Author: Katherine Rose

The Sitka Assembly has invited a Kodiak-based company to run its new publicly-owned marine haulout – over the strenuous objections of many in the local fleet and marine services industry.

The state will share harvest data from the Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery after all. That’s after participating processors gave the Alaska Department of Fish and Game the green light to share the data with the public. 

Sitka’s commercial herring fishery is smaller this year, and that means fishery reports from the state will be restricted.

The impact of federal funding freezes and job cuts on Sitka’s economy topped the list of concerns when Senator Lisa Murkowski visited the Southeast island community on Wednesday (3-19-25). But community concerns extended beyond that, as was highlighted in a protest the same day of Murkowski’s visit, when over 200 Sitkans marched in opposition to a wide range of actions taken by President Donald Trump in recent weeks.

Over 200 people marched in Sitka today/Wednesday, protesting the recent actions of President Donald Trump. The group “Sitkans For Democracy” marched downtown, decrying executive overreach and billionaire Elon Musk's influence on the administration in its first 100 days.

Sitka’s planned internet outage was shorter than predicted. The internet company GCI announced this/Monday morning that it completed repairs to the fiber optic cable that provides internet and cellular service to most of Sitka.

The Sitka Assembly has denied a Florida-based company the right to purchase water from Blue Lake.

Sitka’s police officers are getting a pay hike. When the Sitka Assembly met on Tuesday (2-25-25) it approved a new pay scale as part of a one-year contract extension with the union that represents the police department.

After postponing a decision in January, tonight the Sitka Assembly will consider whether to sell water rights to a Florida company.