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Juneau’s processed poop is going to start piling up come Jan. 1, unless a new disposal arrangement comes together soon.

The search for the latest stopgap to get rid of the capital city’s sewage sludge comes after municipal officials abandoned a new disposal contract.

The city solicited contracts in August, and received only one viable bid from Juneau homebuilder Bicknell Inc. The Juneau Assembly had even approved funding the new contract in September, before municipal staffers decided to cancel it.

That leaves just 10 weeks before Juneau goes over the fecal cliff, as a KVOK radio host once called it. (Kodiak had a similar sewage sludge problem last year.)

Juneau’s sewage sludge disposal contract with Waste Management expires at the end of the calendar year. After that, the city doesn’t have the means to dispose of it on its own.

Bicknell declined to comment, but City Engineering Director Rorie Watt said the company’s plan was to heat dry the sludge. That means using specialized industrial equipment that’s kind of like a big, sophisticated laundry dryer. Heat drying is one of several methods the Environmental Protection Agency recognizes for processing biosolids to recycle as fertilizer.

Watt said three things led the city to abandon the contract: higher costs, risk of significant odor issues and lack of time.

Bicknell quoted its proposal at $1.6 million per year, which is about 40 percent more than what the city spends now on disposal.

A new contract with Waste Management wouldn’t necessarily be cheaper; it bid in August, too, with a higher price. And the bid was invalid because it demanded Juneau process the sludge up to fertilizer levels.

Waste Management’s local manager, Eric Vance, said he doesn’t know yet if he’ll still be in sludge business in 2014.

The odor risk became apparent after hearing from Stayton, Oregon. Watt said an operation there uses the same equipment Bicknell planned to use and processes the same kind of sludge produced by one of Juneau’s wastewater treatment plants. The town complained about odors, even though it was a mile away from wastewater treatment and sludge processing facility.

“So the sum total of it I think was, you know, good on Bicknell for trying to propose a solution for us, ‘cause we need one,” Watt said.  “But, you know, if we get that kind of odor issue and we’ve got a 5-year contract, and, and our costs increase by at least 40 percent, it doesn’t look like a good deal to us. And, realistically, could they be ready by Jan. 1? No way.”

Bicknell still needed to set up its facility as well as acquire municipal and state permits.

“We sort of bit the bullet and spent the money on watertight shipping containers,” Watt said.

That’s $800,000 for 40 new specialized shipping containers, because Waste Management doesn’t process the sludge. It’s been shipping hundreds of tons of the stuff a month via Alaska Marine Lines to an Oregon landfill. And AML has its own complaints about odors and leakage, which the containers resolve.

Watt said state grant money and municipal sales tax paid for the containers. Juneau bought five of the containers last year as an experiment, but needed many more for a continuous shipping rotation.

Juneau Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker chairs the Public Works Committee. He said the containers are expensive, but necessary.

“We have to have a solution. We cannot be caught at the end of December without having an option available,” he said.

Wanamaker’s committee will look at long-term options, and how to pay for them.

City staff and consultants outlined a variety of sewage disposal options in a report released in April that raises this policy question:

“Is it better or worse to have a big capital hit up front in exchange for lower rates over the long term? Or vice versa?” Watt asked.

To deal with the imminent fecal cliff, solid waste coordinator Jim Penor said the city will solicit a new contract.

The board of directors for Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital has named Jeff Egbert interim CEO.

According to a hospital news release, Egbert has over 23 years experience in medical facilities with 15 years as a hospital CEO. He worked for Vanguard Health Systems in Arizona, where he was CEO of three hospitals. He also served as CEO of Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital in Tempe, Arizona, Eastmoreland Community Hospital in Portland, Oregon, and Yoakum Community Hospital in Yoakum, Texas.

He has a Master of Science degree in Health Care Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Biology from Mount Marty College in South Dakota.

In the news release, Bartlett board president Linda Thomas said Egbert has “a track record of proven leadership and [a] collaborative approach to problem solving.”

Former CEO Chris Harff announced her resignation in September after just thirteen months on the job. She said her skills and expertise were not a good fit for Juneau. In August, the hospital board ordered her to address allegations of a hostile work environment created by senior management officials.

Before she left Harff elevated Chief Financial Officer Ken Brough to the top job until an interim CEO takes over.

Egbert will start October 28. He is expected to serve as interim CEO while the Bartlett board conducts a nationwide search for a permanent chief executive. The board hopes to complete that process by June 30, 2014.

Bartlett Regional Hospital is an enterprise fund of the City and Borough of Juneau. It’s board is appointed by the CBJ Assembly.

Northrim BanCorp is purchasing Alaska Pacific Bank, with the Juneau-based bank becoming a Northrim subsidiary.

The two have signed an agreement for Northrim to acquire Alaska Pacific in a stock and cash transaction valued at about $14.31 million, or approximately $17.28 per share of Alaska Pacific common stock.

Rosemarie Alexander reports:

Craig Dahl and Joe Beedle have known each other since they were teenagers in Juneau.  Now they’re both presidents and CEOs of publicly traded banks – one company in the Railbelt, the other in Southeast Alaska.

Alaska Pacific’s Dahl says the two started talking more than six months ago.

“They wanted to expand their market and we wanted to see a way to grow the bank in this market,” Dahl says.

Northrim’s size dwarfs Alaska Pacific and Dahl says his small company will now be able to grow “from the standpoint of increasing the products and services that our customers will have. It’ll bring to our market a much larger lending limit capacity to assist our business customers and we feel that for the employees of the bank, this will offer other opportunities for career growth that we might not be able to give them as a smaller institution.”

Northrim CEO Beedle calls Alaska Pacific a strong company.

“There are not issues with this bank,” he says.

Alaska Pacific has rebounded from problem loans and losses earlier this decade and become profitable again.  Beedle says Alaska Pacific had choices in merging, and the two institutions are compatible.

“We’re about 6 and a half times the size of Alaska Pacific so together we grow from being a 1.2 billion dollar bank to a 1.35 billion dollar bank.  And that means that individual loans, our lending limits, will after this merger be in the 25 million dollar range,” he says.

Northrim BanCorp, Inc. is the parent company of Northrim Bank, with ten offices in Anchorage, the Mat-Su and Fairbanks as well as a lending division in Washington state.  Alaska Pacific has branches in Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka.

The merger is subject to review by the Federal Reserve and FDIC. While both companies’ boards of directors have approved it, Alaska Pacific shareholders will vote on the merger early in the first quarter of 2014.

Beedle says at least one member of the Alaska Pacific board of directors will become a member of the Northrim board.

The transaction will not close until next year, according to Dahl.

“After the merger, there’s still a good five to six, seven months involved in actual conversion of systems in products and services. So from this moment forward we’re really looking at almost a year in the process of bringing this altogether,” he says.

Beedle says Alaska Pacific branches will eventually be called Northrim Bank, but no branches will close.  The current Alaska Pacific management team will stay in place.  Beedle says some backroom functions, such as computer and processing systems, will be consolidated in Anchorage.

When the deal is closed, Craig Dahl says he is headed to retirement and sailing the waters of Southeast Alaska.

A conference call on the merger is set for Wednesday, at 8:30 a.m. Alaska time.  The number is (480) 629-9643, or listen online.

The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce has adopted Medicaid expansion as one of its top state legislative priorities. Governor Parnell has expressed reservations about accepting federal funding to allow more Alaskans to qualify for Medicaid. But supporters of the expansion hope the endorsement from the influential Chamber will convince the Governor and Republican lawmakers that it’s good for the state.

Chamber members gathered in Fairbanks last week for the group’s annual policy forum. They made Medicaid expansion a priority along with four other issues to focus on during the state legislative session that begins in January. Rachel Petro is President of the Alaska Chamber.

“The Alaska Chamber members support Medicaid expansion, with caveats. So essentially our members support Medicaid expansion as long as the federal funding commitment is maintained.”

The Federal Government is paying for 100% of the expansion in the first three years, with the funding level gradually dropping to 90%, where the law says it must remain. The expansion would offer health care coverage to at least 40,000 low income Alaskans. A study commissioned by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium shows it would also create about 4,000 jobs and bring one billion dollars to the state economy over the next seven years. Petro says Chamber members will be paying taxes designed to fund the Affordable Care Act:

“So if Alaska doesn’t expand our Medicaid program, the taxes Alaska businesses pay, those tax dollars will go to fund Medicaid expansion in other states. So essentially Alaska businesses and individuals will be paying for the care for the uninsured in other states rather than in Alaska.”

Petro says the Chamber has a strong track record with legislation. She says 24 of the 34 bills the group supported last year ended up passing.

Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat from Anchorage, will be making the case for the expansion during next year’s legislative session. He calls the chamber’s Medicaid expansion priority a major development:

“When you take a step back and remove the politics from it, I think it’s good for Alaska. And I think the business community recognizes that.”

Wielechowski says the Chamber’s new priority will make it much easier to pass legislation approving Medicaid expansion during the session:

“I think this could put us over the top. I think this is something that could really provide a good solid push to move the Governor in that direction. I think this is a very, very positive development.”

The Medicaid expansion priority didn’t have universal support from Chamber members. Jack Wilbur is President of Design Alaska and on the Chamber’s board of directors. He agrees that the state should expand Medicaid, but doesn’t think it deserves to be a Chamber priority. Wilbur says hospitals and other health care interests made a strong showing at last week’s meeting:

“It’s an age old thing, you show up, you get the vote, you don’t show up, you don’t get the vote.”

Still, Wilbur says the group’s top priorities get a lot of attention from chamber staff and tend to have a lot of sway in the legislature:

“The Alaska Chamber is a very influential voice of Alaska business. And legislators listen to what the Alaska chamber has to say.”

The Alaska Chamber’s other state legislative priorities include opposing the repeal of Governor Parnell’s new oil tax law and workers compensation reform.

This story is part of a reporting partnership with APRN, NPR and Kaiser Health News.

Non-union contractors are striking back at the City and Borough of Juneau’s policy supporting Project Labor Agreements.

While the policy does not require the city to work exclusively with union shops, PLA opponents are concerned it limits their ability to bid on certain work.

Trucano Construction has done a number of Juneau dock projects, including the drive down float at Auke Bay, reconstruction of Harris Harbor, and decking along the downtown waterfront. Owner Doug Trucano says his company has the only marine construction complex in town, located on North Douglas waterfront property he leases from city’s Docks and Harbors Department.

“We can bring our barges in here, we can load our cranes, and do our work,” Trucano says. “Nobody else in Juneau has ever pursued that.”

Trucano runs a non-union shop. He says it’s a personal choice and he has nothing against unions.

Now he’s worried a city policy promoting the use of Project Labor Agreements will make it harder for his company to get work. The Juneau Assembly unanimously reaffirmed the policy at a meeting last week. Assembly members also requested the Docks and Harbors Department rethink a recent decision to issue a bid for two floating cruise ship berths without a PLA.

Trucano believes that will set a precedent for future projects.

“They put a PLA on this job, it’s gonna go right on down the line to all marine work,” Trucano says. “All the harbor jobs and stuff that’s come out will all have PLAs on them.”

Trucano isn’t the only one frustrated with the city. Anchor Electric owner Bill Shattenberg said in an email that “PLAs are a way for unions to narrow competition on bid day and bolster their local retirement plans.”

That echoes Trucano’s major concern that his employees will be forced to join a union in order to work on a PLA project.

“First your employees have to join the union, then you got to buy the medical insurance, which we’re seldom ever there long enough for anybody to capitalize on it, you got to pay in their pension funds, you got to pay into their apprenticeship programs and all that,” Trucano says. “Where, I pay the same wages, the same dollar amount, but my employees get to take all that home with them.”

Trucano and Shattenberg also say there’s no evidence to support the claims of PLA supporters that the agreements improve work quality, on-time performance, local hire, and the use of apprentices. Both say they’re unlikely to bid on any project that includes a PLA.

Trucano says his company is too small to be the main contractor on the cruise ship dock project. But he says some companies expected to bid on the main contract have contacted him about subcontracting.

“We could still do the work, it’s just whether the people who work for me would want to join the union and give their wages to the union, rather than take them home and spending them on their families,” he says.

Assembly member Jesse Kiehl says he discussed the issue with Trucano last week, and they agreed to continue talking about it.

“I’m a little bit sympathetic to folks who aren’t part of union already, and who feel that they don’t get the maximum benefit from those contributions,” Kiehl says. “So, that’s something that definitely needs to be part of the conversation.”

Kiehl says not every city project will have a PLA, but the policy says they are preferred when there’s some clear benefit to the public.

“Some of those might be reducing shift differentials or holiday pay, so it’s easier to schedule the work and easier to bring the project in on time. Unforeseen things happen, and if you have more flexibility then you’re able to adjust to those,” Kiehl says. “Another might be in projects with multiple different trades and crafts you can have one point of contact.”

Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker, chair of the Public Works and Facilities Committee, hopes to begin work next week on formalizing the city’s PLA review process. Wanamaker thinks projects should be reviewed by a panel of city employees, rather than the current practice of having department heads determine if an agreement is warranted.

“The city engineer would be one person. Somebody from [the Law Department] would be another person. And somebody from the appropriate department – whether it’s Airport, the school district, Docks and Harbors – whoever is the facilities type of person for that particular department.”

Unions have praised the Assembly’s decision to reaffirm its support for Project Labor Agreements. Labor officials say independent, non-union employees who work on PLA jobs do utilize the medical and retirement benefits provided to them.

Employment is up, wages are up, and the private sector is growing. That’s according to the Juneau Economic Development Council’s latest economic indicators report, which paints a positive financial picture for the Capital City and the rest of Southeast Alaska.

Eva Bornstein, JEDC’s lead researcher on the report, peppered her presentation to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Thursday with a series of pop quiz-style questions.

“Mining jobs pay the highest average wages in Juneau, which sector has the second highest average wages?” she asked.

The answer: The federal government.

While the Capital City’s economy continues to be heavily dependent on government jobs, Bornstein says the private sector is slowly taking on a bigger role. Last year, employment in Juneau was up 1.5 percent from 2011 with a total of more than 18,000 jobs. That’s despite local and federal government cuts, and essentially flat state employment.

“The private sector did a great job in jobs growth and has done so for three consecutive years,” Bornstein said. “We’ve been on an upswing. In 2012, three percent gain in jobs.”

Mining topped the list for job growth in all sectors, adding 171 jobs last year. Overall, the retail, health care, and tourism sectors are the top three private employers in Juneau.

Most areas of the economy saw wages grow in 2012, but once again mining led the way.

“Six-point-six percent increase in average wages in the past year. Professional and business services were second, also above six percent in gains,” she said. “Local government, state government were also above five percent.”

The median household income in the Capital City from 2009 to 2011 was more than $77,500. That’s about $10,000 higher than the rest of the state, and $26,000 higher than the median household income nationally.

Bornstein says that helps make up for the cost of living in Juneau, which is 30 percent higher than the national average.

“The highest costs are in our housing, our utilities and our health care,” she said.

Juneau’s population hit another all-time high last year, growing by more than 400 people to 32,832. And for the second year in a row, the city’s population got slightly younger. The median age of residents declined from 38 years old in 2011 to 37.8 in 2012.

Bornstein says most of the population growth has come from people moving to Juneau, which has strained the city’s already tight housing market. But relief may be coming soon. She says there were 71 new housing units permitted in 2012, and so far this year there have been more than 120.

“New housing units permitted, 2012 looked good, it was up,” Bornstein said. “But 2013 is looking spectacular.”

JEDC Executive Director Brian Holst says the annual economic indicators report fulfills the agency’s mission to help local business and government leaders make better, more informed decisions. He called the economic trends in the last year “very, very positive.”

“Employment is up in our region, all wages are up, our private sector is growing faster than our public sector, which in general is positive for our community,” Holst said. “The population is at an all-time high both in Juneau and in the region, and generally our industries are stable.”

The Chamber of Commerce crowd largely agreed with Holst.

Maryann Ray owns Pearson’s Pond, a luxury, boutique hotel in the Mendenhall Valley. She says business is back to where it was before bottoming out during the recession, and she only expects it to get better.

“This year we had the best July we’ve had since I purchased the inn, and people are starting to spend more on excursions,” Ray said. “I think the tourism industry is a trailing indicator of what’s going on. So, if we see things have gotten better this year overall, I think we’ll see tourism certainly improve next year as well.”

The economic indicators report is JEDC’s major annual publication. The entire report as well as past years’ economic indicators can be found at www.jedc.org.