The City and Borough of Wrangell and the City of Ketchikan have adopted a joint resolution to establish a Maritime Prosperity Zone. They’re looking to build upon their strengths – from shipbuilding to port infrastructure to maritime logistics. Each community has deepwater access, has developed expanded maritime industrial infrastructure and uses low-cost renewable hydroelectric power.

Wrangell’s borough manager Mason Villarma said they’re responding to an executive order issued by President Trump in 2025 to “restore America’s maritime dominance.” 

“We realized that there’s strength in a partnership with Ketchikan to get the home ports, to get the maintenance facilities together,” Villarma said. “So we’ve deemed ourselves collectively as the Southeast Alaska Maritime Industrial Corridor, and so we’re seeking designation for our two communities. There’s only 100 communities in the United States that will get this declaration.”

According to Trump’s Maritime Action Plan, those hundred selected communities will have that designation for 10 years. 

According to the President’s executive order, maritime workforce and shipbuilding capacity has “been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to a decline in a once strong industrial base.” It goes on to say that “the United States constructs less than one percent of commercial ships globally” while China produces “approximately half.”

The executive order’s goal is to allow the selected communities to apply for federal funding and improve workforce development. 

Villarma said federal subsidies and technical support will help the communities that participate in the program. He said the new maritime prosperity zone would help expand domestic capacity and national security. 

“As our national security fleet continues to grow at the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, there’s opportunities for Alaska to create jobs and do that work here,” Villarma said. “So most of that work, you know, 60% of it, goes to Washington, California, and now they can’t even get into yards. So it’s a really great opportunity.”

JAG Marine Group, for example, has a large-scale shipbuilding and repair yard in Ketchikan and wants to expand in Wrangell. Villarma said the federal designation would help this effort.

Ketchikan City Councilmember Jack Finnegan said if the maritime zone is selected, it could help catalyze private investment in the region’s maritime industry. He said it could also help grow Ketchikan’s population. 

“Anytime we have the opportunity to strengthen an industry that’s so critical to our community, I think it just bolsters the workforce,” Finnegan said. “It feasibly draws more workers here. It draws more families here.”

And that’s important to both Ketchikan and Wrangell. The latest economic data show that young people leaving Southeast is impacting the workforce. 

A resolution to support the Maritime Prosperity Zone will go before the Ketchikan Borough Assembly on Monday. Borough Mayor Austin Otos expects the assembly to approve it. 

KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki contributed to this report.

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. 

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The Forest Service is revising the Tongass National Forest management plan, and will use community input as guidance on how they will manage the forest for the next 10 years or so. 

Delilah Brigham, a planning officer for the Tongass, gave a presentation of suggestions to a room of about 20 people in the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center on Wednesday.

 “In order for us to make sure that we are providing the lifestyle and recreational opportunities that they want from their public land, we have to have that feedback from the public in order to incorporate it into a plan revision,” Brigham said.

Brigham says when they’ve asked communities about their visions for the Tongass, there’s been emphasis on recreation opportunities, sustainable timber management and protection of existing ecosystems. 

The National Forest Management Act recommends management plans be updated every 10 to 15 years. The management plan for the Tongass was last updated in 2016. Brigham says when getting feedback from people in Southeast, there’s been a lot of interest in balancing recreation use for tourists and locals. The current iteration of the plan, she said, doesn’t touch on tourism much.

The Forest Service has been getting input from people across the country. But Brigham, who lives on Prince of Wales, says the local input is crucial. 

“These communities in which we’re having the workshops, people are living and working and are in the National Forest every single day,” Brigham said. “People who are living here are more affected by our management activities than somebody who lives in West Virginia. They want us to really look at our management of the Tongass National Forest, because it’s important to them as well, but our management activities aren’t impacting them directly, like it does here with these communities.”

Brigham specified that the document presented is not an official draft plan, but an engagement document of suggestions for community members to build on. She said public feedback is essential to providing a robust forest plan — and she’s not worried about contradictory directives coming from Washington, D.C. She said they will have to adhere to the plan no matter what comes from the White House.

“The plan gives the vision of what we want to accomplish on the Tongass,” Brigham said. “Executive orders and other direction that comes from Washington D.C. gives more on, ‘this is what we want you to focus on,’ but our plan is the guiding document, and actually how we implement it.”

Jeff DeFreest is with the Recreational Aviation Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for protecting access to the backcountry. He lives in Ketchikan. He showed up to the event because he’s specifically interested in protecting the Forest Service cabins in the Tongass. Some of those cabins are fly-in only. He wants the cabins to be specifically addressed in the plan. 

“When it comes down to congressional funding, they’ll make priorities and it’ll be, you know, ‘do this, do that, build a trail,’” DeFreest said. “But the cabins could really easily fall through the cracks in funding and delegation of congressional dollars.”

He wants to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Some of these cabins that are not getting as much use, or they’ve been neglected because of lowered budgets, and so basically being allowed to decay, and, you know, with deferred maintenance on them, and then it’s too expensive for the Forest Service to fix them.”

Forest Service staff provided feedback forms for attendees to fill out and specify their interests and concerns. Submittals are welcome until May 6. The Forest Service will then synthesize the community input to draft plan content and release the draft environmental impact statement this fall. The final plan is expected next summer. 

In the next several weeks, there are in-person feedback sessions being held across Southeast, including in Craig, Hydaburg, Naukati Bay, Kasaan and Thorne Bay. 

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by Katherine Rose, KCAW Sitka

Phoenix Johnson works in political advocacy and education now, but around two decades ago, fresh out of the United States Air Force, she was planning on a career in medicine.

“Getting into the medical field was almost out of survival,” Johnson says. “I’ve always cared about people…I was a suicide intervention skills instructor, the youngest in the Air Force to do that. It hurts my heart to see people hurting, and I’ve hurt, and I haven’t had help when I needed it, and being an eldest sister, you know, I just kind of feel like that’s just ingrained in me.”

She was 26 when she moved to Ketchikan in the summer of 2011. The next year, she took a job in a lab run by Ketchikan Indian Community, an opportunity that felt deeply personal to her. 

“I’m biracial. My mom is Indigenous, and my dad was a Coastie…And that’s how they met [when] he got stationed up in Alaska. And so I thought, ‘What a neat opportunity to be a part of my mother’s tribal community, and to give back and help people.'” 

Johnson worked alongside one other technician in the lab, and they got along well. But the lab director, Dr. Richard McGrath, did not put her at ease. She had only been working in the lab for a few weeks when she said McGrath started to cross the line into her physical space.

“Immediately I could tell where he placed his body was unprofessional,” Johnson says. “The personal bubble wasn’t there.”

“It was a fairly small lab, and so, you know, I’m sure someone could justify, like, ‘There just wasn’t enough room. That’s why my pelvis just slid across you, right? Or, like, ‘I’m just grabbing for the gauze. That’s why I grazed your breast.'”

She recalls a moment when he called her into his office and pulled her chair closer to him so their knees were touching. When she tried to scoot her chair backwards, he pulled her close to him again. She recalls several other instances of inappropriate touching, including on her thigh, neck, and hair. She says he invited her to his home on Prince of Wales Island, which she declined. And then there was a slap. 

He came in, and that was the morning that he like full on, slapped my butt, and there’s  no mistaking that,” Johnson says. “It was underhand, slapping, cupping booty jiggle, all of it. And I was stunned, and I remember looking at him, and I was resolved, and I just said, ‘Never touch me like that again.’”

She reported McGrath to the tribe’s human resources department the same day, March 19, 2012. Three days later, she sent additional documentation, listing other instances of inappropriate touching and conversation. She met with the tribe’s human resources director, who said they would investigate. 

KCAW reached out to Ketchikan Indian Community CEO Emily Edenshaw, who declined to comment.

(Editor’s Note: After this story was published, Edenshaw sent KCAW a statement. We’ve included the link at the bottom of this story)

Johnson says they weren’t taking the allegations seriously. 

“I do recall being told, I don’t know if it was before or after the letter, HR saying, ‘Okay, well, clearly there’s an issue, so we’ll just have it so you guys interact very little. And I’m like, ‘Well, not really sure how that’s supposed to happen, because he’s the director. And that’s when it became very clear that, ‘Oh, I’m I’m the disposable one. They’re going to want to preserve a director, I guess.'”

A month later, on April 17, she received a response from KIC’s General Manager at the time, Debra Patton. The letter rejected Johnson’s sexual harassment claim, calling the incidents “non-intentional communication and physical contact.” It said McGrath’s actions may have been misinterpreted by Johnson due to his  “casualness” in the office, and the physical touching of her hands and shoulders was intended, “to refresh your knowledge of blood withdrawing procedure.” It said invitations to McGrath’s home were standard for all employees. Furthermore, the letter said McGrath’s butt slap was accidental, and was intended for her back. It said they found “no witnesses to support the allegation [that] he touched [her] on the neck, thigh and hair,” but if she felt intimidated in the future, she should speak with human resources or a management staff member immediately.    

The letter, which she says was delivered to her by the tribe’s former health administrator Brent Simcosky, said she could file a grievance in response to the investigation. Johnson says she filed a grievance right away. Within days, HR staff called her into a meeting, and told her she was fired. Johnson remembers crying as they immediately escorted her off the premises.

“Treating me as if I was some high threat or a criminal was that much more traumatizing,” Johnson recalls. “And then I’m just being dumped out on the sidewalk with no plan, no severance, no apology, no justice.”

KCAW has independently confirmed that McGrath worked for the Ketchikan Indian Community through at least 2013. A few years later, he was hired at Sitka Community Hospital. He was under contract there until he was placed on administrative leave in December 2018 after several sexual assault allegations were raised against him by three different women. He was charged in 2019 with 13 counts of felony sexual assault. Following a mistrial in 2022, on the first day of what was expected to be a lengthy trial in 2023, McGrath took a last-minute deal with the state. He pleaded guilty to third degree sexual assault, and was sentenced to two years in prison. KCAW reached out to McGrath’s legal representation for comment, but they did not respond. 

Johnson believes that if McGrath’s actions had been addressed by Ketchikan Indian Community years ago, it could have prevented him from harming patients and medical staff in the future.

Last year, she happened across news coverage of McGrath’s Sitka arrest. She felt it was time to ensure that her story was heard. 

“Being able to talk about this now means that my experience isn’t just invisible and it wasn’t erased. It means something, and there are so many survivors out there that don’t get their stories told,” Johnson says.

“Every time that we can tell these stories, it shines more light. You know, they say to drive out the dark with light,” she continues. “But it also, I think, hopefully inspires other people to be better. Even if somebody reads this and they decide, ‘Maybe I should go to therapy,’ [or] ‘Maybe I should tell my best friend this thing happened to me. Maybe somebody just needs that push to just try one more time.”

Johnson says she filed a grievance with the Indian Health Service earlier this year, but she’s skeptical of the state’s court system as a means for victims seeking justice. She says its “deference to state agencies supersedes its citizens in a way that feels inhumane.” Still, she’s optimistic that, if people act with integrity, those systems can be changed.

“We don’t need a system to have integrity, I try to teach people that. Every day I teach my daughter that you don’t need a law to tell you to be a decent human being,” Johnson says.

“The systems could be crummy, but if you have integrity, if we collectively have integrity we can fix the system, we can change the system, or we can work around the things that are not functioning as they should, or that are harming people.”

A civil case filed by one of McGrath’s victims in Sitka is being appealed before the Alaska Supreme Court. 

Editor’s Note: After this story was published on March 31, KIC CEO Emily Edenshaw released a statement. In her letter, Edenshaw said that as a matter of policy, KIC does not comment on past or current employee matters. “At the same time, we recognize that conversations like these can be difficult and may surface painful experiences for survivors,” she wrote. “Anyone impacted by sexual abuse or violence deserves support, care, and access to resources.” The letter included links to resources for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. “KIC remains committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and accountable workplace and community,” the letter continued. “We take all concerns seriously and continue to uphold the highest standards of integrity in how we serve our people.”

Read the full statement here.

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Ketchikan City Mayor Bob Sivertsen delivered the annual State of the City address to the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. He said that the state of the city is strong, and highlighted the city’s budget, capital improvement projects, and local economic drivers. 

Sivertsen talked about his love for Ketchikan, calling it a place “defined by resilience, hard work and a deep sense of community.” He takes pride in building a future for the next generation. 

“So this year, as we look ahead to 2026, we do so with a clear understanding of both the strengths and the challenges,” Sivertsen said. “Our economy continues to evolve. Our tourism sector remains strong, and our local businesses continue to innovate, but we also face a physical landscape that demands focus and discipline.”

Sivertsen went on to say that inflation continues to push project costs higher, and that revenues are not keeping pace with the city’s obligations. But he said the city has a responsibility to fund essential services, like police, fire, utilities and others. 

Sivertsen told the chamber that it’s searching for a new city manager, something he said the council “doesn’t take lightly.” The council selected a new city manager in December, but the candidate withdrew his name for consideration in January. Sivertsen said they’ve received many applications for the position, and so far, have narrowed the search to 11 candidates. 

There are hundreds of capital projects on the city’s wish list, Sivertsen said, from water and sewer upgrades around Park Avenue to a roughly $40 million diesel generator replacement at the city’s Bailey power plant. The city’s electricity runs mainly on hydropower, but diesel generation is used as a backup.

“The budget discussions are not easy, but they are responsible, and they reflect the simple truth. Ketchikan must protect the services that protect our people, while being flexible and innovative in how we deliver everything else,” Sivertsen said.

He also said tourism is one of the city’s “strongest economic engines.”

“But as we grow, we must grow responsibly,” Sivertsen said. “That means investing in infrastructure and supporting both residents and visitors, managing congestion and ensuring that tourism enhances rather than overwhelms the community.” 

In the city’s third financial quarter last year, Sivertsen said more than 40% of jobs in Ketchikan were tourism related. He said total visitors to the city last year was 1.6 million, most of them arriving via cruise ship. 

Before concluding, Sivertsen said the city collected $19 million in sales tax last year. He said 70% of that was collected during peak tourist season – April through September. 

Sivertsen also talked about the city and borough working together to attract the Coast Guard to homeport a new icebreaker in Ketchikan. The Coast Guard’s fleet is undergoing an expansion that could bring several new icebreakers to Alaska. Sivertsen said if a Coast Guard ship comes to Ketchikan, that could bring new families and revenue to the city. 

Sivertsen kept his eyes on the water and talked about the city’s shipyard, which was recently undertaken by JAG Marine Group. He said the shipyard has seen growth since the takeover, and is looking for funding to build a third drydock. 

Sivertsen ended his address by stating that the city is strong, and will only grow stronger with the community’s support. 

“We face challenges, but we face them together, and together, we’ll continue to build a city that’s safe, vibrant and full of opportunities,” Sivertsen said.

The city mayor’s address came just weeks after Ketchikan Gateway Borough Mayor Austin Otos gave his first state of the borough address. In that speech, Otos highlighted the borough’s public works initiatives and state advocacy efforts, among other things.  

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. 

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Local 23 is an Alaska-based chapter of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers, or SMART. The union filed three charges against JAG Ketchikan in December, January, and March. 

“The biggest concern is the deterioration of the pre-existing conditions and benefits that we had negotiated for with the previous operator,” said Local 23 business manager Randy Golding. “With this new operator coming in, all that’s off the table.” 

The union filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board, asserting that JAG Ketchikan is not recognizing them or their collective bargaining agreement that was adopted under the previous shipyard operator, Vigor. They allege JAG has made “unilateral changes in terms and conditions of employment” including ending dirty pay, or special pay for work on ship septic systems containing human waste.  

William Earnhart is an Anchorage-based attorney representing JAG. He said the company has no legal obligation to recognize the labor union or the collective bargaining agreement. 

“JAG is not a successor business. We didn’t go in and just buy them out,” Earnhart said. “So we’re not a successor. We’re hiring more employees. We’re not bound by that contract.”

JAG Marine Group took charge of the Ketchikan shipyard in September. That’s after Alaska’s state development agency, AIDEA, ended a two-decade partnership with the shipyard’s previous operator, Vigor. A 2025 letter from AIDEA cited Vigor’s poor performance. 

Luke Rebecchi is a Washington, D.C. based attorney for SMART. He said Local 23 has represented Ketchikan’s shipyard workers since 2022, when the facility operated under Vigor.

Rebecchi said the union negotiated a three-year labor contract with Vigor that guaranteed wage increases and premium-free health insurance benefits, among other things. He said in January, under JAG, health insurance premiums went up by more than 25%. 

“We just want to make sure that the members are taken care of, and ultimately, we don’t believe that JAG feels the same about the local membership as we do,” Golding said.

Bergan Wieler is the general manager for JAG Ketchikan. He said the shipyard could have been shuttered if JAG hadn’t taken it over. And he said the shipyard currently offers voluntary, premium-based health insurance plans. 

“I, myself, my family, have signed up for it,” Wieler said. “I pay the premiums to ensure that I have the good healthcare that JAG provides to cover my children, and my wife, and myself here in Ketchikan.”

It is unclear when the National Labor Relations Board will decide whether to move forward with Local 23’s charges. Attorney Rebecchi said the board has a backlog of cases that were exacerbated by last fall’s federal government shutdown. 

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. 

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Ketchikan is expected to see over 1.6 million cruise ship passengers this summer. That’s more than the island has ever seen and up over 100,000 from last year. The Visitors Bureau expects 58 ships this summer, compared to 48 ships in 2025. 

Laurie Booyse is the city’s tourism manager. She acts as a liaison between the city and the local tourism industry tourism partners, cruise lines, local vendors, and the community. Booyse says that in the off season, she works with the city council on ordinances that will help the city prepare for spikes in visitors.

“We are seeing some bigger ships come in this upcoming summer, and that is going to mean that our infrastructure is going to be affected a little bit differently,” Booyse said. “But as a city, we are prepared to do what we need to do to make sure that people stay safe and that the downtown area stays clean.”

One proposal, which the council has been discussing for several months, is constructing a public bathroom in the main downtown area on Creek Street. But that isn’t expected to happen in time for this summer. 

The number of ships visiting the island hasn’t been increasing much — the highest year on record was 54 ships in 2022 — but the capacity of the ships has been steadily increasing, Booyse says. The largest cruise ship set to visit can carry over 4,000 passengers.

With Juneau’s passenger cap going into effect this summer, the First City could see nearly as many cruise ship passengers as the capital. Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director Alix Pierce says 1.69 million are expected in Juneau this coming season. And, she says, the cap has led to increased visitation in Ketchikan. Juneau cancelled a few Royal Caribbean calls to meet the caps, and they ended up shifting to Ketchikan’s Ward Cove, instead.

Booyse says that she expects the island will see more increases than just cruise ship passenger this summer. She says in recent years, the number of airline and ferry visitors has crept up significantly. And the visitors who come by ferry or plane stay for multiple days and are looking for a wider variety of experiences.

“So they want to kind of dive deeper into the community,” she said. “You may see them coming to say the Monthly Grind, or going to Fish Pirate’s Daughter, or experiencing more of those kinds of things.”

Booyse says with more visitors staying for longer periods of time, the community needs to decide how — and where — they want to develop across the island rather than just in the downtown area. Some of those developments are already in the works at Ward Cove, with existing downtown businesses expected to expand out north as early as May. 

The first cruise ship of the season is expected to dock in Ketchikan on Sunday, April 12.

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The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School Board delayed approval of closing two elementary schools at their regular Wednesday night meeting. It’s part of an effort to address a massive budget deficit due to declining enrollment and years of high operating costs. 

Nearly a dozen staff members in blue, tie-dyed Point Higgins sweatshirts attended the meeting to honor their school — likely in anticipation of its closure this upcoming school year. Point Higgins Principal Todd Henke played video montages of the school students and staff. Teachers in the audience laughed seeing videos of their students on screen. Several board members cried.

But when it came time to vote, board member Shari Montgomery said there isn’t enough information to close that school or Fawn Mountain Elementary quite yet. She said there needs to be more plans in place before making such a big decision. 

“I don’t think we can just start closing schools without any plans of where our kids are going or how they’re going to get there,” Montgomery said.

She also said she’d like to see financial data on the projected savings of school closures before a vote happens.  

“We have a lot of heartbroken people about losing our neighborhood schools,” Montgomery said. “After last year’s failed attempt to save money with the restructuring, providing that financial information upfront can help rebuild trust and show that this is a viable plan and not just another experiment with our children.”

Montgomery said there needed to be a “comprehensive closure plan” — one that includes where the kids will go and what transportation will be provided for them to get to their new schools. 

The board unanimously approved to delay approval and direct district staff to draft a closure plan to be presented at the regular board meeting April 8. 

Around a dozen people commented at the meeting. Many of them asked the board to include Career and Technical Education, or CTE programming, in next year’s district budget. Nearly everyone who spoke asked for transparency from the board on what programming is being preserved. 

On the agenda was also a Reduction in Force plan — a document that legally outlines how and why layoffs can be made. It doesn’t address what is being cut.

Some board members, like Ali Ginter, were concerned about that. She wanted to know what was being cut before voting on the RIF plan. 

“We had several public comment regarding the protection of the programs,” Ginter said. “Had we had that in this RIF plan, I doubt that we would have had so much confusion up at that podium.”

But, according to interim superintendent Sheri Boehlert, approving the RIF plan is a necessary step before approving the budget. 

“We cannot outline every single specific program in there, because if the budget doesn’t get passed in its first reading, there may be changes and fluctuations,” Boehlert said. “And we do not want to be held to a document that outlined a specific program, and then the budget changes, and now we’re held to that program and to what’s in the budget.”

And that approval is time-sensitive — the Ketchikan Education Association, the local educators’ union, initially wanted it approved before Spring Break so staff who are facing layoffs could be made aware as soon as possible. 

Boehlert explained that if teacher contracts are released as soon as possible — the day after the budget is expected to be finalized — the earliest teachers could be notified of layoffs is May 9. State law requires tenured teachers who are being laid off need to be notified by May 15.

“That gives us six days,” Boehlert said. “Six days to effectively, and with empathy and with heart, let these people know that they’re not going to have a job. If we push this later and we don’t approve it until whenever down the road, we get to the point where if we are even one week late, we will be in jeopardy of [having to] bring back every teacher, and then you will be facing a real challenge.”

Boehlert said that after weeks of collaboration — aside from a few “wordsmithing” changes — the KEA and district staff were in agreement on the plan — up until early Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the board meeting. At that point, Boehlert said, it was too late to make any last-minute changes. And, she said, it’s been approved by the district’s legal team multiple times.

Board Vice President Melissa Reed supported the RIF plan as presented. She said she wanted to honor the work that had already been done.

“I am really concerned that we keep putting this off and making small word changes rather than giving our staff and our teachers and our administrators the knowledge to go forward,” Reed said.

Board member Ginter said she wouldn’t vote to approve the plan until she was sure the KEA president was satisfied with the version of the RIF plan presented. 

“I don’t feel like we should be rushing this,” Ginter said. “I really don’t feel comfortable that we are missing elements of this document. Even if legal has said, ‘oh yeah, it’s fine.’ Other districts, I’m sure, have heard, ‘oh yeah, it’s fine,’  but then they’ve been sued.”

KEA president Lindsay Tucker said in an email to KRBD that while they understand the district must enact a RIF, they continue to have reservations about the plan adopted.

As part of a statement, Tucker wrote: “The language currently presented in the RIF lacks the specificity needed to ensure fair and consistent implementation. For example, there is an absence of identified programming priorities. A responsible RIF plan should be guided by a clear understanding of which programs and services the district intends to preserve. Without that clarity, it is impossible to fully assess how proposed staffing reductions will impact the educational opportunities available to students.”

Tucker said KEA continues to insist on collaboration between the district and the union going forward.

The RIF plan was approved 5-2, with Montgomery and Ginter voting no. 

The school board meets again in a special meeting this Saturday, and another special meeting next Wednesday. They are expected to approve next year’s budget April 8, the same day they are expected to vote on both school closures.

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Ketchikan’s Jeff Karlson remembers that early spring day all too well. He’s the owner of Lighthouse Excursions, a Ketchikan-based boat tour company. When he first heard about the rockslide near the airport ferry terminal, he thought it’d be cleared pretty quickly. 

“And I remember originally thinking like, ‘Oh, gosh, another landslide,’ and then, ‘Oh, this one’s not too big of a deal. So that’s good news,’” Karlson said. “And then, of course, it became evident pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be cleared for quite some time.”

It would be four days before debris on the Tongass Highway near Wolfe Point would be partially cleared. 

So Karlson stepped up. He was gearing for the summer season when the slide happened. His company took shifts assisting a few other boat tour operators with transporting commuters blocked by the rubble. 

“This was, I think, the most unique kind of a service that we were able to provide, especially when it comes to an emergency,” Karlson said.

Wolfe Point had been an area of concern to local officials for a number of years. It experienced several rockfalls, and the state Department of Transportation was in the process of alleviating the area’s rockfall risk when the slide occurred. According to DOT, those efforts included debris cleanup in ditches, slope stabilization and more. Nearby powerlines made cleanup efforts challenging.

The borough and city governments signed a joint disaster declaration and state geologists assessed the slope before cleanup efforts began. That essentially pooled more state resources to address the rockslide. The borough assembly has not introduced action items about the rockslide area since. The city council in July approved a funding reimbursement for costs the city incurred during the rockslide response.

Rodney Dial was the borough mayor at the time of the Wolfe Point rockslide. He said locals from all sectors came together to ensure disruptions on the island were limited. 

“It’s surprising how many different issues that you actually wind up with,” Dial said. “You have people that need to go to the hospital that might be in the north end. You have people that need to get medication. And so, there’s just all of these different issues that all of a sudden come up, and it was really a team effort to address it.”

Ketchikan Fire Chief Rick Hines said the North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department provided emergency medical services to those cut off from the hospital by flying or boating patients to an ambulance south of the slide. And Point Higgins Elementary School, north of town, was prepared to overnight students at the school who were separated from their families, although they didn’t end up needing to. 

And despite shoulder season preparations, boaters transported thousands of passengers during the multi-day closure. Emma Bullock is Allen Marine Tours’ senior sales and marketing manager. She said the company moved about 4,000 passengers in the week following the slide. 

Bullock said one of the biggest takeaways from the disaster was the community’s resiliency. 

“It did not stop Ketchikan from the daily activities,” Bullock said. “We were having people coming on with their dogs to go out hiking out by Ward Lake, and it didn’t slow down the beats of what makes Ketchikan.” 

Karlson, with Lighthouse Excursions, said he enjoyed the opportunity to help his neighbors in need. His company moved about 500 people.

Karlson said that considering his company primarily serves tourists, the rockslide response was a rare chance to connect with locals. 

“This was the absolute opposite. It was seeing a familiar face on every run, if not the whole boat being familiar,” Karlson said. “And so seeing some familiar faces aboard my boat who have never been aboard my boat, that was quite fun.” 

In the year following the Wolfe Point rockslide, state DOT said it’s monitoring the site via drone to ensure future rockslides or falls won’t happen there. They’ve also installed a rock debris buttress. 

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Jeff Karlson.

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.

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The commanding officer of the Ketchikan-based Coast Guard cutter Douglas Denman has been temporarily relieved from their position. Lieutenant Edwin Kuster was temporarily relieved Monday following an investigation that led to what they call a “loss of confidence.” 

Pamela Manns, a Public Affairs Officer with the Coast Guard, said in an email, “the commanding officer was not meeting the high standards of leadership and performance expected of someone in their position.”

Manns also clarified that the relief status is not due to misconduct. She said the primary purpose of the relief is to “ensure the safety, operational effectiveness, and morale of the cutter and its crew.” 

The temporary relief may or may not become permanent. If warranted, that decision will be made by the Commander of the Coast Guard Personnel Service Center. 

An interim commanding officer has been appointed to the Douglas Denman to maintain all operations. There are four cutters based in Ketchikan. 

This comes at a time when the Coast Guard is experiencing a lapse in funding due to the Department of Homeland Security being largely shut down, limiting availability to respond to media requests. 

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The Ketchikan Gateway Borough is not the winner of a contest that could’ve built a free, underwater commuter tunnel between the city and Gravina Island, where the airport is. 

Nearly 500 applicants from around the world submitted proposals for the “Tunnel Vision Challenge,” a demonstration project led by Elon Musk’s construction firm, The Boring Company. According to its website, the company will construct a tunnel up to a mile long and 12 feet wide for the contest’s winner. 

Ketchikan Borough assemblymember Rodney Dial, who stumbled upon the opportunity, said in an interview with KRBD that there’s a need for a fixed access route between the two islands because the airport’s ferry fleet is nearing the end of its operational life. He said replacing just one could cost around $30 million. The airport is also undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion, which could bring additional passengers to Ketchikan.

“We have a number of issues that a fixed link could solve, as well as promoting sustained economic development for our community,” Dial said. “That’s really the big picture here is we just need to start thinking big, looking for ways that we can address known problems while at the same time growing the economy.” 

Dial said a ferry alternative to Gravina could also open up land to combat Ketchikan’s housing crunch. At a Feb. 2 borough assembly meeting, Dial said that a fixed route to Gravina could be “the greatest economic opportunity the community’s ever seen.” Dial co-sponsored a resolution last month alongside assemblymember Sharli Arntzen supporting the proposal, which gained unanimous support from the assembly. 

Earlier this month, Ketchikan’s tunnel proposal was in the top 16 finalists. The Boring Company announced Monday that it will move forward with three tunnel proposals in New Orleans, Baltimore and Dallas. 

Even though Ketchikan was not selected as the contest’s winner, Dial said submitting the no-cost proposal was worth a shot. 

“Who knows where this will lead, but I’m hopeful that something positive will come out of it,” Dial said. 

Dial hopes the opportunity will lead to future consulting with The Boring Company that could help to develop a fixed access route between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. 

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. 

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