Legislature(2001 - 2002)
03/05/2002 01:37 PM Senate TRA
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE
MARCH 5, 2002
1:37 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator John Cowdery, Chair
Senator Jerry Ward, Vice Chair
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator Gary Wilken
Senator Kim Elton
MEMBERS ABSENT
All Members Present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 41
Relating to reconstruction and paving of the Alaska Highway.
MOVED SJR 41 OUT OF COMMITTEE
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 37
Congratulating Alaska Airlines on its 70th Anniversary.
MOVED HJR 37 OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
SJR 41 - No previous action to record.
HJR 37 - No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
Senator Randy Phillips
State Capitol Room 103
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SJR 41.
Scott Kent, Minister of Infrastructure
Office of the Minister
Box 2703
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A2C6
POSITION STATEMENT: Supports SJR 41.
Judy Ohmer, Staff to Representative Pete Kott
State Capitol Room 204
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented HJR 37
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 02-13, SIDE A
CHAIRMAN JOHN COWDERY called the Senate Transportation Committee
meeting to order at 1:37 p.m. Present were Senator Taylor,
Senator Wilken, Senator Elton and Chairman Cowdery. Senator Ward
arrived at 1:38 p.m.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY announced there were two pieces of legislation
before the committee. SJR 41 is relating to reconstruction and
paving of the Alaska Highway and HJR 37 congratulates Alaska
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Airlines on its 70 Anniversary. He invited the sponsor of SJR
41 to come forward.
SJR 41-PAVING ALASKA HIGHWAY
SENATOR RANDY PHILLIPS, representing Senate District L, had
received a call a few weeks earlier asking for the introduction
of this resolution for continuation in the Yukon of the Shakwak
Project. SJR 41 requests the U.S. Congress to continue the
funding to complete this segment of the Shakwak Project.
MR. SCOTT KENT, Minister of Infrastructure, Yukon Government,
said his job includes responsibility for the highways. He asked
them to introduce this resolution designed to allocate the
remainder of funds necessary to complete the Shakwak Project also
known as the North Alaska Highway Project. The project goes from
the Canada-Alaska border on the Haines Road to the Yukon-Alaska
border on the Alaska Highway. The project covers 322 miles and
began in 1977 through a joint United States and Canada agreement.
MR. KENT explained the original project called for a paved all
weather road from Haines, Alaska up through Haines Junction and
on to the Alaska border at Beaver Creek. All that remains, after
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the current Transportation Equity Act for the 21 Century (TEA
21) of $85 million has been expended, will be approximately 18
miles along the shores of the Kluane Lake-Sheep Mountain area as
well as the replacement of four major bridges. The total cost
for the balance of highway construction and bridge replacement is
expected to be in the neighborhood of $45 million. They asked
the legislature to pass this resolution requesting Congress to
administer those funds.
The original proposal called for the highway to be paved. They
have a BST surface on it now and paving would require additional
expenditures in the amount of $160 million. That would be a
future appropriation or a future Transportation Equity Act.
MR. KENT said traffic on the North Alaska Highway north of Haines
Junction is approximately 85% U.S. traffic. It is a very
important corridor for tourism, commercial truck traffic and will
be a very important highway to support the construction of an
Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline.
He said if the U.S. Government appropriated the remainder of
funds they can reach substantial completion by 2006 on the 18
miles of road and the bridgework can be completed by 2008. There
is a possibility of accelerating the project if they were to
receive a positive announcement on the gas pipeline in the
meantime.
SENATOR WARD asked if this was appropriate to put comments in the
resolution concerning a future Alaska natural gas line.
SENATOR PHILLIPS thought that was being taken care of in other
pieces of legislation. He asked if Senator Ward meant in
conjunction.
SENATOR WARD said as one of the whereas clauses.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said he would not mind if the committee did not
mind.
SENATOR WARD said he did not want to slow the resolution up. He
hadn't thought about it until Mr. Kent mentioned it.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said BST stands for Bituminous Surface
Treatments known as poor man's asphalt.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY said that is not done with a lay down machine.
That is an emulsion that is mixed with the material that is there
and then possibly rolled.
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SENATOR PHILLIPS said it is about 1/10 the cost of regular
asphalt.
MR. KENT said it allows the highway to settle and if they decide
to go ahead the asphalt paving can be done over the top of the
BST.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked if all but one stretch of the highway was
going to be completed.
MR. KENT said after the current appropriation is exhausted in
2003 all but 18 miles and the four bridge replacements will be
taken care of.
SENATOR WILKEN thanked Mr. Kent for being there. He appreciated
Senator Phillips bringing the resolution forward and was fully
supportive.
SENATOR WILKEN said the people of Fairbanks benefit by having
that road improved every year. They have a commercial semi truck
that runs between Beaverton, Oregon and Fairbanks on a round
robin bringing bread products to Fairbanks. It is cheaper
bringing it that way than bringing it by sea with Sealand. That
road being improved made it possible for those truckers to make
that trip quicker and with less maintenance.
He thought that was a wonderful stretch of road, which helped the
people of Fairbanks and Yukon because it is a gorgeous drive. He
was fully supportive of this resolution and hoped they would move
it through the legislature and on to the U.S. Congress.
SENATOR ELTON thanked Mr. Kent. He said the connection they have
in Southeast Alaska to the Yukon Territory and points further
north in Alaska are very important to Southeast Alaska. He was
supportive of the resolution.
SENATOR ELTON thanked him on behalf of Juneau. Whitehorse is a
sister city and when he was on the Juneau Assembly in the late
1980's they actually stole the BST technology from the Yukon.
They have used it extensively in Juneau as a low cost way of
reducing dust and mud.
SENATOR TAYLOR said one important aspect of the last series of
Shakwak funding by the federal government should be noted on the
record.
Is that one condition of that funding has always been
that the - that when those contracts were placed for
bid those contracts could be bid upon by any company
either Canadian or American. And that it's my
understanding that the Canadian companies were
successful in achieving and underbidding on those
things and did actually get the work, which I'm happy
about because we got more road for fewer dollars. But
I think it is essential that we note that that probably
will continue to be a condition and do you have any
problem with that?
MR. KENT said no, certainly not at all. They had just finished
the first tender for this year's Shakwak project. The contract
had not been awarded but the bids were in and a number of bids
were from companies not only from the Yukon but from British
Columbia and Alberta. No bids were received from Alaskan
companies but any of the terms and conditions applied to the
tendering process could be carried on into the next appropriation
as well.
SENATOR TAYLOR thought a very healthy aspect of the funding
mechanism was that no one was precluded from bidding. It clearly
demonstrated a wonderful working relationship between two foreign
nations who can reach hands across the border and be able to
accomplish a project that both desperately want to have done and
do it without the parochialism of local squabbling over who gets
the work and how the work gets done. He felt that said a great
deal about the people of Yukon and Canada in general. He wanted
that point on the record.
MR. KENT thought this was a great example of cooperation between
their two jurisdictions and their two nations on a project that
not only benefits Alaskans but benefits Canadians as well.
MR. KENT said the Yukon and Canadian Governments have been doing
their share on the south of Haines Junction portion of the road
with upgrades. This year they are going to continue the upgrades
around the Champaign area by taking the corners out and
straightening and widening it as they carry on towards Haines
Junction and they will continue to do so.
SENATOR WILKEN moved to report SJR 41 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached zero fiscal note. There
being no objection the motion carried.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked the Canadian Delegation to introduce
themselves.
MIKE NAVARE, Deputy Speaker, Whitehorse YT.
PETER JENKINS, Representing the Klondike and Dawson City.
One member's introduction was indiscernible.
PATRICK MICHAEL(ph), Clerk of the Yukon Legislative Assembly,
thanked the Alaskans. He had participated in the exchange since
1982 when Senator Phillips and Tony Panka(ph) first put it
together and the long term relationship was appreciated.
FLOYD MCCORMICK Deputy Clerk of the Yukon Legislative Assembly,
said it was his first opportunity to participate.
MR. KENT thanked the committee on behalf of Premier Duncan and
all the members of the Legislative Assembly not present.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY welcomed them and hoped they enjoyed their
visit.
HJR 37-ALASKA AIRLINES 70TH ANNIVERSARY
CHAIRMAN COWDERY announced HJR 37 as the next bill before the
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committee. He said it congratulated Alaska Airlines on it's 70
anniversary.
MS. JUDY OHMER, staff to Representative Pete Kott, explained HJR
37 is a congratulatory resolution to honor Alaska Airlines on its
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70 year of service to Alaska. It has been a vital part to the
states development, critical to the economy by moving its goods
and people and services. One of the words they are hearing now
is connectivity and it is usually used when referring to computer
kinds of things, but it also can refer to Alaska Airlines because
it has connected the communities in the remote and rural parts in
Alaska to the other places within the state, to the Lower 48 and
even to some of the international destinations they fly to today.
MS. OHMER said Alaska Airlines has an impressive history.
· It started off as a single engine three passenger Stinson
with one destination and has grown into a fleet of jets with
over 80 destinations.
· It was critical to the construction of the Alaska Trans
Alaska Pipeline. It hauled supplies, workers, and
equipment.
· It was involved in the Berlin Airlift right after World War
II.
· It was a major part of Operation Magic Carpet that started
on Christmas Eve 1948. That operation returned over 40,000
Yemenite Jews to the Homeland in Israel. There was a legend
they would be returned to their homeland on the wings of
Eagles. Alaska Airlines painted Eagles over the doorways of
those planes, fulfilling the legend of the Jewish people.
History shows Alaska Airlines to be a pioneer in the emerging
technologies and in developing a superior level of customer
service. They lead in improving technologies, equipment and
practices. They were the first airline using the Global
Positioning System (GPS) and Heads Up Guidance System. They were
the first airline in the world to use the Internet to book travel
and to sell tickets. They were the first ever to use electronic
tickets and electronic check-ins. They were landing jets on
gravel runways in Senator Taylor's district, Petersburg.
Alaska Airlines has always distinguished itself in outstanding
service. Alaska Airlines has name brand recognition like
Starbucks coffee or Nordstrom or Eddy Bauer. When they say
Alaska Airlines it means something in the industry.
Histories of commercial aviation always include a section on how
an obscure little airline in Alaska's hinterlands survived and
thrived when the once proud giants like Pan Am have disappeared.
The reason is the grit and determination of the people of Alaska
Airlines. The spirit of Alaska Airlines and the people of Alaska
Airlines mirror the spirit of the people of the state for which
it is named. It is a place where "can do" and "neighbor helping
neighbor" are just facts of life. There is a commitment to
integrity, caring, resourcefulness, professionalism and spirit.
Alaska Airlines is full of colorful stories of the legends and
the heroes throughout its history.
Alaska Airlines was creative. One of their pilots, Bob McGuire,
was forced to land in enemy territory when he ran out of fuel
during Operation Magic Carpet. He radioed for ambulances saying
his passengers had smallpox and needed to be taken to the
hospital because there had been a threat they were going to kill
all the Jewish people aboard and the crew as well. When the
Arabs found they had an epidemic of smallpox aboard they refueled
the plane and got it back in the air as fast as they could,
thanks to the quick thinking of Bob McGuire.
Alaska Airlines was also courageous. A cargo ship named
Patterson wrecked on an inaccessible beach off of Cape
Fairweather. Navy planes and Coast Guard cutters couldn't get in
to save the people. As two weeks went by it was getting pretty
grim on the shores waiting for rescue but the waters and the
weather wouldn't let people in. Alaska Airlines pilot, Shell
Simmons, acted on his own just three months after he had been in
an air wreck and had repeatedly dove underwater to free and save
a passenger. He bore the scars incurred during that wreck until
his dying day. Shell Simmons took it upon himself to go in and
drop off a trapper to walk the people 15 miles down the beach and
he flew back out with the two sickest people. His actions saved
the beached crew.
Alaska Airlines is caring. She had an experience in June 2001
when she stood in front of an Alaska Airlines/Northwest Airlines
ticket counter in Minneapolis. There had been a family tragedy
in Anchorage and she needed to get her ticket changed and return
to Anchorage quickly. They made the change with no charge to her
and graciously offered her first class service.
Alaska Airline pilots are skilled. They have the necessary
talents to fly in the extreme weather conditions in Alaska. The
pilots have at times needed to evade bullets, such as in the
Berlin Airlift and the Magic Carpet Program. They were chosen by
Delta Airlines to fly the Olympic Torch into Juneau with their
president aboard. Their website features living legends and old
time legends that are fun to look into.
MS. OHMER explained HJR 37 has a zero fiscal note. A question
could be raised why this was being presented as a House Joint
Resolution instead of a citation but it seemed this was the most
significant and symbolic way they could acknowledge their
appreciation to Alaska Airlines for its service to the state.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked her to make her testimony available to the
committee so they can share it. He commended her on the
presentation.
SENATOR WARD moved HJR 37 out of committee.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he had an amendment that would probably start
at about page 1, line 11.
Whereas Alaska Airlines was on the verge of
bankruptcy when the federal government decided to
withdraw Western Airlines' authority to fly a scheduled
route into Southeastern Alaska.
And whereas the federal government granted Alaska
Airlines the exclusive monopoly to serve Southeast
Alaska and provided through the Essential Air Service
Act millions of dollars of annual subsidy to Alaska
Airlines for this route.
Whereas Alaska Airlines was able to significantly
increase fares and coupled with the federal subsidy
they not only recovered from the verge of bankruptcy
but became one of the most profitable carriers in the
world.
And whereas Alaska Airlines now has one of the
most modern fleets in the world and because of the
profit derived from the Southeast route and the
continuing federal subsidy, which was just increased by
Senator Stevens to 3.5 million dollars annually.
And whereas Alaska Airlines has used its
profitable Alaskan operations to subsidize its invasion
into markets in California, Denver, Chicago, Washington
DC and specifically other areas serviced by Southwest
Airlines.
And whereas a round trip ticket from the federally
subsidized communities of Cordova, Yakutat, Wrangell,
Petersburg and Gustavus has for the last four years
cost over $800 per person but to fly twice as far from
Seattle to Oakland California, that Alaska Airlines
passenger only pays $118 round trip or less. In fact
it was as low as $39 per fare going out of Seattle on a
400 series into Oakland or San Francisco one way. They
were trying to bust Southwest, and it was so cheap that
it was cheaper to fly on Alaska Airlines than it was to
take the Greyhound Bus.
Whereas Senator Ted Stevens announced the new
increase in federal subsidy and stated, "This will
insure reasonable airfares for the federally subsidized
communities of Southeast Alaska."
I'm not prepared to congratulate them until I
understand how Senator Steven's words are going to be
carried out in their fare structure for my
constituents.
SENATOR ELTON said to get straight to the heart of what Senator
Taylor was saying and the issue of staff work. He thought he got
the wrong pen. He thought it belonged to Senator Taylor because
his pen said watch out for the grumpsickle.
SENATOR TAYLOR said maybe Senator Elton's people were not
grumping, but they ought to try paying $883 for a round trip
airfare at the counter in Wrangell because a family member is
sick in Seattle. He said maybe they ought to try that for about
four years and see what the people in Juneau have to say.
SENATOR ELTON said Juneau pays high fares also. Not as high as
Wrangell but Juneau pays high, certainly higher than Anchorage
and Fairbanks.
SENATOR TAYLOR said isn't that funny, Wrangell is almost 150
miles closer to Seattle.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he made that as an amendment.
SENATOR WILKEN made an objection.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked if there was an objection to the
amendment.
SENATOR WARD said he moved HJR 37 out of committee.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY said they had an objection.
SENATOR WARD said he was moving it on to the Rules Committee.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked Senator Wilken if he wanted to speak to
the objection.
SENATOR WILKEN said he just didn't agree with the amendment.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY asked for a roll call vote.
Senator Ward and Senator Taylor voted for the amendment. Senator
Elton, Senator Wilken and Chairman Cowdery voted against the
amendment.
SENATOR WARD moved HJR 37 out of committee with accompanying zero
fiscal note and individual recommendations.
SENATOR ELTON objected for a comment. He thought the one whereas
missing that was important to many of their constituents was the
mileage plan. He thought it was something people might want to
fix in a future committee of referral.
SENATOR WARD said former Representative Terry Martin wants
mileage to come back to the state.
SENATOR ELTON removed his objection.
SENATOR TAYLOR said he maintained his objection until there was
something in this resolution that talks about what had happened
to his constituents during this period of time.
There's not one of us down there that don't love the
Alaska Airlines crew and people that we work with in
our community. There are some fantastic folks. And I
extend that to all the pilots and crew that we've had
the wonderful experience of riding with and I
complement Judy, she was born and raised in this thing
and I practically was.
But the attitude from the time they left this state and
moved to Seattle has not been an Alaskan attitude and
if there was a way I could take that name off that
airplane and take that smiling Eskimo off that tail I'd
do so in a heartbeat. Because I personally am really,
really tired of watching my constituents pay almost a
dollar a mile when you can fly out of Seattle today to
Europe for two - three hundred bucks.
We can fly - all my friends out of Anchorage just can't
understand how come it costs me so much to be a
legislator each year. Every time they have a meeting
in Anchorage it's a $600 and some dollar airfare for me
to get there. They drive across town. Every time I
have to go to a meeting down south add $800 and some
bucks to it if they didn't call in time because I
couldn't go get a supersaver or I couldn't go do a
soopty-whoopty deal because there weren't enough seats
left on the airplane, right.
You ought to plan a vacation out of any of the
communities that I represent. You better start calling
in advance about four to five months if your going to
try to use a supersaver or try to use any one of the
benefits that they wantonly give away to any turnip
truck guy that walks up in Seattle, Washington 'cause
their so hungry to get his business to fly him to - to
California on a subsidized flight that they're losing
money on.
At what point in time do we as a state have a right to
standup and say enough is enough? We understand that
you're working off of a corporate bottom line and you
don't give a damn about the people of the State of
Alaska but you don't have to carry our name anymore and
we don't have to keep selling your product for you
unless you're going to start treating us just half as
fair as you're treating that new passenger walking on
in Seattle that wants to go to California.
And they were giving out those little gold ingots,
remember that one? The gold was costing them more than
the ticket was into San Francisco. That's the volume
of money they were losing for the first three years of
operation down there. And where do you think the money
came from? It came out of the back pockets of working
people all over Southeast Alaska that were paying for
it. And I know there's no morality in the market place
but to congratulate them for the manner in which they
treated the people of my district is beyond anything I
can allow to just let go by.
I've had the opportunity and I appreciate it very much
Mr. Chairman, a chance to vent some of these
frustrations, but I can guarantee you I speak for the
vast majority of the people that have no other choice.
We laugh when the plane lands and they say thank you
for flying Alaska Airlines. We don't have a blooming
choice. We've never had Delta coming in as Juneau did
or as Fairbanks has had. We don't get relief from
those carriers. We didn't have MarkAir.
So as a consequence I wanted to make those statements
on the record. My amendment is there if anybody wishes
to ever read this record but I can't vote to do this.
SENATOR ELTON said he did not think what Senator Taylor was
talking about are unusual frustrations. He wanted to take the
opportunity to thank Alaska Airlines for two things that have
been incredibly important to his community.
· The first is constituent fares that help Alaskans get to
Juneau more cheaply than they otherwise would be able to.
· The way they worked with Juneau and the Juneau Assembly in
the development of something that Judy Ohmer mentioned
briefly but has had a tremendous impact and that is the GPS
system. It allows more flights to get in more often and get
in on time. It has made an incredible amount of difference
between the number of over flights they used to have and the
number of over flights they now have. They not only worked
on a system that had never been used elsewhere or by any
other airline, they also had an incredible training program
to teach the pilots in the cockpit how to use it. It has
been an incredible experience for our community.
CHAIRMAN COWDERY said they had an objection to moving the
resolution. He asked for a roll call.
Senator Wilken, Senator Elton, Senator Ward and Chairman Cowdery
voted for moving HJR 37 from committee. Senator Taylor voted
against moving HJR 37 from committee. The motion carried.
There being nothing more before the committee the meeting was
adjourned.
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