KFSK - Petersburg

Voters will have a choice of candidates for mayor and for Borough Assembly in Petersburg this fall.

The only two mayors of the Petersburg borough both filed to seek the mayor’s seat, Mark Jensen and Cindi Lagoudakis. Jensen resigned his seat in May with more than two years left to go in his term.

As vice mayor, Lagoudakis took over as mayor with Jensen’s resignation.

Now, both are running for the remaining two-year term.

Jensen said he was convinced by other local residents.

“A lot of it was encouragement by some people I respect in town that asked me if I would put my name in,” he said Wednesday. “They just thought I would be better in the position.”

A welder and commercial fisherman, Jensen, 61, has served as mayor of first the city, then the borough since November 2012. He was on the city council before that.

He has taken his summers off in the past to go fishing and turned the reigns over to the vice mayor.

“Over the course of the summer fishing I’ve reflected on the past 10 years and saw the way things kept moving forward and then when these people asked if I’d put my name in seeing that the mayor was running unopposed I said I would,” Jensen said.

His opponent, Lagoudakis, is 62 and retired from the U.S. Forest Service.

It’s not the only race for local office this fall.

There are six people seeking two seats on the Borough Assembly: Ken Hamilton, Richard Burke, Brandi Marohl, Will Ware, Jeff Meucci and Bob Lynn.

The deadline for candidates to file paperwork to run for local office was Tuesday, August 22.

Candidates who filed paperwork can still withdraw. The deadline for that is 5 p.m. Friday, August 25.

Many of the other vacant seats had no interest.

School board president Sarah Holmgrain filed to keep her seat but the other vacant seat has no interest. George Doyle is the only taker for hospital board. Four other seats will be vacant. Four seats on the planning commission only have one candidate, incumbent Chris Fry. Mike Bangs is the only candidate for three seats on the harbor board and Stan Hjort is the only candidate for three spots on the public safety advisory board. The library board will have a full roster with Cynthia McDonell, Lizzie Thompson and Marilyn Menish-Meucci running for three seats on that advisory board.

Residents also can file as a write-in candidate for some of the vacant seats.

A letter of intent must be filed with the borough clerk’s office by 5 p.m. September 29.

The election is October 3. The last day to register to vote is September 3. Absentee voting starts September 13.

The commercial harvest for Dungeness crab in Southeast Alaska this summer was the lowest in several decades. But it might not be a complete bust.

The harvest numbers only tell part of the story.

The summer season for Dungies closed three weeks early in Southeast.

The thing is Dungeness crab in Southeast are tricky because state managers don’t know a lot about them.

The crab are on a four-to-five-year life cycle and the commercial fishery is expected to fluctuate accordingly.

biologists rely on commercial harvests to track the population because there are no stock assessment surveys.

Most years the population seems healthy enough to hold a two-month fishery.

But this summer season closed early because the harvests weren’t meeting the threshold set in state regulations.

The season brought in 1.3 million pounds, which is the lowest harvest in more 30 years. The historical summer average is 2.7 million.

Since the season was cut weeks short it’s not surprising the overall harvest was low.

The situation is kind of a Catch-22.

Managers like Kellie Wood, a crab biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, have to close the fishery because of low numbers. But now, they won’t get a picture of what a full harvest would have looked like.

“I think overall though, in general, things weren’t as good,” Wood said. “A lot of that could be due to the fact that the crab were just not on the bite.”

“Not on the bite” refers to the crab’s molting when they lose their shell and are not hungry.

Dungeness crab fishing is all about luring crab into baited pots when they are hungry. And crab without a hard shell or “soft crab” have no value anyway.

Wood said there has been some anecdotal evidence from fishermen reporting light-colored crab near the end of the fishery.

That would indicate crab that recently molted.

This summer’s low harvest could be due to a late molt. It could mean that the crab are there, it’s just bad timing.

“You know after they molt they bury in the mud, and they don’t come out and they’re not hungry, they just sit there,” Wood said. “If it was a later molt, they probably were just buried during this fishery.”

The crab stay buried for about four to six weeks.

Biologists believe that Dungeness crab molt one or two times a year, but they don’t really know. Exactly how Dungeness crab function in regional waters is pretty speculative.

“There’s a lack of life history data in Southeast Alaska,” Wood said.

And they don’t know why the crab might have been molting late.

Temperatures were a little colder this year than in recent years.

“It could have been due to colder water, later phytoplankton blooms, you know, there’s a lot that goes into these molts,” Wood said. “Temperature, salinity, nutrition, it’s really hard to say.”

It’s only the second time in over 15 years that the summer season closed early.

In 2013, managers closed the season a week early when there was a high percentage of soft-shelled crab.

Managers still are evaluating how much of this summer’s harvest could have been soft-shelled. If there’s a lot, like in 2013, then this fall’s fishery could be normal or better than normal.

Managers would, by regulation, open up the fall season for at least a 30-day fishery.

This summer the crab was harvested by 184 permits. Crab were purchased at an average price of $3.09 per pound.

The value of the summer season catch was $4 million, close to $2 million less than last summer.

District 8, which includes waters around Petersburg and Wrangell, saw the largest harvest of 394,000 pounds.

Petersburg Borough Assembly members continued a discussion Monday about adding some parking space at the state-owned Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport.

Short almost half its members, the Assembly made no decision on that ongoing topic. They also decided to wait on another discussion.

The Assembly had just enough for a quorum with Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis and Assembly members Eric Castro, Nancy Strand and Jeigh Stanton Gregor attending the first regular meeting of this month.

The four heard from Richard Burke, a planning commissioner and candidate for Assembly, who has been lobbying for the additional parking space across the road from the airport terminal.

Burke researched the topic on behalf the planning commission earlier this year and thought a rough parking lot could be built for around $55,000-60,000.

“The intent was to, in my proposal was to get extra space for parking,” Burke told the Assembly. “My desire was for it to be something we could improve later on. So, get the shot rock pad in there. We don’t need to maintain it in the winter. We don’t need to plow the snow in the winter. If it gets big holes in it, we may need to put a little more rock in it.”

Burke designs logging roads for the U.S. Forest Service. The planning commission this year recommended the borough Assembly pursue the additional parking at the airport.

Borough manager Steve Giesbrecht reported he had contacted the Alaska Department of Transportation about the possibility.

He said a low-cost lease of state land may be possible but he expects it will cost more than Burke figures to construct that parking space.

“When you’re dealing with state property it turns into a bigger project,” Giesbrecht said. “They’re not really going to allow us to spread 4 inches of gravel out there and call it a parking lot. That’s not gonna work. But what will work, we don’t really know 100 percent either to be fair to what Richard’s talking about. To get to that point, basically we’re gonna have to start working with the state and start having attorneys look at contracts and DOT’s I’m sure has got a standard one. But they’re gonna come back and they’re gonna want it designed a certain way. We’ll likely have to provide some kind of drawings. I don’t know if they’re gonna require engineering documents or not, but hopefully not.”

He estimated a 30-space lot would cost the borough about $150,000-$200,000 because of site preparation, gravel, cross walk lights, bike path repairs and protection for an underground water line.

He also heard from the state that the DOT did not have money to expand parking lots or to add to the state’s maintenance work.

Public works director Karl Hagerman thought Burke’s goal of additional parking is worth looking into.

“It might be apples and oranges what he thinks could go in and what the state would expect and we don’t really know what the state’s gonna say so, in my opinion it’s probably better to shoot high and address some things that Steve talks about so that we can, if this goes forward, we can plan on approval, instead of a constant revision process until we finally land on something the state’s gonna approve.”

Assembly members in the past have wondered about expanding existing parking space or using an overflow lot near the end of the runway.

Lagoudakis appreciated that Burke had raised the issue.

“As you’ve started the conversation and it may not end up as you originally proposed but I think people are looking at different alternatives even if we reconfigure how parking is laid out at the airport or change where the snow deposit area ism” Lagoudakis said. “There may be some other options.”

The Assembly took no vote on the issue, but may continue with that discussion in the future. The Assembly also decided to postpone a planned discussion on oversight of the local electric utility until all seven members are at a meeting.

The only decisions they did make were to award a sole-source contract for Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department radios for just under $45,000.

The Assembly also made changes for two leases of borough land, approved a budget change for Kiseno Street sewer work and OK’d a ballot question on whether to continue a property tax exemption for buildings with sprinkler systems.

Compared with other years, the state’s capital budget approved in late July is relatively sparse, but it does have funding for some construction work in Southeast Alaska.

Among the funded projects are replacement floats for a harbor in Wrangell, cruise ship dock improvements in Ketchikan and Hoonah and renovation of the headquarters for the Alaska Permanent Fund in Juneau.

The Legislature also authorized spending federal money on road, ferry and airport projects.

The capital budget this year amounts to $1.4 billion. Most of that, or $1.2 billion in the spending plan, is simply a decision on how the state plans to spend federal payments.

Some of the construction work is funded by the state however.

Shoemaker Bay, which is 5 miles south of downtown Wrangell, will get $5 million in the state municipal harbor grant program to replace aging harbor floats.

Harbor master Greg Meissner said the concrete float there is 38 years old, well beyond its useful life. It will be replaced with a new wooden float.

“In the condition that thing’s in, every year you lose another stall. They just start to rot, they fall apart,” Meissner said. “It’s a balance of how much money you throw at this thing to keep it functional.”

“Overtime you lose more and more moorage with this thing. You either got to pump a lot of money into an old derelict or you replace and we finally got the chance to replace it,” he said. “It’ll give us the opportunity to put a few more boats in there of the commercial size and offer almost everybody that has a need out there a spot.”

That harbor is used by commercial fishing boats and pleasure craft.

Meissner expects the total project cost could wind up about $11.5 million.

The city has some money saved up and will have to bond for some of the cost of the work.

Meissner thinks the work could start up next year.

Other projects that will receive state capital budget funds:

• $2.5 million, Hoonah, safety improvements and new mooring buoys for cruise ships to anchor (funded by the state cruise passenger vessel tax).

Right now, the community can accommodate one ship at its dock near Icy Strait Point.

Mayor Ken Skaflestad explained the ultimate goal is dock space to allow two cruise ships to tie up at once.

“In the interim, this being a phased approach to additional docking in the future, this’ll provide secure moorage much closer to shore, reducing the lighterage expense of that additional vessel,” Skaflestad said.

The city of Hoonah and Huna Totem have partnered on the dock project for the Native corporation’s Icy Strait Point tourist destination.

Skaflestad expects the second dock space eventually could cost about $7 million or $8 million.

• $2 million in cruise tax money, port of Ketchikan.

“We’re thankful we’re getting it and it’ll go to good use,” said Ketchikan’s port and harbors director Steve Corporon. “I just can’t tell you exactly where it’s gonna go to use yet til we finalize our budget with the City Council this fall.”

Corporon said Ketchikan has an engineering firm working on a port development plan for larger ships that cruise lines are starting to use.

“In January of this year, Moffatt and Nichol presented their study to the city. It had numerous projects — near-term, mid-term and long-term — to address it. If you add up the cost of all these possible projects it’s between $50 and $70 million. We’re gonna be working with the city council as we put our 2018 budget together this fall, identifying where this $2 million for port improvements is going to best fit the puzzle, working towards several of these projects, both near term and mid-term.”

• just over $4 million, Juneau, for renovation of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, headquarters.
• $75,000 organizational grant, Whale Pass on eastern Prince of Whales Island.
• more than $4.4 million, Ketchikan, for finishing up Alaska Class ferries under construction at shipyard; along with $11 million for work on the existing Alaska Marine Highway fleet.
• $450,000, Kake city dock.

Other transportation projects are not listed specifically in the budget document.

Instead, this year the spending plan authorizes block amounts statewide, $580 million in federal funding for surface transportation, nearly $130 million for international airports and another $140 million for rural airport improvements.

With no named projects for those dollar amounts, the Alaska Department of Transportation has already determined its top priorities around the state and in the region.

For surface transportation, roads, trails and ferries, those are dictated by the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.

That means in Southeast over $55 million, most of it federal money, will go to the reconstruction of the Haines Highway.

DOT also plans bridge, road and ferry berth work in Ketchikan, road rehab in Skagway and Juneau and bridge work in Pelican.

As for airport projects that agency plans design work for an airport in Angoon, rehab work and improvements to the taxiway and runway in both Haines and Klawock, planning for Ketchikan’s airport and a land purchase at Sitka’s airport.

Petersburg borough Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis has decided to try and continue on in that role beyond October.

Lagoudakis has filed her paperwork with the borough to run for the mayoral seat in the October 3 election.

As vice mayor she took over the mayor’s role in May following the resignation of Mark Jensen. Like Jensen last year, Lagoudakis said it was not an easy decision to run for mayor.

“My husband and I have talked about traveling more in the next few years and it’s OK if we put that on hold for a little bit, we’ve got plenty of time to do that,” Lagoudakis said. “That was really the deciding factor was spending more time with family down south or being able to commit to this and it’s a challenging time but I think that there’s some interesting opportunities that we can try and work towards.”

She has served as acting mayor in prior years when Jensen was out fishing and not at meetings during the summer.

Lagoudakis was appointed to her Assembly seat in 2013 shortly after the incorporation of the borough government. She was elected to that seat in 2014.

Lagoudakis is retired from the U.S. Forest Service and turns 63 in September. She said she is looking forward to a challenge.

“I have really enjoyed being on the assembly and I like the group of people that I work with even though we’re a diverse group I think we work pretty well together,” she said. “I had a number of people from the community actually approach me and ask me to run and talked that over with my spouse and we decided that would be an OK direction to go for now. I’m actually looking forward to the challenge.”

Lagoudakis said she’s interested in trying to get more young people engaged and involved in local government.

The filing period for local candidates is open through August 22. Other candidates to file so far are Richard Burke for an Assembly seat and Cindy McDonell for a spot on the library board.

Conditions of release have not changed for a man charged with murder in the July 4, 2016, van wreck in Petersburg. The judge in the case against him, however, has changed.

The defendant requested the case be heard before a judge other than William Carey, and it was assigned to superior court judge Trevor Stephens instead.

Chris Allen, 24, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of manslaughter, one count of assault and one count of unsworn falsification.

Stephens presided over a bail hearing Tuesday morning. The judge, attorneys and defendant all attended the bail review by telephone but the Petersburg court room was full with local residents.

Allen’s attorney assistant public defender Jay Hochberg argued that Allen should be released into 24-hour third-party custody of his wife, Jordyn. The couple have been living with his parents in Fairbanks until Allen’s arrest on July 21.

Hochberg also sought to have the bail amount reduced, which had been set at $50,000 at a hearing last week.

Assistant attorney general Adrienne Bachman argued against the request for third-party custody.

Bachman questioned Jordyn Allen about her knowledge of her husband’s seizure disorder and advice from doctors that he not drive.

A statement from R.D. and Madonna Parks, parents of Molly Parks, one of the victims in the fatal wreck, urged the judge not to release Allen to his wife or one of his family members.

Allen’s attorney Hochberg countered that Allen’s wife would make a good custodian when he is released.

Prosecutors say Allen had a seizure that caused the fatal van wreck that killed two and injured another. Bachman alleges Allen had a well-documented history of seizures and ignored doctors’ advice not to drive.

Stephens ruled against releasing Allen into his wife’s custody, but said he may agree to release him to another third-party custodian.

The next hearing in the case has been rescheduled for 2 p.m. August 30, and a trial was scheduled for the week of November 13, although that date could be pushed back as attorneys prepare for a trial.