Sitkans are invited to a new community event to celebrate the winding down of the busy summer season. Sitka Sound SummerFest, hosted by Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal and the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce, aims to bring together live music, local food, artisans, families, and businesses on August 22 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Parking will be available at Harrigan Centennial Hall and the ferry terminal, with shuttles running throughout the day to the event. Rachel Roy, executive director of the Chamber, and Ember Livingston Emmons, market coordinator, joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss the upcoming event. Listen to their conversation here:

Wild said the Sitka Police Department reminds the public to please use the designated turn lanes for their intended purpose: making turns. They are not extra lanes for merging, passing, or getting ahead of traffic.

If approved, the code updates would introduce an endorsement system divided into three classes – taxis, shuttles and tours, and human-powered vehicles, like pedicabs. It would not allow taxi operators to hold any other endorsements, a change the memo says is intended to ensure dedicated public taxi service. The new code would also update the existing fare structure to a flat-rate system based on pick-up and drop off zones, rather than metered. 

In other business, the assembly will consider an updated agreement with the Sitka Recreation Foundation for the creation of a Parks and Recreation Master Plan. It will also consider, on second reading, a fee waiver program for some winter events at the city’s convention center. And at the end of the meeting, it will go behind closed doors in an executive session to screen candidates for the municipal administrator position. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.

For a small fire department like Sitka’s, volunteers are incredibly important. There are currently 14 paid staff and about 80 to 90 volunteers on on the roster. Interim Fire Chief Brian McLaughlin joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss the Sitka Fire Department’s staffing situation, how to become a volunteer, how to practice fire safety and be prepared for outdoor activities, when to call 911, and recent emergency responses in Sitka. Listen to their conversation here:

The filing period for Sitka’s municipal election closed at 5 p.m. Friday (8-7-26), and three more candidates jumped into the race just ahead of the deadline.

Thursday evening, Lisa Lane filed to run for the mayor’s chair. She joins assembly members Kevin Mosher and Thor Christianson who filed earlier this month. 

Mary Ann Hall was the latest candidate to throw her hat in the ring Friday afternoon for one of two open seats on the Sitka Assembly. She joins Darrell Windsor, Sherri Blankenship, and incumbent JJ Carlson in the race.

Recent Sitka School Board member Matt Potter filed for a full term on the board Friday, joining fellow board members Phil Burdick and Kat Richards in the race for three open seats.

Raven News has reached out to all new candidates for interviews and will air those conversations over the next week.

Sitka’s Municipal Election is Tuesday, October 6.

Matt Potter filed to run for a seat on the Sitka School Board on Friday (8-7-26). Potter has worked as a school administrator and teacher across Alaska, including in the Sitka School District. He spoke with KCAW shortly after filing about his interest in serving on the board. Listen to the conversation here:

KCAW: You have thrown your hat in the ring for a seat on the Sitka School Board. You’re currently a member, you were appointed last month, but you’re vying for a full term. Why why are you running for a seat on the board?

Potter: I’ve decided to run for school board because I and my family have been in Sitka for almost 10 years now. I first came to Sitka as the assistant principal at Blatchley Middle School, and we’ve kind of made it our home. We’ve a couple times have had to leave because of job opportunities, and funding cuts in education, and that kind of stuff. But really, this is our home, and my kids or my boys are both at the age where one’s going to be in third grade, one’s going to start kindergarten next year. I want to be able to kind of shape the way that their education is as they move through the Sitka School District, and everything that I have seen, everything I’ve been a part of in Sitka, we have a really great educational system. We have awesome staff members, and awesome teachers, and I want to be able to be a part of that, and help shape as we’re going forward, especially with the the way funding in education on the state level has been trending in the last couple of years. I want to be able to make sure that I have a voice in how that money and how those budgets are made, but I also want to be able to have a platform for advocacy on that statewide level as well. So I think that being a part of the school board is really going to kind of help me do both of those things.

KCAW: And can you talk a little bit about what experiences you you have that are going to inform your work on the board the most?

Potter: I have been in education my whole adult life. I started as a teacher in Anchorage, and my first administrative job was up north of Fairbanks, and then after that, that’s when I moved to Sitka as the AP at Blatchley. I was then the the principal at Seward Middle School in Seward. I came back and I was at Mt. Edgecumbe for a couple years as an assistant principal there, and I spent the last year in Oregon as a director of a middle school director of a charter school down there. So I feel like coming onto the school board with a background in education, but also a background in education that’s not just with the Sitka School District, but it’s kind of statewide and in multiple states as well. [It] kind of gives me that overarching view of how the education system works, both the city level, the state level, but also kind of nationally as well. And I think that’ll kind of help me inform my decisions as as we move forward, especially with the budgeting process, because it’s always such a big issue for the school board and for the school district as a whole.

KCAW: Can you expand a little bit more on what your goals would be if you were elected to the board for a full term?

Potter: Yeah, and you know, I don’t have one specific goal that I have in mind. I just want to be able to serve the school district any way possible, and now it’s going to be on the school board and help inform the decisions that are made, so that that both my family, my sons, as well as the students in the Sitka School District as a whole get the best education that they can get. I mean, because really, at the end of the day, right, that’s why everybody is in education, is on the school board, is because we want what’s best for kids, and I think this is the way that I can help direct that.

Sitka Public Library and Outer Coast are hosting the second annual Big Ideas Book Club, which will explore American history, including the Early Republic, the 19th century, the Great Depression, and the 1960s, through weekly readings, viewings, and discussions. Meetings will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-7:30 p.m. at the library, from Aug. 18 to Sept. 24. Margot O’Connell, adult services librarian, and Garrett Faulkner from Outer Coast, joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss the return of the book club. Listen to their conversation here:

On July 2, a Sitka Grand Jury indicted McIntyre on five felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse images. He is currently in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau awaiting his next court hearing on September 22. 

McIntyre was one of seven Sitkans indicted in June and July. Other charges ranged from assault to theft and criminal mischief.  

On May 28, officers responded to a 911 call from a Sitkan who reported yelling and pounding on the glass of a nearby residence. They said a person who lived in the home had previously warned them that she was being stalked, and asked them to call the police if they heard any disturbance at her house. Police arrived and heard yelling inside the residence. A man came outside, and said he’d been attacked in his sleep by 34-year-old Cody Kinsella, who had allegedly broken into the home. Police say the victim had a broken nose, several lacerations on his face and an injured foot. 

On June 4, a grand jury indicted Kinsella on two counts of assault and one count of burglary, all felonies.

The same week, 41-year-old Sheena Vaughn was meeting with her probation officer to provide a urine sample as a condition of her probation. The officer allegedly discovered Vaughn attempting to falsify the test. Police say Vaughn then admitted to using fentanyl a few days prior. On June 18, a grand jury indicted Vaughn on one felony count of tampering with evidence.  

On May 17, around 1:30 a.m. Sitka Police responded to the scene of a single-vehicle rollover on Sawmill Creek Road near Shotgun Alley. They found the car with a passenger inside– he was uninjured but unable to exit the vehicle. They soon found the alleged driver, then 19-year-old Derek Hammack, walking along Sawmill Creek road a short distance from the collision scene. Police say Hammack appeared impaired by alcohol use. Both men were taken to the hospital to be evaluated, and police obtained a warrant allowing them to take a sample of Hammack’s blood. The blood alcohol content exceeded the legal limit. Hammack had two prior DUI convictions in the past decade, making his DUI indictment on July 9 a Class C felony.

Police also made several arrests on charges of theft and criminal mischief this summer. On July 2, a grand jury indicted 42-year-old Derrick Taylor on one felony count of criminal mischief, after he allegedly slashed someone’s tires at their residence on Sawmill Creek Road. Security footage showed Taylor puncturing the tires on April 17.

On July 9, a Sitka Grand Jury indicted 67-year-old Mitchell Widick on one count of felony theft. According to court documents, on July 7, police responded to a domestic disturbance at Widick’s mother’s home. Widick said his mother was attempting to evict him, and believed she should be hospitalized. Widick was arrested for allegedly assaulting his mother earlier that morning. As police were taking him into custody, he threw a pile of cash and cards on the ground outside the Sitka Police Department. The items ended up being the contents of his mother’s wallet. 

It wasn’t the only time last month that police tracked down discarded stolen property. On July 23, police say 59-year-old Curtis Nelson asked an officer parked at the airport to remove a barnacle boot from his windshield. A barnacle boot is a parking enforcement device that attaches to windshields rather than locking the tires. According to a sworn police statement, Nelson had parked in a handicapped section of the Sitka airport but said he had forgotten to hang his handicap placard on his windshield. However, police say the barnacle had been placed on Nelson’s window two days prior.

Police told Nelson that he would need to speak to airport staff to remove the barnacle. Nelson then allegedly left the airport with the barnacle. Police tracked down the coordinates of the missing barnacle to the cold storage building on Katlian Street, but could not find the missing device, which is valued at around $3000. Several days later, the Sitka Fire Department found the barnacle about 100 feet from the seawall, using an underwater rover.

On July 30, Nelson was indicted on one count of felony theft, and one felony count of criminal mischief.

KCAW has reached out to defendants’ attorneys for comment.