Category: Alaska News

ADUs

After a year of consideration and reconsideration, accessory dwelling units have officially been voted down by the assembly. 

The arguments on each side are well worn at this point, and Tuesday was no different. 

There was some talk of amendments to make the proposal more amenable to skeptical assembly members and residents. 

One was a set of recommendations from the planning commission to increase minimum lot sizes for ADUs in Mud Bay. That failed to get support from assembly members.  

Another possibility came after assembly member Gabe Thomas named a number of changes he wanted to see in the proposal. Thomas’ ideas included aesthetic guidelines, a requirement that the property owner live on the property, and a limitation on use as short-term rental. 

But when asked by mayor Tom Morphet if he wanted to propose any of those suggestions as amendments, Thomas declined. 

After assembly member Kevin Forster went ahead and proposed one of those changes, a requirement that property owners live on the property, Thomas voted against it. 

“I’m not going to vote for this, period, the way it changes zoning,” Thomas said. 

In a final vote on allowing ADUs, Eben Sargent and Forster were the only votes in favor. 

The vote might be the end of ADUs in code for now, but not in practice.

Borough planner Chen Wu said at the meeting ADUs were widespread in the borough, rented out illegally. 

Residents get permits to build structures on their property as sheds or carports — both allowed uses — before later adding kitchen and bathroom facilities and renting them out without borough permission, Wu said. 

Wu said he’s seen evidence of the practice in permit applications, Facebook groups advertising rentals, and in conversations with residents who had previously lived in such structures. 

Planning commissioners this month said they agreed with Wu’s assessment.

Severance Tax 

The assembly agreed unanimously to reintroduce a severance tax ordinance after it failed to pass last meeting. It was a long road to get there. 

The main complication was Sargent asking for a commitment from assembly members that they wait to take a final vote on the proposal until all assembly members were present at a meeting. 

That came after last meeting, where assembly members voted down the ordinance with only four members present. Sargent said he was frustrated by the action given how much time had gone into developing the proposal.

“What I heard last meeting from Gabe (Thomas) was ‘I’m gonna kill it,’ after we asked to postpone,” Sargent said during discussion Tuesday. 

Not everyone was amenable to being asked to make such a commitment, namely Thomas and Smith. “Why wouldn’t we have that agreement for everything?” Smith said. “This is classic projection.” 

The lengthy and loud back and forth ended with middle-ground proposals from Forster and Stickler. Forster proposed a version of the tax structure roughly splitting the difference between the two proposals brought to the meeting: the previously-considered version, from the commerce committee, and a new version from Smith. 

Stickler proposed scheduling the proposal for two public hearings, with two more to follow if necessary. 

The amendments carried unanimously. 

Unfortunately, the discussion on procedural issues didn’t resolve any of the stickier questions about the actual tax structure — a question to be ironed out in coming public hearings. 

In numerous public hearings and committee meetings in the past year, as well as hearings in past assemblies, the severance tax has failed to reach a consensus to pass. 

Still to come

The assembly voted to close its Tuesday meeting at 10:30 p.m., with some of the agenda left for a Wednesday night addendum. Here’s what was bumped over to that meeting:

The cost of playing ball

The borough has received a $34,000 check from telecommunications company GCI for improvements at the Oslund Park baseball fields. 

The payment comes as the company considers applying for a cell-tower project, calling into question whether the borough can ethically accept the donation.

The GCI cell towers have for over a year faced strong opposition from residents.  

Tanani Bay sewer outfall

The assembly will vote whether to authorize a sewer maintenance service area for residents at a Tanani Bay development. 

The development’s sewer outfall is out of compliance with state regulations, and there’s debate over who’s responsible for addressing the issue. Developer Don Turner Jr. says the borough agreed in principle to assume ownership of the sewer system decades ago but never followed through. The borough’s attorney said the borough does not currently own the development’s sewer system. 

What is clear is that residents who have built new houses connected to the outfall want a solution fast, as the sewer issues are preventing them from moving in. 

If the assembly votes to approve the new service area, residents connected to the development’s sewer system who are registered to vote in Haines will then vote on establishing the service area. 

Seasonal sales tax and plastic bag ban

More discussion will come on two familiar topics. The assembly will consider a citizens’ petition to lower the seasonal sales tax rate for coming months in response to high fuel prices and elevated cost of goods downstream of those fuel prices. 

Also up for discussion is re-introduction of legislation to fully ban plastic bags in the borough, such as the ones used at Olerud’s. Identical legislation was voted down last assembly meeting, notable with only four members present, and has been brought back at the start of the legislative process. If introduced, it will need to go through a fresh round of public hearings before being eligible for another vote. 

The post Assembly Briefs: ADUs, severance tax, and an extra meeting appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The assembly has thrown its support behind encapsulation for the Lutak Dock, the design concept most similar to that of previous dock contractor Turnagain Marine. 

The concept calls for building a steel retaining wall to stabilize some of the existing dock face, with the rest of the existing dock demolished. Winning out over two other options, including one floating-dock option that had been favored by some residents, the choice seems all but final; borough consultants from engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol Tuesday warned a decision to change course down the line would be “catastrophic.” 

The assembly nearly-unanimously endorsed the operational benefits of encapsulation, but some questioned whether the concept — described by Moffatt & Nichol as the most expensive — could be built large enough given limited funds. Engineers have not yet said how much of the dock can be encapsulated in budget, just that it will be enough for grocery and fuel deliveries. 

Moffatt & Nichol will now further develop the plans for the encapsulation concept, targeting the end of July to put the concept out for bid. A new firm will then be chosen from the bidding process to finalize engineering and build the dock. 

Tuesday’s meeting saw proponents of the encapsulation design highlight specific advantages: assembly member Cheryl Stickler pointed to easier federal permitting for the concept, and assembly member Gabe Thomas pointed to reduced changes to fuel deliveries over the dock. 

“I don’t like taking that risk of moving the fuel shed. Being innovative costs money,” Thomas said. “If I have to cut (the design) down to half the size but don’t have to move the fuel shed, that’s what I’ll do.” 

Assembly member Mark Smith said he thought other designs were liable to “break faster” and were less safe, which Stickler said was one of her main concerns as well.  Moffatt & Nichol engineer Paul Wallis had pushed back on both of those assessments earlier in the meeting and at the previous planning commission meeting. 

Delta Western president Henry Palmer endorsed the encapsulation option in a letter sent to the assembly just before its meeting on Tuesday. 

Skeptics acknowledged the operational benefits of the encapsulation design but questioned its viability given the project budget — roughly $22 million, including contingency funds. 

The borough last year considered an encapsulation design from Turnagain downsized to fit within the $22 million budget. But ultimately even that was deemed impossible for the money, and a further downsized design likely too small to be “useful.” 

“It’s hard to pick one of these if we’re going to right-size it later,” assembly member Kevin Forster said. “If it shrinks later the level of service changes. I buy that (encapsulation) is probably the superior product, but is it attainable for us for what we’ve got?” 

In some ways, Wallis validated Forster’s concerns. 

“I wrote 15 years ago that encapsulation (for the Lutak Dock) was a great idea, and I still think it’s a great idea,” Wallis said. “But you know what it’s a good idea for? A dock you can fully encapsulate. You can’t afford that.” 

All courses of action at this point involve demolishing much of the existing dock, Wallis said. 

Forster asked for “some kind of assurance” that a still-functional encapsulated dock could be built with the money, but the assurance Forster was looking for doesn’t seem to exist. 

The concept drawings thus far don’t specify how large the final dock will be; Wallis said his firm will “right-size” the dock once the design is further developed. Right-sizing, in theory, will mean a design that is within cost while maintaining the ability to deliver fuel and groceries over the dock — the performance requirements the assembly has asked for. 

Even once Moffatt & Nichol’s work on the project is finished, the resulting design won’t have any solid price-tag associated with it. The margin of error on cost estimates at that point will be 30% below and 50% above, Moffatt & Nichol vice president Shaun McFarlane told assembly members. 

“There is no cost certainty that is achievable at this point,” he said. “Thus is our challenge.” 

What is there is the engineering firm’s assurance that it can be done. 

In many ways, the assembly and the public have ceded control to Moffatt & Nichol — one of the features, benefits even, of the current procurement process, the firm has said. 

In November, McFarlane said the current arrangement, compared to procurement with Turnagain, reduced the number of windows the borough had to directly weigh in on the design process. 

“There’s often an appetite that develops to go back and rethink things that could’ve and should’ve been put to rest at the concept development stage,” he said at the time. “I think given the different ideas that you have with the community, a more straightforward design-build is the best way forward.” 

With that process in place, assembly choice Tuesday was limited to broad concepts, leaving Moffatt & Nichol to handle “scope, scale, and budget” concerns, Wallis said. Despite public debate over those very concerns, they’ve largely been locked in by previous assembly decisions. That includes the call to have Moffatt & Nichol budget and design for grocery and fuel delivery, not larger dock operations. 

When it came time to make a final call, the assembly went 4-2 in favor of encapsulation, with Forster joining Smith, Stickler, and Thomas in the majority. 

Assembly member Eben Sargent voted against it, saying he preferred one of two options: waiting to confirm encapsulation until it was more certain the funding could build a large-enough encapsulated dock, or choosing a cheaper option and using any excess money to add further uplands. 

Assembly member Craig Loomis did not participate in the debate, saying only in comments after that “our grandkids are going to be paying for maintenance on that thing for the next 100 years,” and that the borough “would not get what (it) expects” from the design. 

As for Forster, given his reservations, he said his yes vote didn’t come easily. He remained frustrated by uncertainty over price and viability.

“I don’t think anybody who’s a decision maker sees this from all the perspectives: permitting, dock use, financial, long-term,” he said. “Am I confident in that vote? no. But my intention all along has been to get us to a place where we have a municipal freight dock that will last into the future.”

There was an audible sigh of relief – even some applause – from many in the assembly chambers following the vote. 

That’s not wholly new; there was also applause and relief last year after the assembly agreed to rework its contract with Turnagain, but that deal later fell through. 

If this time is different, more solid indication will come later in the timeline: the project is scheduled to go out for bid in the summer and construction is estimated to be complete late 2029. 

Moffatt & Nichol will stay onboard at least through the project going out to bid, and potentially longer if the firm is retained as advisors during the construction process.

The firm’s project leads, Wallis and McFarlane, have become familiar characters in recent months. The two have been a constant presence on Zoom during borough meetings, Wallis the more front-facing figure, with long monologues and colorful metaphors, including one that has come up a number of times about painting polka-dots on the dock.

In November, harbormaster Henry Pollan had described their firm as “the most equipped in the region” for the job. 

But during debate recently, some residents questioned their leadership, including Fred Gray, who sits on the borough’s Ports and Harbors Advisory Committee and was formerly Delta Western’s Haines terminal manager. 

Gray, citing his experience working hundreds of barges “from Dutch Harbor to Wrangell,” said the engineers had given bad advice to decision makers and the public on the merits of  one of the design concepts, the floating-dock option.

Gray at a Ports and Harbors meeting this month said the engineers were understating the future maintenance costs of a floating dock given that, according to his assessment, it would have structurally vulnerable hinges. 

At the same meeting, Gray also said it was “obvious (Moffatt & Nichol) have never had barge operations, because you wouldn’t say catwalks are standard procedure in the marine industry in Alaska.” 

The non-encapsulation designs were slated to have dock operators working off catwalks more than they do currently, which Gray said was a safety risk. 

Gray attributed those alleged errors to political pressures. Wallis generally said they weren’t errors, but rather that Gray was operating on incorrect information. As evidence of the floating dock’s viability, he pointed to the Moffatt & Nichol-designed floating cruise-ship dock at Icy Strait Point in Hoonah. 

“We’ve heard ‘we’ve never seen it done that way,’” he said. “Well, we may have done things people haven’t seen done that way.”

The post Borough to pursue encapsulation for Lutak Dock appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

A proposal to create civics education requirements for all Alaska high school students is advancing in the Legislature, amid a deepening decline in public trust in government nationwide. 

Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, sponsored Senate Bill 23, which would require high school students to take a semester of civics curriculum, pass a civics exam or complete a project-based assessment in order to graduate. The bill is under consideration in House committees after it passed the Senate in March.

Stevens, a longtime legislator and former University of Alaska professor, told House members at a hearing on March 18 the goal is to inspire students to be more engaged with their government and civic affairs. 

“What we hope to do is to rekindle the spirit within our education system to help foster citizenship and voting and community engagement, which is really a fundamental purpose, I think, of public education,” Stevens said.

Civics education is the study of how local, state and federal government works in the constitutional democracy of the United States. That includes our government’s laws and history, the rights of citizens and structures of power. 

Stevens said in an interview Wednesday that he sees expanding civics education as a way to combat growing distrust or misunderstanding of government. 

“Certainly, I think there’s just a lack of understanding. I have talked to a lot of kids who just have no idea that there is a state government and there is a federal government. There’s a difference between the two,” he said, adding that each governments’ roles and responsibilities are important to understand. 

Stevens said Alaska’s students should know that, states are responsible for administering public schools and running elections. “I think kids need to know that, and I think they’re interested in it.”

The bill would direct the Alaska State Board of Education to provide open access, no-cost educational resources to districts covering 14 areas of government, politics and public affairs. Those 14 areas include the founding principles of the United States, the Alaska and U.S. Constitutions, federalism, civil liberties and civil rights, political parties, campaigns and elections, comparative systems of government including by Alaska Native tribes, and others.

If enacted, students would have three options to fulfill the graduation requirement: take and pass a semester-long comparative government and civics course, pass a civics exam — with an option e-take the exam if they did not pass — or opt to complete a civics-related project. 

In the second term of the Trump administration, public distrust and political polarization has continued to decline in the U.S. A survey completed in September by the Pew Research Center found public trust in government at one of the lowest points since 1958 — just 17% of respondents said they trust the federal government to do what is right. That’s down from 22% in 2024, and reported trust in government has not been higher than 30% since 2007. 

Another 2025 survey by the center found that 8 in 10 U.S. adults said that on important issues facing the country, Republican and Democrat voters not only disagree on policy and plans, but also can’t agree on basic facts.

Shawn Healy with iCivics, a nonpartisan advocacy organization founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to promote civics learning, testified in support of the bill. He said many states across the country are taking steps to bolster civics education.

“Just since 2021, 33 states have adopted at least 51 policies to strengthen civics education, and just this spring, we’re following 218 bills in 40 states, including Senate Bill 23, that seek to strengthen civic education,” he said.

Healy told lawmakers that often people do not understand where to go to solve problems in their communities. He said supporting civics education in schools and dialogue on public issues — across political divides — can help address polarization.

“What we know actually, is when we have conversations across difference, that that’s actually a moderating force, that brings us close together, at least creates an opportunity for us to compromise and develop consensus. And classrooms are great venues for that.” he said. 

Researchers with iCivics found that young people who experience civics education are more likely to vote, go to college, be confident in public speaking and volunteer and work on community issues. He said the growing interest in advancing civics education is an investment in future generations.

“We’re not sentenced to this current predicament in our country, where there’s widespread civic ignorance, there’s deep distrust of institutions and one another, and toxic levels of political polarization,” he said. “States across the country are embracing civic learning as a means of strengthening and sustaining our constitutional democracy.”

Many Alaska school districts, including Cordova, Haines, Kodiak and the Aleutian Region School District reported they already offer civics education, according to a survey conducted by the Alaska Council of School Administrators on the impacts of the bill. 

Other districts, including Nome, Lower Kuskokwim and Petersburg school districts noted that implementation would require costs for training teachers and purchasing curriculum. As a result, the bill was revised to require Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to develop open, no-cost curriculum resources for districts. 

Susan Nedza, superintendent of Hoonah City School District, testified to lawmakers she was initially concerned about the cost and now supports the revised bill. 

“While there is often much debate about the reason schools exist and what schools should teach, it is my opinion that civics education is vitally important in preparing youth for the future as community members and citizens,” she said. “I have in the past been concerned about cost and about tests creating a barrier for school and students. The version before you offers pathways that eliminate my concerns.”

The revised bill now estimates a state cost of $40,000 for educator stipends to support a working group to evaluate the curriculum and education resources for districts to list on the DEED website. It estimates $12,000 for the initial design, printing and shipping of a civic education seal for all high school graduates, and $5,000 each year going forward. 

Stevens has sponsored previous bills to strengthen civics education that were approved by the Senate in 2024 and 2022, but they were unsuccessful in gaining support and stalled before reaching a vote on the House floor. 

Stevens said some of the past opposition was related to a concern the state would be imposing an unfunded mandate for schools, but that is addressed in the current bill, which requires the state to provide with the open, no-cost educational resources. Other concerns were related to what critics called a “high stakes” test requirement to graduate. He said those are addressed by having three options for meeting the requirement in the bill. 

The civics education bill was advanced by the House Education Committee earlier this month and is now referred to the House Finance Committee for consideration. It has not yet been scheduled. 

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

A bill that would update the Alaska Public Records Act has stalled in the House of Representatives after multiple hearings and feedback from the public.

Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, proposed HB 377 to unburden municipalities and update the law’s language by requiring records requesters to pay the actual personnel costs of producing them. The proposal comes after municipalities voiced frustration at the current statute, which includes a “five-hour rule” that requires municipalities and the state to provide public records requests for free if the records take less than five hours in one month to produce.

Carrick said that social media content creators abuse the five-hour rule to obtain free police body cam footage for content. She said that the intent of the bill is not to penalize the average Alaskan but protect municipalities from creators looking to profit off of body camera footage for free.

The bill would also expand the definition of public record to include electronic mail and audio and visual recordings.

According to Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the department received 720 requests for audio and visual records in 2025.

DPS charges a flat fee of $36.49 for locating and copying audio and visual records requests.

Getting rid of the five-hour rule is one of Fairbanks Mayor Mindy O’Neall and the city council’s legislative priorities, according to a resolution passed in November 2025. 

Fairbanks Police Ron Chief Dupee called processing records requests a “time consuming process” during a committee meeting in March. He said that redaction takes evidence custodians four minutes of work per one minute of video. According to Dupee, body worn camera footage is the most commonly requested record.

Alaska Municipal League Director Nils Andreassen spoke in favor of the bill. AML published a resolution in 2023 calling for legislation to update the Alaska Public Records Act to lessen the administrative burden on local governments.

“I don’t know of local governments who currently have the ability to do what they need to to capture the costs that go into fulfilling these requests,” he said. 

Andreassen said that Alaska’s taxpayers are “subsidizing commercial activity across the nation” when content creators use visual recordings online. “We’re not able to do the job we’re supposed to do because we’re fulfilling requests from outside interests,” he said.

Some residents supported the effort to update the public records act but voiced concerns for raising the cost to access those records.

Legislators also attempted to increase transparency for victims and victim’s families.

A draft of the bill would require law enforcement agencies to provide an unedited copy of audio or video recordings to the victim or victim’s family involved in a use-of-force incident that results in death or serious physical injury.

Fiscal notes from the Department of Public Safety estimate that the requirement to provide audio and video recordings associated with certain use of force incidents within 30 days would cost the Alaska Bureau of Investigation and the State Crime Detection Laboratory approximately $1.6 million.

Gerald Rexford, the father of 24-year-old William Rexford, who was fatally shot by Alaska State Troopers while experiencing a mental health crisis in Fairbanks in January, supported the change and told legislators in a hearing on April 21 that his family is still trying to understand what happened to his son.

“This bill matters because families like mine should not be the last to know what happened inside their own home. Providing timely access to unedited footage to impacted families will help everyone,” Rexford said, adding that the bill would build trust between Alaskans and law enforcement.

Cynthia Gachupin, executive director of Empowerment Advocate Alaska, said that increasing costs to public records requests would create a “pay to play justice system” in which victims cannot afford the administrative fees to view evidence.

“We must modernize our records laws, but we must not do so on the backs of Alaskans who have already paid the highest price as victims of crimes or surviving family members,” Gachupin said.

Antonio Commack, a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People advocate in Wasilla, told legislators she thought it was “appalling” that they are trying to increase the cost to obtain public records.

“Making public records more expensive is going to make transparency less accessible,” she said. 

John McKay, an Anchorage-based attorney, encouraged legislators to take more time to work on the bill.According to McKay, who practices media law, the bill would create barriers for journalists to access public information.

“The changes that would be implemented through this bill would be the most harmful to the public generally and to the news organizations and others serving the public interest,” he said.

During a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, legislators suggested a policy that would make victims and family members of victims the highest priority to receive body-worn footage and a policy that would create different classes of records requestors, such as victims or family members of victims, Alaskans, members of the new media and commercial users.

Legislators questioned the nearly $1.6 million fiscal note during the hearing and set the bill aside for future discussion.

“We’re trying to thread a needle that’s really difficult to thread amidst a public records statute that’s really outdated,” Carrick said Tuesday.

Steve St. Clair, R-Wasilla, said that there were still unanswered questions before the bill could move forward.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Several Haines student artists were honored for their work after a weekend of experimenting with new techniques and mediums over the course of four days. 

Students from all over Southeast Alaska traveled to the Chilkat Valley for the annual Region V Art Festival. Each chose two options for classes and spent an average of 30 hours working on pieces over the weekend. 

“It was super challenging, said Ronnie Fairbanks of Craig, who taught a workshop where students created formline art for longboards. “We only have 15 hours to learn how to paint formline. Have you ever tried that? It’s not fun.” 

Two Chilkat Valley students were honored for their efforts in his class, Ruby Martin who was awarded best in workshop and Ezra Nash who was given an honorable mention. 

“I chose Ruby because if you see this design, she like threw this killer whale together and you can tell she has experience with formline, but it’s super complicated,” said Fairbanks. “She stayed up until 2 a.m. painting. She put in a lot of time, so I’m super proud of her.” 

Zorza Szatkowski brought home best in class in both John and Sharon Svenson’s glass mosaic workshop and in a found-item mixed media workshop taught by Juneau artist Sam Jordan. In the latter class, Szatkowski’s distinctive creation “The Eternal Struggle” got a lot of interest during a student art show on Monday. 

It features a robotic creation with batteries for eyes,  a row of screws spiking down its back, feathered driftwood trees, and a smaller creature with a shell for a head appearing to hunt with a spear. 

“It’s so rad to dish out this MacGyver set of random items and see some kid come up with something out of their head,” said Jordan. “You can see that and it’s crazy cool.” 

Local artist Skweit Jessie Morgan taught a copper-engraving workshop for seven students. 

“Copper engraving is really hard and unpredictable,” said Morgan, who thanked the Chilkoot Indian Association for loaning her class its equipment.  She said students who came in with formline experience made the workshop an “amazing space.” 

Other local students highlighted for their work included MJ Hotch whose efforts in Tawney Crowley’s gelli-print class won her an honorable mention while Ezra Nash was awarded best in workshop for her work in a painting class taught by Ashley Lohr. 

Results: 

Glass Mosaic (taught by local artists John and Sharon Svenson) 

• Best in Class, Zorza Szatkowski, Haines
• Honorable mention, Zoe Lessard, Juneau

Copper Carving (taught by local artist Skweit Jessie Morgan) 

• Best in Class, Riley Soboleff, Juneau 
• Honorable mention, Ray Fairbanks, Klawock

Found Items Mixed Media (taught by Juneau artist Sam Jordan)

• Best in Class, Zorza Szatkowski, Haines
• Honorable mention, Hannah Hofstetter, Petersburg

Gelli Print (taught by Wrangell’s Tawney Crowley)

• Best in Class, Tera Hicks, Juneau
• Honorable mention, MJ Hotch, Haines

Beaded Earring Making (taught by Klawock’s Eva Rowan)

• Best in Class, Ali Kittams, Petersburg
• Honorable mention, Ellee Votzm, Wrangell

Glass blowing (taught by Haines’ Tassja Letchworth)  

• Honorable mention, Claire Davis, Kake
• Honorable mention, Claire Snyder, Juneau

Halibut Hooks (taught by Kake artist Joe Lewis)

• Blood, Sweat and Tears award (Best in Workshop) Riley Soboleff, Juneau
• Special Unicorn (honorable mention) August Rathbone, Juneau   

Formline Longboards (taught by Ronnie Fairbanks of Craig) 

• Best in Workshop, Ruby Martin, Haines
• Honorable Mention, Ezra Nash, Haines

Wash Painting and India Ink (local art teacher Kelleen Adams) 

• Best in Workshop, Quinn Rafferty, Petersburg
• Honorable mention, Hannah Hofstetter, Petersburg

Upcycled Photography (Skagway’s Valerie Larsen) 

• Best in Workshop, Rebecca Midkiff, Petersburg
• Honorable mention, Anna Rock, Petersburg

Painting (taught by Ashley Lohr, of Petersburg)

• Best in Workshop, Ezra Nash, Haines
• Honorable mention, Ayla Loges, Kake

Best for work completed at the event: Zoe Lessard, Juneau

Best for work from home (completed in their home town and brought to Haines): Eve Harrige

Kirk Garbisch award: Kiera Sanderson, of Klawock

Spirit of Art Festival award: Rick Mills

The post Chilkat Valley students honored for their work during annual Region V Art Festival appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Folksinger and songwriter Jackson Emmer is headed to the Chilkat Valley this weekend as part of a tour of Alaska communities that starts in Seward on Thursday. 

He sat down with the Chilkat Valley News’ Rashah McChesney to talk about his music, outlook on life and what people can expect from his show. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

You’ve described Battle Hymn of the Early Riser as a “tired dad” record. What did parenthood make you notice that you weren’t writing about before?

Well, it has changed my level of empathy and patience and my wide-open heart for all kinds of people. I felt like I was pretty loving and empathetic before, but now that I’m a dad and I just see how insane parenting is, I just feel like so much more grace towards everyone. 

Also, I used to just kind of walk around … letting my hair blow in the wind, just being like, when’s inspiration gonna strike? Now it’s like ‘you have an hour and a half to finish … whatever the project is, could be the song, it could be the mix, it could be planning this part of your tour.’ Things get done on a much tighter schedule. 

A lot of the new songs seem built around small domestic moments. How do you decide when an ordinary detail is strong enough to carry a song?

There are these little moments in life that just hit me. This is 50 things at least in one second of, you know, how my daughter asks me ‘can we play now?’ And whenever I feel that way … my ears perk up, and I think maybe there’s a song there. More get abandoned than get written, but sometimes it works out.

If you listen to Tom Waits versus pop country, I think these are two approaches to writing that are almost in opposition to one another. The Tom Waits thing is these rambling little vignettes, almost moments in time that are strung together with watercolors of lyric and sound. You can’t quite get your hand around it but it makes you feel something. A lot of pop country writing, like [Toby Keith’s] “Red Solo Cup,” there’s no mistaking what this song is about, right? And I am kind of interested in the writing that blends those two worlds where it’s like this small moment that could be the red solo cup, or it could be in my song “Clementine Unicorn Sacrifice,” [with] my daughter pretending to murder stuffed animal unicorns. 

Your songs often balance humor with grief or disappointment. It sounds like that’s intentional, or is it just how you naturally see things at this stage in your life?

I think I’m a little bit of a ‘every sunny day has a dark cloud somewhere,’ kind of person. I feel what everybody else does, which is, like, a lot of joy and a lot of disappointment. I live with both of those things, and I’m not the kind of person to ignore them, and I think a lot of people are like that, but maybe better at shoving the inconvenient parts away or compartmentalizing, and I just, I don’t know, I just carry them around. 

What can people expect from your live show here?

I’m going to be playing mostly original music, folk and country music, with my buddy Martin Gilmore, who’s backed me up on this tour. We do a lot of shows together, and he’s an amazing flat-picker like bluegrass guitarist and singer-songwriter in his own right. So we’ll do some of his music too. It’s just crushingly analog folk and country music. It will be intimate. You will not feel like you know us by the end of the show, you will know us. 

What makes a song finished for you?

When you sing it and you’re proud of every syllable and every note comes out smooth and true. You know there are a lot of people, I find, that are pretty good at writing a song to like 90-95% complete. And then you go play it for people and there’ll be one line that you know in your heart ‘that’s not really it.’ There are little burrs in a song that always happen when you’re that close to a finished song.  You’ve got to go sand those burrs off and it takes 30 minutes of extra work or it could take months of extra work to get it how you want it. But, when you do that the song flows out and feels true and that’s, for me, when I know that it’s done. 

For someone in town who has never heard you before, what song would you tell them to start with?

I’d tell them to go listen to “All Hat, No Cattle” and I’d tell them to go listen to “Colorado Line” and another favorite of mine is called “Jericho’s Diamonds” which is kind of a sleepy waltz with a lot of pedal steel. 

Jackson Emmer is playing in concert at the Chilkat Center on May 3 at 7 p.m. General admission is $15 at the door, students free. 

The post Emmer brings ‘crushingly analog’ folk and country music show to Haines appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Sunday, April 12

A caller reported smoke alarms going off in the 400 block of Fourth Avenue. The volunteer fire department responded. 

A caller reported someone banging on their door in the 100 block of Dalton Street early in the morning. An officer was advised.

Haines Borough police assisted another agency in Haines. 

Tuesday, April 14

A caller reported a person driving a motorcycle on the beach on River Road. Officers responded. 

Thursday, April 16

A caller reported that a neighbor at Third Avenue and Union Street had copious amounts of garbage in their garage and the door was open. An officer was advised. 

A caller in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway reported unsecured trash and was worried about it being a bear attractant. An officer responded.

A caller reported a person trespassing on their property in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway. An officer took the call. 

An OnStar automatic notification of a vehicle accident at 25 Mile Haines Highway was received by dispatch. Police, the Haines Volunteer Fire Department and Klehini Valley Fire Department responded. 

A caller reported stolen property from their vehicle in the 100 block of Third Avenue. An officer was advised. 

A caller reported a subject throwing lumber off the dock into the water. An officer responded. 

Friday, April 17

A caller reported damage to their vehicle after a vehicle backed into them on Main Street. An officer responded. 

A caller reported harassing and threatening behavior from neighbors in the 1000 block of the Haines Highway. An officer responded. 

Saturday, April 18

A caller reported smoke in their house in the 30 block of Tower Road. The Haines and Klehini Valley volunteer fire departments and police responded. 

The Haines Volunteer Fire Department performed a post-fire follow-up in the 30 block of Tower Road. 

There were two 911 hangup calls, no canine calls, 14 EMS calls and 27 burn permits issued during this reporting period. 

Monday, April 20 

Caller reported a vehicle parked for a week in front of the entrance to a business in the 200 block of Main Street. An officer responded. 

A caller in the 70 block of Deishu Drive reported multiple vehicles speeding in the area. An officer was advised. 

A caller in the 1900 block of the Haines Highway requested a welfare check on a family member. 

A caller in the 400 block of Main Street reported a stolen bicycle. A description was obtained and an officer advised. 

A caller reported that a customer left without paying for services on Main Street. The customer returned and paid. 

Tuesday, April 21

A caller reported moose in the Tlingit Park area. An officer was advised and a Nixle alert was sent out. 

A caller reported the suspicious behavior of a customer a Mile 3 Haines Highway. An officer responded. 

An officer checked out an abandoned vehicle at Port Chilkoot. 

A caller reported items missing from a property in the 30 block of the Haines Highway. An officer took the call. 

Wednesday, April 22

A caller in Haines reported a scam on social media. They were given the information for the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

A driver on Beach Road was given a verbal warning for not meeting requirements to display a license plate. 

An officer put a 72-hour notice on an abandoned vehicle on Beach Road. 

A caller in the 100 block of Dalton Street reported a suspicious phone call. An officer responded and performed a welfare check. 

An officer checked a license plate during a vehicle stop. 

Thursday, April 23

A caller reported a moose on Fifth Avenue. A Nixle alert was sent out. 

An officer issued a trespass notice in the 800 block of Spruce Grove Road. 

Friday, April 24

A caller reported a parking violation on Main Street. An officer contacted the vehicle’s owner. 

A caller in Klukwan reported a vehicle fire. The Haines Volunteer Fire Department and state park ranger responded and extinguished the fire. 

A caller reported a boulder obstructing traffic on Lutak Road. The state’s Department of Transportation and an officer responded. A Nixle alert was sent out. 

A caller on Small Tracts Road was given a verbal warning for not meeting taillight requirements. 

An officer was advised of an abandoned trailer on the side of Mud Bay Road.

Saturday, April 25

A caller reported a person driving a motorcycle on the mud flats near Pyramid Island. An officer took the call. 

Officers were advised of a disabled vehicle on the side of Raven Road. It was not obstructing traffic and the vehicle was later retrieved by the owner. 

A caller reported the door of a public building in the 600 block of the Haines Highway was open after hours. Officers responded. 

Officers performed a tag check on an abandoned vehicle on Second Avenue. 

There were three 911 hangup calls, one canine call, nine EMS calls, and 38 burn permits issued during this reporting period. 

The post Blotter: April 12 – April 25 appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The Alaska House of Representatives voted to approve a revised bill to reinstate a pension system for all Alaska public sector employees, following passage by the Senate on Tuesday. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s desk for consideration.

With just 21 days to go in the second year of the 34th Legislature, the governor has 15 days, excluding Sundays, to approve or veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature.

A spokesperson with Dunleavy’s office declined to comment on the governor’s position on lawmakers’ pension plan on Wednesday. 

If enacted, the bill would revive the state’s defined benefit retirement system that was eliminated in 2006, a top priority of both the multipartisan Senate Majority and House Majority caucuses. 

The proposed defined benefit system would be open to all state employees, including teachers, public safety workers and public employees of cities and boroughs statewide. Those municipal employers have six months to decide whether to participate in the program or opt out beginning in January, and the new program would be launched in July 2027. 

Within the new plan, retirement for teachers and public employees would be possible at age 60 or any age after 30 years of service. For public safety officers, including police and firefighters, it would be age 50 with 25 years of service, or age 55 with 20 years of service. 

The House narrowly passed the bill along caucus lines by a vote of 21 to 19 on Wednesday. The Senate passed the bill with significant revisions the day before, by a vote of 12 to 8. 

Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, a longtime proponent of reviving the plan, said it took two decades of work in the Legislature and praised the House vote at a news conference on Wednesday.

“We are pleased that it was successful. And it was designed to be a modest, and yet secure, pension for retirement. And it had some amendments made on the floor that kind of made it a little bit more moderated. Choice was put in for employers, which is a big deal,” she said.

But she pointed out that the governor has yet to weigh in: “We still have one more stop, though. We have the big red pen potentially. So we’ll see what happens.”

House Majority Leader Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, carried House Bill 78, and told the Anchorage Daily News that he’s discussed the proposed plan with Dunleavy and members of his staff and is “encouraged” by those conversations.

Kopp, speaking on the House floor Wednesday, said the new plan is entirely separate from the old plan, and has been revised with safeguards to prevent future unfunded liabilities. 

“Do we want to continue down this path, with high turnover, constant vacancies and a growing strain on public services?” he added. “Or do we want to move forward with the plan that’s been vetted, improved and supported by both chambers, a plan that’s involved a lot of collaboration and compromise, and a plan that reflects Alaska’s long term interests.”

State lawmakers voted to axe the state’s defined benefit contribution plan in 2006, after the system accrued a multi-billion dollar shortfall that was misreported by a state actuary. Alaska sued the actuary, Mercer, for $1.8 billion in damages for miscalculating liabilities and settled in 2010 for $500 million. But, opponents of the bill noted, the state still owes billions of dollars on the old system and is on track to pay it off in 2039. 

Proponents of the bill say the new pension system is structured differently to avoid repeating the same mistakes —  it includes mechanisms to adjust contributions up and down, safeguards in the form of three actuaries checking each other’s work and no healthcare insurance benefits — to prevent the pension system from going underfunded.

Health insurance benefits, a major driver of ballooning costs of the old pension system, isn’t included in the new proposal. Under the new plan, employers would pay into a health reimbursement fund of up to 3% of teachers salaries and 4% of public sector workers’ salaries to supplement Medicare for those over age 65. 

On Wednesday, members of the all-Republican House minority put up a potential technical hurdle by voting against the effective date clause of the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass. That sets up a potential conflict between the effective date written in the bill and the Alaska Constitution, which says that the bill would be enacted within 90 days after the governor’s signature without a two-thirds majority vote to do otherwise.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

This article originally appeared in National Fisherman and is republished here with permission.

Worn-out commercial fishing nets and lines from America’s Pacific Northwest are getting a new life protecting soldiers and civilians in Ukraine from exploding Russian drones.

These nets are hung over doorways and windows to entangle the drones before they can hit a target and explode.

On Wednesday, April 22, Nicole Baker of Net Your Problem, an Alaska-based maritime recycling firm, was in Newport, Ore., overseeing the loading of 29,000 pounds of worn-out trawl, gill, and seine nets and crab line from harvesters into a 40-foot container headed for Ukraine. The load included 19 trawl nets, four bags of seine web, one bag of gillnet web, and three bags of line.

Net Your Problem got involved last year when contacted by a Boston-based venture capital and private equity firm looking for commercial fishing nets to send to Ukraine. Nets from Net Your Problem became part of the firm’s first container load of nets to Ukraine.

“I could never have imagined this is what would happen to these nets, and I can’t think of a more fulfilling way to use them,” Baker said. “It’s literally saving people’s lives.”

“My sister is an ICU cardiac nurse, and she saves people’s lives. Now I do too,” she said.

The venture capital firm, Ground Squirrel Ventures, is a network of angel and seed stage investors founded by Eric Klose in 2018.

Klose said he learned on an earlier visit to Ukraine that discarded fish nets could save lives in the trenches of war zones and in buildings in besieged cities.

Klose hardly considers himself a hero, though. “I’m letting people do a lot and also keeping fishing nets out of the ocean,” he said. “I love that this also is saving lives and spreading freedom and democracy. I am just helping to connect people, and I am able to fund the shipping cost,” he said.

Klose, who earned a degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, has friends in the Boston area of Ukrainian heritage.

On a trip to Ukraine with a group of graduate students, he sometimes slept in basement bomb shelters in Kyiv and also saw extensive war damage in Kharkiv.

He spoke with aid groups who were bringing clothing, medical supplies, and other needed items to Ukraine and asked what else was needed. “Fish nets,” they told him. They put him in touch with another volunteer in Vancouver, Canada, who was sending fish nets, medical supplies and more.

In December 2025, Ground Squirrel Ventures assembled its first container load of fish nets, including those from Net Your Problem, and shipped them to Ukraine. Volunteers there put the word out that more nets were available, and soldiers began collecting them to cover doors and windows to entangle Russian drones.

Other discarded nets, once used in crop farming and commercial fisheries across Europe, are also being used to cover roadways in Ukraine. CNN reported in January on Ukrainian soldiers raising nets donated by French fishermen and volunteer groups in Brittany to cover roads and protect vehicles traveling to and from supply lines. The nets are also used to protect hospitals, generators, and shopping areas with canopies of netting.

Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, deputy head of the Kherson Military Administration, told CNN in November that the Russians are launching an average of about 2,500 unmanned aerial vehicles every week. CNN also reported that Life Guardians, run by Klaas Pot in the Netherlands, has sent over 8,000 tons of nets to Ukraine. Additional nets were donated by Norwegian Volunteer Air and Pickups For Peace in the United Kingdom.

Ground Squirrel Ventures’ main focus is on impact-driven investments in climate mitigation and frontier markets. The firm manages a portfolio of 30 companies and operates with a team that includes Brian Shaw as portfolio and operations manager.

As of April 21, Shaw said Ground Squirrel Ventures was working on shipping its second container of about 10 tons of retired commercial fishing nets to Ukraine, with two more container loads planned over the next three months.

“This is our own way of supporting human dignity and the rights of people,” said Shaw. “We are just people living our lives, and we found a need. I am a problem solver by nature.”

“The goal is somewhere in the range of four to six containers a year,” he said. “A lot of fishermen and companies would previously have dumped these nets in their yard.”

“This provides a way for these nets to have a second life. Soldiers will hang them in windows of buildings they are working in.” The nets are also being used over community open markets and other civilian areas to tangle Russian drones and prevent them from hitting targets and exploding.

“Ukrainians are trying to free their own country, which does not seem like too much to ask,” Klose said.

Back in the Pacific Northwest, Baker said she plans to keep participating in the project. Fishing vessel owners and others who are interested can find more information online here.