Alaska Editorials

Here is a sampling of Alaska editorials:

March 20, 2018

Ketchikan Daily News: Assistance appreciated

The presence of illegal drugs in the Ketchikan area isn’t just a local issue - most of these substances are manufactured elsewhere and transported here by air and sea.

As such, stopping the flow of drugs isn’t just a task for Ketchikan law enforcement. Drug interdiction can be occurring before shipments get close to the First City, and we’re pleased to hear that various agencies are working together to do so.

This past week, representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers were involved in a joint operation with some of Alaska’s police departments - including the Ketchikan Police Department - to “detect and deter illegal activity” aboard Alaska Marine Highway System ferries.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service, troopers, KPD and Juneau Police Department are participants in the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs Task Force.

The joint operation occurred at AMHS terminals at Ketchikan, Juneau, Whitter and Bellingham, Washington, according to Coast Guard information.

The effort included sweeps by canine teams from Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team San Francisco, MSST Seattle, troopers, Anchorage Airport Police and the Juneau Police Department, according to the Coast Guard.

Authorities contacted passengers and vehicles, resulting in the “consent search” of six vehicles and numerous individuals, according to the Coast Guard, which noted that “no seizures of illicit drugs were made in Alaska by authorities and therefore no arrests or charges filed.”

There was, however, one seizure of methamphetamine made at the ferry terminal in Bellingham.

While portions of this effort likely were unique to this past week, they underscore that the various agencies are in contact and cooperating with each other. That’s the basis for successful operations every day.

As Randy Thompson, the Coast Guard Investigative Services’ assistant special agent-in-charge for Alaska said: “We appreciate and look forward to the continued support from our partner agencies in our fight against the opioid crisis.”

Here in Ketchikan, where we see the day-to-day efforts of the Ketchikan Police Department and Alaska State Troopers against drugs, it’s good to see the outside agencies actively interested in helping to stop drugs from reaching Ketchikan in the first place.

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March 18, 2018

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Emergency service calls on the rise as mutual aid decreases

Last week’s announcement by Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly that the city Fire Department would be putting its lower-priority 911 calls on a waiting list rather than summon aid from a neighboring fire department demands further explanation.

The decision, being implemented immediately, could mean that residents will have to wait 20 minutes or more for a medical or fire crew to arrive.

Why?

It’s a response to the decision by three other area fire departments to reduce their mutual-aid calls to the city, with each citing a rising number of such calls from the city and a feeling the city has been taking advantage of other departments, rather than taking measures to make its own department capable of handling the higher number of calls. The Steese, University and Chena-Goldstream fire departments announced this year that they would be cutting back aid to the city, except for more serious calls for assistance.

The Steese Volunteer Fire Department was the first to make the change, saying it had been dispatched to 86 mutual-aid calls in Fairbanks in 2017 and that city crews responded to 14 mutual-aid calls in the Steese Fire Service Area. The city, of course, has many more residents than the Steese area, but the imbalance of calls is nevertheless stark.

The Fairbanks Fire Department has, indeed, been responding to many more calls in recent years, with the number rising 26 percent from 2014 - 2017. The number of mutual-aid responses to the city by other departments for emergency medical services rose from 69 in 2014 to 311 in 2017, according to a city news release, which also noted that the Fire Department’s staff size has not had a corresponding increase in personnel.

As we wrote here when the Steese department announced its mutual-aid response cutback in late January, Fairbanks residents need to know more.

Why has the number of calls to the Fairbanks Fire Department risen so much?

Is Fire Department staffing adequate but its personnel not being scheduled properly?

Are residents misusing the system, calling 911 when they shouldn’t be?

Are residents calling 911 for medical help because they don’t have health insurance?

And why did city leaders and others - the mayor, City Council members, Fire Department leadership and the Fairbanks Firefighters Union - allow the situation to progress to this untenable point?

It’s understandable that neighboring Fire Departments, many of them staffed by volunteers, would be concerned about being overused by the city. They have their own service areas to care for and worry that the likelihood has increased that they will be on a call helping city firefighters when an emergency arises in their districts.

And, it’s a valid concern, too, because property owners in each of those fire districts pay an additional amount in their property taxes to fund their local fire departments. Those residents have an expectation that their own fire departments will be available to them when needed.

Mayor Matherly and his administration reportedly will be trying to understand why the number of calls has increased so much. That’s good, but it’s also something that already should be known.

The city’s news release announcing the potentially delayed responses by fire personnel states that the city administration and Fairbanks Fire Chief Jim Styers believe “staffing solutions are necessary.” It states the city will pursue a grant that could provide additional personnel, but grants, by their nature, are short-term sources of support. The news release then gets into difficult terrain: “… the long-term goal will be to have an increase in permanent positions …” The city, as we know from the recent past, doesn’t have much money with which to pay for expanding departments.

Where will the money come from if it is conclusively shown that a permanent increase in Fire Department staffing is the only solution?

Mayor Matherly, his administration and union officials must fully research the reason or reasons for the high number of calls before any long-term spending decisions are made. And that research should include an airing of why this problem became a problem at all.