Alaska News Daily Brief, Thursday, October 15

Alaska News for Thursday, October fifteenth. This morning reaches from fuel storage in Beaver to a resort-bound parcel in Salcha to a Kenai street fighting a rental, so stay past the big stories.

0:13North Slope Assembly backs next step for roads linking three Slope communities

The North Slope moved ahead on roads this week, and voters there approved big borrowing, while the south end of Southeast gets hit with heavy rain and wind. The North Slope Borough Assembly has pushed a plan for roads between Utqiaġvik, Atqasuk and Wainwright into its next phase. Right now none of those three communities is connected by road to the others, or to the rest of Alaska. In winter, the link between villages is a snow trail packed across the tundra. On Tuesday the assembly voted 8 to 0 to start applying for federal permission to build across the land, and to begin environmental review. A 2020 state study put a gravel road from Utqiaġvik to Wainwright at about 102 miles, with a 23-mile spur to Atqasuk. The vote also covers a longer road from Atqasuk through the National Petroleum Reserve, toward ConocoPhillips' Willow oil project near the Colville River. Mayor Josiah Patkotak wants the two roads paid for together. He said the Trump administration wants that oil-area section built and is willing to help pay, pointing to Department of Energy loan guarantees. The mayor said the borough wants that money to connect the three communities as well as serve the oil and gas interest. He also wants it run as a private road, possibly with the tribe or the Native corporations that own the land, so subsistence protections stay in place. Assembly member Avaiyak Burnell of Utqiaġvik said residents have raised worries about sport hunting and private roads. The borough is asking the state transportation department to fund planning for the middle section. It's aiming for a workshop with state officials in November, before the state administration changes.

1:50North Slope voters reelect Patkotak and approve all 11 bonds worth about $1.55 billion

Also on the North Slope, voters gave Patkotak another term and approved every bond on the ballot. Patkotak beat former Mayor Harry Brower Jr. 989 to 639, about 60 percent. All 11 bond propositions passed, letting the borough borrow up to about one point five five billion dollars. The biggest is three hundred twenty-seven point eight million dollars for water facilities, and it passed 1,447 to 180. Others cover power and heat, sewage treatment, roads and flood control, and one hundred seventy-three point six million dollars for schools. A yes vote doesn't force any borrowing. The assembly decides when and how much, and property taxes pay it back. What's driving it is aging buildings. The borough's capital plan says eight hundred fourteen million dollars of its four point eight billion dollars in infrastructure reaches the end of its useful life between 2023 and 2028. "We build all of our schools on our own debt in the North Slope Borough," Patkotak told state lawmakers in May. The borough already owes five hundred ten point nine million dollars on past bonds, not counting interest. This fiscal year it's paying one hundred three point seven million dollars on those bonds, interest included. One Barrow assembly seat isn't settled yet. Stefanie Lozano and Craig Moore Jr. meet in a runoff on November 3rd.

3:27Flood watches and gusts to 55 mph hit southern Southeast as an atmospheric river arrives

Down in southern Southeast, an atmospheric river moves over the Panhandle Thursday and Friday, and flood watches run from Ketchikan up to Petersburg. The National Weather Service in Juneau says a low over the western Gulf of Alaska is pushing a strong front into the region. Ketchikan and Metlakatla could see 4 to 6 inches of rain by late Friday morning. The heaviest is expected from late Thursday morning through the evening, at more than three-tenths of an inch an hour. That flood watch runs from 1 Thursday afternoon until 1 Friday afternoon. Forecasters say streets, creeks and rivers could flood. Isolated landslides are possible on steep slopes south of Frederick Sound. A second watch covers Petersburg, Wrangell, Kake, Port Alexander, and Prince of Wales Island towns like Craig, Klawock and Thorne Bay. They're expecting 2 to 3 and a half inches. Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Wrangell are also under a wind advisory until 4 Friday morning, with gusts up to 55 miles an hour. The strongest gusts should come Thursday night into Friday. Sitka and Prince of Wales could gust to 55 until 4 Thursday afternoon, and Juneau to 40. The weather service says that's enough to blow loose things around and bring down tree limbs. People in flood-prone areas are told to watch for flood warnings and be ready to act.

4:52Fish and Game lets tenders into Kodiak's herring B season with less than two weeks left

Quickly, around the state. In Kodiak, Fish and Game is letting tenders into the summer-to-fall herring season. Those are the boats that haul fish from fishing boats to processors. That season opened July 1st and closes October 25th, so there's less than two weeks left.

5:12State renews Usibelli coal permit near Healy and raises cleanup bond to $7.7 million

Near Healy, the state renewed Usibelli Coal Mine's Two Bull Ridge permit for 5 more years. It also raised the mine's cleanup bond 42 percent, to seven point seven million dollars. That's money held to make sure the land gets restored if the company doesn't do the work.

5:29Senate committee votes to subpoena DNR commissioner over AIDEA land transfers

The state Senate Resources Committee voted to subpoena Natural Resources Commissioner John Crowther for October 26th. Senators want answers on free state land transfers to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. His office declined an earlier invitation to testify.

5:49Anchorage weighs Eklutna water deals after utilities decline to back its bid for a vote

Anchorage wants to regain an equal vote on the Eklutna hydro project, alongside Chugach Electric and Matanuska Electric. The same lake that powers that plant supplies about 90 percent of Anchorage's public water. The city had tied its Eklutna water deals to the two utilities backing its bid for that vote. Both utilities declined. Mayor LaFrance wants the water deals approved anyway.

6:13LaFrance budget would add seven city plow operators, cut $1 million in snow contracts

Mayor LaFrance's 2027 budget would also add seven city plow operators in Anchorage. It would spend one million dollars less on private snow contractors, shifting more plowing to city crews.

6:27Borough to decide on merging 17 Salcha lots a planner ties to a possible resort

In Salcha, a landowner wants the Fairbanks North Star Borough to merge 17 lots into one 38-acre parcel. A borough planner says the land is understood to be headed for "some sort of resort."

6:41State proposes five-year lease extensions without competition at three airports

The state plans to extend three rural airport leases for 5 years without opening them to bids. Crowley Fuels keeps fuel truck space in Kotzebue, Alaska Power keeps a communications site in Northway, and Fish and Wildlife keeps fuel storage in Beaver. Comments are due by 4:30 Friday afternoon, October 16th.

7:04Kenai planners approve two Woodland Subdivision short-term rentals, one 3-2

Kenai planners approved two short-term rentals in the Woodland Subdivision, one on a 3 to 2 vote. Ash Avenue neighbors who've lived there 41 years opposed the Ash Avenue rental. One of them, Kristine Schmidt, said transient lodging is incompatible with their single-family neighborhood.

7:21State gives DOT Matanuska riverbed to armor the Old Glenn near Palmer

Near Palmer, the Matanuska River keeps eating away the bank along the Old Glenn Highway. The state handed the transportation department 65 acres of river bottom to armor it with rock, with no end date.

7:35Petro Marine seeks state water quality sign-off to rebuild its Ketchikan fuel dock

In Ketchikan, Petro Marine wants to rebuild its aging fuel dock on Tongass Narrows. The company says it's the town's only fuel supplier, and it first needs a water quality sign-off from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

7:49Federal managers bar many Central Gulf of Alaska boats from keeping shortraker rockfish

Federal managers have barred most Central Gulf trawl boats from keeping shortraker rockfish through December 31st, after this year's catch limit was reached. Boats that catch and process at sea under the rockfish cooperative program are exempt, and so are hook-and-line boats. In Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Wrangell, tie down loose things tonight and watch for flood warnings. Comments on those three rural airport leases are due by 4:30 Friday afternoon. Barrow voters, your runoff is November 3rd. Elsewhere, the Bureau of Land Management has pushed back the White Mountains winter season because there isn't enough snow. That's all for this edition of the Alaska News daily brief. The full stories are at Alaska News dot com. And that's the way it is, Thursday, October fifteenth, twenty twenty-six.