Chairman J. Dana Pruhs, Julie Anderson, Anna McKinnon, Albert Fogle, Bernie Karl, Bill Kendig and Julie Sande want to spend $35 million on a 200-mile industrial road which would pass through the Arctic National Park to access an undeveloped copper-zinc mineral belt in the name of “job creation during the pandemic.” According The Associated Press, Fogle said the project was placed on the agenda to do so.
At the same meeting, the board of directors refused a $2.5 million loan request by the Blood Bank of Alaska.
The board’s priorities are reversed. There will be no construction until the government states Alaskans are free to go about doing their business, months from now. I don’t think I read that construction is an essential service.
There are, and will be in the short term, Alaskans who need to receive blood. Accidents and emergency surgeries do not stop during a pandemic.
AIDEA should fund the loan to the Blood Bank of Alaska.
— Louise Lazur
Anchorage
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