A recent report in the Journal of Rural and Community Development (Volume 3, Number 3) about the impacts of solid waste on community sustainability in Alaska has been published online.

The report examines solid waste issues in several Alaska communities, including Tyonek, Tanana, Buckland and Bethel.

The authors concludes: 

"Therefore, to reduce the negative human and environmental health impacts of solid waste disposal, communities must rely in large part on themselves to initiate local waste disposal ordinances and practices that will reduce these impacts and increase recycling in their communities. Such recommended measures may include:

 (a) identifying and diverting hazardous wastes (electronics waste, lead acid batteries, liquid hazardous waste, and the like) from the waste stream; (b) selecting a location at the dump or elsewhere to store these materials safely for later removal; (c) restricting public access and exposure to the landfill by hiring a landfill operator/waste hauler who is properly trained in safety issues; (d) identifying burn practices and burn-box technologies that reduce toxic emissions and prevent smoke from blowing toward the community while burning trash; and (e) working with local retailers, shipping companies, and residents to reduce the volume of excess and unnecessary packaging materials from coming into the village in the first place as well as find new, cost effective ways to divert recyclables into the commodity market."

The report may be viewed at: 

http://www.jrcd.ca/viewarticle.php?id=233&layout=abstract

New Program Manager for the Health Facilities Program -  Ms. Nancy Merriman became the new Health Facilities Program Manager, as Ms. Denali Daniels moved into the Energy Program Manager position.

Ms. Nancy Merriman grew up in California. After attaining a Masters degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley, she moved to Kodiak. Merriman served three years as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program Coordinator for the Kodiak area. A management opportunity with the largest WIC Program in Alaska brought her to Anchorage, where she enjoyed working with parents and children for another three years. Ms. Merriman then spent three years on broader community health programs and emergency preparation and planning at the Municipality of Anchorage Department of Health & Human Services.

Since joining the Denali Commission in 2002, Ms. Merriman has assisted with the development and implementation of: a new financial management system, a new procurement system, and a new online grants management system. 

In January 2009, Ms. Merriman became the Commission’s Health Facilities Program Manager.

Ms. Merriman holds an undergraduate degree in nutrition from the University of California Davis, a Masters of Public Health from UC Berkeley, and a Masters of Business Administration from Grand Canyon University.

Clinic Repair / Renovation Letter of Interest - The Denali Commission Primary Care Clinic Repair and Renovation (R&R) Funding Initiative Letter of Interest (LOI) Information Document and Response Form were due on June 23, 2008. The intent of this LOI solicitation was to assist the Denali Commission in determining need and readiness to repair and/or renovate existing primary care clinics in Alaska.

The Commission received eleven (11) submissions.  Six (6) of the eleven (11) met the minimum eligibility requirements and have been invited to submit full proposals.  To this date one has submitted a full proposal and will be funded.

The Denali Commission will now accept R&R Applications at any time throughout the year.

For more information, please contact Ms. Kathy Berzanske at 907-271-5232 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .   LOI materials are posted on the Commission's home page:  www.denali.gov

PROGAM BACKGROUND AND PROCESS

Primary Care Clinics  The following three stages of project development are used to manage planning, design and construction for the clinic program:

Clinic Conceptual Planning:  All clinic projects that could eventually be eligible for Denali Commission construction funding may participate in the conceptual planning phase.  Technical Assistance (TA) advisors are assigned to each project to assist in the business plan development process and to complete the site plan checklist.   In some cases the Denali Commission may consider small funding requests to assist communities in addressing the business plan or site plan requirements.  To begin the conceptual planning process or to request a TA or planning funds, contact the Denali Commission Health Facilities Program Manager.

Please be sure that your technical assistance advisor (TA) has reviewed the final business plan prior to submission.  Business plans that have not been reviewed by the TA will not be forwarded to the review committee.

Clinic Design:  Eligibility for design requires an approved business plan and site plan checklist and a feasible strategy for design completion and acquiring cost share match. 

Clinic Construction:  Eligibility for construction funding requires an approved business plan, approved site plan checklist, a final design (100% stamped drawings), a final budget (based on final design estimates), documentation of cost share match to fully fund the project and the ability to proceed to construction in a timely manner.

“Other Than” Primary Care The Denali Commission recognizes the primary care program as its priority focus area, however there is a need to also support a full continuum of health and social service facilities on a statewide basis.  The “Other Than” Primary Care program on an annual basis identifies program focus areas outside the clinic program as part of a statewide continuum.  The selected FY07 program areas were EMS equipment/Code Blue, Primary Care in Hospitals (managed by the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, ASHNHA) and Behavioral Health (Bring The Kids Home). 

General Program Information:  Interested applicants should contact the Health Facilities Senior Program Manager, Ms. Nancy Merriman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for specific information on applying for funding or engaging in the Denali Commission process.

The Denali Commission in January made two staff changes within the energy program.  Ms. Denali Daniels was hired as the Senior Energy Program Manager and Ms. Jodi Fondy was promoted to Deputy Energy Program Manager.

The Denali Commissioners approved a draft FY09 Work Plan at the Commissions November quarterly meeting. The Work Plan is based on a continuing resolution, in which the Commission would receive the same amount of funding as last year. The funding for FY09 will not be known, however, until as late as March 2009.  The Work Plan was posted on our website for public comment through January 15, 2009.

The next Quarterly Meeting will be held in Juneau, Alaska on March 19, 2009.  Commissioners will be reviewing public comments and will take additional public comments at that time.  Revisions may be necessary as funding amounts are known.

The Energy Advisory Committee (EAC) meets February 9, 2009.  Agenda items include a second phase for the statewide intertie study, energy program specific policies and implementation of newly adopted Commission policy document, and the Commission's continued role in Renewable/Alternative Energy initiatives in Alaska.  Public comment is being taken 2:15 to 2:45 p.m.  Contact the main office at 907.271.1414 for more information.

Mark Allred  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Program Assistant: 

Adison Smith This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Economic Development Program at the Commission

In many rural areas of our state a subsistence economy continues to thrive.  This economy is supported by a modest cash economy.  In order for small communities to remain vibrant and viable continued efforts must be made at strengthening both economies.

 Advisory Meeting

Our first Advisory Committee Meeting of 2009 will be held in Anchorage on February 17th, 2009 at the Denali Commission offices.  Please watch the announcements page for the Agenda.

Program Focus

The submitted Letters of Interest in 2008 from around Alaska have helped the Commission in identifying a gap in services in rural Alaska relating to entrepreneurial knowledge, access, and support of economic development projects.  The Advisory Committee will continue in crafting programmatic delivery to address this deficiency.

Program Manager Kathy Berzanske:   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Program Assistant Adison Smith:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Our partner, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), received applications for funding of the 2009 AHFC Teacher, Health Professional, and Public Safety Grant Program.  The Notice of Award has been made. Manokotak will receive this year's teacher housing funding for $1,489,600.  They will be constructing eight units of teacher housing in the Village of Manokotak.The Denali Commission was only able to fund $1M this year, compared to $5M in previous years, therefore making awards more difficult.  The $1M, combined with another $489,600 which came from other projects that did not previously move forward and cost savings from other projects, totaled the $1,489,600.

If you would like more information about the upcoming 2010 grant program, please contact James Wiedle at Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call him at 907-330-8325. 

If you have any additional questions.  I can be reached at 271-5232 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Welcome to the Community Planning Section of the Denali Commission.   During the past several months, there has been lots of planning activity in Chevak, Toksook Bay and Klukwan.  With support from USDA/RD,  RurAL CAP is assisting these and seven other communities to develop, update and implement their community plans.  To date, community plans have been completed for Russian Mission, Chevak and Toksook Bay.  These plans can be found on the State of Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development website at: www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_Results.cfm

In October 2008, a national planning conference was held in Anchorage called, Leading Change: Blending Indigenous and Western Planning Tools.  Over 250 people attended the conference from Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, the lower 48 states and Australia.  Highlights from the conference can be found on the website at www.leadingchange2008.com.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for two upcoming planning events:

·         Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change, April 20-24, 2009 at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, Alaska

·         National American Planning Association Conference, April 25-29, 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

On December 16-17, 2008 the Transportation Advisory Committee (Committee) met for its annual project selection meeting.  This is the fourth annual meeting of this type and resulted in the addition of 17 road projects and 16 waterfront development projects to the Transportation Program’s capital projects.  Several projects in this year’s selections are the design or construction phases of projects initiated under Transportation Program funding.

The project nominations come to the Denali Commission (Commission) through a public nomination process that begins in August of each year and closes in time for staff to review nominations and prepare nomination books for the Committee selection meeting in mid-December each year.  This year saw new nominations from the Bethel-based, regional non-profit, Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP), a goal of the Commission in 2008.  The Commission recognized in 2007 that many of the most needed projects in western Alaska were not getting nomination attention and turned to AVCP for assistance.  AVCP, modeling after a very successful Kawerak, Inc. program, developed a transportation program, including an extensive startup effort to visit all of the region’s villages to understand transportation needs and to set up opportunities for BIA Tribal Shares compacting.  Compacting under that program allows remarkable flexibility to fund projects in villages through leveraging many villages’ funds over time.  In this way, regional tribal nonprofits are able to accomplish projects that would be beyond the financial capacity of individual Tribal Share funds.  Kawerak, Inc., AVCP and the Tlingit-Haida Central Council all submitted projects in this round of nominations. 

Community Development Quota (CDQ) corporations have also become important partners in the Transportation Program.  The St. Paul Boat Harbor construction project, reconnaissance engineering for waterfront development needs in the Goodnews Bay-Platinum area, and a winter trail marking project in the lower Kuskokwim River area are examples of efforts CDQs and the Commission are jointly funding.  As both the CDQ and Commission programs mature, we expect this partnership to become even more aggressive in jointly funded projects, especially in the waterfront development area. 

City and Borough governments continue to also provide strong project nominations and several were selected this year in both the road and waterfront development categories. 

Commission staff are now in the process of preparing a short report on the meetings, including how the meeting was conducted, which projects were selected, and what agency or community will be assigned the project.  This last item has shown significant change over the last few years.  In the early years of the program, individual villages and communities were often assigned responsibility for project design and/or construction, but it quickly became clear that the Federal Highway Administration rules the program operates under are more complex and time-consuming than many communities are set up to handle.  As a result, the Federal Highway Administration’s exceptionally capable Western Federal Lands Highway Division has come on board as a successful road project partner for the Commission; the Corps of Engineers has done the same for the waterfront development element of the program.  The Corps of Engineers recently completed Phase I of a barge landing improvements strategy that is quickly becoming the center piece for one of the most needed construction programs in rural Alaska- shoreside infrastructure for barge operators that include mooring points and/or docks and gravel pad storage areas. 

As 2009 gets underway, the Commission’s Transportation Program will have over 100 projects underway, with a solid record of moving projects from design through construction to completion in many rural Alaska sites.  The current project list is available on the Commission web site, and in short order, it will be modified to include approved FY 2009 projects.   

Program Manager Karen Johnson: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Program Assistant Adison Smith: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

HaPpY NeW YeAr!!

The Training Program has had a very productive year in 2008 funding training for over 2000 individuals to construct, maintain and/or operate Denali Commission or other public infrastructure in their rural communities.

The Denali Commission uses training partners around the state to carry out our program training goals and we would like to thank them for a job well done. For training projects initiated in 2008: The Alaska Association of Municipal Clerks, Alaska Energy Authority, Alaska Vocational Technical Center, Alaska Forum, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Alaska Operating Engineers, Alaska Village Council Presidents Regional Housing Authority, Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, CE2 Engineers, Chilkoot Indian Association, Haines Assisted Living, Interior Regional Housing Authority, Kawerak Inc, RuAL Cap, Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Southwest Alaska Vocational & Education Center, STG, Inc., City of Tanana, Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, Yuut Elitnaurviat, Alaska Works Partnership, University of Alaska, First Alaskans, Associated General Contractors and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

There is much more work coming down the pike from the Denali Commission with roads, clinic and energy projects needing to be build and maintained which means more people can and will be trained in 2009. We expect another busy and industrious year for workforce development across our state.

Denali Training Fund deadline for applications is January 15, 2009.

Complete proposals for the Denali Training Fund (DTF) are due by 5pm via fax, email or hand delivered to our administration partner, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development 1016 W 6th Avenue, Suite 205 Anchorage, Alaska 99516. Call Gerry McDonagh (907) 269-4551 for more information or technical assistance.

The Denali Training Fund (DTF) application can be located at the following state of Alaska link: Denali Training Fund Application