Firefighters tamped out a fire at the Sitka Hotel on Friday night.

Around 10 p.m. on Friday, the fire hall received reports of smoke in the building of the Sitka Hotel alongside an alert from the hotel’s fire alarm company. In an interview with KCAW, Acting Fire Chief Rob Janik said 18 fire hall personnel, including nine staff and nine volunteers, responded.

When they arrived on the scene, they found light smoke throughout the building, but could not identify where the smoke was coming from. They explored each floor of the building from top to bottom, using thermal imaging detectors to search for hotspots in the walls. 

Shortly before 11:30 p.m., they located the smoke’s source inside the wall between the hotel restaurant’s kitchen and bar area on the first floor. Janik said the fire hadn’t burned through the wall yet, but the paint in the area was beginning to bubble. The team used tools to tear the wall apart and started applying water to the blaze. Janik said it took around five minutes to get the fire under control, but they had to remove more of the wall afterwards to ensure they extinguished the entire source of the burn. 

No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Janik said Friday’s response was a team effort, and was grateful for support from police, city administration, the city’s electric department, and volunteers who helped ensure the problem was safely solved.

Janik asks that Sitkans pay attention when they hear a fire alarm, take appropriate action like calling the fire department, and evacuate the area. 

When the Gary Paxton Industrial Park board met on Thursday (7-16-26), it approved an agreement and waiver for owners of uninsured boats. The document would allow owners to haul their uninsured vessels, as long as they agree to assume financial responsibility if the boat is damaged or spills fuel during the lifting process.

The owner must also pony up a substantial deposit. Board Member Casey Campbell said that was the only part giving him pause. 

“That $5,000 is going to be hard for people to deal with, and I almost feel like we just take it out. I don’t know what it’s gonna get us,” Campbell said. “We all know it’s not gonna solve an environmental spill or anything like that. So it’s kind of like we’re doing it because it feels good, but then it’s not gonna help the people who are trying to get hauled out.”

Park Director Garry White said while the money wouldn’t cover much more than a small spill, it was important to include it. 

“If there’s a big event, it’s not going to cover that, obviously. And then, this document has recourse to go after…whether the recourse is achievable or not,” White said. “But it also shows that some of these boat owners will have skin in the game, and understand that there is some issue going forward to the citizens in town if there is a spill.”

At the previous meeting, the board asked White to investigate whether any insurance companies could help cover the upfront cost for vessel owners through a loan, or bond. White said he’d had little luck courting insurance companies, but a private individual had expressed interest in providing bonds.

The board made one change to the document, adding that the $5000 spill fee could be covered with cash or bond, then approved the waiver unanimously. White said now city staff will work with Highmark Marine, the haulout operator, to negotiate adding the waiver to their operating agreement. Ultimately the Sitka Assembly must approve any changes to the haulout contract. 

Southeast Alaska’s commercial king salmon fishery will remain open until further notice. The July 1 king opener for trollers, who fish with hook and line, is usually over quickly– it typically lasts anywhere from a handful of days to a week. But this year, with two weeks down, trollers are only at the halfway mark toward catching their target.

Grant Hagerman is the Southeast region’s commercial troll management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In an interview with KCAW on Monday (7-13-26) Hagerman said in the past two weeks, trollers have caught roughly half of the 84,000 allotted Chinook salmon.

“Fishing is a little bit slower, definitely,” Hagerman said. “But we have fewer boats. There’s less effort this year as well. So a combination of those two has has prolonged this longer than what we’d anticipated, preseason.”

Hagerman said about 400 permit holders have participated in the king salmon fishery so far this year, compared close to 470 last year. He said with the current fleet size it could take up to two more weeks to catch the remaining kings, extending an already unusually long opener. But fishery managers are taking things day-by-day, and Hagerman said that projection could change, especially if other fisheries slow down. 

“There’s roughly 80 to 90 [trollers] that are down in West Behm Canal and in Neets Bay Terminal Harvest area that are targeting chum salmon,” Hagerman says. “If that should, you know, drop off, we may get more of those vessels back out targeting king salmon, which could speed things up.”

The price of chum salmon is up again this year. While chum salmon are less valuable than king salmon, per-pound, the chum fishery can target far more salmon, and Hagerman said the chum in Neets Bay are actually bigger than Chinook. 

Prices are up for troll-caught king salmon too. Hagerman said it’s the highest July price for the fish that he can recall at just over $9 dollars a pound. 

“Preseason we were kind of anticipating that that might draw more vessels out for for fishing, but [that’s] just not the case. You know fuel prices are still fairly high,” he said. “If the boats aren’t out doing as well as they need to and they’re burning fuel, then they may choose to do something else, either tie off at the dock, or go try chum salmon, which has been pretty successful so far.”

The number of kings Alaska trollers can catch is determined by the Pacific Salmon Treaty, an agreement between the US and Canada that governs the harvest.  

Hagerman says the July fishery will remain open until further notice, and the state department will try to give the fleet as much notice as possible before they implement a closure. The fishery will open for a second time in August for trollers to target the remaining treaty kings. 

Ystad is a fisherman who served on the Sitka Assembly from 2022 to 2025. In his letter, he says it would be an honor to try to fill Pike’s shoes. He said while his summers are often busy, he is committed to staying engaged and attending the meetings, but he would not seek re-election in the fall.

Plank is an accountant and business owner. He currently serves as the chair of the city’s tourism commission. In his letter, he says if he’s appointed he would approach every issue with “independence, common sense and a commitment to transparency.” He says he would support policies that encourage responsible economic growth, strengthen businesses, maintain critical infrastructure, promote public safety, and keep Sitka affordable and desirable.

The assembly will vote to appoint one of the candidates, and if the person is present, they’ll be sworn in immediately. They’ll serve in the role until the municipal election. 

PFAS and other pollutants are also on the assembly’s agenda tonight. The group will consider an offer from David Grossman and Associates. The Florida-based law firm has offered to help the city test and map for the forever chemicals and other pollutants at no cost. The law firm would also be able to prosecute and seek damages on the city’s behalf, on a contingency basis. 

Also tonight, the assembly will consider a new lease for the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association. NSRAA wants to continue leasing two lots at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park on a combined long-term lease at a below-market rate. The assembly rejected an earlier version of the long-term lease in April, and while assembly members were unanimous in their support for a low and stable lease rate at that meeting, some wanted to re-consider the lease with revisions. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly. 

“Childcare is one of our initiatives that the Sitka Chamber has been focused on for the last couple years, because we heard from all of our membership that it, this is a challenge for them,” said Executive Director Rachel Roy at a recent meeting.

Roy invited two childcare policy experts to join her for the virtual summer speaker series on Wednesday (7-8-26). Melinda Garrett and Sheri Penney, from the national Bipartisan Policy Center, shared information on successful childcare funding models enacted across the country. 

They focused on three distinct frameworks, like the “tri-share” model which splits the cost of childcare between the employer, employee, and a third party funder. Garrett said when they look at how to finance childcare, they’re looking for ideas that are both sustainable and adaptable on different scales. 

“We know a lot of times we see a lot of band aid, or triage, funding to childcare,” Garrett said. “So when we look at financing models, we want to figure out durable funding…that can last beyond a budget cycle or even a political administration.”

Penney and Garrett will be in Sitka in early August to participate in a local childcare funding summit.
You can listen to their full presentation here:

At its meeting on Wednesday, the group discussed a set of survey results from parents, students, and teachers, and honed in on a recurring issue highlighted in the feedback – communication.

Gretchen Kelly is a parent representative on the committee. She said there were times when she did not know her child’s location, after changes in student activity  travel plans were not communicated with her. She said communication is crucial at a boarding school like Mt. Edgecumbe, when parents are often hundreds of miles away. 

“Communication to parents from any school setting is super important,” Kelly said. “Parents are always going to want it, but when we can’t see what the kids are doing, when we’re not there to hear, ‘Oh, hey, we can only take 10 kids instead of 20,’ then the communication aspect becomes more important, not less.”

Dorothy Chase, the committee’s alumni representative, said the need for better communication extends to academics. Parents want to hear from teachers more often, and not just when their kids are struggling.

“When my children were, my daughters were there…I used to get phone calls, just telling, giving an update, and saying, ‘Oh, it’s so wonderful to have your child in class,'” Chase said. “It doesn’t have to always be a negative thing. We don’t need to get phone calls that are just negative.”

The committee discussed several areas where communication can be refined, from teachers and administrators increasing parent outreach, to residential staff improving its dialogue with students.

Joel Isaak is the committee’s tribal representative. He said parents and students are engaging with three branches of the school experience- academic, residential, and administrative. That makes communication more complicated. Isaak said the school needs to develop a streamlined approach so families can navigate all three. And since most parents aren’t in Sitka, Isaak said they needed to create virtual spaces for parents to engage. 

“If you’re in a community where you’re going to sporting events locally, or going into the school, you start to network with the parents who you might see at a performance, or whatever it is,” Isaak said. “How do we virtually create that, or how do you distance create those types of networks when you’re interacting with those three facets of Mount Edgecumbe?”

Several tools for improving communication were referenced, from specific apps the school can adopt, to mass emails and newsletters.

Susan McCauley is a Mat-Su-based educator and administrator acting as a co-facilitator for the ad hoc committee meetings. She said instituting an app at her school was a game changer. But, reflecting on the comments, she said the communication issues seemed two-fold. The method of communication needs work, but also policies and ethics behind it. 

“Just because somebody implements a way, a method, whether that’s a program or something else, does not mean that those other things happen automatically,” McCauley said. “There still have to be expectations for when routine regular communication is supposed to occur.”

The ad hoc committee will meet monthly this summer with plans to make recommendations about school improvements to the state board this fall. Its next meeting on August 12 will focus on residential life. The ad hoc meetings are virtual and open to the public. 

“What we’re really striving for as we move forward past these sort of a structural meeting today, is a real organic open dialogue where folks can share their feelings,” Reid said. “We’re going to share a lot of data that we’ll be going over to determine what our recommendations will be come October, but, but our hopes is that is that we have a type of setting where everyone’s invited to have their voice being heard

The committee is made up of parents, students, an alumni representative, a tribal representative, a state board of education member, and a member of the school’s advisory board.

Reid co-facilitated the meeting with Susan McCauley, a Mat-Su school administrator and policy expert. They gave committee members a homework assignment– to review parents, student and staff feedback from a recent quality of education survey to inform their discussion at the next meeting.

“Some of you have multiple hats. You’re an alumni, you’re a parent,” she said. “Some of you have perspectives of working in education yourself. We certainly have a student perspective, so it isn’t that the survey data alone is going to inform the recommendations of the committee. Your experiences, your opinions will inform those recommendations.”

The ad hoc committee will meet for the second time on Wednesday, July 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. on Zoom. The meeting is open to the public. Click here to attend.

The Sitka School Board is back to full capacity. When the board met on Tuesday (6-30-26), two new members were sworn in to fill vacant seats.

Kat Richards and Matthew Potter were the only applicants for two Sitka School Board seats that opened in May, when former board members Amanda Williams and Tom Williams stepped down [link]. After a month-long application period, the board announced Richards’ and Potters’ candidacy on June 23, giving the public a week to weigh in on their potential appointments. 

At a special meeting on June 30, the board interviewed them both. Richards works in healthcare and owns her own business. She recently accepted a job with the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium as a nurse educator, leaving her job as the district’s school nurse. She said her experience in that  role familiarized her with the school’s challenges, and would inform her work on the board. And it’s not the first time she’s sought a seat, and she’s looking to get involved.

“This is definitely community focused. I mean, there’s not much more community focused than with our youth, and so I think that is really why I’m doing it,” Richards told the board.

Potter is an educator and administrator who has worked in Sitka and schools around the state. He said he and his family are moving back to Sitka this summer.

“I think that will kind of…help me be able to have a different perspective,” he said of his experience in education. “But like I said, it really, it all comes down to, I want my kids to have the best school, the best district possible.”

When asked what he’d like to change about the district, Potter said he’d like to see a “coherent overall plan” and communicate that plan with the community. 

“I don’t think that we’re just going to see the increases of, you know, 20 or 30 or 40% in our school district budgets coming in anytime soon. So kind of acknowledging that this is the new normal, and figuring out how we can work within it,” he said. “But have a plan, knowing that this is what it’s going to look like for the foreseeable future.”

Richards also said she thinks the board could work on its action planning for the future, but values its transparency. 

“I really feel that the community members, the students…that they have a say in it,” she said. “They have the ability to reach out and be part of the process, and I think that’s a very big strength.”

After interviewing the candidates, the board voted unanimously to appoint them to the vacant seats. Both candidates were sworn in over Zoom. They will serve on the board until the municipal election in October. 

View the full agenda here

The Sitka School Board will meet on June 30 at 5 p.m. in the district office board room to interview the candidates and vote on their appointments. The board will also take up the agenda from its regular meeting earlier this month, which was postponed.