Tim Ellis, KUAC - Fairbanks
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
PILT: Local Municipal Officials Hope Congress Will Fund Federal-Aid Program
City and borough government officials here in Alaska are a bit on edge about Congress’s failure to provide funding for the PILT program, which helps local governments with a lot of federal land in their areas. The program is especially critical to smaller communities like Delta Junction.
Download Audio
Fairbanks Militia Leader Holding Anti-Gun-Control Rally
A local militia leader is organizing an anti-gun-control rally that’ll be held next month in downtown Fairbanks. The rally is one of five to be held around the state on Feb. 23 to show support for the Second Amendment and other right-wing political causes.
Download Audio
Refinery Owner Seeks Lower Cleanup Level For Tainted Groundwater
The operator of the North Pole refinery wants the state to set a lower standard for cleaning up the sulfolane groundwater-contamination problem in the North Pole area. Flint Hills Resources Alaska has asked the head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation to set a less-stringent cleanup level for the industrial solvent that leaked into the groundwater for more than a decade before Flint Hills bought the refinery in 2004. The requests could delay cleanup for several months.
Download Audio
Air Quality Regulations Worry Fairbanks, State Officials
The controversial air-quality regulations that state officials have proposed for Fairbanks-area residents are aimed at reducing pollution from wood-burning heating systems. They do not apply to coal-fired systems, which are increasingly popular because coal is cheaper than wood.
Download Audio
Bernice Joseph Dies At Age 49
Alaska Native leader Bernice Joseph of Fairbanks died of cancer yesterday at age 49. Joseph was a professor and administrator at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but she maintained strong ties with rural Alaska.
Download Audio
Slow Business, High Costs Shut Down Paxson Lodge
The Paxson Lodge is closed. The owner of the roadhouse at the junction of the Richardson and Denali highways says he shut the lodge down due to slow business and high operating costs. It’s the latest of several Richardson Highway roadhouses that have closed down in recent years.
Download Audio
Tanana Chiefs Conference Gets Lead Role In Tribal Foster Care
Tanana Chiefs Conference President Jerry Isaac and the head of the Health and Social Services Commissioner signed an agreement yesterday that will give TCC the lead role in managing foster care for tribal children.
Download Audio
Greely Missile-Defense Base Prepares For More Interceptors
Fort Greely’s missile-defense base could get a big boost in spending this year if the U.S. Senate approves a measure worked out last week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
Plucky Delta Farmer Undaunted, Determined to Rebuild Poultry Barn Razed by Fire
A Delta Junction-area farmer is rebuilding a barn fire that killed 500 chickens and other livestock last spring. Despite that and other adversity, Brandy McLain is determined to restore her poultry operation.
Download Audio
Delta Junction Seeking Funds for Pharmacy
A two-year effort to improve medical care in Delta Junction got a big boost earlier this month in the form of a $400,000 grant that will enable the Interior Alaska Hospital Foundation to open a clinic by March. Now,a foundation members have launched a drive to raise at least $150,000 for a pharmacy they’d like to open along with the clinic.
Download Audio
Richardson Highway Speed Limit Changed To 65 Between Delta Junction, Valdez
The State Department of Transportation begun changing speed limit signs this week along the Richardson Highway between Delta Junction and Valdez from 55 to 65 miles per hour.
Download Audio
UAF Celebrates Ted Stevens’ Birthday With New Mapping Exhibit
Dozens of friends, former staffers and other well-wishers gathered Monday at UAF’s Rasmuson Library to celebrate what would’ve been former Sen. Ted Stevens’ 90th birthday. Monday’s commemoration also marked the opening of a new exhibit in the library’s collection of Stevens’s official papers generated during his long career as a U.S. senator from Alaska.
Download Audio
Livestock Owners Cope With Hay Shortage
State agriculture officials are advising Alaska livestock owners how to cope with the high cost of feeding their animals. Feed prices have risen sharply following last summer’s drought that hurt the interior hay and straw crop.
Download Audio
North Pole Company Suffers Multimillion Dollar Loss After Building Burns
Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the fire that destroyed a maintenance building at a North Pole cement plant on Monday morning. No one was injured, but the owners of HC Redi-Mix are feeling the pain of a multimillion-dollar loss caused by the fire – which not only destroyed the building, but also several pieces of heavy equipment inside.
Download Audio
Legislators Aim To Influence Federal Arctic Policy
Climate change is causing Arctic sea ice to melt rapidly and recede, opening up vast stretches of Arctic waters for shipping and resource development. In response, a group of state legislators and others is working on a policy they hope will help shape Alaska’s policy for managing those changes – and influence the federal government’s broader national Arctic policy.
Download Audio
Housing Research Center Project to Test System That Heats Without Fossil Fuels
The Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks moved ahead Wednesday on a project that will demonstrate how solar energy can be collected year-round and used to heat a commercial building without fossil fuels, like heating oil. The project is being funded by one of the world’s biggest fossil-fuel companies.
Download Audio
Verizon Plans On Expanded Role Next Year
It’s been four months since the nation’s biggest wireless carrier began doing business in Alaska. And despite predictions that Verizon would shake up the state’s wireless market, its role has so far been limited to providing high-speed data service in urban areas. The company plans to enter the Alaska market in a bigger way next year.
Download Audio
Fairbanks Voters Approve 2 School Bond Propositions
Proposition 1 asked voters to OK the sale of about $37.2 million in bonds to replace Ryan Middle School. According to unofficial results, 60 percent of voters said yes, passing the measure by nearly 2,000 votes. Prop 2 passed by an even wider margin, with 65 percent of votes cast in favor, unofficially. That measure will raise $19.4 million to repair and renovate five other district schools.
Healy Clean Coal Plant Shouldn’t See Impact From New Regulations
New federal regulations on coal fired energy should not affect’s Golden Valley Electric Association’s re-start of the Healy Clean Coal plant. GVEA President and CEO Cory Borgeson expects the plan to purchase and operate the long idled facility to remain on track.
Download Audio
Fort Wainwright Commander Retires
Fort Wainwright’s garrison commander is retiring from the Army, after 28 years in uniform. A base spokesperson says Col. Ron Johnson’s decision is not related to a statement he made in July that Army training sparked this summer’s Stuart Creek 2 wild fire near Fairbanks.
Download Audio