338 



With that I believe we are ready to go. Governor Cowper is 

 coming and we will move right to him as soon as he arrives. So, let 

 us start with Panel Number 1 and if the members of that panel 

 would come up and join us at the witness table I would appreciate 

 that. 



Panel Number 1 is Mr. William Privett, President of the South- 

 east Conference, accompanied by Mr. McKie Campbell. Second, 

 John Dapcevich, the Mayor of Sitka; Lydia George, Angoon City 

 Council; Larry Powell, Mayor of Yakutat; Mark Kirchhoff, spokes- 

 man for Point Alexander; Diane Ziel of the City Council of Tenakee 

 Springs; Dick Eliason of the State Senate; Rubin Yost, the Mayor 

 of Pelican; and Paul Johnson, a spokesman for Elfin Cove. 



We appreciate all of you being here. I believe that there are 

 enough chairs here at the witness table for all of you. Thank you 

 very much for coming. And I hope the second group will come and 

 join us at that second set of seats, and then we know we are ready 

 to roll with Panel Number 2. 



The only exception to the three minute rule — and, of course, 

 rules are made to be broken — Mr. William Privett, the president of 

 Southeast Conference, accompanied by McKie Campbell, has been 

 given a total of six minutes, and everybody else has been given 

 three. Mr. Privett represents a broad coalition of people this morn- 

 ing. 



Mr. Privett, why do not you begin, and thank you all very much. 



STATEMENT OF WILLIAM B. PRIVETT, PRESIDENT, SOUTHEAST 



CONFERENCE 



Mr. Privett. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the commit- 

 tee. Senator Murkowski, and fellow Alaskans and visitors. My 

 name is Bill Privett and with me is McKie Campbell from Juneau. 

 I am president of the Southeast Conference and Mr. Campbell is 

 vice-president. We are both members of the Southeast Conference, 

 a special committee on the Tongass. We sincerely appreciate this 

 opportunity to meet with you and the time that you and your staff 

 have taken to make this possible. 



The Southeast Conference is a nonprofit corporation comprised of 

 members representing communities, businesses, and individuals 

 from Southeastern Alaska. The mission of the conference is to 

 build and maintain a stable, diversified economy that provides for 

 an improved standard of living, quality employment and business 

 development opportunities for the people of Southeast Alaska 

 through prudent use of our resources. 



With that mission in mind, Alaska timber, the Board appointed a 

 special committee on the Tongass. They explored the possibility of 

 working with management on legislation for Tongass National 

 Forest that would represent diverse and varying underlying inter- 

 ests for the communities of Southeast Alaska. We perceived our 

 charge as hard-working, deeply concerned Alaskans who had per- 

 sonal sensitivity to employment of their friends and neighbors and 

 a profound respect for Alaska's resources in a compromising deter- 

 mination to keep the Southeast alive. 



