Category: Alaska News

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at streamlining the state’s elections process on Thursday, just seven months ahead of high-stakes state and federal elections in November.

Leaders with the multipartisan House Majority caucus said there will be a joint legislative veto override vote within the next few days.

In a prepared statement announcing the veto, Dunleavy said while there are many provisions in the bills he supports, the bill contained “legal and operational challenges and could jeopardize the election process.” He told lawmakers his two main issues with the bill are related to when it would go into effect and voters’ signature verification.

“The Division of Elections warns such changes would be extremely difficult if not impossible, to implement securely and reliably in advance of the 2026 elections,” he wrote in a transmittal letter to the Legislature. He said the Division needs sufficient time to make necessary changes. 

The Alaska House passed the bill in March along caucus lines, following passage by the Senate last year. It contained a variety of changes to the state’s elections system, which supporters say is years overdue and needed to update and strengthen the elections process and expand voter access. 

The governor said that the bill would impose “significant operational hurdles” for the Alaska Division of Elections in administering state and federal elections in November. 

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, who carried the legislation in the Senate, condemned the decision in a written statement following the announcement.

“Governor Dunleavy has said, by his veto, that Alaska’s elections are secure enough,” Wielechowski said. “Unfortunately, they are not, and even his supporters confirm that. Our voter rolls stood at 114% of the voting-age population in 2022. Ballots are being rejected over technical errors. Tampering with a voting machine is not explicitly a crime under current law. This bill addressed every one of those concerns. The Governor had every reason to sign it.”

The bill would have authorized checks to update Alaska’s voter rolls. Officials have said managing an updated voter registration list is a continuous challenge with Alaska’s transitional environment and many residents moving in and out of state, resulting in the number of registered voters currently outnumbering actual eligible voters in state. 

The bill would also have enacted a new ballot tracking system, provided paid postage for all absentee mail-in ballots, strengthened security protocols, and  implemented provisions for faster elections results, among others.

The Legislature has five days to convene in a joint session to consider an override of Dunleavy’s veto. A majority of 40 votes of the Legislature’s 60 members are needed for an override. 

“There will be a veto override vote. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to the governor,” said House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, in a call Thursday evening. 

On Thursday afternoon, members of the House Majority caucus slammed the decision Thursday following the announcement, saying in a joint statement the veto is “a significant setback for election integrity and a direct blow to voting access for Alaskans living in rural and off-road communities.”

Edgmon called the decision “deeply disappointing.”

“This was a bipartisan effort to address the real challenges of voting in a state as vast, rural and remote as Alaska. We worked in good faith to improve access, strengthen transparency, and maintain the integrity of our elections,” Edgmon said. “Alaskans deserve a system that reflects our unique geography, not one that ignores it. This veto does exactly that.”

Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, said that rural Alaska “is the hardest place in the state” to vote. 

“Everyone who has looked at the data knows that. We passed a bill to clean up our rolls and remove barriers. It will not become law today,” she said.  “My people have been patient with systems that were not built for us, distances that were not considered, delays inevitable in rural areas beyond our control. So today, the problem doesn’t go away. Neither do we.”

Dunleavy also took issue with provisions to establish a ballot tracking system and to allow voters to fix mistakes on their ballot — a process called ballot curing — by requiring the division to contact the voter by phone or email within 24 hours. Under the bill, voters would have been allowed to return a form to correct the ballot with a copy of identification by email or by mail within 10 days of the election for their ballot to be counted.  

“The ballot-tracking and ballot-curing provisions are especially problematic,” Dunleavy wrote. “The ballot-curing provisions create tension with Alaska’s witness requirement by allowing a voter to cure a missing witness signature after the ballot has already been returned, even though Alaska’s absentee-ballot framework requires the voters certificate to be signed in the presence of a qualified attesting official or witness.”

The governor sent a letter following a meeting with presiding officers of the Legislature on Thursday with technical changes he’d like to see in legislation for fixing ballots, evaluating and verifying signatures.

Dunleavy said the potential Alaska gas line is his main priority, but he’s open to continuing negotiations on the elections bill this session.

“While the Alaska gas line bill is the most important bill this session, I am open to a conversation with lawmakers on how we can address the legal and operational issues this session.”

Other provisions in the now vetoed bill would have included:

• Require all absentee ballots to be received within 10 days of Election Day; 
• Establish a new rural community liaison position within the Division of Elections to support rural districts, including recruitment and training of poll workers;
• Require the Permanent Fund Dividend Division to share data to improve the accuracy of the voter rolls’
• Require the state to develop a cybersecurity program, and notify the public if there is a data breach;
• Require the division to publish results for all rankings in the precinct results.
• Require presidential ballots to include a line for write-in votes for president and vice president 
• Updates crimes of unlawful interference with an election, ballot tampering and election official misconduct

Dunleavy said he applauded the Legislature’s efforts, but said the state needs more time to make changes to the state’s elections system.

“I appreciate the efforts made to improve Alaska’s elections. Going forward, I encourage those who wish to continue this work to use this bill as a starting point; ensure that any proposed changes comply with state and federal law; and pass any election legislation on a timeline that allows the Division of Elections to implement the necessary systems properly,” he said.

Edgmon said that the issues Dunleavy raised were “highly subjective” and lawmakers had heard from the division and the lieutenant governor, who is charged with overseeing state elections, that the timeline for implementing the bill was doable.

Edgmon said it’s unclear if there are the votes to override.

“You never know until the votes are tallied. You just never know,” he said. “And I know there will be plenty of votes. Will there be enough? I’m not going to hazard a guess at this point, because I’ve been proven wrong before.” 

This story has been updated as of 6 p.m.

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An Alaska woman is accusing the Alaska Department of Public Safety, two Alaska State Troopers and the A&E Television Network of compromising her privacy and safety as a confidential informant after they filmed an arrest without her consent.

The woman, identified in the filings as Jane Doe, says that she received death threats after she was a confidential informant whose information led to an arrest that was filmed and later aired on the Alaska State Troopers reality show.

The woman’s attorney, Jeff Barber, declined to comment on the case and said that he plans to file a motion to make the case confidential for her safety.

In court filings, Barber argued that the defendants had a duty to protect the confidential informant from harm. Barber wrote, “the defendants were motivated by fame, fortune or financial gain,” and they exploited Jane Doe’s “life and safety for profit and/or personal gain.”

The television show followed troopers in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Fairbanks, Western Alaska and Valdez in 2025. A&E Television Network aired nine episodes of the show between January and March 2026.

The lawsuit names Alaska State Troopers Scott McAfee and Lucas Altepeter, the Alaska Department of Public Safety, the show’s executive producer Anna Rodzinski and her company Anusia Films LLC, and A&E Television Networks LLC as defendants. Jane Doe is suing each defendant for $100,000.

According to a complaint filed in state court on April 23, Jane Doe assisted the Alaska State Troopers as a confidential informant in 2025 and was later threatened by a person who suspected her of being a confidential informant. She assisted troopers for a second time in 2025 and a film crew filmed troopers arresting the person who suspected Doe. 

Jane Doe told McAfee, a trooper, that she objected to A&E filming the arrest, and court documents say troopers relayed Doe’s objection to the film crew. According to the filing, the film crew filmed the arrest anyway. This caused Jane Doe “severe emotional distress and harm.”

In the lawsuit, Jane Doe’s attorneys claim that the crew filmed the episode in a way that could reveal Jane Doe’s identity and involvement. After the episode aired, Jane Doe received hostile communications and death threats.

Jane Doe suffered “medical expense, pain, anxiety, suffering, severe emotional distress, inconvenience, security and privacy expenses,” Barber wrote in the filing.

The case alleges that McAfee and Altepeter’s negligence and recklessness breached their duty and created danger to Jane Doe.

Barber accused the defendants of violating Jane Doe’s right to privacy and right to due process, and their actions inflicted intentional emotional distress.

Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Department of Public Safety, told the Alaska Beacon by email Wednesday that DPS had not been formally served with the lawsuit yet and will respond in court.

“We take the safety of all Alaskans extremely seriously and reject any suggestion that DPS personnel would knowingly endanger anyone’s life,” McDaniel stated.

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Ricardo Mop has been part of the custodial crew at Royal Caribbean for six years, but this spring was his first time working anywhere on the Alaska route.

“I guess you could say I was pretty surprised,” said Mop, pulling down a scarf. “I was used to wiping sunscreen spills off deck chairs and picking up margarita glasses off the lido deck. Now here I am in a parka and ice-climbing gear with a vacuum cleaner.”

Mop and a dozen other janitors from Dystopia of the Seas, a 2,000-foot Royal Caribbean cruise ship, were cleaning the Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm fjord before the start of cruise season in Southeast Alaska. Most cruise companies that regularly include glacier viewing in their itineraries contract janitors to spruce up the ice, but only Royal Caribbean has an entire crew dedicated to the task. Geraldine Swiffer, Chief Spick n’ Span Officer aboard Dystopia, stated “Royal Caribbean is dedicated to giving its guests the best possible cruise experience and we are legendary for our ships’ cleanliness. To that end, we also tidy up the glaciers before showing them off to visitors.”

The crews consist of teams of dirt sweepers and vacuumers, high-powered leaf blowers, tanzanite graders, ice-worm exterminators, as well as custom-built four-wheel-drive Zambonis. Driver Brice Scate told reporters that the valley glaciers were usually the dirtiest. “Medial moraines are like dirt-central. Very unsightly. Imagine if you came all the way up here and all the nice white ice was covered in rock and dirt. And all the katabatic winds kicking up silt, rockslides and glacial retreat—it’s a complex janitorial environment.”

When asked how long they were at the glaciers, Ricardo Mop replied, “What? Can’t hear over the cracking sounds. We’re at Sawyer Glacier now, still got Dawes Glacier, the Hubbard, the Mendenhall. It’s a lot of vacuum bags. There’s that cracking sound again, what’s that? A tree falling?”

The post Royal Caribbean Janitors Frantically Cleaning Glaciers Before the Start of Cruise Season appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The main gallery of the Sheldon Museum has gotten its first overhaul in nearly a decade, and the new look debuts Friday. 

Residents accustomed to the previous gallery exhibit will find a re-arranged space with a higher density of information and objects. Some large centerpieces remain, including a display case of Chilkat blankets and Eldred Rock lighthouse’s  Fresnel lens. But most of the exhibit has not been on display, including a new collection on loan from Excursion Inlet’s cannery museum. 

As for the space itself, the previously open-floor look has been replaced by standing panels arranged with an eye toward a more intentional flow, museum director Brandon Wilks said. 

The new exhibit is the product of a year-and-a-half’s work from lead curator Andrea Nelson and Blythe Carter. 

Nelson, an on-again-off-again museum contributor over the past two decades, said her goal was to “home in on what makes this place different from other places in Southeast Alaska, other places in Lingít territory.”

Nelson focused on the physical topography of the land and the trade routes that ran up corridors into the interior. 

“I felt like (the exhibit) needed some kind of grounding narrative, instead of just peppering the audience with facts about the place,” Nelson said. 

From the gallery entrance, viewers first see a large canoe carved by Wayne Price. The canoe is meant to orient visitors in a historical landscape before highways, where water-based travel was often the quickest and easiest route. 

From there, visitors walk out into the center of the floor, which includes panels on Lingít trade empires, with porcelain originating in China on display. 

“Even people who feel like they know Chilkat Valley history might not realize the extent of Lingít trade, that they had one of the largest trade empires in the Americas,” Wilks said. 

Wilks and Nelson described the museum’s limited space as a challenge in displaying the valley’s historical breadth. 

“Recalling history is a really botched process, no matter how careful you are,” Nelson said. “A story can be told in so many ways from so many different perspectives.” 

Part of Nelson’s approach to that problem, she said, was to let the museum’s collection lead the narrative, “letting the objects speak,” as she put it. At the same time, she added, the approach introduces other challenges. For instance, the fact that the museum’s collection is determined by what can be acquired or donated, not necessarily what has the most historical significance. 

For his part, Wilks said he invites visitors to provide feedback on the history and is leaving open the possibility of adjusting the exhibit in the coming months.  

Alongside older art and archaeological artifacts, the museum will display a significant amount of work from renowned contemporary carvers, like Price and Ed Kasko, as well as a new retrospective on late Chilkat Valley painter Carol Clifton. 

Wilks said the museum has hosted art students in the past year to see the work, including high schoolers participating in this week’s regional Art Fest. 

The Clifton exhibit, curated by Donna Catotti and on display in the museum’s Elisabeth Hakkinen gallery, shows a range of Clifton’s local landscapes and portrait work. Starting Friday, the paintings will be up for silent auction, with 60% of proceeds going to the Clifton family and 40% going to the Haines Sheldon Museum.  

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Barbara Pardee last saw her friend Carol Clifton around August 2025. 

Clifton hadn’t left her Dusty Trails apartment in months. She needed oxygen at that point and was self-conscious about the size of her tank. But once inside Pardee’s car, she didn’t want to go home. As they drove, Clifton pointed out old homes, old stories, old neighbors from 56 years of living in the Chilkat Valley. 

They went out to Mud Bay and passed by John Svenson’s art studio. 

“He saw me and we’re friends. But then he saw Carol and he just came right over,” Pardee said. “She rolled down her window and those two talked for at least 30 minutes. They just talked up a storm. She was just that way with everybody. If you were her friend, you were always her friend.” 

Clifton died Feb. 27 in Juneau after doctors discovered an advanced lung mass following a January fall.  She was 88 years old.  

Clifton and her twin brother were born Aug. 15, 1937, in Los Angeles. She was one of five children born to Finnish immigrants Emil William Hakkila and Frances Lavalle Hakkila. 

After high school, she moved to Fairbanks to work as a waitress in a cafe run by the mother of her childhood best friend, Gail Hay. 

“Alaska had just become a state and it seemed safe enough,” her son, Kim Clifton, said. “So off she went. And I’m sure it was quite the journey in 1959.” 

There, she met her future husband Jerry Clifton, and the couple eventually settled in Haines in 1969. They raised six children: Jerry, Kim, Van, Christine, Kelly, and Ralph. 

Kim said Carol worked at, and loved, being a good mom. With six children, the inevitable fight would break out and she would referee the situation to get everyone to calm down and make peace with one another. 

Clifton was always reaching for positivity, which, when combined with her quick humor, was a powerful tool. “Now I understand it to be something where … it was like a daily practice for her,” he said. 

The family  eventually bought three acres across from Portage Cove where Jerry built a three-story home overlooking the campground. Carol set up an easel in the corner of the house. 

“She was always painting something,” Kim said. “She’d get out her little palette and with all the colors and it was just part of where we were living. Part of the decor you might say.”

Pardee said when she first became aware of Clifton, it was from the paintings on small pans hanging at a local cafe. 

Pardee said it was fun to watch Carol’s artistic talent grow from small gold pans to large murals on the wall at the Captain’s Choice Motel. 

“She really studied it,” Pardee said. “Once she took me into the back bedroom and she had every art magazine and all of her art books. She said, ‘This is my college education right here.’”

Pardee said she will miss the depth that Carol brought to their friendship. Her intellectual curiosity led to constant reinvention. 

“She loved to learn. She never stopped, ever,” Pardee said. “You always admire somebody like that.” 

Clifton’s paintings often started with a trip up the Haines Highway, where she photographed  landscapes and wildlife. Eventually she became known for those photos as well, said longtime friend, Teresa Land. Land met Clifton in 1973 when asked to play piano in her home studio. 

“She thought I was going to play a two-bit thing, but … I just let loose,” playing a concerto by Felix Mendelssohn, Land said. 

It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship built on music, art and gardening.  

Friends say creativity spilled into every corner of Clifton’s life, from towering nasturtiums at her Beach Road home, to handmade Christmas cards, embroidery and carved fishing corks she gifted to family. 

She seemed to find joy in using her talents to make life brighter for others, her son said. And, for many in Haines, that included creations that emerged from her kitchen. 

“She loved making cream puffs and dropping by and surprising folks,” Kim said. “They were always little masterpieces, her cream puffs are just legendary.” 

Over time, Clifton became Haines’ de facto cake maker — something nearly every friend mentioned. Friends described them as  fluffy, textured, highly stylized: they could have flowers, pearls, ribbons, you name it. She also made puff pastries and a special almond bread for Christmas. 

“That stuff that people don’t like to make themselves but they like to eat,” Pardee said.

Alongside all of that creative energy Clifton used humor to connect with her friends, teasing them, making them laugh. 

“She called it loving on them,” Pardee said. “She would tell you the truth and she was not afraid to give you a barb if she thought you needed it.’ 

She also took great joy in telling people about her faith, something that deepened immensely in spring 1981, according to Kim. 

The family spent much of their early time in Haines attending the Presbyterian Church but toward the end of her life, she attended the Haines Christian Center — Assembly of God church. Kim, who is a pastor in the Houston area, said the two bonded over their spirituality. 

“She shared her faith freely with anyone and everyone,” Pardee said. “If you knew Carol Clifton, you knew where she came from, what she believed and what she stood for.” 

In her immediate family Carol was preceded in death by her husband, Jerry, and brothers, Don, Carl and Ralph Hakkila. 

Carol is survived by her six children—Jerry, Kim, Van, Christine (Clifton-Thornton), Kelly and Ralph Clifton — as well as her sister, Pennie Peterson, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held July 3, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Haines Christian Center. 

A retrospective showing of her paintings at the Haines Sheldon Museum with an opening reception is scheduled for Friday, May 1. 

The post Carol Clifton leaves legacy of creativity, quick wit appeared first on Chilkat Valley 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.”

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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. 

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