The car came to rest at the water's edge off a rocky face in the center of the Airport Beach Road S-curves. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
Beachcombing in Unalaska usually turns up sea glass or driftwood. But police found something a lot bigger on Monday night -- a car wreck off Airport Beach Road.
The vehicle had been upside down off a rocky face in the center of the S-curves for at least a full day. Police were called there after a passer-by reported a man taking some items out of the wreck.
He turned out to be the car’s driver, and told police he’d rolled off the road Sunday evening, then freed himself and left the car on the rocks.
The Hill Place Apartments sit above South Pacesetter Way. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)
An Unalaska man has died after a car accident near the UniSea processing plant.
Ted Walker, 54, was driving past the Hill Place Apartments on Sunday afternoon when his Ford pickup rolled down a slope. The truck landed on South Pacesetter Way near the Galaxy Dock.
Police sergeant Bill Simms says Walker had "a variety of injuries caused by the accident itself." He was transported to the clinic and passed away a few hours later during a medevac flight to Anchorage.
The hiker called for help from Mt. Coxcomb around 9:30 Friday night.
Emergency personnel rescued a hiker and her dog from a precarious peak in Unalaska this weekend.
Fire chief Zac Schasteen says a woman in her late twenties called for help after she became stuck on Mt. Coxcomb on Friday night.
The terrain was rough on the mountain, which overlooks Summer Bay. Schasteen says the woman wasn’t dressed for ice and snow -- and was only carrying water when she first set out from Memorial Park with her dog.
Unalaska has a new fire chief. Twenty-year department veteran Zac Schasteen will take over the job starting Monday.
He’s been filling in as acting chief since November, when former fire chief Abner Hoage left to take the same job in Ketchikan.
But Schasteen has been with the department for most of his life, starting as a 16-year-old volunteer fire cadet and going on to be an EMT, firefighter and police officer.
"It’s been my passion since I was a kid," he says. "I’ve always really enjoyed public service. I just like it."
Located in the Public Safety building, Unalaska's jail usually houses two or three prisoners a night. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)
The state has added back most of the funding it planned to cut for community jails like the one in Unalaska.
The governor’s amended budget, released Wednesday, restores $7 million out of the $10.4 million jails fund, which pays for local lock-ups in 15 Alaska towns.
That would still mean a big cut for what police say is a vital program. At a legislative hearing this week, Corrections Commissioner Ronald Taylor said he's looking into ways to help offset the remaining shortfall.
A ban on the public consumption of marijuana will get a public hearing at a special city council meeting next week.
Councilors took a first look at the ordinance Tuesday night.
It would put the ballot measure voters approved last fall into local law -- setting a $100 fine for marijuana consumption in public places, making it illegal for people under 21 and limiting how many plants are allowed for personal use.
Council took it up after an hour-long debrief from police on a recent marijuana conference in Colorado.
Unalaska police have recovered the body of a hiker who went missing on a remote trail this past weekend.
Jessica Acker, 33, is believed to have left for a hike in the Pyramid Valley area on Sunday. Heavy snow and wind set in that afternoon.
It persisted on Monday, as search party made up of local police, Coast Guard and civilian volunteers spent more than 12 hours looking for the missing woman.
