Temperatures are forecast to dip into the single digits over the holiday weekend in Ketchikan. The cold temperatures are expected to strain the resources of one of Ketchikan’s shelters for people without homes.

First City Homeless Services’ Overnight Warming Center on Park Avenue offers patrons relief from the elements during the colder seasons. The shelter’s manager, Deborah Asper, says the shelter expects a greater need for overnight housing as temperatures dip this weekend. She says in five years of operation, the shelter has experienced over capacity and under funding. And Asper says that funds and donations have dipped significantly in the last couple of years, and that’s putting a strain on the shelter.

“Donations are always appreciated. We’re really low on meat. We rely a lot on restaurants and on the ferries to donate food and also from local people who have been hunting but we just, everybody’s kind of strapped right now and so there just haven’t been as many donations this last couple years as there usually is,” she said.

Asper says luckily, no one seeking a night’s stay has been turned away this winter, though exposure is a big concern for the local homeless population. A poll conducted by non-profit, Women in Safe Homes in 2020, stated that 65% of the homeless population who were polled responded that it was their main concern. Asper says that if necessary. they could house upwards of 20 people, though she says that for the average 19 that they house regularly it’s already a bit cramped.

First City Homeless Services is working on renovating an overnight shelter, a structure given to them by the city of Ketchikan in 2020 following growing concerns for housing the homeless population during the peak of the pandemic. The facility first opened last winter, but shelter officials say they’ve moved back to the old warming center at First United Methodist Church on Main Street this winter to allow renovations to the Park Avenue shelter to continue.

“So we are in the process of building a new overnight warming shelter. We do have an overnight warming shelter inside of our day shelter right now it is cramped, but we’re trying to just do our best right now. We do not have the funds to stay open for 24 hours. So our participants do have to leave between one and four, but we’re working on that as well. Hopefully soon we will have the funds to do that,” she said.

To celebrate the holiday, the Overnight Warming Center will serve a crab dinner for their participants on Christmas day.

First City’s Overnight Warming Center is located at 400 Main Street during the months of October through March and is open to patrons starting at 8 p.m. each day, closing at 6 a.m.

The post Cold temps expected to strain Ketchikan homeless shelters appeared first on KRBD.

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center. (KRBD file photo)

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center is preparing for its sixth annual memorial service and hospice tree decorating. These two events fall within the holiday season and are meant as a time for celebration, remembrance and reflection. Chaplain Margie Adams says these events are a way to recognize the hardships of the past two years and honor those who the community has lost.

“It’s an honor to be part of the last moments of a person’s life and who they are and what they accomplished matters. Compassionate and gentle events such as this have layers of meaning for every one of us. With this pandemic, with more than 700,000 people having died, it’s important to acknowledge that communal loss as well,” Adams said on KRBD’s Morning Edition.

The memorial service will be a virtual event livestreamed on PeaceHealth’s Facebook page, much like last year’s.  This year, Adams says the Catholic hospital’s memorial service will include prerecorded elements of prayer and song that will follow a reading of names of those who have passed.

Family members and loved ones are invited to tune in on Nov. 27 at 10 a.m. or later watch on demand.

Another event, the hospice tree, will also serve as a visual representation of loss and remembrance. Starting Nov. 26 in Ketchikan’s Plaza Mall, PeaceHealth’s hospice center will host a fundraiser for the hospice service, where members of the community can purchase a ribbon of fabric where they can write the name of a loved one that has passed and put it on the tree. Ribbons from past years have been fashioned into wreaths that will be hung near this year’s tree, according to PeaceHealth’s hospice coordinator, Jamie Easterly Ketah.

All proceeds from the hospice tree go towards onboarding and training new hospice volunteers. The hospice service, provided by PeaceHealth, is completely free to families. Some 20 trained hospice volunteers in Ketchikan and four on Prince of Wales Island comfort the sick in their final days.

Anyone who wants to pay their respects or donate is welcome to come to the Plaza during regular business hours starting Nov. 26th or contact the Hospice Center directly.

The post Upcoming PeaceHealth memorial events to remember and honor those Ketchikan has lost appeared first on KRBD.

A satellite view of Alaska and the Northern Pacific Ocean in late September. (Image: CIRA/NOAA)

Southeast Alaska is likely in for a second La Nina winter in a row. National Weather Service Forecaster Benjamin Linstid says that could mean a colder winter than usual for the region, though it’s too soon to know for sure.

“Expect similar conditions to what we had last year: slightly below-normal temperatures. There’s a statistical tilt toward below normal temperatures when there’s La Nina conditions in the Pacific and about normal precipitation,” Linstid said in an interview on KRBD’s Morning Edition Monday.

La Nina is a weather pattern associated with lower-than-usual sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Linsted says it’s not uncommon to see two La Nina winters in a row — forecasters call it a “double-dip.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts La Nina conditions will remain in place through the winter months of December to February.

In other news, Linstid says a partial lunar eclipse is predicted for Nov. 18. He says the best viewing would be at midnight on Nov. 18 when the moon is closest to the center of the shadow. That is, assuming clouds break up enough for the eclipse to be visible.

The post La Nina conditions likely to bring cooler temperatures to Southeast Alaska again this winter appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s borough offices are located in the White Cliff building. (Maria Dudzak/KRBD)

Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly unanimously rejected a resolution opposing a statewide sales tax Monday. Assembly members said they were concerned the measure was premature.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has called on the Alaska Legislature to come up with a plan to balance the state budget. One proposal includes a 2% statewide sales tax.

The proposed joint resolution between the Borough Assembly and city councils from Ketchikan and Saxman originated from a Sept. 23 meeting of the borough’s lobbying committee. Officials from all three municipalities worried that a sales tax  would hurt Southeast Alaska communities that are still recovering from the financial impacts of the pandemic.

But at Monday’s meeting, assembly members said they thought the measure was premature. Assembly member Bynum cited issues with both the content and implied demands of the resolution.

“I think this resolution isn’t just saying ‘Don’t do something,’ but it’s also urging action to our legislative body. And that’s not something I’m prepared to do tonight,” he said.

Assembly Member David Landis sits on the committee that brought the proposal forward. He said he felt that the format of the resolution strayed from the point, overcomplicating and diluting the assembly’s primary demand.

“It seems like we’re getting mired in details of solving the state’s fiscal plan by what we include or don’t include in the resolution that really all we’re trying to do is say, ‘Hey, we already have a sales tax, we don’t want something on top of that. Do something else.’ Then now we get all sorts of ideas about what that something else is. And, you know, I just don’t think that we’re going to solve the state’s fiscal plan by making sure this resolution is just right,” he said.

Assembly members also voted unanimously to remove language opposing a sales tax from a list of policy and capital project priorities. The rest of the borough’s yearly requests to the Legislature and governor — including school upgrades and a new public safety building in Saxman — passed unanimously.

Before adjourning, Borough Mayor Rodney Dial, recognized the Assembly Members who were completing their terms. Both Assembly Member Sven Westergard, who attended his last meeting on Sept. 20 as well as Assembly Member Felix Wong were given their goodbyes and were praised for their work. They’ll be replaced by the winners of the Oct. 5 election.

The post Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly rejects resolution opposing statewide sales tax appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly will consider Monday whether to formally oppose a statewide sales tax. Members are set to debate a joint resolution between the Borough Assembly and the city councils of Saxman and Ketchikan.

Alaska’s Legislature is scheduled to reconvene in special session Monday. The governor has tasked lawmakers with coming up with a long-term fiscal plan after years of spending have drained state savings accounts. Among the proposals for balancing the budget is a statewide sales tax.

The text of the resolution says previous budget-balancing efforts made by the state have directly impacted Southeast Alaska. For example, the resolution says the state’s reduction in funding to the Alaska Marine Highway System has hindered transportation and raised costs for residents.

The resolution also argues that the state has shifted significant costs to the local level. One listed example is school bond debt reimbursement, a state subsidy for school buildings and other improvements. The governor has vetoed the program in recent years. And the resolution says that’s meant an additional cost of more than $1 million as the borough has been left to fill the funding gap.

The resolution also says local sales tax rates are some of the highest in the state. Officials worry that a statewide sales tax on top of that would mean lower sales for businesses and reduced revenue for local governments.

In other business, Ketchikan’s assembly is scheduled to discuss its legislative and capital project priorities for the coming year.

The borough’s Lobbying Executive Committee, which includes members from the area’s three governing bodies, unanimously approved the priority list of projects seeking state funding last month.

The list includes state funding for public school upgrades and projects as well as a new public safety building for Saxman. The priority list also underscores the borough’s opposition to a state sales tax and other measures that shift state costs to local governments.

Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly meets at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Borough Assembly Chambers on First Avenue. Members of the community can weigh in at the beginning of the meeting. The meeting is televised on local cable channels and is available for livestream at the borough’s website.

The post Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly to consider formally opposing statewide sales tax appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan community participants during a previous Stomp the Stigma march. (Courtesy of Danielle Duckworth)

National Recovery Month is coming to a close at the end of September. Community members in Ketchikan recently gathered for the fourth annual Stomp the Stigma March and Resource Rally. It’s an effort to eradicate the shame that often surrounds addiction and other mental health issues – and show that help is available.

For Danielle Duckworth, a lifetime Ketchikan resident and organizer of Stomp the Stigma, addiction is personal. Duckworth has battled addiction herself, and she says the event is a celebration of the process of recovery.

The march itself is a mile-long parade where members of the community walk together, holding signs with the images of community members who have lost their lives to things like addiction and suicide. Duckworth says it’s an effort to show the true cost of mental illness.

“The intention all along was to have both the you know, kind of commemorating those people who we had lost and to put a face to it. Because, you know, we think about overdose or suicide or these numbers, but especially here in Ketchikan and us being a kind of a close knit community or a lot of people living here most of their lives– even if you weren’t really close to that person. You probably knew that person,” she said.

A 2020 health assessment by the nonprofit Ketchikan Wellness Coalition found that Ketchikan has more than three times as many alcohol induced deaths as well as double the amount of suicides as compared to the national average. The rate is even higher on Prince of Wales Island.

Scientists studying addiction say stigma is a very real barrier to treatment and recovery. And Duckworth says that stigma and shame take many forms. People battling addiction are often dehumanized by the public: stripped of their titles as mother, daughter, father, or son and instead labeled as a “drunk” or a “junkie.”

“The language is important because people think of an addict as just an addict or someone who chose to have this lifestyle. Whereas when you re-frame it into the substance abuse disorder,” Duckworth said, “it’s not something that you intended or wanted or thought would ever be an issue for you. It just is.”

And Duckworth says it’s important for community members to know that help is available. Over the years, the event has grown to include a “Resource Rally” showcasing the local organizations available to provide help.

“When you have a loved one who’s in the middle of it, and you feel like no they need help right now, like right now is when they’re ready. We’re not a big city. We don’t have the means to be able to have right now help. So knowing what the resources are that we have in Ketchikan and banding  pieces of those all together is what it takes in our community to try to get help,” said Duckworth.

Duckworth acknowledges that  Ketchikan does have its shortcomings when it comes to fighting addiction and mental illness – the Wellness Coalition’s assessment identified addiction treatment and rehab as the top community health need in Ketchikan. But Duckworth says it’s important to know there are resources available for those struggling with addiction and other mental illnesses.

“You know, while there’s a lot of help that we still need,” Duckworth said, “I think that trying to focus on some of the positive things that agencies are doing to try to meet those needs is important as well because it’s hard work to be in the middle of all of this.”

Duckworth says that for anyone looking into recovery, there are nightly 12-step meetings that are provided at 8 p.m. at 1736 Tongass Ave. The nonprofit Akeela also offers Ketchikan KAR House, an inpatient rehab facility. Anyone seeking aid would be provided the paperwork for a referral and a treatment plan that opens the door for the opportunity to confront their addictions.

The post Fourth annual Stomp the Stigma event offers resources and support for those suffering with addiction and mental illness appeared first on KRBD.