Heather Bryant

The Southeast Alaska Native village corporation Klukwan Inc. filed for bankruptcy this week. But it plans on remaining in business.

Klukwan is an unincorporated village with about 100 residents about 20 miles from Haines. The village corporation has around 250 shareholders.

Klukwan Inc. filed a voluntary petition for what’s called Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That allows for reorganization, meaning the debtor usually proposes a plan to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time. The court could also determine how the debts will be settled.

Klukwan Inc. manager Ralph Strong said the filing stems from an approximately $7 million dollar debt with Travelers Insurance Company. Strong said Travelers was the bonding company for South Coast Construction in Ketchikan, a company owned by the corporation that closed in 2002.

Strong said the two companies were never able to come to agreement on how to settle the outstanding debt. But the main point of concern for Klukwan is that Travelers is trying to put a lien on the distribution it receives from its regional Native corporation, Sealaska. That, according to Strong, is not allowed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act.

So Klukwan filed for Chapter 11 to protect itself, he said.

Strong said the federal bankruptcy court will make a determination whether such a lien is allowable for collection against a Native corporation. He said that decision could impact every corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The bankruptcy filing lists all of Klukwan’s creditors. In addition to Travelers Insurance, they include the IRS, Sterling Savings Banks, the corporation’s own general income trust and Rosemarie Hotch. Hotch is a shareholder and board member who filed suit against the corporation last year for the way its trusts were managed and used.  An undisclosed settlement was reached on that case late last year.

Shareholders in 2011 approved a $12.6 million payout from the company’s general income trust. But Strong said neither the Hotch settlement nor the payout caused the bankruptcy filing.

The corporation sent a letter to shareholders this week notifying them of the bankruptcy filing.

Strong said the outcome in bankruptcy court could be good or bad for shareholders. But the situation, he said, quote, “can’t get any worse.”

Alaska is once again near the top of the list in workplace injuries and fatalities in the country.

The state’s construction and fishing industries contribute to the bulk of the incidents.

The State of Alaska Epidemiology office released its report on work-related injuries between 2001 and 2010.

Those ten years encompass 3,150 non-fatal workplace injuries and 384 fatal injuries.

Falls are the most common form on non-fatal injury and most of those belong to the construction industry. Construction workers make up 19 percent of the non-fatal injuries.

However, in Alaska fishing remains the leading cause of workplace fatalities. Commercial fishermen make up 33 percent of the fatal injuries in the ten year period.

The leading cause of death is drowning or submersion. Half of drowning and submersion deaths are due to a vessel sinking, burning or capsizing.

Pilots made up 13 percent of the fatal injuries.

The report found that from 2001-2012, “fatal work-related injuries occurred most frequently among commercial fishermen, fishing vessel captains, and pilots. Non-fatal work-related injuries occurred most often among construction workers, commercial fishermen, drivers, and food processors.”

The report attributes the increased risk of those occupations to hazardous work environments and the distance from trauma facilities.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is planning a three-day trip to Alaska.

Salazar is preparing to decide whether to issue final drilling permits to Shell Oil, which hopes to drill exploratory wells this summer in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

The department announcement on Salazar’s trip was mum on whether the secretary intends to make an announcement on Arctic offshore drilling in Alaska.

Shell still needs the Coast Guard to complete a review of an oil spill containment vessel before it can drill. The company also is seeking a waiver of requirements in the air permit it received from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Interior Department says Salazar on Saturday and Sunday will tour the North Slope and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

An Alaska Airlines headed from California to Seattle was forced to make an emergency landing after the plane’s cabin lost pressure.

Passenger Roslyn Richardson told ABC News that all the babies on the flight started crying at the same time. Then adult passengers felt their ears painfully popping.

Examiner.com reports the pilots called in the emergency citing “catastrophic electrical failure with loss of some flight controls and cabin pressure.” The plan was diverted to San Jose, CA where it landed safely. Passengers made it to Seattle approximately eight hours later.

Preliminary inspections revealed that it wasn’t an electrical problem but a sensor on the landing gear that malfunctioned. The sensor identified the plane as being on the ground instead of in flight and turned off the automatic flight controls and cabin pressure.

The Boeing 737-400 has been grounded and is being inspected by Alaska Airlines maintenance crews, according to Flight Global News.

The following clip from ABC News explains what happened.

Update:

A boater who had been missing since Sunday in the Ketchikan area was found Wednesday just north of Knudson Cove.

The man had grounded his 19-foot boat on rocks. He was waving a flare when he was spotted by a private helicopter. He was picked up by a Coast Guard crew from Ketchikan.

The Coast Guard had suspended its search after covering more than 1,400 square miles.

The man had been reported missing when he failed to arrive at Metlakatla from Knudson Cove.

Original Story:

The Coast Guard has suspended the search for a man reported overdue in Metlakatla.
The Coast Guard was informed Sunday of the overdue mariner in the Ketchikan area. The man, traveling in a 19-foot boat, was traveling to Metlakatla from Knudson Cove.

The Coast Guard searched an area more than 1,400 square miles before suspending the search.

The missing man’s name hasn’t been released.

The Brooks Range Council is a grassroots movement opposing Governor Sean Parnell’s plan to develop a road to the Ambler Mining District.

The governor’s office has proposed nearly $29 million next year to advance his “Road to Resources” program, which includes $4 million for the planned road to Ambler. That money will be used for permitting and environmental work on the proposed roads, which the governor says will eventually allow access to resources near Umiat, Tanana and Ambler. The Ambler mining district is the proposed terminus of a 220-mile road from the Dalton Highway.

The governor calls the roads a chance to “grow economic opportunities” in rural Alaska and create jobs. But John Gaedeke, the chairman of the Brooks Range Council, says only industry will benefit from the roads.

The Ambler Mining District holds one of the largest undeveloped copper-zinc deposits in the world. A study commissioned by the Department of Transportation in September of last year estimated the cost of the Ambler road be $430 million, with annual maintenance costs over $8 million. The Brooks Range Council says the true cost could more than double that figure, and that the high-sulfide rock to be mined if the road is built would leech acid into the environment, harming wild fish populations and requiring costly annual cleanup long into the future.

Other critics of the road are also becoming more vocal. The community of Bettles in July passed a resolution officially opposing the road. Gaedeke says any road should be approved by the people who live there.

And to tell the governor “what they want,” the Brooks Range Council is collecting signatures for a petition calling on the governor to abandon the project.

So far, the Brooks Range Council hasn’t received any official response from the governor’s office. If the Ambler road project stays on schedule, DOT hopes to begin the permitting process for the road in October.