April 11, 2019
Chitina dipnetters:
Your action on this request is urgently needed. Governor Dunleavy has announced his four candidates to fill seats on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The Chitina Dipnetters Association supports three of these candidates outright.
Mr. Israel Payton
Mr. Karl Johnstone
Ms. Marit Carlson Van-Dort
These candidates had their first hearing yesterday in the Senate Resources committee.
Karl Jonstone was formerly on the BOF and, while chairman, spearheaded passage of CDA's proposal to increase the bag limit for the Chitina Personal Use Dip Net Fishery. During public testimony yesterday, Mr. Johnstone was severely berated by members of the Cordova commercial salmon fleet for his part in passage of our proposal. We need him back on the BOF and your support will help make that happen!
Israel Payton is currently on the BOF and has been renominated. He is a big supporter of personal use and sport fisheries.
Merit Carlson Van-Dort is new but we believe will fall in the middle of the road in allocation issues.
Final confirmation for these candidates could occur as soon as the middle of next week.
I'll walk you through the process to send a public opinion message to all Alaska legislators voicing your support for these appointees.
- In your search bar enter "alaska legislature" or go to http://w3.legis.state.ak.us. This will take you to their home page. At the very bottom of the page, under quick links, choose "Public Opinion Message".
- On the new page use the "Normal Login Box" and fill in your personal info. Click "Submit Information" to continue
- On the Contact Information page, fill in your contact info and click "Choose Recipients"
- On the recipients page below choose "Send to All Legislators" then click "Write Message"
- On the message page type your message of support for the three appointees. Skip the BillRoot and Opinion boxes. In the "Subject" box, use scroll down with keyboard or mouse and choose "Appointments". Click "Finished" to send the message.
Please send your message ASAP! After the show the commercial fishermen put on yesterday, our legislators need to hear from us dipnetters pronto or our desired candidates could lose out. A balanced BOF will be much more likely to consider CDA proposals seriously.
Like the Beatles song goes, Don't Let Me Down!
Thanks for your help,
Chuck Derrick, President
Chitina Dipnetters Association
PO Box 72665
Fairbanks, AK 99707
cderrick@chitinadipnetters.com