YourAlaskaLink.com
By: Gretchen Parsons
With only two weeks left in session, some Alaskans are wondering if lawmakers will set aside any funding for the Port of Anchorage, which according to the POA, two of three terminals are in deteriorating condition, while the third is 50 years old.
An estimated 90 percent of food, for 85 percent of Alaska's population, comes through the facility.
Despite the Port's significance, money is tight, and Rep. Donny Olson says throwing cash at the POA this year isn't likely.
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http://www.youralaskalink.com/news/lawmakers-don-t-anticipate-any-funding-for-port-of-anchorage/article_d1d3882c-fac3-11e5-873e-77f32f90bfc1.html
Alaska Dispatch News
By: Nathaniel Herz
JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate released its proposed capital budget Monday, and one of its few big projects was a line item to buy the Legislature’s Anchorage offices for $32.5 million, the price approved by a legislative committee two weeks ago.
Missing from the Senate’s capital budget: a request from Gov. Bill Walker to spend $7.2 million for a new school in the Northwest Alaska village of Kivalina.
The Anchorage Legislative Information Office purchase would use money outside the state’s unrestricted general fund — the typical yardstick used to measure state spending. Instead, it would come out of the Alaska Capital Income Fund if the Senate’s capital budget is approved. That’s according to a new version unveiled Monday that was drafted by the office of Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
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https://www.adn.com/article/20160411/senate-s-capital-budget-buys-anchorage-lio-won-t-build-kivalina-school
KTUU News
By: Travis Khachatoorian
With legislators running out of time, officials at the Port of Anchorage are beginning to worry their efforts to secure funding to fix the crumbling infrastructure at the state’s most productive dock will be pushed aside by lawmakers.
House Bill 329 is stuck in a House finance committee with no signs it will see a vote by the end of the session. It's a bill backed by Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz to put the modernization of the port to a statewide vote on the Nov. ballot, asking Alaska to take on $290 million in new debt on a general obligation bond.
Some in the legislature have vocally opposed issuing any more state bonds this year. Meantime, the Port of Anchorage is haunted by legal troubles stemming from a previous expansion project that began in the early 2000’s.
The municipality currently is involved in two federal lawsuits from the previous construction effort, one pending against the federal agency the U.S Maritime Administration “for its failure to properly supervise and manage the [previous] project,” said director of port external affairs Jim Jager.
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http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/city-renews-push-for-funding-of-embattled-port-of-anchorage-project/38976712
Alaska Dispatch News
By: Annie Zak
Dredging at the Port of Anchorage, the perpetual task of digging silt out of the port's waters so ships can dock without hitting bottom, started early again this year to handle the extra silt built up because of the current configuration of the port.
A lack of ice this past winter in Cook Inlet allowed dredging equipment to come in and start the process months ahead of the usual schedule, ramping up March 23.
Previously, the dredging started around May and ran through October, but the past three winters it has started earlier and run longer since the port was reconfigured during a now-stalled modernization program. This year, it will run through mid-November.
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http://www.adn.com/article/20160402/lack-cook-inlet-ice-allows-port-anchorage-dredging-start-early
Business View Magazine
By: BVMLLADMIN
It would be hard to make the case that anything good could ever come out of an earthquake. Especially an earthquake of enormous destructive power, like the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 1964, the most powerful tremor ever recorded in U.S. and North American history. Registering a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter scale, it caused widespread desolation across the south-central part of the state. And yet, perhaps, if it wasn’t for that devastating natural disaster, the Port of Anchorage (POA) may never have become the economic engine that it is today, as well as one of Alaska’s most important maritime ports, responsible for supporting a vast majority of the Frontier State’s population with the goods they need to survive.
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https://www.businessviewmagazine.com/the-port-of-anchorage/
KTUU News
View The Video At:
http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/risk-readiness-part-i-earthquake-preparedness-at-the-port-of-anchorage/37893976
Alaska Dispatch News
By: Annie Zak
After a two-week delay, Tote Maritime Alaska’s cargo ship the North Star has finally set sail from Tacoma, bound for Anchorage.
The company said in a press release on Friday that the ship successfully completed sea trials before departing at 7 a.m. Friday morning, and is scheduled to arrive in Anchorage on Monday.
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http://www.adn.com/article/20160129/cargo-ship-sets-sail-alaska-after-delay
Alaska Public Media
By: Zachariah Hughes
Last week’s stalled food delivery, which left many grocery store shelves bare, followed by Sunday’s 7.1 earthquake has left many people wondering how prepared Alaska is for an emergency. And more importantly, how vulnerable are we in these situations? On this week’s Alaska Edition, we discuss emergency preparedness in the state.
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http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/01/29/emergency-preparedness-in-alaska/
Alaska Dispatch News
By: Annie Zak
A Tote Maritime Alaska ship that was supposed to depart from Tacoma for Anchorage nearly two weeks ago won’t return to service as anticipated on Wednesday.
The North Star, one of the company’s two cargo ships that runs regularly on the Tacoma-to-Anchorage route, did not leave Washington state as scheduled on Jan. 14 after a mechanical issue was discovered.
A company official said last week that repairs were expected to be completed early this week. The North Star’s next voyage was scheduled for Jan. 27, but now that date has been pushed back again to an unspecified time.
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http://www.adn.com/article/20160126/delay-continues-alaska-bound-cargo-ship
The Maritime Executive
By: MarEx
A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck southern Alaska early on Sunday, and its effects were felt for hundreds of miles from the epicenter. The quake struck at 1:30 AM, at the foot of a mountain chain just west of Cook Inlet, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The Fairbanks-based Alaska Earthquake Center reported a series of aftershocks reaching magnitudes of up to 4.7.
At the Port of Anchorage, officials say that the shaking didn't cause any significant damage, but it raised concerns about the ability of aging docks to withstand a more serious quake.
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http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/earthquake-shakes-port-of-anchorage
