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Among
early bills is attempt to renew move capital move debate
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Juneau will again have to fend off
attempts to move the capital.
A bill pre-filed before the January 16th start of the
Legislature wants the House to renew the debate over
moving the legislature to the fast-growing
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, just north of Anchorage.
It is sponsored by Wasilla Republican Representative
Mark Neuman.
Neuman says a more central location is not only good for
legislators making long journeys to the annual lawmaking
sessions, but it's also convenient for the state's
residents.
He says a move will give people more access to their
government.
Neuman says he understands the concerns for proponents
of keeping Juneau the capital.
As a result his bill does allow boroughs or
municipalities with more than 30-thousand residents the
chance to propose a new legislative hall.
He says that provision will allow Juneau to be part of
the bidding process.
Rehfeld
appointed budget director
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Governor Palin today (Friday)
appointed Karen Rehfeld as director of the Office of
Management and Budget.
Palin says Rehfeld's Alaska roots and professional
background will provide important leadership.
She's asked Rehfeld to make her top priority of reducing
spending and creating efficiency in state government.
Rehfeld most recently served as deputy commissioner of
the Department of Education and Early Development.
She's spent two decades in public service, focusing on
policy development, managing state funding programs, and
developing annual appropriations legislation.
Rehfeld said she has been ``given a tremendous
opportunity to work for the people of Alaska and help
fiscally manage the state as efficiently as possible.''
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Rehfeld previously worked as a fiscal analyst in the
Legislative Finance Division before moving into
Education Support and the education department.
Rehfeld's father, the late Bob Ward, served as
Commissioner of Administration under Governor Hickel and
Secretary of State, a position that later became
lieutenant governor, when Hickel left to become
Secretary of the Interior.
Alaska lawmakers
pushing for ethics reform
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - State lawmakers say they've had
enough.
Not only are they pushing for ethics reform. They'll be
attending workshops discussing reform shortly after the
legislative session begins January 16th in Juneau.
House and Senate members introduced at least nine bills
today calling for reform. Many of the bills carried
bipartisan support.
Lawmakers want stricter rules of accountability for
relationships with campaign contributors, lobbyists and
companies for whom lawmakers may serve as consultants.
Should there be sweeping reform, it would be the first
since the early 19-90s, according to the state's
legislative ethics committee.
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Before there are hearings on reform bills, senators and
state representatives will be listening to ethics
experts and consultants discuss ways to implement
reform.
Lawmakers expect more bills to come and a spirited
debate. But they also expect important change will
happen.
Meetings
set to collect public comment on 2nd Channel Crossing
routes
The project team charged with coming up with a recommendation for the Juneau Assembly on a preferred route for a Second Channel Crossing has started its work.
Two public meetings are planned later this month.
The project manager, CBJ Engineering Director Roger Healy, was among the guests on Capital Chat today.
He said the plan calls for gathering as much information as it can from the project summary report and meetings with stakeholders. The goal, he says, is to come up with a recommendation to the Assembly which alternative would best suit the community. goal of the project team.
Shineberg and Associates of Juneau was selected to conduct the study.
When the Assembly approved the $135,000 for the study, it narrowed its scope to three crossing proposals, They are Vanderbilt Hill, Sunny Point and Yandukin Drive.
The project team is looking at two variations of the Yandukin Drive proposal. One is an overland route just east of the airport area. The second would be underground partially with a tunnel under the runway.
Barb Shineberg and Jan Caulfield joined Healy on the program.
The said the goal is to submit a report and recommendation to the Assembly by late February following the public meetings.
The first meeting is January 17 meeting in in Ballroom One of Centennial Hall. The January 30th meeting will in the Valley at the St. Paul's Catholic Church Parish Hall.
Both will be from 7 to 9 p.m.
Public comment is due by February 9th. Comment can also be made by going to the CBJ web site at
www.juneau.org
and clicking on North Douglas Crossing.
There's also a lot of information about the project there.
Precipitation top story line for 2006 weather in Juneau
The National Weather Service says 2006 in Juneau saw slightly below normal temperatures, but well above normal levels of precipitation and
Meteorologist Rick Fritsch, who prepared the report, says the biggest story was precipitation.
There were 74 point 29 inches which he says was very close to the 2005 total and is 16 point 06 inches above normal.
He says January, February and March lagged slightly behind normal.
April, May and June were slightly above normal.
Late summer and Fall were well above normal.
So was December, but November was below normal by two inches, despite the record snowfall that month.
Juneau recorded 131 inches of snow last year, 37 point 8 inches above normal..
He says Juneau would have been well below normal if not for the 64 point 2 inches that fell in November.
Snowfall was way below normal in February, March and April.
2006 temperatures averaged only one point three degrees below normal.
The forecaster says there were no extreme temperatures with a summer maximum of 78 degrees and a low of minus five in November.
He says there were only 17 days where the temperature reached into the 70s compared to 25 days in 2005.
There were seven days when temperatures dipped below zero compared to three days in 2005.
Salmon Creek alarm
malfunctions
The alarm for the Salmon Creek flood plain went off this
(Friday) morning at about 6:15.
It was a false alarm, according to Gayle Wood of Alaska Electric, Light and Power.
As a result, she says there were some people who got a rude awaking.
Hopefully it caused them to move, she says. The alarm is set up to warn people in the event of the imminent failure of the Salmon Creek Dam.
The alarm sounded for about five minutes.
A crew investigated and determined it wasn't an equipment problem.
Wood says they're now looking at radio frequencies as the source of the problem.
She says a two tone radio frequency from their Thane Substation sets off the siren.
Wood explains there have been some new frequencies added in Juneau and there could be some "bleed over" that caused the alarm.
She says that will take some time to sort out since its difficult to replicate the problem.
Identity
of reluctant hero revealed
The man who helped a neighbor get out of burning trailer Thursday morning is a Brian
Bottelson.
In addition to saving her, Capital City Fire Rescue credits Bottelson for minimizing the damage by dragging a burning mattress from the living room of the home in Glacier View Trailer Park in the Valley.
The fire department is expected to recognize the man with a commendation of some sort.
Democrats want to permanently bar drilling in Alaska refuge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge are going on the offense after playing defense for a quarter of a century.
They want the new Democratic Congress to make the often-challenged drilling ban permanent.
Legislation introduced in the U-S House today (Friday) would make the oil-rich coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a permanently protected wilderness. That would end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field to energy companies.
Representative Edward Markey -- a Massachusetts Democrat -- is chief sponsor of the legislation.
Markey has introduced similar legislation in each of the last three congressional sessions. However, the House has approved drilling in the refuge a half dozen times, only to see the effort die in the Senate were supporters couldn't muster the 60 votes to overcome a likely filibuster.
This time, with Democrats in the majority and a number of moderate Republicans on record as opposed to drilling, Markey believe he has a good chance in the House to go one step farther and declare the refuge permanently off-limits to oil development.
Pedestrian suffers minor injuries in encounter with pickup
A traffic accident involving a pedestrian is reported by Juneau Police.
It occurred just before seven
Thursday evening near the 6500 block of Glacier Highway, according to Sergeant Paul Hatch.
When officers arrived on scene, they found a 13 year old juvenile with minor injuries who was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Investigation revealed that a 1998 Dodge pickup operated by a 23 year old Juneau man was traveling outbound on Glacier when the pedestrian ran across the highway.
The sergeant says the driver tried to avoid the person but the pedestrian ran into the driver's door of the truck.
The truck sustained no damage.
The sergeant says the investigation is continuing.
Black
bear club eluding trap so far
The young, sleepless black bear roaming Douglas has eluded a trap set out for it Thursday at last report.
A police blotter entry reports
the sighting of a bear cub about 6:13 this
(Friday) morning on the Douglas Highway near the Breeze Inn.
If caught, state Fish and Game officials plan to take the cub to a more remote
location where it will
be introduced to a denning box.
Its hoped that the cub will go into
hibernation, and get a second chance at life when it
comes back out in the spring. There was also
a bear spotted in the Lemon Creek area Thursday afternoon.
The report from Northwood Drive was
also a police blotter entry. No other description
was provided. Its
not known if that could be the same bear.
Fiery
object sighted throughout Southeast
Residents of Juneau, Haines and Petersburg reported seeing what
appeared to be a meteor Thursday morning.
Ken Madsen of Petersburg said he saw three bright flashes
flying over the Petersburg airport at 7-15 a.m. He says
it looked they were going to land in Thomas Bay.
Haines resident Matt Boron also witnessed yesterday
morning's lightshow.
He works for the state Department of Transportation and
was plowing snow on the Haines airport runway when he
noticed a bright white flash in the sky.
He says it broke into a shower of sparks just like a 4th
of July fireworks display.
Boron says it was very brief and at first he thought it
might have been fireworks, but figured it wasn't likely
at around 7 o'clock in the morning.
He says he thought he might have been seeing things
until he heard a report on KINY yesterday.
Boron says you often see interesting things in the
morning when you're outside and it definitely caught his
eye, but wasn't sure what he saw because "it was so
weird and out of place".
He says he also saw the meteor that passed through
Southeast skies in January of 2000 and plummeted on to
Tagish Lake in British Columbia.
U.S.
military officials say a flaming object spotted over the
skies of Colorado Thursday morning was just a Russian
rocket re-entering the atmosphere.
The North American
Aerospace Defense Command said there was no cause for
alarm. Still, witnesses said it was a scary sight.
Docks and Harbors Board meeting report
The CBJ Docks and Harbors Board of Directors took action on several items during its meeting
Thursday night.
Port Director John Stone says one calls for the renovation of the A, B, and C floats at Douglas Boat Harbor.
The new floats would be geared primarily to 38 to 50 foot boats. The board hopes to get that out to bid this spring, he says.
The panel approved an award of a contract for a downtown marine support facility study to the engineering firm of Tryck Nyman and Hayes in the amount of $115,000.
Stone says the study is primarily designed for a new travel lift facility.
The board reviewed it's cruise ship moorage study and forwarded it to the Assembly.
Stone says there are three alternatives from repairing the existing downtown docks estimated to cost $13.5
Million; replacing the docks to accommodate two
"Panamax" size cruise ships estimated to cost $45
Million; or rehabilitating the downtown docks and building a new dock at Gold Creek at $35 to $40
Million.
The board also approved a list of Marine Passenger Fee recommendations for the Assembly to consider
The first is $500,000 dollar request for rehabilitating cruise ship tug moorage in Aurora Harbor.
The second is a $750,000 request for an Auke Bay passenger-for-hire boarding float.
The third is a million dollars to get started with cruise ship berth enhancement.
More
counterfeit money turns up in Anchor Point
ANCHOR POINT (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say someone's
been passing counterfeit money in Anchor Point 14 miles
northwest of Homer on the Kenai Peninsula.
Troopers took a report Thursday night of two counterfeit
20-dollar bills that were used at a business.
Multiple counterfeit 20s have been used recently in the
area.
Troopers say they're investigating and hoping to get
more information on the case from the public.
Head of Anchorage development organization to step down
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The head of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation is leaving the post in April.
Bob Poe says he plans to complete a book about Alaska's economic history.
He also intends to handle a few consulting projects.
A-E-D-C uses private and public money to promote Anchorage as a place to be in business.
Poe took over as chief three years ago.
Before that, he had headed two state departments, a state lending agency, the state's energy authority and the Alaska international trade office.
A-E-D-C say the search to replace Poe will begin next week.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Montessori in Juneau plans Centennial celebration
A celebration of 100 years of Montessori education worldwide is planned for Juneau.
The event is titled "A Living Window to Montessori" and it takes place at the Nugget Mall this Saturday.
Lupita Alvarez is principal of the Juneau program which includes about 160 students.
Throughout the day there will be presentations and demonstrations of lessons for toddlers, primary and elementary levels.
Alvarez says Montessori is a very child oriented educational system that stresses freedom, within boundaries.
She says in a Montessori classroom the children can choose the subject he or she has a special interest in and spend up to three hours focused on it.
The teachers make sure that the student is getting well rounded education.
In Juneau, Montessori is available for toddlers ages 15 months to three years of age; primary for three to six year-olds.
The Juneau School District offers Montessori as an optional program for 1st through 8th grade.
Dr. Maria Montessori lived from 1870 to 1952
and was Italy's first female physician and contributed to, what was then, the new field of child psychology.
Dr. Montessori believed that children must have freedom in order to develop their potential within a respectful environment.
In Juneau, Montessori is available for toddlers ages 15 months to three years of age; primary for three to six year-olds.
The Juneau School District offers the Montessori program as an optional program that includes first through eighth grades.
First through sixth are at the Glacier Valley Elementary. Seventh and eighth grades are located at the Mendenhall River School.
This Saturday's event takes place at the Nugget Mall from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Hoops action highlighted by contests between Crimson Bears and Wolves
The Juneau Douglas Crimson Bear basketball teams are back in action this weekend.
The men travel to Sitka for games there tonight and Saturday.
Tip off both nights on KINY is at 7:45.
The Lady Bears play host to the Sitka women tonight and Saturday.
Snowman sensation has neighborhood foes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -
Snowzilla, the snowman towering over an Anchorage neighborhood -- may be a photo-op sensation. But it's got detractors: some of the folks who live on the same block.
All of the traffic streaming through the Columbine Street is wearing on some neighbors, including Anthony
Bahler, who can see the two-story high snowman from his front window.
And he's not amused. He says sometimes crowds of gawkers are so thick that no can get through.
Bahler's neighbor, Billy Powers, was behind the creation last year of the original
Snowzilla, which attracted hordes of camera toting visitors and media from near and far.
This year, Powers resurrected the snowman and made it six feet taller than last year's
Snowzilla. And once more, the crowds are back.
Powers says everyone likes
Snowzilla. He says only a handful of people have complained.
(Anchorage Daily News)
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