Budget Impacts
Dear Editor: How might you and people you know be affected by Governor Dunleavy’s proposed $1.5-1.8 billion cut to the state budget?
Your children may be put into classes of 45 students in the public school system.
You or your child may have to look out of state for a university education, given the program cuts at the University of Alaska to accommodate a 41 percent cut to the university budget. If you can’t find an online degree in your chosen field, you might have to attend school in another state, which involves much greater costs including travel, living expenses, and non-resident tuition.
Your aging parent may have to be sent south to a nursing home if she or he no longer has the funds to pay for the Pioneers Home.
Your neighbor fighting cancer may not be able to continue with chemotherapy, as Medicaid funding will be cut.
Your children or grandchildren may lose the opportunity to attend preschool, as Head Start programs close due to lack of funding.
Your boat’s moorage fees might skyrocket due to new fees to keep the harbor running since Sitka would no longer receive its share of the fish tax.
Your living expenses will likely rise significantly as local taxes go up to make up for significant losses in state support.
Your neighbors, your friends, and your children might have to leave the state because of the higher cost of living, the rise in unemployment, the drop in property value, the decrease in education and health services.
If you’re not already concerned, you should be. Come to the Advocacy Café on Wednesday nights 6-8 p.m. at the Beak to have conversations and to learn how you can get involved.
To learn more about the impacts of the budget cuts on our community, attend the Sitka Connected Town Hall on Thursday, April 11, at the UAS campus, 7-9 p.m.
Math Trafton, Cheryl Stromme
White E Thanks
Dear Editor: I would like to give a huge shout out to the White Elephant who has provided a very generous grant award to the Blessings in a Backpack Program. We have been providing a bag of food to 80 students at Baranof, Keet and Blatchley every weekend this school year.
The Sitka High School National Honor Society students have been organizing the monthly food pack and the weekly distribution to each school. They do this completely as volunteers. There are two outstanding students who have taken the lead this year, Ella Lubin and Aani Perkins, who deserve a very loud thank you.
This program would not continue without this generous donation, other donations and volunteer hours. We are almost all set for one more year of offering supplemental food to students in our community who may otherwise show up to school hungry on Monday morning.
Thank you, Sitka White Elephant, and thank you, Honor Society students.
Kathy O’Gara,
Blessings in a Backpack
Baranof Warm Springs
Dear Editor: We all treasure the jewels of our generous Alaskan landscape but once again someone is trying to STEAL a crown jewel from us: Baranof Warm Springs.
A land developer (from Juneau again) has applied to RE-ZONE Warm Springs from Recreation (R) to a Waterfront District (WD). This would permit many commercial and industrial uses including hatcheries, paper mills, warehousing, sawmills, and so many other uses incompatible with the present remote peaceful townsite.
For over three decades we have witnessed the activities of this developer in Baranof Warm Springs. During this time he has torn down boardwalks, trespassed on public right-of-ways, and deposited pipelines and left equipment to rust along the scenic footpath. He has been buying up lots (13 thus far) and has neglected and removed most of the precious “historical” assets of the town; the old bathhouse, wood stave pipes, the Post Office and Short’s General Store. Should we let him continue to steam-roll through this prime recreation destination?
Last February this same developer tried to place a hatchery at Warm Springs Bay and your testimony and support convinced ADFandG to shut him down. If you care about keeping Warm Springs free of commercial and industrial activities, please testify with us at the April 3, 7 p.m., Planning Commission meeting at Centennial Hall.
Bridget Kauffman, Ted Laufenberg,
Sitka
Bicycle Benefits Thanks
Dear Editor: Thanks to the Backdoor Café, Beak Restaurant, Fisheye Coffee, Fisheye Organic Café, LFS Marine Supplies, the Mean Queen and the new Mean Queen restaurant at Totem Square, Harry Race Pharmacy and Photo, Old Harbor Books, The Yellow Jersey Cycle Shop, Spinning Moon Apothecary and Russell’s Sporting Goods for supporting the new Bicycle Benefits program.
The generous discounts that you are offering to commuter cyclists, who have their sporty Bicycle Benefits helmet sticker, are much appreciated.
We are so excited that this year-round program has finally come to Alaska and it wouldn’t have happened without your support.
To all the participating businesses we would like to say a sincere Gunalchéesh, Salamat, Gracias, and Thanks. You are helping to make Sitka a healthier place to live, work, play, and stay.
Sitka Cycling Club,
Bill Foster, Holly Marban,
Doug Osborne, Emma Klein,
James Pelletier, Michaela Dunlap
