We’re Moving to @KmxtNews on Twitter!

The KMXT News Blog will be hibernating as the KMXT Eyewitness Action News Department will link our posts from KMXT.org to our new Twitter account. We anticipate being able to post quicker than we can here, and be more efficient in the process.

For those few of you who came to this KMXT News Blog, thank you.

The Alaska Fisheries Report

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Coming up this week, the Coast Guard gets busy as soon as the crab season begins, we hear how one CDQ group is doing, and maybe limitless power for False Pass to process fish and light up the town. We had help this week from KDLG’s Mike Mason in Dillingham and KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal in Unalaska.

This is a test

Testing One Two Three

Salmon Project Will ‘Drop’ Books This Fall

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Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
Folks who enjoy salmon-themed literature will be pleased to know they’ll have an opportunity to score a free book this fall. Erin Harrington is the executive director of the Salmon Project, which is the organization hosting a statewide book drop. The “drop” she says, will involve distributing almost 1,200 books to roughly half a dozen communities around the state.
The book being distributed is King of Fish – the 1,000 year run of salmon.
“Which is by David Montgomery, who is a geomorphologist down at the University of Washington, and wrote this book a little over a decade ago about salmon and the interactions between salmon and people across ranges in Europe, North America, on both the east and west coasts of the United States and Canada and then up around the corner, just barely touching on B.C. and Alaska. So it’s a really fascinating book that looks at more than 1,000 years of the way people have interacted with this fish and relied on it. And then it looks at some of the lessons that can come out of those other geographies which have largely lost their salmon.”
Harrington said the book drop idea was modeled after the popular Big Reads, which promote community literacy and conversation by distributing different texts for free.

The Alaska Fisheries Report

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Coming up this week, the United Fishermen of Alaska announced its Fishermen of the Year and Hall of Fame awards; we’ve got a wrap up of the Cook Inlet salmon season, and the plan to eradicate pike from the Kenai Peninsula is finally moving forward. We had help from KRBD’s Megan Pedersen in Ketchikan, KYUK’s Ben Matheson in Bethel, and KDLL’s Shaylon Cochran in Kenai.

No Change to Election Results After Canvassing

Jay Barrett/KMXT
The Kodiak Island Borough municipal elections have been canvassed – meaning all outstanding votes have been added to the totals from the October 7th election.
Provided by the borough clerk’s office, the results show that the election results were decided by less than 2,000 people. Only 1,968 votes were cast out of a registered voter pool of 9,100, meaning just 22 percent of eligible voters turned out. However, that is actually five more percentage points than last year, and nine more than 2012.
The precinct with the lowest percentage of votes cast was Bell’s Flats, where only 11-percent, or 186 out of 1,711 voters, cast a ballot. The voters of Ouzinkie had the highest turnout, with 34 percent.
The counting of questioned, absentee and personal representative ballots changed the final election numbers, but did not change who will be sworn in tonight.
Dan Rohrer picked up another 168 votes for a total of 1,323. Larry LeDoux got another 164 votes to bring his total to 1,285; and Rebecca Skinner received another 124 votes for a total of 795.
The final tally for the two school board seats have incumbent Katie Oliver with 1,319 votes and Duncan Fields with 1,268. Oliver picked up another 186 votes and Fields another 172.
Proposition 1, which will allow the Kodiak Island Borough to issue bonds to conduct maintenance and repairs to borough schools, picked up another 173 votes in favor and 82 more votes against. It passed with almost two-to-one approval with a total of 1,216 yes and 630 no.
The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly will certify the election results, and the clerk will swear in the three new assembly members, tonight at the assembly’s regular meeting. We’ll carry that live on KMXT at 7:30.