Unalaska had record-shattering turnout for yesterday’s general election.
“The best that we can come up with is the highest turnout was 712, years ago," says City Clerk Elizabeth Masoni. "And we had 808 that actually came to the polls and then we had 87 absentees on top of that.”
That’s a total of 895 voters, or roughly half of all voters registered in the district. Masoni says there were long lines at the polls right up until the election was called.
Someone in Adak will have the distinction of being the last person in the nation to cast their vote in the Presidential Election today. Adak is in a different time zone from most of Alaska, so their polls will close an hour later than the rest of the state. City manager Layton Lockett knows Adak won't swing the general election, but he's still excited.
“I mean really any significance? No. I think we’re all going to know where we’re going to be at by that point, so it's kind of disheartening, but we figured you know, let's throw a little bit of humor into this, you know?”
The community development quota program was supposed to infuse Western Alaska villages with money from the Bering Sea fisheries. Twenty years after it started, the program’s coming under the microscope for the first time.
All six CDQ groups handed in self-evaluations to the state by Tuesday afternoon. The groups had to judge their success at bringing more jobs and economic opportunities to their member villages.
When it comes to wastewater compliance in Alaska, the state is now taking over the reins from the federal government.
Up until recently, the Environmental Protection Agency was responsible for issuing discharge permits. Those permits set the amount of waste things like seafood processing plants, mining operations, and sewage treatment centers can release under the Clean Water Act. Over the past four years, the EPA has handed over control of the permitting process to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. First, they were given the authority to issue to permits to logging companies and hatcheries, and then they took on federal and municipal buildings. Yesterday, the final phase of the takeover was completed: the DEC is now taking over permitting for the oil and gas industry and all other facilities that hadn’t been transferred yet.
The official numbers are in and it will come as no surprise to residents of the Aleutians that most people in the region work either directly or indirectly for the seafood industry.
A new report from the Alaska Department of Labor examines the economy of the Aleutians West census area in detail, pointing out that it’s “an outlier in nearly every category in comparison to the rest of the state.”
Election Day is fast approaching, and Unalaskans will have the chance to cast their ballots in a number of state races on November 6. This week, KUCB is airing interviews with candidates for Alaska’s one congressional seat and with the region’s representatives in the State Legislature who are up for reelection.
Earlier this week, KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal spoke with State Representative Bob Herron. Herron represented Bethel and its surrounding village for two terms. After redistricting, he’s taking on the Aleutian and Pribilof islands from the old representative, Bryce Edgmon. He’s in an uncontested race, so he’s all but certain to be Unalaska’s next representative. Here, Herron talks about balancing Bethel’s needs against those of Bering Sea communities.
Election Day is fast approaching, and Unalaskans will have the chance to cast their ballots in a number of state races on November 6. This week, KUCB is airing interviews with candidates for Alaska’s one congressional seat and with the region’s representatives in the State Legislature who are up for reelection.
Today, KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez has this Q&A with State Representative Sharon Cissna. She’s the underdog in a race against Rep. Don Young for Alaska’s one seat in the house. In this chat, Cissna discusses transportation, telecommunications, and the challenges of representing a state as large and diverse as Alaska.
Election Day is fast approaching, and Unalaskans will have the chance to cast their ballots in a number of state races on November 6. This week, KUCB is airing interviews with candidates for Alaska’s one congressional seat and with the region’s representatives in the State Legislature who are up for reelection.
Today, KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez has this Q&A with longtime Rep. Don Young.
It’s official: “No more flights of the Goose. The Goose is done.”
That's the word from PenAir president Danny Seybert. As the Dutch Harbor Fisherman first reported, Goose service to Akutan ended over the weekend.
“They took my runway away. I have no place to land," Seybert says.
By runway, Seybert means the concrete seaplane ramp that the Goose used to haul out on. It was modified over the summer to accommodate the hovercraft that runs between Akutan and the new airstrip on Akun Island, and Seybert says those modifications made it unusable for the Goose. For the last few months, the plane has been pulling up on the gravel beach in front of town.
