State Briefs
Mat-Su won't join redistrict lawsuit
ANCHORAGE - Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Tim Anderson has halted an effort to join a lawsuit challenging a state plan to redraw election district boundaries.
Anderson this week vetoed the borough Assembly's decision last month to join the lawsuit. He said the vote was not properly advertised to the public.
The Assembly was scheduled last month to debate whether to file a friend-of-the-court brief. That would have allowed the borough to state a position on the redistricting dispute without making it a party to the suit. Instead the Assembly voted to intervene in the suit, which gives the borough greater standing but is more expensive.
Anderson said he supports joining the lawsuit, but added that the Assembly's decision could be struck down in court because of how it was made.
Winter trolling under way in Southeast
PETERSBURG - Trollers in Southeast are back fishing this week with the start of the winter season.
The fleet will be allowed to catch as many as 45,000 king salmon between now and April 15. The season began on Oct. 11.
Although it's unlikely the fleet will reach its limit for the winter season, Southeast fisheries did exceed the king salmon limit for the summer season.
State Department of Fish and Game biologist Brian Lynch said two gear groups pushed Alaska over the limit.
"For the 2001 season we came in at about 187,500, so we were about 5 percent over the quota. And troll, driftnet and the seine fisheries were all under. Sportfish and the Yakutat setnet fishery were over on their allocations," Lynch said.
Cohos were the real money-makers for trollers this summer.
"The end of the summer season turned out really good for cohos," he said. Cohos were strong enough so that the fishery was reopened for about six days, ending on Sept. 30.
"Right up to the very end we had very high catch rates. There were people that were getting up to 100 coho a day up to the very end," Lynch said.
The bulk of the work in the winter fishery happens between now and early December, when many trollers wind down for the holidays. Fishing normally picks up again in early March.
Army shuts down Seward resort
ANCHORAGE - Citing last month's terrorist attacks, the Army has indefinitely closed a popular resort in Seward that each year attracts tens of thousands of servicemen on leave.
The decision to shut the Seward Army Resort stemmed from the question of how best to use the Army's manpower.
The resort began offering snowmachine, snowshoe and cross-country ski rentals three years ago, and its winter popularity has doubled every year since. Between 7,000 and 9,000 visitors use the resort each winter, resort officials said.
But the recent attacks have put that growth on hold. The motel and town house complex just outside downtown Seward won't be open for the foreseeable future, at least until spring, said Chuck Canterbury, an Alaska Army spokesman.
A staff of up to four soldiers and 19 civilians kept the place running in winter. With the military on high alert, those men and women are needed elsewhere in the state, Canterbury said.
"The (Alaska Army) command is still here to train," he told the Anchorage Daily News. "To take away from that effort at this time is not in the best interest of completing our mission."
Even with the facility closed, nine nonmilitary employees remain at the resort, repairing boat engines, doing maintenance and taking summer reservations.
Since World War II, the resort has attracted active and retired military personnel from all branches, and their families, during summers. The numbers swell to more than 50,000 during summer, attracted by sport fishing.
The resort can employ as many as 22 servicemen and 70 civilians in the peak summer months. However, the staff rarely reaches that size, said John Curry, director of community activities for the resort's operator, Military Alaska.