Tag Archives: John Whiddon

St. Paul harbor. (Photo by Raymond Bucko, SJ / Flickr) Kayla Desroches/KMXT The City of Kodiak is carving out what harvester-to-consumer sale might look like within city limits. Right now, city code prohibits fishermen from selling their catch directly from the harbor. After some prompting from the community, staff is working on changing that. At a city council work session …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT A possible change to city sales tax drew public outcry this week. At a recent Kodiak City Council meeting, Debbie Refior was just one of the people to speak about the negative effect of sales tax on local business. She said in the past there were three car dealerships – now there’s one. “Kodiak’s my home. It’s been …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The pink salmon disaster last year ate into the profits of fishermen and processors in the Gulf of Alaska, and the Kodiak area is still waiting to see if it’ll receive emergency relief funds. At a Fisheries Work Group meeting last week, fisheries analyst Heather McCarty touched on a letter some legislators, including Senator Dan Sullivan and Representative …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Fisheries Work Group took a look at itself in the proverbial mirror last week. For the majority of the two hour meeting, work group members thought about their purpose, their guiding principles, and their future goals. City councilman John Whiddon said the work group can’t accommodate every issue that comes before it. “One of the big …

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 …

Despite the expenditure of thousands of dollars by the Kodiak City Government, the city’s residents finally, and narrowly, approved a proposition that could open the doors to allow unionization of city employees who currently are not allowed to unionize. The figures were released Wednesday afternoon after the city’s Canvass Board counted all outstanding ballots. Citizens voted 413 Yes, to 395 …

A Coast Guard helicopter hovers above the Prinsendam. Via Wikipedia Kayla Desroches/KMXT Today 36 years ago, an engine room fire on a cruise ship led to one of the biggest coast guard rescues in history. A couple of Kodiak residents were players in the two-day rescue and remember that mission. Before becoming the driving force behind the LegHead Report, Maggie …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council talked communication at their joint work session Tuesday night. First on the agenda was the assembly’s decision to change building codes, which it did without sitting down with the council. The borough and city share a building department through a memorandum of agreement, and the assembly’s decision to revert …

The Kodiak City Council will have two vacancies to fill come October and will hold its municipal election concurrent with the Kodiak Island Borough. At the city’s filing deadline Monday at 4:30 p.m., only the incumbents, City Councilmen Charlie Davidson and John Whiddon had thrown their hats into the ring.

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council recently put their final stamp on a letter which would provide community input on Gulf of Alaska trawl bycatch management to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Each Kodiak governing body held a meeting Tuesday to review and approve that letter. This last step comes after months of discussion …