The death of two Yakutat residents last week (6-20-11) brings to seven the number of commercial fishermen killed this year in Alaska – and the season is just getting started. The fact that all seven lost their lives in open boats – and all were wearing life jackets -- has caught the attention of agencies involved in marine safety. There is consensus that it’s time for renewed focus on safety training for the small-boat fleet.
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An explosives team from Elmendorf Air Force Base traveled to the Southeast community of Kake this week (Thu 6-24-11) to examine an unexploded artillery shell. The bomb is not of recent origin. In fact, experts believe it is a Civil War-era device fired at the village from a US Navy warship in 1869.
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Joel Curtis is the Warning and Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Juneau Forecast Office.
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The National Weather Service’s forecast office in Juneau has introduced some new tools on its website that provide unprecedented detail on what’s happening with the weather around Southeast. But the new features are not just bells and whistles. Meteorologists themselves are relying more and more on graphic tools to generate the forecasts that we read in the paper or hear on the radio every day.
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The National Park Service and the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center may have come to terms over a dispute that led the two organizations to part company after 42 years. During a rally this afternoon (6-23-11) at the park, representatives of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood voiced their objections to the cultural center’s planned ouster from the park’s visitor center. Park officials would not comment on a rumored reconciliation, except to say that the organizations were preparing a joint news release. KCAW’s Emily Bender spoke with demonstrators while they sang, held signs, and awaited official word on the cultural center’s reinstatement:
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Ben Grussendorf, a former speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives and a former mayor of Sitka, died Friday morning. He was 69.
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Sitkans are being urged to cut back on electricity usage because of low water levels at Blue and Green lakes, where the city’s hydro power is generated.
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As communities brace to see which of this year’s state capital projects survive the governor’s veto pen, a proposed energy development on Chichagof Island is already generating controversy. Pegmatite Mountain is a geothermal site on the island. While it’s not yet known how much hot water there is, and how much electricity it could produce, proponents believe Pegmatite is ideally situated to serve three villages with this new, renewable, and relatively inexpensive form of power. The trouble is, Pegmatite – though green – is still development, and Chichagof Island residents are divided over whether the benefits are worth the risks to their remote lifestyle.
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Sitka Fine Arts Camp is underway on the campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College. The opening of camp earlier this month is just the latest step in the transformation of a campus that, just four years ago, faced an uncertain future.
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The Assembly put off a proposal last night to change the way the city distributes money to nonprofit organizations. It’s a topic that’s been at the center of an ongoing debate at the Assembly table.
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