Walter Jenny, 65,
Services Pending
Walter Jenny, 65, passed away at Providence Hospital in Anchorage on March 19 following a short illness.
Services are pending for the lifetime Sitka resident.
Climate Connection: SEARHC’s Energy Impact
Transition Sitka interviewed three SEARHC employees in December about Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s (SEARHC) replacement of Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, the oldest remaining Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital structure which dates from the 1940s. The new $300 million medical center includes hospital and clinic wings and is 2.5 times the size of the existing hospital. This project takes advantage of modern energy technologies to be about 40% more efficient compared to similar hospitals and to minimize diesel fuel use, thus minimizing the facility’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The heating system combines ground-source heat pumps with waste heat recovery from the building. Under the new parking lot are 66 boreholes, each six inches in diameter and 350 feet deep. Each borehole will have a plastic U-tube, through which water can be pumped. In a test hole, the temperatures ranged from 48.9-49.6 F, ideal for efficient heat pump operation with a hot water side of 110-130 F.
The existing SEARHC campus on Japonski Island uses about 3.7 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) and 320,000 gallons of fuel oil per year. Out of this total energy use, the current hospital uses about 2 million kWh and 200,000 gallons of fuel oil/year. The new consolidated hospital and clinic building is projected to use 5.7 million kWh and only 19,000 gallons of fuel oil/year (plus on-site diesel generation in an emergency). Thus, SEARHC campus’ total demand on Sitka’s electric system will more than double, but fuel oil use and consequent climate-harming CO2 emissions of the new hospital building will be cut by 90% compared to the old hospital.
To power the new medical center, SEARHC is paying for design and placement of a new transmission cable from the Marine Street electrical station under Sitka Channel to Japonski Island. This will free up 3.7 million kWh/year of transmission capacity currently supplied by two 40-year-old electrical cables to Japonski and Alice Islands. The old hospital building will continue to have power needs (both electric and fuel oil), but its power needs may be reduced in its new use (yet to be determined).
In view of Sitka’s housing crisis, SEARHC has built 26 new staff houses on Alice Island and will build 20 units elsewhere in town with air source heat pumps and to energy star efficiency standards. Units on Alice Loop range from 700 to 1,800 square feet and are a mix of one- and two-bedroom multi-family units and 3-bedroom houses. Some units include electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Multifamily units may be built near the old community hospital.
While electrical consumption will increase when the hospital opens in late 2025, SEARHC’s total use will be within Sitka’s existing capabilities. The new SEARHC hospital is a valuable model for ground source district heating systems in Sitka that incorporates sensitivity to energy efficiency and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Department of Energy’s December presentation indicated that Sitka can’t electrify both building heating and land transportation in 2030 without new sources of renewable energy.
--Kay Kreiss, Transition Sitka
Unitarians Meet
In 1935, the Matanuska Colony Project was launched as part of the New Deal.
Angie Turcott will share stories and photos of this episode of Alaska’s history at the Sitka Unitarian Fellowship meeting on Sunday. All are invited to attend. Gathering begins at 10:30 a.m., with the program beginning at 10:45. The hall is located at 408 Marine Street, with parking behind, off Spruce Street.
BIHA Board Meets
Baranof Island Housing Authority’s monthly board of commissioners meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
A remote meeting option is also available. Those wishing to attend or participate may submit an email request to info@bihasitka.org before noon on March 29, or call BIHA at 907-747-5088 for assistance.
Spring Cleanup
Event Postponed
The City and Borough of Sitka announces the annual Spring Cleanup event typically held in April is postponed until August due to construction at the transfer station.
Call Public Works at 907-747-1804 or email publicworks@cityofsitka.org for information.
Internships Offered
By Native Group
The First Alaskans Institute is offering the following internship and fellowship opportunities for 2024.
Summer Internship Program is offering opportunities to place Alaska Native, American Indian, Indigenous and rural community members and students into organizations around Alaska to provide leadership growth and employment experience and exploration around the state. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FAISIProlling.
The Public Policy Fellowship to place Alaska Native and rural Alaskans in Juneau during the first regular session in January 2024 is available. To apply, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FAIFellowship.
The Rural Governance Fellowship to place Alaska Native and rural Alaskans in a tribe in a rural community (dates are flexible due to needs of the Tribe) is available. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FAIFellowship.
The Al Adams Young Political Leader Fellowship will place an Alaska Native and/or rural Alaskan in Washington, D.C., during a congressional session. Dates and offices are to be determined, 2024. Apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FAIFellowship.
For more information email leadership@firstalaskans.org or call 907-677-1700.
New Arrivals
Baby Boy Hamberg
Jacqueline Fernandez-Hamberg and Barth Hamberg welcomed Charlie Bear Hamberg into the world Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 5:49 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and measured 25 inches long.
Charlie is Jackie’s first baby and Barth’s second child. He joins big stepsister Hannah Hamberg, grandpa Roberto and late grandma Marilyn Fernandez, a host of aunts, uncles, cousins, great-grandmother Ann Marie Ripley, and Coffman the corgi.
Jackie is Curator of the Sheldon Jackson Museum and a graduate of Tufts University and Mount Holyoke College. Barth is a landscape architect, formerly with the U.S. Forest Service and a graduate of Harvard.
Herring Film
Night, Panel
Set March 30
UAS-Sitka Campus will host a herring film night and potluck dinner 5-7 p.m. March 30.
Two films will be shown about the importance of yaaw (pacific herring,) followed by a question and answer discussion.
The discussion panel will include filmmakers Andrés Javier Camacho and Xéetl’ee Katelyn Stiles, and herring egg harvesters Paulette Moreno and Andrew Roberts.
Those attending can take a dish to share.
The event is hosted by UAS-Sitka Campus’s support grant team as part of the university’s biannual PIED (Perspectives on Inclusion, Equity and Diversity) series. This semester, the theme is “Indigenous Food Sovereignty.”
The world premiere of ‘‘Sitka Herring: A Tale of Two Harvests’’ will be shown. It was created by filmmaker Andrés Javier Camacho and produced by KTOO. The film immerses the audience in the distinct rhythms of the commercial sac roe herring fishery and the subsistence harvest of herring eggs in Sitka Sound.
‘‘Yee eedé tooshí áa (We Sing to You)’’ was created by filmmakers Xéetl’ee Katelyn Stiles and Ḵ’asheechtlaa Louise Brady. The short film centers the voices of herring ladies as they Yaaw Koo.eex’ (herring celebration), fighting to protect their yaaw relatives through song, dance, protest, ceremony, and respectful harvest.Tlingít women of the Kiks.ádi Clan in Sheet’ká are known as Kaxátjaa Sháa (herring ladies) through oral history of the first woman to call to yaaw. In 2021, Kaxátjaasháa X’óow (herring lady robes) were created as new at.óow (ceremonial objects or relatives), carrying their ancestors and their reciprocal relationships to yaaw.
