KRBD - Ketchikan

Two teenagers received non-life-threatening injuries Saturday afternoon in a single-vehicle accident on Prince of Wales Island.

A 16-year-old driver of a 1996 Ford Ranger lost control near mile 12 Hollis Highway because of icy road conditions, according to the troopers’ online dispatch.

The vehicle entered the ditch and rolled several times. The driver was ejected from the vehicle.

Both the driver and a 17-year-old passenger sustained minor injuries and were transported to the medical center in Klawock.

They were later released to their parents.

The driver was issued a citation for driving in violation of provisional license.

Sealaska Heritage Institute has partnered with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the University of Alaska Southeast to provide enhanced and expanded Northwest Coast art programs and opportunities for Alaska students.

The three organizations signed a memorandum of agreement last Wednesday that will be used to design and implement a formal education plan.

“It’s part of a broader effort to really highlight Northwest Coast art, and to really make it something that’s attractive, that people want to come to Alaska to see,” said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute. “In order to do that, we need to make sure we have practicing artists.”

Worl said the initial focus will be for students to complete a two-year program at the University of Alaska Southeast in Northwest Coast arts. Then, those students could transfer to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for further study.

“And we want our students to have a good grounding in Northwest Coast art, but we also want them to be exposed to the broader creativity of art,” Worl said. “We want them to be able to work in different kinds of media – glass, tapestry – and IAIA does have programs where its students study in different countries.”

UAS hired Mique’l Dangeli in August to teach Northwest Coast art history. Worl said Dangeli, who is originally from Metlaktla, will be instrumental in expanding the program at the university.

“She’ll be recruiting others to teach other Northwest Coast arts. I understand her husband is going to be coming up and teaching a class as well. But really, at UAS, it is yet to be broadened.”

Worl said SHI currently provides Northwest Coast art education to elementary and secondary school students, but will expand that program. She said giving students the fundamentals at a young age will better prepare them for college courses.

“We’ve been trying to cultivate the arts already in our schools and in our communities, so I think they will have a cadre of students who are interested in Northwest Coast arts.”

Classes in Northwest Coast art are offered in Ketchikan through the Totem Heritage Center. UAS students can receive college credits for those courses. Worl said details are being worked out, but believes these classes will be included in the degree program.

In a split vote Monday, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly agreed to add language to all votes related to routine state marijuana license application reviews.

That language is meant to protect the borough in case the federal government decides to start cracking down on states that have legalized pot. The language states that the borough doesn’t endorse or condone activities prohibited by federal law.

During Assembly discussion of the issue, Assembly Member Judith McQuerry argued that the added language doesn’t accomplish anything because it’s the state that issues the licenses – not the borough.

She says it’s a statement that some Assembly members want to add because they personally don’t approve of marijuana and that it’s nothing more than window dressing.

Assembly Member Stephen Bradford then suggested adding more language, stating that the federal law making marijuana illegal violates the 10^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Bradford says the 10th Amendment is very simple and clear.

“It merely states that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people,” he said.

Bradford says he generally agrees with McQuerry on the issue of the added language, but thinks if the borough is going to make a statement; it should include a statement about the 10^th Amendment.

McQuerry voted for Bradford’s amendment, but said, “I think that’s adding lace to the window dressing.”

The amendment passed unanimously. The main motion then passed in a 5-2 vote, with McQuerry and Bradford voting no.

A Ketchikan man faces multiple felony charges after Ketchikan Police Department officers allegedly found methamphetamine, prescription pills and a loaded gun in his home.

Police served a search warrant at at the home of Shayne Smith, 43,
on Nov. 15 following an ongoing drug investigation, according to a news release sent Wednesday.

Police found about 11 grams of meth and a syringe loaded with the same drug, prescription pills, a loaded handgun and $832 cash.

Smith was charged with four felony drug counts and two counts of weapons misconduct.

He was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday.

His next hearing is Nov. 28 in Ketchikan Superior Court.

Smith remains in custody. Bail is set at $15,000.

The Ketchikan City Council agreed unanimously Monday to support Akeela-Gateway’s application for a state grant to develop a sobering center at Ketchikan’s former state-run juvenile detention center.

The state recently shut the center down in response to budget cuts, and the facility reverted to the City of Ketchikan.

The city asked for proposals from community groups interested in using the building, and Akeela was the only one that submitted.

Akeela’s Joel Jackson said the community very much needs a place where people under the influence of alcohol or drugs can safely sleep it off, and then be steered toward treatment, which Akeela offers in a separate facility.

The grant and the building are two opportunities that aligned at just the right time, he said.

“So, we have a facility that’s zoned correctly that’s available, and we had a grant proposal that came out the second of November, allowing us to ask for money to provide a service that fits into our continuum of care,” he said.

The state grant would provide $1 million a year for three years.

The state will announce the award in early January, Jackson said, and the recipient would have until July to start providing services. There are some minor revisions that would be needed at the facility, he said.

Part of the motion that the Council approved states that the building would be provided to Akeela at no cost for the three-year grant period. Some Council members wanted to make sure the city wouldn’t be on the hook for major maintenance costs during that time, as long as the building is in good condition at the start of the three-year lease.

City Manager Karl Amylon said if Akeela is successful in obtaining the grant, then a detailed lease agreement will come back to the council for review and approval.

Also Monday, the Council approved a motion to authorize the city’s Museum Department to move forward with development of a permanent exhibit, which will go in the Centennial Building. Another motion authorizing up to $70,000 to clean, treat and repair the Chief Johnson totem pole also was approved.

Monday’s Council meeting was rescheduled from its regular Thursday meeting day.

The next City Council meeting is a special budget meeting, set for 7 p.m. Nov. 28.

Ketchikan’s Vigor Industrial rolled out the forward half of the Alaska-class ferry Tazlina on Sunday.

With that 800-ton portion out of the assembly hall, shipyard employees now can get started on the back half.

It takes coordination and planning to move 800 tons of half-built ferry, even when it’s moving just a couple hundred feet.

On a frosty, windy, blue-sky Southeast Alaska morning, a handful of Ketchikan Shipyard employees kept a close eye on the huge chunk of welded steel as it inched out of its tight quarters in the assembly hall, and into the light of day.

The ferry isn’t done. Not by a long shot.

But this is an important moment for the shipyard, which received the $100 million state contract to build two Alaska Class ferries in fall of 2014.

“Today, the marine division rolled out the forward half of the state ferry Tazlina into its berth 1 position,” Doug Ward, director of shipyard development, said. “The very next thing that will happen inside the building is the engine-room modules that we’ve been working on for the last several months, those will go into the assembly hall and we’ll start building units and stacking modules for the aft half of the Tazlina.”

The forward half was made water-tight with fitted plywood to keep out Ketchikan’s typical wet weather, and finishing work will continue inside that section while the aft half is assembled.

Dockmaster Greg Howe said once the back end is complete, they’ll roll it out and weld the two together.

“The second half of the ship will actually go quite a bit quicker because a considerable part of the aft of the ship is already constructed,” he said. “It’s sitting in modules in other parts of the yard. And will be assembled in the assembly hall here over the next eight months. We should be rolling the aft half out early-summer, mid-summer.”

The Tazlina is the first Alaska Class Ferry, and because of that is taking the longest. With this first ship, Vigor employees had to work on detailed designs, fabricate tools and templates, and work out any kinks in the plans.

The second ferry – the Hubbard – should go faster.

Other than the name, Ward said the ships will be pretty much identical.

“So, when we start on 2, on the Hubbard, we will have that learning curve,” Ward said.

Howe added that the shipyard’s young workforce has been in training, and by the time they start on the Hubbard, those workers will have more experience to work faster.

Project manager Alan Coffin was all smiles as the forward half of the ferry rolled out of the hall. He said it will be even better when they roll out the other end.

“But this is a huge accomplishment. You see how big that thing is coming out of the shop? 150-ton cranes, 100-feet in the air and we’re just clearing those with that ship,” he said. “So, it’s a huge accomplishment. I mean, sit back and look: We’re doing that here in little-old Ketchikan, here. It’s crazy. It’s really crazy.”

The Alaska-class ferries contract calls for final delivery by late 2018.

The Tazlina should be in the water for sea trials by fall of next year.

The Ketchikan Shipyard is owned by the state, but is managed by Vigor Industrial.