On a recent summer day, Taw Lindsey was doing maintenance work in Metlakatla’s high school gym when his phone rang. On the line was the executive director of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, informing Lindsey that he was named the state’s 2027 superintendent of the year 

Lindsey didn’t even know he was nominated. 

“I was humbled, very appreciative, but I was humbled that they chose me,” he said.

Alaska superintendents can be nominated by anyone who has personal knowledge of their performance and qualifications. The selection committee, composed of former winners, veteran superintendents and community leaders, looks not only at a nominee’s commitment to students, but to their colleagues and community. Lindsey’s qualifications and time with the district stood out to them. 

“I think because he’s worked with so many of the different positions in the district, he really truly understands the challenges that are faced by employees at every level,” said Alaska Council of School Administrators Executive Director Lisa Parady.

Although Parady wasn’t part of the selection committee, she’s known Lindsey for years. He’s active in the Alaska Superintendents Association, which is a branch of the state’s Council of School Administrators. 

Parady said Lindsey is respected around the state. 

“He’s deeply committed to serving his own district, but also the children across Alaska, and so I think that was something that folks really appreciated about him,” Parady said.

Lindsey has been with the rural, three-school district for over 20 years. He started in Metlakatla as a temporary maintenance worker, then taught auto mechanics. He was then high school principal before starting his superintendency in 2019. 

And since then, colleagues say he’s adopted a research-based curriculum and has been a proponent of professional development in the district. Lindsey is also credited for enhancing the district’s career and technical education programming. That includes its scuba and rescue diver courses, which provide career development in commercial diving and mariculture.  

Parady said she traveled to Metlakatla in mid-September to present Lindsey with the award. When she left, Parady said she was confident that Lindsey was absolutely deserving of the award. 

“Taw’s leadership is really grounded in a student first mindset, and I think it’s really clear that he leads with his head and his heart,” Parady said. “He recognizes that education is ultimately about people, and relationships, and creating opportunities for every child to succeed.”

Lindsey said long-term leadership in the district is key to its stability. It recently received a Cognia accreditation, which certifies that a school or district meets certain educational standards. 

Lindsey said Alaska has a lot of great superintendents, who have managed much more difficult challenges than he has. Even so, he said the award gives his school district great exposure for all it’s doing. 

“It’s just a reflection of hard work with a lot of people working together, and I want to share this award with everybody that I work with,” Lindsey said. “I think this is an incredible district.” 

Parady believes this is the first time a superintendent from Metlakatla has been recognized by the Alaska Council of School Administrators in its decades long history. The organization also honors principals and school business officials. Over half a dozen superintendents from around the state were nominated for the 2027 award. 

Lindsey will go on to represent Alaska at the national superintendent competition in Georgia this February. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post Metlakatla educator named Alaska’s superintendent of the year appeared first on KRBD.

A former Ketchikan church leader has pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse material. 74-year-old Dwight “Chris” John,  possessed sexually explicit photos of a young child from Mexico. John is already serving a 20 year prison sentence for sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree for crimes that happened in Alaska. 

John was an elder member of the Clover Pass Community Church. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, John’s relatives contacted the Ketchikan Police Department in 2024 when they found a USB drive containing child sexual abuse material. Law enforcement officers searched the drive and John’s laptop and found dozens of pictures of a young victim he knew through an institution in Mexico. 

John admitted to taking photos of the young girl during trips to Mexico in 2018 and 2019.

Officers additionally found over a thousand sexually explicit photos of minors, including of infants and toddlers. 

Less than three years into his current sentence, John faces a minimum penalty in the new federal case of 10 years for the possession of child sexual abuse material. The sentencing is scheduled for Dec.16. 

The post Former Ketchikan church leader pleads guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material appeared first on KRBD.

For most of the summer, you can find Maura Scudero shucking oysters. On a recent sunny day in Ketchikan, she and two Alaskan Oyster Shack staff members were popping open a dozen of the deep-cupped, palm-sized mollusks, dropping the half shells into a bucket. 

Scudero owns the Alaskan Oyster Shack, a local restaurant situated on the corner of Newtown Wharf, attracting massive amounts of tourist traffic to the business’ walk up window. It’s the only restaurant in Ketchikan to sell just oysters — and all of their oysters are exclusively from Southeast Alaska.

Scudero, a longtime Southeast resident, takes pride in that. 

“There’s not a lot of options for oysters, which is kind of crazy because we have incredible oysters and we have a lot of oysters,” Scudero said.

Scudero is trying to spread the word about Alaskan oysters. This summer, the business was even recognized in Food and Wine magazine as having one of the best dishes of the month, calling the business the best place to experience Southeast Alaska’s burgeoning oyster scene, just short of visiting an oyster farm. 

It was also recently featured in Seattle Magazine. 

But just last year, Scudero and her small team were shucking oysters on a pop-up table with a little handmade sign, unsheltered from the not-unusual torrential rainfall. Eventually, they moved indoors.

“Looking at pictures now, I’m like, I can’t believe anyone came up to us,” Scudero said. “It looks like we’re gonna hand you your orders with a side of asbestos or something. Like it does not look nice, but we still got people, and you know, it’s a trickle effect kind of thing.”

Alaska waters are too cold for oysters to naturally reproduce, but the cold water is good for growth. Farmers import seeds from down south and grow them in farms across Southeast.

Scudero has worked in Southeast Alaska’s mariculture industry for years in different capacities. She used to work in marketing for a mariculture company, where she would travel to kelp and oyster farms around Ketchikan, Wrangell and Prince of Wales Island. That’s how she got started.

All the places the Alaskan Oyster Shack harvests from are local and family-owned. She knows all of the farmers personally, and says part of showing people Alaskan oysters is also highlighting the communities they come from.

Almost everyone who works at the Alaskan Oyster Shack was born and raised in Ketchikan. Spencer Sullivan started working there after graduating high school and was looking for a summer job. 

“I showed up and I’d never eaten an oyster. I’d never shucked an oyster. I don’t even know if I’d seen an oyster,” Sullivan said. “It probably took me a week to get it so people weren’t spitting out shells.”

He was one of the staff members shucking with Scudero on the pop-up table in the rain last summer. But halfway through the season, he started picking up information by listening to Scudero talk with farmers and customers. He tried to learn as much as he could. 

Now, Sullivan’s a manager. He loves it. 

“I always want to be down here,” he said. “It’s fun to hear people say they love our oysters and like they’d never tried an Alaskan oyster. It’s cool to give people that experience.”

When it’s slow, Sullivan and Scudero will experiment crafting sauces and mignonettes, which are all made in-house. Sullivan says you can put almost anything on an oyster. It might not always work, but he says it’s worth it to try things out.

:“You never know, it might just be like super good,” he said. “It could also be really bad.”

Sometimes, the weird works. The oyster shack’s blueberry basil mignonette adds a sweet element that is balanced and not overpowering. The spicy Thai chili sauce adds a complementary kick without being distracting. All sauces can also be accompanied with a squeeze of fresh lemon, supplied locally by Wolf Point Produce.

The Alaskan Oyster Shack recently expanded with a small location at Ward Cove, a developing cruise ship port just outside of town. Scudero doesn’t want to expand much further than that — at least not right away. It’s not a goal she has right now. She wants to focus on polishing and perfecting what they already have going.

“Great staff, great training. You know, we already have great oysters, so we have that all down,” she said. “And then, you know, who knows what the future holds?”

Like many local restaurants, the Alaskan Oyster Shack is only open regular hours during the summer months. But Scudero wants locals to know their oysters are not just for tourists. They offer punch cards and are open to pop-up events and collaborations. 

For the visitors, she wants them to leave Ketchikan knowing the distinct taste of an Alaskan oyster.

Correction: A previous version of this story had the incorrect spelling of Tommaso.

The post Ketchikan business nationally spotlighted for serving up Alaskan oysters appeared first on KRBD.

The Southeast Island School District, which is made up of seven small schools and a homeschool program on Prince of Wales and Baranof Island, has new principals. Both educators started their jobs earlier this summer.

Paulisa Scarlett is the district’s new area principal, who oversees schools in Kasaan, Hollis, Coffman Cove, Naukati, Whale Pass, and Port Alexander, on Baranof Island. She also serves as the principal for the district’s homeschool program. It’s the first time the district has had a principal for these schools in over two years 

Scarlett most recently served as the grants director and career and technical education, or CTE, director for the Yukon Flats School District, north of Fairbanks. She said she has a background in project management and is working on a short-term plan to help grow the schools she now oversees. 

“I want to see our growth,” Scarlett said. “I want to see, ‘Okay, we’re here today. What can we accomplish by the end of the school year?’”

Scarlett, who is based in Thorne Bay but will travel to each school she oversees, said her first plan of action is to ensure that safety equipment, like fire extinguishers, work properly. She wants to check in with students and teachers, and get to know each community. 

Scarlett also serves as the district’s new CTE director. She said one of her goals this year is to enhance the district’s CTE course offerings. That’s following an islandwide effort to revive that type of programming for high school students. 

Scarlett said she wants to ensure high school seniors are set up for success when they graduate, no matter their plans.

“When they graduate high school, it’s like now what? And I don’t want them to be saying that. I want them to have some kind of plan, some kind of action item to work on, either over the summer or anticipating for the fall. That is a big goal for me this year,” Scarlett said.

The district’s largest school, Thorne Bay School, also has a new principal. Jessica Heisler has taught in schools across Alaska, from Kotzebue to Kodiak, for a decade. She’s served as a principal before, but most of her experience is in special education. She’s also the district’s special education director. 

Heisler said one of her priorities for the K-12 school is to ensure that it’s running smoothly and growing. She said her biggest goal is for students to have the foundation to do anything they want when they leave school. 

“So no matter what path they choose, if they choose to go to college or vocational or get a job, any path that they choose, or military, I would ideally like for them to have the foundation to be successful in any of the fields they want,” Heisler said.

Thorne Bay’s school serves about 80 students and employs half a dozen teachers. Heisler said she’s looking forward to getting to know them and the community. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post Southeast Island School District welcomes all new principals appeared first on KRBD.

Sitting Ketchikan City Council member Riley Gass has filed to run for reelection. Gass has served two terms on the council.

There are three three-year seats available in the upcoming municipal election. KRBD’s Hunter Morrison sat down with Gass to ask about what he plans to focus on if reelected. 

Hunter Morrison: First things first, why are you running?

Riley Gass: I’m running because I love Ketchikan. I was born and raised here, lived here all my life, and I’ve currently got two little kids, and I’m very concerned about the future of our town. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t claim that I can fix everything, but I have some ideas. I have some things that we’ve been making slow progress on, and I’d like to see through, and I’ll probably get to some of those things here shortly.

Morrison: Yeah, could you kind of spell out your priorities?

Gass: Sure. So the main thing for me right now is coming up with practical ways to get this big industry that we have here, the tourism industry, to pay a little more of our infrastructure and of our town needs. I don’t think it’s too much to ask. I think everyone would agree that they benefit tremendously from our roads, our water, wastewater, landfill, all the things that we keep paying more and more for. And just to elaborate on that a little bit, in the last six or eight months, somewhere in there, I’ve brought forward — I am on the council now — and I’ve brought forward a few things to address that. I got council support to have the management address these and bring back some solutions. We’re still in the stage of waiting for those things to be brought back to us, but a few ideas I had are: one would be for the museum to be fully funded out of some sort of tourism dollars, so that our general fund taxpayer dollars are no longer supporting the bulk of the museum. I got council support to bring that back to management to have at least 95% of the museum covered by door fees and some other sort of CPV [commercial passenger vessel] revenue or tourism money, and other ways. Another big one that I’ve recently brought forward and got council support on was to increase the PILT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, on our port, which actually has not gone up in many, many years. It’s the only property that I’m personally aware of in town that the property tax or PILT money has not gone up on, and to me that should be increased, because that’s essentially a legal way of getting tourism CPV dollars directly into the general fund, which would alleviate the need for increased taxes on the citizens. So those are kind of my top priorities right now, and as I said, they’re in the works. So I’m hoping we can get to a solution on that.

Morrison: Gotcha. And could you elaborate a little bit more, you know, on your tenure on the council, what is something that you’ve done that you’re proud of?

Gass: Well, those subjects are the main focus, the ones I just mentioned, but aside from that, I really believe that our community is maxed out on the cost of living, and that would include taxes and rates. We’ve seen drastic tax and rate increases. More on the rate side, I will say we’ve successfully voted down three tax increases since I’ve been on the council, which I guess I would say I’m happy about, but we’re seeing a lot of rate increases, and I have been consistent on that. Not only have I voted down almost every rate increase, I’ve voted no, even if the majority hasn’t. That’s been my position, and I also would say that I’ve taken the harder position on the other end, which is when items get brought to us for increased spending, increased money for equipment, things of that nature. I’ve been consistent in saying no to that, which is a lot harder because some of these things we really want, we really could use, but in the end I know that the taxpayer and the ratepayer are going to pay for it. So I’ve been consistent on spending and increases on spending, and I believe that our citizens are kind of maxed out on that right now. 

Another thing I’ve been working towards with some progress, although I think I’d like to see a lot more, is trying to consolidate. And what I mean by that is, rather than giving out pink slips or firing massive amounts of employees, which I am not in favor of, having a focus on looking at where we can consolidate positions as people retire or leave, and with technology increases, we’ve made a little bit of progress there. But I think there’d be room for more. And I guess the other thing — this one’s maybe a little more lighthearted, but one thing I was pretty pumped about was I sponsored the thing to allow four wheelers in Ketchikan. When the state changed that rule, it went to the municipalities, and we were recommended to not allow them here. And it ended up being kind of a back and forth dragged out debate, but we ended up getting that. So I think that was pretty cool. And then more recently, I always feel like anything we can do to make people’s lives easier, to get out of the way and to not impede the citizens, the business people, is always a plus. One thing we did recently was one of the cab companies in town came to us and basically said, “Hey, there’s way too much red tape here. It takes me too long to get these people approved through the process when we need drivers in town because we all know we need a lot more transportation during the summer months.” So he basically proposed that we eliminate some of that red tape. We had some concerns, and in the end, we did end up eliminating some of that red tape and making the process a little easier. So, whenever I see an opportunity to get government out of the way, as long as it’s not at a detriment to the citizens, I think that’s a good way to go. 

Morrison: Gotcha. And you know, outside of your time on the council, what other community engagement roles, leadership roles, makes you equipped for this role?

Gass: Well, most recently, I’d say being a dad. I’ve been involved for many years with refereeing basketball here in town, youth basketball, Kayhi basketball. I did a little bit of coaching. I’m no longer doing that just because of time. I also, in recent years, have a real passion for housing and trying to create housing in town that provides year-round housing for regular folks, because I know so many people that struggle to find it. So I have been fortunate enough to start building some residential housing recently. I’ve had a lot of success with that. There were some major challenges. I’ve learned a lot, but I’d say that’s something that I’m proud of, and I want to do more of. 

Morrison: And, you know, aside from what you’ve mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you?

Gass: I would just say I’m kind of a regular guy. Probably a lot of people say this, but I don’t consider myself a politician. I have been very fortunate and blessed enough to have been elected to the council twice now. I’ve run twice, got elected both times, and I’m very grateful to the community members for putting their faith and their trust in me. It’s something I take very seriously, and I’m proud of that. I mean, I’m an electrician. I’ve lived here my whole life. I plan to live here the rest of my life, and that’s kind of what drives me to do this politics is that I want to try to make sure that Ketchikan is safe and affordable and a good place to grow up like it was when I grew up. The people here are incredible, with the youth sports that they support and all the things, the activities, the church groups, the businesses that donate everything in this town, and I just want to keep it a good place to, to raise my family and for hopefully future generations to come.

The post Riley Gass files to run for reelection to Ketchikan City Council appeared first on KRBD.

Rob Holston has filed to run for a three-year term on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School Board. There are two seats up for grabs in the upcoming municipal election and four candidates are running. 

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison spoke with Holston about his goals and priorities if elected to office. 

Morrison: What are you running for, and why are you running?

Holston: I’m running for the school board three-year term. I will challenge the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District status quo of current graduation requirements and curriculum offerings to ensure that each student has their best interest in academic achievement, health and longevity, career and technical, and industrial as well as the arts, and that these subjects will be balanced in their approach, thus ensuring each student’s best chance at enjoying a long, healthy, and productive life. A vote for me is a vote in support of this statement.

Morrison: And could you elaborate a little bit more on some of your priorities?

Holston: I certainly could. Let me first give you a bit of background on myself. My formal education consists of a PhD – public high school diploma, from Polson, Montana, where I was an honorary graduate. An associate of arts degree from Flathead Valley Community College, where I served as the student body president. A bachelor of music, P.E., and health education degree from the University of Montana. After that, I’ve earned over 100 credits in continuing education units and professional development hours, mostly in school administration from the University of Alaska. I hold a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master Captain’s license, and I recently completed a Cleveland Clinic course on diabesity entitled “Improving Patient Outcomes in Diagnosis and Management: Obesity and Diabetes Masterclass.” I’m a Vietnam veteran of six years, a graduate of the Montana Military Academy. My highest rank was second lieutenant, and I was then the RedEye Missile Commander there in Montana. My employment in Ketchikan began in 1981 as a teacher, and I drove a school bus for one year. Currently, I’m employed as a guest speaker aboard cruise ships, and tomorrow I’ll be in Juneau. They fly me up there to jump on a cruise ship, and the following day I’ll be in Skagway, then Glacier Bay National Park. 

And you ask about the focus of why I’m running. I think the school district has failed in a lot of ways, besides what everybody knows about their adeptness of balancing the budget, their fiscal responsibilities falling by the wayside over the past three decades. We really can’t blame the current school board. Matter of fact, they’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting by closing two schools. I hate to see them go. I had two children that were in the first year’s opening of Point Higgins School. So, what’s to become of those two schools? That’s part of our priority list, but I also see we are failing in health and physical education offerings. It’s just one semester each, and the reason I say we’re failing Alaska-wide, 23-25% of our graduating seniors can’t even qualify to join the army because of their inability to be physically in shape. Most of that problem is obesity. So I’d like to see a curriculum that addresses that.

Morrison: Gotcha. If you’re elected, what is something that you would like to do on the school board?

Holston: Well, like I mentioned earlier, I will challenge the current curriculum. I see in looking at the curriculum that we have four years of English required in high school. That’s after they have had nine years of English. We start English in kindergarten, and so I don’t see why we have to have that much literature – Renaissance European literature, like Shakespeare, is taught in two or three of the four years. I’m not against Shakespeare. I’m just saying there are other things, and I will be offering the school board a bibliography of things that have to do with health and longevity. 

I also think, like any business, the school should be run like a business. I have owned and operated several businesses here in Ketchikan: Alaska Home Fishing Bed and Breakfast Lodge, operated that very profitably for about 18 years. Then my wife and I started the Lighthouse Totems and Eagles excursion, which we operated for 18 years and sold successfully to an entrepreneur here in Ketchikan, a young man who’s doing very well. And then we started Ketchikan Photo Safari, which we ran for two years prior to COVID; two years during COVID, one year after COVID. Then we sold it. These businesses are sold at a profit. I’m also the founder and current secretary of the Guard Island Heritage, the local lighthouse organization, and we have $55,000 or more in the bank, and most lighthouse organizations are struggling with bake sales and car washes. So, I feel like I have fiscal responsibility and a business background that the school board could use.

Morrison: Gotcha. Could you elaborate a little bit more on like prior leadership roles, community engagement roles that make you equipped for this role?

Holston: Oh, absolutely. I’m a lifetime member of the Tongass Historical Society, a 30 plus year director of the Singing Christmas Tree. I’ve been a health and longevity advocate most of my tenure here in Ketchikan, and I’m a member of the Assembly of God Church. I’m the Alaska State Director of Gideon’s International, and I’m a weekly volunteer at the Ketchikan Pioneer Home for the last two and a half years. I play live music there for their ice cream socials.

Morrison: Aside from what you’ve already mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you?

Holston: I’d like them to know that if a person doesn’t have their health, what else really matters? What’s more important to a 50-year-old graduate of Kayhi, knowing Shakespeare or being healthy? And I trust that 90%, maybe 95% of people quizzed about that, if they’re 40, 50, 60 years old, will say being healthy. Now you can ask AI that question, and it will say this: “Survival comes first. A person must be alive and healthy to experience the world. Foundation of daily life. Good health allows a person to work, spend time with family, and enjoy hobbies. No replacement. No amount of literary knowledge can substitute for physical well-being and life itself.” Literature and learning, AI says this: “Optimal enrichment. Knowing Shakespeare adds cultural and intellectual value to a person’s life, but can be learned at any time during a person’s life. They can study literature at any age, but they need their health to do so.” Thank you, AI.

Editor’s note: Rob Holston does not hold a PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post Rob Holston files to run for Ketchikan’s school board appeared first on KRBD.

Frances Klein has filed to run for a three-year term on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School Board. There are two seats up for grabs in the upcoming municipal election and four candidates are running. 

School board members are responsible for overseeing the district’s budget, adopting policies and approving staff contracts. 

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison spoke with Klein about her goals and priorities if elected to office. 

Hunter Morrison: Why are you running?

Frances Klein: I am running because, as of the middle of the month [August], no one was, and so as I was looking at just the fact that there really wasn’t anybody running for two open seats. And thinking about the experience that I have with education and the potential that I see in our district, I figured that if I had the time and availability and the skills that I should step up and make use of those. 

Morrison: And could you elaborate on why you’re running a little more?

Klein: Yeah, so I have a background in education. I’ve been a teacher and working in education for over 15 years at this point. And as I look at the makeup and background and experience of the current school board, I see people with a lot of great business experience and community leadership experience. But I think that one of the areas where we could use some additional background is in actual working in education, being a teacher, being in the classroom, so that as the board is talking about policy and talking about the things that affect their employees, the teachers, the paraprofessionals, that there is able to be a voice there saying this is how these policies will affect the board’s employees. Technically, the board has one employee, the superintendent, but the district employs a lot of people in our community, and I think we could have a benefit from having someone who can speak to the experience of being a teacher in the district. 

Morrison: If you’re elected, what is something that you would like to do on the school board?

Klein: I think obviously the biggest concern currently for the district is financial stability, and we have had a tough few years with having to make cuts. I was one of the 70 teachers cut in the last round of cuts due to budget, right? And that was tough for the district. It was tough for the people that were cut. It’s going to be really tough on the kids coming up this year with bigger class sizes, different schools. And if we want to have the school district recover and provide quality education, we need a stable budget. And there’s not an easy fix to that, and it’s not going to be, unfortunately, probably not a next year fix. But I think there are things that can happen with the budget that would allow a recovery process to start, so that we can start stabilizing the budget, stabilizing the district, and then looking towards positive growth.

Morrison: What leadership roles or community engagement roles makes you equipped for this role?

Klein: So I think some of the other candidates running have a lot of really great backgrounds in like board memberships, community leadership roles. I don’t have those experiences, but I have a lot of experience working in schools, knowing how schools function or can function, a lot of background in understanding what the legal requirements are, right? And so being able to speak to, as a member of the board, hear the things that we need to do in order to ensure that our schools are meeting their legal requirements for kids, and then I think as well that ability to speak to the policies and influence policies that will make the school district a good employer and a place that people want to work.

Morrison: What is something that you would like listeners to know about you?

Klein: So, I’m a graduate of the Ketchikan School District. I was the class of 2007 at Kayhi. I was in whatever the last class was at Schoenbar before they tore it up and remodeled. I went to White Cliff, and I went into education because I was really lucky to go to school here, and I was lucky to have great teachers. And so I have seen the best that this district can offer. I know how good it can be. I had great experiences in music and in sports, and Ketchikan is a great place to grow up, and it’s a great place to go to school. It has been a great place to go to school, and I would really like for it to go back to being a great place to go to school. I think we’ve got a community of really active, interested, engaged parents, and really fun kids. My son’s in second grade, and so I spend a lot of time at the baseball field. I spend a lot of time at the rec center. I work currently with Resilient Youth and Community, and so I spend a lot of time with high school kids, seeing all the cool things that they’re doing. This community, you know, has a lot to offer, and it would be great to have a school district that is able to give as much back.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post Frances Klein on her decision to run for Ketchikan’s school board appeared first on KRBD.

Longtime Ketchikan City Council member Judy Zenge is running for reelection. Zenge is currently vice mayor and has served on the council for over a decade. 

She is running for a three-year term on the council. There are 3 three-year seats up for grabs in the upcoming municipal election. 

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison sat down with Zenge to talk about why she’s running — and what she hopes to accomplish if reelected. 

Hunter Morrison: Why are you running for city council? 

Judy Zenge: Well, you know, I think that now that we’ve seated a manager, we can get down to work. I mean, we’ve had a lot of really good people working as acting [managers], but now we have one that we’ve seated. He’s familiar with the community. He’s taking this seriously. I think I have something to offer there. 

Morrison: And could you elaborate on some of your priorities? 

Zenge: First and foremost, of course, there’s a budget, and the hospital lease review. I think that’s going to take some work. I’d really like us to focus on this debate on tourism. You know, I was instrumental in starting the tourism advisory board, which I think, once it’s all set up, is going to be great. I think we need to look at the numbers. Do we really need to limit it, or do we just need to learn how to manage it better? I think those are very important questions that we need to answer. Community grants — the number is increasing. We need to take a look at how we’re going to fund that. And yeah, those would be the main ones. And of course, there’s homelessness. There’s a plethora of topics that we are going to have to cover this year, and none of them are going to be easy decisions. 

Morrison: Gotcha. And you know, during your time on the council, what is something that you’ve done that you’re proud of? 

Zenge: You know, I don’t know that I’ve done anything personally. I think as a group, we focused on a lot of things. I think this year, one of the things that I’m really excited about is the tourism advisory board. I’m excited about the work that we’ve started doing on the hospital lease review. That’s going to take some time, and of course, seating the new manager would probably be my top priority. Being a part of that was really important. 

Morrison: And outside of your tenure on the council, what other community engagement roles, leadership roles make you equipped for this role? 

Zenge: You know, I’ve worn a lot of hats in this community. I’m a court reporter. I’ve been a guardian ad litem, a court visitor, small business owner, a foster parent. I advocate for seniors. I’m the mall manager, and I’ve been a councilwoman for 12 years. So I think if you combine all of that and all the different folks that I’ve had the opportunity to deal with and talk to and advocate for, I think I have the experience to continue my work, and I enjoy the work. 

Morrison: And outside of what you’ve already mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you? 

Zenge: I come prepared to every council meeting. I take the work seriously. I’m very approachable. People come into my office all the time to discuss various things. I’m going to vote for the community. I’m very independent. I look at each issue separately, and I go out and do my homework. And I still love this community.

The post Ketchikan City Council member Judy Zenge files for reelection appeared first on KRBD.

The deadline to submit public comment on a proposed plan to repeal the Roadless Rule has been extended. 

The Roadless Rule is a 2001 environmental conservation law that protects 45 million acres of national forests across the country from logging, including over nine million acres of the Tongass. Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture filed a plan to repeal it. The agency said in a press release that the rule is a barrier to wildfire risk reduction work. The rescission would increase logging opportunities, aligning with the Trump administration’s goals to increase natural resource extraction in Alaska. 

That set off a 30-day federally mandated public comment period, allowing the public to submit feedback on the plan, which will be used in developing final rulings and environmental analyses. The public comment period was initially scheduled to end Sept. 21. That deadline has now been pushed to Oct. 6. 

The new public comment deadline is now after federally mandated subsistence hearings that are scheduled for later this month. Subsistence hearings are legally required under ANILCA, or the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, to evaluate impacts on subsistence uses. They are required if proposed plans are expected to significantly restrict subsistence practices in the project area — like in the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests. 

The testimony at these hearings will be included in the record and considered for the final ruling.

There are two in-person subsistence hearings scheduled in Alaska, including one in Ketchikan on Sept. 29 at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center from 5-7 p.m. And another is scheduled for Oct. 1 in Anchorage at the Loussac Library from 5-7 p.m. Two statewide virtual hearings are scheduled for Sept. 30. More information on those hearings can be found on the Forest Service website.

The post Federal government extends public comment period for proposed Roadless Rule rescission appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan Borough Assembly member Kathy Bolling has filed to run for reelection in the upcoming municipal election. There are three 3-year seats up for grabs.  

The assembly serves as the legislative power of the borough, and is responsible for approving an annual budget and establishing policy for the borough.  

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison spoke with Bolling about her goals and priorities if elected to office. 

Hunter Morrison: Why are you running?

Kathy Bolling:  I am running because I think I’m an even better candidate than I was when I first started three years ago. And I did wait to file, just to kind of keep the game open to encourage people to think about running for elected office. We need local folks to dip their toe in or just jump in the water and give elected work a try. 

I do have some priorities. I think that’s going to be your first question. I think the number one thing for me is we just completed the comprehensive plan that’s supposed to be good for another eight, nine, ten years, and I don’t want it to molder on the shelf. It was a community-wide effort, we created goals and strategies to reach those goals, and I don’t want them on a binder on the shelf. Some of the things that stood out to me, like transportation and public facilities, is strengthening our regional and inter-island connectivity. Under housing, partnering with employers for their workforce housing solutions, I think is one way we can really solve the crunch, especially in summer, if the workforce can provide some of their own housing.

So under the health and wellness section, there’s childcare, which may not leap to most people’s minds at first, but it’s vital to the economy and to our workforce. And we have a running summer playground, which actually, way back in the day when the city had parks and recreation, I ran the summer playground program. So it’s been around a long time, near and dear to my heart. And in the past, we also had community schools programs. We had other ways to provide childcare in town. We don’t have that now, but what if we expand that summer playground program, which is always at capacity? What if we expand it to provide latchkey care during the school year? I think that’s something I’m going to work on. 

And trails. I just drove by coming from the university to KRBD, drove by the Third Avenue Bypass, and I’ve been a real advocate for reopening the Rainbird Trail, the southern end, so people can hike up and hike over to a platform and just look down over downtown and look out. You can practically see Nichols Passage from there. It’s just the most breathtaking view, and so that is being worked on. We just actually approved a little expansion to the contract so they could helicopter some extra materials up there. So that is happening. And speaking of priorities, I can’t not mention tourism, right? We’re all impacted by it, and it is in the cruise line’s best interest to work with their destinations, such as us, and it’s in our best interest to make sure that they hear us and that we decide what is manageable as a host, and set up expectations for our guests. 

And I’ll just segue quickly into a story about Ketchikan. Several years back, “Ask UAS [University of Alaska Southeast] did a panel of women in Ketchikan in the 50s and 60s. And we had Alaire Stanton, and Cathy Bellon, and Elinore Jacobsen,  and Ernestine Henderson, and I know I’m going to forget some other names, Merta Kiffer. Anyway, one of them began to talk about, it might have been Ernestine, talk about when the mill came in and how the mill people were not welcomed by the locals. They were not happy with this inundation of all these people coming into town. They weren’t happy, really, about this new industry and the impact it made, in the downtown area. And in 1965, the mill went on strike. Mill workers went on strike, and suddenly the merchants weren’t getting the money in, and they realized that they were really interdependent on each other, and they figured it out. And I think we can figure it out. So, Ketchikan, we’ve done it before. We can do it again.

Morrison:  Gotcha. What is something that you have done during your tenure on the assembly that you’re proud of?

Bolling: Well, what stands out in my mind is my effort to really make us accessible. Like, I see people come to the podium that I grew up with, or I know their kids, or I knew their parents, or our parents knew each other, and I want them to really feel welcome. It’s so important. I know that people don’t like to write letters or come to the podium, but it’s just me. You’ll stop and talk with me at the grocery store – I want it to kind of feel the same way. And I’ve made a concerted effort to keep people in the loop of what I’m up to, what I’m thinking, and what I’m learning, especially when I’m traveling for the borough on the borough dime, right? When in Anchorage at the Alaska Municipal League, or when I’m in DC, I made short videos and posted them on my Facebook page, which is public, so I think anyone can see them. And then I began doing them from the front seat of my car, and I do that because we have two rambunctious dogs and a few insistent cats, and I just found it easier to just go sit in my car to record them. So I call them from the front seat, but I just try to present information. I’m not trying to sway anybody, just to be informative, because most people are not watching the three-hour-long borough meetings, right? So I think it helps bridge that gap and helps people know what’s going on.

Morrison: And aside from your time on the assembly, what other leadership roles, or community engagement roles make you equipped for this role?

Bolling: Gosh, well over the last 30-some years, I’ve sat on nonprofit boards. I was on a governor’s task force. I’m currently on the Ketchikan Community Foundation Board. I have a supervisory position at the university [University of Alaska Southeast] where I work, and I’ve completed the National Association of Counties High Performance Leadership Academy. That was a several months long intensive course for government employees and local officials. I’ve won an award for being the outstanding Alaskan in the area of substance abuse prevention and education. I put my energy where my heart is, and as an assembly member, I work to make Ketchikan a place where everyone is valued and supported. And that might sound like a slogan, but that’s actually how I live my life. So, I also do my part by serving on the museum advisory board, the library advisory board, the investment committee for the borough, and the joint cooperative relations committee, where the city and borough governments sit down and work things out.

Morrison: Gotcha. Aside from what you’ve already mentioned, what is something that you’d like listeners to know about you?

Bolling: Well, I listen to KRBD, and thank you all for listening to KRBD. It’s a great example of how we have journalists as our neighbors, and it’s so important. Local news media keeps us all informed of local happenings. No other entity can do the job the way our local radio stations do, and the newspaper can. I just think it’s so important, working in the field of information, because I’m a librarian, it’s so important to know your sources and be able to go back to primary sources. When you post things, you have a responsibility to post where you got the information, where other people can also find it, and that is a way of being transparent. And there is an obligation when you provide information to delineate this is my opinion based on this, and these are the facts and not to present assertions as facts. So we have to be respectful of the people that we’re communicating with.

Something about me: my husband and I have five grandchildren, four of whom are enrolled in our local school district. So I am very motivated to ensure that Ketchikan’s a place where they can thrive, and we can age gracefully. That’s really of the greatest importance. And I want a Ketchikan where they can stay, and build their own families in homes that they own, and that’s what I want for everyone.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post Borough assembly member Kathy Bolling files for reelection appeared first on KRBD.