Dana Haynes. Courtesy of Haynes Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Chamber of Commerce has hired someone to fill the position of community relations director, and it’s the Alutiiq Museum’s former gallery manager. Dana Haynes takes over from Stephanie DeLaGarza. In her new role, Haynes will put together local political forums, organize events like Crab Fest, and serve as a liaison between local …

On this week’s Alaska Fisheries Report, sockeye numbers are looking good in the Nushagak River, but king salmon appear to be dodging nets. Some local Koliganek families have been going downriver for their kings this season. Meanwhile, sockeye are also doing well in other regions, as are chum. One biologist in Kodiak calls this “the year of the dog.”

Baer and Townsend’s purchase request mapped out. Courtesy of Kodiak Island Borough Kayla Desroches/KMXT Tonight at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly meeting, the assembly will address a purchase one of its members had hoped to make of borough land. As covered in the meeting packet, Assemblyman Dave Townsend and Rob Baer own a parcel of land on Raspberry Island and …

Golf club and ball.Krzysztof Urbanowicz / Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT An award-winning golfer turned golf instructor is coming to Kodiak. Dave Stockton has won multiple PGA Tour tournaments and, at 75, is now imparting the tricks of the trade to other golfers. Stockton also throws a fundraiser into the mix every once in a while. While in Alaska, he’ll drop by …

Kodiak Mayor Pat Branson accepts a $25,000 donation from Skoda on behalf of the Kodiak Community Foundation. Kayla Desroches/KMXT A local grant program just distributed a large donation to community nonprofits. In 2016, Czech company Skoda flew to Kodiak and filmed a commercial on the island for its new SUV, Kodiaq with a q, which played on the island’s wild …

On today’s Talk of the Rock, members of the Kodiak Community Foundation board and staff join to talk about the recipients of their foundation grants. Also, Teen Court executive director Darlene Turner and one of the student attorneys, Derek, talk about an upcoming Teen Court fundraiser.

Little boy doing activity with test tubes. Tubes are filled with colored water and dry ice for bubbles. Martin Cron / Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT A camp this summer is making science, technology, engineering and math activities accessible to young kids. St. Paul Preschool has been running camps along STEM themes all summer. That includes weeks focused on weather, engineering, and …

Pink salmon splashes through shallows. K. Sowl / Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Kayla Desroches/KMXT It looks like numbers at this early point in the pink salmon season are settling back into a normal pattern for the Kodiak region. The pink season in the Gulf of Alaska was so bad in 2016 that the federal government issued a disaster …

Photo from a U.S. Coast Guard overflight of the Twin Creeks fire in 2015. Kelly Parker / USCG Kayla Desroches/KMXT When the Twin Creeks fire burned the Chiniak forest in 2015, it also took with it the Chiniak library. The structure housed the community’s books, served as a meeting place for kids, and was also the local tsunami shelter. In …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Cost of living tends to be higher for Alaska cities than for many places of similar size in the Lower 48. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s publication, Alaska Economic Trends, ranks cost of living according to a scale where the average for U.S. cities is 100. That factors in things like groceries, health care, and …