APRN Alaska News

There are currently four women running among the top-20 in this year’s Iditarod.  This year’s race could be both extremely fast and extremely competitive.  The women in the race aren’t holding back.

After placing second last year to Dallas Seavey, Aliy Zirkle decided she was no longer just training dogs, but she’d also need to train herself to claim an Iditarod win.

“We decided our lifestyle oughta be a little more fit.  Our dogs are the most fit athletes in the world and standing on the back of the sled like a big lug seemed a little bit unfair,” Zirkle said.

This is Zirkle’s 13th Iditarod.  She has her sights set on a win, but she’s learned that anything can happen on the way to Nome.

“The first 300 miles, I run my own team, because I’ve gotta see what I’ve got,” Zirkle said.

Zirkle has a friendly rivalry with fellow musher Michele Phillips.  The two battled for first place in last month’s Yukon Quest 300, taunting and jeering each other down the trail.  Phillips, from Tagish, Yukon is running her fourth Iditarod.  Her highest place was 16th.

“I’d really like to finish top ten.  That’s my goal, so I hope we accomplish that,” Phillips said.

When asked about the competitive women’s field, Jodi Bailey, who runs dogs out of Chatanika with Dan Kaduce, was surprised to find out people consider her one of the top women.

“I think that might be a slight mistake.  People make that list based on what we have done and accomplished and that’s great, but you need to consider what our goals are for an individual race.  This year Dan and I have a young team we’ve been working on building for the future,” Bailey.

Other women rounding out the field include veteran Kelley Griffin, as well as Jesse Royer who may have lucked out when she decided to train her dogs in the warmer Montana climate.

“It’ll be good for me.  I’ve definitely been training at a lot of 40 above, so it’s not gonna hurt me any,” Royer said.

The 10-day forecast isn’t calling for terribly frigid weather along the Iditarod trail this year.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Icicle Seafoods’ Adak plant won’t be processing fish this summer.

Icicle didn’t respond to multiple interview requests, but the company’s plant manager told the Adak city council last month that the plant wouldn’t be operating because generating power is too expensive during the slower fishing months.

That’s disappointing news for Pat Davis. He owns the 48-foot F/V Cascade, and fishes for halibut and black cod near Adak. He says being able to deliver to the Icicle plant saved him a 450-mile run each way to Unalaska.

“It’s just a beautiful thing, you’re not under the gun, you can kind of fish at your leisure. Fish as hard as you want, or take a day off.”

This summer, he’s anticipating a more rushed schedule, since the trip to Unalaska takes at least three days, and most processors want halibut and black cod delivered within seven days of being caught.

“Once you start, you’re going to have to go for it, or you’ll end up coming back to town with half a load, instead of what you should be getting.”

Less fish and more fuel means less money for fishermen. But they aren’t the only ones that will impacted by the closure. The Icicle plant is one of the few industries on the island, and the primary source of tax revenue for the city of Adak. City manager Layton Lockett says the closure could reduce tax revenues for the year by 20 to 30 percent.

“It will be painful. However, based on experiencing the complete closure of the fish processing plant — the situation wouldn’t be new.”

In 2009, the company that used to own the plant went bankrupt, and it was shuttered until Icicle bought it in the spring of 2011. Lockett  says the impact of this summer’s closure will be spread out over several years because of the way state fisheries landing taxes are distributed.

“There will be a delay. Which will help lessen the pain of a seasonal closure, which we expect only to really occur this year. We don’t expect that in the future.”

Lockett says Icicle has assured the city it’s working to reducing its energy costs so the plant can stay open year-round.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Moving from urban anywhere to rural Alaska can be a tough transition – some newcomers don’t last long, worn down by the long winters or a feeling of isolation.  Others stay, sometimes for years.  Len Anderson talked to some Northwest Alaska residents to find out what makes the difference.

For 30 years Irma Mitchell has been the secretary at the Shungnak village school.  She’s seen a lot of teachers come and go. Some quit after one year, maybe two.

As for longer term principals….

“What makes a good principal is, they just do learn our culture and learn our kids, the village.  And they come back and they’re four, five years, some principals.

Last spring, Hans Boenish and his wife, Bonnie, finished a long career of bush teaching.

“It’s really, really important—I can’t emphasize this enough—that you get out and see what’s going on out in the community.  Go down and fish, take a boat ride.  Get to know people outside of the school system,” Boenish said.

They began in Noorvik in 1978, then Shungnak, taught in Grayling and moved back to Shungnak for their final three years. Hans’s advice comes from his own early years.

“We lived in village housing, in a cabin down by the river, and so much goes on down by the river and so many decisions get made down there.  Decisions get made on the riverbank.  They don’t get made necessarily in offices,” Boenish said.

Boenish adds by getting out with the people, being a decent person, the newcomer reaps an additional reward.

“Particularly in the bush, you might make mistakes, but if your intentions are good and people know you’re really giving it your all, doing your best and you really doing what’s best for kids, they’ll allow you a lot of mistake. It’s a forgiving culture,” Boenish said.

Doug Neal has lived 25 years in the Northwest Alaska hub community of Kotzebue. For 19 years he’s worked for OTZ Telephone Cooperative and is now executive director.

“I know one of the challenges that non-Natives have coming have when they come to Kotzebue is that most of them are too. It seems like too many of them are just coming up to make money and then get…leave as soon as they can.  And of course, if you live anywhere and all you’re doing is going back and forth between where you work and where you live—I don’t care if it’s Kotzebue or some urban part of the country—you’re going to get burnt out on that location pretty fast,” Nealsaid.

Neal says he’s always eager to help people break the isolation of work and home.

“I had a teacher friend bring a new teacher out to my little cabin, which is about 15 miles out of Kotzebue, and they just spent the day over there and had dinner over there.  It’s in the trees.  It’s a lovely little spot.  And the teacher who had been here for years said, ‘You know, if we could get the new teachers out here one time and see how much fun it is to be out in a place like this so close to Kotzebue, teacher retention would go way up,’” Neal said.

Neal says a recent school district survey supports that observation.

After 25 years north of the Arctic Circle in Kotzebue, Neal still likes his work.  He thoroughly enjoys the people.  But most of all, there’s the land.

“For me it’s the wild country.  And there are just not too many places you can live where you’re just surrounded by millions of acres, millions of acres of just wild country that…I mean the rivers don’t have any dams on them.  It’s roadless.   It’s just beautiful, untouched wilderness.  And you just can’t find that anyplace else.  Or it’s hard to find at anyplace else…. I mean it’s fun to live in a place where 400,000 caribou migrate within the region each year.  And where at different times of the year the fish are so plentiful and the birds so plentiful and the big game is so plentiful.  So that’s just something really, really special.   You just can’t get that anyplace else.” Neal said.

Neal gazes out his office window,  past the buildings lining the shore to the frozen sound and the low mountains beyond.  ”I love this little community,” he says.  I fell in love with it when I first came here and 25 years later, I still do.”

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Martin Buser at the 2013 Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage. Photo by Patrick Yack, APRN – Anchorage.

Martin Buser and Matt Failor have both checked into Rohn, arriving at 9:53 a.m. and 2:11 p.m. respectively.

Fifteen other mushers, including Paul Gebhardt, Lance Mackey, Aliy Zirkle, Jeff King and John Baker are currently between the Rainy Pass and Rohn checkpoints.

Defending Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey and 2013 Yukon Quest champion Allen Moore have both checked into Rainy Pass.

One person is dead and two are injured after a backcountry skiing accident near Haines on Sunday.

The Haines Police Department received an ambulance call Sunday afternoon to the Haines Airport where a helicopter brought an injured skier. The skier was transported to the Haines clinic where he was pronounced dead. Two injured skiers were also brought to the clinic. Haines police notified Alaska State Troopers, who is the lead investigating agency on the incident. A trooper arrived in Haines from Juneau on Monday, according to trooper spokesperson Megan Peters.

“He’s been trying to do interviews; he was able to fly over the area to see it. He has a couple more interviews lined up before he leaves town and has to get back to Juneau,” Peters said.

Troopers identified the deceased as 34-year-old Christian Cabanilla of Haines.

Cabanilla is a guide with Haines heliski company Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures. But company owner, Scott Sundberg, said Monday Cabanilla was skiing recreationally with a group of skiers, and he was not the official guide of the group.

Sundberg said the two injured skiers were in stable condition on Monday. Both were medevaced to Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau and one of the skiers was later sent to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The group of five was skiing as part of a commercial tour with the company just west of Haines when the incident occurred, according to Sundberg. He said reports indicate the incident might have been caused by a massive cornice failure, but not an avalanche. Troopers’ preliminary findings are similar, Peters said.

“And from what it sounds like, they were traversing an area and snow collapsed from under them, but I don’t know how far the fall was,” Peters said.

Cabanilla’s biography on the company’s website says he is an international backcountry snowboard guide working in Alaska, Chilean Patagonia and Antarctica with more than a decade of experience in the Alaska heli-ski industry. It says he is also a commercial helicopter pilot in Alaska. He is originally from Vasalia, Calif.

This is Haines third heliskiing fatality in two years. Last year a guide and skier were killed in a March avalanche while skiing with a different company.

Martin Buser is maintaining his lead, checking into Rohn at 9:53 a.m. Monday. Matt Failor, who is also running a team of Buser’s dogs, is in second place, approaching the halfway point between Rainy Pass and Rohn.

Aliy Zirkle, Justin Savidis, DeeDee Jonrowe and Michelle Phillips remain in Rainy Pass.

Former Iditarod champ Martin Buser took an early lead in this year’s big race, according to official race standings. He was in and out of Rainy Pass about 5:40 Monday morning.

Racing behind Buser were the two Mackeys, Lance and his brother, Jason. They were in and out of Finger Lake early Monday. Lance, about 4:21; Jason about 4:41.  Prior to the beginning of the race on Sunday, Jason said his previous Iditarod starts had been “camping trips,” but this year he was out to win.

Aliy Zirkle led the field of women mushers. She was running in sixth place overall and was out of Finger Lake about 5:50 Monday morning.

Defending champion Dallas Seavey was in 17th place in and out of Skwentna.

A subcommittee in the legislature is looking to shave money from early education programs.

The group tasked with looking at the Department of Education and Early Development in the House rolled out their recommendations on Thursday, and their cuts to pre-school programs amount to $1 million. The reductions make up almost a fifth of the early education funding included in the governor’s budget.

The pre-kindergarten program saw the biggest cut, with its funding reduced by $480,000. The education subcommittee also made the program’s $2 million allocation a one-time amount, with the intention to reconsider program funding next year.

“That’s a pretty significant hit to pre-K programs,” says Michael Hanley, commissioner of Education and Early Development.

The program was created in 2009 as a pilot, and it serves 13 schools across the state. Most of those schools are in rural Alaska. Hanley says that the cut could shrink the program by 135 children and that at least one district’s pre-school program could close as a result.

Funding for Best Beginnings — a childhood literacy program — was brought down by $137,500. The Parents as Teachers program, which trains families to do pre-school activities at home, was reduced by $242,500. The subcommittee recommends both be funded at $800,000.

Rep. Tammie Wilson, a North Pole Republican, chairs the subcommittee. She says she supports early education, but doesn’t want the state to commit to paying for new programs with the state’s revenue projected to decline.

“As our oil keeps reducing, we’re getting to a point that we need to make some serious looks at everything in the budget. So, we took a close look at teaching and learning, which is the biggest portion of education, which has anything to do with pre-kindergarten programs,” says Wilson. “We didn’t go across the board for them, but there was quite a bit of new programs that the department asked for.”

Wilson has targeted the early education programs for cuts in past years, and attempted to cut the pre-K pilot program’s $2 million budget entirely in 2011. She has previously expressed concern that some of the state’s early education programs could be duplicative — especially with the federal Head Start program — and she cited redundancy as a reason for shrinking the pre-school budget.

But those programs have different objectives, says Education Commissioner Michael Hanley.

“That would sure be erroneous on our part if we actually were providing two services to one child, but I don’t know how you enroll a child in two pre-school programs at the same time,” says Hanley.

Another one of Wilson’s issues with the governor’s departmental budget was that the expansion of public pre-school could hurt private sector daycare programs.

“Should we also be competing with the ones that are completely private by starting new daycares and new pre-schools using state funding while other parents are having to pay for it,” says Wilson. “That’s where the discussion needs to be.”

Rep. Harriet Drummond, an Anchorage Democrat, opposes the cuts, and she introduced multiple amendments to keep the funding during the subcommittee’s closeout. She questions the idea that these early education programs are competing with the private sector.

“How’s that going to happen? You’re talking about some pretty remote places here, that don’t have cash economies, don’t have a tax base to ask their taxpayers for more money to fund these programs” says Drummond. “I don’t know where this funding is supposed to come from.”

Drummond also argues that the funding early education programs saves the state money in the long run in remedial education and public safety costs.

Hanley says that Alaska’s pre-school program has performed particularly well. Of the students who were enrolled in the program in 2011 and 2012, 80 percent of them exceeded expectations for vocabulary development and showed anywhere from one month to two year’s extra growth from the time they were first assessed. The department’s three-year report on the program also showed substantial improvement in motor skills and concept development.

“Our pre-K programs have some of the highest results in the country,” says Hanley. “But when it comes to access, we have some of the lowest access rates in the country. Fewer kids have access to pre-K than almost every other state. So, that’s a challenge we have, and we exacerbate that especially when we see cuts.”

The subcommittee recommendations will now be reviewed by House finance. Hanley says that the Department of Education and Early Development will push for the funding to be restored.

In total, the House education and early development trimmed the governor’s departmental budget by 1.6 percent, or $5.7 million.

The polar bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. Because the Appeals Court upheld that ruling, no laws change. Companies looking to operate in sensitive habitats will still need to undergo the existing review processes.

Mike Geraghty, Alaska’s Attorney General, said it’s too early for the state to decide what options it has.

He said the polar bear population is healthy, and this ruling sets a precedent that it’s legal to preemptively list a species as threatened.

“The polar bear is based on a 45 year projection. Nobody doubts that the current species has a healthy population,” he said in a phone interview Friday morning. “It takes a certain amount of speculation to figure out what’s going to happen 45 years from now with climate change. And also, what about the adaptability of species to loss of habitat.”

Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, welcomed the ruling. Her group was one of the appellees in the suit.

“The polar bear’s plight is so clear and so dire there was really no question they deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act,” she said.

Siegel said the polar bear is the first species to be placed on the endangered list solely because of climate change.

And now that the court has ruled, she said climate policy needs to follow.

“The science on climate change the very real threats on the polar bear have long been indisputable. They are now also legally indisputable as well. But what we really need to do now is to get serious about swift greenhouse pollution cuts. Because that’s what we need to do to save polar bears,” she said.

Siegel argued it’s only a matter of time for Fish and Wildlife to upgrade the polar bear’s status from threatened to endangered.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Colonel Brian Duffy

The sequester cuts take effect at midnight, but what it may ultimately mean is still a moving target. The Commander at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Colonel Brian Duffy says he would like to be hopeful that Congress will still find a resolution before the late night deadline.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Photo from People Mover Facebook.

President Obama announced Friday morning that Congressional leaders had failed to reach a agreement to avoid sequestration. This triggers automatic spending cuts to balance the budget. Communities around the country are bracing for the cuts, including Anchorage.

Officials with the Municipality expect sequestration to impact the People Mover bus system. Lance Wilber, the Director of Public Transportation for the Municipality of Anchorage, says that’s because his department’s budget is heavily supported by federal grants.

“Roughly 20 percent of our operating budget is supported by operating dollars from the federal government. And we use those funds to really keep our system on route. On the capital side, it’s more significant — roughly 70 to 80 percent of our capital improvements are supported by the federal transit administration.”

Wilber says sequestration could slow down bus and bus stop improvements as well customer service upgrades. According to officials at the Anchorage Police Department, grants that support DWI and Seatbelt patrols could be reduced, as well as those that provide funding to fight Internet Crimes against children and support task forces on human trafficking and illegal drugs.

Anticipated sequestration reductions for the 2013-2014 Anchorage school District budget equal about 6-million dollars, and were included in recent budget cuts. Chad Stitler, ASD budget director says the district is watching department of defense reductions at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson closely because they could impact the district down the road.

“As the federal footprint in Alaska is reduced, we expect that will also reduce the population and the enrollment inside of the district and so we’ve considered that along with the actual immediate impacts of the sequestration.”

The district gets a little less than 10 percent of their funding from federal monies. Most sequestration cuts would probably take time to trickle down the local level — until the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

A group of North Slope villagers filed suit Thursday in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. According to Brian Litmans, with the environmental law firm, Trustees for Alaska, seven residents of Nuiqsut claim that the Corps violated the Clean Water Act in issuing a permit to Conoco Phillips to fill almost 60 acres of wetlands for the oil company’s Colville Delta 5 project.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

The Alaska Federation of Natives has changed its bylaws to give tribes more votes during conventions. The move separates tribal votes from tribal corporation votes.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

A state Superior Court decision could sidetrack state administration plans to change water protection statutes.  Earlier this week, the court decided in favor of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition in a case involving what is termed “instream flow” rights to Middle Creek,  on the West side of Cook Inlet.  The Coalition filed for instream flow rights in 2009, saying that wild salmon populations in the creek need to be protected.  But the state Department of Natural Resources failed to process the application.  Later, DNR approved a temporary water use permit for PacRim Coal to remove water from the same creek, with the Coalition application pending, so the Coaltion appealed to the courts. The court has decided that DNR failed to follow its own rules.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

This week we’re heading to a northern part of Alaska’s Pandhandle, Haines. The community of over 1800 people is a gateway between the U.S. and Canada. Daniel Lee Henry is a long time community member in Haines.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

Last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded eleven billion-dollar weather events.  That brought the total for the last two years to 25.  The average up until then had been less than four.  Climate change is already here and it’s not changing back any time soon.  Communities are going to have to become more resilient, and for some
that means a closer look at local food.  One of the top experts on sustainable and climate-resilient “food-sheds” will be the guest on the next Talk of Alaska.

HOSTS:

• Steve Heimel

GUESTS: 

• Gary Paul Nabhan, Chair, Sustainable Food Systems Program in Southwest Borderlands Food and Water Security, University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioural Science, Tucson
• Callers Statewide

PARTICIPATE:

• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
• Send e-mail to talk [at] alaskapublic [dot] org (comments may be read on air)
• Call 550-8422 in Anchorage or 1-800-478-8255 if you’re outside Anchorage during the live broadcast

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

SUBSCRIBE: Get Talk of Alaska updates automatically by e-mail, RSS or podcast.

TALK OF ALASKA ARCHIVE

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. The Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them.

The so called Silver Tsunami is lapping at Alaska’s shore, and care providers are worried that there won’t be sufficient programs — or enough funding — to meet it. The graying of Alaska is more pronounced than in other areas of the country. Alaska leads all states in having the fastest growing senior population of persons age 65 or older, which now accounts for 13.6 percent of state residents.

One of the top priorities for Alaska’s seniors is housing. Denise Daniello, with the Alaska Commission on Aging,  did not want to comment on tape, but  says senior housing needs to encompass the full range of care, from helping independent seniors stay in their own homes to creating living facilities for seniors with special needs. With limited funding, that is going to be a tough task

Daniello  says older Alaskans are no longer moving out of state. they came here as baby boomers and stay. As more and more boomers age, the state’s senior population will grow with them over the next 25 years.

Mark Romick is director of planning and program development for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which plays a multi-faceted role in senior housing .

   “The demand for senior housing is like every other housing component of the market. It’s based on people’s ability to pay, and suffice it to say, that there is a fairly substantial need, well over four or five hundred units in the next ten or twenty years,” he says.

Most senior housing funds come from two pots of money AHFC manages from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. [Senior Housing Grant Development Fund and AHFC's Senior Housing Development Loan Fund.] Romick says in general projects for low income seniors are financed through grants, but assisted living or medium income facilities have to rely on private financing or loans. AHFC offers rental assistance, or vouchers, to low income renters of any age, but the waiting list is long, often years. And the sequester is expected to add to the crunch by shrinking that program, according to HUD spokesman Lee Jones

 ”The number of available vouchers is going to be reduced by about 125, 000 nationally. That obviously shrinks the resource base for people who need that kind of assistance, ” according to Jones.  He says cuts to HUD appropriations could begin when discussions on the FY 14 federal budget start.

Since the majority of Alaska’s senior housing projects target low income seniors, middle income seniors suffer. They have too much money to qualify for rental assistance or low income housing, but they can’t afford market rate rents. AHFC data indicates about 2 /3 of Alaska’s seniors can’t afford urban rents. A brief white paper released this [february] month by the state department of Health and Social Services identified some funding strategies that could be used to develop “graduated income” housing to accommodate residents of mixed incomes.   Mark Romick says that will take some changes:

 ”I think it’s pretty obvious that alternative sources need to be developed. Private financing is a huge component of that. There is not enough money available through the state or federal government to address the housing need of all the seniors that might need an affordable place to live. People are going to have to be more creative about how they address the financing of senior housing in the future. ”

One group of seniors in Fairbanks is a jump ahead of the game. Karen Parr says the Raven Landing retirement community there was created, funded and designed at the instigation of a group of retired teachers who wanted to stay in Fairbanks, but couldn’t find middle income senior housing in their city. Parr says Raven Landing is a model for communities looking for solutions.

“The thing that’s so good about Raven Landing that is kind of unique, is that it was created by a group of local residents who planned it to suit this particular group of people, this kind of people. It’s kind of an Alaskan version of a continuing care plan.”

The city of Fairbanks helped to buy the land, and in 2008, the first building with 20 units opened. Another 20 units became available last year, and twenty more opened up last month. AHFC has provided grants and loans for each of the apartment buildings while individual and corporate donations help support the Retirement Community of Fairbanks non profit which operates the complex. RCF is now in the process of getting funds to build a community center. I’m Ellen Lockyer

[25senior housing lockyer pack feb. 25]

Alaska has one of the fastest growing senior citizen populations in the country, yet affordable housing for seniors is at a minimum. In December, a group of state and community leaders got together in Anchorage to discuss options for providing senior housing to meet growing demand. As KSKA’s Ellen Lockyer reports, the Alaska Senior Housing Summit has outlined the challenges ahead and the strategies needed to overcome them. [:21]

The so called Silver Tsunami is lapping at Alaska’s shore, and care providers are worried that there won’t be sufficient programs — or enough funding — to meet it. The graying of Alaska is more pronounced than in other areas of the country. Alaska leads all states in having the fastest growing senior population of persons age 65 or older, which now accounts for 13.6 percent of state residents.

One of the top priorities for Alaska’s seniors is housing. Denise Daniello, with the Alaska Commission on Aging, *did not want to comment on tape, but* says senior housing needs to encompass the full range of care, from helping independent seniors stay in their own homes to creating living facilities for seniors with special needs. With limited funding, that is going to be a tough task

[Daniello would not comment on tape, but she says older Alaskans are no longer moving out of state. they came here as baby boomers and stay. As more and more boomers age, the state's senior population will grow with them over the next 25 years.]

Mark Romick is director of planning and program development for the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, which plays a multi-faceted role in senior housing .

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors romick 3 use first.wav

Time: 15s

Title: 27seniors romick 3 use first

Description: 27seniors romick 3 use first

In-cue: the demand

Out-cue: twenty years]

["The demand for senior housing is like every other housing component of the market. It's based on people's ability to pay, and suffice it to say, that there is a fairly substantial need, well over four or five hundred units in the next ten or twenty years. "]

Most senior housing funds come from two pots of money AHFC manages from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency. [Senior Housing Grant Development Fund and AHFC's Senior Housing Development Loan Fund.] Romick says in general projects for low income seniors are financed through grants, but assisted living or medium income facilities have to rely on private financing or loans. AHFC offers rental assistance, or vouchers, to low income renters of any age, but the waiting list is long, often years. And the sequester is expected to add to the crunch by shrinking that program, according to HUD spokesman Lee Jones

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors jones.wav

Time: 11s

Title: 27seniors jones

Description: 27seniors jones

In-cue: the number

Out-cue: assistance]

["The number of available vouchers is going to be reduced by about 125, 000 nationally. That obviously shrinks the resource base for people who need that kind of assistance. "]

Since the majority of Alaska’s senior housing projects target low income seniors, middle income seniors suffer. They have too much money to qualify for rental assistance or low income housing, but they can’t afford market rate rents. AHFC data indicates about 2 /3 of Alaska’s seniors can’t afford urban rents. A brief white paper released this [february] month by the state department of Health and Social Services identified some funding strategies that could be used to develop “graduated income” housing to accommodate residents of mixed incomes. Again, Mark Romick

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors romick 4 use last.wav

Time: 23s

Title: 27seniors romick 4 use last

Description: 27seniors romick 4 use last

In-cue: i think

Out-cue: future]

["I think it's pretty obvious that alternative sources need to be developed. Private financing is a huge component of that. There is not enough money available through the state or federal government to address the housing need of all the seniors that might need an affordable place to live. People are going to have to be more creative about how they address the financing of senior housing in the future. "]

One group of seniors in Fairbanks is a jump ahead of the game. Karen Parr says the Raven Landing retirement community there was created, funded and designed at the instigation of a group of retired teachers who wanted to stay in Fairbanks, but couldn’t find middle income senior housing in their city. Parr says Raven Landing is a model for communities looking for solutions.

[CutID: <Worktapes> 27seniors parr.wav

Time: 21s

Title: 27seniors parr

Description: 27seniors parr

In-cue: the thing

Out-cue: care plan]

["The thing that's so good about Raven Landing that is kind of unique, is that it was created by a group of local residents who planned it to suit this particular group of people, this kind of people. It's kind of an Alaskan version of a continuing care plan."]

The city of Faribanks helped to buy the land, and in 2008, the first building with 20 units opened. Another 20 units became available last year, and twenty more opened up last month. AHFC has provided grants and loans for each of the apartment buildings while individual and corporate donations help support the Retirement Community of Fairbanks non profit which operates the complex. RCF is now in the process of getting funds to build a community center. I’m Ellen Lockyer

Gov. Sean Parnell’s oil tax proposal is steadily making its way through the Senate.

His bill advanced out of the Senate resources committee on Wednesday, with a few changes. Instead of setting the base tax rate at 25 percent, it bumps it to 35 percent. It offset that by increasing a tax break for oil produced from new areas, and giving oil companies a $5 per barrel credit. Like the governor’s bill, it gets rid of a mechanism that would raise taxes on oil companies when profits are high. Parnell described the changes as a positive step forward at a press conference on Thursday.

The new version of the oil tax bill’s impact on the state’s revenue is close to Parnell’s original version. According to the bill’s fiscal note, the bill would cut taxes on oil companies by up to $900 million over the next year. Parnell’s would cut taxes by roughly the same amount.

The new version of the bill got support from all members of the resources committee, save one. Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat, still had questions about the effect the bill would have both on oil production and revenue, and he had concerns about the pace of the review process.

“The amendments we’ve adopted make some significant changes. The CS [committee substitute] we put in front of us last Friday basically revamps the governor’s bill and adopts some significant new measures. I don’t feel like we’ve fully vetted that. The fiscal notes, which we’ve all received this afternoon, have not been discussed by the committee,” said French. “And so, I believe that the totality of the circumstances are that this is rushing through this committee to the next one, and I don’t feel confident of the work.”

Sen. Peter Micchiche, a Republican from Soldotna, countered that a previous committee had already spent time with the bill, and that more hearings are still to come.

“Some of us have spent hundreds of hours processing this bill in two different committees,” said Micciche.

The bill is now being heard in finance, the last Senate committee that will review the plan.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

So far, eight Republican governors have decided to split with their party and accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion in their states. Today, Sean Parnell announced that he won’t be joining them, at least for now.

On Thursday, Parnell said that he will not ask legislators to put any money toward broadening the health program and opening it up to more low-income Alaskans. His concern is that the federal government could end up reneging on promised funds, given the current fiscal climate in Washington.

“So if we expand the Medicaid population and the federal government fails to keep its financial commitment, the state would likely have to backfill forward-lost federal dollars to cover beneficiaries of the expansion and to protect the health coverage of everyone currently in the program,” said Parnell.

Parnell plans to revisit the prospect of Medicaid expansion in December, when he rolls out his annual budget proposal.

If Medicaid were expanded in the state, it’s projected that it would extend coverage to 40,000 Alaskans. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will cover the full cost of growing the program for the first three years. After that, the state share would gradually go up to 10 percent.

Because the federal government will start offering extra money for Medicaid expansion in January, putting off a decision on the program means that Alaska will be opting out of that funding for the first six months that it is available.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio

The saga has been going on for decades, and Wednesday evening, the dozen or so residents in D.C expected nothing more than a photo-op with Secretary Salazar.

They were pleasantly surprised Thursday morning.

“We’re closer now than we ever have been,” said Stanley Mack, mayor of the Aleutians East Borough.

By Mack’s count, he’s been fighting for a connector road from King Cove to Cold Bay for thirty years.

Standing outside the Interior Department Thursday morning, Mack called the meeting with Salazar excellent, saying he’s confident Secretary Salazar will reevaluate a Fish and Wildlife decision that blocked the land transfer.

It’s not certain he’ll reverse the decision. Mack called Salazar a hard negotiator, and even harder to read.

Della Trumble said Secretary Salazar needed to hear the human factor; that the environmental review had not taken lives into consideration.

She said she’s more optimistic now, if for no other reason, the meeting went longer than planned.

“We initially had half an hour meeting, but he did allow us a little over an hour,” she said. “And I feel, just optimistic, that hopefully he’ll take a closer look at this issue. He said he understands it a lot better from us being here.”

The Borough and city of King Cove paid for the trip to Washington.

The state would cede 41,000 acres, and the King Cove Corporation would cede 16,000 more. In exchange, they’d receive a 200 acre easement in the wildlife refuge. That easement would allow for the construction of a ten mile, one lane, gravel road.

Residents say they need it for emergency medical services; that flying in and out of King Cove is too dangerous and too often cancelled.

Trisha Trumble’s point, another King Cove resident in D.C., said weather in the Aleutians can change on a dime, making one flight safe, and the next dangerous. She recounted to Secretary Salazar the crash she survived in 2010.

“The pilot stated that we were coming in and getting ready for landing. We were going about 60, we hit an air pocket and it dropped, it made the whole plane drop, he looked at the speedometer and we’re going 120. He was lucky enough to bring it up and crash that plane perfectly on the runway which then turned sideways. We went down the runway sideways,” she said.

She drove the point home by stressing how close death was.

“And then there was fuel shooting out, and if we didn’t have a gravel runway and it was pavement, any spark would made the plane blow up.”

The residents would be allowed to use the road for everyday use, but it could not be used for commercial purposes. There would be a cable barrier preventing people from driving off road on ATV’s to hunt birds.

Nicole Whittington-Evans is the Alaska Regional Director for the Wilderness Society.

“A one lane gravel road with a 10, 15, maximum 20 miles per hour limit on it, from King Cove to Cold Bay will be approximately 35-40 miles, it’s going to take an hour and a half to two hours for a person to drive that road, in good weather,” she said by phone Thursday afternoon.

She said the federal government paid for a hovercraft that could take residents from King Cove to Cold Bay in twenty minutes. The Borough stopped operating the hovercraft in Cold Bay, and moved it to Akutan.

Mayor Stanley Mack said the hovercraft cost more than $1 million dollars per year, and it was unsafe in high seas and strong winds.

“The 1.2 million hovercraft was just the sporadic operation of the hovercraft. We could not operate it. It was costly and unreliable – totally,” he said.

The Department of Interior will not decide the fate of the road before Salazar’s 30 day public interest review deadline of March 18th.  He could resolve the issue before the Senate confirms his successor, Sally Jewell.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who supports the road, met with Ms. Jewell Wednesday morning, a normal part of the confirmation process.  Senator Murkowski said she did not ask for any assurances on the land transfer.

“I want Secretary Salazar to do the right thing, plain and simple. I don’t think he should let this hang over and let … He needs to right this wrong that his agency has put forward. And I want him to correct that,” she said. 

Even though she puts the onus on Secretary Salazar, Ms. Jewell could feel the punishment. If Secretary Salazar does not override the decision before stepping down, Senator Murkowski threatened to hold up the nomination of Ms. Jewell.

Parliamentary rules allow any Senator to stall any proceedings.

Della Trumble said even though she’s optimistic after the meeting with Secretary Salazar, she’s prepared to continue fighting.

“We’ve always maintained, before you make a decision on this, please, please talk to us,” she added. “And the other point is, we can send a plane load this large every week, because there are so many stories about why this road is so important.”

They’re unlikely to get another meeting with the Interior Secretary.

Listen to the full story

Download Audio