New Fast Ferry’s Route Planned and Altered
By Pat Lynn
For The Star
CIVIC CENTER - State ferry experts are gingerly picking a new route for the soon-to-arrive fast ferry Chenega to avoid any conflict between the fast ferry and animal life and sensitive shore side areas.
As part of the process, the Alaska Marine Highway held what it billed as an “Open House” in Valdez, Cordova and Whittier last week to share their findings and solicit public comment.
In the new age of environmental sensitivity, state ferry planners say the ferry route is being carefully selected to put as much distance as possible between the ferry and fish hatcheries, sea lion haul outs, marine bird rookeries, whale grouping areas, sea otter rafting areas and other locations deemed to be “sensitive.”
About 20 locals showed up Tuesday at the Civic Center to review detailed maps of the route between Cordova, Valdez and Whittier, and to pepper the ferry folks with questions.
However, a controversy was brewing across the state when the state announced that it is moving the Chenega and the other fast ferry, the Fairweather, to a new route connecting Juneau to Petersburg and Ketchikan.
This new route was not brought up by state officials who attended the public input meeting.
The new Chenega ferry, a catamaran by design, is dubbed a “fast ferry” which will cut the travel time between Cordova and Valdez in half. The current ferries do it in over six hours while the Chenega will complete the run in three hours, 15 minutes.
The ferry is now continuing its sea trials and crew familiarization in Juneau. Still ahead are at least 12 routes between Cordova, Valdez and Whittier to certify the crew before the first “revenue run” commences in mid-July, according to Cpt. Richard Gordon of the Marine Highway System.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Accused Child Rapist to Stand Trial This Summer
Accused Child Rapist to Stand Trial This Summer
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
COURT HOUSE - A 58 year old Valdez man accused of sexually abusing his 8 year old granddaughter in Valdez last summer has asked the Valdez Court for a jury trial to fight the charges against him.
While no firm date for a trial has been set, Frank Gurske, who was arrested in February on two counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor, will start proceedings in the case on June 20.
Valdez police first interviewed Gurske about the alleged incidents of rape when the Spokane Sheriff's Department in Washington state contacted them to report a young girl disclosed that on two occasions her grandfather had taken her into his bedroom and put his penis inside her "private", while other members of the family were checking the mail or at work. During a forensic interview with the alleged victim, Detective John Grandinetti also reported that the girl said that her grandfather gave her money and told her not to tell anyone about the incidents.
In an interview with the child's mother, the daughter of the alleged perpetrator, she told the Spokane detective that she did recall that her daughter had money that she'd said had come from her grandfather when the family was living with the grandparents in Valdez in the summer of 2004.
Gurske was arrested in February after interviews with Detective Dan Mott of the Valdez Police Department. In the sworn statement, Investigator Mott says he interviewed Gurske about the alleged abuse but he denied having intercourse with the girl but did admit to being naked on his bed with her on two occasions.
Gurske has been free on a $20,000 bond since February 20.
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
COURT HOUSE - A 58 year old Valdez man accused of sexually abusing his 8 year old granddaughter in Valdez last summer has asked the Valdez Court for a jury trial to fight the charges against him.
While no firm date for a trial has been set, Frank Gurske, who was arrested in February on two counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor, will start proceedings in the case on June 20.
Valdez police first interviewed Gurske about the alleged incidents of rape when the Spokane Sheriff's Department in Washington state contacted them to report a young girl disclosed that on two occasions her grandfather had taken her into his bedroom and put his penis inside her "private", while other members of the family were checking the mail or at work. During a forensic interview with the alleged victim, Detective John Grandinetti also reported that the girl said that her grandfather gave her money and told her not to tell anyone about the incidents.
In an interview with the child's mother, the daughter of the alleged perpetrator, she told the Spokane detective that she did recall that her daughter had money that she'd said had come from her grandfather when the family was living with the grandparents in Valdez in the summer of 2004.
Gurske was arrested in February after interviews with Detective Dan Mott of the Valdez Police Department. In the sworn statement, Investigator Mott says he interviewed Gurske about the alleged abuse but he denied having intercourse with the girl but did admit to being naked on his bed with her on two occasions.
Gurske has been free on a $20,000 bond since February 20.
Gasline to Valdez Causes Controversy across State
Gasline to Valdez Causes Controversy across State
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
VALDEZ - The media attention generated by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority’s ad campaign, designed to get politicians and the Alaska public behind an all-Alaska natural gas pipeline to Valdez, has been effective in drawing attention to the issue. However, not all of the publicity generated by the campaign has been positive for the Port Authority but has generated plenty of controversy in the media.
One of the biggest stories being published around the state, and across the nation, is a story about Joe Marushack, an executive for Conoco Phillips, which is one of the largest lease holders on the North Slope holding leases on the oil fields that also hold vast quantities of natural gas. GAS LINE CLAIMS IN AD CALLED FALSE read the headline on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News. In the article, Marushack blasts claims made in the print ads, saying that it is not true that an actual offer to buy gas was made to producers by the Port Authority, only that the producers had agreed to talks. The executive also claimed that the Port Authority has overestimated the number of jobs that will be created in the state should a gasline come to Valdez, among other issues.
An Associated Press story that hit the newswire a couple of weeks ago about the Alaska Legislature’s failure to make a contract between the state and North Slope producers to bring natural gas to market through a Canadian Pipeline only mentions the all-Alaska pipeline towards the end of the story saying, “About a month ago, a third group entered the mix with a drastically different plan a very visible public relations campaign to go with it.”
Ironically, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority is not the Johnny-Come-Lately organization they have been portrayed as in many news stories throughout the state. The Port Authority was the first voter approved entity created to bring North Slope gas to any market when voters in Valdez, Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope borough voted to create the group for the sole purpose of building a natural gas pipeline to Valdez from the North Slope back in 1999. In the year 2002, a statewide vote created the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Authority.
Perhaps the story that has caused the most controversy across the country was caused when Joe Holbert, an administration spokesman for Governor Frank Murkowski identified himself as a journalist in a letter to the editor that was published in the Juneau Empire that was critical of the Port Authority’s plans.
The story stirred considerable debate in newspapers across the country as to whether a government spokesman can call themselves a journalist. "I think spokespersons who handle news announcements are certainly journalists," he said in a story widely printed across the country.
While Holbert claimed he wrote the letter as a private citizen representing only himself.
According to the Associated Press, the letter said the Alaska Gasline Port Authority's proposal for a pipeline to ship North Slope Gas to Valdez and carried by tanker to the West Coast has a formidable obstacle in the Jones Act.
The Jones Act prohibits foreign-built ships from engaging in trade from port to port in the United States.
The concerns about the Jones Act hurting the port authority's proposal were previously stated by Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski in an April update to legislators on the progress of pipeline negotiations.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker, a port authority board member, said he did not believe Holbert was speaking for administration or was being deliberately deceptive in representing himself.
But, he acknowledged, the port authority's gas proposal is a tough political sell.
"It is very difficult politically in Alaska to do that which may be in the state's best interest (but is) contrary to the major (oil) producers," he said. "From time to time, those two interests come into conflict. We are in that situation today."
Whitaker said the port authority has only requested a partial and temporary Jones Act exemption, and if and when American ships are available, the exemption would no longer be needed.
(Editor’s note: The last six paragraphs of this story were taken directly from the Holbert story from the Associated Press)
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
VALDEZ - The media attention generated by the Alaska Gasline Port Authority’s ad campaign, designed to get politicians and the Alaska public behind an all-Alaska natural gas pipeline to Valdez, has been effective in drawing attention to the issue. However, not all of the publicity generated by the campaign has been positive for the Port Authority but has generated plenty of controversy in the media.
One of the biggest stories being published around the state, and across the nation, is a story about Joe Marushack, an executive for Conoco Phillips, which is one of the largest lease holders on the North Slope holding leases on the oil fields that also hold vast quantities of natural gas. GAS LINE CLAIMS IN AD CALLED FALSE read the headline on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News. In the article, Marushack blasts claims made in the print ads, saying that it is not true that an actual offer to buy gas was made to producers by the Port Authority, only that the producers had agreed to talks. The executive also claimed that the Port Authority has overestimated the number of jobs that will be created in the state should a gasline come to Valdez, among other issues.
An Associated Press story that hit the newswire a couple of weeks ago about the Alaska Legislature’s failure to make a contract between the state and North Slope producers to bring natural gas to market through a Canadian Pipeline only mentions the all-Alaska pipeline towards the end of the story saying, “About a month ago, a third group entered the mix with a drastically different plan a very visible public relations campaign to go with it.”
Ironically, the Alaska Gasline Port Authority is not the Johnny-Come-Lately organization they have been portrayed as in many news stories throughout the state. The Port Authority was the first voter approved entity created to bring North Slope gas to any market when voters in Valdez, Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope borough voted to create the group for the sole purpose of building a natural gas pipeline to Valdez from the North Slope back in 1999. In the year 2002, a statewide vote created the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Authority.
Perhaps the story that has caused the most controversy across the country was caused when Joe Holbert, an administration spokesman for Governor Frank Murkowski identified himself as a journalist in a letter to the editor that was published in the Juneau Empire that was critical of the Port Authority’s plans.
The story stirred considerable debate in newspapers across the country as to whether a government spokesman can call themselves a journalist. "I think spokespersons who handle news announcements are certainly journalists," he said in a story widely printed across the country.
While Holbert claimed he wrote the letter as a private citizen representing only himself.
According to the Associated Press, the letter said the Alaska Gasline Port Authority's proposal for a pipeline to ship North Slope Gas to Valdez and carried by tanker to the West Coast has a formidable obstacle in the Jones Act.
The Jones Act prohibits foreign-built ships from engaging in trade from port to port in the United States.
The concerns about the Jones Act hurting the port authority's proposal were previously stated by Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski in an April update to legislators on the progress of pipeline negotiations.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker, a port authority board member, said he did not believe Holbert was speaking for administration or was being deliberately deceptive in representing himself.
But, he acknowledged, the port authority's gas proposal is a tough political sell.
"It is very difficult politically in Alaska to do that which may be in the state's best interest (but is) contrary to the major (oil) producers," he said. "From time to time, those two interests come into conflict. We are in that situation today."
Whitaker said the port authority has only requested a partial and temporary Jones Act exemption, and if and when American ships are available, the exemption would no longer be needed.
(Editor’s note: The last six paragraphs of this story were taken directly from the Holbert story from the Associated Press)
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