Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough has a new mayor. Assemblyman Dan Rohrer left his assembly seat in order to take over from Jerrol Friend, whose term expired this month and who had served as borough mayor since October 2013. Rohrer ran unopposed at the recent municipal elections and won 1,983 votes. At the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT A ballot initiative in the upcoming election would make it so that people can register to vote while signing up for their Permanent Fund Dividends. Anchorage Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar says he started Ballot Initiative One alongside a group of other Alaskans. “The ballot initiative was inspired by efforts in other parts of the country where they have done …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The borough and city’s marijuana advisory committees are making progress in determining what the sale of marijuana will look like in their areas. Representatives on both boards gave updates at the Kodiak City Council and Kodiak Island Borough Assembly joint work session Wednesday night. Then-assemblyman and borough mayor-elect Dan Rohrer is the co-chair on the Borough Marijuana Task …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough School District just gained accreditation. Kim Hanisch, director of instruction with the school district, says members of the non-profit organization AdvancED visited Kodiak to do an analysis. “Three of the six people had to be from a state outside of our own, so three came up from the Lower 48 to give a true …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Public Library was just accepted into a program geared toward youth in rural areas. The Future Ready with the Library project will help middle schoolers with college and career readiness and begin with 20 different librarians. The project’s organizing agencies are the Young Adult Library Services Association and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries, and …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak City Council and Kodiak Island Borough Assembly broached the topic of consolidation for the first time since voters decided the two bodies should explore forming into one unit of government. At the council and assembly joint work session Wednesday night, Assemblyman Larry LeDoux said he wanted to leave the meeting with an idea of how to …

Dianne Ibarra as Rose and Jeff Huntley as Sam. Pam Foreman/KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT A new play from FairWind Players will switch up the typical seating arrangements. Jared Griffin is the director of the Flick, a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Annie Baker about three young ushers who work at a movie theater that still uses 35 millimeter film projectors. The …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Police Department recently reinstated its Body-Worn Camera Program with a new and improved model. Last December, KPD Chief Ronda Wallace notified her employees that the program would be suspended – not long after the city was forced to surrender a body-cam video under court order. The video in question recorded the events of Sept. 16, 2015, …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Tomorrow the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council will hold their second joint work session since the two bodies declared they would open up better lines of communication. Based on the agenda, the meeting will be a venue for discussions between the council and assembly, but also provide a platform for staff updates. One of those …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Days after a superior court judge ordered the release of a body cam video, the Kodiak Police Department suspended its Body-Worn Camera Program, which began in February 2015. However, it wasn’t until this summer that KPD announced the suspension. At a Kodiak City Council regular meeting in August, Police Chief Ronda Wallace outlined some of the department’s reasons …