|
Alaskans proving generous in tsunami relief effort
The fundraising goal of the Alaska Chapter of the American Red Cross for tsunami relief efforts in the Indian Ocean has been far exceeded.
Elaine Boyce, the district director in Southeast Alaska, says the goal was $50,000. As of the close of business Friday, they had received more than $250,000 statewide.
The effort in Southeast Alaska had raised $11,000 by the end of the day Monday.
Juneau People for Peace and Justice continues its efforts for the Red Cross this week. according to the group's Carol Anderson.
Her group raised over $3,500 Sunday at A and P and over $1,000 at Rainbow Foods Monday where they will be every day this week over the Noon hour.
The funds will be forwarded to national headquarters where the determination on the supplies and goods that need to be sent will be made.
Juneau
Mayor issues tsunami victim proclamation
Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho has declared this Saturday as a Day of Remembrance for Tsunami Victims.
In his proclamation, the mayor says citizens should give in any way possible to the humanitarian relief efforts.
The City and Borough of Juneau, local businesses, and service groups are organizing the effort.
Collection tables will be set up by relief agencies at local businesses, including A and P, Safeway,
Superbear, Nugget Mall, Valley Lumber and Rainbow Foods.
Recycling highlighted in task force report to Assembly
The Ad Hoc Recycling Task Force presented its recommendations to
the Assembly yesterday.
In its report, the panel noted the closure of the landfill's incinerator.
It says there's now even more of a need to address recycling efforts.
Recommendations
include education focusing on places where recyclables can be more easily
gathered; a disposal fee added to the cost of imported goods, like refrigerators and the
like; curbside recycling; and investigating the possibility of a CBJ owned landfill.
The Assembly also heard from the company that runs Juneau's landfill, Waste Management Incorporated.
Michael Allison,
the company's district manager in Southeast Alaska says without the use of the incinerator the landfill's projected life span is 30 years.
Allison says with the closure of the incinerator the landfill no longer takes the majority of
cruise ship waste which is regulated and must be incinerated. He says that will extend the life of the landfill.
Waste Management has no plans to buy another incinerator because, with increased environmental regulations,
Allison says its not cost effective for a city the size of Juneau.
But,
he says, not having an incinerator is creating a problem with some types of waste that used to be burned, like tires for example. Now they have to be shipped south at a cost of almost 4 dollars for a passenger car tire and heavy equipment tire can cost over 800 dollars to ship to Seattle.
Meanwhile, Allison says there are no plans in place, right now, for the expansion of the current landfill.
Although when it's time to close the landfill, he says their current estimates show the landfill growing about another 70 feet in height.
Allison says it won't be Mt. Everest in Lemon Creek.
The Assembly directed that the
task force report be sent to committee for review.
Juneau resident busted for transporting cocaine to Petersburg
A Juneau man has been arrested for the transportation of cocaine from Juneau to Petersburg.
That according to SEANET, the Southeast Alaska Narcotics Enforcement Team.
Kyle D. Brown, 19, was arrested as he arrived in Petersburg on a commercial air
carrier on the afternoon of December 31.
Investigators seized approximately one ounce of cocaine from Brown. He was arrested and charged with Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the third degree.
Police nab suspect for rifling vehicles
A man suspected of rifling vehicles in West Juneau was caught by police this morning.
Officer Tom Bates says they were notified at about 2:30 and responded to the 3400 block of Nowell Avenue.
Witnesses reported the suspect had entered several unlocked vehicles in an apartment complex parking lot and was seen taking items from the vehicles.
He reportedly placed the stolen property in
plastic grocery bags which he hid behind a dumpster as he filled them up.
The man fled in to the woods when officers arrived,
leaving the stolen goods behind.
He was found coming out of a wooded area behind Cedar Park Apartments.
The suspect, 29 year Jessiah Baker of Juneau, was positively identified by witnesses, according to Officer Bates.
Baker was arrested and charged with seven counts
of criminal trespass. Officer Bates says additional charges are likely to be filed.
Baker was jailed at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center on $1,000 bail.
State says negotiations
with fast ferry crews at impasse
The Murkowski Administration has declared negotiations with the unions
representing fast ferry workers to be at an impasse, and has petitioned the
Alaska Labor Relations Agency to order mediation.
In addition, Commissioner of Transportation and Public Facilities Mike
Barton is threatening to cease operation of the Fairweather on January 25th.
In a letter dated January 3rd to the Alaska Labor Relations Agency, the
state's Director of Labor Relations Art Chance says the state would like
to reduce operations from seven days per-week to four during the
winter. He says that will require laying off the vessel's second 15-member crew.
However, it will require a new agreement with the three unions in order to
allow operations to continue.
Chance says that it's uneconomic to continue operating the Fairweather under
the terms of last spring's expired agreement.
He says the contract was crafted to cover a period of training and initial
operations and requires that two full crews be paid for seven, 12 hour
days per week, with one week on duty and one week off.
Chance says that level of staffing and operation is not economical in the
winter season.
The agency has been asked to mediate the labor agreement to keep fast ferry in
service beyond January 25th.
Voluntary mediation failed on October 1st and, since then, and state and
union negotiators have met numerous times.
The three maritime unions that represent ferry workers are the Inland Boatmen's’ Union, the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, and the
Masters, Mates and Pilots.
At least one of the unions that represents fast ferry workers was surprised by the state's declaration of impasse and petition to the the Alaska Labor Relations Agency to order mediation with the three involved unions.
Darryl Tseu, the regional director for the Inland Boatman's Union, says he was pretty surprised, shocked, and maybe disturbed.
He found it disturbing to find out through a press release that they were at impasse, especially since when they talked last
Wednesday negotiations seemed destined to continue.
Veterans Day added as holiday to proposed school calendar
The Juneau School Board takes up the calendar for the 2005 - 2006 school year in first reading during its meeting this evening.
Superintendent Peggy Cowan says the proposed calendar is similar to the current year. One notable change is that the year ends later, on a Friday. She says that's because Veterans Day is a holiday in the proposal calendar. Cowan says there was criticism from employees and parents who thought it was disrespectful not to honor Veterans Day as a holiday.
The first day of school would be Wednesday, August 24th, and the final day on Friday, June 2nd.
The proposed winter break would be two weeks and a day since New Year's Day is on Sunday. The proposal calls for Monday, January 2nd off.
The board will discuss the proposal tonight and take action on the calendar at its next meeting on January 18th.
The School Board meeting convenes at 6 p.m. in the District Office Board Room.
Trailer fire cause pinpointed by fire marshal
The cause of Saturday's fire
that destroyed a home in the Mendenhall Valley has been pinned down.
Capital City Fire Rescue responded to
the trailer fire off Mendenhall Loop Road Saturday before 5 p.m.
Fire Marshall Rich Etheridge says his investigation determined the fire was started by the occupant
when he was thawing frozen pipes with a hand torch.
Heating oil that had previously leaked under the trailer ignited causing a flash fire.
After the fire was started, it appeared to have gone out by itself and the occupants went back inside the trailer.
A short while later they noticed smoke coming from the floor vents. The
occupants unsuccessfully attempted to put the fire out with water.
The residence is a total loss. The trailer's value was listed at $28,000.
Jerome Dennis suffered smoke inhalation and was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital where he
was admitted and released the following day.
Dennis reportedly lived at the trailer with three teen-aged children
Donations for the Dennis family can be made through the local Red Cross Office. The telephone number is 463-5713.
Wife of Representative Crawford injured
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Anchorage police say a man was arrested and charged with drunken driving after hitting a woman with his plow.
Police say the man struck the woman from behind as she was walking with her son. The injured woman is Gwenn Perry-Crawford, the wife of state Representative Harry Crawford of Anchorage. She was struck after attending a Christmas Eve service with their 11-year-old son.
Police have charged 32-year-old Joseph Dodson with second-degree assault, leaving the scene of an accident and drunken driving.
Police say Dodson was driving a truck with a plow when he struck Perry-Crawford, pushing her about 30 feet down the road.
Perry-Crawford sustained a broken pelvis and a fractured tailbone. She was
medivaced to the trauma unit at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center.
The boy was not hurt.
Eaglecrest manager says it was a good opening weekend
It was a good opening for Juneau's ski area over the weekend.
That according to Eaglecrest Manager Kirk Duncan, who said there was a great turnout for the fireworks New Years Day. About 15-hundred people showed up.
The ski area opened Friday.
Duncan says they would like to have more snow. The bottom lift is not operation because of the lack of snow on the lower mountain.
Duncan says they anticipate being able to open tubing hill in
a couple of weeks. As soon as they get done making snow down on the flats, they plan to move that operation to the tubing hill.
Judge Froehlich
leaves post today
The last day on the job for Juneau District Court Judge Peter Froehlich is
today. (Tuesday).
He says he's really going to miss the work flow, the people he's worked with, even most of the lawyers, and the defendants.
He says they're all good folks. Most are struggling with rough spots in their lives and a lot struggle with their alcoholism. But he says most learn from their mistakes.
He likes to think he helped make a difference in their lives. Froehlich says he's sure tried and he's had a lot of people tell him they've got their life together and think part of it is because of their experience in court.
He plans to travel more and his immediate plans is a trip to Hawaii beginning this week. From there, he'll visit his sons back east and family in Minnesota.
Froehlich served in the post
for 15 and a half years.
Word on a replacement for Judge Froehlich is pending by Governor Murkowski.
The Governor is considering four nominees submitted to him by the Alaska Judicial Council.
The Governor has until
Thursday, January 27th to make the appointment. Murkowski Press
Secretary Becky Hultberg says she doesn't expect the Governor to announce
his choice until that week.
Ketchikan Assembly
considers veneer plant agreement
KETCHIKAN (AP) - The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly is considering an
agreement on its veneer mill.
The agreement calls for leasing the mill and six acres of land to Washington
state businessman Ted Falconer.
Under the agreement, the borough would lease the veneer mill building and
six acres of Ward Cove property to Falconer and his company, New Veneer
Corporation for ten-thousand dollars a month.
Falconer would purchase the veneer equipment for 500-thousand dollars.
The agreement also includes an option to purchase the mill eventually.
The borough acquired the veneer plant after Gateway Forest Products failed
in 2002.
Get Ready to Crumble, Girl Scouts start taking cookie orders Saturday
"Get Ready to
Crumble!"
That's the slogan for this year's sale or Girl Scout cookies in Southeast Alaska.
Fran Compton, the new CEO of the Tongass Alaska Girl Scout Council, came up with the slogan. She says they were trying to think of something to rally around this year's cookie sale.
She was joined on KINY's Capital Chat today by Debbie
Germain, Andy Peterson and Girl Scout Cadet Bekah Peterson.
Girl Scouts will start going door to door this Saturday. They'll get some training before going door to door.
There's a rally Friday night
to test their "cookie knowledge" and go over safety tips before hitting the streets.
They'll be about 248 Girl Scouts selling cookies throughout the community and others will be taking orders in communities throughout Southeast Alaska.
The Girl Scouts will take orders through January 30th and the cookies will arrive in March.
Icy roads closes Mat Su schools
Officials say all schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are closed today because of icy roads.
Officials say streets are very slick.
The National Weather Service also has issued several high wind warnings for the Anchorage area.
Pioneer aviator passes away
Alaska aviator Henry Rust has died at age 84. Rust started Rust's Flying Service at Lake Hood with a single Piper Super Cub.
He grew the business and eventually had a diversified operation of 17 aircraft. A memorial will be held Saturday at the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.
CIRI teams up with T-Mobile USA
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Native corporation CIRI is teaming up with T-Mobile USA
to bid on wireless licenses.
CIRI will bid on the licenses in an upcoming federal auction.
The January 26th auction will offer frequencies for mobile telephones in
several large markets nationwide.
Some licenses are set aside for small companies that might have difficulty
bidding on the licenses.
In its joint venture with T-Mobile USA, the new company will be eligible to
bid on the set-asides.
CIRI chair Bill Prosser says CIRI is confident they will get a decent rate
of return on the investment.
Group drops plan to seek exemption to Canadian cow ban
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Alaska Farm Bureau has tabled plans to seek an exception to the federal ban on Canadian cattle imports.
But Jane Hamilton, executive director of the group, says it's not because a second case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in Canada.
Hamilton says plans have changed because U-S officials expect the border to open to Canadian beef in March despite the discovery of the infected dairy cow last week.
Alaska officials say only young cows will be allowed to be brought in for slaughter, not breeding.
Hamilton says her group hopes that once the border opens for animals bound for slaughter, the federal government will consider allowing the import of breeding cattle.
State launches project to boost maritime jobs
KETCHIKAN (AP) - The state is teaming up with a marine industry group to provide career training for Alaskans to work on vessels.
The state Labor Department has approved a 188-thousand-dollar grant for a pilot project with the Marine Exchange of Alaska.
The nonprofit group has a wide membership ranging from oil tankers and barge lines to state ferries and municipal ports.
It provides services, information and communications to ensure that maritime operations are secure, efficient and environmentally responsible.
The group's director, Ed Page, says the six-month pilot project will identify types of available jobs and determine the skills and training needed to fill those jobs.
Copyright ©2005 Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio)
|
