

Winds were expected to shift on the Kenai Peninsula, which could help drive up humidity there and help combat the Shanta Creek fire, burning at 2,250 acres Wednesday, he said.

The conditions have prompted state forestry officials to suspend permits for open burning on the Kenai and in the Mat-Su, both of which were experiencing high fire danger. The Anchorage Fire Department likewise reported "very high" fire danger here and was asking residents to be wary of the danger. Burning within the city was prohibited Wednesday because of the danger.

The Chugach Mountains have for days been obscured by a thick blanket of smoky haze, but for the first time this week the acrid smell of smoke accompanied it Wednesday. The air quality in Anchorage was "moderate" bordering on "unhealthy for sensitive groups," said Steve Morris, the city's air quality program manager.

That prompted the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services to declare a health advisory because of the smoke. People with asthma, lung or heart problems were asked to avoid strenuous exertion while the alert is in effect.

"Current measurements indicate that air quality is varying from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive individuals," Morris said. "The National Weather Service has predicted that transport of smoke into the Anchorage area is likely to persist for a day or more."

Elsewhere across Southcentral, the state Department of Environmental Conservation was reporting overall air quality in the region was good to moderate, with some areas experiencing periods unhealthy for sensitive people. Smoke from the Chakina Fire in the Copper River Basin was drifting as far south as Valdez and Seward, the agency said.

The Minto Flats South, Zitziana and Bear Creek fires were adversely impacting air quality in the Interior. The DEC reported conditions there were good to moderate, though air quality near the fires could at times be unhealthy.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

[USAPatriot]

Matanuska River threatens Glenn

By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com
Published: July 10th, 2009 12:06 AM
Last Modified: July 10th, 2009 12:07 AM
Anchorage Daily News
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Matanuska River alongside the Glenn Highway.)

WASILLA - If you're headed up the Glenn Highway this weekend, you might want to pack a raft -- for your car.

The Matanuska River is eating its way toward the Glenn Highway.

State Transportation workers stood watch over the Glenn at Mile 63.5 north of Sutton on Wednesday night to make sure the churning river didn't gobble up the road, or any travelers.

But the road was still intact Thursday, said Jack Fullerton, central region maintenance and operations chief for the state Department of Transportation.

Randy Vanderwood, also in the DOT maintenance and operations department, said a work crew would continue to monitor the road, ready to take action if needed.

"We didn't lose any more embankment, but it's very critical right now," Fullerton said.

The Matanuska River veers close to the Glenn Highway just north of Sutton, past Granite Creek. In recent years, the river has veered even closer than it's supposed to as it carved a new channel on the north side of the wide riverbed.

A week ago the bank showed signs of erosion, Vanderwood said. The water was several yards away from the highway then, but the churning water had punched a hole 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep into the bank. At the time, he said, he figured DOT better get a project designed and ask the Legislature for money in January.

A lot can change in a week.

"Once it decided to go, it just went," Vanderwood said.

FAMILIAR COMPLAINT

Ask any resident along that stretch of road about the problem and they will explain how they've been telling anyone who would listen about it for years.

Ed Musial and his wife, Valeria, live less than a mile up the road. They've been trying to get someone to fix the problem since 1986. The Musials used to have a salmon-spawning stream in front of their house, then about 1,000 feet of forested land, and river beyond it. Now Yellow Creek is gone and the river surges across their front yard.

"People (boat) right by here now and wave at us. They come by with kayaks and canoes and rafts," Valeria Musial said, standing on her new riverfront lawn.

Ed Musial said the river's progress -- and the lack of borough or state response to his repeated pleas to fix it -- have him so disgusted he's given up mowing for the year.

From anyone else, that might sound like an excuse for laziness. From Musial, known to some in Sutton as "Mr. Clean" because his yard is always impeccable, refusal to mow is like spray-painting a big anarchy sign on a public building.

Musial has been predicting the road erosion for years. He says the river's new movement is caused by dikes the state installed in 1986. The dikes have nearly all washed away, but not before water built up enough force to crash through them the first year they were installed. Musial says the force forever changed the river pattern.

Paul Janke, a river hydrologist for DOT, said the Matanuska River, a braided glacial stream, is just doing what it does best: being unpredictable.

The Matanuska River has been chewing up its banks for decades. Butte residents in 2004 watched while the river swallowed 10-foot chunks of land in a day.

But the river also changes course swiftly. That's why DOT has held off on fixing the spot where the river veers close to the road, Janke said. If the state poured $500,000 into a solution and the river suddenly changed course, it might be seen as a wasteful.

"We usually want to wait until we can see whether there is a problem," Janke said.

Thursday, it was clear there was a problem, and that the road is in danger of washing out. Fullerton said his crew is working to get temporary permits to lay in giant sacks of sand to halt the erosion for now.

Meanwhile, Janke is designing a permanent fix that will likely involve hauling in giant armor rock -- heavy boulders -- and more rip-rap.

Both Janke and Fullerton say it's too soon to know how much the repairs will cost. Fullerton he hopes work on the permanent fix can begin in 10 days.

Vanderwood said he hopes to have a temporary fix installed by the weekend. Neither expected the work to result in road closures, although temporary lane closures could slow down traffic.

[USAPatriot]

Fairbanks tourism takes a dive in 2009
By Amanda Bohman
Published Friday, July 10, 2009
Fairbanks News-Miner
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Fairbanks has seen a drop in tourism this year.)

FAIRBANKS — An expected drop in visitors to Fairbanks this summer is proving to be true, preliminary numbers show.

City bed tax receipts for the month of May are down by about 30 percent compared to last year, according to the city of Fairbanks Web site.

The number of people riding the Alaska Railroad to Fairbanks slipped by 12.2 percent comparing the first halves of 2008 and 2009, the railroad spokesman said.

Twenty-two percent fewer people visited the University of Alaska Museum of the North during May and June this year compared to last year, a spokeswoman said.

Also in a slump is the Riverboat Discovery and the El Dorado Gold Mine. Numbers through mid-June are down by an estimated 30 to 35 percent, company president Ryan Binkley said.

“That’s our biggest decline ever,” he said. “And it’s consistent with what we’re hearing around town.”

Blame the economy and fewer cruise ship passengers, said Dave Worrell of the Alaska Travel Industry Association.

“I’ve heard that a lot of folks are hurting,” Worrell said. “It seems the farther you get away from the water’s edge, kind of the worse it is. Our big fear is that we are going to lose businesses because of the economic climate this year. And next year could also be bad. The cruise lines have pulled ships, so we know there are going to be fewer people coming to Alaska, and that is not a good sign.”

Making matters worse, visitors who do come to Alaska are spending less money, according to Worrell and others.

Jinx Whitaker of New Horizons Gallery on First Avenue knows that as well as anyone.

High rollers aren’t coming into the gallery and spending like they used to, she said.

“There’s fewer people,” Whitaker said. “You can see that on the streets. I tell everyone we’re on life support.”

Carl Cox owns Gold Rush Fine Jewelry across the street.

“Some years are up,” he said. “Some years are down. This one’s off considerably.”

The store is relying more on local customers this year, Cox said.

Nick Stepovich, owner of Soapy Smith’s Pioneer Restaurant on Second Avenue, agreed. Business is down. He hadn’t yet crunched the numbers for his eatery to learn by how much.

“We’re finding out you need to hustle a little more to get a customer,” Stepovich said.

Joan Busam, owner of L’assiette de Pomegranate on the next block, said she is picking up more tour bus traffic this year.

Tourism is down, she said, but so far it’s not as awful as Busam expected.

“I thought it would be a nightmare,” she said.

[USAPatriot]

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

State troopers open new Bureau of Highway Patrol

Homer News.com
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center



(Alaska State Trooper vehicle in Soldotna. AJM STUDIOS Northwest Police Department (NWPD) Photo.)

By Mike Nesper

Just in time for the increase in traffic on the Kenai Peninsula that comes with the Fourth of July holiday, a new Bureau of Highway Patrol unit opened in Soldotna.

As part of a new bureau within Alaska State Troopers, the highway patrol, which opened July 1, will primarily focus on highway enforcement, said Eugene Fowler, highway patrol sergeant.

"The idea is to create a separate unit with a main focus of highway enforcement," Fowler said.

In Alaska, troopers handle every service call that occurs outside of city limits. Anything from a broken window to an assault, troopers respond to. Because troopers cover such a wide range of calls in a massive jurisdiction, highway enforcement hasn't been a top priority, Fowler said.

The new bureau is hoping to change that.

"(Traffic complaints) are now going to be tasked to the bureau, and that frees up other units," Fowler said. "The idea is to try and cover as much road as possible. Hopefully, we'll make a positive impact by doing this."

The bureau was created in December of last year with the opening of two units, one in Palmer and the other in Fairbanks.

"This is a brand new concept," Fowler said.

The goal from the beginning of the program was to have three units throughout the state. Fowler said Soldotna, Palmer and Fairbanks are three cities with large a concentration of people on the road systems.

The bureau will look for aggressive drivers, speeders and impaired drivers to reduce the number of serious injuries. The Soldotna team will cover the entire Kenai Peninsula.

"(We'll be) everywhere we can be," Fowler said.

Turnagain Arm and the stretch of road from Mackey Lake to the Sterling weigh station are two notorious areas for highway crashes and fatalities, which the highway patrol will be focusing on.

"We're trying to flag these areas," Fowler said.

Fines and number of points on a driver's license are doubled in the Sterling area where marked.

The officers on duty will fit their schedule around peak hours of traffic and/or violations. Fowler said this is based on the statistics over the last decade to see where and when their services is needed on the peninsula.

"We're trying to address any issues out there to keep Alaska safe," he said. "That's our mission as troopers."

So far, the Soldotna unit has Sgt. Fowler and one other officer. Within the next three to six months, Fowler said the bureau should be expanding to include two more officers.

The bureau will be working with the other units throughout the state for large events, such as Seward's Fourth of July celebration and the state fair.

"This is a real statewide team concept," Fowler said.

Safety is the bureau's main concern.

"We're trying to slow people down and make them aware of their driving," Fowler said. "We're trying to make a positive influence on the community and keep the community safer."

[USAPatriot]

Fewer tourists are spending less money
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
ebluemink@adn.com
Published: July 11th, 2009 09:21 PM
Last Modified: July 11th, 2009 10:13 PM
Anchorage Daily News
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Streets are quieter then previous tourist seasons.)

ANCHORAGE- Unclogged sidewalks, glacier tour cancellations and reservation-free dining in downtown Anchorage were some of the signs of a souring tourism season this year.

As predicted, the dismal economy in the Lower 48 has prevented many visitors from traveling to Alaska this summer, and many locally owned businesses around the state are suffering as a result.

"It's looking kind of scary. People are telling us that there are businesses that aren't going to make it," said David Worrell, a spokesman for the Alaska Travel Industry Association.

It's unclear whether the number of cruise-ship tourists will dip substantially this year, but the amount of money they're spending is likely falling.

The ships typically bring about 1 million visitors to Alaska, well over half of the state's tourists. This year, in response to the national economic crisis, many of the cruise lines began offering drastic discounts to lure people into purchasing tickets for an Alaska cruise.

In general, Alaska tourists this year -- the cruise and independent visitors -- are spending less money, traveling shorter distances or scheduling their activities on shorter notice than usual, Worrell said.


More than a dozen tour operators and visitor bureau officials around Alaska interviewed for this story generally agreed with some or all of Worrell's observations.

"(Tourists) are trying to be as cheap and frugal as possible," said Madeline Kelleyhouse, who manages the Tok Chamber of Commerce visitor center. She has observed more than the typical number of travelers camping overnight in highway pullouts, gravel pits and state parks instead of paying for a spot at an RV park.

Early-season statistics show that independent travel to Alaska is down significantly. Fewer people flew to Stevens International Airport. And Kelleyhouse has recorded a roughly 10 percent decline in visitors to the Tok visitor center along the Alaska Highway. The tally of traffic crossing through the nearby U.S.-Canada border crossing is unavailable.

Scott Reisland, a Denali campground, cabin and RV park owner, said he had to lay off half of his staff and his family is chipping in longer hours to keep the business afloat. At the end of June, his company, the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort, had only half of the bookings it had at the same time last year.

"In our 41-year history as a family-owned business, we've never had such a bad year," Reisland said.

Valerie Morin, owner of the Bridgekeeper's Inn in Seldovia, said her sales turned out better than expected because guests have been booking rooms at the last minute. "It was 'Whoa, where did this come from?' " she said.

GRIM STATISTICS

Anchorage's visitor statistics for June aren't available yet, but the statistics for May -- the first month of the tourism season -- were grim.

• Roughly 11 percent fewer people got off a plane at the Stevens International Airport, according to state officials.

• Car rentals at the airport were down 25 percent.

• Anchorage hotel revenue was down roughly 22 percent, according to the city's visitors bureau.

• About 25 percent fewer people visited Anchorage's five visitor information centers, which are run by the bureau.

• Bookings on the Alaska Railroad are down 10 to 15 percent, year to date, according to the railroad.

UNEQUAL IMPACT

In general, tour operators, hotels and other businesses in Southeast and the Interior have been harder hit than their Southcentral counterparts, tourism officials said.

A few businesses reported that they are bucking the downturn -- including a popular Denali flight-seeing operation in Talkeetna and a downtown Anchorage bicycle rental shop. Their sales have improved from last year, a consequence of this summer's clear and balmy weather, they say.

Jason Eason, a mechanic at the Downtown Bicycle Rental shop on Fourth Avenue, said he thinks the rental shop also is benefiting from tourists' thrifty behavior. Renting a bike is cheaper than booking a more pricey excursion, he said. It costs $16 for a three-hour bike rental and roughly $140 for a Prince William Sound glacier tour, not including transportation to Whittier.

"I think we are piggy backing on the poor economy, among other things," Eason said.

But just a few doors down the street from the bicycle shop, the manager of one of the city's popular Prince William Sound cruise tours is having a stressful summer.

"May was a disaster," said Barrie Swanberg of Phillips Cruises & Tours, which has been in business for 22 years.

He said bookings on his company's 342-passenger Klondike Express, based in Whittier, were down 50 percent compared with last May. The company had to cancel some May cruises because of the low bookings, he said.

While bookings have soared in recent weeks, it isn't enough to cancel out the losses at the beginning of the summer, he said.

"It's going to be a real tough year," he said.


BLESSING OR A CURSE?

Fewer tourists clogging the streets might be a boon for Alaskans who dislike the influx of strangers, but it will reduce the spending power of many communities next year. Some local governments, such as the Denali Borough, derive most of their operating revenue from room taxes levied on local hotels and motels.

In Anchorage, fewer car rentals means less property tax relief for local homeowners; and, fewer hotel room purchases means less tax revenue to support the city's new Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center and less money for marketing programs run by the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"It really does trickle throughout the entire economy," said Julie Saupe, president of the visitors bureau.

The loss of tourists isn't just noticeable to local governments, it results in less sales to a host of other businesses, from gas stations to food and alcohol wholesalers, she said.

[USAPatriot]

River closing in on Glenn Highway

BY ANDREW WELLNER
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
Published on Saturday, July 11, 2009 9:29 PM AKDT


(TODD DISHER / It took heavy equipment to place these large sand bags Friday morning along the bank of the Matanuska River near Mile 63.5 of the Glenn Highway.)

AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

SUTTON — State road crews are laying out massive sandbags on the bank of the Matanuska River after erosion has brought the waters dangerously close to the Glenn Highway.

Jack Fullerton, chief of Maintenance and Operations for the Central Region of the state’s Department of Transportation said the road has always been somewhat close to the river. At Mile 63.5 — the spot where they’re laying sandbags — it was probably 12 or 15 feet away.

That changed this week.

“We had some kind of massive erosion there, probably due to the higher water coming down from the snowmelt,” Fullerton said. “Now we’re only about a foot or so back behind the guardrail.”

He said the spot — which he pegged as just north of Sutton — has been one that the department has kept a wary eye on. Implementing some kind of permanent solution to the problem has been on their improvement lists for years but never received funding.

But the erosion seems to have forced the issue.

Fullerton said the sandbags, being laid down in large so-called super-sacks are a temporary fix. The state also has somebody watching the river overnight in case the road gets washed out.

“If we have to close down a lane or something, we want to have a person there,” Fullerton said.

A permanent solution, likely involving large “armor rocks” is in the works. Fullerton said he hopes to have a proposal together in the next seven to 10 days. He said the rocks will probably push the water back to where it was before this most recent spate of erosion began.

The problem isn’t one that can be solved by simply moving the road.

“Basically you’ve got the river there, the road and then a cliff of a mountain,” Fullerton said.

And this isn’t the first time the river has threatened the highway. Fullerton said that years ago DOT completed a series of erosion control measures all along the river.

“That’s been taken out by the erosion of the water in the area as well,” he said.

The Matanuska River has something of a reputation for wreaking erosion-related havoc in the Sutton and Butte areas. This summer, the borough has been conducting public meetings as it attempts to put together a management plan for the river.

“We have been using a Band-Aid approach thus far to address erosion issues,” Borough Environmental Planner Frankie Barker said in a borough press release from early in the summer. “The river is not going to change its behavior, so it is time for us to look at better ways we can learn to live next to it.”

Out in Sutton, residents tend to keep a wary eye on the river, watching as it erodes its way into their yards.

“There’s quite a few people down there that have lost a lot of property,” said Tasha Hobbs, a clerk at the Sutton General Store. She said she counts her parents among those who’ve lost out to the river. “The state right-of-way (on the river bank) keeps getting closer and closer to their house,” she said.

Residents have been talking about the most recent erosion. Local residents depend on the highway to get to jobs and shopping in the state’s more populated regions. A washout could leave residents stranded on the other side.

“What would they have to do, get in boats, cross the river and then go to town?” Hobbs said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

[USAPatriot]

Kenai fire flares, Interior blazes joined into 'Railroad Complex'

SHANTA CREEK: Wildfire has contributed to haze over Anchorage lately.
Anchorage Daily News
Published: July 12th, 2009 06:17 PM
Last Modified: July 12th, 2009 10:59 PM
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Fires burning around the city have caused a haze over parts of the state.)
The Shanta Creek fire on the Kenai Peninsula began showing signs of activity Sunday afternoon, after a brief respite produced by cool moist air over the area earlier in the day.

As temperatures rose and relative humidity dropped firefighters noted islands of flame in heavy beetle-killed spruce stands on the southeast and northeast side of the fire area.

The fire is moving slowly to the east, through strips of black spruce between wet muskeg meadow and not currently threatening any highways or residential areas.

Shanta Creek is among the fires that have made the air hazy and smoky in Anchorage and elsewhere.

Work continues on creating fire suppression lines along the north boundary of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and at strategic locations inside, the Division of Forestry said Sunday evening.

More than 400 firefighters and support personnel are working on the effort, which includes 10 fire engines, three bull dozers, seven helicopters, five Hotshot crews and 10 regular crews.

No evacuations have been ordered. The Kenai Peninsula Borough is working on contingency plans incase the first moves to the north and built-up areas.

Meanwhile up north, crews continue to battle Interior fires, responding to a new 300-acre fire caused by lightning at June Creek Saturday night, located 33 miles south of Nenana and five miles west of the Parks Highway. This was the third fire in the June Creek area and is close to other fires at Minto Flats and Lunch Lake -- now being referred to collectively by state officials as the Railbelt Complex fires.

Drying weather conditions continue to prevail and the fire activity is expected to follow suit.

[USAPatriot]

New Fairbanks pollution laws loom
Borough might get incentive, penalty power
By Christopher Eshleman / The Fairbanks News-Miner
Published Tuesday, July 14, 2009
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Downtown Fairbanks.)

FAIRBANKS — The borough and state governments are drawing final plans for a program intended to cut air pollution across Fairbanks.

The moves come seven months after federal regulators found persistent wintertime pollution in the Fairbanks North Star Borough unhealthy.

The plans will, according to the agreement, give the borough the “lead role” in regulating the sale and use of home-heating stoves.

The borough’s technical government classification gives it only limited power to set health and social-service policies. The state-borough agreement will allow ordinances — including tax breaks or fines aimed at eliminating inefficient wood- or coal-burning heating stoves — to be enforced locally.

The agreement, struck between the borough and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, will hand as much local control for pollution-reduction plans to the borough as possible. The deal is headed Thursday to the Borough Assembly for review. The two agencies have worked together, under a similar arrangement, on air-quality issues for decades, borough air-quality director Glenn Miller told the assembly last week.

Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker said he plans to introduce the next step, a detailed pollution prevention and reduction plan, this summer. The plan will aim to curb “fine particulate” pollution — airborne bits of dust that collect and hang suspended through much of the winter — in and near the cities of Fairbanks and North Pole.

Data taken in recent years around Fairbanks indicate wood- and coal-based heating systems might be heavy contributors to Fairbanks’ air pollution problems.

Under the arrangement, the state would help oversee the program, according to the memorandum.

The borough’s pollution-prevention plan could, according to the agreement, cut sales of heating systems not certified by the Environmental Protection Agency. The borough would run a network of outdoor air monitors, and it could ban the burning of certain materials, such as treated lumber.

The Alaska Legislature this winter paved the way for another potential step: A break on property taxes for people who trade old, inefficient heating stoves in for newer models.

Whitaker told assembly members last week that federal or state officials likely would impose pollution-prevention plans on Fairbanks in five years unless another plan is in place.

Public plans to tackle fine particulate pollution come as the borough simultaneously prepares to eliminate a separate, long-running program for reducing carbon monoxide, best known as the vehicle inspection-and-maintenance (I/M) program.

Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.

[USAPatriot]

Huge blob of Arctic goo floats past Slope communities
IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before.
By DON HUNTER / Anchorage Daily News
dhunter@adn.com
Published: July 14th, 2009 10:54 PM
Last Modified: July 15th, 2009 07:34 AM
Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.


(Photo of odd goo, courtesy of North Slope Borough.)
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center


NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH- Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

Later, Brower said, the North Slope team in a borough helicopter spotted a long strand of the stuff and followed it for about 15 miles, shooting video from the air.

The next day the floating substance arrived offshore from Barrow, about 90 miles east of Wainwright, and borough officials went out in boats, collected more samples and sent them off for testing too.

Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.

"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism."

Something else: No one in Barrow or Wainwright can remember seeing anything like this before, Brower said.

"That's one of the reasons we went out, because in recent history I don't think we've seen anything like this," he said. "Maybe inside lakes or in stagnant water or something, but not (in the ocean) that we could recall ...

"If it was something we'd seen before, we'd be able to say something about it. But we haven't ...which prompted concerns from the local hunters and whaling captains."

The stuff is "gooey" and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.

"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.

"It kind of has an odor; I can't describe it," he said.

Hasenauer said he hasn't heard any reports of waterfowl or marine animals turning up.

Brower said it wouldn't necessarily surprise him if the substance turns out to be some sort of naturally occurring phenomenon, but the borough is waiting until it gets the analysis back from the samples before officials say anything more than they're not sure what it is.

"From the air it looks brownish with some sheen, but when you get close and put it up on the ice and in the bucket, it's kind of blackish stuff ... (and) has hairy strands on it."

Hasenauer said the Coast Guard's samples are being analyzed in Anchorage. Results may be back sometime next week, he said.

The two Coast Guard experts sent up to overfly the area with the borough said they saw nothing that resembled an oil slick, Hasenauer said.

"We brought back one sample of what they believe to be an algae," he said, and a big algae bloom is one possibility.

"It's textbook for us to consider algae because of all the false reports of oil spills we've had in the past. It's one of the things that typically comes up" when a report turns out not to be an oil spill after all.

But, he said, "there's all types of natural phenomena that it could be."

Meanwhile, the brownish-blackish gunk is drifting along the coast to the northeast, Brower said.

"This stuff is moving with the current," he said. "It's now on beyond Barrow and probably going north at this point. And people are still encountering it out here off Barrow."

For the most part, the mystery substance seems to have stayed away from shore.

"We did get some residents saying it was being pushed against the shoreline by ice in some areas," Brower said, "but then we get another east wind and it gets pushed back out there."

[USAPatriot]

Southeastern meeting to tackle drop in tourism

Anchorage Daily News/AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

July 14th, 2009 08:43 PM

image hosted on flickr

(Downtown Ketchikan, Alaska.)

KETCHIKAN -- The impact of fewer people visiting Southeast Alaska and what can be done to change that is the focus of an upcoming summit meeting sponsored by a Juneau-based foundation.

The nonprofit First Things First Alaska Foundation has invited municipal, state and tourism industry representatives to Juneau for the July 24 "Economic Summit on Tourism."

Executive director PeggyAnn McConnochie says the foundation's mission is to promote the wise use of Alaska's resources. She says tourism is one of those resources and it's an appropriate time to focus on it because the slump affects a variety of businesses, from airlines and cruise ships to restaurants and retail outlets.

Similar summits are being planned in Anchorage and Fairbanks by the convention and visitors bureaus in those cities.

[USAPatriot]

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Story last updated at 7/15/2009 - 1:23 pm
Kenai may get 5 lots for $7,000
By Phil Hermanek | The Kenai Peninsula Clarion
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

KENAI- Kenai has found itself in the enviable position of possibly picking up five city lots for a song.
If the Kenai City Council gives its OK tonight, $7,299 would be appropriated to acquire the lots, which were foreclosed upon by the Kenai Peninsula Borough for unpaid property taxes.
The five adjacent lots are on Peninsula Avenue near South Willow Street and would be used by the city for a public purpose.
Several small rental residences, some of which are occupied, are on the lots.
City Manager Rick Koch said Tuesday, if the city does acquire the property through foreclosure, the city will work with the residents giving them ample time to relocate.
"The city intends to be flexible," Koch said. "Unless we find them to be unsuitable on inspection -- exposed, bare wiring or the floor falling in -- we won't be asking (the residents) to move out immediately."
Of the $7,299 owed in back taxes, $4,724 relates to borough taxes and the remaining $2,575 is for city of Kenai taxes and interest.
The last owner of record of the property was the First Baptist Church on Northern Lights Boulevard in Anchorage, according to the proposed Kenai ordinance up for approval.
In a memo to the council Koch said after the renters have vacated the premises, any improvements will be disposed of through a public sale or demolished.
The property could be used as a contractor staging area during construction of the Kenai River bluff erosion control project, and subsequently could be developed into a small municipal park, Koch said in the memo.
Also up for consideration during tonight's council meeting is an ordinance to amend the city code by requiring screening between residential and commercial use properties and by providing that property adjacent to residential zones should have access routing traffic away from residential streets, where possible.
Although screening already is required by code, Koch said this makes the screening requirement less broad. The ingress and egress requirements are not currently in code.
In language of the code amendment, access would be required from an arterial street, and developments might be required to create frontage roads.
The changes, if approved, would apply to Limited Commercial as well as Commercial zones.
To accommodate businesses adversely affected by recent changes to the city's Limited Commercial zone land use table, an ordinance on the council agenda tonight would allow legally non-conforming uses to expand their businesses.
Among the impacted businesses is Anthony's Transmission on the Kenai Spur Highway across from Thompson Park.
The business was operating with a conditional use permit and the zoning code would not permit expansion. Because the underlying zoning was changed, a hardship was placed on the business. If approved, the ordinance would provide relief.
The council also is being asked to approve a resolution approving the purchase of three police vehicles through state fleet contract pricing. If approved, the police department would purchase two Ford police cars and a Ford sport utility vehicle. One of the police cars would replace a police cruiser rammed by a suspect involved in a police chase in May.
Also on the agenda is a resolution declaring equipment, supplies and materials surplus and allowing for their sale by auction.
Among the items are several film cameras used by the police department and 30 bicycles either found, stolen or confiscated by police. The bikes are not registered.
The resolution also would allow for the sale of a four-story fire training building at 400 Marathon Road.
The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Phil Hermanek can be reached at phillip.hermanek@peninsulaclarion.com.

[USAPatriot]

Borough cites local control in Fairbanks pollution plan
By Christopher Eshleman
Published Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Fairbanks News-Miner
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(Chena River scene in Fairbanks with haze caused by the multitude of local wild fires.)

FAIRBANKS — Borough officials said on Tuesday they see a locally developed pollution prevention plan as preferable to the alternative of state-imposed controls.

The plan, which Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker has said he’ll propose soon, would phase out inefficient home-heating systems that data suggests contribute heavily to chronic air pollution here.

Borough and state officials have drafted an agreement that would pave the way for the plan. That agreement, a memorandum of understanding, is up for review tonight at the Borough Assembly.

Whitaker said the need for pollution-prevention measures is inevitable, and the question falls to local officials of whether they’d like to set their own rules — ones that will likely introduce carrots and sticks meant to wean Fairbanks off older and inefficient home-heating systems that studies link to chronic “fine particulate” pollution.

“If we don’t do this, then it simply falls to (the state) to impose. And they will,” Whitaker said.

Researchers and scientists have linked fine particulate pollution — tiny bits of airborne dust — to a handful of health problems. When particulates become lodged deep in the lungs, they can cause chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function and, for people with lung or heart disease, shorter lives, health specialists told members of the borough’s Air Pollution and Control Commission during a panel discussion last summer.

Mike Pollen, a Fairbanks-based environmental consultant who serves on the pollution commission, said Fairbanks walks a fine line between the need to keep home-heating costs low and regulations in federal pollution laws. He said unique lifestyles and cold winters here mean Fairbanks would do best by regulating its own pollution problems instead of waiting for Anchorage- or Seattle-based government regulators to step in.

“We understand the situation; we live here,” Pollen said. “I can’t think of anybody better to impose tough regulations like this, which are going to affect us, than ourselves.”

A handful of residents plan to lobby borough officials to wait on pollution prevention plans to give people more time to digest the proposal. Contractor Schaeffer Cox, who as of Wednesday was looking to rally opposition, said he sensed the plan is simply a reaction to pressure from eager federal agencies.

“It’s the state’s or the local government’s business,” Cox said, adding that he doubts air quality-related pollution problems exist here.

Whitaker said borough officials’ first assessment three or four years ago of the particulate problem provided early justifications to prepare a pollution prevention plan. He said the science linking the pollution to health risks is peer-reviewed and looks solid, adding that any challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency would basically pit the borough against the federal Clean Air Act. “We do not think that a legal challenge is viable.”

Glenn Miller, who directs the borough’s Air Quality Division, said history has shown communities that “thumb their noses” at federal environmental regulators see ramifications such as decreased federal aid.

Whitaker also cited a simpler justification for the plan: Chronic air pollution impacts the quality of life for everyone who lives here.

“I don’t enjoy driving into town and seeing that brown haze,” he said.

[USAPatriot]

Follow Up Story: This Article

Black goop floating off Arctic coast identified as algae
ALGAE: Still, experts don't know why there's so much of it.
By KYLE HOPKINS / Anchorage Daily News
khopkins@adn.com
Published: July 16th, 2009 07:57 PM
Last Modified: July 17th, 2009 07:25 AM

AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center


A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified.

It looks to be a stringy batch of algae. Not bunker oil seeping from an aging, sunken ship. Not a sea monster.

"We got the results back from the lab today," said Ed Meggert of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks. "It was marine algae."

Miles of the thick, dark gunk had been spotted floating between Barrow and Wainwright, prompting North Slope Borough officials and the Coast Guard to investigate last week. A sample was sent to a DEC lab in Palmer, where workers looked at it under a microscope and declared it some kind of simple plant -- an algae, Meggert said.

The goo fast became an Alaska mystery. And the new findings still leave questions unanswered: Why is there so much of it in a region where people say they've never seen anything quite like it?

Local hunters and whalers didn't know what to make of it. The Coast Guard labeled the substance biological, but knew little else. The stuff had hairy strands in it and was tangled with jellyfish, said a borough official.

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Terry Whitledge is director of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He hasn't had a chance to look at the DEC's sample yet, but a friend with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration e-mailed him a picture of the gunk.

"Filamentous algae," he concluded.

Filamentous?

"It means it's just stringy."

Whitledge said he doesn't know why an unprecedented bloom of algae appeared off the Arctic coast.

"You'll find these kind of algae grow in areas that are shallow enough that light can get to the bottom ... If you had a rocky area along the coast, you could have this type of algae."

It could have been discharged from a river, he said, flushed out by runoff from spring breakup and melting ice. But that's just speculation, he warned.

The North Slope Borough took samples of the stuff too, for a separate round of testing, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer.

The results of the state's analysis came in at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. It was the last day on the job for Meggert, the retiring on-scene coordinator.

"Had it been petroleum, then we really would have had our work cut out for us," he said.

That was the initial fear -- that an oil spill had appeared in the Chukchi Sea, or maybe the blob was oil bubbling up from a sunken vessel or underwater seam.

The goo didn't fit any pattern that made it easy to identify from afar, Meggert said. "First of all, it was at the end of the Earth. Pretty hard to get to.

"While we've seen some algae bloom from time to time, we really haven't seen something quite like this."

The color, in particular, didn't make sense, he said. You might expect to see green or reddish algae but not this black, viscous gunk. Whitledge, with the university, said one possible explanation is that the algae has partially decomposed into a darker hue.

He looks forward to the university examining the sample too, to identify exactly what kind of algae it is.

It's worth noting that Alaska Natives in the region reportedly hadn't seen anything like it before, he said.

But asked if the blob's surprise appearance could be connected to global warming, Whitledge hesitated to draw a link.

"The water's actually very cold this year compared to other years," he said.

[USAPatriot]

Ouzinkie airport creates national buzz
Article published on Thursday, July 16th, 2009
By BRADLEY ZINT
The Kodiak Daily Mirror Writer

image hosted on flickr

(Ouzinkie, Alaska is located on Spruce Island, 12 miles north of Kodiak.)
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center


The tiny village of Ouzinkie and its $15 million airport project were profiled for a short while earlier this week in a CBS Evening News report and an investigative journalism article from ProPublica.org.

Though already reported by the Kodiak Daily Mirror and Associated Press earlier this year, the small, predominately Alutiiq village on Spruce Island was allotted $15 million in federal stimulus money to build a new airport. The planned facility is located about two miles north of Ouzinkie’s current airport. The project includes a new runway, taxiway, airport lights, snow removal equipment building and two miles of access road.

However, the national news sought to shed light on how and where the federal government is distributing stimulus money to airports nationwide. The CBS segment by Sharyl Attkisson — provocatively titled “Tiny Airports Get Big Cut of Stimulus Cash: Small, Rural Airports Get Big Payouts While Safety Violations at Major National Airports Get Little Attention” — featured Ouzinkie as an example of a small, remote airport receiving millions while larger international airports do not receive enough to meet their demands.

CBS reported, “Consider that Los Angeles International doesn’t have the money to install critical taxiway warning lights. And a third of the nation’s largest airports — 11 of the 30 biggest, handling over one-fourth of the nation’s passenger traffic — have substandard safety areas for when planes veer off the runway.”

The CBS segment did not mention, however, that airports in Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore— like Ouzinkie — are slotted to receive $15 million, the maximum allowed under the federal stimulus package for airports.

Other large airports — Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Austin, Texas — are also set to receive between $10 million and $14 million.

The New York City-based ProPublica.org reported that some “projects weren’t eligible if they had already received money from federal, state or local governments, or from private sources such as landing fees, and that ruled out many bigger, busier airports.”

Ouzinkie defense, responses

The CSB Evening News piece did not air responses from the Ouzinkie community as to why the village deserves the same amount of money as other American oft-used airports of international significance. Attkisson, however, interviewed U.S. Department of Transportation press secretary Sasha Johnson, who defended the stimulus spending.

Johnson said, “We were looking for projects that airports in areas around the country desperately needed to be done for safety and security concerns.”

When asked why small airports like Ouzinkie should have their costs supplemented by others, Johnson said, “The community can’t raise that kind of money. Rural airports deserve to be safe and kept up as much as other airports do.”

The ProPublica.org article by Michael Grabell, titled “Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus,” began with a lead on Ouzinkie.

“The village of Ouzinkie is one of the remotest outposts in the United States — home to a mere 165 people on an island off another island off the coast of Alaska. There are no stores, no gas stations and no stoplights.

“Yet, the village will soon be home to a new $15 million airport paid for by taxpayers under the federal stimulus package.”

The article later describes why Ouzinkie officials said they need stimulus money for a new airport: Villagers depend on flights for medevacs and supplies.

Grabell, in an e-mail to the Kodiak Daily Mirror, said he was able to notice Ouzinkie from among the other airports and chose it for his investigation.

“(I) took the database of FAA stimulus grants and matched it with the FAA database of operations (takeoffs and landings) per year,” Grabell wrote. “By comparing the amount of the grant to the number of flights per year, I was able to determine the outliers. Ouzinkie and some of the other airports stood out.”

Grabell wrote that it was important to him “that this story not be a general aviation vs. commercial airport story because some GA airports are extremely busy and are important economic engines for areas that otherwise aren’t served by the airline system. So I tried to focus on airports that comparatively aren’t used that much – those that receive less than one flight an hour on average.

“But data doesn’t always tell the whole story. So I tried to find out why these airports would be getting such large stimulus grants. I spoke to officials in Ouzinkie, Akiachak, Fort Yukon and Allakaket as well as project managers, Alaska transportation groups and the DOT&PF to get a sense of the various needs.”

Grabell referred to the four of the seven Alaska airports — the others being in King Salmon, Anchorage and Kenai — that received portions of the millions in federal stimulus money allotted to Alaska for airport improvements. Like Ouzinkie, Akiachak and Fort Yukon received the maximum $15 million. Comparatively, Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage received $3 million toward improving its runway apron.

Grabell said there were discussions about ProPublica.org making the trek to the Last Frontier to see the town so prominently featured in the investigative story — before they realized just how remote it was.

“We had talked about it here, but realized that it was nearly a 24-hour flight each way, stopping in Seattle, Anchorage and Kodiak before getting to Ouzinkie,” Grabell wrote.

ProPublica.org quoted Roger Wetherell, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT), Wetherell said because 82 percent of Alaska towns are unserved by roads — communities termed the Bush in Alaska — places like Ouzinkie heavily rely on airports for food, mail and medical transport.

This statement was echoed by Tom Quick in an interview with the Kodiak Daily Mirror, Wednesday. Quick, who was also interviewed by ProPublica.org, has been a resident of Ouzinkie since 1980. He serves his town in a variety of functions, including vice mayor and city utility manager.

He called Ouzinkie’s plane reliance “essential air services.”

“I’m sorry the airport has to cost so much, but essential services are essential air services,” Quick said. “They are essential, whether you’re talking about five people or 5,000.”

He said Ouzinkie’s current airport was built in the mid 1980s, yet he can remember a time when the town was only accessible by boat or floatplane. In critical situations, however, when helicopters arrived for medical emergencies, pilots precariously moved above the water and sand. He said the pilots did like not their chopper blades churning up the water and sand — which could potentially harm the craft — especially during an emergency situation.

Quick also said planes have been much more convenient in transporting the dead, who otherwise were transported via skiff.

Then there was the mail.

“There would be times where we wouldn’t get mail in for a couple of weeks in the winter,” Quick said. “After Thanksgiving, you had a pretty dicey timeframe until March for wind and everything.”

Quick said even though Ouzinkie may be receiving some bad rep because of the stimulus money, the new airport is being built at the insistence of both Ouzinkie and the Federal Aviation Administration regulations. The current location is exposed to fierce winds and is too close to the community landfill. The new runway also will have an FAA-mandated runway length.

“We are a small community, but every community deserves what they can get,” said Jill Boskofsky, vice president of the Ouzinkie Tribal Council and environmental director. “Our crosswinds here are so bad on our runway that there are times that we can’t even get an airplane here. I feel this is very necessary in case somebody needs to get a medevac out. I feel it’s for the safety of our community.”

Media responses

At least two other media sources rushed to Ouzinkie’s defense this week after the CBS News segment aired. One was from the alternative weekly Anchorage Press, and the second was a blog entry from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Web site.

The Anchorage Press article, written by Krestia DeGeorge and titled “Quit picking on Ouzinkie,” was published Wednesday. It criticized the CBS report and praised ProPublica.org for its “journalistic heavy lifting.”

“The ProPublica version of the story is better and fairer; it goes into greater depth and lacks the sensationalizing language of the CBS piece,” DeGeorge wrote. “It asks and answers the question of why bigger airports didn’t get more money (most of their major safety projects were already funded through other sources when the stimulus plans were announced). And it explains why airports in Alaska are a more important part of the basic transportation system than they are elsewhere.”

DeGeorge concluded, “The point is that we should think carefully about what’s really involved before criticizing something. Good reporting is important and there’s not enough of it; but so is critical, creative thinking about one’s subject. There’s not enough of that either.

“We need more people involved in our public dialogue willing to imagine what facts really mean from multiple perspectives. Otherwise (things) such as Ouzinkie’s lifeline will continue to be someone else’s taxpayer waste …”

AOPA blog entry writer Steve Tupper — whose rebuttal to the CBS Evening News segment was linked on the Anchorage Daily News Web site — called the mentioning of Ouzinkie a “cheap shot.”

“I suppose $15 million to build roads wouldn’t have been a problem (it happens all the time elsewhere and benefits even smaller communities),” Tupper wrote. “But I wouldn’t expect CBS to understand that airports are the roads of Alaska. If you can’t get on board with putting money into airports in Alaska, you might as well give up that 49th star on the flag and abandon Alaska altogether. I’m not ready to do that. I’m pretty sure that the Alaskans aren’t either.”

Ouzinkie airport construction

For all the talk of Ouzinkie seemingly wasting taxpayer money or being an essential spending effort for a small community, Quick said the contractor has already began paving the way for the project.

The contractor — Anchorage-based Pruhs Construction Company, LLC — was awarded the $9,708,913.75 contract on June 16, by the Alaska DOT. Quick said the spot north of the existing airport has already undergone an extensive environmental review. Part of the planning now involves finding housing for workers and bringing in equipment.

Though Quick said the farther-away spot from town will likely be a little inconvenient, he said, “Am I in favor of an airport? Absolutely … the benefits (will) extend over an extreme period of time.”

Mirror writer Bradley Zint can be reached via e-mail at bzint@kodiakdailymirror.com.

[Infoman]

Cool...

[USAPatriot]

Rebuilding begins in villages ravaged by Yukon RIver flooding
The Fairbanks News-Miner
Published Saturday, July 18, 2009
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

image hosted on flickr

(The village of Carmacks, Yukon Territory is on a bend of the Yukon River.)

FAIRBANKS — Rebuilding efforts have begun in Eagle, where volunteer crews are working to construct replacement homes following devastating spring flooding on the Yukon River.

Site preparation and foundation work should be completed by the end of this week, according to the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Once training is complete, volunteers expect to construct two log-cabin-style homes per week.

Builders hope to have permanent housing available by winter.

There were 24 homes destroyed when a massive ice jam caused the Yukon River to flood in May, said McHugh Pierre, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Most of those will be replaced, he said, although an exact number was unavailable.

The process has brought out volunteers from local communities and faith-based organizations.

Mennonite Disaster Service provided a construction manager and a dozen volunteers for the next eight weeks. Samaritan’s Purse is providing $10,000 to rebuild each destroyed primary residence, and Latter Day Saint volunteers are offering help with site preparation.

Supplies also are being barged to Tanana and Stevens Village, other flood-damaged villages where rebuilding efforts are planned.

Federal disaster aid for Yukon River flood victims has reached almost $2.7 million, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Pierre said federal officials are providing roughly three-quarters of the funds to the rebuilding effort, with the state offering a match of the remaining quarter.

The deadline for federal disaster unemployment assistance is July 23. Workers interested in applying may call 1-888-252-2557.

Registration for FEMA aid is due by Aug. 10, by calling 1-800-621-3362 or online at www.disasterassistance.gov.

A legal disaster hotline has been established by the Alaska Legal Services Corporation to receive assistance with insurance claims, home-repair contracts, estate administration, replacement of legal documents and assistance with consumer-protection matters. For help, call 1-800-478-5401.

[Scba]

Carmacks isn't in Alaska.

[USAPatriot]

Fairbanks, state are feeling recession effects
By Christopher Eshleman
Published Monday, July 20, 2009
The Fairbanks News-Miner
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center


(Downtown Fairbanks. AJM STUDIOS Northwest Photo Journey Photo.)



FAIRBANKS — Local and state officials have consistently said Fairbanks and Alaska are to some degree buffered from an international recession. Numbers show the state is feeling a pinch through the first half of 2009.

Fairbanks hosts millions of dollars worth of government and military construction projects. That work offers some shelter to income figures already anchored by a high number of government jobs, and it protects local economies as the city and state struggle through a major national recession.

“The (borough) continues to hold its own in the face of a global recession; it also continues to show signs of stress, especially in areas related to the global economy,” reads the recent edition of the Community Research Quarterly, distributed by the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

The number of home foreclosures in the borough more than doubled during the first quarter of 2009 from the same time last year. Drops in hotel bookings and visits to the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North hit double digit percentages early this summer, according to tourism officials and the school.

Dan Robinson, a state economist, said Alaska’s hold on “mild job growth” in 2008 has muddied.

“The U.S. recession and international economic downturn have been severe enough to affect Alaska noticeably in 2009,” Robinson wrote in last month’s Alaska Trends magazine.

But while unemployment rates in Alaska have gone up — a preliminary 8.4 percent in June, a roughly 2-point increase from December 2007 — that increase has lagged considerably behind the national increase, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In Fairbanks, a number of larger commercial construction projects are seeing action after years of planning. This could help offset a slowdown in housing and retail construction. The Weeks Field low-income housing project on Airport Way is moving ahead less than a mile from work on what will be a $46 million state-run fish hatchery. A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracking station is going up, and the Bentley Mall and Tanana Valley Campus are seeing remodeling, according to the quarterly report.

“These projects will help to provide construction employment this summer,” the report’s lead analysis reads.

[USAPatriot]

Alaska wildfires have burned 1 million acres
By MARY PEMBERTON

The Anchorage Daily News / AP
Published: July 20th, 2009 10:27 PM
Last Modified: July 20th, 2009 10:28 PM

image hosted on flickr

(So far this year, over a million acres have been burned by wildfires in Alaska.)
AJM STUDIOS.NET Northwest Development News Center

ANCHORAGE- Water-scooping aircraft also were being used on the Railbelt Complex fire.

The Railbelt fire was begun by lightning nearly a month ago and has grown to nearly 219,000 acres. It is one of several large wildfires burning in Alaska, where so far this year more than 400 fires have burned more than 1 million acres in the state.

State officials say the Railbelt Complex fire is affecting air quality, especially north of Denali National Park where the smoke-filled air has been deemed unhealthy and even hazardous at times.

Firefighters were helping people living in cabins near Nenana clear trees and brush from around their homes in the event that a growing wildfire reaches dozens of cabins along the Teklanika River.

Residents also were being told to remove wood piles from against their homes and store four-wheelers, snowmachines and machinery with flammable liquids away from structures.

Several property owners have purchased pumps and sprinklers and were getting help from firefighters in setting the equipment up.

"We have had folks in the area between the fire and cabin corridor for the whole last week," Jennifer Yuhas, a spokeswoman for the Railbelt Complex fire, said Monday. "To date, we've been successful." The fire is creeping along through the hardwoods, finding small stands of black spruce to feed on inside an established perimeter.

The fire had moved to within a mile and a half of the cabins but had not moved closer for a couple of days, Yuhas said. The fire was continuing to grow but not advancing in any specific direction. It was staying inside its perimeter, Yuhas said.

More than 280 firefighters are assigned to it.

A fire burning in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park about 13 1/2 miles from the town of McCarthy made a 3-mile run on Sunday. The Chakina fire had the chance of gaining more ground on Monday afternoon when winds were likely to pick up again, said Tina Boehle, spokeswoman for the National Park Service.

The fire was 30,000 acres and growing on Monday, she said. "It was very active (Sunday)," Boehle said.

Firefighters are most concerned that the fire will reach and jump across the Chitina River, where there are some occupied structures.

More resources were being put on the fire, Boehle said, including six Division of Forestry fire engines.

The road from Chitina to McCarthy was open. However, officials are advising people to keep their headlights on because of poor visibility caused by smoke.

A fire burning inside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge was 80 percent contained on Monday.

The Shanta Creek fire north of Tustumena Lake began on June 30, also by lightning. It was estimated to be 13,221 acres on Monday but a light rain was keeping it from growing. The fire was smoldering and creeping in places.