Author: Gayle Young

Gayle Young is the coordinator of the FASD diagnostic team at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. SEARHC will host a free community presentation on FASDs entitled "FASD and Our Community -- Hopeful Outcomes for All of Us" on Thu Jan 6 from 7-9 PM at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska says Mike Baines has been sworn in as a member of the Tribal Council.

Understanding the bulk water situation has been made more complicated recently by the number of personalities and companies trying to capitalize on Sitka’s abundant supply of fresh water. Here is a by-no-means comprehensive update of where things stand, water-wise, at Sawmill Cove Industrial Park.

True Alaska Bottling has missed its contractual deadline for shipping bulk water out of Sitka – again. The lapse does not have Sitka officials particularly worried. TAB missed its deadlines in 2008 and 2009, too

The priest removed from his post at St. Gregory Catholic Church in Sitka is scheduled to leave Alaska tomorrow (12-11-10) for evaluation at a location in the lower-48 states. Father Edmund Penisten resigned the pastorship of St. Gregory shortly after he was suspended by Bishop Edward Burns, leader of the Juneau Diocese, which oversees the Sitka parish.

Jason Abbott will be at least sixty-six years of age before he is eligible for parole. The Alaska State Court of Appeals on Wednesday (12-8-10) upheld the 140-year sentence imposed on Abbott by the superior court in February. In 2008 Abbott, then eighteen, stabbed to death his two grandparents, an aunt, and her boyfriend in their Sitka home. The three-member panel of appellate judges concluded that the sentence was consistent for cases of murder involving multiple victims.

Late last month, George Paul was removed from the nine-member Tribal Council of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The backlash against that removal has caused division among the eight remaining members of the council, who got an earful from tribal citizens on Wednesday night, at a meeting that lasted nearly eight hours.

Soloist Muriel Sadleir-Hart led off "One Magic Christmas" for Sitka High Vocal Jazz, performing Tuesday night at the annual Winter Concert. Sadleir-Hart was one of 130 students who took the stage at the Sitka Performing Arts Center, in six different groups including Symphonic Band, Treble and Concert choirs, the Jazz Band, and a brand new “Man Choir.”

The Sitka-based Coast Guard Cutter Maple, along with the National Data Buoy Center, are making plans to work on a weather buoy that has stopped functioning. NOAA’s Cape Edgecumbe buoy stopped working for unknown reasons on November 20th. A helicopter from Air Station Sitka flew over the area recently to take a look. The buoy was reported as functioning, but not transmitting data, during the flyover.

The Coast Guard is crediting a Sitka-based dive boat and another vessel with saving the lives of two dive fishermen near Craig yesterday (12-8-10). According to a news release, the Sitka-based Death Barge was seventeen miles southwest of Craig, in Port Santa Cruz Bay, when its crew observed that the fishing vessel Izzy B was on fire. The Death Barge notified the Coast Guard of the emergency. The Izzy B’s crew of two were in the water at the time, diving for geoduck. A second Good Samaritan vessel, the BJ, was also nearby and retrieved the divers.