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During a virtual Petersburg School Board meeting on Tuesday, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter recommended that the board postpone talks on the Alaska Reads Act, which is a senate bill being put forth by Alaska legislators to address early childhood education. If passed, Senate Bill 6 would mandate school districts offer a preschool program and ensure students are reading proficiently by third grade. Kludt-Painter recommended further discussions on the topic be postponed because of local and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A state forecast released Monday shows projected revenues down sharply from an estimate issued several months ago, with low oil prices and economic impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak cited as factors. The state Revenue Department projects unrestricted general fund revenue of $1.6 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, and $1.2 billion for the year starting July 1, excluding scheduled transfers from earnings of the state’s oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund. That is down from projections of $2.1 billion and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state will work with communities, industry leaders and others as it makes decisions on how to proceed in reopening sectors of the economy impacted by the coronavirus. Dunleavy said key to this will be monitoring case numbers. As of Tuesday, Alaska had reported 285 total cases of COVID-19, and nine deaths related to the coronavirus. The health of Alaskans will be a top consideration, Dunleavy said, adding he doesn’t “want anyone to get the wrong idea that we’re going to put the economy ahe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced wide-ranging budget vetoes Tuesday amid a collapse in oil prices, citing expectations that many of the larger cuts, including aid for schools and local governments, would be offset through use of federal funds tied to COVID-19 relief. Some legislators questioned whether the money can be used that way. “There is no guarantee that the federal government will pick up the tab. This approach is incredibly troubling to me,”House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, said in a state...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration has launched a new virtual school for Alaska students in partnership with a Florida program, garnering some criticism from educators adjusting their lessons to online teaching amid the coronavirus pandemic. The state of Alaska signed a $525,000 contract through February 2021 with the Florida Virtual School, which had enrolled about 80 Alaska students by Friday, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported. “The ‘fourth-quarter solution’ that is suggested through the purchase of this Flo...
The State of Alaska wants input on plans to distribute nearly $24.5 million in federal disaster relief funds for stakeholders and communities hurt by the 2018 Gulf of Alaska cod crash. Better make it quick – the deadline to comment is April 10. Cod is Alaska’s second largest groundfish harvest (after pollock), but the Gulf stock dropped by 80% in 2018 following a three year heatwave that disrupted food webs, fish metabolism and egg survival on the ocean floor. It combined to push down cod catches to just 28.8 million pounds, compared to nea...
Activities at the Petersburg School District and other school districts across the state have been cancelled for the rest of the academic year as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. PSD Activities Director Jaime Cabral said the decision to cancel activities came from the state. On March 20, Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a health mandate that closed public and private schools through May 1 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Following the announcement, the Alaska School Activities Association...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Legislature has approved a $66.7 million budget appropriation that lawmakers said should keep the Alaska Marine Highway System running for the year. Legislators increased the operating budget for the state’s ferry service by around $20 million over the previous year, CoastAlaska reported Monday. An estimated 42% of the overall $122 million ferry budget is expected to come from ticket sales for passengers, vehicles and freight. The appropriation should guarantee at least one ferry is available as relief if ano...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska lawmakers fell short of a self-imposed goal of completing their most pressing work Friday, with key measures, including a state spending package and bills related to the coronavirus, yet to be finalized. Friday marked Day 67 of a legislative session that, under the constitution, can run up to 121 days, with an option to extend further. But many lawmakers are eager to get home amid concerns with the coronavirus, and Friday was targeted by legislative leaders as a goal for completing work seen as more critical. Senate...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaskans will have more time to apply for a Permanent Fund dividend this year. Anne Weske, director of the state division that determines dividend eligibility, on Tuesday said applications submitted before midnight on April 30 will be considered timely for the 2020 filing season. She said by email the action is related to a bill passed last weekend by lawmakers. The filing deadline had been Tuesday. But a bill passed by the Legislature, extending Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s public health disaster emergency declaration over the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska lawmakers early Sunday approved a budget that set this October’s oil wealth fund check to nearly every single Alaskan at about $1,000, but did not approve a second dividend intended to help residents struggling with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. Lawmakers worked into the early morning hours to approve the budget, and then took an extended recess to allow members to go to their homes in response to the coronavirus. The Senate in its budget plan had included a $1,000 economic stimulus pay...
Sen. Bert Stedman has been serving Southeast communities for 17 years. He is the Senate Finance Committee co-chair. It did not take a positive test for the Alaska State Legislature to begin addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and treat it with an urgency the virus deserves. Rather, the Senate acted swiftly on March 11 – one day before the state announced its first confirmed case in Alaska– when it passed the first of five bills in a three-week period. As we communicated with our respective com... Full story
As the first cruise ships are expected to arrive in town on May 12, it is still too early to tell how COVID-19 will affect the cruise ship industry in Southeast Alaska, according to Dave Berg, co-founder of Viking Travel. One issue affecting large, foreign cruise ships is the closure of the Vancouver cruise ship port, said Berg. The closure was a result of COVID-19, and the cruise ship port isn't expected to reopen until June 30. While most of the ships that port in Petersburg are small,...
As of Wednesday afternoon, four of the 13 local test specimens that have been sent to state and commercial laboratories have returned negative for COVID-19, according to Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter. The results of the remaining nine tests are still undetermined. "You would know a lot sooner if there were any positives," said Hofstetter, at a daily COVID-19 community update on Wednesday. Statewide, 59 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday evening, with 13...
WRANGELL–Governor Mike Dunleavy announced two new statewide health mandates Monday, March 23, in response to the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in Alaska. These are the ninth and tenth health mandates the state government has announced regarding the virus. Many local communities have been taking steps of their own to mitigate the risk of the virus spreading further. These mandates, however, are meant to help statewide efforts to combat COVID-19. The first of these two mandates, Mandate 009 took ef...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Senate approved a budget provision Monday that would give residents a $1,000 payment as a way to blunt economic impacts from the coronavirus. The provision, an amendment to a larger state spending package, passed 12-7 after the Senate rejected a proposed $1,300 stimulus payment. The underlying budget passed 17-1 later in the day, with Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold voting in opposition. The House will have to decide whether to agree to what passed the Senate. If theHouse does not agree, differences typically a...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a declaration of disaster emergency at Monday's assembly meeting in response to the COVID-19 outbreak across the country and state. Additionally, the assembly approved an emergency ordinance that would allow the assembly to declare a quorum by calling into an assembly meeting instead of being present. By declaring a disaster emergency, the borough is putting itself in position to better receive state and federal emergency funding should the borough requir...
As our nation and the world experiences the life-altering impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic, I wanted to take a moment to speak to you directly. If you’ve followed our many press conferences this week, you know that Alaska is rapidly preparing for an outbreak, and that an emergency was declared prior to our first confirmed case. Now that the inevitable first case has occurred, our schools are safely closed, testing requirements have been liberalized, and steps have been taken to protect our seniors. Visitation has been suspended or l...
The Petersburg School Board adopted a policy on Tuesday in its second and final reading that addresses the Petersburg School District's pandemic and epidemic emergency readiness. Board policy 6114.4 was recommended to the school board by the Association of Alaska School Boards. Since its first reading in February, School Board Vice President Sarah Holmgrain said parents have had some concerns over the extent that the district would be able to quarantine students; as a result, language within...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — House lawmakers plan to turn their attention to the check residents receive from Alaska's oil-wealth fund and begin reviewing proposals that would change how the Permanent Fund dividend is calculated. Whether any new formula can be agreed upon is unclear. Debate over the size of the dividend has dominated recent legislative sessions. Many lawmakers believe the existing formula, last used in 2015, is unsustainable and at odds with a law seeking to limit withdrawals from Permanent Fund earnings for government costs and d...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal commission has issued the final environmental impact statement for the $40 billion Alaska LNG Project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released the document Friday that largely affirmed the plan proposed by the state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp., The Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. The Alaska LNG Project is the latest attempt to commercialize large volumes of North Slope natural gas. State and energy company officials have tried since the 1970s to compile a plan to produce and sell the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy is freezing the hiring of state workers not essential to health or safety as oil markets roil, and state lawmakers are making plans to prepare for how they will handle their work should there be a confirmed case of the new coronavirus in the capital city. Restrictions also have been ordered on state employee and legislative travel. Sen. Gary Stevens, chair of the Legislative Council, said some things that could be looked at as part of the Legislature’s preparations include whether to close the Cap...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has suspended out-of-state travel for state employees, with his chief of staff citing a need to control spending amid oil market volatility. Concerns with the new coronavirus have roiled markets along with a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia over oil. Alaska relies on oil revenue and earnings from its oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund, to help pay for government expenses. Dunleavy Chief of Staff Ben Stevens, in a memo dated Monday, said a hiring freeze also will be in effect b...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A funding injection to prepare for a new virus cannot erase years of budget cuts in Alaska, officials and legislators familiar with the state’s public health system said. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed $13 million in new spending this week to monitor and prevent the spread of the virus that causes the disease called COVID-19, The Anchorage Daily News reported Thursday. No virus cases have been found in Alaska, but Dunleavy asked the Alaska Legislature for the expenditure that includes $4 million in state fun...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, seeking to assert calm concerning the new coronavirus threat, said Monday he sees the fall in oil prices as a “momentary issue’’ that with the stock market will work itself out. The virus has affected global energy prices, with North Slope oil prices around $45 a barrel at the end of last week. The state, which has struggled with a long-running deficit, relies on oil revenue and earnings from its oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund, to help pay for government. Alaska Permanent Fund Co...
