Author: Robert Woolsey

The Sitka Assembly approved its list of funding requests for capital projects. The list is developed annually and sent to lawmakers in Juneau.

After three years and countless hours of work, the Port Alexander Historical Society has opened a museum. Almost a century ago, the now-tiny community on the southern tip of Baranof called itself “The King Salmon Capital of Alaska” with a population of over two-thousand people. The museum is a rare glimpse into early twentieth-century life along the Southeast coast.

It’s not quite a done deal yet, but more than five acres of tidelands near the Sitka National Historical Park could soon be under the care of the Southeast Alaska Land Trust. The move puts the tidelands into conservation status, which comes with special restrictions about what can and can’t be done. All of this is happening because of a project at Sitka’s Rocky Gutierrez Airport.

It looks like longliners will get to catch more sablefish in 2011. Scientists’ projections are expected to lead to an overall 5 percent increase in the quota for the deep-water species, also called black cod. And Southeast fishermen could see their allocations jump 14 percent.It’s good news for a gear group that includes many halibut fishermen in Southeast, where that fishery’s limit may be cut almost in half.About 835 people have permits to harvest Alaska sablefish, commonly called black cod. Around half of them are in Southeast. And for the past few years, harvest numbers have been down.

The Sitka Public Works Department has over $135-million in capital projects planned over the next five years. A substantial portion of the work is ongoing maintenance and replacement of Sitka’s aging water and road systems, but there are a few big ticket items too, like the expansion of the library and a new police station. Public Works Director Michael Harmon presented a line-by-line analysis of his department’s five-year plan to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday (12-1-10).

A proposal to change the Sitka Assembly vacancies are filled went down to defeat during last night's regular meeting of the Assembly.

The clock is now ticking for the state to appeal its case against Sen. Albert Kookesh and two other men charged with subsistence fishing violations in 2009. Sitka Superior Court Judge David George last Friday (11-26-10), with little comment, denied a motion for reconsideration of his dismissal of the charges. The order triggers a thirty-day period in which the state can file an appeal.