Juneau Daily News Online

Tuesday,  February 12, 2002

Direction of heliport study accepted by Assembly with one change
Alternative heliports should be developed in phases, first concentrating on the Dupont option south of town.
That's the recommendation of city staff in a report to the Assembly Planning and Policy Committee.

The committee accepted and approved the report with one change, as Committee Chair Dale Anderson told the Assembly last night. That change calls for looking at Sheep Creek as the other possible southern heliport site.

Anderson say it's been noted that there's a huge difference in the cost of the sites with Sheep Creek being much cheaper to develop. The committee recommended and the Assembly approved that Dupont and Sheep Creek be studied in a parallel scope until one is chosen over the other.

Police chief outlines use of federal COPS money
The Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance last night appropriating nearly $977,000 in federal funds for modernizing technologies and equipment within the Juneau Police Department.

Police Chief Mel Personnett spearheaded the effort to acquire the grant money under the federal COPS program. He says the grant will go towards a wide range of projects, including a second 911 answering point to be located at a fire station in case of a total failure of the existing 911 center at the police station.

A portion of the funds will go for video arraignment technology, so prisoners won't have to be transported from the correctional center to the courthouse and then back to jail. Personnett says it'll save personnel time and be safer for the community.

Police cars will also be equipped with mobile data terminals to allow for quicker response times and reduce time spent on paperwork. The funds will also go for acquisition of a computerized parking ticketing system for Community Service Officers which will eliminate time consuming data entry.

Personnett says the technologies there're trying to move forward are designed to have computers and machines doing the work to free up officers and staff to do more important work for the department

Alaska's congressional delegation secured the federal grant which requires no local match. Once the new technologies and equipment are in place, it's expected to cost about 15,000 dollars a year to maintain.

Bear report forwarded to Assembly
City staff updated the Assembly Planning and Policy Committee yesterday on the ongoing urban bear and garbage control efforts.

The Juneau Police Department has been directed to enforce a "get tough policy" on improperly stored garbage--police will be issuing citations instead of warnings for garbage violations.

A community service officer has been assigned to take immediate action enforcing garbage ordinances.

The Department of Fish and Game and police have collaborated and agreed on bear encounter polices.

 Planning and Policy Chair Dale Anderson says a memorandum of understanding has been reached between the City and private and commercial aircraft operators to provide bear relocation services at no cost to the city or state.

Funding for an educational program is awaiting approval by the Assembly at its next meeting. And an ordinance requiring metal lids dumpsters is scheduled for a public hearing at the next Assembly meeting, February 25th.

Transit resolution returned to committee
A resolution establishing an Ad Hoc Transit Advisory Committee was returned to the Human Resources Committee last night. The measure's aim is to promote citizen participation in the design of the Downtown Transit Center and in preparation of a transit plan.

School Board and Assembly to meet in joint session
A joint meeting of the Juneau School Board and Assembly is on tap this evening. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the School District's central office on Glacier Avenue.

Spirit of Alaska dropped from Southeast schedule
CruiseWest is dropping its Spirit of Alaska tours from its cruise season this year. Company officials blame low passenger bookings for the decision not to operate the longtime fixture on Southeast Alaska cruise ship schedules.

The cruise line also is closing its Anchorage reservation office and plans to lay off up to 25 workers at its Seattle headquarters.

A company official says the cutbacks are the result of a ``miserable'' fall reservation season. She says bookings for the company's seven- to ten-day Southeast Alaska tours slumped after September Eleventh and didn't recover until January.

The drop in business was enough to drop the 52-passenger vessel from the schedule. Pending reservations will be transferred from the Spirit of Alaska to its sister ship, the Spirit of Endeavor.

The move leaves CruiseWest with six small- to medium-sized passenger vessels it its 2002 schedule. The decision is another hit for Haines' already-slumping tourism economy. The town lost a large portion of its cruise business last year, when Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines pulled out at the end of the 2000 season.

Sales tax proposal sponsor offers to alter bill
The House State Affairs Committee took up the first of several tax measures during its deliberations this morning.

It was the bill sponsored by Fairbanks Representative Jim Whittaker that proposes a six percent seasonal sales tax to be implemented from May through September each year.

Whittaker told the committee his original proposal may not be politically palatable. In that light, he said he would not be opposed to a two percent tax to be applied year round, with a four percent seasonal levy.

The committee plans to hear tax measures for the next two weeks before taking any action on them.

No taxation without reform first say Senate leaders
The Senate Majority is dismissing the Governor's call for legislative approval of an income tax at this time.

Senate President Rick Halford told reporters this morning that the bottom line is that the Governor's proposed tax increases are used up in the budget hikes he has forwarded to lawmakers. Halford says the real question is whether Alaskans want to pass an income tax to support the level of growth proposed by the Governor. He says the people he's hearing from reject that idea.

Senate Finance Co-Chair Dave Donley says he believes the fundamental first step in closing the fiscal gap is through reform, so he's concentrating on reductions and on holding the line, The Senate budget document includes unallocated reductions, which among other things, directs agencies to absorb the cost of state employee contracts.

When asked about a cruise ship passenger fee, which Halford supports, Donley said that would be up the will of the committee.

Gas pipeline bond funding measure introduced
Governor Knowles formally transmitted a bill to the Legislature today authorizing the Alaska Railroad Corporation to issue tax exempt bonds to help lower the cost of the proposed natural gas pipeline. The bonds would reduce the overall cost by as much as a billion dollars.

Knowles said such financing has been used in the past on a smaller scale in the construction of the Valdez Pipeline Terminal and the purchase of Juneau's Snettisham Hydroelectric Project.

The proposed bonding is restricted to construction of an Alaska Highway route.

ANWR lobby measure signed by Knowles
Governor Tony Knowles signed a bill today to give a lobbying group one (m) million dollars to push for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

The Legislature approved the measure to set aside money for Arctic Power early in this session. It comes as Congress is expected to take up a national energy bill.

The measure also gives 100-thousand dollars to the village of Kaktovik to host visits promoting opening ANWR.

But Knowles also called on lawmakers to pass measures to support salmon and tourism marketing. A bill to spend six million dollars to market tourism passed the House and is now in the Senate. A measure to promote wild Alaska salmon through advertising campaigns faces an uncertain future.

Restitution reduced for former Folk Festival official
Jim Demers, a former official with the Juneau based Alaska Folk Festival, is getting a break. The Court of Appeals has lowered the amount of restitution he will have to pay on his embezzlement conviction after more than 13-thousand dollars was discovered missing.

Alaskan Olympians in competition today
Anchorage Olympian Alan Alborn placed eighth today in the qualifying round of the 120-meter ski-jumping competition at the Olympic Winter Games.

Making his jump before a crowd of more than 19-thousand, Alborn was the top American finisher, with a jump of 392 feet -- or 119-point-five meters.

Afterward, Alborn said he feels his jumps are getting better and better. And he said he hopes to ``nail it'' in the finals tomorrow.

Nina Kemppel of Anchorage placed 40th in the women's 10-kilometer cross country race this morning in the Olympic Winter Games. Kemppel finished the race with a time of 30 minutes, 51 seconds, one second behind the top American finisher, Wendy Wagner of Park City, Utah, who placed 38th. Aelinn Peterson of Fairbanks placed 55th, with a time of 33 minutes 18 seconds.

Lars Flora of Anchorage finished 54th today in the Men's 15-Kilometer Classical race Flora finished the race with a time of 42 minutes, 11 seconds.

Top Quest musher at Slaven's Cabin
Peter Butteri was the first Yukon Quest musher to reach Slaven's Cabin early this morning, but Joran Freeman was the first to leave. Thirty-four mushers remain in the thousand-mile race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Seven have scratched.

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