Despite some opposition, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly voted four to one last night to extend the dates during which fireworks can be legally purchased and used on the island. This is in response to the state fire marshall’s ban on the sale and use of fireworks around much of Alaska due to hot, dry weather, and the dozens of …

Another dead gray whale washed up on Kodiak late last week, this time near Surfers Beach. A team of volunteers, led by local veterinarian Dr. Emily Iacobucci and NOAA Fisheries Special Agent Brent Pristas, headed out the road on Saturday morning to begin a necropsy on the specimen. It was a labor-intensive process involving hours of stripping blubber off the …

Among the cuts that Governor Mike Dunleavy announced at today’s press conference was the complete elimination of the state’s senior benefits program, a $21 million cut. City of Kodiak Mayor Pat Branson, who also serves as Executive Director of Senior Citizens of Kodiak, says that this could represent a major hardship for Kodiak seniors, many of whom rely on the …

Erosion is an ever-present issue for coastal highways. It’s of particular concern for Kodiak, where a large portion of the major road system sits right alongside the ocean. Starting this spring, the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities has been working on a months-long construction project to slow the inevitable. Exposed guardrails at Mile 25.5 of the Chiniak Highway. …

A law that went into effect on January 1 of this year has had boat owners across the state scrambling to get their vessels registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles. SB92, also known as the Derelict Vessels Act, requires all boats, barges, sport fishing guide boats, and tenders over 24 feet in length to be registered with the Alaska …

Alaska Aerospace Corporation held a public meeting last night at the Kodiak Convention Center, to explain next steps in their Master Plan, including a policy to start making payments to the borough and state. Alaska Aerospace Corporation launch facility on Narrow Cape. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Aerospace Corporation) The policy allows the board to allocate up to 20 percent of …

The Kodiak Alutiiq /Sugpiaq Repatriation Commission has been working for years to recover artifacts and human remains of the community’s ancestors. As part of that effort, a new park in downtown Kodiak is dedicated to ancestors uprooted from their homeland. More than a thousand metal salmon cutouts, each representing a repatriated Alutiiq ancestor, cover the inside of the archway at …

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is going to be chip sealing several Kodiak roads over the coming weeks. Starting out at the end of Monashka Bay Road, road crews will work their way toward town. DOT crews can finish up to four miles of road per day, but they’ll only be working on one-mile sections at a …

Despite one voice of opposition during public comments, the Kodiak Borough Assembly voted unanimously to approve almost $160,000 in funding grants to nonprofit organizations around the island. These included the Brother Francis Shelter, at $36,000 and Senior Citizens of Kodiak at $21,000. The Kodiak Island Borough Building. (Photo by Kayla Desroches/KMXT) KMXT was also one of the recipients — the …

This past weekend, KMXT hosted the annual Bear Crawl obstacle race fundraiser. The station had over 75 participants come out to the fairgrounds on Saturday to navigate through a series of fun challenges — a rope wall, tire runs, and the famous mud pit crawl, among others! Kids participated too, in a shortened version of the course (still including the …