Unalaska, AK – The city council decided to approve the landfill rate increase. In accordance with a rate study, the city will increase rates for commercial users 11.5 percent per year for the next three years. Residential users will only see a $5 monthly increase. This will help keep the landfill afloat; it is currently being subsidized with $1.1 million per year from the general fund. The council has been discussing the increase for a number of months. However, before it passed the second reading, council member Dick Peck suggested a substantial change. He wanted to increase rates for commercial users and not increase the rates for residential users. Peck says that residential users pay 2.5 times more per ton for refuse than commercial users and he wanted to balance that.

Unalaska, AK – There are no reported cases of the swine flu in Unalaska, but the clinic is prepared if the disease does enter the community. Clinic nurse Aaron Highfill said the community already has high instances of infectious diseases because of the international nature of the town and therefore the swine flu does not present a new threat.

"If you do get sick, if you have a fever, a cough, which are the most common symptoms of any type of influenza, then we tell people, Don't come into the clinic because then you'll infect everyone else here. Stay home, drink lots of fluids, and rest,'" said Highfill. "If you think you have swine flu--you have these symptoms, you've been around someone who's recently traveled to an infected place--then we want you to call the clinic. We'll arrange to have somebody come and swab your nose. They actually stick a Q-tip up your nose and send it into the lab in Anchorage and they grow it out and see if it's the actual swine flu."

Unalaska, AK – The state reached a settlement agreement yesterday with the owners of the M/V Selendang Ayu. The IMC shipping company and Ayu Navigation will pay the state almost $845,000 to settle oil spill, wreck removal and lost fish tax claims. The 738-foot freighter went aground on Unalaska Island in December 2004 and spilled over 340,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil and 60,000 tons of soybeans. Six crew members died during the rescue efforts.

Unalaska, AK – At last week's city council meeting, a question was raised about a potential conflict of interest between city council members and a proposal from Horizon Lines to take over operations of the city docks. Two council members work with the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union, which provides labor for Horizon Lines. The city attorney, Brooks Chandler, wrote in a letter that if the proposal comes before the council again, those council members need to declare how they might be financially impacted by a new contract with Horizon. City manager Chris Hladick says once this is disclosed, the city attorney will determine if the council members can participate in a vote on the matter or even in the discussion.

Unalaska, AK – Unalaskans hail from around the globe the Philippines, Sudan, Russia, and beyond. Our radio series, Community Crossroads, talks to Unalaskans about their lives, their cultures, and their communities. Twenty-three year old Camarade Balinda is a now a familiar face at the front desk of the PCR, but his journey here from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was not an easy one. KUCB's Anne Hillman has more.

Unalaska, AK – The Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Unalaska are negotiating a fine agreement. The EPA initially fined the city for over $1 million because of violations at the water treatment plant. City Manager Chris Hladick said they two entities had disagreements over the treatment plant's permit. The EPA acknowledged that they initially made a mistake in the permit.

"EPA had originally agreed to amend the permit and then the permit failed," Hladick explained. "The amendment was withdrawn because the Fish & Wildlife Service indicated that EPA had not consulted with them about endangered species, the Stellar's eider, so that was withdrawn off the table and then all the sudden we got notification of all the fines were were gonna get."

Unalaska, AK – The Alaska Energy Authority is giving the City of Unalaska a $1.3 million grant to buy and install a waste heat recovery unit at the power house. The machine converts the heat put off by the diesel-powered generators into electricity. Utilities Director Dan Winters explains that water circulates around the generators to keep them cool and absorbs the extra heat. The hot water is then used to expand a refrigerant which creates pressure to turn a small turbine. Without the unit, the heat is lost into the environment.

Unalaska, AK – The City of Unalaska is getting less money than it hoped for in this year's state budget, despite the city staff's hope for $5 million to go toward the powerhouse and potentially another generator. City Manager Chris Hladick said he thinks the city can do without it.

"At this point I think we'll be fine. We've already purchased a third engine that will actually be done many months ahead of time," he said.

Unalaska, AK – The StoryCorps project records conversations between ordinary people about their lives. It aims to honor and remember the stories of Americans through the act of listening. StoryCorp is now collecting stories from Unalaska. In this segment is a conversation between Frank Kelty and his friend Sharon Svarny-Livingston. Kelty has lived in Unalaska for almost 40 years and he reflects on life here in the 1970s.