Voters wanted for new precinct at Prudhoe Bay; Deadhorse excluded

Wadeen Hepworth

The hottest news on the North Slope this week is that Prudhoe Bay now has its own voting precinct and will be recruiting voters.

The new voting precinct is numbered 40-036. The approximate number of people working at Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse is 5,000. The current number of registered voters for the area is 118 (87 Prudhoe, 31 Deadhorse) but as of this writing the state does not plan to include Deadhorse in the precinct.

To compare numbers: Point Lay has 120 registered voters and Anaktuvuk Pass has 319. The Division of Elections is not sure of the exact boundaries but will have them identified in about two weeks. Currently the precinct will only be able to vote in state and federal elections. The North Slope Borough will decide if they can vote in local elections.

Did you know Prudhoe Bay has a community council? I didn’t but found this is the group of people that requested the voting precinct. There were three reasons for the request: the polling place for Prudhoe voters was in Anaktuvuk Pass which meant voters had to either fly 168 miles to their polling place or use an absentee ballot; the absentee ballot was difficult for voters and did not reach Barrow in a timely manner; and the voters wanted better representation.

Prudhoe couldn’t vote in borough elections yet approximately 90 percent of borough money comes from Prudhoe through state and local taxes. Prudhoe Bay has no say on Prudhoe decisions yet these decisions often involve sensitive issues. Several people related this to our forefathers being taxed but having no representation in England (and Prudhoe can’t even get a boat in during the winter to throw the tea overboard). In addition Prudhoe Bay has one assembly member for 5,000 people yet Barrow has four assembly members for approximately 4,000 people.

To sum it up: the North Slope Borough gets the majority of the money and gets to make all the decisions about Prudhoe. Prudhoe is taxed for garbage service, utilities etc. but — and I found this interesting — have to provide and pay for their own garbage service, utilities, etc. So they pay twice for these services.

I asked Director of the state Division of Elections Janet Kowalski why Deadhorse was not included in the precinct and she said because they were thinking of the distance between it and Prudhoe Bay and winter driving conditions. This didn’t hold any water with me because I have driven all over Prudhoe including Deadhorse, Kuparuk and Milne Point during the winter months so driving Deadhorse to Prudhoe was just a hop skip and jump down the road. It just doesn’t seem to make logical sense to not include Deadhorse in the precinct when they are so close.

When I asked about the boundaries for the new Prudhoe Bay precinct Janet wrote that ‘the legal description for boundaries for all precincts are being prepared for submittal to the U.S. Department of Justice for final approval. They are in draft form and won’t be released until the whole state is done in a week or so.’

Asked if it was unusual for a new precinct to only have state and federal voting rights but not local voting rights she replied that ‘local boroughs and first class governments set their own district boundaries according to state and federal law. State law requires that state precincts be considered during the local redistricting process.’ She said that the reapportionment board sets the federal redistrict boundaries and the division of elections sets the precinct boundaries. I’m not sure exactly how that answered my question but when we talked on the phone I understood that it was pretty well decided by each borough. It would seem to me that if Prudhoe Bay meets these laws they would have to be included in the local voting process.

That brings me to Bertha Panigeo, borough clerk. I can say with all sincerity that what this country needs is a million Bertha’s sitting in clerk positions. If she was in Florida there is no doubt she would clean up its election mess. She laughed when I told her this and replied that other people told her the same thing.

In the position since 1996 she has become a certified municipal clerk and is working on her masters municipal clerk certification. Her deputy clerk is certified and each worker in the office cross-trains.

Bertha said the borough just learned of the new precinct and are trying to understand what it means. She met with borough officials this morning (June 26) to do some brainstorming and try to decide how they need to proceed. On July 8 there will be a phone meeting with Janet Kowalski and Monica Giang, the Nome election supervisor for Region 9.

Janet said the reason for the meeting is that the borough wants to understand the new lines since they have a local districting process of their own. Janet is following the normal precinct process to analyze the locations, look at administrative efficiencies, and identify the proposed precinct, to follow state law for public notice and the federal law for Section 5 Voting Rights Act approval from the U.S. Department of Justice. She said that due to the redistricting process, they have evaluated every single precinct in the state. Do you understand why I said they have done one great job?

Bertha said they are not opposing nor are they negative about the new precinct but need to look at the numbers to see if it is feasible to include them in the next general election in October. The cost of securing a polling place, providing two election judges, one election chair and printing the necessary ballots needs to be considered because the costs have not been included in the borough budget. Absentee ballots might be used. This reporter wondered if maybe Prudhoe could hold a bake sale to help out. I am told there will be no comment from the mayor until the meeting with Janet.

Which finally brings us to the registered voters.

Did you know that state statue Sec. 15.05.020 would allow any person that has worked at Prudhoe for more than 30 days to change their registration to Prudhoe Bay?

Individuals who own homes elsewhere are not precluded from registering to vote at Prudhoe although they can’t register more than one place. So the push for voter registration is on and letters have been sent to encourage people to register 30 days prior to the election on August 27.

Keith Silver, president of the Prudhoe Bay Community Council, said, “managers are constantly under the gun to show our North Slope Borough resident hire percentage. This is one way to increase that percentage.” He also stated that the voting registration is a personal decision best made by the individual but said he changed his registration because he makes his money at Prudhoe Bay and decisions made in the North Slope Borough affect him more than decisions made where he owns a home. And, he said, voters in Prudhoe Bay have more impact than those in a larger community because of the small number of voters.

BP SETS RECORD WITH THE FIRST TRI-LATERAL WELL IN ALASKA…. Mik Trilol, BP Exploration (Alaska)’s operations drilling manager for Greater Prudhoe Bay, told me June 26. Mik said the reason for drilling the well in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area at W-203 was to prove up the Bluff viscous oil rate potential, to reduce the environmental footprint and to prove up tri-lateral well design to apply to other areas across Alaska. The company used Doyon rig 14 and Baker Hughes TAML 3 hook hanger junctions on the ultra-slimhole well design.

BP set multi-lateral well records with a total footage of 19,515 feet and a 94 percent geo-steering efficiency in 10-foot sands.

This is also the first horizontal well drilled with more than 10,000 feet of net pay. Contributing to the success of the drilling was excellent mud dilution and hole cleaning strategy.

We’ll have photos and a more detailed description in our next issue.

ALYESKA SAID RELIABILITY ON THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE IN MAY WAS 100 PERCENT…. with no prorations for the month. May throughput was 31,733,000 barrels, with a daily average throughput of 1,024,000 barrels per day.

Throughput in 2002 through May was 157,644,000 barrels; daily average throughput through May was 1,044,000 barrels per day.

TOTAL THROUGHPUT SINCE THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE STARTED FLOWING JUNE 20, 1977, HAS BEEN APPROXIMATELY 13,791,000,000 BARRELS!

CONGRATULATIONS TO PAUL LAIRD AT BP EXPLORATION (ALASKA)…. who received a second national award for “Following the Yellow Brick Road,” a speech written by Laird and delivered by former President Richard Campbell — both wearing sparkling red running shoes — at RDC’s 2001 annual meeting.

This award, the 2002 Bronze Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, recognizes the best use of creative tactics in a public relations campaign.

“ Following the Yellow Brick Road” also won a 2002 International Gold Quill Excellence Award from by the International Association of Business Communicators.

NEWS FROM THE SECOND LARGEST STATE….

Our spies in Houstonville had some interesting trivia to send our way.

American Fast Freight has hired Paul Hunter, a born and bred Texan, to market its Alaska transportation services. According to Mike Schuller, who does PR for American Fast Freight, the company is taking a look at whether they will open a terminal in Houston or Dallas or have Paul work out of his home to sell its consolidating and freight forwarding services.

The latest downsize in the Japanese trading companies is Mitsui, Houston. Ed Griffin, general traffic manager for 17 years, has left the company and is looking at other options that can utilize his international expertise.

Not to be outdone Sumitomo, another Japanese Trading Company, beat Mitsui to the pass by closing its Houston, Los Angeles and Florida offices several months ago. New York will be the main point of contact for line pipe and oil tubular goods. A little more investigative work will discover the full extent of the downsizing. We do know that Bill Pownell, Houston traffic manager, for over 20 years got caught in this purge.

GREG JONES OF ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE CO. HAS BEEN PROMOTED…. to senior vice president of operations as part of a reorganization which will take effect July 1. Jones has been senior vice president of the Valdez business unit. In his new position, he will be responsible for all operations, baseline maintenance and right of way maintenance, as well as the marine terminal and Servs.

NORTHERN TESTING LABORATORIES DESERVES A PAT ON THE BACK…. for receiving the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) “Administrator’s Award for Excellence.” They received the award for being nominated as the regional “Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year” by the U.S. Department of the Army. The award was given “in recognition of outstanding contribution and service to the nation by a small business in satisfying the needs of the Federal procurement system.”

Peggy Pollen said NTL is classified as a woman-owned small business. Hey guys, Peggy gave up household dishwater to play in microbiology and chemistry services for potable water and wastewater. Now that is one heck of a career transition.

INLET DRILLING WILL BE MOVING ITS CC1 RIG…. from Tyonek to Kenai on July 1. Carla Marshall said the rig will be stacked at Kenai. Inlet Drilling does work for Marathon Oil and XTO Energy as a labor contractor.

Oil Patch Insider is written by Petroleum News • Alaska columnist Wadeen Hepworth. The Insider appears three times per month. Individuals providing news or tips to Wadeen do not have to be identified in the column. She can be reached at (907) 770-3506 or via email at [email protected].