Author: Melissa Marconi Wentzel

Southeast Alaska’s regional Native Corporation, Sealaska, is making major changes to a controversial lands transfer bill. While the Sitka Tribe of Alaska has endorsed the bill, the legislation has met significant opposition from the wider Sitka community. Hoping to earn broader support, Sealaska has withdrawn its claims to two land selections within the Sitka Community Use Area and is doing away with 15-mile access zones around Native Enterprise Sites.

About fifteen Sitkans turned out Wednesday evening (2-20-08) to hear one of Gov Palin's three gasline teams explain the basics of AGIA -- the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. The team covering Southeast this week included Commissioner of Revenue Pat Galvin, and Kurt Gibson, the deputy director of the Division of Oil & Gas.

History has just turned a corner in Southeast. A little over a month after two electric ZENN cars debuted in Kodiak, one of the “Zero Emmission No Noise” vehicles has appeared in Sitka. But, as Robert Woolsey reports, the new ZENN is not the first electric car in Sitka. That prize was awarded over thirty years ago.

A massive snowslide sometime in the past week has blocked Blue Lake Road. It’s possible that warming temperatures over the past few days are as much to blame for the avalanche as the heavy snows earlier in the month.

The assembly's decision to give Silver Bay Seafoods five acres of industrial waterfront property in Sawmill Cove had few fans among the public who testified at Friday's (2-15-08) meeting. An excerpt of some of the testimony.

For several assembly members on Friday (2-15-08), Silver Bay Seafoods CEO Rich Riggs's background as public works director gave them assurance to move ahead on the dock sale. The situation with Mayor Marko Dapcevich -- a close friend of Riggs's -- was less clear. Dapcevich opted to participate in deliberations on the issue, despite a challenge from another assembly member that he could not be impartial. Here's how Dapcevich and Riggs tried to clear the air:

A total eclipse of the moon will occur this evening (2/20). It will be visible to about half the planet, including most of Alaska. Alaskans will be able to view the eclipse while the moon rises low in the eastern sky. In Sitka, moonrise will be at 5:04 this evening. Assuming clear skies, Sitkans will be able to see the moon enter into the total eclipse one hour after moonrise, at 6 PM.

Three-time Alaska Ultrasport winner Steve Reifenstuhl was a top contender in this year's Yukon Artic Ultra, a human endurance event along the Yukon Quest Trail. Reifenstuhl, who by day is the 57-year-old operations manager of the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association in Sitka, was first across the line in the marathon-length and 100-mile portions of the race – which typically covers 320 miles. But this year, extreme temperatures as low as minus 54-degrees led race organizers to keep the thirty runners, bikers, and skiers on a 50-mile loop between Whitehorse and Rivendell for most of the event. Reifenstuhl talks with KCAWs Robert Woolsey about race tactics that depend absolutely on staying dry, and staying fuelled -- with melted ice cream.

The city of Sitka Friday night (2-15-08) signed off on a deal that will hand over 5-acres of waterfront, tidelands, a warehouse, and dock to a one-year-old startup company. Silver Bay Seafoods began processing pink salmon last summer in Sawmill Cove, the former home of the APC pulp mill. Citing worries over a possible interruption in its operations while the city repaired the old pulp dock and warehouse, Silver Bay has offered to take on the multi-million dollar job itself – in exchange for land and buildings it now leases.

A proposed neighborhood bear ordinance received a favorable reaction from the public at its unveiling Wednesday night (2-13-08) in Sitka. As Leah Mann reports, local, state, and federal agencies believe the time is right to try and control the number of bear fatalities in Sitka.