KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT A projected $2.96 million deficit in the district’s 2013 budget was the focus of the superintendent’s report at last night’s Kodiak Island Borough School Board meeting. About $450,000 of the deficit comes from the loss of one-time state aid. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the amount of $350,000 was eliminated. Increasing health insurance costs …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The fourth annual KMXT-Kodiak Athletic Club Bench Press Competition was held on Saturday, with a new record set for total number of repetitions. The contest pits weightlifters in contests to see how many times they can bench press either half their body weight or their full body weight. In the half-body weight division, Hadji Wight blew past the …

Jay Barrett/KMXT The building of lightweight non-permanent greenhouses made of Visqueen over hoops in the ground may not seem like the sort of thing that would need to involve the government, much less take up four months of their time, but at its last meeting, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly finally passed an ordinance adding "hoop houses" to the borough …

Jay Barrett/KMXT It’s not often we bite off a chunk of salmon fresh out of the water and eat it, but some methods of presentation do not involve cooking, such as sushi and cold-smoked lox. Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center biologist Brian Himelbloom said he recently fielded a question from someone in Petersburg asking about turning a fresh caught …

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT Kodiak’s tanner crab will be the center of attention at a gathering in Anchorage tonight. The Alaska Marine Conservation Council is hosting "Taste of Kodiak" at Orso, a popular downtown restaurant. The event will feature tanner crab hors d’oeuvres, wine and a chance to "mingle with Kodiak fishermen." Theresa Peterson is the outreach coordinator for the Kodiak office …

Jay Barrett/KMXT After years of work by scores of volunteers, professionals, committee members and innocent bystanders, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly last night included the Kodiak Road System Trails Master Plan into the borough’s Comprehensive Plan. The trails plan identifies existing and potential trails and corridors that lead to recreational lands, and seeks to protect that access and expand it …

Alexandra Gutierrez and Stephanie Joyce/KUCB A federal judge has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s decision to restrict fishing in the western Aleutians in order to protect an endangered stock of marine mammals. The decision is the product of a year-long litigation process in which the State of Alaska, industry groups, and Aleut Enterprise sued NMFS over their efforts to …

Jennifer Canfield/KMXT Efforts to deal with debris from last year’s Japanese tsunami are moving forward. Dave Gaudet is the marine debris program coordinator for the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation. He says that politicians and policy-makers are finally starting to address the issue.