Rosemarie Alexander

The chief executive of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, is stepping down.

Roald Helgesen is leaving SEARHC to become chief exectuive officer of the statewide Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. He says his last day is in December, to ensure a smooth transition to a new CEO.

In a letter to the SEARHC, Helgesen says he believes he can use his skills even better at the tribal group. Headquartered in Anchorage, ANTHC was formed in 1997 to manage statewide Native health care, including the Alaska Native Medical Center, the state’s largest Native hospital.

Helgesen started at SEARHC answering phones in 1993 and made his way to vice president of administration before leaving in 2004 for work in the Lower 48. He returned in 2007 as president and CEO.

SEARHC operates Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka as well as facilities in Juneau and 16 other communities throughout Southeast Alaska.

Helgesen announced his resignation Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, meeting with the board much of the day on a transition plan. The Southeast health group will conduct a nationwide search to replace him.

Juneau will file a petition with the Local Boundary Commission to annex lands proposed for a Petersburg borough.

The Assembly voted last night (Monday) to challenge Peterburg’s plan to incorporate an area previously identified for annexation to the City and Borough of Juneau. It includes all the territory from the southern CBJ boundary and east to the Canadian border; the Tracy Arm / Ford’s Terror Wilderness and Endicott Arm as well as Holkam, Windham and Hobart bays.

Thirty-thousand acres at Hobart Bay are owned by Goldbelt, Juneau’s Native Corporation.

Juneau previously did not file to annex the area, in deference to Goldbelt, which had said it preferred not to be in any borough.

The corporation says it’s currently neutral on the Petersburg petition. The Goldbelt Board of Directors is to decide its borough preference over the next couple of months.

There was no discussion last night on the Assembly’s resolution to file the annexation petition. It calls for all or a portion of the lands on the mainland south of Juneau’s southern boundary that were recommended years ago as a model borough.

October 26 is the deadline for filing competing petitions and opposing briefs with the Local Boundary Commission.

The City and Borough of Juneau will remain part of the Tongass Futures Roundtable.

A resolution to repeal CBJ support for the group failed on a tie vote at last night’s (Monday) Assembly meeting. Mayor Bruce Botelho recused himself from the discussion and vote, because he currently serves as facilitator of the group.

Earlier this year, timber representatives pulled out of the roundtable. The Southeast Conference, and several other communities as well as the State of Alaska also quit, citing the group’s inability to increase logging in Southeast Alaska.

Assembly member Merrill Sanford proposed that Juneau do the same. He says roundtable members have done little to address timber supply.

“There should be enough in the Tongass National Forest to supply two, three or four sawmills in Southeast Alaska,” Sanford said, “and we have done nothing but hurt the economy of our small towns by not having an integrated resource available for them and this group is not working on that. They said that was one of their primary goals.”

The Tongass roundtable started five years ago in an attempt to find consensus among stakeholders of the nation’s largest national forest. It included the U.S. Forest Service, conservation groups, the timber industry, and Native organizations, including Sealaska Regional Native Corporation.

CEO Rick Harris told the Assembly the roundtable has been effective in improving communication among the users and residents of the national forest.
And while there has been less progress on timber, he says it goes beyond that to other Tongass resources.

“Kind of the moniker was timber and beyond so that’s what we’ve focused on. We can understand people’s frustration that we have not found a solution to timber but that’s been a 30 to 40 year fight as it is.” Harris said he believes the roundtable has made substantial progress.

The Parnell administration has formed a state Timber Jobs Task Force, which represents one side of the policy debate over Tongass issues. It has no representatives from the conservation community.

Juneau lawmakers are looking for members to serve on a new Taku River Task Force.

The river is the most abundant salmon-producer in Southeast Alaska. It’s also one of the most studied in terms of biology, but with the renewal of mining at the headwaters, many other questions remain.

“We’re just trying to find out exactly who controls the Taku River,” says Juneau Sen. Dennis Egan.

He says it’s not even clear what agency is responsible for monitoring industrial vessel traffic on the river – the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Natural Resources, or Environmental Conservation? Or the U.S. Coast Guard?

The task force will also look at the effectiveness of state and federal laws and regulations regarding the river as well as review the health of Taku River fish stocks, habitat and game resources.

A proposal to create a legislative task force to study the issues went nowhere during the last legislative session. But the meetings between sport and commercial fishermen and Taku River property owners proved to be contentious. Representative Beth Kerttula says it was clear everyone needed the same information.

“It just was obvious we were not operating with the same information,” she says. “Some of it was good, some we weren’t sure about and we needed to be sure about it. So our common sense way to go forward was to find out the facts and get them out there for everybody.”

While the catalyst for the task force is the redevelopment of the Tulsequah Chief Mine at the headwaters of the Taku River, it’s the extraordinary salmon production of the river that drives everyone’s concerns, says gillnetter Jev Shelton.

“With or without the Tulsequah Chief Mine, the river really does deserve an added measure of protection to be sure that productivity isn’t compromised,” he says.

Canadian company Chieftain Metals hopes to start production of the multi-metal mine in 2014. The main access to the mine is up the Taku River.

Shelton is among the advocates for the task force. He believes it should result in real protections of the river.

“This is intended to be a forum for trying to put together, hopefully, a piece of legislation that could get through and provide a more institutionalized protection for the river, to which chieftain or anybody else would have to respond appropriately,” he says.

Egan says it’s important to make sure that any activities on the river don’t hurt the fishing industry and other river users.

“I’m not opposed to mining,” he says. “I just want to make sure they do it right and we set guidelines on our side of the border.”

The eight-member committee will represent Alaska Natives with ties to the Taku River, commercial and private recreational property owners in the Taku River valley, commercial and sport fishing, and a biologist who does not work for government. State resource departments will provide expertise to the group.

“It’s up to the task force to make recommendations, not bureaucrats,” Egan says. “We tried to keep government out of it, but using government as the resource to these eight members of the committee.

People interested in serving on the Taku River Fact-Finding Task Force should contact Kerttula, Egan, or Rep. Cathy Munoz. Meetings will start early next month. A final report will be submitted to the delegation by mid-December.

A soldier received a surprise welcome when he returned to Juneau from deployment in Iraq Friday evening.

Dozens of strangers gathered to greet Specialist Karl Tubbs at the Juneau International Airport upon his wife’s request.

Erica Tubbs explained in an e-mail to a group of local parents that she and her two-year-old son James moved to Juneau several months ago and have no family in town.

She asked members of the parenting group to come to the airport to help her greet her husband and even offered to pay their parking fees.

“We don’t have family here and somebody read that in that e-mail I sent to Juneau parents and they said, ‘yes, you do,’ and that was nice.”

Erica Tubbs also contacted the Alaska National Guard to ask their help in welcoming her husband home.

Several fellow guardsmen came to show their support, including Chief Warrant Officer Four Bill Clutton.

“It’s good to welcome these guys home,” he said. “They’ve done a lot for us and given up a lot, along with their families. So it’s good to say ‘hi,’ say ‘thank you’ and ‘welcome home’.”

Specialist Tubbs has been away from his family for two years, spending one year in training and the other year deployed.

He left when James was two weeks old and has seen little of his son since then.

The Tubbs were overwhelmed by the showing of support. They say the response says a lot about the people of Juneau.

Wins for both Juneau high school varsity football teams this weekend.

The Thunder Mountain Falcons on Friday beat the Sitka Wolves on a score of 25 to 6, just the margin they needed for the drive to playoffs.

A 27-yard field goal late in the game sealed it. If the Falcons beat Ketchikan next week, they will host the Southeast Conference playoff game in Juneau.

Friday’s win was also sweet revenge for a loss to Sitka earlier this month.

The Falcons’ Ben Jahn scored two touchdowns and the field goal; Joe Ia had the third. Sitka scored just one TD.

After four losses, the Falcons have won two games in a row, beating Ketchikan handily last week. Sitka, Ketchikan and Thunder Mountain are the only members of the small Southeast Conference, and play each other at least twice in the season.

On Saturday, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears beat the Notre Dame Jugglers in a slow-starting, penalty-plagued game.

Notre Dame Regional Secondary School is in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Jugglers traveled to Juneau 17 years ago to play the Bears, and head coach Richard Scott says the hospitality and experience are always good, despite the loss.  

“We lost in the last play of that game. This one wasn’t that close,” he said.

Juneau beat Notre Dame 33 to 13. Neither team scored in the first quarter, and a penalty against the Jugglers negated a touchdown.  It was one of several that kept the Jugglers from scoring other touchdowns in the game.

“We were inside the 20-yard line three times and came away with nothing. When that happens you’re probably not going to win many of those games. You’ve got to take advantage when you’re in the red zone and we didn’t today,” Scott said after the game. “So we’ll go home and fix those things and get into league play in B.C.”

As Alaska teams steam toward playoffs, teams Outside are just getting started. This was Notre Dame’s second game of the season.

It was a bye week for JDHS, traditionally filled by playing a team from outside the state.

While the Crimson Bears’ defense was solid, the offense had trouble finding a rhythm. Head coach Rich Sjoross also blames penalties.

“You know whether they’re good penalties, bad penalties, it’s just hard to get in a flow when you see those flags flying. You don’t know what to call next when you’re starting at second and 25 instead of second and five, things like that. So I think that had a lot to do with us coming out and being hit and miss most of the night,” Sjoross said.

The Bears scored six touchdowns, beginning late in the second quarter. Phillip Fenumiai broke the ice with a one-yard carry.

Demetrius Campos had a 62-yard punt return and an 82-yard return on kick-off. Campos scored a third TD, Samson Nauer scored on an interception, and Sean Niumataevalu  scored a touchdown on a pass from Fenumiai. Three of kicker Adam Soto’s extra points were good, and Notre Dame blocked two.

Notre Dame had two successful touchdowns and one extra point.