Unalaska, AK – The City is updating its comprehensive plan for the first time in about 20 years. However the plan does not just set forth how city land and regulations will develop. Doyle Hyett, with the firm that's helping the city develop the plan, said it truly is a comprehensive document that involves all public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the community and incorporates the ideas gathered in the community vision statement.
Unalaska, AK – Hundreds of thousands least and crested auklets used to nest on Kasatochi Island. But in August of 2008, the island's volcano erupted and covered the entire place in ash and leaving all of the birds homeless. It was one of only seven major colony sites for the birds in the Aleutian chain. Now they need new places to go to breed.
Bird biologist Ian Jones said their options are limited. They could nest on nearby Kiska Island, which already has a large colony living on the lava flows from the 1970s. But it also has rats.
Unalaska, AK – The Coast Guard successfully medevaced a 23-year-old man from the 230-foot F/T Seafisher when it was 170 miles north of Unalaska on Tuesday evening. The Coast Guard received a call around 10 pm saying that a man was suffering from abdominal distress and bleeding. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter that was pre-deployed to Cold Bay went through blowing snow and one mile visibility to reach the vessel in an hour and 15 minutes. They quickly hoisted up the crewman and delivered him to emergency personnel in Unalaska at 12:30 am on Wednesday. This rescue began just as another Coast Guard crew was rescuing the four crew members from the Northern Belle. That vessel went down in the Gulf of Alaska Tuesday afternoon. One crew member died.
Unalaska, AK – Aleutian World War II campaigns on Kiska and Adak are featured in a new exhibit at the Anchorage Museum in honor of national archaeology month. It features never-before-seen personal photos from both Japanese and American soldiers who served on Kiska during the war and artifacts from Adak. KUCB's Anne Hillman in Unalaska, home of the Aleutians World War II Historic Site, talked to one of the contributors, World War II specialist Dirk H. R. Spennemann. Check out some of the photos here.
Unalaska, AK – The new Akutan airport may mean fewer flights to Unalaska in the future. The airport is scheduled for completion in 2012 and will be built on Akun Island. Passengers will travel via hovercraft the seven miles to the village of Akutan and the Trident fish processing plant there. The runway will be long enough to allow flights directly from Anchorage to Akutan. Currently, almost everyone traveling to Akutan has to fly into Unalaska first.
Unalaska, AK – The city council discussed the small boat harbor again Tuesday night and tried to hammer out the final details. They did make one major decision. They will build the smaller version of the harbor building that only has individual, locking shower units; separate men's and women's restrooms; a large workshop for harbor employees; and a small workstation. They will not build new harbor offices, though those could be added at a later date.
Unalaska, AK – The 2010 state legislative session wrapped up at about 12:30 a.m. on Monday with a rush of bills being passed in the last few days of the session. District 37 Representative Bryce Edgmon said a number of them will have direct impacts on Unalaska.
One such bill will allow voters to decide whether or not to add four more representatives and two more senators to the state legislature. Edgmon said doing so might ensure that rural areas do not lose representation when districts are reapportioned in accordance with the 2010 census.
Unalaska, AK – Westward Seafoods was fined $570,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act at their Unalaska plant. Though the company agreed to negotiate a fine, they did not admit to committing the violations.
The violations occurred between 2002 and 2006. The state started investigating the problems but after asking for information from Westward seven different times and not receiving a response, the case was turned over to the EPA.
Unalaska, AK – The North Pacific Fisheries Research Foundation and groups of fishermen have developed and tested a new style of Chinook salmon excluder device for pollock trawl nets that works just in time for the Chinook salmon bycatch hard cap rules to go into place. KUCB's Anne Hillman found out how it works.
