Southcentral

Anchorage's proposed tax break caps at $497,000. New homes average $750,000.

A first-time buyer of a new Anchorage home could skip property tax for 10 years, if it sells under about $497,000. New builds average near $750,000.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage Assembly weighs 10-year tax break for condos above shops and offices

Eagle River lot could shed 2002 limits at a Sept. 15 hearing

Anchorage Assembly will hear Sept. 15 whether to remove 2002 building limits from a 1.04-acre Eagle River commercial lot, allowing broader business use.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Koniag takes board candidates to nine communities before proxy voting closes

Koniag will take board candidates to nine communities in September, six on Kodiak Island and three outside the region. Proxy voting closes Sept. 30.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

The lone applicant for a Kenai Peninsula Assembly seat could be seated Sept. 1

Nathan Berga is the only applicant for Kenai Peninsula Borough's vacant District 7 seat and could be appointed Tuesday, Sept. 1, restoring the assembly to nine members.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kenai could put school board term limits to voters under a new state law

Kenai Peninsula Borough voters will decide on school board term limits at a Sept. 1 public hearing, after state law changed to allow municipalities to propose them.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

FAA awards $79,899 to Palmer-based Port Graham Development Corporation for Cleveland radar power work

A company owned by the tiny Alutiiq village of Port Graham won a federal contract to keep an air-traffic radar's backup power running in Cleveland, Ohio.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Comments on the $400 million Bradley Lake expansion close Friday

Federal comment on the Bradley Lake expansion closes Friday. The price has been stated three ways since spring, and Railbelt ratepayers carry the debt.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

The Coast Guard is giving Homer a building that needs a new roof

The Coast Guard is handing Homer a building assessed at $635,400 that needs a new roof, flooring, paint and electrical work nobody has priced.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

East Cook Inlet clam beaches stay closed; the west side is the option

The razor clam beaches Alaskans could drive to are still closed. What's left this season is across Cook Inlet, reachable only by boat or plane.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage moves to clarify its wetlands permitting, though some say it doesn't go far enough

Anchorage is moving to clarify how property owners navigate wetlands permitting after the feds stopped issuing blanket permits, though some say gaps remain.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Fish and Game teams up with Arctic Entries for a night of wildlife storytelling

Alaska Fish and Game is teaming up with Arctic Entries for a night of true wildlife stories in Palmer. Alaskans have until Sept. 7 to submit or nominate.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Mat-Su voters will decide whether the borough can build roads anywhere

Mat-Su voters decide Nov. 3 whether the borough can buy right-of-way and build roads anywhere in its boundaries, across road service area lines.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage's next park would sit on the Knik Arm bridge route it has long fought

A cleaned-up fuel depot above the Port of Alaska could become a park — on the route of a Knik Arm bridge the state wants and Anchorage has long fought.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A young weaver 3D-printed his own form to make a cedar bark hat

A Bartlett High grad wove himself a cedar bark hat using a form he designed and 3D-printed at a tribal lab — work that led to an internship and a paid job.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kodiak's one-king limit runs three more weeks

Kodiak saltwater anglers can keep one king a day through Sept. 15, then two. Kings have been steady, with several over 20 pounds in the past week.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A state grant would keep TB screening running at Anchorage homeless shelters

A $2.77 million grant before the Anchorage Assembly would keep public health nurses screening for TB at shelters — the clearance many people need to get in.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

It's going to be a windy one across Anchorage and Turnagain Arm on Tuesday

It's a windy one around Anchorage on Tuesday — gusts of 40 to 50 mph on the Hillside and Turnagain Arm, with a stronger system due late in the week.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage weighs a $6.7 million bleach contract for its wastewater

Anchorage may spend up to $6.7 million on bleach to disinfect wastewater it discharges into Cook Inlet under a treatment waiver that expired 20 years ago.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

The Anchorage Assembly recognized September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

The Anchorage Assembly recognized September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The region including Anchorage has Alaska's highest number of suicide deaths.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

An Anchorage housing provider gets another year of federal help for disabled renters

Andrew Housing Co. in Anchorage received $132,800 from HUD to help house very-low-income renters with disabilities, part of a $184,392 total in federal housing awards posted this week.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage set to get $3 million to expand its crisis-response system

Anchorage is set to get about $3 million to expand its mental-health and addiction crisis teams, add assisted-living beds and start mobile opioid treatment.

by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet pot boats get back into state-waters cod on Sept. 1

Cook Inlet's jig-only Pacific cod season closes Sept. 1 and reopens to all legal gear, leaving 339,000 pounds of unharvested quota available to pots, jigging machines, and troll gear through year-end.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Texas firm wins $48,950 contract to patch pavement at Kenai refuge

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is patching pavement and sealing cracks this fall under a $48,950 contract, running from mid-August through mid-October.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Wainwright's fuel tank ran dry and the airlift is weathered in

Wainwright's fuel day tank ran empty Monday morning. An airlift of 80 drums sits loaded in Anchorage, waiting on a safe weather window north.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Homer signs off on a change of ownership at a Homer Spit seafood plant, after the fact

Homer's council signed off on a change of ownership at a Homer Spit seafood plant after the fact — the second corporate handoff on the lease in six years.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Follows: A Homer seafood plant would pass to Silver Bay amid an OBI takeover

Mat-Su assembly member proposes borough ban on license plate readers

Mat-Su would ban license plate readers outright, including querying outside networks. Nothing in the record names a borough program it would end.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Mat-Su would sell a sinking public safety building for $13,176

Mat-Su would sell a condemned public safety building for $13,176. Repairing it is estimated at $139,150, and nobody has said who pays for that.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kodiak takes its landfill bear problem behind closed doors

Kodiak's landfill can't keep bears out, the borough could be fined for feeding wildlife, and now the Assembly is taking the bear problem behind closed doors.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Follows: Bears are still raiding the Kodiak dump, weeks after a state plan to keep them out

Air Force names 2nd Lt. Leah Borsich as airman killed in Cape Newenham crash

All eight aboard died in the Cape Newenham crash. The Air Force identified one as 2nd Lt. Leah Borsich, 23, of the 611th Civil Engineer Squadron.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage businesswoman gets 3.8 years for nearly $1 million in COVID relief fraud

An Anchorage businesswoman spent nearly $1 million in COVID relief meant for struggling businesses on herself. Now she's headed to federal prison for 3.8 years.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage would drop landscaping buffers for three- and four-unit homes

Anchorage would drop landscaping buffer requirements for three- and four-unit homes. The current rule calls for a 15-foot planting bed with trees and shrubs.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Sitka may rewrite its rules for second homes on residential lots

Sitka's planning commission takes up a draft rewrite of its accessory dwelling unit rules Monday. The draft does not say which direction it goes.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage may have paid the state's traffic-signal power bill for 20 years

For 20 years, Anchorage never tracked the power cost for state-owned traffic signals, so it may have covered the state's share. Auditors flagged it before.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Nevada man dies after falling overboard in Saw Mill Bay near Valdez

A 39-year-old Nevada man died after falling from a fishing boat anchored near Valdez, and volunteer divers recovered his body about 21 hours later.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A Kenai hunter education class opens for sign-ups this fall

Alaska Fish and Game is offering a hunter education class in Kenai this fall through its women-focused "Becoming an Outdoors-Woman" program, open to men too.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Volunteers will build naloxone kits in Anchorage on Overdose Awareness Day

Volunteers will build naloxone kits in Anchorage on Aug. 31. Alaska recorded 238 opioid overdose deaths last year, down from 276 the year before.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A small Alutiiq village corporation near Kodiak has built a $200 million federal business

A company owned by Ouzinkie, an Alutiiq village corporation near Kodiak, has built a federal business topping $200 million, its biggest presence in Florida.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Southcentral Foundation asks Congress to make IHS contract support costs mandatory

Southcentral Foundation asked Congress to move Indian Health Service contract support costs into mandatory spending to shield rural Alaska clinics from federal budget cuts.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kodiak salmon fishing extended again, running through Wednesday evening

Kodiak boats get a second 48-hour extension, running through 6 pm Wednesday. The Chinook nonretention rule stays in place across the whole area.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Inmate charged in Spring Creek assault that seriously injured another inmate

Prosecutors charged Lloyd Luke with assault and criminal mischief in a July 26 attack at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward that seriously injured another inmate.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read