Sen. Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna, listens to testimony in the Senate Finance Committee in the Alaska Capitol on Thursday. Micciche chaired the subcommittee that recommended cuts to Medicaid included in the Senate version of the state budget. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
Senate leaders say they want to cut state government. But much of the only large cut they proposed this year – to Medicaid — isn’t likely a cut at all. The proposal doesn’t change what federal and state law require the state to spend.
Based on enrollment growth and the trends the state has seen this year, it expects to spend more on Medicaid next year.
The Senate budget would eliminate most of that increase. Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche said at an April 4 committee meeting that the change sends a message.
“The Senate is saying: ‘We’re struggling with the increases. We want to work together on the least amount of increases possible,’” Micciche said.
People who the state deems eligible for Medicaid are entitled to receive health care. And the state must pay the doctors, hospitals and other providers who provide that care. Federal subsidies pay from 50 to 90 percent of Medicaid costs.
So if the state spends more than it budgeted, the Legislature is going to have to budget more later, in what’s known as a supplemental. Micciche acknowledged that the Senate is deliberately budgeting less than the state expects to spend, and that it could be required to pay more later.
“Focusing on the increases in a supplemental is a healthy exercise on us all working together to manage increased medical costs,” Micciche said.
Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, addresses the Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday. She said Tuesday that the Senate’s proposed Medicaid cut would not stand. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
The Senate did propose a change that state officials estimate would result in $20 million in cuts. It would do this by shifting claims to the Indian Health Service for eligible Alaska Natives and American Indians.
But those anticipated Medicaid savings fall well short of covering the Senate’s Medicaid cut.
The House has voted to fully fund the administration’s request for Medicaid, which is $70 million more than the Senate. Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, a Democrat from Anchorage, said much of the Senate reduction is only a cut on paper.
“It’s not sincere,” Spohnholz said at a press availability on Tuesday. “It’s not honest with the public to artificially reduce our operating budget knowing that it’s going to come through in the supplemental.”
State officials have told senators that the Medicaid cuts will create uncertainty for health care providers and could delay payments. The Legislature’s conference committee on the operating budget will decide whether to keep the Senate’s cut.
Nicolas Petit in 2014 (Photo by Matthew Smith, KNOM)
Nicolas Petit has claimed a decisive victory in the 2018 Kobuk 440. Petit finished the 440-mile race from Kotzebue to Kobuk and back three hours ahead of the next musher.
There’s still pale orange light in the western sky as the French-born Girdwood musher rides across the finish line at 12:08 Sunday morning. He has seven energetic dogs in harness.
The 36-year-old says he’d have liked to make it by midnight, but that this second Kobuk 440 win feels good.
“Par for the course for this season. These dogs are kicking butt,” Petit said.
It’s been a successful year for Petit, who has won each of his mid-distance races, including the Copper Basin 300 and the Tustumena 200. He took second place in the 2018 Iditarod.
Petit pulled away from the pack after leaving Selawik, the second checkpoint. By the time he reached Ambler, he had a three-hour lead that he never lost. He says good trail conditions under sunny, clear skies were ideal.
“Hard to imagine a better trail, really. A couple wind-blown spots, a couple punchy spots, but nothing bad,” Petit said.
Petit says the trail may have even been too good.
“I guess from staring at all the scenery, I kind of sunburnt my eyelids. So that kind of hurts,” Petit said. “Other than that, the scenery was great.”
Petit’s total race time of 59 hours, 38 minutes is the fastest since at least 2010 and about two hours faster than 2017 champion Jessie Holmes’.
Holmes scratched at his first Ambler stop. The Nenana musher and 2018 Iditarod rookie of the year says he pushed hard early in the race and got burned out.
“It’s kind of been a good year for me. I don’t really need to push it unless I tried really hard, race to win,” Holmes said. “Somehow Nic can do that, just keep going with it, and that’s impressive and amazing.”
And keep going Petit did: His dogs ran at an average speed of over 11 miles per hour. And he kept all 10 starters until the second-to-last checkpoint, Kiana, where he dropped three:
“All the girls (are) here,” Petit said. “I dropped the boys. They can’t do the fast stuff.”
The fast stuff earns Petit a prize of $15,000, 25 percent of the total pot, plus smaller checkpoint awards and gifts.
A few hours later, 59-year-old veteran Tony Browning took second place. He mushed into Kotzebue at 3:29 am with six dogs, after pulling away from 26-year-old Ellen King in the last 180 miles.
King pulled across the line at 5:42 am in third place, with seven dogs. She was greeted by her dad, Kobuk 440 and Iditarod champion Jeff King. The elder King ran with her — by snowmachine.
Another family pair on the trail was husband-and-wife team Hugh and Olivia Shank Neff. They finished in seventh and eighth place one minute apart, at around 3 pm. They say they accomplished exactly what they wanted to, and got closer while at it:
“I got my wife ready and qualified to do the Yukon Quest!” Hugh Neff said.
“And I’ve only been mushing since … December? And we were able to do both my qualifiers. That’s kind of crazy,” Olivia Neff said. “You know, people have honeymoons, and they go to the beach and everything like that, and they’re all, like, ‘Oh, we’re going to have so much fun.’ I think you should climb a mountain with somebody. Then you can see all their emotions, and how they improvise — who they really are.”
Nic Petit’s dogs wear their emotions on their booties at the finish. Even though they’ve just run nearly 500 miles, they’re perky, fighting over extra scraps of meat.
“I’m going to mush them home now, so if we could part the seas, I’m going to go on up there,” Petit said.
And just like that, the crowd parts, the dogs jump up, and they’re speeding off again into the night.
Many of those who turned out for Thursday’s hearing had to stand at the rear of the Assembly meeting chambers, and in the hallway leading into the entrance. (Photo by Tim Ellis/KUAC)
About a hundred people packed the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly chambers Thursday to declare they don’t want the borough to demolish the Mary Siah Recreation Center. They told Assembly members to reject Mayor Karl Kassel’s proposal to knock down the 68-year-old structure and they said the borough should instead fix it up and keep it operating.
Like many of those in the standing-room-only crowd, Tom Robinson questioned Kassel’s ordinance that calls for demolishing the rec center as part of a plan to begin catching up on the borough’s backlog of deferred maintenance.
“Why pick on Mary Siah? God! It doesn’t make sense!” Robinson said.
Robinson and others who spoke during the meeting said the facility played an important role in their lives.
“I have a little bias there,” Robinson said. “My kids learned to swim at Mary Siah. My grandkids learned to swim at Mary Siah.”
Debra DeLong told the Assembly the rec center is perfect for small kids. And she says it provided a much-needed diversion and meeting place for their moms and dads.
“That saved my sanity, as a mother with small children,” DeLong said. “There’s not a lot of things to do, at 40 below, for your children.”
Others – including Victor Siah, a relative of the facility’s namesake – talked about how the rec center’s warm pool, sauna and hot tub helps patrons keep in shape and recover from injury or illness.
“It is my belief that the Mary Siah Rec Center is more valuable today than ever,” Siah said. “So I guess what I’m asking the Assembly members to do is not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let’s have a concrete plan of action, before we demolish the Mary Siah Rec Center.”
Jim Gibertoni was among those who said they don’t believe the analyses on which borough officials based their conclusion that the rec center must go, because it’s in poor shape and would cost more to repair, or even maintain, than it would to tear down.
“The sky is not falling here, guys,” Gibertoni said. “Everything I hear is embellishment on how old the thing is. I’ve walked through the building, I’ve worked on the building. I’ve been a plumber all my life and a builder. The sky is not falling.”
Gibertoni and others, including Maria Berger, cited a report issued in January on the rec center that many interpreted as a vindication of their belief that the facility needs some work, but overall is structurally sound.
“The engineering report funded by taxpayers states that Mary Siah is a functional and well-maintained building,” Berger said, “With no catastrophic safety issues.”
But Charles “C.B.” Bettisworth, who founded the company that generated the report, says the study was an overview that identified problems, including some that could be serious and require further inspection.
“As the mayor pointed out, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that it (the report) says ‘This needs to be studied more.’ What this thing was useful for is to give you folks an idea of the order of magnitude of the problem that you have before you,” Bettisworth said.
Assemblyman Van Lawrence asked Bettisworth whether the structure was worth repairing if the borough were able to sell it, as some have suggested, to a private sector buyer, who would then assume the task of investing in repairs and renovation.
“Mr. Bettisworth, if that Mary Siah building was privately owned, and you were the owner, and you had to make a decision, would you put more money into that building?” Lawrence asked.
“Absolutely not,” Bettisworth replied.
Finally, at 11:30 p.m., after more than three hours of public comment, Assemblyman Matt Cooper moved to adjourn the meeting and resume deliberations at 6 p.m. Monday. The Assembly will then consider Kassel’s ordinance to appropriate more than $2.7 million to demolish Mary Siah and an old schoolhouse in Moose Creek and to repair four other borough buildings.
The Assembly also will consider a substitute ordinance, sponsored by Lance Roberts, to keep Mary Siah standing and invest more than $600,000 to repair it.
First grade teacher at Harborview Elementary School Jennifer Thompson led the crowd in a chant so the legislators inside could hear them.
“STEAM starts early. Learning makes it great. We all work together; innovate and create!” they yelled in unison.
This was the second annual March for Science. Participants in the international event call upon lawmakers to base their policies in evidence-based research and facts. This year, organizers partnered with Great Alaska Schools, a statewide organization that advocates for quality public education.
“Right now, as we know, the Legislature is deciding about school funding,” Emily Ferry, a volunteer with Great Alaska Schools who helped organize the rally, said. “And we know that having hands-on science experiences, as well as art and music experiences, can really enhance education and we want to have those experiences for our kids so that we can have a strong future for Alaska.”
Ferry and many of the speakers talked about the importance of emphasizing STEAM — an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art and math education — at an early age.
The Senate passed House Bill 287 on Saturday; it’s likely to go to conference committee to resolve differences over funding. It funds education independently from the overall state budget, with the intent that it would pass earlier.
And HB 339 would increase the state’s per-student funding to school districts. The House passed the bill Saturday afternoon. It now goes to the Senate.
“If the Legislature does not increase education funding, then the school board’s going to have to go back and cut even more programs, more teachers,” Ferry said. “That’s going to make bigger class sizes, it will be less individualized, harder for students to learn, less programs to make it engaging and hands-on. I think the kids lose.”
Among its budget cuts, the Juneau School Board voted to end a college readiness program called AVID at the middle school level.
Thunder Mountain High School junior Laurine Araneta spoke about the program and the advantage it gave her when entering high school and starting to think about college.
“For me personally, my mom didn’t graduate college and AVID has helped me just get into it … like, find out how to apply for grants and scholarships and financial aids,” Araneta said. “You know, for students who really want to go to college, if they’re not informed, then I feel like they’re discouraged to even try because they don’t have that guidance or support.”
Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, expresses his views about House Bll 339, an education funding bill, in the Alaska House of Representatives on Saturday. (Photo by Skip Gray/360 North)
Funding for Alaska schools is one of the largest remaining issues for the Legislature this year. The Senate and House majorities’ plans vary significantly in how to do it.
Both chambers passed bills focused on public education Saturday. House Bill 339 would increase state aid to school districts by $100 per student into the future.
Ketchikan independent Rep. Dan Ortiz voted for the increase. He said the funds would head off larger class sizes.
“It’s very real and very impactful when you start talking about raising class sizes that reduce the opportunity for that individual connection to take place,” Ortiz said.
Districts across the state say teachers and other staff will be cut without the funding. Anchorage schools would lay off 100; Kodiak, 16; and Kenai Peninsula Borough, 11.
Bethel Democratic Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky said the $100 increase would help make long-term school funding more stable.
“I firmly believe that the boom-and-bust economy of Alaska should not translate into a boom-and-bust education system for our youth,” Zulkosky said.
But House minority Republicans opposed the added school funding. Anchorage Republican Jennifer Johnston said financial pressure encourages school districts to change.
“I know it’s a fine line between how much money you have and how much you can transform, but I do know you can’t have transformation with a lot of money,” Johnston said. “We never do; never will.”
The school spending plan included in the Senate bill is different.
That bill — the Senate version of House Bill 287 — would provide a one-time infusion of $30 million in 2020 only, while the House would add slightly more than $25 million every year beginning in the coming school year.
But the Senate would only add the money if the Legislature passes – and Gov. Bill Walker signs – a law to draw Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to pay for state government.
Soldotna Republican Sen. Peter Micciche noted the bill would also assure that the school budget for 2020 would be funded ahead of time.
“This is about forward-funding education,” Micciche said. “Early funding this year, and forward funding education in the future, which would relieve an enormous amount of stress on our districts, on our teachers.”
The fate of school funding could become tied to how the two chambers resolve their differences over the overall state budget.
Bethel Fire Chief Bill Howell said that the fire was reported to his department around 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. Given the state of the blaze when they got there, he suspects that the building had already been burning for several hours. Howell has decided to let the fire burn itself out, which he said could take another two days.
“We’re not interested in risking our firefighters’ lives to save an abandoned building,” Howell said.
Howell said this fire isn’t a risk to the community. The abandoned building is a good 10-minute drive from Bethel’s city center and people aren’t living or squatting nearby. Howell said that there’s no real risk of the fire spreading; the nearby brush has been cleared, the trees are damp, and the building is ringed by two feet of snow. But the fire has chewed its way through the BIA building’s roof, so it would be dangerous for Howell’s crew to fight it. The best thing to do, he said, is just let the building be consumed.
The derelict building complex used to be home to a BIA school. Howell says that the fire started near the old cafeteria, and that the building has already caught fire at least once in the past, in 2001. The building was also rife with asbestos, which Howell said was cleared out by the federal government over 15 years ago.
Still, Howell said, “I would encourage the public to stay away from the site. The site is not secure.”
The Bethel Fire Department doesn’t know how the fire started, but Howell suspects that it was caused by humans. He doesn’t know yet if it was set intentionally or not.
Conoco didn’t release many details about the discoveries, including how much oil was found. But in a press release, the company called the results of this winter’s drilling season “promising.”
Conoco drilled a total of six wells this winter, one of its most extensive exploration efforts in years. All six encountered oil. Five were drilled in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which is managed by the federal government.
In addition to the wells indicating the three new discoveries, Conoco spokesperson Natalie Lowman said the other wells increased the company’s confidence in last year’s Willow oil discovery. Conoco estimates Willow could produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day, roughly a fifth of the amount currently moving down the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Based on the results of this year’s drilling season, Lowman said the company plans another active drilling season in 2019.
There have been a number of major oil discoveries in and around the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in recent years. Conoco has asked the federal government to make more land in the Reserve available for oil leasing, saying the land can be safely developed. But the Obama administration put roughly half the Reserve off limits, citing the need to protect habitat and subsistence resources.
The Bureau of Land Management is currently holding a public comment period on Conoco’s third proposed oil development in the Reserve, called the Greater Mooses Tooth 2 project. Upcoming public meetings are in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Nuiqsut.
More than a dozen people testified publicly at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ April 10 Kokhanok scoping meeting about the proposed Pebble Mine. (Photo by Avery Lill/ KDLG)
Early last week, more than 50 people packed into a Kokhanok community building, filling all the seats at rows of folding tables and standing in the back of the room. People from the Kokhanok, Levelock, the Alaska Peninsula Corporation and Bristol Bay Native Corporation were there to suggest resources of concern and alternatives to the proposed Pebble Mine plan to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
More than two dozen took the microphone to testify. All who testified publicly at the Kokhanok meeting expressed deep apprehension or outright opposition to the Pebble Project’s mining plan.
“Bristol Bay is very unique,” Kokhanok resident John Nelson Jr said. “The proposed Pebble mine poses a tremendous risk to our region. Iliamna Lake is very pristine as well as what I perceive as world-class fishing.”
Greg Andrew Jr. of Levelock voiced unease about the icebreaking ferry the Pebble Limited Partnership plans to run across Iliamna Lake every day to transport mining materials. Many echoed that concern at the Kokhanok meeting and other scoping meetings held last week.
“The icebreaking ferry will directly impact all the communities in the watershed,” Andrew said. “As [Iliamna Lake] is used as an ice highway in the winter, it will no longer be safe to travel between communities, especially during the carnival months. I fear lives will be lost traveling during the winter.”
Andrew and others also raised the concern that the ferry could pose a risk to the lake’s Pacific harbor seal population.
A child at the Newhalen scoping meeting traces the proposed transportation corridor for mining materials. (Photo by Avery Lill/ KDLG)
Two days later, the Army Corps held another scoping meeting on the north side of Iliamna Lake in the village of Newhalen. There, the public testimony was mixed in support and opposition to the mine.
Of the 15 people who testified publically, nine were from Newhalen and Iliamna, adjacent communities that share a road system. Three people from Pedro Bay and three from Dillingham also spoke at the meeting.
Most who spoke from Newhalen and Iliamna were either neutral or in support of the proposed mine. These are among the closest villages to the proposed mine site, which is roughly 17 miles away.
“We are here to let the Army Corps of Engineers know that we would like you guys to allow Pebble to go through with a fair process,” Lorene Anelon said. Anelon is the president of Iliamna Natives Limited, the local native corporation. “What we saw here was an opportunity for people to get jobs, and that’s what we saw as the positive side. Now, I have the same concerns that everybody else is voicing about our subsistence way of life, and we would like to see that protected for the people.”
Economic opportunity was a common theme among those who testified in favor of mining in Bristol Bay.
Margie Olympic lives in Newhalen and has worked for the Pebble Limited Partnership since 2006.
(Courtesy of Pebble Limited Partnership)
“I was raised on a commercial fishing boat in Dillingham,” Olympic said. “Back in the day, we used to make enough money to support the entire family. Nowadays, fishing can only buy a few groceries or just catch up on bills. I am very grateful that I have a job that I can put food on the table, pay bills and have private insurance. The best part is I don’t have to get up and leave my community. Having the Pebble Partnership with employment would help our communities thrive and support our families.”
Those who flew in from Pedro Bay and Dillingham were opposed to the mine. Their specific apprehensions included potential risks to water quality, commercial fishing, subsistence fishing and hunting.
“I am concerned that loss of water from the streams and the aquifer that feeds the streams will hurt the salmon spawn,” Keith Jensen of Pedro Bay said. “The threat of contamination during the transportation of materials over the road corridor, over the rivers and streams, across the lake is too great. At the end of the mine’s life, we will forever live with the threat of contamination from tailings ponds and dam failures.”
The Corps of Engineers will hold four more scoping meetings this week. Those meetings will be in Nondalton on April 16, Dillingham on April 17, Iguigig on April 18 and Anchorage on April 19. The meetings in Dillingham and Anchorage will not include an opportunity to testify publically before a gathered audience because the USACE anticipates high turnout.
Public comment delivered in-person, by mail and online will play a role in shaping the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement. That EIS will analyze potential detrimental and beneficial effects of the Pebble Project and develop alternatives to the proposed mine plan. The finalized EIS will serve as a tool for federal agencies as they decide whether or not to permit the copper, gold and molybdenum mine in Bristol Bay. The comment period for Pebble Mine’s Environmental Impact Statement closes June 29.
The state may be the Last Frontier, but on Sunday night, Comedian John Oliver highlighted a different kind of status – the last holdout of Blockbuster Video.
“Despite the fact that Blockbuster filed for Bankruptcy in 2010, there are apparently four independently-owned franchises still operating in the United States, three of which are in Alaska,” Oliver explained to his audience.
Oliver goes on to explain these independently owned shops make good business sense. Data can be expensive and, for some Alaskans, it’s been cheaper to rent movies than to stream them.
But as the once-ubiquitous video stores have disappeared in the rest of the country, Alaska’s last remaining Blockbusters have become a different kind of attraction.
“I have people who come into the parking lot just to take pictures of the building,” Provence explained in the video, which Oliver highlighted in his segment.
“They’ll also be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you guys are still here,'” Provence said.
“What a fun, but potentially passive aggressive interaction that was,” Oliver joked. “‘Wow, I thought you has-been losers had been thrown into the trash heap of history, but you weren’t. Good for you. I’m off to stream literally anything I want. See you later punch line.”
And Oliver’s right — as the internet has gotten faster and more reliable in Alaska in recent years, more Alaskans have joined the streaming masses putting the old-fashioned movie rental business at risk.
So, how do you keep one of the last remaining rental relics open? There’s got to be a fun, film-inspired way, John Oliver said, to get customers through the doors.
“You know the way Planet Hollywood sucks you in with the chance to dine alongside the baseball mitt that out-acted Madonna in ‘A League of Their Own,'” Oliver joked.
But there’s no way for small, independently-owned stores to afford items like that. That’s where Oliver and his team come in. It turns out there was recently an auction of movie memorabilia used by the actor Russell Crowe.
“From the Gladiator chariot to this leather jock strap he wore in the film ‘Cinderella Man,’ which was expected to attract an absolutely ridiculous $500,” Oliver explained.
That jock strap ended up going to an anonymous bidder for $7,000. There was some speculation that Oliver was the one to bid on the item, but…
“The bad news is we didn’t do it. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It wasn’t us. We didn’t buy it.” Oliver said.
After a few seconds of silence from the audience, Oliver cut back in. “We did, though. We absolutely did.”
So, what’s he going to do with it?
“To the manager of the only remaining Blockbuster in Anchorage, Alaska at 5600 Debarr Road, number five…” Oliver said to the camera, “All of this [stuff] is yours. Just call us in the next 48 hours and we will send it to you.”
“We’ve left messages with him on the phone to HBO, we’ve Facebooked him, we Tweeted,” Kevin Daymude said. “I don’t know what else we could do.”
Kevin Daymude is the manager for the remaining Blockbusters in Alaska. (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)
Kevin Daymude is the general manager for the remaining Blockbusters in Alaska. He’s been working at the store since 1991.
Standing alongside aisles of DVDs inside the store on Debarr Road, Daymude said he’s seen a lot of change over the years.
“Of course we started with the wonderful VHS’s,” Daymude said, “and [I saw] how fast the DVDs took over those, so that was a huge change-around.”
Daymude said he has seen a drop in profit in recent years, but, some people really value that in-person experience.
“It’s kind of hard to sit there and ask a vending machine, ‘Is this is a good movie? What’s your recommendation?’ And that’s what they miss,” Daymude explained. “They miss the customer service end of it. And that’s why we’re still steady.”
And the media hype over the last remaining stores doesn’t hurt either. Daymude says they’ve sold T-shirts and sweatshirts and stickers.
So, Daymude said the more attention, the better. He welcomes John Oliver’s idea of showing off Russell Crowe movie memorabilia, with just an ounce of hesitation.
“It’s a great idea. I love it– it’s the whole jock strap thing I can’t get over, I’m sorry,” Daymude admitted.
But Daymude is willing to try if it means keeping Blockbusters’ lights on a little longer.
Independent challenger raising competitive amounts to unseat Don Young
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Federal campaign finance reports show a well-funded challenger is trying to unseat Congressman Don Young in November.
Alaska House and Senate pass dueling school funding plans
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
Both chambers passed bills focused on public education Saturday. House Bill 339 would increase state aid to school districts by $100 per student into the future.
Capitol rally calls for more funding to support STEAM education in Alaska
Adelyn Baxter, KTOO – Juneau
As nearly 100 people rallied for the second annual March for Science outside, legislators inside debated education funding.
ConocoPhillips announces three new oil discoveries on the North Slope
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
Conoco didn’t release many details about the discoveries, including how much oil was found. But in a press release, the company called the results of this winter’s drilling season “promising.”
At USACE scoping meetings in Iliamna Lake region, locals express concerns about Pebble
Avery Lill, KDLG – Dillingham
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers solicited public comment on the proposed Pebble Mine plan at five scoping meetings last week. At the two meetings on the shores of Iliamna Lake, near the Pebble deposit and proposed mine infrastructure, locals turned out to ask the Army Corps to consider possible effects a mine could have on their way of life.
Court hears arguments in suit over borough invocation policy
Associated Press
Attorneys presented arguments in Alaska Superior Court on the legality of a Kenai Peninsula Borough policy that allows only members of established religious groups to pray at the beginning of assembly meetings.
Bethel fire chief says BIA building could burn for up to two days
Teresa Cotsirilos, KYUK – Bethel
An abandoned Bureau of Indian Affairs school building on the outskirts of Bethel caught fire Sunday morning and could burn for a long time.
Thousands of quakes hit Alaska since January’s major shake
Associated Press
Thousands of small earthquakes have been recorded in the Kodiak area since a magnitude 7.9 quake in January hit about 175 miles southeast of the city.
Ted Stevens International Airport ranked fifth busiest hub for air cargo
Zachariah Hughes, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Ted Steven International Airport in Anchorage is the fifth busiest hub for air cargo in the world.
Nicolas Petit claims decisive win in 2018 Kobuk 440
Gabe Colombo, KNOM – Nome
Nicolas Petit has claimed a decisive victory in the 2018 Kobuk 440. Petit finished the 440-mile race from Kotzebue to Kobuk and back three hours ahead of the next musher.
John Oliver offers movie memorabilia to Anchorage Blockbuster
Emily Russell, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Alaska may be the Last Frontier, but on Sunday night, Comedian John Oliver highlighted a different kind of status – the last holdout of Blockbuster Video.
Independent candidate Alyse Galvin of Anchorage raised $284,000 in the first three months of the year, the first filing period since her campaign began.
U.S. Rep. Don Young is serving his 23rd term in office. (Photo by Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage)
To find another Don Young challenger who raised that much at this stage in the race, you have to go back to Ethan Berkowitz’s run in 2008. (He raised slightly less during the first quarter of 2008, but had raised a total of $400,000 by the end of March, counting contributions from 2007.)
Galvin raised more than double what Young brought in during the first quarter. But Young raises money almost continuously, even in non-election years. The Republican incumbent has raked in nearly $600,000 for the 2018 election.
Alyse Galvin (Photo: Alyse for Alaska campaign)
Young has been in office since 1973 and is the longest serving member in Congress.
Galvin is a public schools advocate who has never campaigned for statewide office before. She is running as an independent but she’s seeking to be the Democratic nominee. She’ll face Democrat Dimitri Shein of Anchorage on the Primary ballot.
Juneau resident Gregory Fitch has also filed to run, with no party affiliation.
The website for the Federal Election Commission showed no first-quarter reports for Shein or Fitch as of Monday.
Members of Friends of Mary Siah and others gather at the intersection of Illinois and Terminal streets near the borough administration building to protest Mayor Karl Kassel’s proposal to demolish the recreation center. (Photo by Tim Ellis/ KUAC)
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly decided Monday to delay a plan to demolish the Mary Siah Recreation Center, proposed by Mayor Karl Kassel. Assembly members instead approved a measure that keeps the popular but aging rec center operating – if it passes engineering tests to be conducted over the next month.
The Assembly picked up Monday where it left off Thursday, after a marathon public hearing on Kassel’s proposed ordinance to demolish the Mary Siah Rec Center as part of a package of projects intended to help the borough begin to catch up on long-deferred facilities maintenance.
Lance Roberts offered an amended version of the mayor’s ordinance that would keep the rec center open and appropriate more than $682,000 to repair it.
“I don’t think taking down buildings that really don’t have that long a lifespan in the overall scheme of the things is the right way to go about it,” Roberts said.
Roberts said his ordinance would keep Mary Siah open for a few years, unless problems arose due to the serious structural issues that borough staff and consultants have pointed out.
“The Assembly should definitely say at this point that we want to keep the Mary Siah open,” Roberts said.
Roberts said he doesn’t believe the borough should knock down the rec center until it has another facility to replace it. Kassel has proposed a $35 million aquatics center that would be paid for with bonds. But Roberts says he’s reluctant to go along with that, because it would add to property taxes. He adds that borough voters may not approve the bond issue, given the state’s fiscal woes. He says the solution is to cut services and keep the borough’s budget lean.
“We are going to need to dig deeper and do some more budget-cutting,” Roberts said, “but everyone on this Assembly knows I’m willing to help with that.”
The Assembly defeated Roberts’ ordinance, 7-to-1, with only him voting to support. Christopher Quist was absent.
The Assembly then took up Kassel’s ordinance. The mayor told Assembly members he hopes they’ll place a bond measure on the fall local-election ballot and that voters approve them. But he says he’s not counting on that; he says he’s proposed to close Mary Siah because the borough doesn’t have the money to repair, maintain and operate it.
“My point is, regardless of the vote up or down on the bond, the building still needs to come down ASAP,” Kassel said. “Or, get multi millions of dollars of repair work into it for the next several years.”
The mayor emphasized several times that his proposals are part of a carefully crafted 10-year plan to catch up on the borough’s maintenance backlog. He said proposed amendments to his ordinance could disrupt that plan, and he says he’d welcome suggestions on which other facilities the borough should close or demolish, and how it can pay for that. After more back-and-forth, Aaron Lojewski suggested Kassel was trying to stifle dissent to his plan.
“It sounds like you’re trying to find another way to close the Mary Siah if you don’t get your way tonight,” Lojewski said.
Many of the 30 or so people who turned out for the meeting murmured their agreement with Lojewski’s charge. But Kassel, a former borough parks and rec director, was clearly irritated.
“It’s ridiculous to say that I am trying to target this facility because I don’t like it for some reason,” Kassel said. “That’s insanity! This pains me. I’m very emotional about this. I love our parks and rec facilities.”
Other Assembly members, like Angela Major, also said they felt pressured by the mayor’s pitch.
“It just kind of seems like well, we’ve already taken money out of the operating budget for next year,” Major said. “And the more we talk about this the more it just kind of seems like you guys don’t have any options than this one.”
The Assembly finally approved an amendment proposed by Matt Cooper that would allow the $682,000 Kassel proposed to use to demolish the rec center to instead be available for repair or maintenance. Cooper urged Kassel to complete engineering tests on the structure as quickly as possible and send results to the Assembly. Kassel said he expects that could be done in four to five weeks.
The Assembly then approved a resolution supporting Kassel’s maintenance plan and his proposal to ask voters to approve selling bonds to raise $77 million to pay for it, including the aquatics center to replace Mary Siah and the Hamme Pool. Lojewski and Roberts voted no on the measure.
Petersburg Middle and High School Principal Rick Dormer shows off the school’s new Passive Alcohol Sensor at the school board meeting, April 10, 2018. (Photo by Angela Denning/KFSK)
Petersburg’s School District is considering using an alcohol detector at this year’s high school prom to encourage students to stay sober.
Petersburg’s homecoming dance was held in February at an off-campus community hall. It would’ve been a completely normal affair except a few of the teenagers ended up in the emergency room after consuming a lot of alcohol.
“I think some kids wanting to have a good time were trying to consume as much alcohol as possible before the dance and that just got people in the hospital,” principal Rick Dormer said, “And that’s just dangerous, that’s not what we want.”
Nothing like this had happened in the nine years Dormer has been the school’s principal but once was enough. When trying to answer the question, ‘What can you do to keep teens from secretly drinking before a school event?’ he discovered a device called a PAS, which some other schools use.
“We just got ours in the mail today,” Dormer said.
PAS stands for Passive Alcohol Sensor. It’s a hand held electronic device that detects alcohol in the air. It doesn’t require blowing into it, like a traditional breathalyzer. It measures the presence of alcohol as a positive or negative but does not determine the level.
“It looks like a flashlight,” Dormer said. “Students just walk in and they just speak their full name.”
The PAS could then detect alcohol on their breath without any contact with the device.
Dormer says the school is working with the local police department to get training and make sure they would use the device legally.
Back in February after the homecoming dance, teachers talked to students about what had happened. Dormer also encouraged parents to talk to their children at home about it and so did Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter.
“It’s an opportunity to learn,” Kludt-Painter said. “It’s an opportunity to reinforce lessons with kids. It’s an opportunity to have really good conversations at times when it’s really fresh in kids’ minds. It’s real.”
Besides educating students on the risks of alcohol, the PAS is another tool the school can use as a deterrent. Dormer says the goal is not to bust students.
“It is all about safety, it is not about busting,” Dormer said. “And we’re going to work with the police department and we don’t know what would happen if there is a positive, it could be anything as minimum as, ‘We’re going to inform your parents and get you home safe’, and it could be having the police involvement.”
Dormer says the school is still working out the details of the policies and procedures but they would like to have the PAS working by prom on May 5. They plan to talk to students and parents about it first.
School Board President Mara Lutomski says there are still details to work out but she supports the effort.
“Ultimately, we want students to choose to enjoy student activities sober, of course, at all times,” Lutomski said. “We would hope that this device would act as a deterrent and the student would make a better choice before coming to a school activity.”
Dormer says the alcohol sensor could also be used in the school to test things like suspicious bottles if needed.
Joel Neimeyer of the Denali Commission, right, speaks with DEC Commisioner Larry Hartig on a 2017 visit to Mertarvik, the site where the village of Newtok hopes to rebuild. Neimeyer’s last day on the job is April 20. (Photo by Christine Trudeau/KYUK)
The top job at the federal agency tasked with coordinating the relocation of Alaska villages threatened by climate change will soon be vacant.
Joel Neimeyer will step down as federal co-chair of the Denali Commission when his term expires Friday. The Trump Administration has not yet named a replacement.
The vacancy comes at a crucial moment for the agency. In March, Congress doubled the commission’s budget to $30 million, directing it to work with villages facing coastal erosion, flooding and degrading permafrost.
Originally the brainchild of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Denali Commission was established by Congress in 1998 to fund economic development and infrastructure in rural Alaska. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama added another mission: assisting Alaska communities threatened by climate change, like Newtok, Shishmaref and Kivalina.
That has been a major focus for Neimeyer. During his eight years as the head of the agency, the commission has pivoted from funding new infrastructure to maintaining existing projects — and trying to raise awareness of climate impacts.
Neimeyer said it’s sometimes been a lonely job.
“The Denali Commission has always been sort of the red-headed stepchild,” Neimeyer said in an interview, a week before his term was set to end. “Regional commissions by their nature are unusual…So we are sort of an island out there as an agency. And the biggest challenge will always be to get cabinet-level agencies to pay attention to what we identify are issues of the day.”
One of the biggest “issues of the day” during Neimeyer’s tenure has been the question of what to do about Alaska villages facing potential destruction. Neimeyer waged a dogged effort to unlock federal funding for climate-related erosion, work that paid off when Congress added $15 million to the commission’s budget as part of this year’s budget deal. Most of that money will go to relocate Newtok, the Western Alaska village most at risk.
But now that the funding has finally arrived, Neimeyer’s term is ending. His exit leaves a big hole at the agency: only the federal co-chair can sign off on spending, so Neimeyer and his staff have worked overtime to approve projects before his last day.
Still, Neimeyer said it’s a good time to hand over the reins.
“Not everyone gets to cross the finish line, and I understand that,” Neimeyer said.
The Trump Administration has twice proposed eliminating the Denali Commission entirely. Neimeyer, who was appointed under Obama, is a Democrat. He said the agency needs a Republican head to make the case for it within a Republican administration.
“There may be some things that are bittersweet, but I know that my continuance as the federal co-chair won’t help the agency in the long run,” Neimeyer said. “What actually will help is new blood.”
Who that new blood might be remains an open question. The Alaska congressional delegation must nominate potential candidates to be appointed by the Trump Administration. A spokesperson for Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the senator is currently vetting potential candidates, but offered no prediction on when a replacement might be announced.
Leaders of Arctic communities discuss possible scenarios for the future of the region at the Arctic Futures conference (Photo courtesy of Kenton Media)
The Arctic is changing, and the people living there are trying to change with it. A recent conference in Nome brought together leaders from Alaska Native communities to discuss the challenges — and opportunities — facing an evolving Arctic.
Leaders of Alaska Native communities have very different ideas about where the Arctic is headed. But they generally agree on one thing:
“We are now in the time where we are living two lives,” Don Long, former mayor of Utqiagvik said. “One, trying to be a subsistence hunter, and the other one, trying to be working the 8-5 type of work that job requires today.”
That tension was front and center at the Arctic Futures conference last week at UAF Northwest Campus. It was hosted by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC), which does research and community engagement for the U.S. Coast Guard.
About 50 people from the Bering Straits region and the Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs were in Nome for the two-day workshop. They compared scenarios for 20 years into the future based on different variables, including how much ship traffic increases and how much erosion worsens.
On top of erosion, the land is also changing due to mining projects popping up throughout the Arctic. For some, it’s a way to make a living.
“In my family, I have gold miners,” Nome elder Perry Mendenhall said. “They make a living gold mining just like other people. Even when they were told not to mine, they mine, to feed their people.”
Arlene Soxie is an elder from White Mountain. She’s against mining.
“It grieves me to see how disrupted our land is. All the digging that was done looks very ugly to me,” Soxie said. “There are areas where we used to go pick berries, but it’s not available anymore, because the land has been destroyed.”
The ocean is in flux, too. This winter saw the second-lowest Arctic sea ice extent on record. Last year saw the lowest.
“Back in 1992, I used to feel comfortable going to Barrow by May the 10th to participate in whaling,” Nome elder Charlie Brower said. “The last few years, if I’m not there by the third week of April, I’ve missed most of the migrations of the whales.”
There are some upsides to more development in the Arctic, like better health care and fiber-optic communications.
Gordon Brower hopes to see more improvements like those. He’s the director of planning and community services for the North Slope Borough.
“With a housing crisis because of lack of opportunity — it’s like a cycle that we need to break, with economics,” Gordon Brower said. “Economicis the buzz word.”
Gordon sees responsible resource development in the Arctic as a way to break that cycle. And he wants to make protecting oil reserves in the Beaufort Sea a national security priority.
Elim elder Robert Keith says designing infrastructure around how nature behaves could help communities avoid the worst consequences — and price tags — of a changing climate. But he says that kind of knowledge only comes with years of experience living in the Arctic.
“We’ve always been very adaptable people. We’ve had to live like that,” Keith said. “That’s part of our nature. We’re going to survive, but I don’t think some of the places we live at will.”
For now, Nome will move forward with exploring a deep-draft port that would bring more ship traffic through the Bering Strait. And down the coast, people like Keith will watch the sea ice retreat and the coast continue to erode.
Sitka National Historical Park is home to the Tlingit fort site Shis’gi Noow and battleground, where the Kiks.adi Tlingit clashed with the Russian American Company in 1804. (Photo by Katherine Rose/KCAW)
After a year of negotiations, Sitka Tribe of Alaska will partner with the National Parks Service to begin co-management of historical interpretation at the Sitka National Historical Park — the first compacting agreement of its kind in U.S. history.
The tribe will manage most of the interpretation programs at Sitka National Historical Park.
Tribal Council chairwoman KathyHope Erickson wonders if “interpretation” is the right word.
“I’ve been joking with a lot of people about it, ‘Why do we call it interpretation when we’re telling our own story?’ I was talking with Lisa (Gassman, general manager with Sitka Tribe of Alaska) today and we kind of came up with the thought that we would like to have that unit named a Tlingit name,” Erickson said. “We’ll consult with our cultural resources committee and see what we can come up with.”
Erickson and Gassman were both excited to be more involved with how Sitka’s history is shared, especially in a place so important to Tlingit people.
Sitka National Historical Park is home to the Tlingit fort site Shís’gi Noow and battleground, where the Kiks.adi Tlingit clashed with the Russian-led forces in 1804.
The park also maintains the Russian Bishop’s House as a museum, one of the oldest remaining structures of Russian America.
Erickson said the tribe would lead interpretation programs in that building as well.
“Our tribal people have been a big part not only the park but also the orthodox church and life with the bishop,” Erickson said. “We’ll be able to tell it from our perspective.”
This compact agreement, the first in the nation in which a tribe will lead interpretation and education services for a national park.
It sets a precedent precedent, though the mechanisms for tribal governments to pursue park management have been in place since the 1990s.
Key to this collaboration is the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
Amended in 1994, the act now allows tribal governments to get involved with management of federal lands.
If a tribe has a special historic or cultural relationship with a national park, they can pursue an annual funding agreement to run projects and programs in that park.
Gassman hopes the tribe move to pursue an annual funding agreement will inspire others to do the same.
“I think there have been barriers,” Gassman said. “Sitka Tribes being, to our knowledge the first that’s program based versus project based. We anticipate other tribes though seeing this success and wanting to start this in their area and their park as well.”
Through their annual funding agreement, STA has filled some positions already.
Former deputy director Tristan Guevin will lead operations through early next year, while Mark Sixbey will serve as an education specialist.
They’ve also hired one full-time park ranger and one seasonal park ranger. They’re still looking to fill four seasonal ranger positions before training begins April 23.
The positions are open to all, though tribal citizens are preferred.
Gassman said the new rangers will have a new uniform too.
“There are going to be tribal uniforms versus national service uniforms,” Gassman said. “We’re still in the process of finalizing those before the first tourists come in.”
“It’ll be a nice surprise,” Erickson said. “But one thing that for sure will be on it? The tribal seal will be prominent on the uniform.”
The funding agreement will need to be renewed.
The tribe begins negotiations for that this month. Erickson and Gassman both hope for even more collaboration between the tribe and the park.
Gassman continues, “I think this is just one step in many that the tribe hopes to take in co-management of Totem Park.”
But there is a waiting period before taking this first step. The annual funding agreement is being reviewed by congress. Should no opposition arise within a 90-day period, it will take effect May 7 of this year.
Under a Fall 2017 Interior Department proposal, the fees at Denali and 16 popular parks in the Lower 48, would have jumped dramatically, increasing $20 at Denali, but citing public opposition, interior last week announced a more modest hike for all parks.
”They took all the comments into consideration and opted to go with a $5 across-the-board board fee increase,” Denali National Park spokeswoman Katherine Belcher said.
Belcher says that means Denali’s entrance fee will bump from $10 to $15, beginning in May of next year. Season passes will be $45. Individual parks retain eighty percent of entree fee money and the increases at Denali are expected to generate an additional $1.1 million annually. Belcher says that will help address backlogged maintenance.
”We can eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog for non-roads projects in five years with that additional funding,” Belcher said.
Most of Denali’s $54 million maintenance backlog is road related, and will take longer to chip away at. Belcher says 642,000 people visited Denali in 2017, a ten percent increase over 2016, and the 3rd straight year visitation went up.
At crucial moment, Denali Commission faces leadership gap
Rachel Waldholz, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
The top job at the federal agency tasked with coordinating help for Alaska villages threatened by climate change will soon be vacant.
Denali climb season underway with rescue, successful summit
Associated Press
The Denali climbing season has begun and the National Park Service has already performed a rescue and noted a successful summit of North America’s highest mountain.
National park fees to go up, but at a smaller rate than originally proposed
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
National Park entry fees, including at Alaska’s Denali, are going up, but not as much as earlier proposed.
Sitka Tribe to co-manage interpretation at Sitka National Historical Park
Katherine Rose, KCAW – Sitka
After a year of negotiations, Sitka Tribe of Alaska will partner with the National Parks Service to begin co-management of historical interpretation at the Sitka National Historical Park — the first compacting agreement of its kind in U.S. history.
Chijuk Creek timber sale could prove contentious at Mat-Su Borough Assembly
Phillip Manning, KTNA – Talkeetna
The Chijuk Creek timber sale has a complicated history. At its next meeting, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly will decide whether to award a five-year contract for logging in the area to Charles Nash
Former ferry Taku headed to the scrapyard
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau
The former state ferry Taku sailed passed Singapore Friday on the way to being scrapped. It will go for close to 10 times its purchase price.
A recent conference in Nome brought together leaders from Alaska Native communities to discuss the challenges — and opportunities — facing an evolving Arctic.
Fairbanks Assembly delays Mary Siah Rec Center demolition to conduct more tests on building
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
Assembly members instead approved a measure that keeps the popular but aging rec center operating – if it passes engineering tests to be conducted over the next month.
Petersburg High School to use alcohol sensor on students for prom
Angela Denning, KFSK – Petersburg
Petersburg’s School District is considering using an alcohol detector at this year’s high school prom to encourage students to stay sober.
The Chijuk Creek timber sale has a complicated history. At its next meeting, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly will decide whether to award a five-year contract for logging in the area to Charles Nash. He has held previous contracts on the same land, and a dispute between the borough and Nash ended up in a court settlement in 2008.
The sale is off Oilwell Road in Trapper Creek. In total, 15,000 acres of trees are available for logging in the contract. The logs would be trucked down Oilwell and Petersville Roads before heading south to Port Mackenzie, and ultimately to China. Assembly Member Randall Kowalke, who says he is one hundred percent in favor of the contract, believes the accompanying lease at the port will help shore up what have been shaky finances. It is estimated that Port Mackenzie would bring in over $900,000 as a result of the contract.
“Finally, the property taxpayers are going to have some relief from the borough’s port, rather than going the other way around,” Kowalke said.
Assembly Member Jim Sykes is opposed to the contract as is, particularly with the way the process is being done. He prefers the borough opening up Chijuk Creek to the normal bidding process as opposed to a negotiated deal.
“This contract, which since it’s being proposed exclusively to one entity, sort of makes it look like a sweetheart deal,” Sykes said.
Sykes contends that it would take the same amount of time to go through the normal bidding process that fulfilling the requirements of this contract will. Sykes is also not happy that the contract skirts the borough’s resource management rules set out in code. He says this sets a precedent for not abiding by those rules in the future.
“It really becomes the law. It throws out the code, and I don’t think we should be doing that,” Sykes said.
Kowalke says this contract is not a sweetheart deal, and that, if it had been completed earlier, could have been handled administratively without the assembly taking a vote. That is because Charles Nash, until this weekend, had an active timber sale contract for the area. Kowalke says, while there have been no threats of legal action, opening the sale to bids now, after months of negotiation, could be inviting another lawsuit.
“I would be seeking legal counsel if you courted me up to the deadline then said, ‘Oh, ok, it’s expired. We need to start over, and you need to bid for this,’” Kowalke said.
Kowalke believes that, along with the continued march of spruce beetles in the area, make logging the Chijuk Creek area a time-sensitive issue.
“This area that we’re involved in is kind of the epicenter of the spruce kill, and it’s growing exponentially….The birch trees in this forest are mature or over-mature.”
Sykes says the beetles are not a reason to rush ahead, citing a presentation made to the assembly by the Alaska Division of Forestry.
“We should not cut beetle-infested trees from now through July, because cutting them now would cause them now will only make them fly more than they would if we left them standing, so we have time to go through an entire bid process,” Sykes said.
In addition to particulars of the contract, many Trapper Creek locals have expressed concern over potential safety issues and the wear and tear on Oilwell and Petersville Roads. Oilwell Road, in particular, is not very wide, and passing logging trucks on it could be problematic. Sykes says the logging trucks will need a space more than twelve feet wide on the road.
“Most of the road is between nineteen feet wide and sixteen feet wide, so if you’re driving anything besides a Le Car, it sounds like you’re going to be in the ditch,” Sykes said.
The “Le Car,” for reference, is a supermini car formerly produced in France.
Kowalke says the contractors will be required to repair any damage to Oilwell Road, and that safety considerations are being made. He says turnouts will be added, and logging trucks will not be allowed to run during the hours that school buses are on those roads. Kowalke believes it’s somewhat ironic that locals are taking issue with logging trucks using a road originally built for that purpose.
“They couldn’t have gotten to their property. Mr. Nash built a logging road, and now they’re asking us not to allow any logging truck traffic to occur,” Kowalke said.
Kowalke, Sykes and their five colleagues are scheduled to make a decision on the contract at Tuesday night’s meeting at 6:00 pm at the assembly chambers in Palmer.
Rob Alley plays the bagpipes as a send-off for the ferry Taku as it departs Ketchikan’s Ward Cove on March 13, 2018. Alley first arrived in Alaska aboard the Taku in 1992. Now, the ship is headed to the scrapyard. (Photo by Leila Kheiry/KRBD)
The former state ferry Taku sailed past Singapore on Friday on the way to being scrapped. It will go for close to 10 times its purchase price.
The Taku left Ketchikan’s Ward Cove, where it had been stored, March 13. The company sailed it across the Pacific Ocean in hopes of finding a buyer to keep it in service. But negotiations with interests in Singapore and Fiji didn’t work out.
Co-owner Ben Evans of New Zealand said it will end its sailing days in India later this month.
“She’s going to go to the scrapyard and sold for demolition. So that’s the end of the Taku,” Evans said, calling it a tragedy.
The state sold the ship in January for $170,000.
Evans said his company will probably get about $1.5 million for the ship. But sailing it 12,000 miles across the Pacific was expensive.
“It costs us $55,000 to insure it for the voyage. My crew payroll’s running about $2,000 a day. The fuel bill was probably just under $400,000. There’s some big figures there, you know,” Evans said.
State officials put the Taku up for sale a little more than a year ago. The original minimum bid was $1.5 million. But it took several tries to sell it, each with a lower price.
The Taku has not been a working ferry for several years. It was tied up in 2015 because of its age, as well as budget cuts.
Robert Venables heads up the state’s Maine Transportation Advisory Board. He also works for the Southeast Conference, which pushed the state to start the ferry system more about 60 years ago.
Venables said the ship’s condition left few choices.
“It’s not surprising, but it does leave you with a little bit of sadness that she’s not going to be in service,” Venables said.
Evans said most of the Taku will be recycled. Some parts, such as generators, will be sold whole.
The cut-up hull will be reprocessed into rebar. Among other things, it’s used to strengthen concrete in building construction.
Co-owner Evans said an investor in Fiji wanted to use the Taku as a ferry. He said interests in Singapore were interested in retrofitting it into what’s called a superyacht.
