![]() Interior Secretary Sally Jewell refused to allow the extension late last year, saying migratory birds and other animals in the refuge needed protection.īut Alaska's congressional delegation is pressing Jewell to reconsider, along with Gifford and other local officials who visited Jewell in Washington, D.C., this week to argue their case. Local leaders argue that sick or injured residents have died because they were stuck awaiting help in King Cove, with its tiny airstrip that doesn't operate at night or when winds or visibility don't cooperate. The village of King Cove, population 950, has long sought a federal exemption to permit a road passing through the refuge so villagers can reach Cold Bay and its all-weather airport, where medevac flights can land in bad weather or at night. When the borough first put the hovercraft into use in 2007, conservation groups saw it as the answer to King Cove's desire for a gravel road slicing through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for 11 miles. "For someone to build a new hovercraft now would cost them more than $9 million, so they'd be getting a pretty good deal," Gifford said. Rick Gifford, the administrator, said he hopes the borough can get at least $5 million for the hovercraft, a 90-foot Suna X that can fit 39 passengers and has been upgraded with de-icing equipment to handle Alaska's bitter cold. The administrator for the borough, whose boundaries include both villages, said the hovercraft was too costly for the borough to operate, in part because it couldn't always run in the spiteful weather that often beats down on the Aleutian Islands. The looming sale of the hovercraft by the Aleutians East Borough - bought for $9 million using money provided by Congress - could bring additional criticism because it was originally intended to get King Cove residents to safety. The hovercraft that has long been at the center of a national debate over cutting a road through an Alaska wilderness will soon go up for sale.īut that won't mark the end of one village's saga to improve access to health care, or another's efforts to shuttle residents to a multimillion-dollar airport built on an island without a town.Ĭritics have blasted both communities as recipients of government waste - with some saying the village of King Cove near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula wants to build a "road to nowhere," while Akutan 150 miles to the west has already benefitted from an "airport to nowhere."
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