The Ketchikan Theatre Ballet is moving locations after nearly 40 years in their downtown building. The nonprofit dance school will be moving its classes to the former Holy Name Catholic School by next year. 

They’re outgrowing the aging building. That’s why Ketchikan Theatre Ballet director Claire Stickwan believes the move is a good thing. 

“It’s so necessary. I don’t think people realize how long we’ve been patching things up here to make this space work for what we need to,” Stickwan said. “The building’s just very old, and there’s just a lot that needs to be renewed, but the space wasn’t perfect to begin with.”

Stickwan said the current building needs costly repairs. It has heating and ventilation issues, deteriorating floors and low ceilings. The downtown location makes parking difficult during the busy summer months.

Holy Name Catholic School, around a mile and half from downtown, permanently shut their doors this summer. Stickwan said the space already has the general facilities they need because the building was constructed to be a school. But the work will need to happen fast. Between now and the end of the year, they need to install mirrors, ballet barres and dance floors. Still, the project is expected to cost less than repairing the current building — and last longer than patchwork fixes.

“With a combination of some of the things that need to be done on this building and that building opening up, and our lease expiring, it kind of fell into place,” Stickwan said. “So, from my perspective, it’s a little bit of a risk to move, but it’s also a little bit of a risk to stay.”

Stickwan said the move is bittersweet. All of the current Ketchikan Theatre Ballet staff were once students there.  

But Stickwan says the dance school is growing, and they need the room to do it. 

“Even this year as I was building the class schedule, it’s almost like there’s not enough hours in the day because we have more classes and more kids that are interested.”

The new building will give the nonprofit more space — they won’t have to pay for a storage unit and they’ll even be able to add an additional studio. 

Ketchikan Theatre Ballet’s next performance is The Nutcracker on Dec. 4, 5 and 6 in the Kayhi auditorium. Stickwan said they plan to finalize the move after that wraps and will be open in their new location in January. 

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Listen to the November 6 Craig Parks and Recreation report with Victoria Merritt, Dawn Sheets, Gretchen Klein and guests.

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The City of Ketchikan has been awarded a $3 million grant to improve emergency public safety communications on Revillagigedo Island. The congressional funding was secured by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2024.

The intent of the funding is to evaluate the island’s existing communication system and identify coverage gaps. According to a letter from the Ketchikan Fire Department, the area’s geography, terrain, remote locations and weather “create significant obstacles to maintaining reliable radio communications throughout the island.” The island’s emergency radio equipment is also outdated. 

Fire Chief Rick Hines says each fire department in Ketchikan has their own individual radio setup, and they don’t always communicate well with each other.  

“My goal is just that when the firefighters on the island need to communicate with dispatch or each other on a fire, that they’re able to do so clearly and seamlessly, which are issues that we currently have,” he said.  

Hines said that they’ll work with the island’s fire and police departments to identify strengths and weaknesses in the communications system. Once those are determined, the city will evaluate recommendations for system improvements. That may include upgrading existing radio infrastructure or enhancing its reliability. 

The $3 million grant may not fully cover the cost of assessing or improving the island’s emergency communication network. But in the long run, Hines said the grant could potentially allow the fire department to communicate directly with police or other city agencies. 

“It’ll be a great improvement, and it’ll be big for our safety, just the safety of our members,” Hines said.

The fire department applied for the congressional grant two years ago. The Ketchikan City Council is expected to accept the grant at Thursday night’s meeting.

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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Voters across Southeast Alaska showed up to the polls yesterday, voting for House and Senate candidates in several competitive races, as well as two ballot measures. 

Around 4,700 people in House District 1 cast their ballot this election, compared to nearly 8,700 in 2024.  

Voters chose to reelect incumbent Republican Jeremy Bynum to represent them in the state’s House of Representatives. Unofficial results show Bynum received 61% of the vote. 

There are 10 precincts spanning across House District 1, which covers Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Whale Pass and Coffman Cove. 

John Pearson, chair of the Ketchikan #2 precinct, said he woke up on Tuesday at 4 a.m. to start helping out at the Plaza. 

“Boy howdy it’s been busy,” Pearson said. “And that’s good, we like to see people voting. And we have less precincts than we had in the past. There’s only three city precincts now. At one time, we had eight.”

Jason Mitchell voted at Ketchikan’s Gateway Recreation Center. He says he’s a regular voter. This year, he said he found Ballot Measure 2 especially important, which asked Alaskans if they wanted to eliminate ranked choice voting and remove some “dark money” disclosure requirements for political contributions.

“I like ranked choice and keeping campaign finance laws,” Mitchell said. “I think we need more of them, not less of them.”

51% of voters in the district voted yes to that ballot measure to repeal ranked choice voting. But as of Wednesday afternoon, just over 50 percent of voters statewide chose to keep the status quo. 

Nearly 75% of voters chose to approve Ballot Measure 3, which specifies that “only” U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in elections in the state. It has no functional impact and is nothing more than a language clarification. 

The majority of voters — 51% — in District 1 voted for Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan in the U.S. Senate race against Mary Peltola, who received 43% of the district’s vote. That race has not yet been called. 

In the U.S. House race, 55.96% of District 1 voters had incumbent Republican Nick Begich as their first choice. Independent challenger Bill Hill received around 1,500 votes, or just under 33%.

Nearly 400 people in the district voted for Democrat Eric Hafner, who is currently serving time in federal prison.

For Governor, nearly 48% of district votes went to Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and running mate Zac Johnson. That’s around 2,200 votes, compared to 1,200 cast for Bernadette Wilson and running mate Mike Shower. 

Voters also reelected Superior Court judges Katherine Lybrand and Daniel Doty of Ketchikan.

KRBD’s Hunter Morrison contributed reporting.

The post Here’s how Southern Southeast Alaskans voted in Tuesday’s election appeared first on KRBD.

Southern Southeast Alaskans chose to reelect their state representative in Tuesday’s general election.

According to unofficial election results, incumbent Republican Jeremy Bynum won the State House District 1 seat, beating out challenger Grant Echohawk by 1,022 votes with all precincts reporting. District 1 includes Ketchikan, Wrangell, Metlakatla, Whale Pass and Coffman Cove.

Bynum originally took office in January of 2025 and has served on the House Finance Committee. On a call with KRBD Tuesday night, he said he’s looking forward to continuing the work he’s started.

“We know that we still have some tremendous challenges throughout the state, everything from education to infrastructure,” Bynum said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to the challenge of how do we build our state and get people successful in our communities.”

Bynum received 2,800 votes, or 61%. Voter turnout in the district was around 30%. He’s slated to serve another 2-year term.

Incumbent District A Senator Republican Bert Stedman ran unopposed. Official election results are expected to be finalized statewide in the next two weeks.

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The state’s mainline ferry Columbia is delayed in Ketchikan due to a port main engine failure. Around 70 passengers were traveling northbound when it broke down yesterday. 

Alaska Marine Highway System spokesperson Gabe Strong estimates the ferry will be back on track this Sunday. The Columbia is 52 years old and runs routes through Southeast’s Inside Passage. Strong said with how consistently it’s running, incidents like this are to be expected.  

“The Columbia… went in in June or something, and since then it’s been just going up and down from Skagway in the north to Bellingham in the south,” Strong said. “That’s a long run, and it’s just continuously doing it over and over and over again.”

Strong said in the meantime, ferry passengers can make travel arrangements with the terminal to fly home and pick up their vehicles whenever the ferry arrives. Many passengers are choosing to stay on board. 

The crew is offering free food and even shuttled a handful of passengers to Ketchikan’s Gateway Recreation Center so they could vote in the general election. 

The Columbia is one of the oldest vessels in the fleet. Strong said the long-term plan is to replace the old ferries to prevent incidents like this, but each ferry costs hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Leaders of the PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center gave community members hospital updates at their annual town hall late last month.

PeaceHealth executives shared multiple improvements made in the last year. The hospital was recently awarded money through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. Most of that money — nearly $7 million — is funding robotic assisted surgeries in urology, gastroenterology, gynecology and general surgery. The purpose is to minimize the invasiveness of surgeries such as hysterectomies and cystectomies. An additional $200,000 is going towards improving maternal, fetal and neonatal care surveillance technologies.

Ketchikan has seen a healthy portion of the Rural Health Transformation Program funding going towards multiple local nonprofits. House District 1 Rep. Jeremy Bynum spoke at public comment, asking hospital executives to be innovative with the money to best serve the community.

“We did pretty good, but I’m here to encourage you,” Bynum said. “I’m here to encourage you to be creative, and let’s not let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass us by.”

Bynum is running for reelection in Tuesday’s general election. He also commented on the importance of hospital staff retention, which executives say is one of their top priorities for the upcoming year. Chief Medical Officer Jamie Park outlined four guiding focuses going forward: community angst, internal and external communication, staffing and staff morale.

A few staff members spoke with concerns about staff morale and retention. Wages are low, they said, and many departments are stretched thin. That can have an impact on patients.

Caitlin Brady is the president of Ketchikan Registered Nurses, the local nurse’s union, which is currently in active negotiations with the hospital. She said she hopes they reach an agreement that can better support staff and the community.

“We’re seeing an increase in the number of psychiatric patients in the hospital. Those patients are staying longer because there’s nowhere for them to go,” Brady said. “They’re being boarded in the [emergency room] because there are no inpatient rooms available, and this situation is increasingly putting hospital staff at risk of violent behavior from patients. These challenges are happening while nurses are being asked to do more with less.”

Brady said starting wages at the Ketchikan Medical Center are lower than they are at PeaceHealth locations in the Lower 48. She said there may be a nationwide shortage of healthcare workers, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

“The truth is, there’s a shortage of workers willing to work under current conditions, and that distinction matters because nurses want to work, we want to care for our patients, we want to live in Ketchikan, we want to raise our families here and be part of this community,” she said.

Most of the public comment was positive, thanking caregivers for their work and the administration for hosting the forum. This was the fifth annual Community Health Board town hall and was held at the Ted Ferry Civic Center. PeaceHealth administration encourages community members to make comments at any time online.

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The Klawock City School District announced today they are releasing their Superintendent from her contract, effective Oct. 31. Rebecca Stallworth had been in the position for around six months, and served as superintendent for less than three months of the school year. 

The Klawock City School District has one school and serves around 130 students from early childhood to 12th grade. The principal of the school, Chase Cantrell, is stepping in as a temporary superintendent while they work to find someone to fill the role for the rest of the school year. The school board is also looking for a Superintendent for the 2027-2028 school year. 

The district did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

This is a developing story and KRBD anticipates further coverage.

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A Prince of Wales Island health nonprofit was recently awarded about $275,000 to help develop a mobile health program. That’s a model of care that brings health services, like in-person checkups and disease monitoring, directly to patients. 

The grant funding is part of about $250 million distributed to projects across Alaska through the Rural Health Transformation Program. That’s a federal initiative formed last year that looks to strengthen rural health systems around the country. The program has funded roughly 250 projects in Alaska this year. 

Sandy Curtis is board president of the Prince of Wales Health Network, the nonprofit looking to develop the mobile integrated health initiative. She said the funding will help them research health needs on the island through outreach and partnerships. 

“So at this point, what we are doing is we are just looking to see if this is something that’s even feasible for our island,” Curtis said. “We’re pretty sure it is; otherwise, we wouldn’t have pursued the funding.”

Although they’re still fleshing out how the program will look, Curtis said it could be island-wide. But she said the organization is taking its time to develop the initiative so that it’s implemented in a way that makes sense for each rural community. That will include surveys.

They’re also working closely with Ketchikan’s mobile integrated health program to better understand that model of care. 

“We’re really excited about this opportunity, and we really feel like if we can make this work over here, this is going to really be transformational for Prince of Wales Island, as far as the future of healthcare on this island,” Curtis said.  

Other Alaska communities, like Juneau and Anchorage, have formed their own mobile integrated health programs. The model of care can help reduce strain on limited hospital resources and drive down healthcare costs. 

A number of other Prince of Wales organizations also saw funding through the federal rural health program. Whale Tail Pharmacy, in Craig, was awarded over $300,000 to meet healthcare gaps on the island. And the Ketchikan Wellness Coalition received roughly the same amount to expand health advocacy for Filipino families in Ketchikan and on Prince of Wales 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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