June Report

Northwest Arctic Borough Planning Director

6/15/04

 

 

Office Changes

 

In the past the Deputy Planner Kim Franklin’s main responsibility was to stay focused on Community Comprehensive Plans for each of the 11 communities in our region.  However since I have come on board I have included her in all that this office handles.  I have done this so, in my absence from time to time, the public will be better served when there is a need for information and other services that this office provides.  With all that’s going on, her and I have been very busy since April 21st, 2004 when I first came on the job.

 

Community Comprehensive Plans


I joined two people from Maniilaq Planning Department on a trip to Ambler to work on their Comprehensive Plan.  There was a good turn out and the Ambler Comprehensive Committee did well in their participation to some work while we were there.  We expect to meet with them in the near future to move the process along.  Please find Community Comprehensive Plan Reports attached.

 

Trip to Barrow, Noatak and Red Dog Mine

 

The Joint Assembly Meeting took place in Barrow on June 22nd, 2004.  The NWAB and NSB planning Directors reported on AMCA regulation changes, Transporter/Guide and Comprehensive Plan issues.

 

The same report was done to the community of Noatak on the 23rd.  In addition to that Mike McKinnon from DOT gave a report on the study that was being done on the possible road to Noatak from Red Dog.  John Woods gave a report on the study being done on the Red Dog Port Site Expansion project.

 

On June 24th the NWAB and NSB Planning Commission Members toured the Red Dog Port Site with John Woods leading the tour.

 

A delegation of Kivalina Tribal officials attended the Noatak meeting and expressed their concern about not being notified of the meeting.

 

Red Dog Port Site Expansion Study

 

While in Noatak, David Case and I spent some time with John Woods with AIEDA and listened to him on how the financing for the project was coming along.  He tells us that the total cost to the project is about $350 million.  He said most of the funds have been put together for the project with the exception of about $40,000,000.

 

Tribal Environmental Protection Agency (TEPA)

 

I have met with the Group Leader, Santina Gay, at the Anchorage TEPA office along with their mining expert.  I inquired about the funding that is available to each Tribe, which is about $110, 000 a year.  There are grant monies available for different studies but no monies available for monitoring water quality from mines.

 

We discussed briefly the Transporter/Guide issues and they informed me that there are at least two communities that require Transporters to land at their communities and go through an orientation process before taking clients out on their land.

 

Transporter/Guide Issue


As reported in the May 2004 report letters were sent out to all the transporters believed to be operating in the area stating that an application fee was necessary for them to get before transporting visitors to this area.  The response has been minimal. 

A meeting with the different agencies will be organized soon to see if they will assist the borough with regulating activity in this area.  There has been $20,000 budgeted to help enforce borough regulations in regards to transporter activity.  We are talking to NANA on this same issue.  We understand that they will be doing their own monitoring on their lands this summer.

 

Alaska Gold Mining Company

 

Our office and our attorneys have reviewed the application material that has been submitted to the Fairbanks DNR offices and we are requesting that before Alaska Gold starts their core drilling in the Ambler area that they fill out an application to the NWAB for four things:

 

  1. Camp site
  2. Fuel depot
  3. Helicopter or transporter license
  4. Mineral development

 

We have notified the communities and agencies of this activity. 

 

Kivalina Flooding

 

I attended a Kivalina meeting where the Corps of Engineers were presenting on the Kivalina move.  The Corps of Engineers officials were also toured around the area and were advised by Kivalina people the problems that were created by flooding from the Kivalina Lake earlier this spring.  It’s my understanding that Tom Bolen’s office has sent a letter of support to Kivalina.

 

Kivalina Relocation Committee

 

Even though I have not worked directly with this committee, while I attended a public meeting in Kivalina, I got to listen to them give their ideas of what their thinking was after they listened to Andrea Elconin, Project Manager from the Corps of Engineers.  She said that their study finds the cost to prepare the Kivalina preferred site to be $185 million to $400 million, which would take about 7 years to complete.  This is only to prepare the site, not to move the community.  The Kivalina Tribal officials said “they were not going ask their community members to go back to the drawing board to consider a new site.”

 

Colonel Tomothy Gallagar from the Corps of Engineers at the same meeting stated that with major climate changes happening around the world coastal communities like Kivalina will continue to be more vulnerable.

 

Steve Braund Subsistence Report

 

I talked to Steve just recently and he says that he got contact persons lined up in all three communities, Alex Whiting in Kotzebue, Stan Hawley in Kivalina and Herbert Walton in Noatak.  The contact person will facilitate other people in the community for him to work with, like elders who know history of the fish and game in the area and hunters who are harvesting fish and game today. 

 

He explained that a lot of work has been done already from previous years and that the contract with the borough was to complete the work.  We discussed the deadline for completion to be January 1st, 2006 but he expected that the work would be done ahead of time.

 

Glenn Gray Contract (ACMP Evaluation)

 

Glenn Gray has been hired to do our evaluation on the NWAB Coastal Management Plan, which is required by Alaska Coastal Management Plan (ACMP) office.  The evaluation “will summarize how the NWAB coastal plan will need to be modified to meet the new requirements in HB 191 (the statutes) and the recent ACMP regulations.”   This work will be completed by August 2nd, 2004. 

 

At that time we will begin the Amendment process, which is required by the ACMP office.  Working with the consultant and the Mayor’s office, ideas and recommendations on what amendments to be used will be submitted to the Planning Commission and the Assembly.

 

The State of Alaska will provide $2,000 to for us to do the evaluation process and will provide funds to do the amendment process also.  Please find the Evaluation Draft attached.

 

Borough land selection

 

Willie Goodwin is close to completing the work that the Land Selection Committee and planning office has assigned him.  Willie will be meeting with the state offices on land selection sites before he finalizes his report for the committee.   At this committee meeting on the 26th Willie will apprise the committee of the different types of borough selections and lay out a plan of action to prioritize selections.

 

Planning Commission Status

 

The mayor has completed his appointments for the two remaining seats for the Planning Commission, Ron Hunnicutt of Kotzebue and Carol Wesley of Noatak.  At the Borough Assembly meetings on July 27th the two names will be submitted for approval and the Assembly will complete the process with the swearing in ceremony.  The next Planning Commission meeting will be scheduled in the following days so they can organize their officers and take care of Planning Commission business at hand.

 

Transporter Fees

 

As we reported in our May 2004 report we have sent 115 letters to Transporters believed to be operating in the Northwest Arctic Borough region, which stated that they are required to pay a $500 fee to operate in this area.  We have not received payment from any of them.

 

Ross has asked me to contact Rex Okakok at the NSB and he has written back and told me that they don’t have problems collecting fees from Transporters and Guides.

 

We have $20,000 in our budget this year to help out with enforcement.  We will be working on a plan on how to use that funding and make enforcement effective.

 

Relocating Shishmaref

 

On July 7th, 2004 the Army Corps of Engineers and their consultant invited community leaders from the City, School and Borough to meet with them and discuss ideas and amounts of funds it would take to move the community of Shishmaref to Kotzebue.

 

Questions that were asked and comments made:

 

  1. Do the people of Shishmaref want to move to Kotzebue?
  2. Do the people of Kotzebue want to expand to accommodate 600 additional people?
  3. Will the government pay the additional amount for more infrastructures in Kotzebue?
  4. People of Shishmaref depend largely on subsistence.  Shishmaref people would have a hard time subsisting the way they are used to out of Kotzebue.
  5. Some believe that the move to Kotzebue and Nome could be arranged and many of them would scatter to other communities like Anchorage and Fairbanks.
  6. Shishmaref people want to move within 4 or 5 years.

 

Ambler Situation

 

It’s our understanding that the gravel pit in Ambler has been found to have high levels of asbestos in it.  This has led to the closing down of three major projects in Ambler for this summer.  NANA apparently is doing a study on their lands to come up with a new gravel pit.