Author: Brian McNitt

Sitkans for Peace and Justice is holding a tax day "Penny Poll" this Thu, April 15, 10AM - 9PM at Kettleson Library. Participants will place pennies in jars representing federal spending priorities. The results of the poll will be sent to Alaska's congressional delegation.

Susan Michaels is a Los Angeles-based television writer who has turned her interest in history into a passion for contra dance and other forms of American folk dancing. Michaels is in Sitka for two weeks teaching workshops at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary. She'll call a community "barn dance" (hay bales not included) on Saturday, Apr 24, 6:30 PM at Harrigan Centennial Hall. With Dorothy Orbison and KCAWs Robert Woolsey.

A ban on smoking in bars and private clubs could advance further through the Sitka Assembly at its regular meeting Tuesday night (4-13). Sitka already has an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places, but bars and private clubs are exempt. The changes being considered tonight would remove that exemption.

The Blessing of the Fleet took place on Sunday at Crescent Harbor. The annual event is sponsored by the Southeast Alaska Women in Fisheries and the Sitka Lutheran Church, though clergy from multiple congregations presided over the hour-long service. KCAW’s Ed Ronco attended, and has this audio postcard:

The fishing vessel Julia Kae has been tied up in Eliason Harbor the last few days, distributing free herring roe-on-branches. It’s the third year for the give-away, which is expected to continue with the boat distributing more roe around 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. KCAW’s Ed Ronco visited the harbor Friday (4-9) afternoon and spoke with people gathering roe. First, though, he talks to the Julia Kae’s captain, Steve Demmert, standing near a giant pile of hemlock branches covered in herring roe:

Sitka has seen its first hummingbird of the spring. The website “Journey North” tracks the annual bird migration in North America. On Monday Blatchley Middle School shop teacher Gary Atkinson recorded a visit by a male Rufous hummingbird to his feeder on Charles Street. Atkinson’s sighting is probably not the first bird to make the epic flight from Central America to Sitka this spring: The warmer, south-facing islands of Jamestown Bay have early berry blossoms, and some residents heard hummingbirds around during the mild weather in mid-March. But Atkinson’s hummer is the first known to stay a while and fuel up for a further push north along the coast. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey talked with Atkinson about his sighting:

A new Web site cataloging humpback whales in Southeast Alaska is online. The University of Alaska Southeast in conjunction with Glacier Bay National Park, has assembled a catalog of flukes, along with other information on humpbacks.

Fred Reeder says the decline in Alaska cruise tourism is personal. Sitka’s former mayor is the local agent for the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, and a spokesman for the newly-organized Alaska Alliance for Cruise Travel, or Alaska ACT. Reeder told the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday (4-7-10) that Alaska ACT now had 700 members. He described it as a grassroots organization created to promote cruise travel in the state – without funding from the cruise lines.

Renovations at Blatchley Middle School might have to wait a bit before getting underway. That’s after bids for the project came in well over the Sitka School District’s estimated cost. It’s also possible the district could move Pacific High School.

The year-long interruption in surgical services at Sitka Community Hospital has ended -- almost. Former SEARHC physician Dr. Richard Wein has opened an office in the clinic area on the first floor of the hospital, and saw his first patients on March 18th. Hospital teams are working to re-start the operating room.