KHNS - Haines

A Haines teenager allegedly shot a black bear from a boat in late September and the adult who owns the boat is being charged for his alleged involvement in the illegal kill.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers claim that on Sept. 22, a 15-year-old shot a black bear from a boat on a lake in the Haines area.

Boat owner Christopher Panagiotou-Scigliano, 35, is being cited for aiding and facilitating the teenager’s illegal harvest.

His arraignment is set for Oct. 30 in Haines court.

The trooper dispatch does not name the teenager or say whether he is being charged.

The fate of toddies, sours and mules at Alaska distilleries is still uncertain. The state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is struggling to decide whether the businesses should be allowed to serve cocktails. At a meeting Monday, the board revisited an advisory instructing distillers to stop mixing drinks. But, they didn’t come to any new conclusions.

“We’ve been doing this from the start,” Rob Borland told the board. “We’ve been making fine liquors. We’ve been squeezing our own juice for our cocktails, we’ve been doing all of that kind of stuff from the beginning.”

Borland is the owner of Ursa Major Distilling in Fairbanks. He’s one of several distillers who called into Monday’s meeting to oppose banning mixed drinks.

Last month, the ABC Board upheld an advisory prohibiting the sale of cocktails made with products not produced on-site.

Since then, some distilleries have continued to serve cocktails made with mixers they produce themselves. Things like syrups, tonic water, ginger beer and liqueurs. The state hasn’t issued any violations for this.

But in a memo ABC Board Director Erika McConnell said the cocktails distilleries are serving are not what she envisioned as ‘the distillery’s product’ when she sent out the advisory.  So, she went back to the board for more guidance.

Jared Curé owns the Narrows Bar in Juneau. He told the board anything considered distillery products should be bottled and sold like their liquor.

“It’s just a slippery slope,” said Curé. “A lot of these people that are chiming in, I don’t think they’re bad actors but if we allow this kind of model to go on in certain ways without putting clear controls on it, people can push the limits even further.”

The board was split on what to do.

Ellen Ganley said they shouldn’t ban distillers from using non-alcoholic beverages.

“I think we have to be really careful here because we do have nine businesses that are in at least some respect having the rug pulled out from underneath them,” said Ganley.

Thomas Manning disagreed. He said for something to be considered a distillery product, it needs to be part of the manufacturing process.

“I think that someone standing behind a bar and pouring orange juice into the vodka is not manufacturing onsite,” said Manning. “That’s mixing a drink.”

Bob Klein recused himself from the discussion as the board’s chair. But, speaking as the CEO of Anchorage Distillery, he said regulating non-alcoholic products is a slippery slope.

“It’s just very, very dangerous ground we’re treading on,” said Klein.

Rex Leath asked whether the board is even allowed to have a say about products that don’t contain alcohol.

“I’m not comfortable trying to regulate anything that’s non-alcoholic,” said Leath. “I don’t feel like I have the authority to do that.”

While that is true, Assistant Attorney General Harriet Milks said once the drink is mixed, it’s a different story. Milks is counsel to the board.

“If you have a glass of orange juice in one hand and a glass of vodka in the other hand, the board cannot regulate the hand with the orange juice,” said Milks. “But if you pour them together, then the board can regulate that.”

After several failed motions, the board couldn’t come to an agreement. Instead, they’ll revisit the advisory at a November meeting. At that point, new draft regulations for distilleries should be available from Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office staff. Until the issue is clarified, the agency will not issue violations to distilleries selling drinks using products they make on-site.

Every few years, Haines officials decide whether to allow helicopter skiing in new areas of the Chilkat Valley.

It’s usually a contentious process where residents debate the economic benefits of heliskiing versus impacts on residents and wildlife.

Now, local decision-makers will have concrete wildlife data to use when developing heliski policy.

State biologists created models to predict whether given areas are critical mountain goat or brown bear habitat.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists who did this research want to be clear on one thing: these studies are not about whether helicopters disturb wildlife. That research has already been done. And it shows mountain goats and bears are affected by helicopter noise.

On top of that, the disturbance happens during the winter – the most precarious time of the year for wildlife.

“If animals are right on the edge already, any amount of disturbance or displacement might actually have some meaningful effects on the animals’ reproduction or survival,” biologist Kevin White said.

White started this research in 2010, so his department would have  more definitive information when weighing in on Haines heliskiing decisions. The goal was to create a map of Chilkat Valley mountain goat habitat.

“You can see that mountain goats have a really specific preference for places on the landscape,” White said during a September presentation in Haines. “They definitely aren’t using the landscape at random.”

White tracked critical winter goat habitat using GPS collars on about 70 animals and aerial surveys.

Chilkat Valley mountain goats display lots of variety in where they spend the winter. That’s because the climate is transitional, between coastal and interior.

Climate affects mountain snowpack, and that affects goats.

The animals will go to higher elevations if the snow is light and easy to forage around. Goats go to lower elevations when the snow is heavy and hard to move through.

“Just within the Haines area, we see animals exhibiting three different wintering strategies,” White said.

White found that 25 percent of area goats winter at high elevations, 34 percent at medium elevations, and 41 percent at low elevations.

With the location data, White came up with a model to predict whether a certain area is likely to be winter goat habitat.

“Ultimately we can predict across the landscape where mountain goat habitat is,” White said. “We can overlay on top of that proposed helicopter zones to determine what impact that might have on mountain goats.”

Mountain goats aren’t the only animals living in places also used as heliski terrain. Brown bears create winter dens high in Chilkat Valley mountains.

In 2015, wildlife biologist Anthony Crupi started a study of brown bear denning sites in the Haines area.

The study consisted mostly of aerial surveys.

Crupi said if bears are disturbed while hibernating, it can have serious consequences on their survival.

“They basically go into a den and shut down most of their bodily functions,” Crupi said. “Disturbance during this time period has a potential for a large energetic effect.”

Crupi spotted 90 dens in the mountains between Haines and the Canadian border. Most of them fell between 1,500 and 3,500 feet. The mean elevation was 2,500 feet.

“Bears are very specific to where they locate their dens,” Crupi said. “It’s a negative relationship to elevation … there’s a positive relationship with slope, and bears are lazy, they don’t want to be in places with rugged terrain, unlike mountain goats.”

He used those data points to develop a model that predicts bear denning habitat (similar to White’s goat habitat model.) He mapped the high-probability den habitat and compared that to currently permitted heliski areas.

Twenty-seven percent of dens were in heliski areas.

Crupi also found that 15 percent of prime denning habitat overlaps areas with intense helicopter activity (based on helicopter data from the Haines Borough in 2011).

So, there are definitely areas where heliskiing and wildlife overlap.

“Those are places where the hardest decisions need to be made,” White said. “Those are the places that have the highest conservation concern.”

The Haines Assembly will have to make those decisions.

Earlier this year, efforts to review map amendment requests were derailed by conflict of interest concerns and the fact that these wildlife studies weren’t yet complete.

Now, the Assembly is holding hearings on a new process to review proposed heliski map changes.

It will send the requests to two committees first, and get input from agencies like Fish and Game.

Fish and Game will use these newly-minted habitat models in its feedback.

But how heavily to weigh wildlife habitat in map decisions is ultimately up to the six elected officials on the Haines Assembly.

The Haines Assembly is asking the University of Alaska to press pause on a proposed timber sale which has alarmed local residents.

A couple weeks ago, the university put 400 acres of its Chilkat Peninsula land up for bid.

The timing of the sale was motivated by the threat of new local regulations.

At a recent special meeting, Assembly chambers were filled with residents who live out Mud Bay Road, south of Haines.

They were surprised that a timber sale of this this size could be allowed in their quiet neighborhood.

“It seems unbelievably clear that the intention and all the ordinance and code around it is not to have this kind of resource extraction or commercial use of the land in this area,” Heidi Robichaud said.

But that’s the problem that triggered this 400-acre proposal.

Mud Bay zoning code does not explicitly allow or restrict resource extraction.

Borough attorneys say the general rule in regulating private property is that unless something is explicitly prohibited, it’s allowed.

Since discovering this apparent oversight a few months ago, the planning commission has brainstormed what restrictions, if any, to implement in Mud Bay code.

“The public testimony by and large thought that small-scale resource extraction was fine, people selling a few trees or a few truckloads of trees to support local businesses was fine,” said planning commission chair Rob Goldberg. “People were generally opposed to large-scale resource extraction.”

But as the commission moved toward regulations on resource extraction, the Alaska Mental Health Trust and University of Alaska objected.

Both agencies own significant acreage in the Mud Bay area. And the university’s board of regents took action. The group put 400 acres of land up for timber sale.

The university uses money from sales like this to fund student scholarships.

A couple Haines residents, including Andrew Gray, spoke in support of the university’s right to profit off its land.

“If you do attempt to restrict this, I want to remind you that it would be incredibly clear message to send to the state of Alaska when we are fighting for services, to deny one of the state agencies who is attempting to profit off an allowed use of their land,” Gray said. “I don’t think that bodes well in terms of us fighting for state services.”

But Assembly members agreed with the concerns of Mud Bay residents – the timber harvest seems out of character with that area.

Assemblywoman Heather Lende is one of several people who questioned whether the borough really needs explicit restrictions on resource extraction to prevent this type of sale.

She pointed to other parts of code which indicate the Mud Bay service area is intended to prioritize residential over commercial uses.

“An outside entity proposing a 400-acre timber sale, I don’t know how that fits in with the intent of rural residential,” Lende said.

The Assembly wants to have a conversation with the university about all of this.

The group voted unanimously to request an in-person meeting with both the university and the mental health trust. The Assembly also is asking the university to delay awarding a contract for the timber harvest until after this discussion occurs.

The timeline right now is tight. The university is accepting comments and bids on the sale until Oct. 23.

Assembly member Tom Morphet said there might be room for negotiation.

He quoted from a letter written by university land manager Christine Klein.

“‘UA advertised its Chilkat Peninsula Competitive Timber Sale to protect out interests because the Haines Borough Planning Commission was not engaging us,’” Morphet read. “To me that suggests that the university is maybe not a in a big rush to log out there, but put forward this sale to a certain extent to get our attention.”

If the university doesn’t postpone the timber sale, the Assembly may consider legal action.

The group met in executive session with the borough attorney for more than an hour to discuss the issue.

Members did not say anything publicly about what they discussed with the lawyer.

A longtime Skagway Assemblyman who in 2016 was sentenced to a year in prison on federal tax charges will return to the dais.

He won by just five votes. And, the city has its first female mayor in two decades.

It was too close to call on election night.

But, after 79 absentee ballots were tallied, Dan Henry narrowly beat out write-in Philip Clark for an Assembly seat.

The race came down to just five votes.

Henry previously served on the Assembly for 19 years. He recently returned to Skagway after serving out a prison sentence for failing to pay income taxes.

Twice the Alaska Public Offices Commission has found Henry in violation of candidate disclosure laws.

Henry is appealing one decision, and a third complaint is pending with the commission.

Henry did not return requests for comment by deadline for this story, but he did address the violations in a candidate forum before the election.

Henry said he did not purposely leave out information about his income and debts. He said the first case was a misunderstanding and the second was an oversight on his part.

“Does anyone base their voting choice on whether I do well or not so well with my business? No, they are going to vote for me if they believe I am an active member of my community who is willing to sacrifice time from that business,” Henry said.

Henry was the only Assembly candidate on the ballot. He was challenged by four write-in candidates.

Clark, a political newcomer, was one of them. He filed as a write-in to give residents more voting options.

“It was a close call but, I was actually thinking about this at the assembly meeting last night – how cool it was to see the political system in action in a local setting and just be a part of that,” Clark said. “I’m fine with the election results.”

Clark said as the campaign went on, he identified specific issues he wanted tackle in office.

“Things like housing shortage issues, things like long-term infrastructure development,” Clark said.

He hopes to continue to pursue these concerns in other areas of the local government.  And, he said  while it’s too soon to make any commitments, he could “easily” see himself running again.

The tidelands lease with White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad took center stage during this year’s election.

In 2015, voters rejected a 35-year waterfront lease extension with the company. Though it wasn’t on the ballot again this year, the lease was on voters’ minds. The Assembly is currently negotiating a shorter, 15-year, agreement with the railroad.

Two candidates who want Skagway to control the port prevailed in the election.

Monica Carlson unseated two-term mayor Mark Schaefer. Write-in David Brena earned the most votes for Assembly by a wide margin.

Roger Griffin, who ran unsuccessfully for an Assembly seat, said he’s pleased to see Carlson and Brena in office. Griffin also opposes the lease. He fell 25 votes short of Henry.

Henry has not said where he stands on the new lease.

At the candidate forum, he said his opinion doesn’t matter, because the new agreement will be brought to voters. But, he said if the new contract is rejected he’d work toward building a new floating dock for larger cruise ships.

“I would put my effort into trying to do anything that would facilitate business in a positive way for the city of Skagway as we keep moving along in this industry,” Henry said. “We are as good as any community is in the tourism business. And that is our lifeline at the moment.”

Carlson is Skagway’s second female mayor.

In recent years, the town’s elected government has been male dominated. Carlson will lead an entirely male Assembly.

Outgoing Mayor Schaefer held the position for four years, and supports the developing contract with White Pass.

At Schaefer’s final Assembly meeting, port commissioner Tim Bourcy thanked him for his years in office.

“For all his hard work and dedication,” Bourcy said. “And doing I think and exceptional job as mayor for the municipality of Skagway. He kind of came in and was handed the White Pass lease situation that had been going on with two mayors prior. And I think Mark worked diligently to try to bring this to a conclusion.”

Carlson, Brena and Henry will attend their first Assembly meeting in their new positions Oct. 19.

Some Skagway leaders are growing frustrated with what they see as an unproductive back-and-forth with White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad.

What started as a hopeful process aimed at a new tidelands lease has now turned into something close to a stalemate.

At the latest Skagway Assembly meeting, members were unsure how to move forward.

The talk at Thursday’s meeting cast doubt on whether the city and railroad will be able to reach a tentative agreement at all.

“I’m kinda at a loss at this point,” outgoing Assembly member Spencer Morgan said. “What I see White Pass doing and what I see on paper coming back is really taking out a lot of the protections the municipality has asked for.”

In late September, the Assembly made changes to a working memorandum of understanding. The memorandum would make way for a new 15-year tidelands lease with White Pass. But then White Pass sent back its edits to the document, and the changes the railroad proposed were disheartening for the assembly.

White Pass crossed out a line about working with the city as joint cruise terminal operators.

The company added in a paragraph about easements that the Assembly wanted to outline in a separate contract. It also reinstated wording saying the city cannot unreasonably withhold a sale or transfer of the lease.

Those are just a few of the changes that bothered Assembly members.

“What White Pass responded with this time, it’s definitely regressing,” Assembly member Orion Hanson said. “I think we probably should just get what we’re very comfortable with …and the way that we want to see it done, and if White Pass doesn’t like that, then I guess there’s not an MOU.”

The major motivation behind all of this is a new floating dock.

Cruise industry leaders told Skagway it would fall behind if it doesn’t install a new dock for bigger ships by 2019.

But Skagway can’t just go ahead and build it.

White Pass controls the tidelands in question for another five years. The railroad said if it gets a new lease, then it will cooperate on the floating dock.

The city has been working on a request for proposals to start design work on the floating component. But manager Scott Hahn said the city shouldn’t advertise the proposals request until they know whether they even have access to the area.

“You don’t want to spend any more of your money on engineering that doesn’t yield results,” Hahn said. “I’m really concerned about going out to bid before having a fairly good idea of we can get in there.”

Hahn referred to the recent election results, and said they could move Skagway further away from a White Pass agreement.

Monica Carlson and David Brena, two lease opponents, were elected mayor and assembly member. Dan Henry won the Assembly second seat. He supported a previous lease proposal.

The Assembly decided to prepare the request for proposals so it’s ready to go to bid if the access situation becomes more clear.

Here’s another layer of the port conundrum: White Pass could be sold.

A June news release said the railroad’s parent company, ClubLink, is conducting a review of White Pass which may include selling the business.

White Pass operates primarily as an excursion for cruise visitors. And there’s been speculation about whether a cruise line might buy the railroad.

White Pass and ClubLink officials did not return requests for comment on this question.

Hahn addressed the concern at Thursday’s meeting.

“I do see situations, however extreme, if a cruise ship company bought the railroad company, and decided to play around with the schedules, to say, “Well, it’s just not profitable to have them operating on Thursdays and Mondays so we’re gonna shut those days down,”” Hahn said.

In light of the concern about a potential cruise line monopoly on the docks, the assembly is amending municipal code to try to ensure a fair marketplace.

The Assembly referred the code changes to the port commission.

As for the tidelands memorandum on which so many questions hinge, the Assembly did not decide on a next step.