Western

A San Francisco-based law firm is now working with two Bethel attorneys who filed a class action lawsuit against GCI for their marketing practices in the YK Delta.

“We’re hoping that we can have some resolution or go to try within the next year,” said Bethel Attorney Dave Henderson. He and fellow attorney Jim Valcarce filed the lawsuit.

“GCI sold wireless services for voice and data plans and promised that they’d be reasonable and reliable and the services were not reasonably functional and reliable,” Henderson said.

Four Bethel residents filed the class action lawsuit against in April of last year.

The lawsuit alleges that the data plan GCI enrolled thousands of customers in rarely worked. Clients commonly experienced slow data and dropped calls, the lawsuit claims.

Henderson said the case is taking a lot of work and energy.

“We’re fighting against a company that has almost unlimited resources and there’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pages of discovery and documents we need to go through about the service that was provided,” Henderson said.

Henderson and fellow attorney Jim Valcarce teamed up with San Francisco-based law firm of Gerard Gibbs to work on the case. The law firm specializes in class action lawsuits.

“Given the facts here, we thought it made sense to work with Dave and Jim to represent the users of GCI services during the time period the case covers,” said Dan Gerard, the managing partner at the firm.

The case focuses on GCI services from 2010-2014. The plaintiffs are seeking to get their money back on grounds of fraud and misrepresentation and breach of contract.

David Morris, GCI VP of corporate services, wouldn’t say much about the ongoing case right now.

“All I can say is that the lawyers are still playing bat mitten on the legal issues and it just goes back and forth,” Morris said.

The case is currently in the middle of hearing and depositions. It has not been decided if the lawsuit will go to trial.

Between three bears spotted at the edge of town and another grizzly shot and left to die at the Cape Nome quarry, bears are out and about in the Nome area.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued a brown bear advisory last week after sightings near Icy View, the Norton Sound Hospital, and along the Beam Road. Meanwhile, Alaska Wildlife Troopers are searching for the person or people who failed to salvage the meat of a bear killed earlier this month. In an online dispatch released Friday, Troopers said the bear was shot near Cape Nome around Sept. 5.

Despite the recent sightings, Letty Hughes said the number of bears is not unusual.

“It has been an excellent fish year. It’s been an excellent berry year, so that helps out. But it’s probably no more than usual,” said Hughes, an assistant area wildlife biologist with the Fish and Game. “When you consider where Nome is situated — we’ve got the coast, we also have the Nome River and the Snake River — bears are just passing through.”

This year, Hughes said the department has actually received fewer reports of bears breaking into cabins. Still, she said the bears are out there — and the population seems to be doing quite well.

“We hear reports from folks that they see cubs with sows,” Hughes said. “So even without having any definite numbers, they appear to be healthy.”

And definite numbers are on the way. Hughes said Fish and Game teamed up with the National Park Service earlier this year to survey the brown bear population on the Seward Peninsula.

“We spent two weeks doing this bear survey, using a lot of small plane time,” she said. “A lot of hours were spent flying around the peninsula this spring.”

A biometrician is using the data collected to estimate the bear population, and Hughes said the final count will be released later this fall. The number will be another important piece of information about the local animals, which Hughes said are also analyzed when they’re hunted and salvaged properly.

“We gather information that way on our brown bears,” she said. “A hunter has 30 days to get their bear sealed. What sealing requires is bringing in the hide with the claws attached, the evidence of sex attached, and the skull. We pull a tooth, measure the skull, and look at the hide for any abnormalities — anything that might be interesting.”

With current sightings, Hughes said everyone should continue to practice basic bear safety. Make noise and maintain a safe distance while viewing bears, hiking, and picking berries. And keep trash contained so fish and game scraps don’t attract animals. Hughes said anyone who sees a bear can report sightings to the Department of Fish and Game, the Troopers, or the Nome Police Department.

In a historic settlement, the state has agreed to provide increased language assistance for voters whose primary language is Yup’ik or Gwich’in.

The federal lawsuit was filed in 2013 by two Alaska Native voters and several tribal governments. The plaintiffs claimed the state doesn’t do enough to serve voters who speak Alaska Native languages.

Natalie Landreth with the Native American Rights Fund is an attorney for the plaintiffs.

“The choices that were made in the settlement open the door for Alaska Native access to the polls in a way that we have not seen before,” Landreth said.

The centerpiece of the settlement is translating the state’s official election pamphlet into Gwich’in and up to six different dialects of Yup’ik. The pamphlet contains pre-election information on how to vote, biographical information on candidates and explanations of ballot measures.

The state agrees to provide outreach workers with standardized training and translations, which Landreth calls significant. The settlement also creates more partnerships with tribal governments, establishes Gwich’in and Yup’ik dialect glossaries of election terms and calls for a full-time state elections employee in charge of language assistance activities.

Originally called Toyukak v. Treadwell, the case had been in negotiations for about nine months. Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott inherited the case.

“I am pleased to put the issues that were the basis of complaint behind us (and reach) an agreement going forward that I think strengthens Alaska’s election procedures and processes,” Mallott said.

Mallott said it will be difficult to implement, but is confident incoming Division of Elections Director Josephine Bahnke can handle it. In July, Mallott requested former director Gail Fenumiai to resign. He said that decision was not a reflection on her past work.

“The obligations on the division and its director going forward to implement the settlement are going to be hugely significant and it was on that basis that we felt new leadership would be required,” Mallott said.

Bahnke, the outgoing city manager of Nome, is scheduled to begin in October.

The settlement between the state and the plaintiffs was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The state is expecting a final judgement on it in the next few weeks.

The White House announced Wednesday it will add funding and capacity for a wide array of programs in Alaska that address global warming. The federal government is tapping the Denali Commission as the lead agency to address the relocation of coastal communities across the state.
But the particulars of that announcement were still being sorted out ahead of the president’s appearance in Kotzebue, where he was expected to make a formal announcement.

At a tribal roundtable in the hub community of about 3,200, Percy Ballot of Buckland noted that the $2 million set aside for voluntary relocation is welcomed but falls far short of the costs.

“We appreciate that, we really do,” Ballot said in response to a question. “It’s going to help us a little bit, but we need more than that. To move (the) Native Village of Kivalina is going to cost a lot more money than that.”

That $2 million, though, is not for physical relocation, but instead for launching a coordinated review of how many among the roughly 30 communities identified in a 2009 report will either move, or fortify existing town sites.

Up until now, the state has overseen community relocation projects, but with no one agency fully in charge of the intricate logistical challenges.

“Funding has certainly been a limiting factor,” said Sally Cox, a planner with the state’s Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, who has been intimately involved in developing relocation strategies since she began working with the Native Village of Newtok almost a decade ago.

So far, six communities identified as imperiled; Newtok, Shishmaref, Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Kivalina and Koyukuk have received grant funds to develop plans for relocating or protecting in place. But the grant process is complicated, and technical guidance from regional nonprofits and state agencies has been essential for tribes deciding how to proceed.

Cox expects that in adapting and consolidating procedures that are presently spread across multiple entities the Denali Commission will improve upon existing abilities to respond.

“It could potentially make the process go much more smoothly, and streamline funding rules and regulations,” said Cox.

For those inside the Denali Commission, the White House’s announcement is significant news.

“I think it’s a huge step forward for the administration to identify a federal agency as lead to take on this huge undertaking,” said Joel Neimeyer, co-chair of the commission, which was set up almost two decades ago to better funnel federal resources into Alaska programs.

The commission does not have the staff to begin systematically working with the dozens of communities recognized as imperiled, but that is part of what the $2 million announced by the president is set aside for — staff and a review process.

“What we’re looking at are vulnerable communities that face environmental threats from flooding, erosion and permafrost degradation,” said Neimeyer.

It’s a welcome development for those who say the status quo has not been working. Selecting an entity to take charge of such multifaceted relocation reviews has been a repeated recommendation to the state and federal governments by groups like Kawerak, which represents several Bering Strait communities actively facing threats from climate change.

“We need to coordinate on a state, federal and local level,” said Kawerak President Melanie Bahnke. “There is no one lead agency that is tasked with identifying protective measures that need to be put in place.”

The Denali Commission has been an excellent partner in the past, Bahnke said, having financed projects within all 15 communities in the region. Part of the commission’s design for evaluating mitigation and relocation needs is the template established by the Health Facilities Program, which dramatically expanded clinic facilities across rural Alaska over the course of the last 15 years.

While there has been high-level attention cast towards the climate threats to coastal communities in the past, the acknowledgments brought this week are new.

“I do think the focus, the level at which the attention is now being commanded from the president of the United State, that is what’s new,” Bahnke said.

At the heart of the president’s announcement is recognition from the administration that Alaska’s coastal communities are in immediate danger. The Denali Commission news comes along with a catalog of funding resources for relocation projects, developing a set of principals for relocation and streamlining the process for tribes making official disaster declarations through FEMA.

Taken all together, many see the president’s visit as launching an organized federal response to years of scattered reports of environmental change in Alaska.

“Communities all over Alaska have been sending out a signal that they are experiencing really extreme and profound change,” said Mike Brubaker with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Center for Climate and Health. Brubaker’s Local Environmental Observer Network, which has produced an app for residents to self-report environmental irregularities, is included in the White House’s list of supported Alaska projects.

Although there is not yet a funding source for actual relocation or mitigation measures, Neimeyer with the Denali Commission said that involvement from the president’s recently created Arctic Executive Steering Committee could bring cabinet-level involvement into planning efforts. And with it, cabinet-level funds.

The White House said Tuesday that President Obama is expected to land in Dillingham at about 12 p.m. Wednesday. He’ll travel from the airport to Kanakanak Beach to meet with fishermen and families for roughly an hour. The President will then attend a “cultural performance” at the Dillingham Middle/High School, spending about an hour there before traveling back to the airport to depart for Kotzebue.

The White House said the event at Kanakanak Beach will be closed to the public, and invited guests only will be allowed to attend the performance at the school.

10:45AM        The President departs Anchorage for Dillingham

— Elmendorf Air Force Base

11:55AM        The President arrives in Dillingham

— Dillingham Airport

12:15PM         The President meets with local fishermen and families

— Kanakanak Beach (Closed to the Public)

1:35PM           The President attends a cultural performance

— Dillingham Middle School (Invited Guests Only)

2:45PM           The President departs Dillingham for Kotzebue

— Dillingham Airport

5:05PM           The President arrives in Kotzebue

5:50PM           The President delivers remarks at Kotzebue School

8:00PM           The President gets a tour of the Kotzebue Shore Avenue Project

8:30PM           The President departs Kotzebue for Anchorage

10:05PM         The President arrives in Anchorage

10:30PM         The President departs Anchorage for Washington, DC

As president Barack Obama plans to shift his focus to Western Alaska by midweek, residents of Kotzebue — the northwest Arctic hub of about 4,000 people — are making final preparations for the president’s historic visit above the Arctic Circle.

Everyone from fishermen to local leaders are getting ready for the president’s visit — and have their own hopes for what he takes away.

On Monday, all of Kotzebue was put the finishing touches on cleanup efforts and last-minute planning for President Obama’s visit. More than 10 derelict houses had been knocked down as part of a community-wide cleanup that saw rusty cars, broken-down snowmachines, and more hauled away. But on Monday afternoon, Nelson Griest Junior was untangling his salmon net.

“From the last storm, it was pretty high — the water came up and washed my net out, and that’s where I’m at,” he said.

Nelson said he had a good summer netting chum salmon in Kotzebue’s small commercial fishery. He was working out of Kotzebue’s North Tent City — a city-built campground along a sliver of beach, offering fish racks and campsites for rent from May through September. It’s how Nelson’s spent his springs and summers since he can remember.

“It’s where I was born,” he said. “Lived down here over 15 years. My parents used to come here ever since the 70’s. Every summer, they pretty much came down here. Springtime, they’d go out hunting ugurk and seal.”

This summer, his camp in the tent city fell into the water — and it wasn’t the first time.

“It’s eroding,” he said. “It got my fish rack down here — dropped it down, fell one time. We put it back up. It’s really eroding down the coast, and every time the sand or rocks go down, there’s always ice in the bottom, on the tundra. So there is lots that’s melting, and I’m happy the president is coming. I’m excited.”

Nelson isn’t the only one talking about climate change in the lead-up to Obama’s visit.

“It’s such an honor for him to come to our village — to see first-hand our concerns as a native community here,” said Nicole Stoops, the executive director of the Kotzebue IRA. She said the concerns go beyond impacts to seal hunting and salmon fishing — it’s a connection to the land that goes back generations.

“It’s not such a simple thing to move a community as there are a lot of cultural ties to where they are now,” she said. “Just to understand the cultural ties the people have to the land, as well as finding something that would be logical and reasonable for the community members to feel comfortable on a move to relocate somewhere.”

Some of Kotzebue’s erosion issues — mainly along Shore Avenue, also known as Front Street — have been dealt with, at least for now, according to city manager Derek Martin. After 50 years of half-measures, Martin said it was a tremendous effort to finally get it right.

“The permanent fix to this erosion problem along Shore Avenue [was] to install a series of sheet pile bulkheads along 75 percent of Shore Avenue there,” he said. “That provided the necessary infrastructure to prevent further erosion and to protect the roadway. But this was a fix that worked for this community as part of our erosion problem, as part of our climate change problem here in Kotzebue.”

It’s a solution Martin said he hopes to showcase during the president’s visit — one that demonstrates the resilience of rural communities. It’s the kind of resilience Kotzebue Mayor Maija Lukin had to call on when her appendix burst this weekend.

What started off with nausea on Saturday turned into an emergency medevac to Anchorage and the quick removal of a dangerously inflamed appendix. Mayor Lukin was out of the hospital by Sunday, but she was only able to book a flight back home Monday night. It’s just one of the challenges about living in rural Alaska she puts up with to continue with her family’s traditions.

“I know the time that he’s here is very short, and we’re showing him the best of everything we have. But it’s a very hard life that people don’t quite understand,” she said. “We choose to live in Kotzebue because it’s a beautiful place — it’s above the Arctic Circle. It’s a place where you can raise your children to hunt, fish, live off the land, and do what we were taught from our parents and grandparents.”

But while many prepare to press the president on climate change, many in Kotzebue just as quickly bring up the elephant in the room — or, in this case, the oil rig in the sea. Shell Oil is pursuing exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea this summer and staging ships, tugs, crews, and more in Kotzebue.

Some residents say they’re opposed to the drilling outright. Others say they’re more open to the idea. But on the eve of Obama’s visit focused on climate change, many in Kotzebue are quick to point out the incongruity: The president they’re eager to welcome and talk openly with about their needs when it comes to climate change … is the same president who authorized Shell’s Arctic drilling.

For Nelson — still tending his fishnets — it’s straightforward.

“It’s not a good place to drill, I guess,” he said. “Because in fall time, when the ice is coming and the waves are getting bigger — I’m not sure about the cleanup. I think it’s going to be pretty hard in the Arctic.”

Oil and erosion, subsistence and climate change solutions — all topics on the minds of Kotzebue residents on the eve of the president’s visit to the Alaska Arctic.