$878: That’s how much Alaskans will get from this years Permanent Fund Dividend.
While $878 may be a handsome sum, it’s still a big drop from last year’s figure of $1,174. Since the PFD was first established 30 years ago, it’s paid Alaskans about $1,100 on average. And in the past decade, Alaskans have even seen checks in excess of $1,500.
State Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher was the official who announced the amount in Anchorage this morning. He says that the drop happened because the PFD is based on a five-year formula. If the state’s investments perform poorly one year, it can have ripple effects on subsequents PFDs. And because the stock market crashed in 2008, Butcher says that there’s a particularly big dip this year.
Alaskan students will benefit from scholarship legislation signed by Governor Sean Parnell on Thursday. Speaking to an assembly in the Unalaska high school gym, Parnell explained that the law will help Alaskan high school graduates who want to attend in-state universities or vocational schools.
“So in 2011, I was able to convince the legislature to set aside $400 million in an account so the interest earnings on that account could fund the Performance scholarships. This year, the bill that I’m going to sign, actually kind of puts a white picket fence around that $400 million and reserves it for the Performance scholarships and also for something called the AlaskaAdvantage needs-based grants for education.”
Until the late Nineties, Adak was a bustling military base. It had a bowling alley, a movie theatre, and housing for thousands. Now, with the Navy gone, the Aleutian community sits mostly empty. There’s a chance Arctic drilling could turn this ghost town into a boom town, but right now, the place still feels like a collection of modern ruins.
KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez traveled to Adak to find out what it’s like to live among them.
Adak will keep its jet service for another year. The federal Department of Transportation awarded Alaska Airlines a $1.6 million contract on Tuesday to continue flying to the community as part of the Essential Air Service program.
Alaska Airlines was the lowest bidder and the only one to offer combined cargo and passenger service. The community and local businesses strongly endorsed the company’s proposal. Offshore Systems Inc wrote in a letter to the DOT that as they prepare a marine support services base in Adak, “reliable, consistent and proven air service… is critical to [the] venture’s success.”
Unemployment in the Aleutians West Census Area went down in the month of July, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.
The jobless rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 7.3 percent. At the same time last year, unemployment was at 5.7 percent. Still, the Aleutians outperform the state rate, which jumped up to 7.7 percent in July.
The Aleutians West Census area has one of the most variable unemployment rates in the nation, bouncing regularly because of its small population, its large transient workforce, and the seasonal nature of the fishing industry.
With PenAir slated to end service to Akutan sometime this fall, the community is searching for a new airline to take its place.
After serving Akutan for more than a decade, last month PenAir asked the federal Department of Transportation to release the company from its contract to provide Essential Air Service to the community. PenAir said at the time that the WWII-era Grumman Goose needs to be retired and that none of the company’s other aircraft are suitable for landing at the new airport on Akun Island.
In a multi-page letter to the DOT, Akutan mayor Joseph Bereskin criticized the airline for leaving Akutan in the lurch just before the opening of the $77 million dollar airport.
Grant Aviation’s new flight service to Atka and Nikolski got off to a smooth start on Monday. The airline is taking over the routes from PenAir, which served the communities for more than a decade.
Residents hope that the new airline will bring more reliable service. In 2011, PenAir completed only half of its scheduled flights to Nikolski and two-thirds to Atka. Grant Aviation’s chief operations officer, Austin Engebretson says his company will do better.
Two flights to Unalaska were cancelled on Sunday after a Russian volcano sent a 40,000-foot ash plume into the sky.
Bezymianny Volcano erupted on Saturday morning. The ash cloud it emitted traveled from the Russian Far East to the Bering Sea. It passed over Shemya and then crossed into the Bering Sea around Adak. It finally dissipated in the Gulf of Alaska.
PenAir representatives confirmed that two of their flights were canceled as a result of the plume. According to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, pilots reported sightings of the plume and some even smelled sulfur. No ground observations were reported.
By December, Sand Point should be able to close the book on a five-year cleanup project at the abandoned quarry. That’s when the last few barrels of hazardous waste will be put on a boat, and shipped out of town, says city manager Paul Day.
"And when I say hazardous, it wasn’t nuclear — it’s just stuff that we can’t dispose of locally," Day says. "We can’t burn it. So it had to be shipped out of Sand Point for disposal."
