Author: Robert Woolsey, KCAW

Blair McMillen describes the life of a concert pianist as a series of "blind dates," depending on the instrument. He says there are "great Steinways and very great Steinways." McMillen and piano technician Peter Sumner will host a screening of the documentary "Note by Note" at 7 PM tonight (Thu 1-17-11) in the Sitka Performing Arts Center. A Q&A will follow. The pair discussed pianos with KCAW's Robert Woolsey.

The Center for Community may be Sitka’s largest least-known institution. Director Connie Sipe filled in the Chamber of Commerce this afternoon (Wed 1-26-11) about the center’s role in the state. Sipe referred to the Center for Community as a “stealth agency.”

A bear sanctuary and tourist attraction in Sitka has a new five-year lease with the city. The Fortress of the Bear will continue to pay $50 per month to occupy property along Sawmill Creek Road. The deal also includes additional square footage for the property.

The Sitka Assembly approved a two-year extension to its contract with True Alaska Bottling, or TAB.

An $8 million plant to process fish waste could be built in Sitka, if a plan proposed for the Sawmill Cove Industrial Park moves forward.

Every new session of Congress is a clean slate. Bills that didn’t pass in the previous two-year cycle disappear. It’s up to members of Congress to dust off their old bills and reintroduce them.One of those that will soon get new life is the controversial Sealaska lands bill, which would give the Alaska Native Corporation the option to select different lands in the Tongass National Forest. Exactly what form the bill will take will soon be seen. This is our final report in a six-part series on the legislation.

We’re taking an in-depth look this month at Sealaska’s lands bill, which will soon be reintroduced in Congress. Among its components is the selection of about 200 sacred sites. In part 5 of our series on the legislation, KCAW’s Ed Ronco explains what the sacred sites are, and why they’re included in the bill.

Participants in the 2010 Sitka Health Summit have hit the ground running – literally. One goal of last fall’s summit was to plant 200 apple trees around Sitka. So far, forty of the trees are already spoken for – if not in the soil yet – and work is well underway on the summit’s three other goals. The group updated the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on its progress on Wednesday (1-19-11).

On Feb. 1, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp will take possession of the core campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College. Campers won’t arrive until the summer, but in at least one building, the lights are already on. Work is underway to re-open the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center, which closed late last year.

In Southeast Alaska it is easy to think about the value of salmon in dollars per pound. Fish prices are as common in conversation as the weather. But most people don’t think about how the value of a salmon translates into jobs and expenditure outside the industry itself. The sport fishing and conservation advocacy group Trout Unlimited is trying to change that. The organization recently commissioned a study that attempts to measure the yearly overall economic output of the commercial, sport, and subsistence salmon fisheries for Southeast.