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Monday, Aug 17
Three Hillside road districts are dipping into savings as maintenance costs outrun their funding
Three self-funded Hillside road districts are drawing $145,000 from their own savings for road maintenance, as costs outrun what they collect in taxes.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Anchorage shifts $3.46 million from Denali Street to a Fairview pedestrian boulevard
Anchorage dropped a Denali Street walking project and moved $3.46 million to Fairview, where Hyder Street would become a pedestrian boulevard.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
A Seward Highway rebuild that doubled to $1.4 billion is back on Anchorage's plan, over objections
A Seward Highway rebuild that doubled to $1.4 billion is back on Anchorage's plan on a 3-2 vote, over objections about cost, priority and public input.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
The fate of the EPA veto blocking Pebble Mine is now in a federal judge's hands
A federal judge is deciding whether the EPA veto blocking Pebble Mine survives, a fight over Bristol Bay salmon with Alaska Native parties on both sides.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Alaska's ranked-choice fight returns to the Supreme Court, months before a repeat repeal vote
Alaska's ranked-choice voting returns to the Supreme Court next week, the latest round in a years-long fight, with a repeal already on the November ballot.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Yentna River passes flood stage near Lake Creek with water expected in lodge cabins
The Yentna is over flood stage near Lake Creek, with water expected in cabins at two lodges. It should crest around 21 feet Tuesday morning.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Kodiak fights landfill bears with a second fence and a look at composting
Bears keep breaking into Kodiak's landfill, so the borough is fighting back two ways: a fence to keep them out and composting to cut the waste that draws them.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom 
Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest, with one river closed without even a count
Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest on the Susitna and Little Susitna after four weak coho years — one river closed without a count, its weir washed out.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
More from Southcentral
A family gold operation wants four more seasons on Cache Creek, mined since the early 1900s
A family gold operation wants to work Cache Creek near Petersville for four more seasons, on ground mined by family outfits since the early 1900s.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Anchorage airport would let CLEAR sell a faster security line
Anchorage's airport wants to let a private company sell a faster spot in the security line. Objections are due on a Sunday, when the office is closed.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The Mental Health Trust would give up $3.2M in rent to house a nonprofit serving its beneficiaries
The Alaska Mental Health Trust would give up $3.2M in rent over a decade to house a nonprofit serving its own beneficiaries, at 1% of market rate.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAnchorage water chemical contract returns $855,400 higher with no explanation
Anchorage's water treatment chemical will cost $855,400 more than the bid the administration backed two weeks ago. It sits on tonight's consent agenda.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
An Anchorage cannabis grower's license hinges on a $12,761 tax bill, with tonight the deadline
An Anchorage cannabis grower could lose its license over a $12,761 tax bill, with tonight the Assembly's last meeting before the deadline to settle up.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
Filing closes at 3 p.m. Monday with no publicly known candidate for 12 Kodiak Island Borough seats
Filing closes Monday at 3 p.m. for 16 Kodiak Island Borough seats on the October ballot, but no candidates have publicly filed for 12 of them, including all 10 service area board positions.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
The state wants $293M to rebuild 5th and 6th, but the funding isn't settled
The state wants Anchorage to program $293 million to rebuild 5th and 6th avenues downtown, but where the money comes from is unsettled.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
An Iñupiaq village corporation from Wainwright is plugging orphaned wells in Wyoming
Olgoonik, an Iñupiaq village corporation from Wainwright now grown into a global federal contractor, won a $210K contract to plug abandoned wells in Wyoming.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
About Southcentral
Southcentral Alaska is the region of the state centered on Anchorage, its population center and transportation hub. It spans the Kenai Peninsula, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, and reaches communities such as Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Seward, Cordova, Palmer, Wasilla and Eagle River.
Much of the region's civic life runs through the Anchorage Assembly, the Kenai Peninsula and Matanuska-Susitna borough assemblies, and city councils. Questions of housing and zoning come up often, along with who pays to extend water and sewer lines to building sites. School budgets, road safety on its highways and oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet also return.
The Kenai River and Cook Inlet tie the region to fishing, and the Parks Highway and Seward Highway link its communities. Windstorms that cut power and trooper reports from the Matanuska-Susitna area are common subjects as well.
More from Southcentral
A $3.73 million contract will fix water intrusion at the Anchorage VA
A $3.73 million federal contract will fix water intrusion at the Anchorage VA Medical Center — a year of work by a Palmer firm, starting in September.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read
A $60,580 project, half of it federal, will update Kodiak's history book
Kodiak Historical Society got $30,290 to revise its museum history book covering Alaska's oldest building and the Russian era through today.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
FAA plan would give a Cook Inlet oil-field airstrip its first instrument approaches
Hilcorp's Trading Bay airstrip may soon take planes in bad weather. The FAA notice announcing it gets the airport's name wrong and its boundary wrong twice.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A Kodiak Native corporation's federal-contracting arm wins medical-billing work in Oklahoma
A subsidiary of Kodiak's Koniag corporation won a $1.26 million federal contract for medical-billing work in Oklahoma — the kind of business that funds dividends and scholarships for 4,300 Alutiiq shareholders.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Sunday, Aug 16
Cook Inlet drift gillnetters drop to two days a week as the sockeye catch thins out
Cook Inlet drift gillnetters are down to Mondays and Thursdays for the season, after two openings in a row each took under 1% of the sockeye harvest.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Two Anchorage boaters spend a night on Skilak Lake after rough water stops the crossing
Two Anchorage boaters paddled down the Kenai, found Skilak Lake too rough to cross, and spent the night on the beach. Troopers texted them a way out.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
One donor supplied 99 percent of the non-individual money behind Alaska's ranked choice repeal
Aurora Action Network gave $1.83 million to Alaska's ranked-choice repeal campaign, over 99 percent of its non-individual funding, but the group's true funding sources don't appear in public records.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
Willow Creek forecast to reach minor flood stage Tuesday under Susitna Valley flood watch
Willow Creek is forecast to reach minor flood stage Tuesday morning during Alaska's primary election, with 2 to 4 inches of rain expected across the Susitna Valley through Wednesday.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Anchorage races a deadline to build a downtown library before a grant expires
Books are books are books are books; what one sees - where one looks. Construction stories have such hooks, but books in nooks are still just books.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Wasilla man fined $320 for false residency claim on a fishing and hunting license
A Wasilla man paid $320 for fudging where he lives on a fishing license. The residency rule he ran afoul of just survived a veto fight in Juneau.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Homer planning commission asked to name Spit erosion, public works campus and harbor floats as top capital projects
Homer's planning commission votes Wednesday on three capital projects to recommend to city council: Spit erosion protection, a new public works campus, and $2.2 million in harbor float repairs.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Kodiak Island Borough first-half property taxes due Monday, borough page still says Saturday
Kodiak Island Borough property taxes are due Monday, August 17, not Saturday as the borough's tax page still says. Miss the deadline and you owe a 10 percent penalty plus 1 percent monthly interest.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Gusts to 65 mph on the Anchorage Hillside and in Eagle River through tonight
Guess what! Wind! On the hillside in South Anchorage and Eagle River especially =)
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Anchorage firm gets $77,900 more work at the Phoenix building it maintains
Anchorage firm Tunista Logistics Solutions won two federal repair contracts worth about $77,900 for a Phoenix building, part of a pattern of Alaska companies winning GSA work outside the state.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
CDC orders $1.4 million more Atlanta construction from an Anchorage firm
CDC awarded Anchorage firm MTNT Construction $1.4 million in federal construction orders over five days in August, but the agency did not disclose what the work is for or where it will happen.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Kodiak westside, Afognak and Alitak sections get a 45-hour extension
Kodiak commercial salmon fishing extended 45 hours into Monday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m. across westside, Afognak and Alitak sections under state emergency order.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Troopers arrest Palmer man on felony charge over mobile home abandoned on Old Glenn Highway
Alaska State Troopers arrested Palmer resident Aaron Musquiz after an abandoned mobile home damaged the Old Glenn Highway near mile 12, causing about $3,000 in roadway damage.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Koniag subsidiary lands State Department writer work, up to $1.6 million
Koniag Professional Services won a State Department contract worth up to $1.6 million to staff a writer and editor position, though the job is based in Virginia, not Alaska.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Researchers weigh broadening who pays for Anchorage wildfire work.
UA researchers will recommend Anchorage fund wildfire mitigation municipality-wide, not just the at-risk hillsides — but how to charge for it is unsettled.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Ouzinkie village corporation wins courthouse contracts in Florida
A village corporation from a 110-person Alutiiq island is fixing courthouse restrooms in Florida. One of the five awards bought only a new contract number.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Prince William Sound seiners get 12 hours Sunday across six districts
Twelve hours, six districts, 8 am to 8 pm Sunday. Escapement finally looks good enough that Fish and Game is talking about every-other-day openings.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Mayor LaFrance faces a campaign-finance hearing over her 2024 expenditure reports
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance faces an APOC hearing Wednesday over how her 2024 campaign reported spending. A resident alleges 89 flawed reports.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Saturday, Aug 15
Bradley Lake expansion has carried three price tags in four months as the comment window closes
The Bradley Lake expansion has been priced at $400 million, $420 million and $435.9 million since April. Alaskans have until Aug. 28 to weigh in.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
HUD awards $85,520 to Anchorage disability housing provider
HUD awarded Anchorage disability housing provider AASC Housing II Inc. $85,520 to subsidize rent for very-low-income residents with disabilities.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
