Unalaska, AK – The state's Marine Transportation Advisory Board is recommending increased ferry service to southwest Alaska from Homer to Unalaska. Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference leaders met with the board Monday morning. They urged the board to increase service to the region from once to twice a month during the summer. The ferry route, which stops in villages like Chignik and Sand Point, helps connect local villages and increase commerce in the region. The advisory board makes non-binding recommendations to the state and the Alaska Marine Highway System on issues related to the state ferry system. During the meeting board chair Cathie Roemmich wrote a recommendation that would help people in the southwest without cutting service to the southeast.

Unalaska, AK – The Marine Transportation Advisory Board plans on discussing ferry service to southwest Alaska and the Aleutian Islands during their meeting in Anchorage on Monday. The board will hear from the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, which wants more services in the region. Ferry system chief Jim Beedle said that would require cuts in other services, especially because the ferry system's budget is likely to remain the same in the coming year.

Unalaska, AK – Greenpeace USA launched a television ad in Anchorage and Seattle this week to draw attention to what it sees as overfishing of pollock in Alaska's waters. The organization wants to reduce the pollock quota by 50 percent. But NOAA scientists who study pollock say that cut is much larger than necessary. KUCB's Anne Hillman and KMXT's Jay Barrett have more.

Unalaska, AK – Unalaska's public safety employees union still has not fully agreed upon a contract with the City and is planning to take the City to court.

After more than two years of negotiations and mediation, the two parties met with an independent, mutually agreed-upon arbitrator in October for what was referred to as "binding arbitration." The arbitrator was to come to decisions over the largest contract disputes, which mostly concerned wage increases and administrative issues.

Unalaska, AK – Plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case are waiting for yet another court decision before receiving settlement checks from Exxon Mobile. Nineteen years after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, former Prince William Sound fish processor, Sea Hawk Seafoods of Valdez wants a new allocation plan. A federal court judge will make a decision on the case some time this week.

Unalaska, AK – The pollock fishery has closed for the year. All together the sectors caught 99 percent of the quota leaving only 8,100 metric tons of B-season quota on the table. NOAA Fisheries in-season manager Josh Keaton says this indicates good things about the fishery.
"We're with in 99 percent of the quota. In the past couple years they tended to leave a bit more on the table than they did this year."

Unalaska, AK – The city council decided to give residents $60 monthly utility bill rebates at their meeting on Friday. The rebate program will last 12 months and apply to the 381 residential meters that also qualify for the Power Cost Equalization program. The rebate program will cost the city about $275,000. Council member Dick Peck said this will help residents deal with the cost of living that has not gone down despite the decrease in international oil prices.

Unalaska, AK – The much discussed rat eradication project on Rat Island, about 200 miles from Adak, ended without much fanfare in about one third of the estimated time. Project planners thought it might take up to 45 days to cover every inch of the 68 hundred acre island with rat poison but good weather helped the team finish in just 12 and return a month early, in mid-October. Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge biologist Steve Ebert said the good weather was necessary in order for helicopters to fly over the island in precise patterns.

Unalaska, AK – The city council will meet tomorrow for their regular meeting instead of Tuesday because of council travel. The meeting will continue the discussion of the potential energy rebate. The council proposed giving $60 residential utility bill rebates to every residential customer each month for the next year. If all residential meters are included, the program will cost the city $500,000. At least $100,000 would be rebates to government agencies that pay power bills. If only residential meters paid by individuals are counted, the cost is only $275,000. The council began discussing the rebate when fuel cost $4.50 per gallon. It now cost $2.60.