Bulletin 8/12/12

Target awards Anchorage library grant

Target Corp. has awarded a $25,000 grant to the Anchorage Public Library’s Ready to Read Resource Center. The Center provides free early literacy workshops and book kits to childcare providers and parents across the state. The library is planning an expansion of the center with a new Early Literacy Test Lab at Loussac Library that will open this winter. The project also received a $16,000 grant from Wells Fargo earlier this spring. The grant is part of Target’s ongoing efforts to build strong, safe and healthy communities across the country. Target is on track to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015 to help kids learn, schools teach and parents and caring adults engage.

Outside Magazine honors Nerland Agency

Nerland Agency has been named in Outside Magazine’s fifth annual “Best Places to Work” list. Nerland ranked No. 28 out of 100 selected companies. Outside’s “Best Places to Work” project celebrates innovative companies setting a new standard for a healthy work-life balance. The list was compiled with the help of the Outdoor Industry Association and Best Companies Group. The yearlong selection process began with an outreach effort that identified a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations with at least 15 employees working in a United States office. The Best Companies Group analyzed surveys and selected the companies that best enable employees to pursue active lifestyles while also supporting their social and environmental contributions.

Anchorage gets prestigious budget award

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan announced that the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada awarded the Municipality of Anchorage the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its 2010 budget. The award represents a significant achievement by the entity. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the budget award, the entity has to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. The GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program is the only national awards program in governmental budgeting.

Feds, state, UAF scientists team up for Arctic marine ecosystem survey

A team of marine scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, federal, and state agencies is heading to the Arctic to begin the first comprehensive oceanographic and fisheries survey of the Chukchi Sea. The first of two vessels being used for the survey will depart August 6 from Dutch Harbor. It’s the first survey that will sample all major components of the marine ecosystem at the same time throughout the U.S. waters of the northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea. It covers the entire eastern Chukchi Sea shelf, with sampling in offshore waters at least 50 feet deep from south of Hooper Bay to north of Barrow. The primary purpose of the survey is to gather scientific data needed to avoid or mitigate effects of potential future offshore oil and gas development projects on arctic marine life. The information will provide the scientific underpinning to help guide future responsible economic development activities in the Arctic region, including possible transportation and fisheries opportunities. It will also help determine potential impacts of climate change on Arctic marine ecosystems. Funding for the project comes from the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, State of Alaska Coastal Impact Assistance Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

GeoNorth wins DOT award

GeoNorth, headquartered in Anchorage and owned by Tatitlek Corp., has just been awarded a GIS Routing and Bridge Data Merge project from the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Works. GeoNorth was awarded the contract through a publically competitive Request for Proposals process via the State of Alaska’s recently unveiled Task Order System. In mid-2010, GeoNorth developed an application object to determine routes between multiple points and return information for bridges along particular routes. The data used for this control was a hybrid of a NavTeq navigable dataset for Alaska and the State of Alaska bridges. Merging of this data is a periodic task necessary to keep route and bridge data up to date.