Fairbanks North Star Borough

Comments about the $5.6 billion sale of BP’s assets to Hilcorp will squeak in before today’s 5 p.m. deadline. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has already heard from hundreds of Alaskans and will also hear from the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Last night the Assembly authorized a resolution for the administration to comment about the BP-Hilcorp sale. 

The Centennial Civic Center at Pioneer Park was shut down last Friday after the building was thought to be dangerous. Events scheduled for last weekend were hastily moved and more will be rescheduled through November, December and January. The biggest impact is on the Fairbanks Arts Association, which is suddenly without office, storage or gallery space, and has to move many artworks while repairs are worked over the next three to four months.

Money to help residents convert to natural gas or propane was passed by the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly last night. Like the existing woodstove change-out program, the measure hands out a subsidy to take oil burners and replace them with natural gas or propane burners. 

One way to clean up winter air is to get Interior Alaska residents to stop using old, polluting woodstoves. The Environmental Protection Agency just granted five million dollars to the state’s Air Quality office to enhance a woodstove-buy-back program. They are passing some of it on to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which has been running a change-out program for 10 years. 

Construction of a big natural gas storage tank in Fairbanks is nearing completion. And officials with the utility that’s been trying to persuade people in the Fairbanks area to convert to gas for home heating say the tank will help them attract those customers.

EPA scientists say the death rate in the Fairbanks North Star Borough has fallen because citizens are working to clean the air. That was announced among other progress at an Air Quality presentation in North Pole this week. A community meeting featured panelists from the EPA, the state and the borough, who took questions from the audience. 

Wildfire smoke is impacting air quality in many areas of the state, with some of the worst conditions in the Interior, including at North Pole. The community is known for severe wintertime fine particulate pollution from wood and coal stove and boiler emissions, but as KUAC’s Dan Bross reports, this week’s wildfire smoke has been far worse.

The Salcha Fair is back! After two years of hiatus, planning is under way for a different kind of fair that’ll be held in mid-August.