Villages

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly approved its capital improvement project priorities list at its meeting last night (Thurs, Jan. 4).  The St. Herman Harbor Infrastructure Replacement project tops the list, and the borough is asking for an estimated $5 million from the state going into the 2024 legislative session. St. Herman Harbor is owned by the City of Kodiak, and …

The Alaska Department of Education finished its headcount for school districts across the state last month. The village of Old Harbor listed ten more students this year than last year according to the Kodiak Island Borough School District.  Dr. Cyndy Mika in her office, June 1, 2023. (Brian Venua/KMXT) “Last year we had about 29 students out there and this …

The decision to close the Karluk school was unanimous at an emergency school board meeting on Oct. 24.  “It’s a sad day when you have to close a school,” said Cyndy Mika, the Kodiak Island Borough School District superintendent. “And it’s not anything that I ever wanted to do in my tenure – it’s nothing that I want to ever …

Karluk, a remote village of just 24 residents, will have a school for the first time in five years starting next month.  The village, then, had 24 year-round residents – just two of whom are kids. But schools need at least 10 students to qualify for state funding. In an effort to reopen the school, the Karluk Tribal Council posted …

On this week’s Talk of the Rock, host Jared Griffin talks about paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) with Julie Matweyou, Kodiak Agent with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program; Mika Bushell, NOAA research fellow and marine biologist for Knik Tribal Council; and Andie Wall, environmental coordinator for KANA. Listen here:

As of late last month, the village of Ouzinkie has a new hydropower system that provides the bulk of energy for the village of 130 people. But getting there wasn’t easy. The story starts back in the 1980s – that’s when the village’s hydropower system was first installed. It worked – but it had issues and was only running at …

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck about 22 miles south of the village of Old Harbor Monday night, about 70 miles southwest of the city of Kodiak. No tsunami was expected, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and National Weather Service, and no warning was issued.  A screen capture depicting the earthquake’s estimated location via the Alaska Earthquake Center …

A power outage in Fairbanks is affecting KMXT’s ability to send our signal to villages on Kodiak Island.  Until the issue is fixed, listeners in the villages will not be able to pick up KMXT 100.1 FM, though they can still stream the station on kmxt.org or the new KMXT app. KMXT’s signal to the village radio transmitters relies on …

Listen to this story; The village of Ouzinkie on Spruce Island has an Orthodox church, and the far side of the island also has its own chapel over the grave site of St. Herman. But the three monks who live in the middle part of the island only have a small indoor chapel in their shared house. Father Andrew is …

On just about any school day, if you went to Old Harbor on the southeast side of Kodiak Island, you’d see that Phyllis Clough wears a lot of hats. As the Old Harbor school secretary, she picks up the phone, answers parents’ questions and offers a steady stream of encouragement to the children. You’ll also find her in the cafeteria …