Anchorage police have charged a former Anchorage School District employee with embezzlement. The charges come after a five month investigation. APD fraud division detective Tony Pate told reporters Tuesday that the suspect, Kellie Fagan, allegedly took between $50,000-$60,000 in school district funds from two schools.
Anchorage School District Superintendent Dr. Deena Paramo and Detective Tony Pâté at SPF. Press conference on Tuesday (Photo by Ellen Lockyer, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage)
“It was pretty complicated,” Pate said. “The forged checks were part of a dual signature system the school district uses. She forged both signatures for that, and that was verified when we talked to the people who’s signatures were allegedly on there.”
Pate said Fagan, aged 61, used her ASD procurement card and forged checks to reimburse herself for purchases, voided computer deposit records to hide theft, and moved money from one account to another through forged checks. She has been charged with four felonies: Scheme to Defraud, Theft, Falsifying Business Records, and Forgery.
The thefts occurred between 2010 and 2016. When the fraud was discovered, Fagan was a Gruening Middle School Financial Data Clerk, who collected money for student activities. She had also worked at Central Middle School, and embezzled funds there as well.
ASD superintendent Dr. Deena Paramo said the suspect does not represent the school district’s 6,000 employees, and likens the thefts to insider trading
“When someone steals from people in Alaska, from school districts, they steal from classrooms,” Paramo said. “As our budget is 25 percent paid for by local citizens and 75 percent by the state, they are stealing from the city of Anchorage and they are stealing from the state of Alaska.”
Paramo said the school district is undergoing a business process review and is moving toward an accounting system for student activities that will be available online, which will generate electronic receipts.
The thefts were discovered earlier this year, during an audit. Once the fraud was discovered, it was turned over to APD ‘s fraud unit. Fagan was immediately placed on administrative leave, and terminated in April, 2016.
According to a police affidavit, Alexie Evan, age 22 of Napaskiak smashed in the puppy’s head and threw the body against the bedroom window of his ex-girlfriend and her husband. The impact splattered blood across the glass. When the puppy hit the ground, Evan left a threatening note with a racist slur on the body.
The puppy belonged to the ex-girlfriend and her husband and was usually on the porch and arctic entryway of the home.
The husband’s aunt reported the incident Saturday to the village public safety officer and told the officer that Evan had threatened her nephew before. At the beginning of the summer, Evan had spray painted a derogatory statement on her nephew’s tool shed.
When the incident occurred, the ex-girlfriend was out of town, visiting family upriver. She told the officer she was scared to return to Napaskiak, afraid Evan would kill her seven-month-old baby. She said, while she and Evan were dating, he told her if she ever got pregnant with someone else, he would kill the child.
Evan has been arrested and charged with two counts of stalking in the second degree, one count of criminal trespass, and one count of animal cruelty. He has been remanded to the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center.
His trial is set for December 12 in Bethel.
Posted Monday, Sept. 26:
A Napaskiak man has threatened an ex-girlfriend and her husband by killing a puppy, throwing it against their bedroom window and leaving a threatening note on the body once it hit the ground.
Alexie Evan of Napaskiak, age 22, has been arrested and charged with two counts of stalking in the second degree, one count of criminal trespass, and one count of animal cruelty. He has been remanded to the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center.
The puppy belonged to the ex-girlfriend’s husband. A Napaskiak resident reported the incident to the village public safety officer on Saturday. No further information has been released at this time.
NOAA scientists on a 2005 mission in the Arctic. (Photo: NOAA)
Cabinet members and high-ranking science advisors from 25 governments will convene on the White House tomorrow to discuss the Arctic. It’s billed as the first-ever White House Arctic Science Ministerial.
The aim is to pool science resources from around the globe to better understand the rapid changes in the Arctic and also what those changes mean for other regions.
“The Arctic is a foreshadow. It’s an augury. It’s a preview of what is coming our way in the rest of the world,” says Mark Brzezinski, the top White House liaison to the Arctic. “The sooner and the more effectively we get in front of that scientifically, the better off we all will be.”
Mark Brzezinski is President Obama’s top Arctic advisor at the White House (Photo: Liz Ruskin)
One of the themes of the meeting is the need for better and more coordinated observation in the Arctic. Brzezinski says that includes traditional knowledge from indigenous people.
“They are the first people of the Arctic. They, more than anyone else, can report on changing patterns, whether flora or fauna or weather or ice,” he said.
Among the attendees are representatives of the Athabaskan, the Gwich’in, the Inuit and the Saami people. Thirty Alaska Native leaders met with U.S. delegation today, to air their concerns and priorities. Former Alaska Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, now chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, says countries well beyond the Arctic are sending science ministers to the conference.
“You have countries from Italy and India and China coming, because they’re not only willing to contribute scientists to this work, but understand that what happens in the Arctic
Fran Ulmer chairs the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (Photo: Liz Ruskin)
is really impacting them in terms of sea level rise and mid-latitude climate change,” she said.
Documents from the ministerial will be posted after tomorrow’s meeting on Arctic.gov. Ulmer says they’ll include two pages from each country that summarizes the Arctic science they’re conducting.
Access to overdose preventative still bogged down in barriers
Andrew Kitchenman, KTOO – Juneau
Scores of people have died in Alaska from heroin and other opioid overdose deaths this year that the drug naloxone, also known as Narcan, could have prevented.
ASD employee charged with embezzling thousands from schools
Ellen Lockyer, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Anchorage police have charged a former Anchorage School District employee with embezzlement. The charges come after a five month investigation. APD fraud division detective Tony Pate told reporters Tuesday that the suspect, Kellie Fagan, allegedly took between $50,000-$60,000 in school district funds from two schools.
White House: No nation an island on Arctic science
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
Cabinet members and high-ranking science advisors from 25 governments will convene on the White House tomorrow to discuss rapid changes in the Arctic. “The Arctic is … a preview of what is coming our way in the rest of the world,” says Mark Brzezinski, the top White House liaison to the region.
New satellite-based technology aims to crack down on illegal fishing
Zoe Sobel, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Unalaska
Commercial fishing in Alaska is a multi-billion dollar industry. But every year, billions of dollars are lost to illegal fishing around the world. A new satellite-based surveillance system makes it easier to track illegal fishing. But some fishermen aren’t ready for Big Brother watching their every move.
North Star Borough looks to reduce wintertime smoke pollution
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Areas of Fairbanks continue to struggle with wintertime smoke pollution. Many residents of the interior community rely on wood heat, and a North Star Borough sponsored conference is exploring ways to reduce emissions tied to serious health problems.
Citizen scientists track crane population
Shahla Farzan, KBBI – Homer
Every spring, hundreds of sandhill cranes visit Homer to mate and nest. You’ll often find them looking for tasty morsels along the shoreline or silently strutting across your backyard. For the last thirteen years, Kachemak Crane Watch has organized a “sandhill crane count” to keep track of their population.
Shaktoolik plans to “stay and defend” current location
Lauren Frost, KNOM – Nome
This August, representatives from Shaktoolik completed a strategic management plan to protect their community from erosion and violent storms.
Napaskiak man kills puppy to threaten ex-girlfriend and her husband
Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel
A Napaskiak man has threatened an ex-girlfriend and her husband by killing a puppy, throwing it against their bedroom window and leaving a threatening note on the body once it hit the ground.
Scores of people have died in Alaska from heroin and other opioid overdose deaths this year that the drug naloxone, also known as Narcan, could have prevented.
Governor Bill Walker signed a law six months ago to ease access to the life-saving drug, and the bill’s advocates are frustrated the regulatory barriers the law was supposed to knock down are still up. The new rules are more than a month away.
Senate Bill 23 sponsor Johnny Ellis, an Anchorage Democrat, says he’s frustrated with the time it’s taking to write the rules.
“The board of pharmacy in my opinion has been very bureaucratic in dragging their feet when lives are at stake,” Ellis said.
Ellis wrote in a letter to Governor Walker dated September 2nd that the Alaska Board of Pharmacy should move faster.
The law gives pharmacists the ability to independently dispense naloxone if they complete a training program. The rules that are being written would implement these parts of the law.
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development officials working with the board of pharmacy say the board is following the law. They laid out a timeline that could lead to the final rules in November.
Department Division Operations Manager Sara Chambers says the board is gathering public comment on the rules.
“This isn’t a rubber stamp process that the law requires the board to follow,” Chambers said. “It requires them to give thoughtful consideration to both the dispensation standards and the training program standards.”
Michele Morgan of the Juneau-based organization Stop Heroin, Start Talking says she’d like to see the board of pharmacy adopt emergency regulations. This would allow the board to issue rules before the public process is over, and to later make changes based on public comments.
“It’s important for people who not only are using drugs like heroin off the street but even people who are using prescription opiates to have that and to empower that family or the mother or the friend to be able to save that person’s life,” Morgan said.
Nalaxone reverses the effects of opioid overdoses.
But Chambers said the idea of emergency regulations wasn’t raised until rule-writing was well underway. She said the Department of Law advised against it.
The board did issue guidance to pharmacies that said they could comply with Senate Bill 23 and dispense naloxone before the rules are finalized.
But Ketchikan pharmacist Barry Christensen says pharmacies aren’t likely to dispense naloxone without a prescription from a doctor or other prescriber until the rules are done and the training is available.
“The number of pharmacies that are going to have that available, I think are going to be very limited until everything gets completed on the regulatory part of pharmacists being able to prescribe and dispense,” Christensen said.
A separate track for advancing the use of naloxone is moving forward much faster. The Department of Health and Social Services was awarded a five-year, four and a half million dollar federal grant to buy, distribute, and train people to use naloxone.
Andy Jones oversees the naloxone program for the department. He’s chief of rural and community health systems. The program would allow drug users and their family members, as well as law enforcement, healthcare providers, and others in contact with drug users to have access to naloxone with training.
Jones says the state received the grant two and half weeks ago, has already ordered its first batch of naloxone doses, and wants to have the drugs available by mid-November.
“You know, we have an aggressive schedule,” Jones said. The reason we have an aggressive schedule is because once naloxone is in our hands, it doesn’t do us any good at the state to be holding onto it and waiting and waiting to build a program. It’s intended to go to the local jurisdictions, so that they can hand it and they can provide it, actually, to the general public.”
The state had 83 prescription opioid overdose deaths and 36 heroin overdose deaths last year. Jones says overdose deaths are likely higher this year, although an official count isn’t available.
The Anchorage Assembly chambers at the Z. J. Loussac Public Library in Anchorage. (Staff photo)
Citing the concerns among his constituents an Anchorage Assembly member knelt during the pledge of allegiance during a Tuesday meeting.
Downtown assembly member Patrick Flynn represents Fairview and Mountainview, two of the most diverse census tracts in the country.
As the pledge began, Flynn kept his hand over his chest and recited the words, but took to one knee.
In a brief interview afterwards, he said the gesture was “out of respect for those who’ve expressed concern that we don’t always live up to our ideals.”
“I’m mindful and respectful of that, particularly since I represent a lot of that population,” Flynn added, referring to minority communities in his district.
Political protests surrounding the pledge have been a contentious topic the last few weeks, both at the national level among professional athletes, as well as closer to home, with several football player’s from Anchorage’s West High recently taking a knee ahead of a game.
Flynn said it was likely a one-time demonstration for him.
The gesture went largely unnoticed at the time, with Assembly Chair Elvi Gray-Jackson saying later on that she thought Flynn simply fell.
But Amy Demobski, who represents the conservative Eagle River district, said towards the meeting’s end she was bothered by what had taken place.
“As a veteran, as someone who supports law enforcement, as someone who looks at the Pledge of Allegiance as something that honors the sacrifices made from men and women who’ve died defending our country I find it disrespectful. As an assembly member I find it disrespectful, this is a formal procedure,” she said during comments.
Demboski asked the assembly’s leadership to counsel members against similar displays, citing it as a violation of formal protocols for the body.
But others, including both active-duty and retired service-members, disagreed with that level of condemnation.
A mild counter-protest to the kneel came from Flynn’s conservative colleague from South Anchorage, Bill Evans, himself an Army veteran.
Evans sits next to Flynn on the dais, and heard through social media that his colleague was considering making a statement. He went out of his way during opening remarks to mention that he’d pinned his jump wings from airborne training to his lapel. But Evans was matter-of-fact that respects anyone’s right to symbolic protest.
“I just thought if we were going to open it up to comments with symbols I wanted to do the same thing,” Evans said during a brief interview.
“It’s great Patrick (Flynn) has the right to express whatever concern he’s trying to express, and I just want to make it clear that other people view it somewhat differently, and have equally valid concerns.”
In Cook Inlet, managing the salmon runs for commercial, sport and subsistence interests is so controversial, it’s often called a fish war.
United Cook Inlet Drift Association Vice-President Erik Huebsch talks about a court ruling in his commercial fishing organization’s favor on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016 in Kasilof, Alaska. (Photo by Rashah McChesney, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau)
A group of commercial fishermen who think the state is mismanaging the fisheries, have won the latest battle.
A three-judge panel at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the area needs federal oversight. But no one knows exactly what that will mean.
The United Cook Inlet Drift Association and the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund say that instead of addressing habitat problems or fighting invasive species that eat salmon in Cook Inlet – the state simply restricted commercial fishing.
So the fishing groups sued the National Marine Fisheries Service. They argued against a 2011 decision to remove several Alaska salmon fisheries — including Cook Inlet — from federal management and transfer the responsibility of managing salmon to the state. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
For commercial fishermen like Brian Harrison, in Homer, the court’s decision is a victory. But, he’s not sure what to expect going forward.
“I think we are as in the dark as anyone else. The layman drifters here in Homer. We are hopeful that this will be a place to start to help turn around this fishery and to manage this resource in a way that science tells us is the best way to manage it and not politicians,” Harrison said.
Harrison’s not the only one in the dark. Federal and state fisheries managers will have to work together on a new plan for how to manage the various fisheries. But, no one is sure what that plan will look like.
“The United States has made it very clear they don’t want to manage salmon. The state has made it very clear that we don’t need the U.S. government to help us manage salmon,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner Sam Cotten.
Fish and Game is responsible for day-to-day management of the state’s fisheries. There is a federal fishery management plan for most of the state, but Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound and Alaska Peninsula salmon fisheries are specifically excluded from that plan.
Now that a new plan has to be written to include Cook Inlet, it’s not even clear which fishermen are going to be covered under it.
Typically federally fishery management plans don’t include sport or personal use fishing. But because salmon spend their lives in rivers and in the oceans, federal oversight could expand to include them both.
Cotten said, he doesn’t know which groups will be covered under a new plan.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions before we even get to the design of a management plan,” Cotten said.
Cotten said, the National Marine Fisheries Service, or the state, could appeal.
Cotten doesn’t think there will be a new management plan in place in time for next summer’s fishing season. And, it’s not clear if the ruling allows the state to continue managing the fisheries without a federal plan.
“We do not want to have any areas closed. Most of the area that the people drift in, is federal waters,” Cotten said.
Erik Huebsch, Vice President of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, said his group wants to see the state continue to manage the fisheries — but under federal guidelines.
No matter what’s next, Huebsch said he thinks federal oversight will simplify salmon management and that might help calm Cook Inlet’s fish wars.
“It’ll level the playing field, everyone will have the same set of rules to play by. I think that will go a long way to calming some of the angst and some of the contention that goes on over resource management in this area,” Huebsch said.
Federal fisheries regulators said developing a new plan could take years.
Logged lands at the head of Lake Kathleen, on Admiralty Island, are among those Shee Atiká has sold to the Forest Service to add to its Kootznoowoo Wilderness Area. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service.)
About 4,500 acres of heavily-logged forest will return to wilderness under a deal involving the federal government and a Southeast Alaska Native corporation.
The U.S. Forest Service purchased the acreage near Cube Cove, on the west side of Admiralty Island. It’s about 30 miles south of Juneau and 20 miles north of Angoon.
Just under $4 million was paid to the owner, Shee Atiká, the Sitka-based Native corporation. It comes from the Forest Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Recreation, Lands and Minerals Director James King said the property is surrounded by Admiralty Island National Monument and its Kootznoowoo Wilderness Area.
“This restores the concept of creating an island and a monument that is left relatively intact,” King said.
The purchase price covers two of 13 parcels of Cube Cove land owned by Shee Atiká. The total area is about 22,000 acres and the full value is around $18.3 million.
The once-forested area was acquired by the corporation under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. It was extensively logging over an 18-year period ending in 2002.
King said the Forest Service may spend additional funds to speed its restoration.
“It’s possible that as we do further analysis on it, that if we determine to better help the habitat that thinning may occur,” King said. “But those decisions have not been made yet.”
Cube Cove-area land is being sold to the Forest Service. The two southernmost parcels were purchased for about $4 million. (Map courtesy Forest Service)
He said the agency hopes to purchase the remaining Cube Cove acreage, which includes three lakes, over time. But that depends on future federal budgets.
The sale is also part of legislation introduced by Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski earlier this year. Some environmental groups have said it would allow Shee Atiká to purchase and log timberlands on Prince of Wales Island.
Shee Atiká President and CEO Ken Cameron said the Native corporation hasn’t decided what to do with the $4 million it’s being paid.
Cameron, who declined to be recorded, said it’s on the agenda for a fall planning meeting. He said the corporation understands further sales depend on Congressional appropriations.
The sale has its critics.
The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council’s Buck Lindekugel calls it a mixed bag.
“We’re glad that these valuable lands will be back in public ownership where they can heal,” Lindekugel said. “It’s sad, though, because we worked really hard in the 1980s and early 1990s to see if we could come up with an exchange so Lake Florence and Lake Kathleen could have been returned to public ownership before they were clear-cut.”
In an earlier interview, Sitka Conservation Society Executive Director Andrew Thoms said it seemed like an odd deal.
“And now, in this situation, the government would buy back the lands that were logged? And Shee Atiká made a profit on them? And now the government’s buying it back from them? It’s a strange situation,” Thoms said.
And Shee Atiká shareholder Mike Kinville said the corporation shouldn’t give up any of its property.
“Shee Atiká is not making, what is in my opinion, sound decisions,” Kinville said. “To sell our last pieces of land concerns me.”
The purchase was announced Sept. 16 in a joint press release from the federal agency and the corporation.
King, of the Forest Service, said there’s a reason these particular parcels were bought first.
“It was determined that the most logical way to purchase the lands was to start at the backs of the property or the furthest from the water,” King said. “And purchase our way out to the waterfront, so that we didn’t isolate pieces of property without access to them.”
The Forest Service said buying up wilderness inholdings is a high priority for the Tongass and is listed in its land management plan.
Two people were rescued from their sailboat after it began taking on water Tuesday in the Gulf of Alaska.
A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, Alaska, MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew transfers a patient to an ambulance in Kodiak after a medevac from a fishing boat in February 2016. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson)
Australian resident Andy Larson, 79, struck his head and suffered from a possible concussion. Matthew Hanes, 32, was not injured. A hometown or country for Hanes was not immediately available.
The 35-foot sailboat Rafiki was eastbound heading to British Columbia when it ran into trouble about 170 miles south of Sand Point, Alaska.
A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft was dispatched out of Kodiak as a communications and observation platform. The aircraft crew also dropped survival suits for the two men since they only had personal flotation devices on board.
Petty Officer Jarod Buchmiller, search and rescue controller at the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau, said the sailboat was taking water over the transom and had lost propulsion. Pumps aboard the sailboat were barely keeping up.
An H-60 helicopter hoisted the two sailors aboard and took them back to Kodiak early Wednesday morning.
Conditions in the area were reported as 6-knot winds and 6-foot seas.
It’s unclear if the sailboat is still afloat. Buchmiller said they issued an advisory for mariners in the area.
A container vessel in the area, the M/V Rising Sun, also diverted to help on Tuesday.
On September 5, the sailboat had an engine malfunction and had to be towed into Dutch Harbor by the Coast Guard cutter Morganthau. Buchmiller said it’s unclear if any repairs were made there, but that’s where Hanes boarded the vessel.
Buchmiller said the Rafiki’s calls for help on Tuesday were initially heard by a ham operator in Hawaii who passed the information on to Coast Guard’s District 14 headquarters.
Sitka’s Electric Department is in crisis. There isn’t enough money to both keep up with bond payments on the Blue Lake Dam and address needed infrastructure repairs. To fix this, the Assembly plans to increase rates by another 5% rate increase this year and draw money from other funds. (Blue Lake Expansion photo by Desiree Brandis)
The city of Sitka is struggling to pay off the Blue Lake Dam in a big way. The project was largely funded through bond proceeds. But due to a major decline in electric usage by Sitka customers, the city doesn’t have enough money to meet the bond payment. This is true not only for this year, but in the coming year as well should electric usage in Sitka plateau and voters fail to approve a ballot question raising the mill rate.
Faced with this shortfall in the electric fund – which is nearly $3 million this year – the Sitka Assembly debated their options during a work session last night (09-27-16). To fix this, the Assembly plans to increase rates by another 5% this year and look to other funds to cover the rest.
“If you look at where the utility rates are going in this town, I think you’re going to find that the demand that you’re hoping from that dam is not going to be there. There will be less utility accounts, less people, less business, less a lot of things,” Dapcevich said.
Flash forward to today and that concern is shaking out to be true. All the decisions about the dam’s design – from the turbines to raising the wall by 80 feet – were predicated on an assumption that Sitka’s electrical demand would remain the same or increase.
Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Jay Sweeney and Utility Director Bryan Bertacchi walked the Assembly through the revenue crisis facing the electric department during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Jay Sweeney: The whole premise of the dam was based on the premise that there was going to be a continued demand at 110 million kwhr/year.
Bertacchi: And we’re actually at 104 million kwhr/year. A giant spread between where they thought they would be when they approved the dam and where we are today.
Projected Electric Load in Sitka (1973-2028)
In 2008, D. Hittle and Associates projected that that electric usage in Sitka would rise. The Blue Lake Dam was built on this assumption. If Sitka were at 130M-kwrs as projected, rather than the current actual 105M-kwhrs, the city would have an additional $3.75M in revenue and would be cutting rates rather than increasing them.
Actual Electric Load in Sitka (2011-2016)
In the four years since the dam was approved, usage has declined to 104 million kwhr/year. This amounts to a loss of $1 million for the electric fund. (Graph from CBS Utility Department)
The drop in Sitka’s electric usage amounts is for a number of reasons. The winters have been warm. A lot of customers are going back to wood stoves or diesel power due to the falling price of fuel. But the result is that the city doesn’t have the money it thought it would to pay for the dam. The deficit within the electric fund is $2 to $3 million this year, which is far more than the city projected when it finalized its budget in the spring.
Now, the Assembly could raise rates to pay for it all. An increase by 20 or 22% would do it. But such a prospect did not sit well with them. Many at the table were worried that rate increase of 20% would drive customers to use even less electricity.
City Administrator Mark Gorman said, “We’re going to stimulate conservation, which pushes us deeper into the hole. It’s kind of a damned into if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.”
This is crux of the problem before the Assembly: If they raise rates too little, they risk defaulting on the bond agreement. If they raise rates too much, usage could nosedive even further.
“Mr. Brewton used to call that the utility death spiral,” remarked Deputy Mayor Matthew Hunter. Chris Brewton is the former Utility Director. Assemblyman Steven Eisenbeisz responded, “I feel we’ve jumped off that cliff already.” Both paused and took deep breaths. There were a lot of moments like this during Tuesday night’s meeting.
If the Assembly were to trim city government this year instead of raising rates, the cut would be $2 million. That option wasn’t palpable for Hunter, who said, “I don’t think that’s easy to do in a way that doesn’t drastically impact our citizens by services or personnel. I don’t know. This is an interesting…a very interesting problem. This isn’t going to be fun few years here guys.”
There’s two other pressure valves attached to this problem:
1) The bond agreement. Until 2030, Sitka can only pay interest on those bond proceeds for the Blue Lake Dam and the Jarvis Street Solar Turbine Project and they must do so exclusively with cash flow. The payment due this year is $10 million and it’s a deadline Sweeney said the city has to meet under these very specific constraints. “Until that point in time that you have to pay the specific amount of money, you have to pay interest payments on that. You can’t pay them early,” Sweeney said.
2) Parts of the city’s electrical infrastructure are in desperate need of repair. Bertacchi and his team have developed a 10-year-plan to do this (Memo Electric Department 10 Year Capital Plan). Top priorities include creating a backup for the Marine Street Substation – which supplies power to 80% of Sitka’s customers – and an overhaul of the Green Lake Power Plant. “The more we look at Green Lake, it’s the 1990s since it’s been overhauled. It’s a great facility. Huge value to this community. And we just can’t let it go without an overhaul in the next 10 year window,” Bertacchi said.
Taking all this in stride, the Assembly chose a more modest rate increase of 5% for this year. Their ordinance (Ord 2016-38)- passed unanimously on first reading – also eliminates the first residential tier for customers who use under 200 kwhr. Their bills would go up by $6. Furthermore, it increases the monthly harbor fee to pay for replacement marine grade meters and eliminates the city’s policy of putting hangers on people’s door knobs when they are delinquent on the bills.
To help the electric fund, the Assembly agreed to another 5% increase this year. That would bring rates to 14.03 kwhr/month (on average). This would make utilities in Sitka more expensive than Juneau and Ketchikan. (Graph from CBS Utility Department)
The ordinance closes the gap in the electric fund somewhat, but the city is still short $1.3 million. And for that, the Assembly directed city staff to go looking elsewhere for that money before raising rates by 20%.
Eisenbeisz: I’m really not willing to throw a 20% increase on people right now, but without any other money coming in, we have no option. So, I think we need to do our due diligence in finding some other ways to fund this definitely.
Swanson: If we go with a rate increase right off the bat, we can just kiss that mill rate goodbye.
For their next meeting on October 11th, City Administrator Mark Gorman will talk about pockets the Assembly can draw from to save the electric fund. Those include the Southeast Economic Development Fund, the Permanent Fund, the Bulk Water Fee Fund.
None of these area ideal. The whole point of a fund is that it pays for itself. But that’s just not the reality when it comes to the electric utility in Sitka. The dam is built. It has to be paid for. The question is how.
Gorman said, “We’re entering kind of an emergency situation, a crisis situation, when it comes to managing our electric utility and the affordability of it. So we have to find ways of relieving that pressure on the citizens without compromising our economic integrity.”
It’s a crisis the Assembly wants to try to solve in-house before taxing citizens any further. They’ll meet next on October 11th in the new Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Congress, for the first time, overrode one of President Obama’s vetoes. The bill – which now becomes law — allows 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia based on allegations it provided support to the terrorist attackers.
Obama argued the law makes U.S. officials vulnerable to similar lawsuits in foreign courts. Ninety-seven senators voted to overturn the veto today), including both Alaskans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it gives victims and their families an “avenue to justice.”
But Alaska Congressman Don Young bucked the tide. He was one of only 18 Republicans in the House who voted to uphold Obama’s veto. His spokesman, Matt Shuckerow, says the Congressman voted for principle over politics.
“Many have made this vote (an) issue of overriding the president and overriding his veto rather than an examination of the legislation and the policy itself,” Shuckerow said.
In a written statement, Young says he sympathizes with the victims but says the law allowing them to sue Saudi Arabia threatens national security and the safety of Americans deployed abroad. Shuckerow says Young would like to reverse many of Obama’s actions, but he agrees with Obama in opposing this bill.
“This was not a vote he took lightly but it was something that, given his concerns, the risk it posed to American military and intelligence personnel overseas, and the unintended consequences of this legislation … he could not support it,” Shuckerow said.
Congress is also on track to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Both Alaska senators voted for the spending bill and the House was scheduled to vote on it this evening.
The deadly influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, killed millions of people world wide but hit Alaska particularly hard. Thursday evening, an Anchorage lecture will examine the impacts to the Bristol Bay region and how the canneries there helped the local population. The pandemic entered Alaska in 1918 in Nome, western Alaska and Southeast. Despite efforts to keep it out of Bristol Bay, it hit the area in 1919. Historian Katie Ringsmuth of Tundra Vision organized the discussion along with Tim Troll. Troll is the executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage land trust. He says when he lived in Dillingham, he was given artifacts from the family of a man at the center of the crisis there, Dr Linus French.
Doctor Linus Hiram French with Orphans in 1919 (Courtesy of Tim Troll)
TROLL: And in particular looking at some of the photographs after I understood and began to understand the history of the region. Realized that we were looking at photographs of orphans. Orphans from this flu that struck Bristol Bay in 1919. And just from talking to people in Dillingham and in the region, there’s hardly a soul that doesn’t have somebody in their family that was an orphan. So their family history comes from, starts in many cases, from the orphans who were then transferred to Kanakanak Hospital, still in existence in Dillingham, in 1919. And French was in the middle of it. He was a doctor at Kanakanak. Founded the hospital actually.
RINGSMUTH: This disease came from the trenches of World War I and made its way around the globe. Killed millions of people and then it came to Alaska and it killed more Alaskans per capita than any other place, save Samoa. Just to give you an example, in one week, 90 people were dead and that was just on the Naknek River alone.
TOWNSEND: Ugashik and Naknek were hit hard but Egegik had no cases. Is that true?
RINGSMUTH: Right. According to the reports, it was missed, which is one of the strange mysteries of this disease. Just to give you an example, on one of the written inscriptions, it says “Also on this date, a boat drifted near the Alaska Packers Association’s Dime-A-Doe Canary. Three small children suffering from influenza came to the beach and reported that two men were dead on the boat. The bodies were given burials and the children taken to the Alaska Packers Association’s Naknek hospital where they recovered and the boat was towed to the canneries.
TOWNSEND: Tim, I wanted to ask about the involvement of the canneries. How dd they help in this tragedy?
TROLL: Commercial fishing in Brostol Bay had already been going on for about 40 years so it was an entrenched industry. And a cannery was like a small town and every spring they’d load up the boats from Seattle, Bellingham, San Francisco and come north. And typically along with that would be doctors and nurses, basically to serve the cannery workers but also the local Natives and the villages that were around. So when they arrived in May of 1919, the flu was already there. The fear is that it would come in with them, but unfortunately, it was already there. And the only government presence that was there at the time was the hospital at Kanakanak, now Dillingham. But they were dealing with the problem themselves. They couldn’t respond any better. Dr. French himself was sick with the flu; the nurses were sick with the flu. And despite pleas to help, they really couldn’t so the cannery, in this case the Alaska Packers Association, which was the dominant canning outfit in Bristol Bay at the time, they were really logistically capable of dealing with it. And to their credit they did.
RINGSMUTH: And one of the projects that I’m working on with Bob King and the National Park Service is to try and list the hospital at Naknek on the National Register of Historic Places as a building that can tell this story.
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Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Photo courtesy of Katie Ringsmuth
Katie Ringsmuth and Tim Troll will discuss the influenza pandemic in Bristol Bay at the Mountain View library in Anchorage tomorrow evening. Free flu shots will be given starting at 5 pm, the presentation begins at 6:30.
For the first time since February, the statewide temperature index for Alaska dipped below normal earlier this week. Sunday and Monday were both slightly below normal, interrupting a 218 day stretch of above normal temperatures.
Brian Brettschneider is a climatologist in Anchorage who closely tracks Alaska climate data and trends. Alaska’s Energy Desk is checking in with him regularly as part of the segment, Ask A Climatologist.
Brettschneider told Energy Desk editor Annie Feidt that the below normal temps didn’t last long.
Brian: The mid and long range forecasts are indicating we’re going to go right back to an above normal situation, so it’s a brief respite from the long trend of above normal temperatures.
Annie: And when you look at that long trend, what do you see?
Brian: Well we see that there’s been a regime shift in the last few years, where we’ve been above normal the vast majority of the time. It’s been especially acute this year. So there’s really no way to envision where 2016 isn’t the warmest for Alaska by a wide margin.
Annie: What do you mean regime shift?
Brian: So beginning in June 2013, we saw a shift toward a warmer temperature regime. And there’s a lot of reasons that’s happened and a lot of reason we don’t know why it’s happened, largely probably a result of the Pacific Ocean water temperatures and circulations, but since mid-2013 we’ve been way above normal for extended periods of time, only broken occasionally by short duration below normal stretches.
Annie: And when you talk to your colleagues who are looking at Alaska and also seeing that, what reaction do you get?
Brian: It’s a sense of alarm, because the arctic in general is considered the canary in the coal mine, with reductions in sea ice, shorter periods of snow cover, the global temperature shifts are magnified in Arctic areas, so what we see going on in high latitudes can be a harbinger of the acceleration of temperature regime changes globally.
The penalty was levied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal agency alleged that the transportation department failed to properly identify and label hazardous waste and stored more than 4,000 pounds of hazardous waste without a required storage permit.
The EPA said the waste included corrosive liquids, solvents and petroleum products.
Transportation department spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said department employees did not realize there was a compliance issue until it was pointed out during an inspection. He said the department took immediate action to remedy the situation.
Woodrow said there was no environmental damage.
Including this case, EPA said the transportation department has paid about $500,000 in EPA penalties since 2013.
Bethel has another liquor store. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Bethel Native Corporation opened Bethel Spirits on Front Street. It’s the second liquor store to open in Bethel this year after an almost half century ban on legal alcohol sales. KYUK’s Anna Rose MacArthur arrived as the doors opened.
Eighteen packs of canned beer line the shelves at the opening of BNC’s liquor store, Bethel Spirits, on Sept. 27, 2016. (Photo by Dean Swope, KYUK – Bethel)
Transcript:
KYUK: So you’re the first paying customer?
Maczynski: I’m the first customer, yeah.
Cezary Maczynski is a long-time Bethel resident. He immigrated to the U.S. from Poland and his shop, Cezary’s Auto Body and Paint, sits across the street.
Maczynski: I just buy Corona, six-pack Corona for tonight.
KYUK: Were you planning on being the first customer?
Maczynski: No, I just pull out by my shop because we be neighbors now.
KYUK: What do you think about your shop being neighbors to a liquor store?
Cezary Maczynski is the first customer on the opening day of BNC’s Bethel Spirits on Sept. 27, 2016. Maczynski’s purchase: a Corona six-pack, totaling $21.60 with tax. (Photo by Dean Swope, KYUK – Bethel)
Maczynski: I don’t worry about it. I’ve never been harassed by drunks. People respect you if you respect them.
Maczynski: I would like to see the money stay here and not go over the border.
Right now, there’re eight varieties of beer and five varieties of Franzia box wine on the shelves. An 18-pack of canned beer starts at $34.85. A box of wine starts at $37.95. The store is currently only accepting cash, but should be taking debit and credit cards by the end of the week. The store is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Congress, for the first time, overrode one of President Obama’s vetoes. The bill – which now becomes law – allows 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia based on allegations it provided support to the terrorist attackers. The veto override was bipartisan, but Rep. Don Young sided with Obama on this one.
Alaska transportation agency fined over waste storage
Associated Press
The state transportation department has been fined $118,100 for its handling of hazardous waste at a maintenance facility in Juneau.
Homer Electric wants more control, is that best for consumers?
Daysha Eaton, KBBI – Homer
Residents across the Kenai Peninsula will soon vote on whether Homer Electric Association can operate without rate oversight from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. The utility said deregulation would save time and money and give it more local control. But it would also allow HEA’s board to raise rates as high as they want.
1919: The Spanish Flu in Dillingham
Lori Townsend, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage
The deadly influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, killed millions of people world wide but hit Alaska particularly hard. Thursday evening, an Anchorage lecture will examine the impacts to the Bristol Bay region and how the canneries there helped the local population.
Forest Service purchases 4,500 acres of Cube Cove forest
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska – Juneau
About 4,500 acres of heavily-logged forest will return to wilderness under a deal involving the federal government and a Southeast Alaska Native corporation.
Bethel Native Corporation opens Bethel’s second liquor store
Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel
Bethel has another liquor store. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Bethel Native Corporation opened Bethel Spirits on Front Street. It’s the second liquor store to open in Bethel this year after an almost half century ban on legal alcohol sales. KYUK’s Anna Rose MacArthur arrived as the doors opened.
Ask a Climatologist: Long temperature streak ends
Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage
For the first time since February, the statewide temperature index for Alaska dipped below normal earlier this week. Sunday and Monday were both slightly below normal, interrupting a 218 day stretch of above normal temperatures.
Luxury cruises don’t signal Arctic shipping boom, expert says
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
The company that sent the first big luxury cruise ship through U.S. and Canadian Arctic waters is preparing the Crystal Serenity for a repeat performance in 2017. But one expert believes this year’s historic transit doesn’t mean the Arctic is likely to become a hotspot for global shipping anytime soon.
The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation is offering blood tests to patients treated at their dental clinic between Sept 13 – 21 after the clinic learned that some instruments were only partially sterilized.
YKHC consists of a regional hospital in Bethel, nine regional facilities and 47 village clinics. The corporation employs around 1,500 people and has an annual payroll of $70 million. (Photo courtesy of YKHC)
Thirteen instruments were incompletely sterilized and possibly used on patients during the eight-day period. During that time, 191 patients received treatment. YKHC is contacting all of them for testing for Hepatitis B, C, and HIV. The good news is that the tests are free and risk of infection is low.
Tiffany Zulkosky is YKHC Vice President of Communications.
“The risk is so low that the CDC and State Epidemiology did not recommend a need for doing testing,” Zulkosky said. “And so really, going through this process for YKHC is to help quell concerns among any patients that might have been treated.”
John Nick of Bethel is one of the patients the agency contacted to get tested. He had a routine, bi-annual appointment on September 21, the last day of the suspected timeframe.
“Five days later I end up getting a call stating that I needed to go to get a blood test, and they wouldn’t tell me any reason as to why I had to,” Nick said.
Nick got his blood drawn Tuesday, but said he was still having a hard time getting information from YKHC.
“And I called them a second time asking them, and they said my manager will give you a call back, and I still haven’t heard a word from them,” Nick said.
Though Nick had not been called back by Wednesday afternoon, that morning YKHC issued a press release on the issue and posted information on their website. Nick is now seeking legal representation against YKHC through Valcarce Law Office.
To arrange a blood test, Bethel-based patients can do a walk-in. Just check in at registration and ask for a test in the lab. Village-based patients will be contacted by health care providers who’ll arrange blood tests for them in the village or in Bethel.
Anyone who gets tested will also need a follow-up test in January. The first test is to see if the patient already has an infection. The second test is to see if the patient has developed an infection that could be linked to YKHC’s instruments. This is because it takes weeks to months before a test can detect the infections in the body.
Zulkosky said that of all the people treated by the clinic only a few were exposed to unsanitary dental tools.
“Of the 191 in the population that were treated during that week,” Zulkosky said, “only 13 might have been infected. No more than 13, but possibly less.”
YKHC isn’t able to trace which instruments were used on which patients.
YKHC Vice President of Hospital Services Jim Sweeney said that the clinic discovered the error on Sept 21.
“One of the technicians who was preparing to get a patient ready for a dentist noticed that the bag that she had was not sterilized. So she brought that up to her superior’s attention,” Sweeney said. “And then we began to do our inspection of our stock, and then we started to look back on the records to find out why that bag got out there.”
Sweeney said the dental clinic has made changes to prevent this from happening again.
“We’ve put [on] additional people, additional sign-offs on the sterilization, [and] assigned specific people to sterilization,” Sweeney said. “We’re also doing a time-out for sterilization at the patient’s chair. So prior to a dentist working on a patient, they’re doing a time-out and verifying that the equipment was all sterilized.”
YKHC also plans to bring in an outside sterilization expert to review the processes in the dental clinic and throughout the hospital.
Anyone with medical questions can talk with a nurse by calling 1-844-543-6361.
Reece David Johnson, 21, of Dillingham pleaded guilty Tuesday in a case that involved his alleged shooting of a friend in the back last May.
Johnson and Isiah Thompson were drinking whiskey late on May 10 when Thompson was shot, perhaps after midnight.
An hours-long standoff with police ensued until Johnson gave himself up peacefully.
Thompson was medevac’d to Anchorage and suffered permanent injury from damage to his spinal cord from the .40-caliber bullet.
Johnson denied he pulled the trigger.
The state’s prosecutor threw out the more serious charges of first-degree assault and weapons misconduct, offering Johnson the chance to plead to fourth-degree assault.
The agreement called for a sentence of time served, which is roughly 140 days in prison since his May 11 arrest.
Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik handled the change of plea, and offered few comments about the case. Johnson’s attorney Kate Bargerhuff also had little to say about the case, and Johnson chose not to speak.
Magistrate Judge Tina Reigh said she would “cautiously” accept the terms, though she seemed to do so reluctantly.
“I’ll be frank I’m just having a hard time with this agreement,” she said. “Because it’s such a serious allegation that’s being reduced so significantly.”
The main witness in the case, Isiah Thompson, was not cooperative with investigators or with the prosecution, nor did he participate in any of the bail review hearings.
The state did not offer comment for why the case was pleaded down to misdemeanor assault.
While Reigh commented that the terms seemed light, she said the four and half months in jail would be sufficient and hopefully put Johnson back on a straighter, narrower path.
“My understanding is this was a friend of Mr. Johnson’s, and I would assume that there is some very very serious regret and remorse for what happened, and that alone will hopefully serve as a deterrence from engaging in this kind of activity,” she said. “Because we certainly don’t anyone else to get hurt.”
Reece Johnson was appearing telephonically from Anchorage.
He was expected to be released immediately and the case closed.
During their regular meeting Tuesday night, the Sitka Assembly approved – on first reading – a dedicated fund for student activity travel using marijuana fees. See ordinance here: Ord 2016-39
The ordinance, co-sponsored by Assemblyman Steven Eisenbeisz and Deputy Mayor Matthew Hunter, proposes depositing all money generated from marijuana licensing fees into a specific fund for student travel. Depending on how Sitka’s marijuana industry evolves, Eisenbeisz believes this could generate $8000 to $10,000 a year for activity travel sponsored by the Sitka School District.
This year, Sitka High School received roughly $132,000 for student activities from the city. The local contribution has been fairly stable, but with more teams and clubs flying to meets, the need is greater.
Superintendent Mary Wegner appreciates the Assembly’s work.
“Activities and athletics are a great antidote to smoking marijuana. When you’re involved with activities, you don’t want to. So it is a very interesting and novel approach, but I appreciate the [Assembly’s] creativity in keeping the students first and foremost in their minds and in their actions,” Wegner said.
The Assembly also decided – on first reading – to move $250,000 from the general fund into a committed fund balance for landslide mitigation. This includes legal, geotechnical, and other costs anticipated by the city.
Specifically, the city wants to proceed with geotechnical mapping around Keet Goshi Heen Elementary School, which has been identified as a moderate risk area. City Administrator Mark Gorman said some of the money could also be used for legal fees related to the Kramer Avenue landslide.
“We have two suits that have been filed against the city, related to the landslide. These came in about six weeks ago. We are working with council – David Bruce, who you met with several times – and he’s given us his best case scenario as to what the expenses are going to be this year. And it includes geotechnical work,” Gorman said.
In other business, Sitka Community Hospital took a major step toward paying down its line of credit, which the Assembly increased two years ago to resolve the hospital’s cash crisis. The hospital is in a much better financial position now, with 81 days of cash on hand. And Tuesday night (09-27-16), they presented the Assembly with a check for $463,000 towards that line of credit.
“That will bring us down where we’ll owe slightly less than $1 million dollars,” said hospital CEO Rob Allen. We’re also set up so that from this month forward, we’ll be making monthly payments on the line of credit.
The Assembly’s next meeting will take place on October 11th in their new chambers at Harrigan Centennial Hall. During that meeting, the current Assembly will resolve old business and then change hands, welcoming a mayor and either one or two new Assembly members.
Representatives of Ketchikan High School’s volleyball team came to the Ketchikan School Board on Wednesday with a long list of complaints, including gender bias, alleged violations of Title IX, and objectification of the athletes involved in volleyball.
Volleyball team captain Kinani Halverson told the board that she felt sexually objectified when a school board member attended a game and polled audience members about how the uniforms fit on the girls.
“This poll served to bring unwanted, unnecessary and inappropriate attention to our athletes’ bodies,” she said. “It should never have been used as a justification to alter our uniforms. My personal take is that someone who represents me as a student of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough was found to be the one discriminating, objectifying and sexualizing me as a young woman and athlete. Personally, as a victim of sexual assault, I refuse to stand for this behavior.”
Halverson said she’s angry and hurt, and wants an apology as well as an independent audit of the district’s compliance with Title IX, a federal rule that school districts provide equitable opportunities to girls and boys.
As a result of that board member’s informal poll, Halvorson said, the school spent $2,000 on new shorts, when what the team really needs is new jerseys. But, she said, nobody asked the team or its coaches.
Tylynn Ward is one of those coaches. She said there are ongoing issues, but the uniform issue is particularly worrisome, because of the attention placed on the team members’ bodies rather than their abilities.
“The way these girls are being viewed not as athletes but as girls in bootie shorts, if you will. It’s not OK,” she said.
While not named by the speakers, Board Member David Timmerman said he was the one who polled people about the uniforms. He said he loves volleyball, and he asked some other female athletes who had been watching the game why they didn’t play that sport. Timmerman said they told him it was because of the uniforms.
He said he then polled about 50 people of various ages over the course of a weekend and everyone told him they were not comfortable with the uniforms.
“So, me as a parent, also being uncomfortable with some of them – and I’m talking about the very, very short shorts,” he said. “I want to look down and see everybody as an athlete, and I think everybody in that gym wants to, too. There’s people on the national level, there’s colleges that are switching to longer uniforms that aren’t so revealing. If somebody wants to say I was objectifying in a sexual manner? That’s not it at all. If anything, I’m trying to protect the women – the girls that are out there.”
Timmerman did apologize to Halverson and other students who were upset.
The medical room also was inadequately supplied for the first couple of weeks of volleball practice, some speakers noted.
Ice machine wasn’t plugged in and there was no tape during a practice when two players rolled their ankles, Coach Rebecca Clark said.
Clark also told the board that the activities coordinator apparently dropped the ball on lining up volunteers and referees for a day-long volleyball event, even though a list of names was provided weeks in advance. Clark said the only certified referee in town was notified 15 minutes before the first game.
“Our coordinator did not coordinate,” she said. “To me, that’s the basic job description: You’re a coordinator. It should have been taken care of. Unfortunately, I’m not going to go into more, but I just feel like this isn’t the only incident.”
“There’s a lot going on where either the coordinator needs some help or we need a new coordinator.”
April Edenshaw said concerned parents and coaches did try communicating first with Ketchikan High School officials, but received little to no response.
“Or dismissive comments such as, ‘By not responding to your email or phone calls, it is actually an answer,’” she said.
Edenshaw said the group is concerned about inequity, not just for volleyball, but in how much fundraising is required for various sports.
“In some instances, girls are required to fundraise more than boys, even if it is the same activity or sport,” she said.
Sharyl Yeisley told the board that because Ketchikan High School didn’t send a representative to a regional sports scheduling meeting, the volleyball team has very few home games and an arduous travel schedule, which will be more expensive than anticipated.
That means the team will have to raise even more money than they had planned for.
