Author: Robert Woolsey

The Sitka Ranger District has the green light to move ahead on the restoration of fish habitat in the Sitkoh River on Southeast Chichagof Island. The $290,000 project will attempt to repair damage done to the watershed by logging practices prior to the implementation of the Tongass Land Management Plan – or TLMP – in 1979.

In an emergency, the reaction of most people is to call the police. And now, during certain emergencies in Sitka, the police might be able to call you. The Sitka Police Department is using technology that enables authorities to send emergency messages directly to the phones of citizens who might be in harm’s way.

Alaska leads the nation in diagnoses of FASD, or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, but the problem, according to experts, is surprisingly widespread. Featured speakers at a public presentation in Sitka Thursday night included Morgan Fawcett, an eighteen-year-old Native American flute player and recording artist who suffers from FASD, and Deb Evensen, an FASD educator and founder of FAS Alaska. Fawcett also spoke to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday (1-5-11).

The transfer of the Sheldon Jackson campus to Alaska Arts Southeast in Sitka is surprisingly good news for some people with the strongest ties to the former college. Nancy Yaw Davis lives in Sitka with her husband, close by the campus that was her childhood home. Her father, Les Yaw, was superintendent of Sheldon Jackson School from 1931 to 1944, and then president of the college from 1944 until 1952.

The former pastor of the Catholic Church in Sitka will not face criminal charges in connection to questionable material found on Parish computers in November.

It’s official: The core campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College is being transferred to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. The arts camp, which runs programs for 500 students every summer, will take ownership of the central campus on Feb. 1. A ceremonial transfer will happen when the trustees hold their final meeting on campus March 12.

A city report details the costs from a Sitka power outage that began Oct. 12. It also mentions some hard lessons learned, and some disasters averted.

Sheldon Jackson College is finally out of debt -- almost. Alaska Growth Capital announced today (Tue 1-4-11) that it is releasing the balance on loans made to SJC over the past decade – loans which ultimately drove the school under.

Commercial salmon trollers have until Feb. 25 to apply for money meant to offset a drop in king salmon catches allowed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

Four Sitka men were indicted earlier last week on charges stemming from a Dec. 20 burglary and shooting.