Rosemarie Alexander

House Democrats must still vote to confirm Sam Kito III to the House District 32 seat vacated last month by Juneau Rep. Beth Kerttula.

Parnell appointed Kito on Friday, meeting the 30-day requirement for filling the seat, but the House minority doesn’t have a deadline. In fact, they have yet to determine the process they’ll use to confirm Kito to the seat. That’s expected early this week.

The governor has asked them to take a public vote on the House floor, rather than in closed caucus.

Parnell said he’d studied legislative appointments and found the process used to be far more open than in recent years.

“From statehood through 1990 there were votes taken in almost 30 cases, where the party that had the nominee, usually by unanimous (consent),”  just confirmed the appointee in public, he said.

If House Democrats reject Kito’s appointment, the governor could go back to the list of three nominees submitted by Tongass Democrats, or the process could start all over again.

Legislative aides Catherine Reardon and Jesse Kiehl were on that list.  Kiehl works for Egan and is on the Juneau Assembly.  On Friday he filed a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, planning to run for a second Assembly term.

He said Tongass Democrats conducted “an unprecedentedly open and transparent” nominating process.  Gov. Parnell interviewed the three candidates.

“My interview was much like Sam’s. The governor never asked any questions that anybody should cast a critical eye on.  They were about getting to know us and what we stood for,” Kiehl said.

What does Kito stand for?

If Kito is confirmed, he said his first priority would be to work on the State Library Archives and Museum project, which still needs about $37 million before it can be completed.  He also said he’s concerned about the state’s economy.

“I’m looking forward to that future where we can have a stable economy,” he said. 

Kito is a civil engineer and in recent years has been a legislative lobbyist. He said about 70 percent of his income comes from lobbying and 30 percent from engineering.

He hasn’t always been a Democrat.  He switched his voter registration from non-partisan to Democrat in 2004.  Over the years, he’s contributed to a number of Republican campaigns, but described himself as more aligned with Democratic principles.  He said he is pro-choice, supports an increase in the minimum wage, and opposes school vouchers.

As for the proposed road from Juneau to Katzehin, he said that as an engineer he knows the project is feasible.

“I do have concerns about building a road, 60 miles worth of pavement that is going to then have to be maintained with general funds. I have a concern of building a road to a terminal that might need to be staffed,” he said. “But I do think interconnecting parts of Southeast is important.

Kito has lived in Anchorage, Fairbanks and in Juneau twice. He was CBJ Transportation Development Manager from 2002 through 2004.

He’s a single dad and is raising a teenage daughter, who is a student at Juneau-Douglas High School.

Saying only that he  “would like to continue to represent Juneau and the other communities in the district,” he declined to commit to running for  election to the House seat.

In addition to downtown Juneau and Douglas, House District 32 includes Petersburg, Gustavus, Tenakee Springs and Skagway.  With redistricting, it will become House District 33 this fall, encompassing downtown Juneau, Douglas, Haines and Skagway.

Previous Coverage:
Sam Kito III named as new Juneau representative

The Alaska Supreme Court has reaffirmed a lower court ruling that set the 2006 value of the Trans-Alaska pipeline for tax purposes at nearly $10 billion.

Oil companies had argued the 800-mile pipeline and terminal facilities should be assessed at $850 million, based on the tariffs collected. At the lower value, the property taxes that producers pay to cities like Fairbanks and Valdez would be dramatically reduced.

The Supreme Court found that tariff income isn’t the only value derived from the pipeline.  The court says the pipeline’s worth also comes from its ability to transport billions of barrels of oil from the North Slope.

While Wednesday’s decision concerns only the 2006 assessment, oil companies have made similar arguments over the pipeline’s worth for other tax years.

 

For the first time in Olympic alpine skiing history, two gold medals have been awarded in an event.

Swiss skier  Dominique Gisin, of Switzerland, and Tina Maze, of Slovenia, skied the women’s downhill course in 1 minute, 41.57 seconds at the Sochi Olympics.

“Absolutely incredible,” the NBC announcer shouted as the race clock showed the exact same time for the two women.

To the average TV viewer, the Olympics are often about the incredible.  But to an athlete who spends years and years preparing for that Olympic moment, it’s all about the possible.

Juneau’s Hilary Lindh was 18 when she qualified for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  She had been on the U.S. Ski Team full time for two years, racing World Cup events in North America and Europe.  She’d already won a U.S. downhill title and the World Junior downhill title.

“Nothing is quite like the Olympics.”

It’s a place where great expectations can turn into big disappointments. For Lindh, Calgary was a place to learn.

“You know people would say, ‘go for the gold,’ ” Lindh recalls.  “I was taking them seriously, when I really had no business thinking that was possible.”

At that point, the best she’d placed in a World Cup event was ninth.   The Calgary Olympics were a lot of pressure for a teenager, and not a lot of fun.

“I just felt like everyone was expecting me to have some miracle thing happen, so I was thinking that might happen. And it’s just not very realistic, so I learned a lot,” she says, laughing.

Lindh says she learned she could enjoy the Olympics, meet other athletes, and still concentrate on her event.

“The other aspect of it was to focus on the actual skiing instead of the potential outcome, and that’s something that served me for the rest of my career,” she says.      

Four years later, she was ready for the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France.  Hilary Lindh won the silver medal in the women’s downhill, because she says,  she was focused on her skiing and not on the result.  She calls it being “right there in the moment.”

“If there was any distraction with thoughts about what possible results would be, it wouldn’t have happened. You know, the minute you start thinking about an outcome, you aren’t doing your best anymore.”

During that race, Lindh says, winning a medal wasn’t even a thought in her mind. And when she discovered she’d come in second, she had a private moment behind her face mask.

“That split second where nobody could see your face necessarily, and it was just me realizing what I’d done, that was the coolest thing. Before it was an external celebration, it was an internal one.”

In her 11 years of professional racing, including three Olympics, Lindh trained in all events, but concentrated on downhill.  In a sport where races are won by hundredths of a second, she won the silver medal, three World Cup downhill championships, and had 27 top-ten finishes.

She says she had a training plan for every year, aimed at reaching her best performance when it counted the most.

After she retired from professional ski racing in 1997, Lindh completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, helped coach future Olympians, and three years ago moved back to Juneau.  She works for the Alaska Department of Transportation, and she and her husband Jodie McCutcheon have an 8-year old daughter.

You can see mom, daughter and a number of other youngsters skiing on weekends at Eaglecrest Ski Area.

She’s a member of the National Ski Hall of Fame and was inducted in the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Juneau police are now investigating two child endangerment cases.

Police reported earlier this week that an 11-year-old girl was approached by two men in a truck while she was walking home from school on Stephen Richards Memorial Drive.  She ran away and reported the incident.

When word went out, it sparked the report of unreported case last July near Walmart.

A Juneau resident told police he witnessed a man in a maroon Ford Ranger watching two 8 or 9-year-old girls.  The truck was reportedly parked between the bus stop and Walmart, and the witness was at the bus stop.

He told police a man got out of the truck, approached the girls and offered them a ride.  Then the man grabbed one of the girls by the arm and started pulling her toward the pickup.

The witness told police he punched the man in the face and the girl was able to get away.  Both girls ran into the trailer park across the street.

The Ford Ranger was an extended cab pickup with Texas license plates.  The driver was described as Caucasian, about 6 feet tall, thin, in his late 40s or 50s, with black and gray hair, and a goatee.

Lt. Kris Sell says police are investigating a possible link between the two cases.

In the most recent case, the truck was described as a dark blue, older Toyota pickup with broken taillights and a black canopy with a missing back window. The driver was described as in his 50s, with a black and gray beard.  A male passenger, possibly in his 30s, was wearing an olive green baseball cap and tan Carhartt coat.

Police say anyone with any information about either case should contact JPD immediately.

The Juneau School Board wants input from school district staff and the community about Superintendent Glen Gelbrich.

The board annually evaluates the superintendent and opens the process to the public.

The evaluation form on the school district’s website looks at leadership, management, community relations, and personal skills.

Gelbrich is in the second year of a three-year contract with the district, which expires in June 2016. This is Gelbrich’s third contract with the district since he was hired in 2009.  He makes $155,000 a year.

He was recently passed up for the superintendent’s job in Kalispell, Mont., where he was one of five finalists for the job.

After a year of contentious negotiations between Juneau teachers and the district, the two sides recently ratified an agreement with teachers.

The school board says it’s looking for “constructive and respectful feedback” on Gelbrich.

Juneau police are looking for two men in a truck who tried to pick up a child walking home from school last week.

Lt. Dave Campbell says a 6^th grade girl was walking on Stephen Richards Memorial Drive Thursday when a pickup with two men inside pulled up next to her and asked if she wanted a ride.

“In this case, the student acted appropriately in that the student ran away from the truck after she’d been asked to go for a ride,” Campbell said.

JPD resource officers teach a program in the schools called “Stranger Danger”, where kids learn what to do if they are approached by a stranger.

“What the students are taught is to not go anywhere with strangers,  to report these types of instances to adults, don’t listen to what a stranger says as far as  if they’re offered something, or told they’re with another family member.  In this case the student did report it to the parents and the parents reported it to the school,” Campbell says.

The truck is described as an older blue Toyota pickup with a black canopy.  The driver is thought to be in his fifties with a black and grey beard. The passenger may be in his mid-30s. He was wearing a green hat at the time of the incident.

Police say anyone with information concerning the Toyota pickup or the two men should contact JPD immediately, at 586-0600, or Crime Line.