City councilors spent much of a three and a half hour session Tuesday night debating whether they should be allowed to call into their own meetings from off-island.
Mayor Shirley Marquardt wants to allow up to two councilors per meeting to do that through September to start with.
With several councilors traveling this summer, she's worried there won't be enough people present to take important votes.
"And we’ve got ongoing projects that we can’t hold up. So if there’s a budget amendment that needs to be made or something that has to shift, we’ve got to be able to respond to that," Marquardt said.
Unalaska is moving forward on its financial plans for next year and into the future.
The city council is still developing the city’s operating budget for 2016, as well as funding for local nonprofits. They’ll discuss those plans in a work session -- and take a final vote on two others -- when they meet tonight.
Council will be asked to approve a $3.9 million city contribution to the Unalaska City School District's 2016 budget. It’s a slight increase over the schools’ 2015 request.
About a thousand people are expected to disembark from the 781-foot Crystal Symphony cruise ship in Unalaska this weekend -- the most the town has ever seen. (Courtesy: Crystal Cruises)
Unalaska will get a big population boost this weekend, with the first cruise ship of what’s shaping up to be a busy summer.
On Sunday, the 781-foot Crystal Symphony will tie up at the Coast Guard dock and offload the most passengers Unalaska has ever seen -- around a thousand people, as many as a quarter of the town’s residents.
Normally, the state ferry marks the start of summer in the Aleutians. But this year, the aging ferry Tustumena is in shipyard for repairs -- its first scheduled stop in Unalaska is now May 23. And state budget cuts could mean fewer sailings overall after that.
Josh Good holds a healthy solaster, or sun star, on an Unalaska beach. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
A mysterious virus that’s been wiping out sea stars on the West Coast since 2013 has spread all the way to Southeast Alaska -- but it hasn’t made it to Southwest. That’s what a group of researchers found last month in Unalaska and Kodiak.
Now, they hope the islands’ healthy sea stars will give them new clues about how the virus works. KUCB's Annie Ropeik has more.
Alaska lawmakers are adding their voices to the chorus seeking new limits on the Bering Sea trawl fleet.
A dozen representatives and senators from around the state have sent a letter to the chair of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. They’re asking for a 50 percent reduction in the amount of halibut that trawlers can take as bycatch.
The car came to rest at the water's edge off a rocky face in the center of the Airport Beach Road S-curves. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
Beachcombing in Unalaska usually turns up sea glass or driftwood. But police found something a lot bigger on Monday night -- a car wreck off Airport Beach Road.
The vehicle had been upside down off a rocky face in the center of the S-curves for at least a full day. Police were called there after a passer-by reported a man taking some items out of the wreck.
He turned out to be the car’s driver, and told police he’d rolled off the road Sunday evening, then freed himself and left the car on the rocks.
Southwest residents will have to wait a little longer for the Tustumena ferry to make its return to the region.
The Tusty's first trips in May -- including a run down the Aleutian Chain -- have been canceled due to delays in shipyard.
The vessel was only supposed to undergo minor repairs in Ketchikan this winter. But Department of Transportation spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow says the aging ferry needed some extra help.
The Izembek Refuge sits between two major flyways for migrating birds. (Courtesy of USGS)
Right now, a lethal strain of bird flu is wreaking havoc in the Lower 48.
It’s clear that migrating flocks have something to do with spreading the illness between farms and across continents -- but exactly what is still fuzzy.
As KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, a remote spot in southwest Alaska may hold some clues.
