Kayla Desroches/KMXT A local wildlife viewing service, which includes locally-sourced meals in their package, just reached its fifteenth season. Marion Owen and her husband Marty run Galley Gourmet, and Owen says they take guests scouting for birds and other animals – such as puffins and otters – and wrap up with a picnic featuring local produce and seafood. She says …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough is looking into raising property taxes to make ends meet and balance the budget in the next fiscal year. Like the rest of Alaska, Kodiak’s budget is suffering from shrinking state and federal revenues, which make up a large portion of the borough’s general fund. Borough Manager Michael Powers says 2016’s poor pink salmon …

On today’s Talk of the Rock, host Kayla Desroches talks with members of Kodiak’s professional garbage collecting scene about Saturday’s Community Clean-up Day. The event asks people city and borough-wide to choose a location and get rid of any trash they find there. It kicks off at 8 a.m. in the high school parking lot and continues till 2:00 p.m. …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The award-winning Baranov Museum film intensive is gearing up for another year of youth-created documentaries, and it just won a Rasmuson Foundation grant for its technology needs. The program, which was founded in 2012, will now be able to hand its students professional-grade camera equipment. Program instructor and grant writer, Marie Acemah, says she learned they’d won the …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Alaska Community Foundation, a nonprofit which donates to causes in its community locations, is hiring program managers for all of its branches, including Kodiak. Up until now, the Kodiak Community Foundation has been volunteer-based and under the guidance of its advisory board. According to Board Chair Ginny Austerman, the program managers were all hired about a month …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The epic of Otmeloi Way continues on its more than decade-long path to completion. Kodiak Island Borough community development director Sara Mason says the road, which is near North Star Elementary, is less than a mile long and they’ll do a complete reconstruction. She describes some of the current issues. “There’s children that walk to school and then …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT GCI customers may get faster download speeds in the City of Kodiak. The company announced last week that it’s unveiling a 1-gigabit-per-second service it calls 1 Gig Red. Stephanie Lovett, director of consumer marketing for GCI, says the change will be good news for people with tech-heavy homes who may be streaming on cell phones, laptops, and TVs …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kodiak’s Terror Lake hydroelectric project is one step closer to expansion. The Kodiak Electric Association plans to divert two streams in the Upper Hidden Basin into the reservoir through a 1.2 mile underground tunnel. To do that, it may use up to 20 acres of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge land, and a bill to expedite the process just …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough is building playgrounds in seven island communities, and it begins construction on Monday. Borough Project Manager Matt Gandel spoke before community representatives at the Kodiak Archipelago Rural Regional Leadership Forum Thursday. “Last summer we travelled around to all the villages, talked to the community about what kind of equipment they wanted. Colors, types, all …

Students and helpers work on mosaic bench at Kodiak High School. Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT A mosaic bench in front the high school is almost complete. By necessity. Three years ago, a group of students designed the bench with teacher and artist, Bonnie Dillard. Now the deadline is coming up. A group of students has come down to complete community …