Unalaska's plastic recycling program is on hold.

Margo Peters oversees the program at the landfill for the city's scout troops. She says she decided to stop recycling because residents were throwing too much trash in with their plastic and aluminum.

The BCDC's mammogram bus visited Unalaska in September 2012. (Jane Bye/KUCB)

Ferry service to southwest Alaska has been up in the air all summer, as workers scramble to fix the M/V Tustumena. A substitute ferry is scheduled to pick up some of the slack later this fall.

But as KUCB's Audrey Carlsen reports, it won’t be able to get a medical device to Unalaska that women have been expecting all year.

Unalaska airport. / Credit: Stephanie Joyce

Executives at Alaska Airlines and Peninsula Airways admit that their service to Unalaska isn't perfect. Lopsided demand for flights and rough Aleutian weather already complicate their operations -- but Arctic development could make it even tougher.

Unalaska Airport (Stephanie Joyce)

Flight delays are a common occurrence in Unalaska, and this spring was no exception. Passengers stranded at the Tom Madsen Airport in May had not one, but two airlines to complain to, but that didn't get them anywhere. 

KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal is examining the future of air service to Unalaska in a three-part series this week. In part two, representatives from both Alaska Airlines and Peninsula Airways explain why flying to Unalaska is so difficult. 

Unalaska airport after several days of flight cancellations. / Credit: Stephanie Joyce

For the past nine years, Alaska Airlines and Peninsula Airways have partnered to provide regular passenger air service to Unalaska. That service has been plagued by delays, and has also suffered from the airlines’ failure to communicate -- with passengers, and even internally, with each other.

This week, KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal explores the airlines’ partnership, and what it means for Unalaska’s future, in a three-part series. In part one, the view from the ground.

The rules for accessing Humpy Cove are changing. The land is owned by the Ounalashka Corporation, but the Qawalangin Tribe recently signed a 99-year lease on the property.

In a blast fax last week, the tribe announced that as a result, OC land permits are no longer valid for accessing the area. Instead, people need to get permission directly from the tribe.

Grand opening of the Dryland Warehouse. From left to right: Glacier Fish Company founder Erik Breivik, city mayor Shirley Marquardt, Glacier Fish Company CEO Mike Breivik, and Delta Western president Kirk Payne. (Courtesy of Kirk Payne)

A brand-new warehouse has sprung up in a matter of months along Unalaska’s shoreline. Last Thursday, the building’s joint owners celebrated its completion. They’re holding it up as an example of how cooperation is key when land is limited.

A crowd of locals and business executives gathered next to Delta Western’s fuel dock on East Point Road for the building's grand opening. Behind them, the paint still fresh, was the new 40,000 square-foot Dryland Warehouse -- the result of a joint venture between fuel supplier Delta Western and Glacier Fish Company.

Four years after closing, it’s looking less and less likely that Unalaska’s child welfare office will be reopening.

Community leaders have repeatedly asked the Office of Children’s Services to restaff the position, but field supervisor Travis Erickson says the numbers just don’t pencil out.

“Right now, I think we’ve had three reports in the last six months or so. So a very, very low workload," Erickson says. "So we’re exploring how best to service the area, but right now we’re not planning on having staff full-time in Unalaska.”

Courtesy of City Hall

Usually when undetonated explosives are found in Unalaska, they’re remnants of World War II. But explosive materials discovered earlier this week at the wastewater treatment plant came from a different source.