Ketchikan’s city and borough mayors have issued a joint disaster declaration after a landslide north of town severely damaged an electric substation on Thursday. There were no injuries in the slide. 

The declaration calls for coordinated efforts between the city and the borough, as well as state and federal assistance, to restore Ketchikan Public Utility’s Ward Cove Electric Substation. Severe wind and rain triggered the slide, which damaged buildings, equipment and fencing at the facility. The estimated cost to repair the substation is about $1.6 million.

The city owns the public utility. Kim Simpson, public information officer for the City of Ketchikan, said the declaration is needed, in part, to stabilize the slide area’s slope. She said that was a top city priority listed in a bonding measure recently approved by voters.

“This is a slide where there could be additional, and so that’s the important part: is getting it stabilized, cleared, and then getting equipment and parts sourced and in here so we can get that repaired within the next few months, before the intense cold hits,” Simpson said.  

The public utility rerouted the substation’s power to two other substations following the landslide. Simpson said the slide did not lead to any power outages. 

The city and the public utility can’t afford the estimated cost of repairs on their own. The state has sent emergency operations personnel and Department of Transportation geologists to assess the site for safety concerns and advise on slope stabilization efforts. 

The storm also damaged drains near the city harbormaster’s maintenance building. 

“So there was a collapse into the ocean where that pipe runs, and then it unfortunately also goes under the maintenance building at the harbormaster,” Simpson said. “So we’ll be having to empty and dismantle the harbormaster building.” 

Simpson did not have a timeline of when the harbormaster damages could be repaired. She also did not have an immediate cost estimate for the project.

Ketchikan’s city council and borough assembly are set to ratify the disaster declaration this week with the harbormaster damages.

Last week’s landslide is one of several Ketchikan has seen in recent years. Last year, a rockslide bisected the island’s main highway. And in 2024, a landslide near borough headquarters killed a city worker and destroyed numerous homes. 

KRBD expects updates on the disaster declaration in the coming days.

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 Ketchikan Wellness Coalition has been awarded a grant to expand health advocacy for Filipino families in Ketchikan and on Prince of Wales Island. 

The initiative is called Malasakit Matters. Malasakit is a Tagalog concept that means to have deep compassion and ownership for someone else’s wellbeing. The program is aimed at training Filipino youth to support and advocate for their family members.

“It’s a family-centered approach to care, so everyone’s on the same page of understanding how to care for an elder or a loved one,” said Alma Manabat Parker, Director of Health Equity programming with the Ketchikan Wellness Coalition.

Parker said it’s common for Filipino families to join each other at loved ones doctor’s appointments. By hiring Community Health Workers to help youth understand the healthcare system, Parker said it will hopefully bridge gaps in communication and access to culturally familiar care. 

The goal isn’t to replace clinicians, but to strengthen the important role that family members already play in navigating the healthcare system. That can include finding a doctor, scheduling follow-up appointments, or applying for insurance. 

“I mean, for the person who grew up in the United States, this could be very complicated as is,” Parker said.” But imagine maybe an immigrant family who’s new, or a family that just doesn’t utilize wellness opportunities or wellness appointments, and instead just only go to the doctor when it becomes an emergency.”

Malasakit Matters is targeted for youth in middle and high schools. The goal is to train at least 30 youth health advocates in the first year. 

The $350,000 grant comes from the Rural Health Transformation Fund Program, a federal initiative that provided nearly $275 million to the Alaska Department of Health. Malasakit Matters is just one of nearly 250 projects across the state that have been funded through the initiative this year. Right now, it’s only funded until next June but there is a possibility that funding could be renewed for up to five years. 

The first year of the program is focused on hiring Community Health Workers in Craig and in Ketchikan. After that, the plan is to build a storytelling archive to preserve community knowledge and inform healthcare providers and future generations. 

Parker said the storytelling aspect is crucial in building knowledge and trust. 

“Sometimes you don’t need formal university training to understand health needs,” Parker said. “The stories of people impacted by lack of care or being underinsured are where you can learn the most.”

Parker said she isn’t aware of any existing program like Malasakit Matters. She hopes it will serve as a model for rural communities across the state. 

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Listen to the October 16 Craig Parks and Recreation report with Victoria Merritt, Dawn Sheets, Gretchen Klein and guests.

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KRBD is hosting a live candidate forum with House District 1 candidates Grant Echohawk and Jeremy Bynum on Monday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m.

We will be asking candidates about some of the most pressing issues in the district to inform your voting decisions. Have questions? Send them to news@krbd.org

You can listen live on KRBD or on the livestream, which you can find on our app or on our website.

District 1 includes Ketchikan, Saxman, Metlakatla, Wrangell, Whale Pass and Coffman Cove.

Election day is Nov. 3. 

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Ketchikan’s South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department fire station is back in operation. That’s after a fire linked to faulty apparatus equipment badly damaged the facility and destroyed five emergency vehicles in 2024. 

The rebuild cost $4.2 million and was largely financed by insurance funds. It included stripping the building and modifying it to code. A new sprinkler system was also installed. 

South Tongass Fire Chief Steve Rydeen said they tried to keep the facility about the same as it was before. 

“We have to make sure that we’re prudent with the taxpayers’ dollars,” he said. “So we didn’t do a lot of changes. We just did what we had to for operational needs.” 

The department is made up of mostly volunteers, and is funded primarily through borough dollars, which helped purchase new emergency vehicles. Some were also donated or loaned from communities around the state. 

The department began operating out of the rebuilt firehouse last month. Rydeen said the department was working out of two different facilities during the rebuild. The fire chief and captain were at the White Cliff building in town. 

“You know, you got a couple guys working here and a couple of guys working down there. There’s not as good of communication,” Rydeen said.  

The department is still organizing equipment and furniture. They’ll soon purchase another ambulance with grant funding. 

The South Tongass firehouse was first built in 2008. Rydeen said they’ll have an open house event for the rebuilt facility next month. 

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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Here is a link to the Arts Council website.

KAAHC Facebook Page.

Phone: 907-225-2211

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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On a cloudy day late last month, around 100 people crowded around a pile of dirt outside the Generations Southeast Prince of Wales campus, a comprehensive community learning center in Klawock. They were celebrating the groundbreaking for construction of a new housing complex for students enrolled in workforce training classes. 

“It’s critically important that we recognize that education and educational opportunities don’t look the same to everybody.” Richard Peterson, President of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, said to the crowd. Standing with tribal leaders and state lawmakers, he dug a shovel in the dirt to commemorate the first day of construction.

The building will be about a 230 feet long dorm-style project with 18 dorm units, two apartments for traveling instructors and one apartment for the director. The goal is for it to resemble a traditional longhouse. 

Generations Southeast is a regional community training center operated by Tlingit and Haida, with campuses in Juneau and Klawock. They offer vocational training courses in welding, carpentry, and certification classes to teach early childhood education. The construction is happening in tandem with expanding vocational opportunities, including Indigenous trades, like traditional vest making and machine sewing sea otter fur. 

“I think that can’t be understated enough,” Peterson said. “How many artisans we have in our villages who have real skill, real knowledge that deserves to be recognized, just like any other trade.”

The training center is administered by the regional tribe but open to the public statewide. Chas Edwardson, director of the Prince of Wales campus, said the need for this kind of workforce housing is palpable. Classes are in high demand and fill up quickly, attracting students from all over Southeast. Some commute from villages on the other side of the island, while others travel from places like Angoon or Metlakatla. Usually they end up sleeping in churches, or on the floor of the Klawock High School gym. 

“Our goal is to keep people here or bring them back,” Edwardson said. “There’s just too many people leaving our communities, and then we import workers to do the work that’s there. So we’re going to make that connection and keep going.”

Edwardson said this project has been about 15 years in the making. He’s worked with community leaders and lawmakers, like Southeast’s Senator Bert Stedman, to make economic developments in the region, seeking more state revenue to make that happen. 

Most of that state workforce development money was getting siphoned to projects in Northern and Western Alaska, Stedman said. For years, Edwardson and Stedman worked together to get funding for projects across Southeast — and even got things moving for the workforce training center in Klawock — but money was limited and the financial droughts put things on hold. 

“We still couldn’t carve out a little piece for us, so what we had to do was feed all the other dogs, so we can get some scraps,” Stedman said. 

Revenue improved a few years ago with an increase in state Technical Vocational Education Program, or TVEP, funding that became available across the state. That ended up being around $1.4 million for Klawock’s vocational training center. Generations Southeast also received an additional investment from Sealaska Corporation, a for-profit Native corporation based in Juneau.

Stedman said he’s confident the investment in the Klawock programming will give more education and job opportunities to people in Southeast. Then, they can work anywhere. But he hopes they stay local. 

“When we look at our young Southeasterners, bringing them the opportunity to go to Prince of Wales to school versus sending them up to Seward or down into the states, you might as well tell the young kids you’re going to send them to China,” Stedman said. “The culture’s different, it’s a long ways away from home, where they can come from around all Southeast to Prince of Wales, and it’s like being home.” 

The goal is to have the building occupied by the end of 2027. Construction will be completed by the Craig Tribal construction crew and McGraw Construction, with opportunities for student participation.

Correction: A previous version of this article said the Generations Southeast Prince of Wales campus is owned and operated by The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. The building and land are owned by the City of Klawock and leased by Tlingit and Haida.

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Hear about the upcoming Community Health Board Town Hall and what information their seeking from the public, a Healthcare Advisory Committee meeting, and some of the efforts being made to improve hospital services and employee satisfaction. CAO Sarah Cook and CMO Jamie Park give details.

Here is a link to the PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center website.

Main phone: 907-225-5171

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Dr. Taylor Roase will present “Unlikely Alliances? Oral Histories of Indigenous Settler Coalitions for Land in the Desert Southwest” Thursday night at the UAS Ketchikan Campus Library. He discusses his research, book and the presentation.

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Hear about tap dancing, casting of “Shrek: The Musical” and more about the show which opens next Month. Elizabeth Nelson, Amanda Glanzer and Katie Blandford give details.

Here are links:

First City Players website

First City Players Facebook page

Phone number: 907-225-4792

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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