Author: Shaleece Haas

Thanks to the city of Sitka – and the cruise ship tax – you can now update your MySpace page from the lawn at Totem Square or download music while leaning on the wall across from Ernie’s. Last week, the city launched a public internet program and soon, free wireless will be available in downtown Sitka -- from Pioneer Square to Crescent Harbor.

Regional inter-island Ferry service provided by the Inter-island Ferry Authority in Northern Southeast Alaska is no longer an option. During a regular Sitka Assembly meeting on Tuesday, representatives from the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida India Tribes of Alaska urged the assembly to approve a resolution in support of a high priority inter-island ferry initiative but what the Assembly didn’t know was that a Sitka-based company could become the ferry boat operator. KCAW’s Emily Schwing reports.

The Alaska Marine Highway has posted a revised schedule for the coming winter that includes more service to Sitka from the fast ferries. The tradeoff is that the LeConte will continue its current dayboat schedule, and connections between Sitka and the villages will have to be made through Juneau – sometimes requiring a layover of several nights. The school district, on the other hand, could see significant savings.

The Sitka School Board will wait until this fall to take final action on a policy change that would allow some religious promotion in schools. Board members characterized it as a first amendment issue. KCAW’s Emily Schwing Reports.

The swimming pool at the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center has re-opened. The pool was closed over most of the winter for repairs to its pump system. Pool manager Jane Eidler says the city, school district, and Pacific Tower Properties all eventually cooperated to get the pool up and running again. But it was really a couple of talented handy-men – and some outside-the-box thinking – that tackled the problem.

The Alaska Congressional Delegation announced a series of grant awards earlier this month. One of them will go to the redesign and construction of a new Alaska Marine Highway Terminal in Angoon – a project that will change the current Marine Highway system to offer increased fast ferry services between Sitka and other Southeast communities. KCAW’s Emily Schwing reports.

The bells of the Cathedral of Saint Michael the Archangel could ring again after more than 40 years of silence if the Sitka Historical Society can pull off a cleaning and restoration project this summer. Members of the church, the Historical Society and the Sitka National Historic Park climbed to the top of the bell tower to help assess the condition of the bells. KCAW’s Emily Schwing reports.

The fish were biting at Swan Lake last Saturday. And that was a good thing for the young anglers competing in this year’s Junior Trout Derby. More than 100 kids ages 2-12 and their parents turned out for the event, now in its 68th year. In all, competitors caught 206 fish, a derby record.

A pair of orphaned brown bear cubs captured two years ago has settled into their new home at an exhibit in Sitka called “Fortress of the Bear.” With a steady year-round diet, the cubs have grown large for their age. Both are somewhere between three- and four-hundred pounds, and they could easily be mistaken for four-year-olds. This summer offered an opportunity to neuter the brothers, before they reach sexual maturity. And managers at the Fortress last Thursday (6-11-09) decided to seize it.

Kotzebue author Seth Kantner published his first novel, Ordinary Wolves, in 2004. The story followed the lives of a non-Native family who had chosen to make their home in Northwestern Alaska, and to adopt the traditional lifestyle and subsistence practices of the area’s Yupik culture. Ordinary Wolves was an impressive literary debut for an author who grew up home-schooled in sod igloo on the Kobuk River. Kantner won the prestigious Whiting Writers’ Award for the novel, and began work on a second book – this time non-fiction – called Shopping for Porcupine. Kantner will be in Sitka Tuesday (06-15-09), at Kettleson Memorial Library, to read from his new book. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey spoke recently with Kantner about the need to separate fact from fiction in Ordinary Wolves, by writing a memoir: