The City of Dillingham has restricted travel to the community for non-essential personnel, as have many communities around the region. Icicle Seafoods is the only processor operating in the Togiak sac roe herring fishery this spring. And educators around Bristol Bay are having to adjust their curriculums and tackle distance learning.
Listen to the full show here:
The Governor issued two mandates late last Friday. The first requires people to socially distance themselves from those not in their households by maintaining 6 feet of distance from one another. That mandate will be reevaluated next week — on April 11. The other halted intrastate travel between communities until April 11. The shutdown for restaurants, bars, gyms and theaters will also continue indefinitely.
That mandate overrules all tribal and municipal rules that are less severe. But under the mandate, small communities are authorized to enact stricter travel restrictions. Those communities cannot restrict travel for medical personnel, emergency first responders, or people with the Office of Children’s Services. A number of small communities in Bristol Bay have enacted more stringent restrictions.
The City of Dillingham passed an ordinance restricting travel to Dillinghamand requiring a 14-day quarantine. That goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. on April 6, and it stays in place until May 1.
Listen to the full city council workshop and meeting here.
What this does is creates an essential air travel district around the Dillingham Airport. Only people involved in essential air travel can be on airport property. It asks each traveller coming into Dillingham to apply for a permit, which will then be approved by the city manager. The council passed a similar ordinance last week, but Mayor Alice Ruby vetoed it.
Unlike last week’s ordinance, this most recent one only affects people coming into Dillingham. It doesn’t stop anyone from leaving — although the state mandate does halt all non-essential travel between communities in Alaska.
Read the full April 2 ordinance here.
Council member Chris Napoli applauded the council for passing the ordinance, saying it was a good first step. But he said that they had to go even further.
In the agenda, City Manager Tod Larson writes that the city’s priority was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, which takes precedence over all other operations. Projects like the waterfront strategic plan have been delayed or temporarily suspended.
The 2020 Census is still underway. Everyone is encouraged to respond online, by phone, or by mail. It just takes a few minutes, and responding remotely means that the Census bureau won’t have to send people out knocking on doors at a later date.
The Lake and Peninsula Borough declared a Disaster Emergency and requested both federal and state assistance at its meeting yesterday.
The Naknek Native Village Council, King Salmon Tribe, and the Native Village of South Naknek all passed resolutions banning travel to all non-essential personnel until May 1. They cite the small community addendum in their resolutions.
Kendra Gottschalk, an administrative assistant with the Naknek Native Village Council, says that ban also applies to seasonal and fishery workers.
After May 1, Gottschalk says, the tribe will work with BBRSDA to amend the travel restrictions with guidelines for non-residents coming into the community.
We have a rundown of travel and facility use restrictions in each community around the region on kdlg.org. If you have an update from your village or municipality please let us know at news@kdlg.org.
There has been asteep reduction in flightsaround Alaska due to the coronavirus pandemic. The state’s largest regional airline, Ravn PenAir, has adjusted its operations due to those losses.
Ravn public relations spokesperson Debbie Reinwand said in an email that bookings are down by almost 90%.
“We have reduced our schedules due to reduction in bookings. We have not reduced schedules to the degree bookings have dropped,” she said.
The airline is still serving 112 communities but has dropped three routes — Anchorage to Fairbanks, Anchorage to Kotzebue and Fairbanks to Deadhorse. Reinwand said those areas are being served by other airlines.
Ravn also shrank its operating fleet from 30 aircraft to three Dash-8s. The air group is currently in the process of loading revised flight schedules into their system.
Last week, Ravn laid off a total of 301 employees. Its staff normally numbers over 1,300 people. The air group's CEO and other officials are also taking a 20% pay cut.
A top official at Bristol Bay’s regional health corporation sent an email to other managers in March promoting the falsehood that the coronavirus pandemic is no worse than the flu and is part of a political conspiracy. As of Monday, the official no longer works at the corporation. Izzy filed this report:
Herring season is around the corner. Right now, only one processor is buying — Icicle Seafoods. Chris Pugmire is Icicle’s general manager of operations for Western Alaska. He says they have a preventative strategy in place to protect the health of the surrounding communities by eliminating any contact between them and the processors. They’ll accomplish this by utilizing a floating processor, the Gordon Jensen
Pugmire says Icicle plans to have “zero impact” to the community. According to Pugmire, Icicle is not really straying from its normal playbook with regard to the Togiak herring fishery.
Governor Dunleavy’s 10th mandate requires all critical industry companies to submit a plan for disease prevention. Icicle submitted that plan to the state. They’ve been working with each location to develop customized protocols and procedures to ensure what Pugmire calls “the best prevention measures possible.”
Icicle is using a screening process for employees, developed by Healthforce, a third-party occupational health service.
Pugmire says that Icicle’s facilities in the Bristol Bay area are isolated, and he thinks that minimal contact with the communities is possible.
Still, he acknowledges that Icicle faces many of the same challenges as other stakeholders in the fishing industry.
As for the market, Pugmire says that they’re still optimistic, but a lot of factors are up in the air.
Two seine boats and three gillnetters are expected to tap the 80-million pound quota in Togiak this spring. That’s according to Tim Sands, the area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He says the shrinking participation from processors and fishermen is due to the lack of market for herring.
Biologists are expecting a later start date for the fishery than we’ve seen in the past few years.
Sands says that this year, Fish and Game are not bringing a team out to sample the commercial catch.
While that's not ideal, Sands says they will work with the data they have.
With schools shut down, Bristol Bay educators adjust to curriculums outside the classroom
Educators and students around Bristol Bay were forced to adjust after school’s around the region shut down due to the coronavirus.
In Dillingham, teachers are preparing take home packets with written instructions for students on a week-by-week basis. They have shared their direct contact information with students and families. They are required to call each student at least once a week, and students can reach out anytime.
In Igiugig, 18 students in grades K-12 are receiving homebound packets each Monday. The Lake and Peninsula School District provided science kits for students to take home, along with iPads and computers with preloaded coursework.
The Southwest Region School District sent students the first set wave of homework this week. Teachers are staying in touch with families while the schools are closed.
The Southwest Region and Dillingham City school districts are distributing meal services in the form of pre-packed lunches.
