Author: Ed Ronco, KCAW

46-year-old Jane Reth received a sentence of 55 years in prison, with 19 years suspended. That leaves 36 years to be served, but with good behavior, she could be released in 24 years. The grisly 1988 killing was solved by state cold-case investigators who used a combination of a recorded phone call and DNA evidence.

Sitka’s municipal administrator has released his recommendations on how to spend money the city gets from a tax on cruise ship passengers. Half of the 10 projects on the list were recommended, and the other half – including possibly locating a visitors center inside the library – were not recommended.

A former Sitka National Historical Park ranger died last week in a traffic accident en route to a new posting in Skagway. Julie Weir served in Sitka in 2005 and 2006 as a park law enforcement officer. She was thirty-nine years old. According to Dusty Kidd at Sitka National Historical Park, Weir was deeply involved in the community during her relatively short time here. She was active in Sitka Trailworks, the Sitka Conservation Society, and the Sitka Fire Department.

The Sitka School District is closer to balancing its budget, after a work session Tuesday night. The board worked with some of the numbers to pare down a deficit in excess of $1 million. But the board’s efforts are dependent on a lot of assumptions coming true.

Possible cuts within the Sitka School District could become clearer during a school board work session Tuesday night. The board has a $1.3 million gap to close, and will be discussing some of the options at 6 p.m. Tuesday inside the District Office Board Room.

A former educator at Mt. Edgecumbe High School is helping to steer students into technical careers. Todd Bergman left Edgecumbe three years ago to head up the Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium, known as APICC. Bergman spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Chamber of Commerce during this week’s World of Work fair in Sitka.

The Choose Respect mural project, one of four ideas to emerge from the 2010 Sitka Health Summit, is accepting proposals from artists. Committee members Gretchen Clarke, Julia Smith, and Joe D'Arienzo discussed the project on the Morning Interview with KCAW's Robert Woolsey.

Bears getting into trash cans has long been a problem in Sitka, but in recent years it seems to have gotten worse. The city wants to test out a new program where residents in the Indian River Road neighborhood take their garbage to a centralized neighborhood site, with stronger trash cans. The Sitka Assembly received a briefing Tuesday night (2-22-11) from members of the group devising the project.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was in Sitka on Wednesday, where she heard from representatives of about 13 community agencies and organizations. They urged her to push for continued federal support for the Blue Lake hydro project expansion, and to keep federal money flowing to Sitka.