KNBA Newscast, Jan. 7, 2016
Housing Summit
By Ellen Lockyer, KSKA
Experts from around the state gathered in Anchorage Wednesday to hear and share information on a variety of topics related to housing in Alaska.
Governor Bill Walker convened the summit, which included sessions on housing concerns in rural Alaska, and boosting private sector investment.
Elizabeth Schultz, the governor's laisson for community and non-profits, says housing problems are not limited to the state's homeless population, and include overcrowding in the state's rural areas, limited options for seniors and a shortage of affordable family housing, which can be a barrier to potential job-seekers in the state.
"We've got passionate advocates that have been working in non-profits for years to end homelessness and to draw attention to those issues, but we are realizing now that these housing issues are broad in scope and affect every economic strata in the state, so we need to start thinking of creative solutions,” said Schultz.
Jack Hebert is the CEO of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. He says thousands of bush homes need to be replaced now. Houses built in rural Alaska during the 1970s and 80s were inappropriate and did not stand up to the stressors of the environment.
"Newer homes are much better, housing authorities and others building in rural Alaska are now building very good homes, but they are just too expensive. We have to figure out how we can meet the demand in rural Alaska with a more affordable home. We need to develop the resources that are there for the housing industries, that includes lumber to build houses or other materials that may be available locally to build economies,” said Herbert.
Hebert says the expense of building new homes has led to a problem of overcrowding in rural village homes, where several generations share the same dwelling.
One agency that has been working to make changes in the urban area is Cook Inlet Housing Authority. President and CEO Carol Gore says new housing revitalizes decaying neighborhoods.
"We want the homes to be full of light, so we put in as many windows as we can afford and still be energy efficient. We want to put flowers in the front yard so that when people come home, that ownership for them is so clear. When they walk in the door, it's theirs, and they own not just their own home, but they become part of the neighborhood. So now you are beginning to get people engaged in the neighborhood that they live in,” said Gore.
Gore says home ownership keeps families in a community, which in turn translates to positive social outcomes. Cook Inlet uses about 15% federal money combined with state and private financing to revitalize housing in Anchorage neighborhoods.
Goldbelt
By the Associated Press
Goldbelt Incorporated announces Elliot “Chuck” Wimberly as the interim President and Chief Executive Officer after the departure of Richard Irwin at the end of the year. Wimberly has served as a Senior Vice President since 2010 and was Goldbelt's interim President and CEO in 2011. Wimberly has 10 years of experience as a senior executive with Alaska Native Corporations. Wimberly has more than 20 years of experience in government service, having retired from the U.S. intelligence community.
Setnet decision
By Quinton Chandler, KBBI
The State Supreme Court ruled last week an initiative to ban commercial set netting was unconstitutional. The ban was proposed to address claims of wildlife overkill by set netters. Ban supporters relied mostly on eyewitness accounts to back up their claims.
Kenai Peninsula fishermen have kept a close eye on the set net ban initiative since it was first proposed in 2013. The proposed ban would have affected urban areas across the state, but Pat Shields, a biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Commercial Fisheries Division for the Upper Cook Inlet, says the ban was really targeting the eastside set net fishery in Cook Inlet.
“Typically each year about 450 set netters on the eastside register to conduct their activities here,” said Shields.
That’s 450 set netting operations that would have had to shut down if the ban were eventually approved by voters.
Joe Connors is with the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance, the group that sponsored the ban. Connors says the ban was an extreme measure the nonprofit took because no one listened to their warnings that some set netters hurt fish stocks.
“They fish intensely. They try to kill as many fish as quick as they can and that’s the problem,” said Connors. “I have incredible amounts of video and pictorial footage of waste. But, no there’s no data. I’m not going to commission a study that the state doesn’t require.”
Connors believes commercial set-netters also play a roll, harming king salmon and other species of fish and wildlife. He says he has photos showing fish drying up in nets and being eaten by sea gulls. He adds set netters often take in bycatch like flounders, salmon shark and Dolly Varden. There’s no record because there’s no requirement to report them.
Shields says flounders and salmon sharks make up most set net bycatch, but he adds they can usually escape the nets.
In 2012 the king salmon return to the Kenai River was miserable. Connors says all fishermen contributed to the huge decline in 2012. But he blames an oversaturation of set nets for slowing the fishery’s recovery.
Shield’s division is worried about the king population but he wouldn’t say set netters are the problem.
“I can speak to that question this way. We have never failed to make the minimum escapement goal for the minimum escapement goal for late run king salmon in the Kenai River since we started measuring escapement in the early 1980’s,” said Shields.
The escapement goal is the number of kings the department wants to return to the Kenai River to spawn. Shields says it’s hard to say there is a conservation issue when that goal is continually met.
“That said we have had to take a number of restrictive actions, including closures, for both sport and commercial fisheries in most recent years during this downturn of king salmon abundance and that’s occurring all over the state,” said Shields.
Andy Hall, a set net fisherman and the President of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association, says conservation wasn’t the motivation behind the ban. He says it was just an attempt to free up more fish for sport fishermen.
That is false, says Connors with the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance.
“Why do you need more? If we’re true to our cause then we’d like to see those fish get to spawn. We’d like to see the big 70, 80, 90 pounders back. That’s just all made up,” said Connors.
Connors doesn’t know what the Alliance’s next step is. They are trying to setup a meeting among the nonprofit’s board members.