Author: Ed Ronco

Sitka’s mayoral election is headed to another recount.

Allen M. Brackley is the lead scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station's Sitka Wood Utilization Center. He addressed the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on 10-13-10.

A longtime Sitka couple is in Washington DC today (10-14-10) to accept one of the Forest Service’s highest honors. Chuck and Alice Johnstone will receive the Bob Marshall Champions of Wilderness Award on behalf of the Sitka Conservation Society. The award will be presented by Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell.

An historic totem pole in Sitka will remain in place a little longer. High winds Tuesday (10-11-10) prevented the lowering of the Baranof pole in Sitka’s Totem Square. Despite the weather, a small crowd of clan leaders, tribal elders, and others gathered to commemorate the seventy-year-old totem, and to acknowledge the controversial role it has played in the community’s history.

The multipurpose field at the city’s Kimsham complex has been named after a member of the Coast Guard who died in a July helicopter accident.

Thor Christianson and Terry Blake are now members of the Sitka Assembly.

The growth of “virtual education” in the state has spurred a building boom in Sitka. The Sitka campus of the University of Alaska Southeast is close to opening 19,000 square feet of additional classroom space, much of wired with state-of-the-art tools for delivering distance education.

Alaska Communication Systems technicians are still trying to figure out what caused the loss of some internet service in Sitka this afternoon. ACS customers were unable to use the internet between 12:20 and 1:15 in the afternoon Monday. As many as 1,000 business and residential customers may have lost DSL Internet and wireless data service. Cell phone users were unaffected by the outage. Heather Cavanaugh, director of corporate communications for ACS, told KCAW that although technicians quickly restored service, they had yet to determine the exact cause of the outage.

Governor Sean Parnell appointed two Sitkans to state commissions this month.