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Week of Jul 6
Eaglecrest interviews GM finalist, holds Goldbelt conversation amid $1.9M deficit
Eaglecrest interviewed its sole general manager finalist and met with potential partner Goldbelt as the ski area faces a $1.9 million deficit and pressure to balance its budget by November.

Juneau airport board votes July 9 on $50,697 local match for tower roof grant
Juneau airport board votes July 9 on spending $50,697 from reserves to match a $963,247 federal grant for replacing the air traffic control tower roof.

NWS Juneau narrows wind advisory to Ketchikan, Annette Island, Prince of Wales
NWS Juneau narrowed a wind advisory Monday afternoon to Ketchikan, Annette Island, and Prince of Wales Island through 7 p.m., with southeast winds gusting to 45 mph and heavy rain expected.

Juneau task force takes up cruise cap criteria Thursday, with dock pressure looming
Juneau's task force meets Thursday to draft criteria for future cruise passenger cap changes, with a potential dock expansion by Goldbelt poised to test those rules.

Juneau's only runway closes overnight, and the medevac plan matters
Juneau's only paved runway closes overnight this weekend for repairs — and since you can't drive to Juneau, there's a backup plan for emergency medevacs, though it wasn't spelled out.

Yakutat's king run is coming up short, and the closures keep stacking up
Yakutat's Situk River king run is coming in too weak to open, so the state has kept the fishery closed to keeping Chinook three straight weeks — another lean year.

What Fairbanks wants from Juneau — and why it costs more up north
Fairbanks is finalizing its legislative wish list: cheaper piped gas, more school funding, and pensions back — a bill of grievances for a region that pays more for everything.

Juneau's dangerous Egan Drive left turn is finally getting a signal
A $12.15M federal grant will finally put a signal at Juneau's Egan-Yandukin intersection, where left-turners cross highway traffic blind and pedestrians can't cross safely.

More from Southeast
A Tlingit artist crossed the border to teach Anchorage kids an ancient craft
A Tlingit artist traveled from British Columbia to Anchorage to teach kids the ancient art of bentwood box making — a watertight box bent from a single seamless plank.

Juneau tourism task force faces a fork: which planning model fits the capital?
Juneau's Visitor Industry Task Force will choose July 16 among three tourism planning models, each with different timelines and budgets ranging from seven to 18 months.

Goldbelt gets a new chair as its biggest bets take shape
Goldbelt named a new board chair a year after installing the last one — just as the Tlingit-owned corporation pushes its biggest development bets, a Douglas Island port and the Eaglecrest gondola.

Juneau weighs a tighter senior property tax break
Juneau may tighten its senior property tax break, cutting the income cutoff from $115K to $49K and capping the biggest awards — though the cap hits only a couple dozen people.

Juneau Commission on Aging hears Capital AKcess ridership is rising as ADA approvals grow
Capital AKcess ridership is rising in Juneau as more seniors get ADA approvals, and transit staff told the Commission on Aging they are improving the application process and dispatch system.

A new book makes the case that saving the Haida language now means 'immerse or die'
A new Sealaska Heritage book argues the Haida language is down to one option — full immersion — and that saving X̱aad Kíl is itself an act of tribal sovereignty.

A tribal housing authority wants to build 40 affordable homes on wetlands
A tribal housing authority wants to build 40 affordable homes in Southeast — but first it has to fill 4 acres of wetlands, and the state review of that just opened for comment.

In Alaska, the adult takes the ticket for a kid's line
A visiting grandfather got the ticket when his grandson fished closed waters at Crooked Creek — in Alaska, the supervising adult is on the hook, and intent doesn't matter.

Coming up
Alaska State Parks Southeast Region Citizen Advisory Board Meeting
Online only: Microsoft Teams (Meeting ID 252 102 001 646 565 7, passcode Xq3o7kf3) or phone +1 907-202-7104, conference ID 521 494 427#
Meeting
Energy in the North: Robert Venables on Southeast Conference Economic Development
Class
Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office Sealed Bid Deadline
Public notice
Southeast Alaska Geoduck Fishery Closure (Holiday Period 1)
Public notice
Directed Lingcod Fishery Season End
Public notice
About Southeast
Southeast Alaska is the panhandle region along the state's southern coast, an archipelago of islands and fjords that includes Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. Its towns, among them Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Skagway and Hoonah, are linked by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system.
Its economy rests on commercial fishing, cruise tourism and the Tongass National Forest. Fish and Game manages dive fisheries for sea cucumbers and geoducks, salmon seine and gillnet fisheries, and rockfish openings across its inside and outer waters. Cruise docks, the decisions of city and borough assemblies, land use rules and heavy coastal weather are recurring local questions.
Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian communities are part of the region's life, and institutions such as Tlingit & Haida and Huna Totem run programs and businesses across it. Huna Totem ventures have built or sought to run cruise docks in Juneau and Haines.
More from Southeast
Two Indigenous peoples, linked by a migratory bird, trade what they've learned
A Māori delegation shared a model of health at Sealaska Heritage — spirit, mind, body, and family as four walls of one house — with the people who once learned language revival from them.

The Army apologized for bombing a Tlingit village. It only took 156 years.
The U.S. Army formally apologized for its 1869 bombardment of a Tlingit village — the standout in a year Sealaska Heritage Institute spent building a culture's permanence into stone and record.

Nearly 1,900 Juneau homes are under an evacuation advisory as a glacial flood nears
Nearly 1,900 Mendenhall Valley homes, almost double last year, are under an evacuation advisory as Suicide Basin fills toward a major glacial flood expected in early August.

Ketchikan's library could lose 40% of its budget — and who picks the books is part of the fight
Ketchikan's library may lose 40% of its funding as the borough and city feud — a money fight tangled up with a quieter one over who controls what's on the shelves.

Petersburg's cell tower rules advance, flaws and all
Petersburg advanced new cell-tower rules 5-0 — but a vice mayor called the 15-amendment process "deeply flawed," and residents are fighting cuts to safety setbacks.

Metlakatla man sentenced in child exploitation case
A Metlakatla man was sentenced to three years for distributing child sexual abuse material — one of four arrested in a broader investigation of the small Southeast community.

NMFS creates rodent detection dog exception to Pribilof dog ban
NMFS lifted a 50-year dog ban on the Pribilof Islands to allow certified rodent detection dogs to inspect vessels, protecting seal rookeries and subsistence harvests from invasive rodents.

Soldotna man faces federal charges for alleged CSAM purchases via PayPal
A Soldotna man faces federal charges for allegedly purchasing child sexual abuse material through PayPal over two years, with investigators tracing roughly 27 transactions to his account.

Juneau finance committee deadlocks 4-4 on Eaglecrest closure study as ski area seeks $1.68M
Juneau's Finance Committee deadlocked 4-4 on studying closure costs for Eaglecrest after the ski board said it needs $1.68 million to stay open, nearly double the committee's $930,000 target.

Rockslide blocks both lanes of North Tongass Hwy near Ward Cove
A rockslide blocked both lanes of North Tongass Highway near Ward Cove on Tuesday morning, cutting the only paved road connecting North Tongass communities to Ketchikan.

Juneau airport to lease Texas fire truck while new ARFF rigs await delivery
Juneau airport will lease a Texas fire truck for $162,000 while two new rigs arrive, covering a gap when the airport would have minimal firefighting capacity.

Southeast Alaska pink and chum test fisheries run below average ahead of peak season
Southeast Alaska test fisheries show pink and chum salmon running below average, signaling a weaker return ahead of peak season in Frederick Sound and lower Stephens Passage.

Ketchikan woman charged with violating DV no-contact order
Ketchikan woman arrested after appearing at a residence she was court-ordered to avoid in an active domestic violence case, held without bail pending arraignment.

Week of Jun 29
Juneau GA pilots say master plan ignores fuel monopoly, push for self-serve AvGas
More than 50 Juneau pilots are pushing the airport master plan to study self-serve AvGas fuel, saying a single provider charges 33% markups and limits competition.

ADF&G extends Districts 6 and 8 drift gillnet fishery 48 hours with mesh and area limits
ADF&G extended the Petersburg-area drift gillnet fishery 48 hours through Saturday noon with a 6-inch mesh cap and subarea closures in District 8 to protect Chinook salmon escapement.

Wind advisory, heavy rain target southern Southeast Alaska through Monday evening
Wind Advisory and heavy rain hit southern Southeast Alaska through Monday evening, with gusts to 45 mph and 1 to 3 inches of rain expected across Prince of Wales Island, Ketchikan, and Sitka.

Southeast Alaska ports share a pattern: residents want stable or reduced cruise volumes
Residents across six Southeast Alaska cruise ports say tourism helps the economy but has limits, and most want stable or fewer visitors, not growth.

Alaska Supreme Court puts Petersburg's Dan Sullivan back on August ballot
Alaska Supreme Court ordered the Division of Elections to place retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the August 18 primary ballot alongside U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.

SEAPA files federal notice to begin Tyee Lake relicensing ahead of 2031 expiration
Southeast Alaska Power Agency opened federal relicensing for Tyee Lake hydropower, which expires in 2031 and serves Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell.

Juneau sets two conditions for any Eaglecrest deal with Goldbelt
Juneau told Goldbelt it will keep owning Eaglecrest Ski Area and won't tie any deal to the corporation's separate cruise dock proposal.

Juneau advisory committee to vote on banning Class 2 and 3 e-bikes from city trails
Juneau's Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will vote July 7 on banning throttle-equipped and high-speed e-bikes from city trails, allowing only pedal-assist Class 1 models.

Juneau proposes trading trail maintenance with state to offset $75K budget cut
Juneau Parks proposes swapping trail maintenance with Alaska State Parks to offset a $75,000 budget cut that eliminated brushing on city trails in the coming fiscal year.

DOJ reportedly investigating Alaska's two-Sullivans Senate race
National outlets report the FBI and state investigators are examining Alaska's two-Dan-Sullivans race — a probe into a candidacy the state's high court just ruled entirely legal.

Nearly $1 million for Anchorage's safety net goes to an Assembly vote
Anchorage's Assembly votes July 7 on nearly $978,000 for nine nonprofits that feed the homeless, shelter abuse survivors, and help families and kids in crisis.
