Assembly discusses energy, AKBC

coalition, training

Ryan Long

June 25, 2009.

At the June 23 meeting of the Wrangell Borough Assembly regional energy issues, including the possible formation of an AKBC coalition topped the agenda, along with the resignation of a particular member of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors.

In Petersburg, Cascade Creek LLC gave a public presentation outlining the status of their projects and their goals in Southeast Alaska. The meeting was both an informative opportunity for decision makers and a forum for the public to voice concerns and have questions answered. According to Wrangell’s Borough Manager Bob Prunella, who attended the meeting, “I found that Cascade Creek LLC did a good job presenting their case. Both sessions were well attended. The purposes of these meetings are environmental and there are some financial concerns from people in Petersburg. I thought it was a worthwhile meeting and we can expect pretty much the same thing if we get the Ruth Lake permit,” said Prunella.

Assembly member Warren Edgley indicated that the meeting was certainly useful, but in a very specific light. “It was mostly an opportunity for the public to blow up some steam I guess. I thought it was valuable because any project developed in Thomas Bay is going to face the same procedures that Cascade Creek has had to deal with. It’s a mandated thing so you do it. It gave me an idea of what you have to face when it comes to these scoping meetings,” said Edgley.

Prunella also noted that work had been completed on Campbell Drive and that the new pavement was just one indication of things to come. “We are, when the weather is cooperating with us, getting after the roads and we did the cement job over on Campbell drive. There’s another large job on Sunset Blvd. Carl and I talked and agreed that we’re just throwing money at patching things and we think it’ll last a lot longer this way,” said Prunella.

Wrangell’s Mayor Don McConachie attended the most recent meeting of the Highway 37 Coalition, an organization that may inspire a similar organization in Southeast Alaska to pave the way for the AKBC intertie. “There was a meeting again last Monday at noon. There are some new elements. One thing is that one of the road blocks in the federal bureaucracy has retired,” said McConachie “The federal funding for the line that they have had is only allocated to Bob Quinn. They are looking at other sources of funding for the rest of it. There are people that belong to the Highway 37 coalition that have already said that usually the estimate by BC Hydro is notoriously high. They are hoping that after they build the line to Bob Quinn there will be dollars left over to extend the line. Whether this happens remains to be seen,” continued McConachie.

According to McConachie, the Alaska intertie is one of the final steps in the Highway 37 Coalitions plans for developing regional transmission. “Stage three now is going to be the Alaska connection. I’m going to have the information put together for our congressional delegation in DC along with sending it to Stedman and Peggy Wilson and the Governor’s office,” said McConachie. “One thing that they don’t know is the mining companies’ commitment of dollars to extending the line. They’re talking about line loss and having the hydro facility close to the mine so the line pays the line loss and they don’t. The mining companies have extended a fair number of dollars and they’re just not sure how much further they can go,” continued McConachie.

Wrangellite, and vocal contributor on many boards and public agencies, Janell Privett announced her resignation from the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) Board of Directors recently, and gave an explanation for the recent turn of events that led to such a step. “In 27 years of public service I have never quit anything. During a very poorly done attempt at an executive session I did resign. It became obvious very early that Wrangell Medical Center had a lack of communication at board meetings. It seemed that a fair bit of information was available to some on the board and not to others. WMC does not follow their own bylaws and causes confusion in control,” said Privett.

According to Privett, concerns regarding those internal difficulties within WMC have led to contention not only on the board but also in the working environment of the facility itself. “There were three situations when employees had come to the board after following the chain of command. They would request their needs many times and they would be ignored by their administrator. It became clear that their administrator had no experience working with people in their departments and this is why we received the resignation of a 22 year employee,” said Privett.

The WMC Board and Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) have worked together in the past, as is iterated via the Tideline Clinic as it coexists with WMC. Recently WMC and AICS have been working towards the creation of additional facilities that could also coexist for mutual benefit. “It has been wonderful to see the board and AICS develop a relationship and work together. The boards have had two very productive meetings to discuss their goals. The two agencies had two individuals that would work out land selection and develop and draft a Memorandum of Understanding that any changes to be made would come back and continue to work with the draft document. WMC dropped the process and created constant fires that never get us past the starting line. Meetings have regressed back to a lack of trust and that was blamed on AICS. It was not, it was because of WMC,” said Privett.

Talks are still on going between WMC and AICS, though WMC has made clear that it intends to locate its next facility on property behind Alpine Mini Mart, in a location which should best serve the hospital’s needs.

Privett sited the issue of protocol as a primary concern, and Assembly member James Stough agreed that, as an extension of the City and Borough of Wrangell, members of the WMC Board of Directors should receive training in their duties and procedure. “I think it’s very appropriate that because it is a City entity and they are an elected board and we need to make sure that that board gets the proper training and I’d like to see us look into that,” said Stough.

Shifting gears back towards regional energy generation and transmission, Mayor Don McConachie proposed the creation of a regional coalition with the sole mandate to see through the AKBC intertie from the Tyee project through to Bob Quinn in British Columbia. “It became evident to me after being on the Highway 37 Coalition as to how we need to be that focused on doing one thing.We need to form some sort of group and get commitment from other entities throughout Southeast Alaska and Canada we can focus not just on building a line to the border but on building a line to Bob Quinn. The Highway 37 Coalition is so successful because they designed their line and lay out where it is going to go before approaching the appropriate entities and asking for comment and how to make changes to get things done. If we have that same focus I don’t think we’ll continue to waste money, we’ll be doing one thing and getting it done,” said McConachie.

Edgley agreed with McConachie on the primary issue. “We need to stop looking north and south in Southeast Alaska. We need to look east and west for economic development. We need to have an open membership because I’m sure there are people on the Canadian side that would be a part of this. It will give us a lot more political clout if we can get the tribes, the towns and the villages all working for one goal,” said Edgley. “I’ve talked to the developers over there and the concern is also about transportation, not just transmission. I know there is a lot of opposition to a road. I think it’s a good idea but we need to, as an Assembly, decide what our real goals are and if we can get these other entities to buy into those goals we can have an organization that is focused and a lot more powerful politically. I think it’s a great idea,” continued Edgley.

McConachie indicated that membership on the coalition would be open and indicated that Wrangell’s Energy Committee should start work on packaging the coalition for interested parties. “I think if we are going to get this thing we need to send the letters to the people who build transmission lines, the people that are going to use that line such as mining companies and people here that have the hydroelectric power that want to transport it over that line,” said McConachie.