City council will meet early tonight to award a contract for building the new wastewater treatment plant. City staff are recommending that Alaska Mechanical of Anchorage get the $19.3 million contract, since they were the lowest responsive bidder.
As the city nails down the budget for that project, and other substantial upgrades at the city’s utilities, it looks like Unalaska residents will see big increases in their bills to help cover the costs.
Two Bering Sea groundfish catcher-processor vessels have been accused of tampering with the scales used to weigh their harvest. As KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce reports, the alleged violations carry hefty penalties for the vessels’ parent company, American Seafoods.
The charges levied against the Northern Eagle and Ocean Rover essentially amount to stealing fish. The technical charge is that the vessels “adjusted their flow scales to record lower weights.”
Alaska State Troopers have closed their investigation into a death in Akutan, and say no foul play is suspected.
Simon Gatpan, 31, of Santa Clara, California, was found dead on a beach in the Aleutian community last weekend. Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters says an autopsy showed that he died of exposure. She adds that alcohol is believed to be a factor. Gatpan was last seen walking home from a local bar and was found unresponsive on the beach in the morning.
West Flank of Pavlof Volcano/Credit: AVO - Chris Waythomas
Alaska’s most active volcano appears to be erupting. Mount Pavlof, on the Alaska Peninsula, started rumbling Monday morning, according to Alaska Volcano Observatory scientist-in-charge John Power.
“This type of pattern -- weak seismic activity, along with a great deal of heat at the summit -- has characterized past eruptions of Pavlof, and we believe that’s what’s occurring now,” Power says."
Power says while scientists haven’t been able to get a good look at the volcano, he suspects it’s oozing lava, or perhaps even shooting jets of it into the air in what’s called a stromboli fountain. So far, the Observatory hasn’t detected any ash clouds associated with the eruption, although in the past, Pavlof has produced significant plumes.
Icicle Seafoods closed its plant in Adak last month, but fisheries business on the island didn’t grind to a halt -- fish buyers are moving in to fill the void left by the processor.
Pete Hartman is in charge of purchasing for Hart Sales, a fish broker based out of Victoria, B.C. He says a group of small-boat fishermen approached him in February looking for someone to buy their halibut, sablefish and rockfish this summer.
The Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. George are just 45 miles apart, but getting between them can be challenging because of limited flight service and the area’s notoriously foggy weather.
This summer, a regional community development group is hoping to solve that problem by contracting a ferry to run between the islands, but finding a suitable vessel has proved challenging.
The U.S. Presidential Scholars program announced its finalists Monday, and an Unalaska City School senior is on the list. Aidan Bobbitt is one of just two students from Alaska to receive the recognition, and the first in the history of the school district.
The Presidential Scholars award recognizes students for outstanding academic and extracurricular achievement. Several thousand students who score exceptionally well on the SATs or ACTs are invited to apply to the program. From that pool, a committee selects two students from every state based on essays and transcripts.
