Outlook; 801; Return to Whittier / Derby Dayz

I. Need a billion great. Object. It's a job that has to be done. Laser guns like be fired. Why have a lot of these people otherwise. I was appalled. I like out what. Really makes you. Think. You. Know Windows and to the community. This is Outlook with your post there really Michel. Hello everyone and welcome to Outlook and our new set. Hope you like it. First a reality check after the first tumble drive to Whittier was the tourist trade. Up down or sideways in this millennium. A summer next to Seward. The whole city gets into the act for the Seward salmon Derby and in Skagway the little railroad that could keeps popping along after 100 years. Last spring everyone including those of us at Outlook wondered what's going to happen to Whittier when the tunnel was finished. Well we sent producer Lynn sniffed

to find out. That's also where we are. This summer. The first time the Anderson memorial tunnel was open to vehicles under their own power and without the help of the Alaska railroad. The opening brought a great deal of excitement but also some very dire predictions about the little town on the other side. So with the full tourist season under its belt what's the verdict. We thought we'd drive through and find out. Except for the staging area. The road from Bear Valley to Whittier is a lot like driving most roads in Alaska. There we were stuck behind a motorhome. At the other side we were greeted with what residents like to call a realestate day sunny breezy scarcely a cloudless sky. With beautiful weather like this but would tell me like overrun with cars and no parking.

Well no. How about the bathrooms. People said the lines would stretch on forever but not today apparently. And the garbage. Well these dumpsters weren't exactly overflowing with the boundless tourist trash some predicted. It was quite a summer. There was it was bigger and more than what I expected it to be. It was curious as I understand it was there's no more cooking a meal coming around the corner and chatting with the customers it's here you go got to go and see a by establishment like the swift water cafe local gift shops and Philips cruises seem pleased with their first summer at the end of the open road. So what all of the horror. The stories the predictions of massive traffic jams and angry mobs with no place to walk their dogs are dumped there are Wii's. We hear Mayor Arnie Arnesen has an explanation for why those things never came to pass.

Normal traffic through here is about 0 2 to 250000. And by last March there were injecting 1.5 million so our impact on the overall picture is nowhere near what was projected and the whole thing as far as I can see and I think the city away here has done a reasonably good job in handling this if the impact former project manager Tom Moses says the numbers that were being thrown around were the high end estimates and even those were outdated. You know people refer back to some numbers that were done back in 93. You know assuming that there be some development and with various levels of development what do you want to be talking more people. And it was very hard to estimate numbers at that time. It's still hard to estimate numbers. What is known is this. An average of eight hundred cars a day move through the tunnel this summer right about at the middle of the tunnel engineers call the realistic estimate. According to

facility manager great call cars haven't really been the problem. Drivers on the other hand we've had everything from the guy who decided to crawl on out onto the hood of his truck and go riding through the tunnel and was promptly arrested in the city of Whittier. We've had people walk up to the portal with their kids. And walk back and forth with major busses and other heavy Praful. We've had people decide to try and take photos in front of the tunnel is a train coming through and then have to jump either side to avoid the train. Paul admits there have been some kinks in the tunnel operating system and days when cars have had to wait hours to get where they're going. With us as complex of a system as we have and there are so many things behind the scenes most people never see. To get it all orchestrated and playing just like a symphony takes a little bit more than most people realize and affect computer glitches between one of the other. It takes a little bit to get us

back on the same sheet of music and playing right so it's safe for everyone. Safety seems to have a great deal to do with the tunnels 80 million dollar price tag. There's a fire truck designed to drive on railroad tracks. A fan system that can move air through the tunnel it over 10 miles an hour safe rooms for people caught inside in an emergency situation and cameras to monitor vehicle spacing. There are so many different little systems that are required to be made it on and off through both computer systems and the operators we have. And it takes a lot of skill to get through it. It's not just open the director and send them on through. It's not like a drawbridge skill and sophisticated computer systems cost money. The high price of operating the tunnel about six hundred twenty dollars an hour is one reason for the winter schedules with most days. The tunnel will be open from 8:00 to 5:00. So and then that only leaves us about eight and a half hours a day as I read it. And then on Friday we get 14 hours a day.

And this is just in the. It is totally not acceptable. We had the regular resolution with the city council and I say asking the deal to do at least 90 hours a week and it's currently sixty eight hours. We asked the city of Whittier for resolution. We've had several meetings with the council over there and we asked specifically do you want seven 10 hour days. Or six nines and one long day of 14 hours. What came back wasn't what we asked for. And we've asked several times. The last resolution said well we want 88 to 90 hours a week. Well that's not in the budget. If you figure that's three hours driving time round trip to Anchorage. I don't leases five hours in town so it's going to force a lot of the people to needlessly needlessly if you will to stand out because you get

get everything done in five hours away. People say there isn't enough time to go to Anchorage to do the things I need to do. They live in a remote area of Alaska. They have access that is now daily. So is that the best use of the truing tunnel or a four lane superhighway to what do you know. Is it significantly improved. Yes. Will it continue to get better. You bet. And soon the Department of Transportation hopes begin to pay for itself tolls will be charged starting April 1st. In the meantime all predictions of opening summer disaster aside most folks figure for better or for worse air will continue to grow. Yeah I think any time you have a community or an individual that goes through major changes like those tunnels brought upon We're going to have growing pains of some kind. It's tough to complain when you get an increase of business. But if you work harder and pay more people to help you. And so who knows maybe when we counted up

at the end of the year we were just we were tired of it made the same amount of money as we did last year. But there is going to be. Some vast improvements in the city away here but they're going to take time. And. Time is on their side I guess. So. Yes it's going to take a few more years and it's going to be really a nice place to come and visit and enjoy. The upcoming plans for would here include improving the harbor or building a sea wall to protect it from the infamous weather and all of that costs money as Lynn told us. So the tolls begin April 1. Round trip cost for one car's going to be $15 and 40 dollars for motor homes and vehicles with trailers. My guest Bruce Bustamante is the new president of the anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau and he's with us today to talk about how the tourist trade is doing in Anchorage and the end.

And Bruce tell us how it's going because I have talked with a lot of people on the way down to Homer and mixed reviews. And that's those are the same responses that we're getting as well it really depends on who you talk to some some retailers some tour companies are saying that their numbers are up this year. Some are saying that they're down others are sitting at their flat. Right now we don't really have the collective data to show. Where exactly we're out for the summer tourism season but I would say for the most part we're looking at a slight increase if not flat as compared to 1990. And why is that. What's the cause. Well some of it can go back to the lack of image advertising in the lower 48 and that's something that was very successful for the state of Alaska and very successful for tourism in Alaska. If you go back as far as 8 and 10 years and as the state has pulled back in their investment to promote tourism we're seeing the effects of it now you. We wouldn't we didn't see the effects immediately the first first year or the second year but now we're starting to see it and so much of our advertising and exposure of Alaska in the lower 48 is really riding on the private on private enterprises

such as the cruise companies. OK and then how do the cruise companies then figure into all of this. Because they're they've shipped with lots of people and yet we're wondering whether that filters down to mom and pop businesses. There's definitely a benefit for the smaller businesses and I'll keep in mind. The cruise companies are bringing hundreds of thousands of people into south central Alaska and those those people come into Anchorage. They're shopping. They're staying in hotels they're eating in restaurants. Some of them are taking optional tours to Kenai Fjords and such so the smaller businesses are definitely benefiting from the visitor industry in Anchorage. Now as you go outside of Anchorage in the rural markets we're hearing that it's flat. Why is that. Well the cruise industry has changed a lot in the past few years has been a lot of added inventory come into the Alaska market. And in order to fill that inventory they've had to lower their prices to be more ships more ships more berths can handle can handle more customers and more people. And it used to be that cruising was

for the elite. Now it's a lot like the airline business that with more inventory the prices have dropped to where it's affordable for many many more people to travel to Alaska and what we're seeing is that now that the profile has changed for the average Alaskan cruise passenger that as they reach their transit points or their destinations such as Anchorage. They're not opting to spend money to go to Nome and Kotzebue to experience northern Alaska they're choosing not to go to Kodiak or to Katmai park. So in essence they're moralist who answers that question. The numbers in Anchorage as far as the cruise business very important. It's not necessarily rippling out through the rest of the state. They are relatively new and you're saying that in Anchorage there's a growth what direction is that. I see that the cruise ships are here for longer and the shoulder seasons are getting a lot of attention. What are some of the what are some of the things that you have in mind. You want to see happen.

Well what I would like to see happen in Anchorage is the is that we're able to intercept more of the cruise passengers and encourage them to spend one two maybe three nights in acreage because Anchorage as a destination has changed so much in the past four years. First off we have a lot more hotel rooms than we've had in years past we've added about 700 rooms so the Anchorage hotel inventory over the past four years. Secondly we've added more in the line of attractions. The Alaska Native Heritage Center is a tremendous addition as far as attractions right here in Anchorage. Visitors can go to the Alaska excuse me Anchorage Museum of History and Art and the aviation museum. The infrastructure has grown as well. There are more restaurants flight seeing has become a very important option and that sector has grown considerably here in South Central so we can meet a lot of the. Experiences that people want to have in Alaska in Anchorage maybe more so now than we ever have in the past so what I would like to see more people spending more time in a place and going to

convention the convention hall and way to keep them here for a while longer. Well with a new convention center could contribute in that area but what we're looking at is in currently the Anchorage Convention Visitors Bureau along with some of our key stakeholders in tourism we plan on meeting with the cruise companies to look at offering more Anchorage pre and post cruise options to where people have a choice and and right now if you look through our cruise brochure for Princess or Holland America Anchorage is offered but also has been poor in Victoria we want to make sure we're every bit as competitive as Vancouver and Victoria and getting in front of that audience and we think we are. We're in Alaska. Thanks for being here Bruce and good luck in the coming years. Thank you Beverly It was a pleasure. For 45 years the city of Seward has prepared for the annual onslaught of committed fishermen who are determined to catch the lottery. Well our outlook producer Richard Davis is one of those committed fisherman and he went to

Seward and talked to the Derby folks on land and did a little research on the water as well. Sure you can argue. A time with this normally tranquil town becomes infested with the obsession of dream crazed anglers looking to strike it rich. And for myself the drug was no less potent. The question was what kind of competition. We have we expect 7000 entrants so I think the big thing is planning for that many people coming to town. But the planning that's done there's a lot of community support. In Seward every almost every business donates and we have over 140 volunteers that

work journey both Lane and fish and selling the tickets. And we have other businesses that sell tickets. Why do they all show up. I mean what's the reason that everyone comes to her. Well so what are you looking for. It's a 40 50 year so it's tradition. There's $10000 for first place. And then on down to 50th place so there's a lot of prize money there's a $25000 tag fish and then seven $10000 fish so I think the prizes and the tradition are the big draw when you just live here and you're not involved in it you wake up you drive through town and you realize how many people are involved how many people are fishing and then you look out on the water and there are so many boats. Marty you got me a chance to go. Where do I go to catch this $25000 fish. Well I'm not sure but you can always check. And she's on the germy Committee and see what she thinks and not only stand on the board she happened to work for the keynote a few words National Park I was sure she could tell me where to find this $25000 tag.

Oh I'm not sure where it is but the good thing to know about the tag fishes as they move around obviously they didn't stay in the same place so it's fair game for everybody. That's not exactly what I was hoping to hear and it really want this $25000 tag kind advice can you give me. Well probably the best way to get a fish especially the $25000 one is to have a boat. Not the only way. That's probably the best way for you to get that. Yes of course getting a boat in Alaska is no problem finding a place to park it on the other hand will see all kinds of boats or anywhere from you know the typical river skiff jet boats anything on up to your deltas and your your Vikings and just about any kind of boat that you can imagine will be here. The Coast Guard plans to be underway for the whole Derby period so they'll get the cutter underway cutter Mustang. They'll patrol resurrection day so they're out on scene during the time that most of the voters will be out there. We kind of we call it organized chaos. We we

kind of try to make sure that nobody gets in and out safely and nobody has a place to tie up whether it's our board or somebody else we're actually into the float. You know we try to accommodate everybody and we're generally successful in doing that. Jim I really want this $25000 fish. What what do I need what do I gotta do. Well the first thing is you know a bit of luck and of course every captain out there has their own set of luck and they have their own special rig to catch a silver. You know there's an old saying that it's better sail with a lucky captain than a good captain. But in this case we like to we like to steer people towards experience captains that know what they're doing because fishing is just a small part of what goes on out there. When the captain was no problem but Jim got me thinking. A safety inspection of my boat might be a good idea. After all this boat had been around a while possibly built by Noah himself. So who better to call then the Seward Coast Guard auxillary Mark. I talked to Jim over the harbor master gave me a list of what I need to make sure that my

boat is ready but he really suggested that I talk to the Coast Guard auxillary to make sure we got everything we need. What what exactly are we looking for. Really what you need is the basic minimum federal requirements to meet the legal standards. But we also suggest as the auxillary to take extra equipment with you to be completely safe because the water is out here and Seward has very little protection and it's very hard to get help when you're out there by yourself in a small vessel. Great. Why don't we go ahead and start let's see what we got. OK that's fine. With the boat ready and my fever for large silver soaring I was sure I was prepared for the next morning's onslaught. But.

I was wrong. Finally my crew and I departed in search for the ever elusive tagged silver Sam. It's going to be a beautiful day and we're going to have lots of pictures. That Richard that Richard. And it's about. Our strategy was sound with forecast and calm seas. We planned to travel to the very edge of the Derby back. To the far off and remote location a pony. I did say remote right. All right so being alone was obviously out of the question. Not only did I have to compete for salmon with other anglers I had to compete with the locals as well. Well at least this bunch is taking it with Rod so the only thing left was to wait. You see things. I don't.

Like the fact. Even though no tears are to be held this is the weekend sure was a treasure and no one really ever leaves you disappointed because the next day. That text is mine. And now let's go from Seward to Skagway. That historical town continues to draw in the tourists on the ships and on the road. Part of it is the connection to the gold rush but part of it is the White Pass and Yukon railroad. Producer Laura Bliss took a ride on that railroad toward the end of the season and she's going to take us right along with her. It's scenery like this.

That inspired the late Ted Johnston to sing a song like this. You can still experience one of the most amazing stories that has been told. When you take a ride on the White Pass and Yukon. Construction began at the peak of the Klondike Gold Rush. Skeptics said it would be impossible to build a railroad between Skagway and white horse. The crews chiseled their way through granite mountains with sledge hammers and dynamite. They battled snow drifts in below zero temperatures and the impossible all one hundred and ten miles of it was completed in just 27 months. Now century later the White Pass and Yukon is still carrying Treasure Seekers of a different kind.

The White Pass and Yukon will begin making runs again in May and that's one way to deal with winter just make early plans for summer coming up next week on Outlook.

You're going to meet young Alaskan Native leaders who are working to balance their cultural values and lifestyle in a bottom line business world and learn about rare native masks on exhibit at the egrets Museum of History in art and about the man who helped bring them back to Alaska. That's our show for tonight. Thanks for joining us hope you're with us next week. I'm Beverly Michaels for Outlook. Goodnight. If you have questions or comments you would like a copy of tonight's program call fee. Yeah your code 9 0 7 5 6 3 7 0 7 0 4 riders outlawry KTM and Channel 7 the 38 77 University Drive Anchorage Alaska 9 9 5 0 8 or e-mail us at this address.