{"id":1978,"date":"2016-02-17T09:06:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/in-new-publication-alaskans-share-stories-about-amhs\/"},"modified":"2016-02-17T09:06:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T17:06:17","slug":"in-new-publication-alaskans-share-stories-about-amhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/in-new-publication-alaskans-share-stories-about-amhs\/","title":{"rendered":"In new publication, Alaskans share stories about AMHS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>JUNEAU \u2013<\/strong> From Akutan to Ketchikan, Alaskans are sharing their personal stories in a new publication about what the Alaska Marine Highway means to those who rely on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Value of Alaska\u2019s Marine Highway in 25 Stories\u201d was recently published by five of the state\u2019s regional development organizations in order to show how AMHS impacts residents in communities big and small. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a compelling narrative,\u201d said Shelly Wright, executive director of Southeast Conference. \u201cThere has been so much talk about the bottom line when it comes to marine highways. This publication speaks to the value of the ferry system in a personal way, community by community. To me, this publication lets people understand that the marine highway, whether they know it or not, touches every single person in Southeast Alaska. These Alaskans\u2019 stories weave together to form a single tale: Transportation is the lifeblood of coastal communities, and a strong ferry system is essential to local economic development, quality of life, and community well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AMHS serves as an economic engine for the 35 coastal communities that it provides service to in Alaska. Each year, it ferries more than 300,000 people, generating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in commerce across Alaska. Since the extent of these impacts has never been fully measured, Alaskans who benefit from the state\u2019s ferry system were asked to describe its value. The stories shared came from mayors, tribal leaders, business owners, tourism directors, fishermen, economic development experts and other community leaders. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngoon has no road connection, no barge service and no runway,\u201d says former Angoon Mayor Maxine Thompson in the publication. \u201c\u2026 It is the lifeblood of the villages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This publication, developed by Juneau-based Rain Coast Data, was a collaborative effort by Southeast Conference, the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District and the Prince William Sound Economic Development District. <\/p>\n<p>The publication can be found on Southeast Conference\u2019s home page at www.seconference.org\/. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JUNEAU \u2013 From Akutan to Ketchikan, Alaskans are sharing their personal stories in a new publication about what the Alaska Marine Highway means to those who rely on it. \u201cThe Value of Alaska\u2019s Marine Highway in 25 Stories\u201d was recently published by five of the state\u2019s regional development organizations in order to show how AMHS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}