Aaron Dupuis is the area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In an interview with KCAW on Friday, he said the fishery was in a transition.    

“We’re kind of transitioning into spawning mode for the fish,” said ADF&G area management biologist Aaron Dupuis. “We’ve been following this tremendous biomass of herring coming into the sound for the last two weeks or so, since we’ve been out on the water…And then as we get closer to spawning and then into spawning activity, we’ll see those big schools break up, thin out, hit the bottom, get into the shallows, and start spawning.” 

State managers observed over 18 nautical miles of spawn during aerial surveys Friday. Spawn was concentrated from Watson Point to Harbor Point, Kasiana Island, along the causeways, along the eastern side of Kruzof Island, and along the shores of Krestof Island. 22 cumulative miles of spawn have been recorded via aerial surveys since March 30.

The state did not open the fishery to a commercial harvest on Friday, but they’re not finished yet. Dupuis said typically as spawning kicks off on the north end of the sound, the fishery shifts south. 

So like the Aleutkina Bay, Cape Baranof, down to Dorothy Narrows, is kind of where we’re going to start looking next,” Dupuis said. “But if I’ve learned anything so far with herring it’s that they can surprise you.”

Around 20 seiners have been participating in this year’s fishery, less than half of the total permit holders, and three processors are participating. The state opened the fishery for this year’s first commercial harvest on March 27. As of April 3, they’d caught over 6000 tons of herring, just a fraction of the 35,000 quota allowed by the state. 

Phoenix Johnson works in political advocacy and education now, but around two decades ago, fresh out of the United States Air Force, she was planning on a career in medicine.

“Getting into the medical field was almost out of survival,” Johnson says. “I’ve always cared about people…I was a suicide intervention skills instructor, the youngest in the Air Force to do that. It hurts my heart to see people hurting, and I’ve hurt, and I haven’t had help when I needed it, and being an eldest sister, you know, I just kind of feel like that’s just ingrained in me.”

She was 26 when she moved to Ketchikan in the summer of 2011. The next year, she took a job in a lab run by Ketchikan Indian Community, an opportunity that felt deeply personal to her. 

“I’m biracial. My mom is Indigenous, and my dad was a Coastie…And that’s how they met [when] he got stationed up in Alaska. And so I thought, ‘What a neat opportunity to be a part of my mother’s tribal community, and to give back and help people.'” 

Johnson worked alongside one other technician in the lab, and they got along well. But the lab director, Dr. Richard McGrath, did not put her at ease. She had only been working in the lab for a few weeks when she said McGrath started to cross the line into her physical space.

“Immediately I could tell where he placed his body was unprofessional,” Johnson says. “The personal bubble wasn’t there.”

“It was a fairly small lab, and so, you know, I’m sure someone could justify, like, ‘There just wasn’t enough room. That’s why my pelvis just slid across you, right? Or, like, ‘I’m just grabbing for the gauze. That’s why I grazed your breast.'”

She recalls a moment when he called her into his office and pulled her chair closer to him so their knees were touching. When she tried to scoot her chair backwards, he pulled her close to him again. She recalls several other instances of inappropriate touching, including on her thigh, neck, and hair. She says he invited her to his home on Prince of Wales Island, which she declined. And then there was a slap. 

He came in, and that was the morning that he like full on, slapped my butt, and there’s  no mistaking that,” Johnson says. “It was underhand, slapping, cupping booty jiggle, all of it. And I was stunned, and I remember looking at him, and I was resolved, and I just said, ‘Never touch me like that again.’”

She reported McGrath to the tribe’s human resources department the same day, March 19, 2012. Three days later, she sent additional documentation, listing other instances of inappropriate touching and conversation. She met with the tribe’s human resources director, who said they would investigate. 

KCAW reached out to Ketchikan Indian Community CEO Emily Edenshaw, who declined to comment.

(Editor’s Note: After this story was published, Edenshaw sent KCAW a statement. We’ve included the link at the bottom of this story)

Johnson says they weren’t taking the allegations seriously. 

“I do recall being told, I don’t know if it was before or after the letter, HR saying, ‘Okay, well, clearly there’s an issue, so we’ll just have it so you guys interact very little. And I’m like, ‘Well, not really sure how that’s supposed to happen, because he’s the director. And that’s when it became very clear that, ‘Oh, I’m I’m the disposable one. They’re going to want to preserve a director, I guess.'”

A month later, on April 17, she received a response from KIC’s General Manager at the time, Debra Patton. The letter rejected Johnson’s sexual harassment claim, calling the incidents “non-intentional communication and physical contact.” It said McGrath’s actions may have been misinterpreted by Johnson due to his  “casualness” in the office, and the physical touching of her hands and shoulders was intended, “to refresh your knowledge of blood withdrawing procedure.” It said invitations to McGrath’s home were standard for all employees. Furthermore, the letter said McGrath’s butt slap was accidental, and was intended for her back. It said they found “no witnesses to support the allegation [that] he touched [her] on the neck, thigh and hair,” but if she felt intimidated in the future, she should speak with human resources or a management staff member immediately.    

The letter, which she says was delivered to her by the tribe’s former health administrator Brent Simcosky, said she could file a grievance in response to the investigation. Johnson says she filed a grievance right away. Within days, HR staff called her into a meeting, and told her she was fired. Johnson remembers crying as they immediately escorted her off the premises.

“Treating me as if I was some high threat or a criminal was that much more traumatizing,” Johnson recalls. “And then I’m just being dumped out on the sidewalk with no plan, no severance, no apology, no justice.”

KCAW has independently confirmed that McGrath worked for the Ketchikan Indian Community through at least 2013. A few years later, he was hired at Sitka Community Hospital. He was under contract there until he was placed on administrative leave in December 2018 after several sexual assault allegations were raised against him by three different women. He was charged in 2019 with 13 counts of felony sexual assault. Following a mistrial in 2022, on the first day of what was expected to be a lengthy trial in 2023, McGrath took a last-minute deal with the state. He pleaded guilty to third degree sexual assault, and was sentenced to two years in prison. KCAW reached out to McGrath’s legal representation for comment, but they did not respond. 

Johnson believes that if McGrath’s actions had been addressed by Ketchikan Indian Community years ago, it could have prevented him from harming patients and medical staff in the future.

Last year, she happened across news coverage of McGrath’s Sitka arrest. She felt it was time to ensure that her story was heard. 

“Being able to talk about this now means that my experience isn’t just invisible and it wasn’t erased. It means something, and there are so many survivors out there that don’t get their stories told,” Johnson says.

“Every time that we can tell these stories, it shines more light. You know, they say to drive out the dark with light,” she continues. “But it also, I think, hopefully inspires other people to be better. Even if somebody reads this and they decide, ‘Maybe I should go to therapy,’ [or] ‘Maybe I should tell my best friend this thing happened to me. Maybe somebody just needs that push to just try one more time.”

Johnson says she filed a grievance with the Indian Health Service earlier this year, but she’s skeptical of the state’s court system as a means for victims seeking justice. She says its “deference to state agencies supersedes its citizens in a way that feels inhumane.” Still, she’s optimistic that, if people act with integrity, those systems can be changed.

“We don’t need a system to have integrity, I try to teach people that. Every day I teach my daughter that you don’t need a law to tell you to be a decent human being,” Johnson says.

“The systems could be crummy, but if you have integrity, if we collectively have integrity we can fix the system, we can change the system, or we can work around the things that are not functioning as they should, or that are harming people.”

A civil case filed by one of McGrath’s victims in Sitka is being appealed before the Alaska Supreme Court. 

Editor’s Note: After this story was published on March 31, KIC CEO Emily Edenshaw released a statement. In her letter, Edenshaw said that as a matter of policy, KIC does not comment on past or current employee matters. “At the same time, we recognize that conversations like these can be difficult and may surface painful experiences for survivors,” she wrote. “Anyone impacted by sexual abuse or violence deserves support, care, and access to resources.” The letter included links to resources for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. “KIC remains committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and accountable workplace and community,” the letter continued. “We take all concerns seriously and continue to uphold the highest standards of integrity in how we serve our people.”

Read the full statement here.

Dave Turcott is a commercial fisherman who has been trolling in southeast Alaska since the 1960s. Yet it was only two years ago that Turcott began transcribing his experiences from the sea onto paper, earning him the title of a “fisherpoet.” Standing behind a podium at the Sitka Public Library with the ocean at his back, Turcott reads to a room of over 30 attentive librarians an anecdote chronicling one of his earliest memories in Southeast, which involves him and his fellow fishermen improvising a solution to fixing a hole in their gas tank while on the road to catch a ferry in Haines. 

“Somebody freshened the chewing gum. We added a little gas, and eased on to the next roadhouse. Someone was always chewing a fresh plug in case the old one fell off,” says Turcott, much to the amusement of the crowd.

And Turcott is not the only fisherpoet sharing his work. Mariah Warren has worked as a fisherman across a wide variety of vessels for 20 years, half of them as a captain. One of the short readings she shared with the audience was a poem titled “Please Don’t Die at Sea.”

“Please don’t die at sea, my dears. Tell the story someday instead over burgers and beers, about the time the storm called your name and you chickened out. The kids are listening. Those are the times that they need to hear about,” says Warren. “Remember your heroes, those storm gray, bright-eyed women and Poseidon-bearded men. I know we all do. Please survive so someday you can be a grouchy, salt encrusted, wise and inspiring old timer too.”

Sitting in chairs propped up beside the podium, Turcott leans back into his chair with tear-filled eyes and pursed lips. Next to him, Paul Rioux says for a long time, he struggled to understand how his routine life at sea would interest readers. He shares an essay where he realizes the life of a fisherman offers a unique literary connection between self-reliance and fate.

“Rare days of pure winning are made sweeter by all the days of struggling, fighting weather, and during poor fishing and/or depressing crisis. All of this occurs in an awe-inspiring setting seen by an infinitesimally small percentage of the population, thereby a very exclusive club,” says Rioux. “You cannot fake your way in. You have to get salty to be salty.”

One of the visiting librarians in the audience is Sandy Lukes, the Outreach Librarian for the Anchorage Public Library. It’s Lukes’ first ever Alaska Library Association conference, and she says listening to the storytellers gave her a greater appreciation for how crucial fishing is for communities like Sitka. 

“Me being from Seattle, I know there’s a lot of fishing that goes around there, but I wasn’t as close to or familiar with it,” says Lukes. “So it’s really interesting seeing how how much that is part of the livelihood here, and what that looks like for people.”

Tele Aadsen is the 4th and final fisherpoet and moderator for the event. She shares a humorous and heart-warming story of a fisherman who inspired her to embrace her queerness in their line of work. She hopes the librarians are inspired to highlight the unexpected storytellers in their own communities, fishermen or otherwise.

“Sharing with librarians is awesome. Who better to share with than people who are professional story shares you know and appreciate that thought that goes into it,” says Aadsen. “I think the takeaway is, who are the people in your community who maybe people don’t know their writing, or have their own stories to bring forward, because we all have those folks everywhere.” 

As the event draws to a close, the fisherpoets and librarians mingle, with some snacking on the fish treats caught and prepared by the fishermen themselves. With shelves chock-full of books on one end, and a large glass window framing Sitka Sound on the other, the patrons are surrounded by stories.

“So we obviously don’t want to come in here and say, here’s a $900,000 deficit. Figure it out,” Leach said. “We’ve got some options that have been put together, and I just want to throw these out there to stir some discussion, and I know there will need to be some tough decisions made.”

Leach suggested two possible cuts– he first suggested tackling the “resource proposal” list. These are requests for new positions or equipment city department heads submit during the budget process. The other option Leach suggested was reconsidering part of the city’s contribution to the Sitka School District, by reverting to the traditional 50/50 split of the Secure Rural Schools Funding to trim the deficit.

The assembly leaned into the resource proposals first. After much discussion, the group cut several items from the list, including the purchase of two patrol cars for the police department, and $250,000 for athletic field sand. Overall, the group trimmed the deficit from the draft general fund budget by more than half, and directed the municipal administrator to identify other cuts that could bridge the remaining budget gap. 

Setting aside the question of Secure Rural Schools funding, and even with city funding schools to the cap, or maximum allowed by state law, the Sitka School District’s budget is in a tight spot. At a School Board work session earlier in the week, the board considered three possible scenarios for trimming its own projected budget deficit for next school year. School Board President Phil Burdick told the assembly all of those scenarios included staff cuts.  

“So you know it’s it’s dire, and it’s not your fault. Let’s just put it that way. We’re looking at 11-and-a-half staff reductions, even in the best case scenario, that’s just teachers. We’re also looking at one-and-a-half administrators. Not rehiring positions, that’s included in that. The one full time counselor position that we’ll fund with grant funds, reduction of classified staff,” Burdick said. “Basically, we’re cutting in every area no matter, no matter which scenario we look at.”

The Sitka School Board will hold a public budget hearing on April 1 beginning at 5 p.m. in the Sitka High School library, before its regular meeting. The Sitka Assembly will hold several more special budget meetings next month before it finalizes the budget in May. 

In an announcement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Saturday afternoon (3-27-26), state managers said they opened the fishery to commercial seiners from 9 am. to six p.m. in the Crescent Bay area, in the waters just south of downtown Sitka. 
On Sunday, Fish and Game opened the fishery from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Crescent Bay to Indian River, and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the waters east of Kruzof Island, from Shoals Point to Kamenoi Point. 

Fish and Game estimates that seiners caught around 500 tons of herring in the fishery’s first opener on Friday, and just over 800 tons on Saturday. In an announcement this afternoon, Fish and Game reported 1500 tons of herring were caught on Sunday.

In an announcement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Friday afternoon (3-27-26), state managers said they opened the fishery to commercial seiners from 12 to 6 p.m. in Crescent Bay.

Two test sets pulled from the area this/Friday morning yielded fish with roe maturity averaging from 10% to 12% with average fish weight averaging from 151 to 177 grams.  

State managers have been conducting regular aerial surveys since mid-March. In today’s announcement, they said they saw a typical number of herring predators for this time of year, including humpback whales, grey whales, and sea lions, but did not observe any schools of herring or spawn from the air. 

This year, the state set a harvest level at just over 35,000 tons of herring for the commercial fishery. But due to market conditions and low participation, it’s unlikely fishermen will harvest close to that amount. Last year, with a limited fleet and fewer than three processors participating, only around 6000 tons were caught of the available 35,000 tons. 

The maximum percentage of mature herring that fishermen are able to harvest was reduced from 20% to 15% by the Alaska Board of Fisheries last year. At the time, fish and game staff told the Board of Fish they wanted to reduce the harvest level as an extra precaution, until the state could confirm new Canadian research, which suggested a 20% harvest level may be too high for herring stocks.

The state will release its next fishery update on Saturday.  

Editor’s note: This story was corrected to note that fewer than three processors, not harvesters, participated in last year’s fishery.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries last weekend voted down three proposals to limit hatchery production of pink and chum salmon. Those hatcheries are mostly in Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound. They’re run by private nonprofits, and the state manages their permits.

There are currently 11 hatcheries permitted to take 1.39 billion pink salmon eggs and 15 hatcheries permitted to take 939 million chum salmon eggs.

The Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee sought a 25% reduction in egg production per hatchery permit. That’s a proposal that they’ve recommended before.

Board of Fish member Mike Wood of Talkeetna discussed the pros and cons.

“By cutting 25% of hatchery production in areas like Prince William Sound or Southeast, is the squeeze worth the juice with the impacts that it would have on these small boat fishermen, on an industry that we really need to rely on in this state?” he asked.

The board decided ‘no’ and rejected the proposal 6 to 1.

Board members heard oral testimony from about 150 people over five days and received nearly 1,000 pages of written testimony.

Two other proposals to limit pink and chum hatchery production came from the Kenai River Sportsfishing Association. Kevin Delaney, with the group, said they’re concerned that hatchery salmon compete with wild stocks. A study from 2023 suggests there may not be enough ocean food for all of them.

“We believe it’s overwhelmingly on the side that there are impacts to wild stocks as a result of the magnitude of hatchery production in pink and chum in Alaska,” Delaney said.

One of the group’s proposals targeted hatcheries in Prince William Sound, which failed 1-6. But another proposal triggered a split vote, and a lot of discussion. It would’ve capped pink and chum salmon permits at last year’s levels, by limiting egg take at those hatcheries. Advocates said this would allow the state time to further investigate if hatchery pinks and chums affect wild stocks, and by how much.

Board member, Olivia Henaayee Irwin of Nenana, supported the proposal, saying it would give the state time to research the “potential problem”.

“There is no definitive proof that our wild stocks are not being adversely affected or impacted by hatchery fish,” she said.

But the proposal ultimately received no action by the board with a vote of 4 to 3, meaning it doesn’t advance.

Fish and Game opposed all three hatchery proposals.

It is the week before spring break at Pacific High School in Sitka, and a handful of students are scattered across different tables in a classroom, hunkered down in their final projects. While students often find themselves polishing up their final essays or posters, these teens are working on a different assignment: original comic books.

Sophomore Sydney Lindstrom is making her way through a stack of completed comic spreads.

“I’m working on folding my comic because it’s in a zine format,” she says. She layers the printed pages on top of a tablet illuminating pure light to help her straighten out her lines while she folds each paper into a pocket-sized magazine. Her comic summarizes creation stories from various cultures and compares and contrasts them to Western scientific theories she learned about in her physical science class.

Until now, Lindstrom only dabbled in illustration, usually characters from her favorite tv shows. But branching out to a whole comic in a new style was a fun challenge.

“It’s like a style that I don’t really ever draw in. It’s not my style really at all. But it was interesting to try out the new style,” says Lindstrom.

It is this very exploration of ideas and stepping out of one’s comfort zone that English teacher Tristan Guevin hopes to instill in his students during the course. 

“Oftentimes, graphic novels and comics aren’t necessarily seen as literature, but if you read them, you analyze them in the same way you would analyze a novel or, you know, a non fiction book. There’s so much richness there,” says Guevin. “Just a great medium for students to explore ideas, to learn about other people, other cultures, times, events, and so I think they’re just really, really accessible and just enjoyable.”

While this is Guevin’s second year teaching the comics course, it is the first time a guest artist helped lead the class, thanks to an Artist in Schools grant from the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, Sitka Public School District, and Alaska State Council of the Arts. The artist in question is Medar de la Cruz, a Pulitzer Prize winning illustrator and comic artist who taught art in Sitka before through the Fine Arts Camp. Chatting over Zoom from his home in Brooklyn, de la Cruz fondly recalls the first day at Pacific High, when he revealed the wide variety of art supplies he gifted to the school, including Lindstrom’s light-up tablet. 

“It was really cool to just watch everybody sort of flock through the materials and start using them. It’s a really exciting thing, and it reminds me of my first time,” says de la Cruz. “Every time I come home from the art store… It’s almost like Christmas, and you just really can’t wait to to play with the tool and see what it does.”

As he got to know the students throughout the residency, de la Cruz grew increasingly impressed with how knowledgeable they were about nature and global politics, with the students studying the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, which recounts author Marjane Satrapi’s life in pre-and post-revolutionary Iran. 

“I don’t know if the average kid would would have these sort of insights on the book. And I really appreciated that,” says de la Cruz. “I noticed that they are very well connected to current events, probably because of Tristan’s guidance, who chose a book, for example, in this situation, about Iran during a war in Iran, or during conflict in Iran.”

Still, de la Cruz said it took a bit of work to bring students out of their shells. He recalls leading them in an activity where they passed illustrations around the room at random, and each artist added something new such as dialogue or another panel. It’s typically a quiet exercise, but making it more conversational allowed students to open up. 

“And there was a much more organic approach in this sense. And there was a lot also a lot more laughing and a lot more fun being had than any other time that I’ve ever done this workshop,” says de la Cruz. “So it really gave me an opportunity to reconsider how I go about this in the future.”

Today, those comics are proudly displayed on the glass walls of the classroom, with different drawing materials and art styles coming together to tell a wide variety of chaotically imaginative adventures, like the origin story of a swan and goose hybrid known as the “swoose”, which became a running classroom gag. 

Guevin says the collaborative comic writing encapsulated the spirit of de la Cruz’s residency. 

“It was such a great experience. For me, and a collaborative one where students were able to be creative and express themselves through both art and narrative,” says Guevin. “And so I think that’s something that I take from this class, and I hope to build on, is just that kind of spirit of collaboration and creativity.” 

Guevin and de la Cruz are planning a second iteration of his residency for the course next year. More than anything, de la Cruz hopes the course will help students gain greater comic and graphic novel literacy. 

“Regardless of if they actually walk away with a desire to make comics, I really want them to walk away with a desire to read them more. And I think that’s the biggest distinction between the two right there,” says de la Cruz.

As Lindstrom folds the last of her comics, she says de la Cruz inspired her to elevate her artistry. 

“He was really good at free-handing his comics, which was surprising, but I want to try and do that more,” says Lindstrom. “I’m more interested in just getting into comics, because this was my first time making like a legit comic, and it was really enjoyable, and I want to try it again.”

Lindstrom has already given some of her comics to her teachers, but soon plans to distribute her latest completed ones to her family. She says she’ll keep at least one for herself too, and in the future, who knows how many more stories will stand beside it.

“The historic preservation plan has been created by the Historic Preservation Commission as required by Sitka general code. It allows for the maintenance of Sitka CLG or certified local government status, which is a nationwide program,” Will said. “The plan before you has been underway since 2009 and is meant to act as a guiding document for the Historic Preservation Commission. The meat of the plan is within its goals.” 

The new plan highlights five commission goals, including developing partnerships and raising awareness of historic resources for under-represented communities, especially Tlingit history, as well as preserving the historic and cultural resources of the city, educating the public, and promoting heritage tourism, and improving city’s process of consider historic preservation in planning. That goal contained an item that was a sticking point for some assembly members— the review process for construction projects on historic buildings.

That’s why Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz recused himself from reviewing the plan. Eisenbeisz owns a business in the city’s downtown historic district, and he said he’s working to replace rotten studs on a remodeled section of the building. Addressing the assembly as a member of the public, he said a permit for the project would require a review from the Historic Preservation Commission, which would slow things down.

“You could see within just a few minutes that what I am doing to the building is not in a historical nature at all. It would take someone just a minute or two to come down, ask a few questions, and indicate that we are not changing any of the historical structure,” Eisenbeisz said. “This process adds at least two months to my permitting process.”

Eisenbeisz asked for the assembly to consider amending the document to include an faster “administrative review” of projects that don’t impact the historic qualities of buildings.

Assembly member Thor Christian agreed, and suggested postponing the plan’s approval to reconsider that section.

“Not that we don’t value our history and Sitka, that’s Sitka’s claim to fame,” Christianson said, and added that the process could be costly and, “make a project that’s benign and trivial almost take months, and add a real burden to a property owner.”

Planning and Community Development Director Amy Ainslie said the commission’s permit review process outlined in the new plan is actually “status quo” and approving the plan would not change how that process works– it would only put things in writing. Ainslie said one of the goals within the plan itself is to improve and add clarity to that process.

“And if that were to happen, that would come back in front of the assembly as a plan amendment, because, again, I want to avoid in future these processes that were implemented, but maybe not as formally documented, and to have that memorialized as a part of the plan, which is why that would come back to you,” Ainslie said. “So it’s recognized in the plan that this process is not as well defined as it should be. But that’s that’s one of the goals in finalizing this plan, is to then move on to that next project of improving the process.”

Assembly member Katie Riley suggested approving the Historic Preservation Plan with the contingency that the permit review section sunsets after a year and is replaced.

“I don’t think we actually solve any issues if we don’t pass this tonight, because then the status quo continues and we continue to elongate building times,” Riley said. “We have to tell them through the actions that they’ve identified that we do want to see them take that, and if we deny this plan, I don’t necessarily know that that happens.”

But Deputy Mayor Tim Pike felt it was worth postponing the item to give staff and the commission time to address the concerns.

“I certainly was impressed with all the work that had been done, and I would expect to see all the same things come back,” Pike said. “We’re not sending it back and saying the plan has failed. We’re sending it back and saying there’s a portion of it that this point is making the community a bit uncomfortable, and I think we need to make sure we have some clarity on it, and that’s where I’m standing.”

Ultimately the assembly voted 4-1 to postpone adopting the plan with member Riley opposed. It will come before the assembly again at its first meeting in May.

Snow plow funding approved

The Sitka Assembly is greenlighting an additional quarter of a million dollars for snow removal. When the group met last night/on Tuesday (3-24-26), it approved $225,000 to pay private contractors to plow snow, and $25,000 to cover unanticipated snow-related overtime across several city departments.

Observers at Sitka’s wastewater treatment plant have recorded nearly 60 inches of snow in Sitka since December. More than half of that fell in the last month, making this March the second snowiest on record, according to data from the National Weather Service. City staff say keeping up with the downfall has been challenging.

Earlier this week (3-24-26), Municipal Administrator John Leach and several city staffers formed an incident comment group earlier to address the issue, and put the funding proposal on the assembly’s docket with a quick turnaround.

“I just wanted to get everybody refocused on making this a priority. The crews have been working around the clock. I mean, the three o’clock in the morning wake ups are getting pretty old. The equipment’s tired, the folks are tired, and we needed that help,” Leach said, and added, “You know, right when I say that, it turns sunny outside, but yes, it’s a good opportunity.”

Leach said the city has secured three short-notice agreements with private contractors, and while snowfall had slowed, clearing streets, moving large snow berms, and clearing drains, remains critical. Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz thanked staff for their work throughout the weeks of persistent snow.

“I wish that, like, I don’t wish that the overtime budget was bigger, right? I understand that our staff has done all that they possibly can at this point. Seven days a week at 3 a.m. is not an appropriate work schedule for anybody,” Eisenbeisz said, and said that the added cost “doesn’t display my true appreciation for them.” 

Eisenbeisz and others noted that as winter wanes, “pothole” season is next. Leach  said city staff are preparing for those repairs once the streets are clear. 

The assembly approved the additional funding unanimously on first reading.  

As of Wednesday morning, city staff said contractors were working to clear Edgecumbe Drive through the Cascade Creek area and removing a large accumulation of snow at Sitka High School before progressing to Peterson Avenue. 

In the mid-90s, there was a campaign to amend the Oregon constitution that sought to restrict gay rights. Thomas Lauderdale, a young political activist and pianist, was fighting against it. And music was the means.

Lauderdale connected with the midcentury-era trio the Del Rubio Triplets, after seeing them on the star-studded Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas special.

“They lived in a triple white mobile home in San Pedro, California. They wore matching mini skirts, matching booties, and they had huge hair,” Lauderdale says. “They played guitar, and they sang covers of ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ and ‘Whip It.'”

Lauderdale brought them to Portland, Oregon to do a series of concerts campaigning against the ballot measure in nursing homes, hospitals, even rotary meetings.

“And at the end of [each show] they would very sweetly say, ‘Please vote no on Proposition 13,'” Lauderdale says.

At the end of the triplet’s week on tour, Lauderdale had planned a community-wide concert, but he needed an opening act. He says he threw on a Betsy Johnson cocktail dress, hopped on stage, and Pink Martini was born. Growing to over a dozen musicians, they became the house band for political fundraising in Portland, and soon an internationally renowned, genre defying group. 

And now, Pink Martini will travel to Sitka and Juneau in April for two benefit concerts for Katlian Collective, a nonprofit working to revitalize Tlingit clan houses in Southeast, starting with the Point House in Sitka. Clan houses are cultural centers for Tlingit people – places of ritual, community and tradition. 

It’s a project that Pink Martini is happy to support. The band, known as the “little orchestra” performs in numerous styles, from jazz to classical to pop, and in over 30 different languages. 

“We’re sort of musical diplomats and ambassadors, and sort of believe in the power of bringing people together through music,” says Lauderdale. “We have a 31-year history of doing this, and we’re so delighted to be coming to Alaska, to be part of be continuing in that tradition.”

Storm Large is one of the band’s lead singers, and this will be her second time touring in Alaska with them. She says often a band’s lead singer is the “mouthpiece” that carries its identity, but Pink Martini is different.

“It is one of the most relaxing front gigs, because I’ll sing a bunch of songs solo, and then I will shimmy back to the back…[and] Jimmie Herod will step forward, Edna Vazquez will step forward, or it’ll be a band solo, a piano with Thomas and his partner, Hunter Noack, on piano doing Rhapsody in Blue [and] the most hilarious physical comedy you’ve ever seen in your life,” Large says.

“It’s like Laugh In, kind of,” she continues. “It’s a big variety show, and everybody has an important role in unison. But I see Pink Martini as as a collective of wonderful, amazing, brilliant stars in their own right.” 

Kiks.ádi clan member Lduteen Jerrick Hope-Lang says the work to rebuild Point House started out of a conversation with the late Bertha Karras.

“We walked by this chunk of property on our way to her house, and she said to me, just casually, ‘That’s your people’s property, and you need to get it back,'” Hope-Lang says. “At the time, I really had no idea, or no concept as to what tied me to that land, and what her impression was that I had any business being a part of it. So kind of led me down a rabbit hole to understanding what had been there prior.”

What came next was over a decade of work toward repatriating the land where the Point House stood. Hope-Lang now stewards the land on behalf of the Kiks.ádi. They hope to break ground on a 21st Century clan house sometime in the next year, and continue to address the broader issue of clan houses.

“I said, we need to rebuild, not just structurally, because this is a brick and mortar project, but we need to rebuild spiritually. And there’s ideas that tie to that property, that I just felt like…the time was ripe,” Hope-Lang said.

To address the broader issue, the group has received federal grant funding for their work and succeeded in getting the National Trust for Historic Preservation to recognize Sitka’s Indian Village as an endangered historic place. They’re also remodeling a 19th Century Kiks.ádi clan house four doors down from the Point House.

Hope-Lang says fundraising is key to keep the work going. Last year, Katlian Collective brought several big-name bands, including Portugal the Man, to Southeast and the concerts were a resounding success. So he reached out to his longtime friend, Lauderdale, with Pink Martini, who jumped on board. 

“Last year was rock and roll and folk and singer songwriter, and this year, bringing Pink Martini into the fold, it really creates this open dialog of like, ‘We are inviting you. The purchasing of a ticket is an invitation to be a guest in our process,” Hope-Lang says. “You could be part of this restoration, this regeneration, this restorative practice.”

Hope-Lang says Pink Martini’s music encompasses the name of the show which is “Hit Wóoshdei Yadukícht, Dancing our House Together.”

Learn more about the work of Katlian Collective, Inc. here. Tickets to see Pink Martini at the Sitka Performing Arts Center on April 15 are available at www.fineartscamp.org