State schedules 16 meetings on AGIA

JUNEAU - State officials scheduled a series of 16 town hall meetings across Alaska to update residents on the efforts to get a natural gas pipeline under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.

The hearings will be held Feb. 18-28.

The town hall meetings will provide information about how AGIA works, the applications that were filed and what happens next.

Only one of five applications, that of TransCanada, has been forwarded to the next round of consideration. That's a public comment period, which ends March 6.

The meetings will be held:

• Feb. 18: Palmer, the Palmer Depot

• Feb. 19: Anchorage, UAA Lucy Cuddy Hall

• Feb. 20: Sitka, Harrigan Centennial Hall, Maksoutoff Room; Kotzebue, NWAB Assembly Chambers; McGrath, Cap'n Snow Center Assembly Room

• Feb. 21: Ketchikan, Cape Fox Lodge, Mountain Room; Nome, Old St. Joseph's Church Hall; Bethel, UAF Kuskokwim Campus, Yup'iit Piciryarait Cultural Center

• Feb. 22: Juneau, Centennial Hall, Hickel Room

• Feb. 25: Delta Junction, Community Center; Kenai, Kenai Peninsula College

• Feb. 26: Barrow, Inupiat Heritage Center; Dillingham, Dillingham Middle School Gymnasium

• Feb. 27: Fairbanks, Carlson Center; Kodiak, High School Commons

• Feb. 28: Valdez, Valdez Convention and Civic Center, Ballroom 1

All meetings will be from 6 to 8 p.m. except for Barrow, which will be from 2 to 5 p.m. and Anchorage, which will be from 7 to 9 p.m.