Two people passed away in Unalaska last week. Right now, the Department of Public Safety is investigating the death of Yvonne Grossman, age 45.
Grossman was found Friday afternoon in the cabover camper she shared with her boyfriend in the valley. Sgt. Jennifer Shockley says Grossman’s boyfriend called public safety at around 3 p.m. to report the death.
"We don’t at this point have any reason, specifically, to suspect any foul play," Shockley says. "But neither do we have a cause of death yet."
After several months of inactivity, Cleveland Volcano erupted on Saturday.
“It was a fairly nice-sized explosion. Put ash up to about, we estimate, 20,000 feet," says Alaska Volcano Observatory seismologist John Power.
He says the ash cloud didn’t interfere with local aviation, even though satellite images show it drifted to within 60 miles of Unalaska. Nevertheless, the Observatory has raised the aviation alert level to orange. That’s because this latest eruption probably isn’t the volcano’s last.
A nasty storm has already wreaked some havoc in Unalaska.
Rough winds knocked a trailer owned by Alaska Mechanical on its side. The trailer is located by the city landfill, and the extent of the damage is unclear.
The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for Unalaska on Tuesday morning. They say residents should expected 55-mile per hour southwest winds, with gusts to 80 miles per hour. The travel advisory is scheduled to expire at midnight.
A mechanical failure caused a truck to roll into the Carl E. Moses Small Boat Harbor on Monday. No injuries resulted.
Troy Gibson had just finished lunch and was coming back to the St. Dominic, the cod boat that he captains. When he went to park the crew’s Toyota pickup truck, the brakes gave out. Gibson knew to get out of the car as quickly, even though he had to interrupt a phone call with his spouse.
In Unalaska, two-thirds of city council has to vote yes to pass an ordinance. That proved a challenge Thursday night, as council rejected a funding package by a 3-1 vote.
The $125,000 budget amendment included money for public safety grants and new power transformers, plus a controversial grant for the Museum of the Aleutians. But while the measure failed, it might not be dead yet.
Elections are over, and candidates and political groups reported spending nearly $10 million on state races this year. But where did that money go? While a lot of it went to consultants and media buys, plenty was also spent at Alaska’s brick and mortar stores. Hundreds of cups of coffee were bought for voters and volunteers, thousands of dollars went to helium balloons, and a small fortune was spent on t-shirts and hats. But of all of the businesses that profited from this campaign season, Alaska’s print shops saw the biggest windfall.
Shell’s Noble Discoverer drill rig is docked in Unalaska and the Kulluk is on its way after a series of delays.
Popular Mechanics reports that detaching the Kulluk from its mooring system and getting it under tow was delayed. The drilling season ended last week, but because of deteriorating weather conditions in the Beaufort Sea, the company hadn’t been able to refuel the Aiviq - an icebreaking tug that will tow the Kulluk - and below-zero conditions were keeping helicopters grounded.
At tonight’s meeting, city council will take a final vote on a controversial funding package.
If approved, public safety will get $14,000 for their emergency planning program, and the city will have $32,000 to spend on new power transformers. But more than half of the $125,000 in the budget package would go to the Museum of the Aleutians.
The museum needs $75,000 to help fill a big gap in their construction budget, for a new permanent exhibit. They’ve been working on that design for eight years. And they’ve reached out to the city for extra funding, outside the normal nonprofit cycle.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- The bipartisan coalition as it’s currently known is done, and as a result Unalaska may lose some pull when it comes to getting projects funded.
Ten Republicans gathered at an Anchorage office building on Wednesday to announce that the bulk of the party had organized a majority. They also announced leadership roles. Charlie Huggins, of Wasilla, is the new Senate president, and John Coghill, of North Pole, is the majority leader. Both had been a part of the Senate’s tiny 4-person minority until this point.
