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Ketchikan 2020 Year in Review:COVID cancels entire cruise ship season; International pandemic affects all residents, even those that remained healthy By DAVE KIFFER - Like the rest of the world, the biggest news story in Ketchikan was the quarantine caused by the Corona Virus or COVID 19. Most of Ketchikan was shut down from mid-March through the end of April harkening back to the month- long closure of the Ketchikan economy and social world for a month during the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918.

By the end of the year, the COVID 19 virus had infected more than 250 residents and local visitors. One Saxman resident, Julie Wasulli, 56, was medivaced to Bellingham in November and died on December 11.

The economic effects were extremely serious as the 2020 Cruise Ship season was cancelled and the community had to hunker down to survive the loss of more than 1.2 million visitors and more than $150 million in economic activity in 2020.

Local school children also experienced a major disruption when in-person classes and activities were canceled and students were sent home in March to finish their school year on computers. The high school spring sport seasons were cancelled and summer sports like soccer and Little League had shortened seasons. Fall sports like cross country, swimming and volleyball also had shortened seasons or were limited to home meets instead of traveling in the region.

Numerous other activities were affected as many local restaurants and entertainment facilities faced closures or were limited to being half full because of state COVID restrictions.

Many traditional local events like the salmon derby, the Blueberry Festival, the Clarke Cochrane Basketball Tournament and the Winter Arts Faire were also cancelled. Other events were held over the internet and many local residents became familiar with zoom meetings replacing in person meetings for local government and other functions. A significant portion of the community workers also spent time “telecommuting” to work when offices were closed.

Federal and state relief money arrived in the community and more than $20 million had been doled out by the end of the year, providing rent, utility and business assistance.

JANUARY

Ketchikan’s first significant snowfall of the past three years arrived shortly after New Year’s when more than a foot of snow descended on much of the community. A spate of cold weather and some additional snowfall, kept the snow around until the last week of January

Longtime Ketchikan city councilman and Mayor Lew Williams III died on Jan. 4 after a three-year battle with cancer. Williams, who served for more than 30 years, was also the co-publisher of the Ketchikan Daily News.

The first Ketchikan baby of the new year was…from Wrangell. Braven Hunter Gillen, the son of Michaela Larsen and Tyver Gillen of Wrangell was born on Jan. 7.

The US Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit for the Ward Cove Dock group to build a cruise ship terminal in Ward Cove to handle two 1300-foot cruise ships. Construction started almost immediately. In the meantime, because of previous delays, Norwegian Cruise Lines – which will have preferential berthing at Ward Cove – announced it would likely continue to berth ships in downtown Ketchikan after the original July 1 switchover date. Those plans became moot when the season was cancelled several months later.

Paul Robbins was appointed to a seat on Ketchikan School Board, replacing Matt Eisenhower who resigned in December.

Randy Williams, Judy Leask Guthrie and Lloyd Ruaro won seats on the Ketchikan Indian Community Tribal Council. Kevin Johnson and Dawna Hull were elected to the KIC Health Board

Emily Chapel was appointed to a seat on the Ketchikan City Council, replacing Lew Williams III who resigned in December.

Several Ketchikan residents returned from a nearly year-long deployment to Kuwait. Sgt. Patrick Brown, Sgt. Charles Cessnun, Spc. Tiara Manalo, Spc. Kodie Moss and Staff Sgt. Keefe Blankenship are part of the Alaska Army National Guard’s 297th Military Police Company.

The Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce celebrated its community members and businesses of the year. The late Lew Williams III was named the Citizen of the Year. Theresa Hamilton received the outstanding community service award, Brittany Pope received the emerging leader award. Island Pharmacy was the business of the year and the Alaska Crepe Company was the entrepreneur of the year.

Tessa Axelson was named the new executive director of the Alaska Forest Association, replacing Owen Graham who had held the post since 2001.

The Ketchikan City Council’s long process to determine how to manage the local ports took a big step when three companies offered proposals for future port management. All three companies, Global Ports Holding, SSA Marine/Royal Caribbean and Survey Point Holdings proposed getting management concessions from the city rather than seeking preferential berthing opportunies.

The state ferry Matanuska – which just returned from a lengthy overall – suffered a broken reduction gear and was taken out of service, leaving the AMHS with a single operating state ferry, the Lituya, making runs between Ketchikan and Metlakatla. After several weeks, the ferry system – plagued by budget cuts and ferries needing maintenance – got the Tazlina on the Lynn Canal route and serving some smaller SE communities. Governor Dunleavy appointed a commission to determine the future of the system.

FEBRUARY

Lifelong residents Jim and Juanita Diamond celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary.

Tom Heutte was appointed to a seat on the school board that was vacated by Rachel Breithaupt in January.

The project to eliminate a rock pinnacle off the shore from Berth 2 turned up a historical oddity. An old “admiralty” anchor was uncovered. The nine-foot, 1,000-pound anchor was the type used on ships between the Civil War and the mid-20th Century. It will be displayed on the docks near Berth 1.

Houghtaling Elementary School Fourth Grader Thierry Oyedeji won the school district spelling bee. The winning word was b-e-a-t-b-o-x-i-n-g.

The US Mint released a commemorative $1 dollar coin featuring Alaska Native Civil Rights Leader Elizabeth Peratrovich. Peratrovich lived in Klawock and graduated from Ketchikan High School.

Kayhi senior Chris Lee became the all-time Ketchikan High School boy’s basketball scorer, passing Steve Ortiz who had held the mark since 1974.

US Senator Lisa Murkowski visited Ketchikan meeting with local officials and Kayhi students.

A landslide seriously damaged Tatsuda’s IGA causing the closure of the store and the adjacent Alaska Liquor Store. Eventually the stores were torn down and – at year’s end – there was no announced plan to replace them. Tatsuda’s has operated in Ketchikan since 1916 and went through a major remodel to celebrate that anniversary four years ago. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Ketchikan: Two Fatalities in Residential Fire By MARY KAUFFMAN - Fire Marshal Gretchen O'Sullivan released information on the Ketchikan residential structure fire at 3437 Denali Street reporting that investigators from the Fire Investigation Task Force determined the fire to be cooking related, no foul play is suspected.

The Ketchikan Fire Department was dispatched to a report of smoke seen in a house last Tuesday morning at 4:49 AM, December 30, 2020. Dispatch was advised of the possibility of a victim trapped upstairs in the home. Firefighters made entry; however, attempts made of a rescue on the third floor were hampered by heavy smoke, heat and flames, according to O'Sullivan. A third building occupant exited the building and remains with family.

After controlling the fire, Firefighters made entry and began a primary search, two victims were located deceased and were removed from the residence. The bodies of the deceased were to be sent to the State Medical Examiner for determination of the case of death.

A GoFundMe page has been created to assist Jeanine Carraway whose husband Nick and her little daughter Madalyn were tragically lost in the fire. Everything was lost in the fire. Money donated will go towards helping the family with funeral costs and damages caused by the fire. To donate, go to Support Fund for the Families of Nick and Maddie. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Fish Factor: Alaska's Commercial Fisheries Get a Bit of a Breather, but not due to lawmakers’ largess By LAINE WELCH - As Alaska faces its toughest budget squeeze ever, the state’s commercial fisheries are set to get a bit of a breather. But it is due more to fund swapping than lawmakers’ largess.

For the commercial fisheries division, the largest within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the preliminary FY2022 budget released by Governor Dunleavy reflects a slight increase to $72.8 million, compared to nearly $68 million last year.

“I think we did really well this year,” said Sam Rabung, commercial fisheries division director, speaking last week at a United Fishermen of Alaska webinar. “Where we're at right now, the legislature actually restored many of the cuts that we sustained in FY20 and the governor didn't veto all of them so we got some funds back in FY21.”

“In a nutshell, we are being reduced $783,500 in general funds but to offset that, we are being granted $855,000 in increased authority for using what we call GFP, our general fund program receipts from commercial crew licenses,” he added. “We’ve been collecting more revenue from crew licenses every year than we have authority to use. It's kind of like creating a piggy bank and it keeps building and that money rolls forward. We're going to be able to utilize those funds now in lieu of general funds. So it's pretty much a wash.”

Rabung agreed with Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-Ketchikan) that the commfish budget still includes big reductions that were made in prior years.

 “We've reduced our budget by around 45% of operational funding in the last six years or so. We were cut pretty harshly for several years, and now it's kind of flattened out,” Rabung said. “I think what's apparent is there's not much left that has zero impact on commercial fisheries. So, when you talk about cutting the budget to the bone, we're at the bone and our hope now is that we'll be able to stay status quo and tread water and keep things where we can continue to manage for sustained yield.”

There appears to be a shift over the last two years, Rabung said, and the Dunleavy Administration now recognizes that “commercial fishing more than pays its own way.”

“The revenue that comes into the general fund from commercial fishing activity is considerably more than the commercial fisheries division draws back out to fund our operations. That was not apparent to this administration and many others in the past when they came in, but they get it now,” he said.

“I think the next layer of that message is that not only does commercial fishing pay for its own self, it also pays for management of subsistence fisheries although we generate no revenue from those fisheries,” Rabung explained. “We also manage personal use fisheries in the state. Ironically, in order to participate in a personal use fishery, you have to buy a sport fishing license. So the sport fish division gets the revenue from that, although commercial fishing does the assessment and management for it. Commercial fishing as an industry supports an awful lot of other activities and may not get the credit they deserve for it.”

“And for some reason, the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission is also parked under our budget even though we have no involvement and we're totally separate. In my opinion, they should be a whole separate entity,” Rabung added. (The CFEC issues permits and vessel licenses in both limited and unlimited fisheries, and provides due process hearings and appeals.)

The commfish division, which employs about 650 people across the state, also permits and oversees Alaska’s non-profit salmon hatcheries, the aquatic shellfish and seaweed farming programs and operates three laboratories that track fish genetics, pathology, and ages of fish species.

The division manages some fisheries in federal waters under authority delegated by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. And because fish are migratory and cross jurisdictional boundaries, staff also are involved in the research and policy making activities of the Pacific Salmon Commission, the Joint Canadian/US Yukon River Panel and several other interstate and international fisheries bodies. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Southeast Alaska: USGS to continue baseline water quality monitoring for Southeast Alaska’s transboundary rivers - Led by the Alaska Congressional Delegation, the U.S. Congress has approved more than $3.62 million dollars for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to continue baseline water quality monitoring at the international border for Southeast Alaska’s transboundary rivers, and to shore up U.S. Department of State involvement on the issue of British Columbia (B.C.) mining, and mining contamination, near rivers that flow into the United States. The funding was included as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and approved by Congress on December 21, 2020.

“To defend Alaskan interests and interests of the United States, there must be focused data collected for baseline water quality, fisheries, and reference conditions in the U.S. portions of transboundary rivers shared with B.C.,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Director Jill Weitz. “Historically, 80 percent of Southeast Alaska king salmon have come from the transboundary Taku, Stikine and Unuk Rivers — and yet, by this spring, all three rivers’ king salmon populations will likely be listed as stocks of concern, and B.C. is rushing through more than a dozen Pebble Mine-sized projects just over the Alaska border in those same river systems. We do not have any time to waste, and we are grateful for the Alaska Congressional Delegation’s continued involvement in and support of Southeast Alaska’s transboundary rivers, jobs, and ways of life.”

In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 is $3.12 million for the USGS to continue to expand its streamgage monitoring of transboundary watersheds and to work with the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate and reduce pollution from B.C. mines in rivers that flow into the United States. The USGS has also been directed to continue evolving a formal partnership with Tribes and other federal agencies to develop a water quality strategy for the transboundary rivers. 

“We look forward to developing a true partnership between Tribes and the USGS,” said Rob Sanderson, Jr., Chair of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC). “Besides putting up money, we need to ensure that long-term water quality monitoring includes Tribal involvement.”

“This funding for data collection continues to validate the concerns of our tribes in Southeast Alaska, as well as our ongoing request for increased engagement between Canada, the United States and Indigenous governments,” shared Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s (Tlingit & Haida) Environmental Coordinator Raymond Paddock III. “We must work together to better understand and manage the proposed, existing and abandoned mines in our shared rivers.”

Tlingit & Haida has called on the federal government for action under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and to meaningfully engage Southeast Alaska’s Tribes. In 2015, Tlingit & Haida began working to collect baseline water quality data, sediment sampling and water quality surveys on the Taku and Stikine Rivers. Tlingit & Haida has since expanded their scope to sampling on the Alsek River near Yakutat and the Chilkat and Klehini Rivers outside of Klukwan and Haines. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Alaska: Additional COVID-19 vaccine arriving soon in Alaska; older Alaskans and front-line essential workers among those next in line - In January, Alaska will receive another 52,900 doses of COVID-19 vaccine: 27,300 doses of Pfizer vaccine (includes 7,800 doses allocated to the Indian Health Service - IHS) and 25,600 doses of Moderna vaccine (includes 8,400 doses allocated to IHS).

Vaccine continues to be distributed across the state through a phased allocation plan, with Alaskans in Phase 1a, Tiers 1 and 2 already receiving their first dose of the vaccine. Vaccination scheduling for Alaskans in Phase 1a Tier 3 began on Dec. 30, with those vaccination clinics beginning Jan. 4. 

“This pandemic has been rough on everyone, especially our seniors and those with underlying health conditions. Therefore, we will continue to accelerate and offer the vaccine to our senior citizens and Elders who have experienced the greatest illness and death from COVID-19,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “In addition to our senior citizens, those working in public safety and education, as well as other front-line workers will also be included in Phase 1b.” - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Alaska: Halibut Cove shellfish farmers are Alaska’s Farm Family of 2020 - Alaska’s Farm Family of the Year for 2020 is the Bates family of Halibut Cove, whose determined operation of their shellfish farm in Kachemak Bay embodies the innovative, resilient spirt of Alaska agriculture even in the face of a global pandemic.

“Alaska agriculture is a growing, evolving industry, and nothing reflects that more clearly than the selection of oyster farmers as Farm Family of the Year, “ said Dave Schade, director of the Division of Agriculture. “Greg and Weatherly Bates have embraced the opportunities of aquaculture in Alaska, and their success in this new market sector points to a prosperous future for them and other farming families, as well.”

The Bates both grew up the coastal culture of a seashore Rhode Island town, and after successfully managing a growing oyster farm there together they married, then honeymooned in Alaska. Falling in love with the state and its opportunities, they moved north in 2007 and started Alaska Shellfish Farm. With the help of their children, Rockwell and Vera, their growing family operation produces and sells oysters and mussels, and recently expanded into the evolving kelp market. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

JASE GRAVES: 2020: A RELUCTANT RETROSPECT - Ok, let’s get the obvious out of the way. 2020 was the year of COVID-19, also known as corona (minus the lime), the plague, the super crud, or, as my dad calls it (and most other contagious illnesses), “the rooty-gootus.” But what else happened in 2020?

Well, in addition to the global pandemic, China became the international Amazon.com of unwanted express deliveries. Remember the Asian murder hornets? I’m still plugging up my nostrils and ear canals when I sleep. And what about the Chinese mystery seeds? The harvest from those should be reaching your local farmers market and Walmart produce aisle soon. And then there were the double hurricanes, Laura and Marco, like some kind of WWE wrestling co-ed tag team from Hell. (I’m not sure we can blame China for that one, but there will undoubtedly be an expensive and time-consuming congressional investigation to find out for sure.)

And speaking of the government and professional wrestling, the nation witnessed a presidential steel-cage death match featuring two elderly politicians who tried to outdo one another with their criminally awkward dancing, cringey verbal gaffes and toddleresque insults. At least we were assured that no matter who won, the vast majority of Americans could claim to be “cooler” than the President. - More...
Saturday PM - - January 02, 2021

DAVE KIFFER: Another Christmas Story...and more Drunk Santas! - So, everyone knows my favorite Christmas story, how Drunk Santa visited our house on Christmas Eve. I’m no Jean Shepherd, so it is no “A Christmas Story,” although it did have a lot of swearing and my Dad did faintly resemble Darren McGavin even though he never expressed the remotest interest in leg-shaped lamps.

Nor did he speak Italian or fight with the neighbor’s dog over the holiday turkey. The only thing that Dad ever fought with over Christmas was a brand spanking new electric carving knife that someone mistakenly thought he needed. We always used to joke that a successful Christmas with our fractious family was one in which no blood was spilled. The “Christmas of the Electric Carving Knife” was not one of those years.

But I digress.

Anyway, I was reminded recently of my second favorite Christmas Story. It also involves Drunk Santa. Actually, it involves a lot of Drunk Santa’s.....and the NFL.

Once upon a time, I lived far, far away from Our Fair Salmon City.

I have tried to live far away from Our Fair Salmon City several times.  It has never quite seemed to stick. No matter how far away I get, something keeps dragging me back, even when I am thousands of miles away. The Rock - floating about in an endless sea of rain - seems to have a very "specific gravity." And I am entrapped in it. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2021

Political Cartoon: New Year's Resolution
By Rick McKee ©2021, Counterpoint
Distributed to subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.