Loading summary
Transcript100 lines
- [00:00]
Casey Grove
Support for Alaska Public Media on demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
- [00:19]
Narrator/Reporter
Having the land exchange agreement already signed and the ownership of the land now a done deal that's never happened before.
- [00:28]
Casey Grove
Local officials say the proposed King Cove Road is closer than ever to becoming a reality. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Friday, October 24th. Good evening, I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, groups are working to collect traditional foods for people displaced by ex typhoon Ha long.
- [00:46]
Narrator/Reporter
Seals to berries to fish. There's a whole crate of munk duck or muktuk being shipped on the plane right now.
- [01:00]
Casey Grove
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced a land exchange agreement Thursday with the King Cove Corporation, making way for the construction of what many consider to be a life saving stretch of road. It's not the first time an agreement like this has been approved for the controversial road that would connect two Eastern Aleutian communities. But as KUCB's Maggie Nelson reports, local leaders say there's one important difference this time around.
- [01:22]
Maggie Nelson
Gary Hennig knew about the proposed King Cove Road when he began his job as the town's city administrator. That was almost four decades ago.
- [01:30]
Narrator/Reporter
When I told the city council in that first meeting in December 89 that I knew something about this project, I certainly wasn't lying. And they said, okay, well you're an expert, so just go make this happen. Well, not quite that simple.
- [01:45]
Maggie Nelson
King Cove sits on the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula. It's a small fishing community that is only accessible by air or water, weather permitting. It's home to a short gravel airstrip that is difficult to fly into a good day. But with the addition of about 10 miles of road, residents could access Cold Bay's All Weather airport. Community leaders have fought for that road for decades, arguing that it would provide life saving access to emergency medical care. The problem, though, is that it sits in the Eisenbeck National Wildlife Refuge. Environmental groups and several Alaska tribes say that land shouldn't be developed in order to protect wildlife, some of which are precious subsistence resources to communities across the state. In 2018, the Trump administration approved a land swap, which was later revoked by the Biden administration. Henig says this is the first time, though, the land has actually switched hands.
- [02:36]
Narrator/Reporter
Having the land exchange agreement already signed and the the ownership of the land now a done deal. That's never happened before. So that's big.
- [02:47]
Maggie Nelson
At a news conference Thursday, Alaska's congressional delegation celebrated the agreement. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski applauded the community's perseverance.
- [02:56]
Narrator/Reporter
They are weary. They are tired of kind of this up and down and back and forth and maybe or maybe not. They want the certainty that's going to come with this very small connector road, Murkowski said.
- [03:12]
Maggie Nelson
The U.S. fish and Wildlife Service is swapping almost 500 acres of land for the road. The King Cove Corporation will hand over acreage in return. Some western Alaska tribes have opposed the road, saying it threatens important subsistence species, and federal biologists have acknowledged the road would impact the habitat of Pacific black brant and emperor geese. Murkowski says she recognizes the significance of those resources. She says there are requirements in place to ensure the animal populations remain strong.
- [03:40]
Narrator/Reporter
Nobody's talking about a multi lane paved road moving lots of big trucks back and forth. It is still an 11 mile, one lane, gravel, non commercial use road, she says.
- [03:58]
Maggie Nelson
Ultimately, the agreement expands the refuge and adds to its conservation and subsistence values. The federal government will receive 14 times more land than it gives up. Hennig says there's still a lot to be done with things like permitting public commentary periods and funding to secure. After years of seeing progress toward a road backtrack, he says he's optimistic but also cautious.
- [04:20]
Narrator/Reporter
We also are not so naive to think that there won't be some lawsuits along the way.
- [04:26]
Maggie Nelson
Henig hopes to see construction begin by 2027. For KUCB news and with reporting help from the Alaska Desk's Theo Greenlee, I'm Maggie Nelson.
- [04:44]
Casey Grove
Remnants of Typhoon Ha long displaced more than a thousand people in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. Many of them are now staying in shelters and with relatives and friends in Anchorage. And one way their fellow Alaskans are trying to bring them some comfort from home is through traditional subsistence foods. Alyona Nydin with the Alaska Desk has more.
- [05:04]
Alyona Knighton
Aydin Aguzavak Nelson loads her two young daughters in a car. Strollers and suitcases go on the truck bed, smaller totes in the backseat. She also packs two cooler bags full of subsistence foods.
- [05:19]
Narrator/Reporter
I have muktuk, dry fish, black meat. It's essentially just whale meat.
- [05:26]
Alyona Knighton
Nelson is from Iguigik in the Bristol Bay region. On a recent afternoon, she and her daughters were in Anchorage on a brief layover, but she made time to meet up with a family who evacuated from Kipnock to share some of her harvest with them.
- [05:42]
Narrator/Reporter
Those are all of our comfort foods. And when we're hurting or displaced or in stress, I don't want to go eat chicken. I want to go eat moose. I want to go eat salmon.
- [05:56]
Alyona Knighton
About A dozen of Yukon Kaskokwim Delta communities were hit by the remnants of the typhoon Halon earlier this month. The storm destroyed homes and infrastructure and displaced over a thousand of people, and many residents lost the food they harvested over the last month, like salmon and berries. Nelson is one of many Alaskans who are looking for ways to provide evacuees with traditional foods. Two statewide tribal organizations, the Alaska Native Heritage center and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, have also partnered to collect donations. Kelsey Zhugun Wallace is the president of the Heritage Center. She says the effort started in the days after the storm and there has been a steady flow of donations since then.
- [06:42]
Narrator/Reporter
We've received inquiries from our relatives in the North Slope area in southeast Alaska along the Aleutian chain of how can I help? So we have accepted everything from seals to berries to fish. There's a whole crate of munk duck or muktuk being shipped on the plane right now.
- [07:02]
Alyona Knighton
Vola says they're also looking at hosting community events where they can cook and share those foods, which she says is part of the healing. The Heritage center also helped Nelson, the mom from Igiagik, find a family to donate to. When Nelson arrives at a house in South Anchorage, Kristin Amick and her daughter are outside to greet her.
- [07:22]
Ava White
Kristen and this is my daughter, 50.
- [07:24]
Alyona Knighton
Amick's family evacuated from Kipnock, one of the communities that was hit hardest by the storm. She says she could not bring much with her when she left.
- [07:33]
Narrator/Reporter
My daughter here was devastated of the food that we left behind, all that hard work we did over the summer, and she was thinking, man, we should have took the berries and food that we worked on.
- [07:46]
Alyona Knighton
Nelson says she understands the months of hard work and the expenses that go into putting away subsistence foods and the.
- [07:55]
Narrator/Reporter
Grief that comes with losing all of that.
- [08:00]
Alyona Knighton
The communities of Kipnik and Igiagek are hundreds of miles away from each other, but they share a lot of similar foods. Nelson gets a text from Amik, the Kipnik mom, as she drives away. She says her family is enjoying the food Nelson just dropped off.
- [08:16]
Narrator/Reporter
Aw, that makes me happy. The first thing I would go for is the sea oil. The sea oil and the dry fish.
- [08:27]
Alyona Knighton
Residents can donate subsistence food to people and families displaced by the storm at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, lodging and at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Drop off is open from Monday through Friday in Anchorage. I am Alena Knighton.
- [08:42]
Casey Grove
For a list of other ways to help those affected by the western Alaska storm, check out alaskapublic.org Fairbanks North Star Borough Officials are searching for places that could offer more stable housing for Typhoon Ha Long evacuees. More than a thousand people from western Alaska communities were displaced because of the flooding and damage from the storm's hurricane force winds. Hundreds were evacuated to Anchorage, where many are staying at mass shelters while agencies work to transition them to more private locations. Fairbanks Borough Mayor Greyer Hopkins says the borough's emergency operations department is participating in the state established housing task force. He said as of Thursday he only knew of a few families who had evacuated to Fairbanks and that they had personal support systems in the area. But Hopkins wants the borough to be ready to help connect people impacted by the storm with medium to long term housing in the interior if they come. He says his office is compiling a list of local options right now.
- [09:38]
Narrator/Reporter
You know, the list is fairly short as we're trying to understand what capacity there is out there, what hotels have.
- [09:45]
Casey Grove
Space, but it's the need has not arisen yet that anybody is coming to Fairbanks and droves. Hopkins also says borough staff had conversations about opening a mass shelter earlier in the month when damage in western Alaska was becoming apparent. He says he focused primarily on Joy Community Center, a former elementary school. My discussions were let's make sure Joy Community center is available. It's got showers, it's got bathrooms, it's.
- [10:09]
Narrator/Reporter
Got, you know, smaller rooms for classrooms.
- [10:11]
Casey Grove
As opposed to just one mass shelter room. The borough assembly voted to close Joy Community center earlier this year as a cost saving measure. Hopkins says preparing it would have involved some work up front, like getting bathrooms running again, but that the borough ultimately was not called on to provide a mass shelter. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, the man behind Noem's bowling alley always has a second to spare for his patrons.
- [10:38]
Narrator/Reporter
I tell young people, you ever think about becoming a professional, let me know and I'll help you.
- [10:44]
Casey Grove
That's ahead. Stay with us. It can be tough for teenagers to balance growing up school and extracurricular activities, but that's not stopping them from getting jobs. The number of teens working in the state is on the rise, according to new data from the state Department of Labor. And as Alaska Public Media's Ava White reports, these young people are essential to businesses across South Central.
- [11:07]
Ava White
On a quiet afternoon at Big Dipper homemade ice cream in Palmer, Kodiak Visor rings up a pint of oatmeal cream pie.
- [11:13]
Narrator/Reporter
1133 is your total.
- [11:16]
Clarice Larson
Would you like a punch card?
- [11:18]
Ava White
At 18, he's on the older end of the typical worker at the shop. Owner Rob Brown says roughly 80% of employees are teens.
- [11:26]
Narrator/Reporter
I'm a big fan of the teenage group.
- [11:28]
Ava White
Big Dipper has three locations in the Matanuskas who sit in a burrow. They specialize in homemade flavors like so Good It's Sinful, which swirls cinnamon ice cream with cream cheese frosting and bits of homemade cinnamon rolls. The shop was voted best ice cream in the Valley this year. Brown hires workers as young as 15 and pays them minimum wage $13 an hour plus tips. He says he couldn't operate his business without teens and he wouldn't want to.
- [11:56]
Narrator/Reporter
They're at that stage in life where they like to be treated as adults and they want to be given that opportunity and they just need some guidance and and most of them are willing to step up and take ownership, which is really cool.
- [12:08]
Ava White
Teens are a growing segment of Alaska's workforce. According to a recent report from the state's Department of Labor and workforce development, nearly 12,000 kids between 14 to 17 years old had a job in 2023, an increase of a full percentage point since 2020. Teens now make up almost 4% of the overall labor force in the state. The COVID pandemic created a significant need for workers and that opened doors for young people, says the report's author, Rob Krieger.
- [12:38]
Narrator/Reporter
Because of how the workforce changed after the pandemic, I think that there's just a lot more demand for the types of jobs that younger workers tend to have.
- [12:48]
Ava White
Over a third of working teens in Alaska have jobs in food service accommodation, which includes things like lodges and hotels, followed by retail. Wages for teens surged about five times the rate of the average state worker between 2019 and 2023, according to the study. And as long as the labor shortage continues, Krieger says, it could mean more opportunities for young Alaskans.
- [13:12]
Narrator/Reporter
Because the demand is high, employers are in a position where they have to pay more. Although the types of occupations that younger workers have generally has been consistent over time, there may be more choices and than there have been in years past, the report says.
- [13:25]
Ava White
Many of these teenage workers are only employed during the summer, but not 17 year old Hayden Postechek. He's a student at Robert Service High School in Anchorage and has had a job for a few years. Postoshek teaches swimming lessons in the summer and in the winter he teaches lessons at Hilltop Ski Area and I also.
- [13:44]
Narrator/Reporter
Did a lot of those things when I was little and remember how much I enjoyed doing them and how much like having a good instructor made the experience a lot more fun. I just try to like be that.
- [13:53]
Ava White
Fun instructor he learned to ski at Hilltop. Other teens working at the small ski area have similar memories, says Robert debary, the nonprofit's director of marketing and community relations. He says young people bring an enthusiastic spirit to the job that's rooted in passion for the sport.
- [14:09]
Narrator/Reporter
I think we're lucky in this industry because we don't necessarily get the kids that are just looking for a job. They come here to get the job because they want to work at Hilltop, they want to work in the industry, they want to ski, they want to snowboard. I mean, let's face it, we deal in fun.
- [14:25]
Ava White
At Hilltop, teens are ski and snowboard instructors, manage equipment rentals and handle ticket sales. Each of those positions start at $14 an hour and come with a free season pass. DeBary says he's been fortunate to have fulfilling jobs that don't feel like work, and he wants to give young people that same opportunity.
- [14:44]
Narrator/Reporter
I think a lot of young kids end up in careers or jobs that they just hate. And why not give a kid an opportunity to have a job based around fun? And why not instill that pride in your job in young people as well at an early age?
- [15:01]
Ava White
Hilltop ramps up staffing each winter, and if you know a teen interested, they're hiring. In Anchorage, I'm Ava White.
- [15:19]
Casey Grove
The growing season this year in Interior Alaska was one of the longest in recorded history. But that doesn't mean all of the region's farmers had big bumper crops, KUAC's Tim Ellis reports.
- [15:30]
Tim Ellis
The Interior's 2025 growing season began on May 17, when the university of Alaska Fairbanks Experiment Farm registered the final spring freeze. The season end ended on September 24 when the mercury returned to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The 129 days between the two freezes was the fourth longest growing season recorded at the Experiment farm since it began keeping weather Records in 1911. The late date of the first fall freeze is consistent with a trend toward longer growing seasons, says Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the UAF's Alaska center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness.
- [16:10]
Narrator/Reporter
Through most of the 20th century. In the Fairbanks Bull, typical date of the first freeze was sometime around September 1st. Many years it was in the second half of August. Occasionally it would go into the second week of September.
- [16:27]
Tim Ellis
But in the 21st century, we've really.
- [16:31]
Narrator/Reporter
Seen a strong trend towards a later first freeze.
- [16:36]
Tim Ellis
A UAF news Release says the 10 latest fall freezes have all occurred since 2001 and that the growing season has lengthened by 38 days over the past century. The shortest growing season in that time frame occurred in 1933, when there were only 39 days between the freezing temperatures recorded on June 10 and July 19, according to the news release. The longer time between freezes is good news for the state's farmers, says Alaska Farm Bureau President Scott Muggridge.
- [17:09]
Narrator/Reporter
I do think the potential for what lies ahead in agriculture in Alaska is going to benefit from these longer growing seasons.
- [17:18]
Tim Ellis
Muggeridge says that's especially likely for farmers south of the Alaska Range.
- [17:24]
Narrator/Reporter
I could foresee this longer growing season to be really beneficial to the South Central, you know, Point Mackenzie and the Matsu and then and then also down on the Kenai Peninsula.
- [17:36]
Tim Ellis
But he says the longer growing season doesn't guarantee better harvests for all farmers, especially those who grow grains like barley, most of whom are in the interior. Those crops can be tricky to cultivate, especially if the weather isn't cooperating this year.
- [17:53]
Narrator/Reporter
You know, our issue is cold, wet weather. So that was actually this fall. It was a difficult harvest.
- [18:02]
Tim Ellis
Mugridge says farmers must still plan for those kinds of challenges that will continue to occur during Alaska's longer growing seasons. In Delta Junction, I'm Tim Ellis.
- [18:15]
Casey Grove
The mayor's task force on short term rentals in Juneau wrapped up four months ago. It was mostly made up of homeowners, not renters, and its findings offered no immediate recommendations on regulations or restrictions for the Juneau assembly to consider. KTO's Clarice Larson looks at what happens now.
- [18:32]
Clarice Larson
Juneau has been grappling with a housing shortage for decades. Studies pointing to Juneau's acute lack of it date back to the 70s. City officials have tried finding ways to create new housing for long term renters, and in recent years there's also been a push to crack down on short term rentals like Airbnbs or VRBOs. City data and other sources suggest that there are likely around 300 to 400 short term rentals in Juneau, but that number could be even higher.
- [18:59]
Narrator/Reporter
There is very distinct opinions on it, and some people are for them and some people are against them.
- [19:06]
Clarice Larson
That's Mayor Beth Weldon. Right now, short term rentals are largely unregulated, although the city started requiring people to register them in 2023. Weldon launched a short term rental task force in January to assess the market and make recommendations that improve housing availability. Of the 11 members, only one was a renter. The group concluded its meetings in early June and offered some recommendations to assembly, but Weldon says she had hoped for clearer direction.
- [19:34]
Narrator/Reporter
They were pretty benign recommendations, and if that's what the assembly wants. That's good, but I was hoping to see a little bit more.
- [19:43]
Clarice Larson
Assembly member Wade Bryson, who chaired the committee, says one positive change that did come out of the task force was requiring rental sites to take care of sales tax on behalf of local operators. The assembly approved that change back in May. The task force also recommended non regulatory actions for the assembly to take, like conducting an economic impact study on short term rentals. But members couldn't agree on what else to implement or when. Bryson says the committee faced a lot of hurdles. Not everyone on the 11 member task force showed up to every meeting, he says. That made it hard to gauge a consensus and led to a lot of split votes.
- [20:16]
Narrator/Reporter
It was difficult to get support to take such a hard stance one direction or the other.
- [20:23]
Clarice Larson
He says he thinks a better use of city time and resources is to focus on creating new housing opportunities like the Telephone Hill redevelopment Project says they're.
- [20:33]
Narrator/Reporter
Not causing the housing crisis and even if we restrict them, that's not going to move the needle and get more houses into the market.
- [20:41]
Clarice Larson
The task force suggested basing its recommendations on Juneau's rental vacancy rate, the overall number of vacant rental units. In a final report shared with the assembly, the task force concluded that the current 3.9% vacancy rate in Juneau is low, meaning there isn't enough open housing to go around. But they left it up to the assembly to decide what rate would justify taking action. Bryson says it's unlikely that the assembly will pick this topic back up anytime soon.
- [21:06]
Narrator/Reporter
It did not appear with the data that we were like in a crisis mode because of short term rentals. It just isn't making that level of impact.
- [21:17]
Clarice Larson
Assemblymember Alicia Huskandies also served on the task force. In a text message she said she, quote, wasn't satisfied by the amount of output from the task force, end quote, and intends to take the topic back up in the coming years. In Juneau, I'm Clarice Larson.
- [21:31]
Casey Grove
The Golden Strike Bowling Alley opened at Nomes Recreation center in 1985. Since then, the rec center has seen management changes, funding shortages and bowling alley closures. But when the doors are open, Wally Johnson is there, welcoming patrons with a smile. KOM's Laura Davis Collins recently stopped by to learn more.
- [21:51]
Laura Davis Collins
Wally Johnson is the mechanic and desk attendant at the Golden Strike Bowling Alley.
- [21:55]
Narrator/Reporter
In nomenclature and I tell the young people, I says, you ever think about becoming a professional, let me know and I'll help you. Nobody's come forward yet.
- [22:06]
Laura Davis Collins
Johnson was born and raised in Nome he and his wife raised their five kids here as well. His first bowling experience came on a trip out of town.
- [22:15]
Narrator/Reporter
I had gone to Fairbanks when I was younger and was introduced to bowling alley. But however, before that, me and my father would watch professional bowling on television. And that kind of sparked my interest with the bowling.
- [22:33]
Laura Davis Collins
Records of bowling in Nome go back to the early 1900s. Nome's mini convention center at the west end of Front street actually started as a bowling alley.
- [22:43]
Narrator/Reporter
So we had a big storm in 1974 that flooded the mini convention center and it water came and it was pretty high because of the many convention centers down there by the sea. And it destroyed all of the machines and the lanes and everything except be with the shoes. I still have some shoes here from down there. Kind of cool.
- [23:05]
Laura Davis Collins
So in the 80s, the city of Nome built a new facility at the Nome rec Center. In 1985, Johnson put his bowling interest to work as a mechanic and attendant at the facility.
- [23:16]
Narrator/Reporter
The hard thing is probably trying to maintain the machines themselves. It takes a certified mechanic to actually keep the lanes running.
- [23:26]
Laura Davis Collins
Johnson learned on the job and eventually got certified. He says the facility initially had a bigger staff, but in the 90s, the other workers left town or moved jobs and Johnson was left as a one man show. Over the years, through budget induced shutdowns and COVID 19, Johnson has manned the ship. If the bowling alley is open, he's there.
- [23:50]
Narrator/Reporter
One of the directors that came on enlightened me as to what it means to be a city employee. He said, you as a worker working here in the rec center at the bowling alley are a public worker, what he called it, a public servant. So you're working for the people. So that was a big inspiration.
- [24:12]
Laura Davis Collins
And it's the people, Johnson says, that keep him coming back. The Golden Strike bowling alley is open during the fall and winter months. It is home to an adult bowling league, children's birthday parties and sessions for students across the region.
- [24:26]
Narrator/Reporter
I love bowling so much that when people come up here and start bowling, I want to help them, to show them done so that they can understand that it's actually not that hard to go bowling.
- [24:42]
Laura Davis Collins
In addition to maintaining the mechanics of the lanes, Johnson sizes shoes, teaches how to score and shows new bowlers how to throw the ball.
- [24:51]
Narrator/Reporter
I call it the exciting part when the children, when there's a spark that comes on after their shyness is like, oh, I didn't know this was so fun.
- [25:05]
Laura Davis Collins
He admits he'll always have a love for the bowling alley. But Johnson says he's not going to be able to work there forever.
- [25:12]
Narrator/Reporter
Well, it's, you know, it's going to be with me forever, but my bones ache, and I know I am not going to be able to do it.
- [25:22]
Laura Davis Collins
Golden Strike Bowling Alley's open season is already underway with birthday parties and the bowling league on the schedule. And Johnson is there behind the counter ready to hand out shoes in Nome. I'm Laura Davis Collins.
- [25:52]
Casey Grove
And that's all for this edition of Alaska News nightly. We had reports tonight from Maggie Nelson in Unalaska, Alyona Knighton and Ava White in Anchorage, Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, Tim Ellis in Delta Junction, Clarice Larson in Juneau, and Laura Davis Collins in Nome. Our audio engineer is Chris Hyde. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Have a great weekend.