Unalaska, AK – During last week's council meeting the city's financial engineering consultant discussed how the new powerhouse might impact your electric bill. Michael Hubbard said that the efficiency of the new diesel-powered generators will offset the cost of the new units and the new building enough to reduce your bills by about 2 to 3 cents per kilowatt hour. Rates could go even lower if the city ends up providing power for new large customers, like the Kloosterboer Cold Storage Facility. Hubbard explained that the city will always have to pay for the basic power producing infrastructure, but the more power that's used and the more customers that are online, the more the cost of maintaining the system will be disbursed.

Unalaska, AK – The pollock quota is highly likely to decrease again for 2010 by at least 2,000 metric tons. Scientists presented data to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's groundfish plan team Tuesday and the team set the allowable biological catch at 813,000 metric tons. Last year scientists predicted that the 2010 quota might go back up.

Alaska Fisheries Science Center director Doug DeMaster said that the population of 2006 year class fish was smaller than they expected.

Unalaska, AK – Makushin and Scan Bays will not open for Tanner crab fishing this year. The trawl survey showed that the abundance of legal male crabs in that area is the lowest it's been since 2000 and is below the required number for it to be opened. Unalaska Bay and Akutan Bay will open for fishing on January 15. Registered boats of 58 feet or less can try for a guideline harvest level of 74 thousand pounds in the Unalaska and Kaletka Bay section and 45 thousand pounds in Akutan Bay. The abundance estimate for Akutan is the second highest in a series of estimates and the estimate for Unalaska Bay is up 32 percent from last year. The open-access Eastern Aleutian tanner crab fishery is managed by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game and is not rationalized. About 10 boats participate every year.

Unalaska, AK – Former city council member D.H. Kris Flanagan died on November 5 of natural causes. He served twice on Unalaska's city council, first from 1992 to 1996 and then again from 2002 to 2006. Flanagan was born in 1943 and has two daughters and three grandchildren. He moved to Unalaska with his family in 1981 and worked as a machinist and later became a commercial fisherman. There will be a memorial service in his honor at the United Methodist Church at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Unalaska, AK – Adak may eventually be home to a new massive gas-powered gun used for launching things into space. The new technology is being developed by physicist John Hunter and his colleagues at Quicklaunch Inc. Hunter spoke with KUCB's Anne Hillman in Unalaska.

Unalaska, AK – The Department of Public Works is recommending Pacific Pile and Marine and PND as the firms to design and build the new Carl E. Moses small boat harbor. Public works employees opened the bids today. Pacific Pile and PND both produced the lower bid proposal at $24.5 million and their proposal garnered the most points during the technical review process. The competing bid from the Dutra group did not score as highly and would cost $33.1 million. City Engineer Tyler Zimmerman said he was both surprised and very pleased. The winning bid features robust, corrosion-proof steel floats with individual slips and a piling system. The city will now enter negotiations with the firms to settle on a price and to finalize some design details. The city council will vote to accept the bid in early December. During their presentation, the winners said they will have stakeholder meetings to gather community input during the designing and building processes.

Unalaska, AK – Adak Fisheries has new owner 11.12.2009 ah/kucb

Adak Fisheries, which stopped operations and declared bankruptcy earlier this year, has now been sold to a new entity, Adak Seafood. The new company agreed to pay $488 thousand dollars in cash and assume the debt owed to Independence Bank of Rhode Island for $6.7 million dollars in loans. They will also give Aleut Enterprise $250 thousand dollars to cover unpaid rent for the plant in Adak. The new Adak Seafood will have all of the old company's assets, like machinery and vehicles, and aims to re-open the plant for production in January. Trident Seafood also bid for the plant but did not offer to assume the millions of dollars of bank debt. One of the new managing members of the company is Asbjorn Drevik, one of the previous creditors. It is unclear if Kjetil Solberg, one of the previous owners of Adak Fisheries, will be part of the new ownership.

Unalaska, AK – The city council voted on Tuesday to bring the port tariff increase back for a public hearing and a second reading - this puts the ordinance one step closer to passing. The ordinance increases port tariffs and wharfage fees by 4.8 percent per year for the next three years. The tariffs and fees have not changed in over 10 years and the increase was recommended in a study by Northern Economics. Currently, the ports department is in the red. At the end of fiscal year 2009, the ports had a net operating loss of $267,338 dollars.

Unalaska, AK – Preliminary results from the city's Community Visions Project are now being used as the basis for a community-wide survey. The consulting firm HyettPalma was in Unalaska in late September to speak with various community groups, government agencies, businesses, and individuals about their criticisms of and visions for the future of Unalaska. Assistant City Manager John Fulton, who helped compile the survey, said one thing stuck out above all.