Alaska News Daily Brief, Saturday, November 7

Alaska News for Saturday, November seventh. A quieter brief, and in most of it someone else holds the yes: a state reviewer, Kodiak's city council, utility regulators and a federal commission.

0:13PeaceHealth seeks state approval for $7 million robotic surgery project in Ketchikan

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center wants to bring robotic surgery to southern Southeast. In a state notice dated yesterday, the hospital asked for permission to buy robotic surgical systems and other operating room equipment. The project costs six point nine seven million dollars. Federal rural health money would pay for it. That's the Rural Health Transformation Program, which gave Alaska about two hundred seventy-two million dollars in its first year. The state announced back in August that it intends to award Ketchikan the full amount. The robot would let surgeons do minimally invasive operations in orthopedics, urology and more. The hospital's service area covers Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell and Prince of Wales. PeaceHealth says the robot would mean fewer patients sent out of the area for surgery. There's also one surgeon in particular the hospital has in mind. Chief Administrative Officer Sarah Cook spoke to the city's oversight committee last month. She said a general surgeon who grew up in Ketchikan might come home. That surgeon's one request, Cook said, was a robot. Cook said recruits often ask how many patients they'll see. Ketchikan's volumes are sometimes lower than they'd like. During fiscal twenty twenty-six, the hospital brought on two general surgeons who work as needed rather than full time. The filing is what the state calls a certificate of need, its review for big health care spending. The state hasn't declared the application complete yet. Once it does, public comment opens. The hospital is aiming to finish by May twenty twenty-seven.

1:46Alaska Air Group cuts about 200 jobs as it seeks $100 million in 2027 savings

Alaska Air Group is cutting about 200 jobs. It's the parent company of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. A quarterly report filed yesterday says those cuts, plus less spending on contractors and professional services, should save about one hundred million dollars next year. The jobs are among workers outside its labor contracts. The affected employees were expected to leave November thirteenth. The filing doesn't say how many of the jobs are in Alaska. With about 32,000 employees companywide, the cuts come to less than 1% of the workforce. Fuel is what's driving this. The company paid an average of three dollars and ninety-four cents a gallon last quarter, up 57% from a year earlier. It expects to pay between four dollars and sixty-five cents and four dollars and eighty-five cents for the rest of the year. Its fuel bill is now expected to run one point eight billion dollars over plan. Revenue actually grew 14% last quarter, to about four point three billion dollars. But through September, the company had lost four hundred sixteen million dollars. Over the same stretch last year, it earned seventy-nine million dollars. It now expects to lose money for twenty twenty-six. The company is also setting aside less for employee incentive pay. It expects a lower payout from its performance-based pay program. And it's paused a separate reward tied to operational performance for twenty twenty-six. Severance and other costs from the cuts should run about eleven million dollars this quarter. The one hundred million dollars in savings is a forecast, and the company lists missing its cost-cutting goals as a risk to its results.

3:41Kodiak weighs borrowing up to $10 million more to replace its main sewage pump station

In Kodiak, the city council votes Thursday on borrowing up to ten million dollars more. The money would replace the pump station that moves most of the town's sewage. About 80% of Kodiak's sewage goes through Lift Station 5 on its way to the treatment plant. The station was built in the mid-1970s, and its pumps and controls are worn out. About 20 years ago, a pipe break sent sewage straight into Mission Lake. A similar failure in twenty nineteen cost the city more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Under a state compliance order, the new station has to be done by the end of twenty twenty-seven. The problem is price. The only bid, from Brechan Construction, came in at sixteen point three million dollars. The engineer had estimated about seven point two million dollars. It's the second time this has happened. The city rejected a seventeen point seven million dollars bid in twenty twenty-three. Part of the reason may be underground. Crews have to dig more than 35 feet down in a tight spot near the lake. City staff say the cost of holding back that soil may not have been fully counted in the estimate. With everything included, staff put the total at about eighteen point three million dollars. The city has about four point six million dollars, plus a pending three point two five million dollars federal grant. Thursday's vote would raise its state loan limit from seven point four million dollars to seventeen point four million dollars. The loan would be paid back from sewer bills, and the city's taxing power isn't pledged. The council would still need a separate ordinance to approve the final loan.

5:19Regulators approve Chugach fuel charges that shift typical bills by less than $1

A few more things, quickly. Chugach Electric's fuel charges are changing, and a typical bill moves by less than a dollar. Regulators approved the quarterly adjustment. In the North district, a typical bill goes up 73 cents. In the South district, it drops 84 cents.

5:40Afognak Native Corporation names Alutiiq LLC executive Autumn Sellars interim CEO

Afognak Native Corporation has named Autumn Sellars interim CEO. Sellars is an executive with Alutiiq LLC. The announcement doesn't mention Dan Corbett. Corbett was CEO in September, when Afognak bought a majority of Weaver Bros.

5:55Tax expense turns Alaska Air Group's pretax profit into a $147 million loss

Alaska Air Group made eighteen million dollars before taxes last quarter. Then one hundred sixty-five million dollars in tax expense turned that into a one hundred forty-seven million dollars loss. Most of it was a one hundred fifty-one million dollars adjustment tied to its new forecast of a loss for the year. Once the company expected a loss for the year, it could count on less tax benefit from losses it had already recorded. Fuel prices are what changed the forecast.

6:23Alaska telecoms urge FCC commissioner's aide to back $162 million for mobile broadband

Alaska's phone and internet carriers have been lobbying an aide to one of the Federal Communications Commission's members. They want backing for one hundred sixty-two million dollars to expand mobile broadband in the state. That money is still waiting on a vote by the full commission.

6:39FCC hasn't approved $162 million for Alaska cell service, past the October vote Trump cited

That vote is running late. At a Wasilla rally for Senator Dan Sullivan, President Trump said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had told him the commission would vote in October on the one hundred sixty-two million dollars for Alaska cell service. It's now November, and the money is still pending.

6:57Seward-Tudor interchange rebuild estimated at $96.5 million

In Anchorage, the state's draft design puts the rebuild of the Seward Highway and Tudor Road interchange at ninety-six point five million dollars. So far, only five million dollars has been approved, and that's for design.

7:10Wrap-up

There's more this morning than the brief had room for, including a close Homer council race now in the canvass board's hands, and Alaska paratroopers who flew nonstop to Hawaii and jumped in. That's all for this edition of the Alaska News daily brief. The full stories, and more, are at Alaska News dot com. And that's the way it is, Saturday, November seventh, twenty twenty-six.