Transportation

Motorized vessels on Auke Lake should be limited to 10 horsepower, according to a draft Auke Lake Management Plan.

The new plan is the result of an evaluation process conducted last fall by the CBJ Parks and Recreation Department, after a teenager was fatally injured on the lake. The city vowed to review ordinances that govern use of the lake.

Parks and Recreation Director Brent Fischer will present the recommendations Tuesday night at a meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

Fischer says neither the PRAC nor the public will be asked to comment, because the report has just been released.

The proposal recommends no towing on the small lake.  In July, 16-year-old Savannah Cayce was being towed on an inner-tube by a jet ski, when her tube hit another jet ski.

Other recommendations include larger buoys on the lake, new signs at the boat launch as well as a public information campaign, so lake users clearly understand the regulations.

To enforce the rules, Fischer is suggesting the city create a seasonal park ranger for all CBJ parks. He says the ranger also would need access to a boat.

“This position, what we hope, would start mid-April to go all the way through mid-October,” Fischer says. “It allows us to set the buoy markers, which create the no-wake zone or the no-motorized use zone.  It allows up to open that lake up. We’ll have a presence on the lake, and then take those buoys down once we close the season.  This helps us really manage this lake and the uses out there.”

 The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will meet tonight at 6 o’clock in the Mendenhall Valley library.

Fischer says public comment can be made at the city’s website, or at a public hearing later this month.  The draft plan will be forwarded to the Juneau Assembly, which will determine if any changes should be made to current ordinances.

Southeast leaders were surprised by Captain Mike Neussl’s announcement that he would resign from his job as marine highways chief. But some say it won’t hurt the ferry system in the long term.

Neussl was hired as deputy commissioner for marine operations just a few weeks short of two years ago. The move came after the former helicopter pilot, engineer and manager retired from a 30-year Coast Guard career. (Hear a report from when Neussl was hired.)

Cathie Roemmich is on the state’s Marine Transportation Advisory Board, and is the Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s CEO.

“I’m saddened and disappointed in a way because I know Capt. Neussl put his whole heart in and did a fine job and had the respect not only of MTAB but the marine highway employees as well,” she says.

Advisory Committee Chairman and former Haines Borough Manager Robert Venables echoes the sentiment.

“I think we’re always sorry to lose the top guy at the helm for the marine highway system. But we have had a lot of turnover,” he says.

Neussl took over the job from Jim Beedle, a longtime ferry staffer who worked his way up through the ranks. He stayed about three years, the longest tenure in recent memory.

In all, five people have headed up the marine highway system over the past seven years.

“We’ve seen each one have their own personality and way of doing things, but they all left a mark as they passed through,” Venables says.

Neussl resigned just a few weeks after Pat Kemp was named Department of Transportation commissioner. It’s also shortly after the governor announced significant changes to the Alaska Class Ferry design.

Neussl says he was not part of that decision-making process. But he did not say either change led to his departure.

“There’s been a lot of changes all at once. I think maybe, in the long run, they could be positive,” says Peggy Wilson, a Wrangell representative who chairs the House Transportation Committee.

“I’m really pleased with the new commissioner. I think at least with him, we will not have as many surprises,” she says.

Wilson is critical of former Transportation Commissioner Mark Luiken. She says he changed projects without notice and was not transparent enough in his decisions.

There’s no word on the hiring process for Neussl’s job, or how soon it will be filed.

But Venables is optimistic.

“The marine highway system has been running and is running very, very well and effectively. We’re glad for that and wish to help it continue,” he says.

Roemmich takes a similar view.

“We can just hope there’s somebody out there that can take on this role with enthusiasm and the spirit to help continue to improve and look forward to a future that our marine highway can operate under,” she says.

The change of leadership and ferry-design plans will get some official attention later this month.

The Marine Transportation Advisory Board meets January 22nd in Juneau. And Representative Wilson says the House and Senate Transportation Committees will hold joint sessions once the Legislature resumes work.

The head of the Alaska Marine Highway System is stepping down.

Captain Mike Neussl’s departure comes on the heels of a decision by Governor Sean Parnell to scale down the Alaska Class ferry project. Instead of one larger vessel for Lynn Canal sailings, Parnell wants to build to small shuttle ferries.

Neussl says his resignation is not fallout from the issue.

“I wouldn’t characterize it that way,” Neussl says. “It’s a mutual agreement between myself and the commissioner, and that’s how it’s going forward.”

Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner Pat Kemp is fairly new to the job himself. Kemp was appointed commissioner December 22nd after serving as interim commissioner since October following the resignation of Marc Luiken.

Neussl’s last day of work as Deputy Commissioner for Marine Operations will be next Friday, January 11th. He’s been ferry chief since March 2011.

Nuessl says he’s grateful for the opportunity to work with AMHS staff. And while he’s often been the face of the system when something breaks down, there’s an upside.

“It’s been a very interesting experience dealing with all the communities, and actually seeing and realizing how important the ferry system is to the communities we serve,” he says.

Neussl says he has no plans for another job right away. He didn’t get much of a break after his last one.

“I was retired from the Coast Guard – I did a 30 year career – prior to being asked to take on this position, and I did, and enjoyed it,” Neussl says. “I’m going to go back to retirement and do some projects around the house.”

There’s no official word yet from the DOT on Neussl’s replacement.

 

Gov. Sean Parnell’s proposed fiscal year 2014 operating budget sets aside $10 million for the Juneau Access Road, but the Department of Transportation doesn’t yet know how it will spend the money.

Spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says DOT is waiting for the Federal Highway Administration to decide which alternative route to select.

“The $10 million this year is going to go into either beginning construction or designing the next leg of Juneau Access,”  Woodrow says.

The federal decision hinges on an environmental impact statement due in 2014. After conservation groups sued DOT, a federal court ruled the department explore a “no build” option that strengthens the existing ferry system, hence the supplemental EIS.

Proposals vary between a western route from the Chilkat Peninsula, to an eastern route that would stop at the Katzehin River, where motorists would get on a ferry to Haines or Skagway.  That’s the state’s preferred alternative.  Woodrow says DOT still needs to design the portion of the route between Sweeney Creek and Katzehin.

Total cost of the project is estimated at $520 million.  It’s expected the state will pick up 60 percent and the federal government 40 percent of project costs. Beginning in 2015, the governor’s proposed budget shows $50 million for road construction for each fiscal year through 2019.

Daven Hafey is a community organizer at the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, which has opposed road extension plans for decades.

“This is not something that SEACC plans on backing away from. We will continue to advocate for continued safe reliable transportation up and down Lynn Canal,” he says.

Hafey says the governor’s proposed $10 million for the project comes too soon, since the environmental impact statement is still under review, and it’s unclear what route the Federal Highway Administration will select.

“So it seems premature that capital money would be invested in a hypothetical project. At a time when the Alaska Class ferry design has shifted dramatically the last couple of weeks, we also find it odd that those dollars aren’t being invested in tangible projects that are being constructed to help transportation needs in the region,” Hafey says.

 Gov.  Parnell earlier this month announced he was scrapping plans to build the 350-foot Alaska Class ferry in favor of smaller shuttle boats.

DOT’s Woodrow says the draft for the Juneau Access supplemental EIS will be open to public comment by the end of next summer. Construction would begin in summer 2014 at the earliest.

The governor’s budget generally goes through significant changes in the Alaska Legislature, which convenes in mid-January.

Governor Sean Parnell has named Pat Kemp commissioner of the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Kemp had been interim commissioner since October.

Kemp worked for DOT for 30 years, retiring in 2006. He operated a private engineering office in Juneau after retiring, but returned to the state in 2011 as deputy commissioner for Highways and Public Facilities.

Kemp earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington.

The governor’s office says Kemp is the first DOT commissioner to be born and raised in Alaska, as well as the first to work his way completely through the ranks to head the department.

An Alaska Airlines jet flying from Seattle to Anchorage was diverted to Juneau International Airport late Sunday night.

According to a release from the airport, Flight 731 experienced engine failure and diverted to Juneau at approximately 11:10 p.m. with 167 passengers and crew on board.

The plane landed without incident.

Passengers were re-booked on morning flights to Anchorage.