Rosemarie Alexander

A preliminary report indicates that rock from an underground blast struck the miner who was killed yesterday (Wednesday) at the Kensington Gold Mine.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration and mine owners Coeur Alaska are investigating the accident and death of 30-year-old Juneau resident Joe Tagaban.

According to MSHA (M-SHAW), Tagaban was working near a previously drilled hole that had not been plugged. The blast sent a concussion of rock through the hole, striking him.

The incident was at the 1260-foot level underground. That section of the mine remains closed while the investigation is underway, according to MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere.

“That closure order covers the affected area of the mine where the accident occurred,” Louviere says. “However, it also prevents the mine operator from conducting any blasting in the mine until we’ve determined it’s safe to do so.”

Louviere says investigators from the MSHA Boise office will arrive at Kensington tomorrow to gather evidence from the scene, conduct interviews and piece together an accident timeline.

Meanwhile, services are pending for Tagaban, who had been working as a Kensington underground miner for about a year.

The accident was the first fatality at the Kensington mine, which is about 45 miles northwest of Juneau. In June, a miner was killed at the Fort Knox Gold Mine near Fairbanks, when he fell two stories. He was supposed to be harnessed to a safety line, but was not wearing the harness at the time of the accident.

Thirty-year-old Joe Tagaban of Juneau is the victim of an underground accident early Wednesday morning at the Kensington Gold Mine.

Coeur Alaska says Tagaban died while performing his regular duties at the mine. The accident happened in an underground stope at the 1260-foot level where Tagaban had been working.

The company is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has been notified.

Tagaban had worked at the mine for about a year. In a news release, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation President and CEO Mitchell J. Krebs said Tagaban was a respected and well-liked employee at Kensington.

“Our collective thoughts and prayers go out to Joe’s family and his co-workers,” he said.

Kensington mine is about 45 miles northwest of Juneau. An emergency response team is stationed at the mine.

Kensington opened in June 2010. This is the first fatality.

The City and Borough of Juneau is considering a program that could increase the quality and availability of child care in the community.

The lack of child care in Juneau is notorious, says JEDC’s Meilani Schijvens.

“There’s a joke here in Juneau that if you wait until you think you might be pregnant you’re probably too late to sign up for child care, if you want an infant spot,” Schijvens quips. “You need to sign up when you think you might be in love.”

A recent study by the Juneau Economic Development Council indicates about half of children under age six in Juneau are in unknown child care situations. That means they are either cared for by parents splitting shifts or by unlicensed providers.

The turnover rate among licensed child care providers in the capital city is nearly 20 percent higher than the state average.

According to JEDC, the pay is so low that qualified child care providers quickly move on to other jobs for better wages and benefits.

The Association for Education for Young Children, or AEYC, has posed a solution, called the HEARTS program.

It stands for hiring, educating and retaining teaching staff. The program is similar to others around the country, which offer incentives for child care providers so they can earn credentials in early childhood education, increase their earnings and stay in the business.

AEYC’s Nikki Morris says the HEARTS program would award each licensed child care provider more per hour based on their level of education.

“They can see that as they increase their training there is compensation that goes along with that,” Morris says.

The HEARTS program also would offer providers incentives to stay in business by helping to offset costs like first aid and CPR certifications. It would waive some fees and taxes for licensed child care providers.

AEYC Executive Director Joy Lyon says the incentive program would result in better child care options in Juneau as well as provide working parents with the assurance that their young children have a quality day-care experience.

The HEARTS program will be reviewed by the CBJ Assembly Finance Committee. It would cost the CBJ just over $143,000 a year. Click here for the HEARTS Initiaitve.

Dangerous highways, old bridges and the Alaska Class ferry top the Alaska Statewide Transportation Improvement Program over the next four years.

The STIP is Alaska’s list of priority state and local projects from 2012 through 2015 eligible for partial or full federal funding. The Federal Highway Administration requires all state transportation departments to put together a STIP.

Juneau projects include a new Brotherhood Bridge, a multi-use pathway between the bridge and the UAS campus, Egan Highway resurfacing, and a new outbound lane at the Salmon Creek and Egan intersection near Bartlett Regional Hospital.

This report outilines statewide priorities and funding issues.

Electric bills that go out today (Tuesday) will reflect another rate increase.

As KTOO has reported, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska late Friday approved Alaska Electric Light and Power’s petition for a permanent 24 percent rate hike. It turns out to be 22 percent on the average electric bill.

Most of that is already in place, since the RCA allowed the company to increase rates 18.5 percent in July 2010.

A-E-L & P spokesman Scott Willis says residential customers will pay about $2 to $3 more a month for electricity.

“As of last week we were paying 9 point 5 cents a kilowatt hour then on Tuesday that will go up to 9 point 8 cents a kilowatt hour and on the first of November it goes up to 11 point 94, that’s the seasonal jump,” Willis says. “Next June it goes back down to 9-point 8 (cents).”

The order has been 16 months in the making.  This report highlights some of the commission’s findings.

The Juneau Douglas Crimson Bears varsity football team is piling up the scores this season – and leaving most competitors scoreless.

That was the case again Friday when the Bears beat the Colony Knights 65 to zero. With a total of 219 points this season, the Crimson Bears have allowed just two touchdowns in four games. (Palmer scored 13 points two weeks ago. No other teams have scored against them. )

On Friday, Colony finished with just 29 yards of offense, while the Bears rushed for 387 yards and had 134 yards in passing.

The Bears also were penalized 14 times, something Head Coach Rich Sjoross calls “fixable:”

“Some of that stuff is from being aggressive, and you want the kids to be aggressive,” Sjooss says. “We have the ability to overcome some of those, we just can’t have too many of them, or else it’s going to come back and bite us at some point, and I think they understand that.”

Despite the penalties, the offense and defense were working well together, as they have all season.

Juneau is ranked the top team in the Railbelt Conference. The Bears next game is in Wasilla. We’ll have a preview later this week.