KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska

Anne Hillman/KUCB The state’s Marine Transportation Advisory Board is recommending increased ferry service to southwest Alaska from Kodiak to Unalaska. Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference leaders met with the board on Monday, and urged the board to increase service to the region from once to twice a month during the summer.

Anne Hillman/KUCB Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the Selendang Ayu shipping accident in the Aleutian Islands. Six crew members died while being rescued when a Coast Guard helicopter crashed after the 738-foot freighter went ashore and spilled 60-thousand tons of soybeans and over 340-thousand gallons of heavy fuel oil. But what has been done to increase shipping safety in …

Erik Wander/KMXT It took a helicopter flight to the lower elevations of Sheratin Mountain and a hike after that, but early this morning, a rescue party of Kodiak Island Search and Rescue members, coordinated by the Alaska State Troopers, rescued four technicians that had been stranded on the 2800-foot peak ten miles west of Kodiak City. The rescuers arrived with …

Anne Hillman/KUCB and Jay Barrett/KMXT As the North Pacific Fishery Management Council kicks off its meetings in Anchorage today, Greenpeace is trying to build awareness over what it sees as danger to the state’s most lucrative fishery. Anne Hillman has more:

Erik Wander/KMXT Kodiak High School senior Trevor Dunbar earned his first ticket to the national high school cross country championships by placing third Saturday in the Foot Locker Western Region Cross Country Championships in Walnut, California. Dunbar becomes only the second Alaskan high school boy to make it to nationals and only the fourth Alaskan runner overall. KMXT’s Erik Wander …

Jay Barrett/KMXT Four men are trapped atop Sharatin Mountain on Kodiak Island, pinned down by high winds and blizzard conditions. As of this afternoon, weather conditions were preventing a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Kodiak from responding. Petty Officer Walter Shinn said winds are gusting to 50 miles per hour, and visibility on the mountain is too low for …

Ed Shoenfeld/CoastAlaska The ferry system’s oversight panel is heading north to consider problems out west. The Marine Transportation Advisory Board will meet today at the Millennium Hotel in Anchorage. It’s the group’s first-ever meeting in Alaska’s largest city. Ferry system chief Jim Beedle says the board will hear from the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference. The regional economic-development group is unhappy …

Erik Wander/KMXT Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby appointed various assembly representatives to boards and committees at the assembly’s most recent regular meeting. Mayoral and assembly appointments to boards, committees and commissions were also issued to volunteer, non-assembly members.