Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough is working to finish up infrastructure updates in the villages before students return to school. Matt Gandel says the borough replaced some of the flooring in the smaller Karluk and Ahkiok schools, and is now updating Ouzinkie. “So, we’re basically replacing the existing carpet with new carpet for the most part. There’s a little …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough is working to finish up infrastructure updates in the villages before students return to school. Matt Gandel says the borough replaced some of the flooring in the smaller Karluk and Ahkiok schools, and is now updating Ouzinkie. “So, we’re basically replacing the existing carpet with new carpet for the most part. There’s a little …

Mitch Borden/KMXT Discover Kodiak recently hired a new executive director. After almost five years, the local tourist bureau’s former executive director Chastity McCarthy decided to step down so she could move to Arkansas to be closer to family. When Aimee Williams heard that Discover Kodiak would be looking for someone to fill McCarthy’s position, she was excited. Williams said,“I always …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The remains of the two people missing in Marmot Bay have been located. The Alaska State Troopers followed up on the incident from last Thursday where a fishing vessel, the Miss Destinee, capsized in Marmot Bay. The Coast Guard searched the area for more than 35 hours before suspending the area investigation late Friday night. According to a …

Borough map of Monashka and Termination Point area. Courtesy of Kodiak Island Borough Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough is trying to better manage Monashka Mountain trails. Before they can figure out a management plan for those individual trails, they need to gather data on where they go and what’s along them. The Parks and Recreation Committee went over that …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough School District budget went into effect at the start of the new fiscal year on Saturday. The Board of Education finalized that document at its regular meeting earlier in June. This year’s budget adds up to about $45,500,000. That’s a change from last year’s amount of roughly $48,500,000. During discussion, board member Duncan Fields …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT There’s less government money to spread around to nonprofits this year. Hope Community Resources for instance has seen cuts in state dollars, its largest funding source. Starting on the first day of the fiscal year, July 1, Hope Community Resources transferred its Kodiak Short-Term Assistance and Referral Program, or STAR program, to the Independent Living Center in Homer. …

Arctic Terns. Photo by Bryan Wilkins / Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT A biologist recently returned from a survey of seabirds on Kodiak Island, and she says some colony numbers have decreased this summer. Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge bird biologist Robin Corcoran says terns are having a difficult year. She says there are three colonies on the road system: at the Pasagashak …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Members of the borough Solid Waste Advisory Board say there’s an ongoing issue with people leaving large items where they don’t belong. That means Alaska Waste employees and Kodiak Island Borough maintenance mechanics need to drive around to dumpsters and transport items, anything from radiators to TVs, says Engineering and Facilities Department Director Bob Tucker Tucker says they’d …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Coast Guard has suspended its search for two people missing in Marmot Bay. According to a Coast Guard press release, at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning, watchstanders in Anchorage got a mayday from a good Samaritan vessel in Kodiak waters. The Miss Destinee had toppled following impact from a large wave. The good Samaritan vessel, El Caporal, reported …