U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Representative Mary Peltola introduced legislation Jan. 19 that seeks to forego a unique restriction in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The bill aims to settle a decades-old dispute that has prevented the Cape Fox Corporation from claiming all of the land they are entitled to under the act. 

Cape Fox Corporation is the Alaska Native village corporation organized under ANCSA for the Native Village of Saxman, near Ketchikan. 

It’s one of dozens of Native corporations statewide that were returned 44 million acres of ancestral land from the federal government – with restrictions.

One of those restrictions required the corporations’ land to be at least two miles from any existing city boundaries – except for Cape Fox. That distance for the Cape Fox Corporation was expanded to six miles from the nearest city in order to protect nearby Ketchikan’s watersheds.

Cape Fox Corporation couldn’t be reached for comment. But in a press release, the corporation alleges the six-mile requirement created a unique problem for them. Saxman is nestled between the remote, mountainous expanse of Revillagigedo Island and the Tongass Narrows, with a handful of islands scattered beyond. The corporation’s acreage options under the land entitlement were further hemmed in by Ketchikan to the north and the Annette Island Indian Reservation, belonging to the Metlakatla Indian Community, to the south of their selection area

According to a statement from the congressional delegation, Cape Fox was left to choose from land that is of no economic value to them. So the new bill would grant the corporation a 180-acre tract of Tongass National Forest near Mahoney Lake instead. 

In an email, Rep. Peltola’s office said the issue has been on the delegation’s radar for many years. An iteration of the bill to settle Cape Fox’s land entitlement was first introduced in 1996. Peltola said that, “For fifty years, this land has been held back from its original inhabitants, and it’s time for that to end.”

This specific 180 acres of federal land holds economic value for the corporation because it acts as the gateway for them to connect to hydropower. The tract stands between the corporation’s preexisting land claim to the Mahoney Lake area and the Beaver Falls Power Grid. Cape Fox Corporation has planned for years to build a hydropower plant at Upper Mahoney Lake. They first filed for the project’s permit with the U.S. Department of Energy in 1995, around the same time the original legislation was introduced to Congress. Now, if the bill passes, the corporation will be able to build a road and transmission line to bring the future hydropower online. 

The major hubs in Southern Southeast Alaska run primarily on hydropower, meaning the corporation’s project could possibly plug-in to other existing hydropower infrastructure in the region. 

The main buyer for the power the Mahoney Lake project would generate though would be the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA), a utilities coalition serving Wrangell, Petersburg, and Ketchikan through the Swan Lake and Tyee Lake hydroelectric projects. 

Ketchikan Public Utilities states on their website that only SEAPA, under their power sales agreement, could develop the next energy production facility in their network and that “Accruing multimillion dollar bond-debt to construct a facility that would be used only infrequently makes the proposal to develop Mahoney Lake economically untenable.”

Ketchikan receives most of its energy from the KPU-operated Ketchikan Lakes, Silvis Lakes, Beaver Falls, and Whitman Lake projects. These are supplemented by SEAPA’s hydroplants through an intertie, a huge bundle of transmission lines managed by the coalition.

In a phone call, Jeremy Bynum, manager of KPU’s electric division, said the language on their website is outdated. He said that the electric utility was “committed to participating in dialogues that consider the broader impacts and benefits of such developments.” Bynum added though that KPU’s goal is to honor their commitments to SEAPA under the current agreement. KPU’s existing power sales agreement with SEAPA expires in 2034.

In a joint press release with the Alaska congressional delegation, Chris Luchtefeld, CEO of Cape Fox Corporation, said restoring the corporation’s lands under ANCSA would open up economic opportunities for tribal shareholders and people across the region. 

Sen. Murkowski called the unsettled claim “a half-century injustice.” She said this new legislation is a “win-win,” adding that it “…not only help[s] Cape Fox capitalize their rightful lands, but address[es] the local energy needs in Ketchikan, Saxman, and Metlakatla.”

Since the ANCSA requirement applies specifically to Cape Fox, the legislation wouldn’t affect any other Alaska Native Village Corporation.

The post Alaska congressional delegation introduces legislation to settle Cape Fox’s land entitlement appeared first on KRBD.

Saxman’s original 1894 schoolhouse stands as the sun sets on Wednesday. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

A controversial plan to bulldoze or relocate Saxman’s historic schoolhouse and replace it with a grocery store is on hold after the village’s Native corporation announced Friday it’s stepping away from the project.

Saxman’s Cape Fox Corporation had proposed building a grocery store on the site of the 19th-century schoolhouse roughly three miles south of Ketchikan. The community’s tribal council has its offices inside. And it’s thought to be the oldest inhabited building in the community of about 400 people.

Saxman City Councilor Gabe Daniels told KRBD Friday that she thought a grocery store at the corner of South Tongass Highway and Totem Row could be a village hub.

“It might be good to have all of our people down there working, and we could go in there and see them. It might be a new spot to gather, it might be our new heart,” Daniels said.

Saxman’s City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to start the process of selling the property to Cape Fox for at least $45,000. That’s a fraction of its assessed value of about $618,000 as it appears on the borough’s tax rolls, though city officials say they think the lot is overvalued. The terms also included a sales tax break for its first 15 years of business. Mayor Frank Seludo defended the terms in a prepared statement he read on Friday.

“There’s much more value in this site and in the conversation than the purchase price. Cape Fox Corporation is not generally in the business of grocery stores. Playing hardball in the current economic environment means being creative and using resources other than dollar bills to get and keep the city not just surviving, but thriving,” Seludo said.

But now, the developer is pressing pause. The head of Cape Fox’s commercial division, Tim Lewis, read a statement to KRBD on Friday.

“At this point in time, due to concerns from the community, we are putting things on hold while we look for other opportunities,” Lewis said.

Those concerns were heard at last Wednesday’s Saxman City Council meeting. Sharon Seierup was among the dozen or so to speak up. She said she saw Saxman’s former schoolhouse as one of a precious few remaining connections to past generations and implored the council to retain the land and leave the structure standing.

“We have just a few things left out here,” she said. “It’s important to keep your identity.”

But people speaking out were split. Others, like a former Saxman mayor pointed to the dire financial situation of the city.

Former Saxman mayor Joe Kaakishké Williams, Jr., speaks to Saxman’s City Council on Wednesday. (Eric Stone/KRBD)

“My name is Joe Williams; my real name is Kaakishké,” he said.

He said Saxman is struggling from the lack of tourism in the region. The city recently laid off its sole public works employee.

“I struggle with the change, but I also struggle with the lack of money in our community,” he said.

Some, like Kenneth “Kelly” White, said they saw the school — where white missionaries forced the Sanyaa Kwaan and Taant’a Kwaan Tlingit inhabitants to change their names and barred them from speaking their own language — as a symbol of oppression.

“How I see it, that building, to me, is kind of the equivalent of the Confederate flag,” he said.

After meeting with Cape Fox representatives for more than an hour behind closed doors, Saxman’s City Council emerged and voted to enter negotiations to sell the property.

Details of the scale of the proposed business haven’t been publicly released.

Three of the seven council members — including the mayor — work for companies owned by Cape Fox Corporation. None recused themselves during negotiations or the vote. The city says its attorney had cleared them from a potential conflict of interest because they work for subsidiaries and don’t report directly to Cape Fox’s corporate office.

Councilor Gabe Daniels told KRBD on Friday that in a small place like Saxman, apparent conflicts of interest are tough to avoid.

“So I agree that it can look like that, but there’s only so many people in our village that want to work,” Daniels said.

What comes next is unclear. Cape Fox’s Tim Lewis says that the village corporation is always looking for new ways to invest in its community.

The post Cape Fox shelves plan to replace historic Saxman schoolhouse with grocery store after pushback appeared first on KRBD.

This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in yellow. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases photo)

Ketchikan emergency officials on Monday lowered the local risk level to “moderate“. That’s after an outbreak that spread rapidly through the community has slowed considerably since Ketchikan’s risk level was upgraded to “high” on Nov 4.

Emergency officials point to Oct. 26 as the start of an outbreak that eventually sickened more than 100 people in Ketchikan. But what was once a torrent of new cases has now slowed to a trickle — and that’s led local officials to relax some recommendations for pandemic precautions.

“So, there are a few cases here — I’m not saying it’s completely gone in Ketchikan. So for that reason we need to keep our interactions — you know, the safety measures and health measures in place,” said Ketchikan’s emergency manager, Abner Hoage, in a phone interview. “But we can start to do a few more things again, as long as we’re careful.”

Hoage says it’s still important to wear a mask in public spaces, maintain adequate spacing and wash hands. But the situation now is less precarious than it was early this month.

“The community’s done a really good job of taking to heart the recommendations that we’ve made,” Hoage said. “We saw a lot of businesses and individuals change their habits to help get us back down, and we’ve successfully dropped into the Level 2 risk zone and we’ve held there for several days.”

Ketchikan’s four-tier community risk level system takes a variety of pandemic indicators, like community spread and test positivity, and it outputs recommendations for local officials to control the outbreak.

At Level 3, officials issued voluntary recommendations for bars to close and restaurants to reduce capacity to 25%. Some did, others didn’t. But Hoage says there’s no reason to think Ketchikan would have fared better with mandatory rather than voluntary restrictions.

“I think we’ve made the right decision for Ketchikan, is what I will tell you, and I think it’s working for our community,” he said. “And as long as that continues to work, I don’t see a reason to change it.”

At Level 2, bars are no longer recommended to close, though officials say they should still limit capacity to ensure there’s enough room for social distancing. It’s a similar story for local restaurants — local officials now recommend 50% capacity instead of 25%. And, importantly, emergency officials say middle- and high-schoolers can now safely return to classrooms full-time.

Testing and tracing were critical

Hoage points to one factor in particular that helped Ketchikan turn the tide: rapid, high-volume testing.

Creekside Clinic purchased a machine that can run hundreds tests a day back in July after borough officials floated the idea. These days, the downtown clinic runs nearly every coronavirus test provided by the city and borough governments at its free downtown drive-up site. Many local clinics have their own rapid testing machines, and Ketchikan’s hospital has a few of their own, too.

“In general, our test turnaround time is really impressive — it’s at one to two days,” he said. “There’s other communities in Southeast Alaska that I’ve spoken with that are seeing seven-plus-day turnaround times, and that’s their best time. … And if your test results are that far out, they really become almost not useful anymore, to be honest.”

There have been some hiccups — Hoage says some mid-November tests were sent to the Lower 48 when a shipment of testing supplies didn’t come in on time. Those results took a week or more to come back.

Contact tracing also played a critical role, Hoage says. Dozens of cases were traced back to restaurants owned by Cape Fox Corporation, but Hoage says the fact that the Saxman-based Native corporation shared the news with the community and local officials, closed its restaurants and tested its staff was valuable.

Travel is an ongoing concern

While community spread is down, the coronavirus is still present in Ketchikan — there have been at least two cases of community spread since Nov. 23. But Hoage says the more pressing threat around the holidays is travel. He says those who went out of town for the long weekend should ensure they follow the state’s health protocols.

“At minimum, follow the state recommendations of five days of strict social distancing and one negative test before you start returning to the office or returning to school or any of those sorts of things, visiting with friends,” Hoage said.

Ideally, Hoage says travelers should quarantine for 10 to 14 days, with a second test at least a week after arriving — whether they come from in-state or out-of-state. Hoage says returning college students should be especially careful, since younger people are more likely not to show symptoms — and asymptomatic people can still spread the virus.

“We don’t have a ton of COVID here right now. We want to keep it that way,” he said. “And the only way you can get in is when somebody new comes into the community, right?”

The state health department also dropped its own, separate risk level for Ketchikan and southern Southeast Alaska in recent days, including Prince of Wales Island and Metlakatla. As of Monday, it’s the only region in the state not at a “high” pandemic alert level.

The post With COVID-19 cases falling, Ketchikan reduces local pandemic risk level to ‘moderate’ appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s borough assembly has waived its right to protest a controversial liquor license in the city of Saxman. The assembly also approved a revised resolution asking Canadian authorities to protect the Unuk River from mine pollution over the border.

Saxman liquor license

The liquor license application comes from a subsidiary of Saxman’s Cape Fox Native Corporation. Dockside Galley, a restaurant near Saxman’s city hall, would like to serve beer and wine and open a liquor store.

If approved by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, it will be Saxman’s first liquor license in the predominantly Alaska Native community. 

Local governments have the right to protest liquor license applications within their jurisdiction if it’s deemed not in the public’s interest.

Ketchikan Assembly member Sue Pickrell felt an objection was warranted.

“My feeling with regard to the number of alcohol permits and alcohol-dispensing places and packing stores in Ketchikan — we have enough,” she said during Monday’s meeting.

She was joined by Alan Bailey and Felix Wong.

A three-Assembly member bloc comprised of Austin Otos, AJ Pierce and David Landis voted against protesting the liquor license. Assembly Member Sven Westergard was absent. 

That left it up to Borough Mayor Rodney Dial to cast his first tiebreaking vote. He said he’d defer to the Saxman City Council which had already found no legal reason to oppose the license. 

“The community of Saxman has debated this issue. The folks in Saxman have had an opportunity to speak out on this issue,” he said. “The mayor and clerk have indicated that the public has the option to vote on this issue.”

Saxman city officials testified that some residents are openly planning a petition to hold a referendum to ban alcohol within the city limits. 

Transboundary mining resolution

In other business, the borough assembly approved a revised resolution asking Canadian authorities to better protect the Unuk River watershed from mine pollution. Environmental advocates say pollution from historic and active mines has had ill effects on the wildlife that rely on the Unuk, especially salmon. 

Misty Fjords National Monument, which includes the lower Unuk watershed, is also a popular tourist destination in the summer.

“Misty Fjords is one thing that you should be trying to protect. That’s one of the gooses that’s laying the golden eggs for Ketchikan,” said Malcom Doiron during public comment. He’s best known for naming the Misty Fjords and fighting for their protection as a national monument.

The original resolution was submitted by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council had called on British Columbia to hold a new environmental review for the proposed KSM open pit copper and gold mine near the Unuk’s headwaters 

It also invoked the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an intergovernmental agreement supporting native cultures. Canada signed onto the declaration in 2016 after a decade of opposing the pact. It requires Canadian authorities to account for policies’ effect on indigenous users who rely on the Unuk — that is, the KSM mine’s effect on downstream Canadian subsistence users.

(For its part, the United States dropped its opposition to UNDRIP in 2011 but only offers qualified support for the measure.)

Assembly member Alan Bailey took issue with the draft resolution’s tone at the assembly’s Nov. 25 meeting. The assembly sent it back for revision, and staff removed the resolution’s references to specific actions by the B.C. government, leaving only a generic call to protect the Unuk watershed. 

Doiron took issue with the toned-down version.

“What you’re going to do if you water this thing down, you might as well save your energy,” Doiron said. “Because the people on the other side of the border are not going to listen to you. They’re going to laugh at you.”

Bailey defended the revision, saying it’s in line with traditional borough language.

“Using reasoned language, we can be forceful, but yet appropriate in tone,” he said.

The revised resolution passed unanimously.

Land use issues

In other business, a resident’s proposal that would require the borough to notify neighbors within two miles of a planned outdoor gun range has been postponed. Current borough regulations require notice to be given to neighbors within 1,200 feet of a proposed outdoor range.

This comes after the assembly shot down a proposed rezone that would have allowed an outdoor gun range in the Ward Cove area. Several residents expressed concerns about noise and stray bullets near the popular Ward Lake recreation area.

The assembly also unanimously approved a developer’s request to defer property taxes on a subdivided tract of land on the west side of the city of Ketchikan. A 2012 state law allows the borough and city to do so in an effort to spur development.

The assembly also denied a proposed rezone in an industrial area of Ward Cove. The owner expressed interest in renting out a unit traditionally used for employee housing to the general public. But borough planning staff, the planning commission and neighbors agreed that the rezone could put future residents in harm’s way and expose the businesses to complaints.

The post Assembly declines to protest Saxman liquor license, approves toned-down Unuk resolution appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s borough assembly will consider whether to protest a liquor license application in Saxman during its Monday evening meeting. It’ll also consider a resolution asking Canadian authorities to address transboundary mining pollution and a few items dealing with land use in the borough.

Saxman liquor license

The liquor license application comes from a subsidiary of Saxman’s Cape Fox Native Corporation. Dockside Galley, a restaurant near Saxman’s city hall and community center, would like to serve beer and wine and open a package store.

If approved by the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, it would be the first liquor license for the small, mostly Alaska Native community.

The Saxman City Council found no legal reason to protest the application in November, despite pleas from residents who said they didn’t want to see alcohol sold or served in their 400-resident community. That’s led to talk of a local option election — a voter-led initiative that could restrict or ban the sale of alcohol inside Saxman city limits. Saxman City Clerk Lori Richmond says a petition to start the local option process has been picked up, but it hasn’t been returned.

Borough staff recommend that the assembly advance Cape Fox’s application. The state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office will have the final say on whether to issue Saxman’s first-ever liquor license.

Transboundary mine pollution resolution

In other business, the assembly will again consider a resolution asking Canadian authorities to protect the Unuk River and its watershed from transboundary mine pollution. 

The assembly sent the resolution back to borough staff at its Nov. 25 meeting after Assembly Member Alan Bailey took issue with its tone.  It was originally submitted by Heather Evor of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. 

The revised resolution asks the government of British Columbia to take steps to protect the Unuk watershed from mine pollution, which could have negative consequences on the river’s salmon population. 

However, references to specific actions — like the earlier resolution’s call for a new environmental assessment for the proposed K-S-M open pit copper and gold mine — have been removed. 

The City of Ketchikan passed a similar resolution in November.

Land issues

Elsewhere in the assembly’s Monday meeting, the assembly will consider a request to rezone an industrial parcel in the Ward Cove area. The applicant would like to publicly rent out an apartment currently used as employee housing.

Both the resident-led planning commission and the borough’s professional planning staff recommend denying the rezone. Staff members say in a memo the proposed rezone would situate residents near a helicopter tour business and a rock crusher. Staff say that could expose those existing businesses to complaints from residents.

The assembly will also consider a request from developer Bruce Hattrick. He wants to defer property tax payments on an undeveloped tract of land on the west side of the city of Ketchikan. A 2012 state law allows cities and boroughs to delay property tax payments on undeveloped, unsubdivided lands in an effort to encourage housing development. 

Monday’s borough assembly meeting gets underway at 5:30 p.m. in Ketchikan’s White Cliff building.

The post Saxman’s first liquor license on borough assembly agenda appeared first on KRBD.