Alaska News Daily Brief, Saturday, October 17

Alaska News, Saturday, October seventeenth. Some things Alaska had treated as settled shifted this week, from a ban in Gates of the Arctic that has held since nineteen eighty-six to the last Senate debate before November. It's a lighter Saturday, with room to hear each one out.

0:18Sullivan and Peltola got key facts wrong in a heated Senate debate, records show

The Senate debate got a fact-check, and two cities are weighing what it costs to deal with garbage and old pipes. Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola spent Thursday night's Senate debate calling each other liars. The record shows both of them got things wrong. By Alaska News' count, some form of the word lie came up 9 times in the hour. Peltola said it 5 times, and Sullivan said it 4. It got heated enough that moderator Lori Townsend warned she'd shut their microphones off if she had to. Alaska News checked more than 20 of their claims against Senate and House roll calls, state House journals going back to 2002, and campaign finance filings. Sullivan said Peltola missed a 2008 vote to move the gas line forward. The House Journal shows Peltola voted for it. Peltola was excused for a revote the next day. Peltola said Sullivan voted to raise the Social Security retirement age. But Sullivan voted against the most direct proposal to do that. Sullivan also named the wrong senator as the one who blocked his bycatch bill. Peltola said Elon Musk and other Sullivan supporters are outspending her 3 to 1. Alaska News rated that mostly false. Outside groups have spent more for Sullivan, but not 3 to 1. Counting the campaigns' own spending, Peltola's side had spent more through September. This was the last debate in the series before the November 3rd election. Early voting starts Monday.

1:44Anchorage Assembly to consider $700,000 to start designing trash-burning power plant

In Anchorage, the Assembly on Tuesday will consider paying the engineering firm HDR up to seven hundred thousand dollars. The money would start the design of a plant that burns the city's garbage to make electricity. That early design is meant to give the city a real number for what the plant would cost to build and run. For now, the city's planning estimate puts the whole thing at about seven hundred fifty million dollars. The case for it starts at the dump. The Anchorage Regional Landfill is the city's only working landfill, and it has less than 70 years of space left. Burning the trash would stretch that by about 100 years. The plant would also make 25 to 30 megawatts of power. It would take the sewage solids the water utility now burns in its own incinerator. That would save the utility about one hundred million dollars in shutdown costs, plus more than three million dollars a year. The city's plan assumes borrowing about six hundred fifty million dollars. Paying that back would run forty-two million dollars to forty-three million dollars a year for 30 years. The plant is projected to cover 97 to 100 percent of those payments. Closing the gap with landfill fees alone would add about seven dollars to eight dollars a month to a household's bill. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration recommends the contract. Every later step, from more design to permits to construction, would need its own Assembly vote.

3:25Kodiak council takes final vote Thursday on $5.6 million in loans for Aleutian Homes pipes

Down in Kodiak, the City Council takes a final vote Thursday on borrowing up to five point six million dollars in state loans for the Aleutian Homes subdivision. The sewer and water lines there are 50 to 70 years old, and some of the pipe is asbestos cement. In twenty twenty-five, the city told the state a water line in the neighborhood had failed without warning. The first phase would replace about 2,100 feet of sewer main and 2,600 feet of water line, from Birch Avenue to the 800 block of Hemlock Street. The sewer work serves about 74 homes. The full job, done in phases, is estimated at twelve million dollars to fourteen million dollars. Most of this round is a three point four million dollars sewer loan. The two point two million dollars water loan comes with one point five million dollars the state would forgive. Both run 20 years at about 2.1 percent. Customers pay it back through their utility bills. Finance Director Julie Liew projects the sewer utility's yearly debt payments rising from about three hundred seventy-eight thousand dollars to about one point zero two million dollars by fiscal twenty twenty-eight, as this loan and two others come due. Liew wrote that both utilities can carry the debt. But Liew also wrote that the city will need a sewer and water rate study soon. Sewer rates last went up in fiscal twenty twenty-five, and water rates in fiscal twenty twenty-one. The council gave both loans early approval 6 to 0. Thursday's 6:30 meeting at the Kodiak Public Library includes a public hearing where residents can testify.

5:03Park Service proposes ATV access across Gates of the Arctic for Anaktuvuk Pass residents

A few more, quickly, from around the state. The Park Service is proposing to let Anaktuvuk Pass hunters drive off-road vehicles across Gates of the Arctic. That would end a ban that's stood since nineteen eighty-six and rested on dictionary definitions.

5:19North Slope oil rule now covers accidental polar bear deaths the agency doesn't expect

On the North Slope, oil companies can seek five more years of coverage for their effects on polar bears and walrus. That coverage now includes an accidental polar bear death, even though the federal government says it doesn't expect one.

5:34Park Service final rule allows bear baiting again in Alaska national preserves

Bear baiting is legal again in Alaska's national preserves under a final Park Service rule. It's the fourth switch in 11 years. The Park Service expects no more than 10 bears a year to be taken over bait.

5:49Northrim takes $8.8 million hit on one customer days before vote on Oregon bank deal

Northrim Bank in Anchorage took an eight point eight million dollars hit on a single customer, which took a chunk out of its third quarter. The news landed days before shareholders vote on Northrim buying a bank in Oregon.

6:03Where Alaska LNG stands after Lutnick's 'federalized' remark

Alaska LNG has its permits. Investment from Taiwan and Korea has been announced. But the financing hasn't closed, the final sales contracts aren't signed, and there's no state tax deal yet. Neither candidate left the fact-check clean. Early voting opens Monday. Aleutian Homes residents in Kodiak, you can testify Thursday at 6:30 at the public library. Also today: a federal judge ordered ICE to release a man detained leaving Anchorage Wellness Court, and Ketchikan votes Tuesday on a Ward Cove substation disaster declaration. 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, Saturday, October seventeenth, twenty twenty-six.