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Ketchikan: Ketchikan Borough & City CARES Act Funding $22 Million Posted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN - The State of Alaska received $1.25 billion in federal CARES Act funds (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security), of which $568,572,866 is being distributed by the state to municipalities, in three rounds. The Ketchikan Borough’s share is $10,400,979, and first distribution will be $4,812,980. The second and third distributions will be $2,794,000 each, and are dependent on utilization of at least 80 percent of the prior distributions.

The City of Ketchikan's share from the state is $12,281,651 which the City will also receive in three installments:

First installment May 01, 2020 $5,919,347
Second Installment July 01, 2020 $3,181,152
Third Installment October 01, 2020 $3,181,152

As with the Borough, the second and third installments of funding for the City is contingent upon spending 80% of the first installment.

On Monday, June 8, 2020, the Ketchikan Borough Assembly met in a special meeting to approve programs which would disburse CARES Act funding to the community as a relief to the effects of COVID-19 on individuals and businesses. 

On Thursday, June 11, 2020, the Ketchikan City Council met (agenda-video) to approve CARES Act program funding for the community.  City staff suggested programs to the Ketchikan City Council for funding from the first installment of funds in a report.

On June 12, 2020, Borough and City officials met to collaborate on how to administer the programs. The following is an overview of the programs approved by the municipalities and how each program would be administered.  (See graphic on link page)

The Ketchikan Borough and City of Ketchikan will continue to work together to develop program details. At this time no further information is available. Additional information for the programs will be provided as it is developed. 

In March 2020, the $1.8 trillion CARES Act was pass by the U.S. Congress and signed into law on March 27, 2020. Included in the Act was the $150 billion CARES funding for distribution by the state to local and tribal governments statewide.

Guidance on allowable uses of the funds continues to evolve. Initial guidance was provided by the US Treasury on April 22. An FAQ document was published on May 4, and has since been updated on May 28. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Alaska: Department of Labor to pursue fraudulent activities, prevent misuse of UI program - Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD) Commissioner Tamika L. Ledbetter announced that Alaska continues to take measures to prevent fraud or misuse of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, including the expanded unemployment benefits under the CARES Act.

“The Department of Labor and Workforce Development will vigorously pursue all fraudulent activities to the fullest extent of the law,” said Commissioner Ledbetter.

Individuals commit UI fraud by knowingly submitting false information, knowingly continuing to collect benefits when ineligible, intentionally collecting benefits without reporting wages or income or not reporting when suitable employment or available work is refused.

If an individual refuses an offer of work because UI pays more than their weekly wage, is asking to be laid off, requests to have their hours reduced or quits available work so they can obtain UI benefits, they may be committing fraud. Employers should immediately report these activities for investigation. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Alaska: Department of Revenue Announces 2020 Permanent Fund Dividend - Friday, the Alaska Department of Revenue announced the amount of the 2020 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is $992. Beginning July 1, an estimated 580,000 Alaskans, representing nearly 90 percent of PFD applicants, will receive their dividend by direct deposit or check. The decision to distribute the PFD three months early was made by Governor Mike Dunleavy in response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alaskans who are determined eligible by June 19, 2020 and chose direct deposit will see funds in their bank accounts on or shortly after July 1. Eligible applicants receiving a paper check will have their checks in the mail starting on July 1. Dividend applications that have not been determined by June 19 will be paid out on a monthly basis by check or direct deposit beginning July 23. This year, the Permanent Fund Dividend Division saw a record number of Alaskans sign their application electronically at 92 percent. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Ketchikan: Traveler covid-19 screening at Ketchikan Airport Video By LARRY JACKSON, Text by MARY KAUFFMAN - In this video, I clarify the process of arrival screening at the Ketchikan International Airport.

Among those helping to provide the traveler screening mandated by the state on out of state arrivals, I talked with Trevor Shaw of Creekside Family Health Clinic.

As of Friday, the  Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center (EOC) reported that six (6) new positive test results for COVID-19 have been identified through the traveler testing site at the Ketchikan airport. Five people arrived on Wednesday, June 10th, and all were instructed to quarantine until receiving test results. One arrived earlier in the week. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Ketchikan- Statewide: 9-1-1 Dispatch Consolidation Working Group Announced Posted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN - Governor Mike Dunleavy signed Administrative Order No. 317, establishing the 9-1-1 and Dispatch Consolidation Working Group on June 2, 2020. Its purpose will be to conduct a thorough analysis and make recommendations related to 9-1-1 and Alaska State Troopers dispatch consolidation.

“Public safety is job number one. All Alaskans have a stake in how 9-1-1 works so making sure we have a functioning 9-1-1 system is imperative. We will consider the opinions of first responders, community leaders, the telecommunications industry, stakeholders and Alaskans all across the state before any final decisions are made,” said Governor Dunleavy.

Dunleavy said, “Improvements to the state’s 9-1-1 system mean first responders can more effectively assist Alaskans during an emergency. This is part of my commitment to keeping Alaskans safe..”

Under a state plan announced in May without input from stakeholders and Alaskans, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the City of Palmer entered into an agreement to consolidate emergency communication services to improve law enforcement services to all Alaskans. The agreement means that the build out of an Anchorage Emergency Communication Center project will cease and instead be moved to the existing dispatch center in Palmer to be built out. Through working with a partner agency, the planning and implementation of the project continues to evolve to meet the needs of the DPS to better our services to all Alaskans and cost savings will be realized for both parties.

Former Governor Bill Walker's administration also asked in April 2018 the chairs of both Finance Committees to re-allocate $10 million towards the state’s ailing 911 system. The money was originally proposed for oil and gas research, but the Governor’s office said that this was more important. State officials said at the time that Alaska's 911 system is 30 years of of date and risking lives. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Alaska: Lawmaker urges DOE to distribute absentee ballot applications to all registered voters; Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins cautions voter safety as Alaska sees highest seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases - Thursday, the Division of Elections announced that it will send absentee ballot applications to every registered voter over the age of 65 prior to the August primary elections. In a statement, Lt. Governor Meyer acknowledged that this particular group had concerns about being able to vote safely.

Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka), Co-Chair of the House State Affairs Committee, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic will not be gone by the August primary elections, nor will the virus decide to take a holiday for the occasion. If we can help it, we should avoid bringing together large groups of people. I urge DOE to distribute absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in Alaska to reduce the risk to public health.”

Voters around the country are weighing the risk of going to the polls during the pandemic. Standing in close proximity, using touch screens, and handling ballots increases the risk of transmission of COVID-19. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

“While it's not business as usual, we are conducting business in as close to normal fashion as we can,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game.   

“We have kept all of our area offices open and all of our field projects in place to monitor salmon stocks around the state this summer, as well as our projects and support for other fisheries,” Bowers said, adding that ADF&G has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic “very seriously” and has had strict protection plans in place since March.

The state surveys a wide range of fish and shellfish stocks each summer throughout waters in the Gulf and Bering Sea, all the way up to the Arctic regions of Norton Sound for red king crab.

“We do all we can in support of the fisheries around the state because we recognize the importance to the people in Alaska and our primary objective is to keep our staff safe and protect the public as well,” Bowers added.  

It’s good news for fishery biologists at Kodiak who are heading out for the summer-long Tanner crab survey throughout the westward region. 

“We’ve modifying the schedule somewhat,” said Nat Nichols, area shellfish and groundfish manager at ADF&G in Kodiak. “We're doing two legs instead of five to minimize the number of times that the crew comes in. We also won't be doing any of our normal ports of call into Sand Point, Dutch Harbor, King Cove, Chignik or Alitak.”   

The crew and three scientists, which usually totals about 10, do the surveys aboard the state-owned 95 foot stern trawler M/V Resolution and assess over 300 stations each year at a rate of eight to 10 per day.  

“We came out of the shop two years ago 10 feet wider. So now we're 95 by 36. It is a very capable platform,” Nichols said. “We tow a standard grid that has been fixed for years, and we've developed a really good time series since 1988.”

The annual survey gets some federal funding to assess weights and lengths of any groundfish such as cod, halibut, rockfish or pollock that are hauled up but the primary focus is Tanner crab. The team is tracking the largest recruitment of Tanners they’ve ever seen, estimated at a whopping 270 million crabs. 

“By the time we see them in the survey they're maybe the size of a quarter and about a year old, maybe year two even,” Nichols explained. “It's typically about four years until we see them at legal size. Using that timing, we first saw these Tanner crab in 2018, so this group would be seen in a survey at a legal size in 2022 for a 2023 fishery.”

Lots of the crab appear to be growing faster than normal and Nichols said the bulk of the pack could be ready sooner. 

“I think we could be seeing a good chunk, or at least the leading edge of them, legal in a 2021 survey. So that's next summer for a 2022 fishery and it is not unlikely.”  - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Southeast Alaska: Stronger Environmental Protections Demanded for Waterways, Wildlife Impacted by British Columbian Mining - Congress should hold hearings on the impacts of British Columbian mining operations on U.S. waterways, wildlife, and communities and pressure Canadian officials to strengthen environmental protections, the 52 state and territorial affiliates of the National Wildlife Federation unanimously agreed on Friday through a new resolution. 
 
“The National Wildlife Federation … calls upon the congressional delegations of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and Montana to demand that the Government of British Columbia, as the jurisdiction where mines in the transboundary watersheds are regulated, to act immediately to protect the transboundary watersheds and all who depend on it from the impacts of mining,” the resolution reads, in part.
 
Existing and potential mining operation in the headwaters of dozens of rivers and streams that flow from Canada into Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington pose a serious threat to the communities and wildlife that depend on these waterways. The salmon-rich rivers that flow through Southeast Alaska are particularly impacted. 
 
Weak regulations in British Columbia - especially substantially lower bonding requirements than those in Alaska, Washington and other U.S. states - would leave taxpayers and communities downriver unable to redress or remediate the financial and environmental issues that could arise from mining discharges and disasters. 
 
“We in Washington regard British Columbia as a great neighbor with which we share a great love of nature and prosperous commerce,” said Mitch Friedman, executive director of Seattle-based Conservation Northwest. “But they are anything but neighborly in the way they put our rivers, communities, and fish and wildlife at risk of catastrophe from breached tailings dams.”

"The impacts from British Columbian mining in the transboundary watersheds shared by Alaska, British Columbia, and sovereign Indigenous governments put the health, water, and access to food of all downstream communities at risk," said Meredith Trainor, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, based in Juneau. "It is imperative that the Premier of British Columbia include Indigenous governments and our Southeast Alaskan communities across the border in the United States in protections he has extended under his Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. We are calling on Congress to hold public hearings to pressure British Columbia to be a better neighbor to our Alaskan communities." - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Recovery of sea otter populations yields more benefits than costs; New model puts dollar value on ecological transformations driven by otters
Sea otter in British Columbia
Photo By James Thompson

Southeast Alaska: Recovery of sea otter populations yields more benefits than costs; New model puts dollar value on ecological transformations driven by otters - Since their reintroduction to the Pacific coast in the 1970s, the sea otters' rapid recovery and voracious appetite for tasty shellfish such as urchins, clams and crabs has brought them into conflict with coastal communities and fishers, who rely on the same valuable fisheries for food and income.

But the long-term benefits of sea otter recovery - such as healthier kelp forests, higher fish catches, carbon storage and tourism - could be worth as much as $53 million per year, according to new UBC research. If well-managed, these economic benefits could offset commercial losses to shellfish fisheries of $7 million per year.

The study, published last week in Science, is the first regional economic analysis of the costs and benefits of sea otter recovery along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Critically, it offers a new modeling framework to evaluate the significant long-term ecological changes driven by a top predator like the sea otter.

"Our work offers a glimpse into a future where otter populations have recovered to an estimated 5000 animals, and have fully reoccupied their historic range," said lead author Edward Gregr, an adjunct professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC. "We found that coastal ecosystems with otters present are almost 40 per cent more productive. In the long run, that equates to higher fish catches worth $9 million, carbon storage worth $2 million and tourism opportunities worth $42 million per year."

That's because the hungry otters drive huge transformations to their local ecosystems: by keeping urchin populations in check, they allow kelp forests to recover. Healthy kelp forests, in turn, sequester carbon and support abundant marine life, from salmon and lingcod to seals and whales.

For the analysis, researchers integrated local ecological field studies with available economic data and a , and accounted for uncertainties in future values and potential interactions among the species in the coastal ecosystem. 

"It's clear that humanity must reverse the decline in biodiversity if we want to achieve a sustainable future," said co-author Kai Chan, a professor at IRES and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. "This study demonstrates that restoring key species to ecosystems can also have great benefits for people, and could serve as a useful framework for evaluating top predator recovery elsewhere."

But, the researchers warn, the costs and benefits of such large ecosystem reorganizations are often not equally distributed. In British Columbia, future management decisions must consider the implications for local Indigenous communities and fishers, who are experiencing the losses from shellfish fisheries more acutely.

For example, while commercial fishers are likely to adapt to fewer crabs in shallow waters by fishing in deeper waters, Indigenous or recreational harvesters with more restricted access may not be able to. - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

DAVE KIFFER: Come Aboard!!! - So, while the large cruise lines have decided not to sail to Alaska in 2020, they are not idle.

Even as we speak (well, as I type and you read), they are defining expectations, drawing up storyboards, convening focus groups, and planning charrettes with a single goal in mind.

No, not to make cruises safer.

That's gonna be a crap shoot no matter what they do. They still haven't been able to stop Legionnaire's Disease and N ovovirus from booking passage, so Corona Virus is gonna have to wait its turn for a bed in the infirmary with the rest of the hoi polloi.

The true single goal is to convince passengers that the cruises are safer.

To do so, they are instituting all manner of new policies and procedures in the hopes that the virus will be so busy reading and filling out paperwork it will miss the sailings. 

Really, the only way to kill something like the Corona Virus is to appoint it to a hermetically sealed blue ribbon commission and force it write a mission statement. Studies have shown that no living organism can survive more than an hour or so in such a hopeless environment.

Of course, I have been thumbing through the cruise ships' new "corona" plans and I have to admit, I'm not sure if I can figure it out.

Seems like the major action is going to be ensuring everything is safe by requiring passengers to fill out a questionnaire that asks two questions: - More...
Monday PM - June 15, 2020

Political Cartoon: 8 minutes, 46 seconds
By John Darkow ©2020, Columbia Missourian
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.