KCAW

Mt. Edgecumbe Preschool is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and raising $50,000 to support the community’s first formal pre-school and early childhood program. Erica Knox and Holly Marban joined students Ryan and Olivia, and alumnus Anya on KCAW’s Morning Interview to discuss the school’s current programs and plans to celebrate its history. Listen to the conversation here:

Donations to Mt. Edgecumbe Preschool are tax-deductible and can be made by check or online. Reach staff at 907-966-2675 with questions.

Finding housing in Sitka is tough. There aren’t enough affordable units, the seasonal nature of the community limits the availability of year-round housing, and there really isn’t that much buildable land between where the ocean ends and the mountains begin. But a lot of folks have empty backyards. 

That’s where Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs come in. ADUs are essentially smaller, detached units on the same lot as a larger home. At a Sitka Assembly meeting on September 22, Assembly Member Katie Riley said they’re one part of the solution to Sitka’s housing shortage.

“We’ve talked a lot about the housing shortage here in this body, and this is definitely not a silver bullet that’s going to solve it,” she said. “But it is a way to create more affordable and accessible housing on already developed land.”

Riley has been working with the Planning Commission for months on an ordinance that would make them easier to build. Housing advocates in Sitka have long said that local ADU regulations are a barrier to development. 

Under current code, a proposed ADU must meet 14 separate requirements. And if any one requirement can’t be met, the applicant has to get a Conditional Use Permit — a process that requires a public hearing before the Planning Commission.

“That whole process can take up to five or more weeks,” Riley said. “This will create the opportunity for many more property owners to be able to build [ADUs] outright, given that they meet all of the existing conditions.”

The code change would cut the requirements from 14 down to 8. It would also create a clearer pathway to construct an ADU first, so the owner has a more affordable landing pad while they build a primary residence, and would allow the owner to use an ADU as a short-term rental for a time to recoup some of their initial building costs. 

Assembly Member Thor Christianson said he’s optimistic that the changes will make a real difference for Sitkans and help with some of the community’s housing issues.

“I’ve often said that we’re not going to fix our housing issues in one big fell swoop. We have to nibble at it from the edges,” he sais. “This is more than a nibble, it’s a bite. It’s definitely a move in the right direction.”

Ultimately, assembly members voted unanimously in favor of the changes, on first reading. If they give final approval, Sitka will join other Southeast communities like Ketchikan and Juneau in taking steps to encourage building ADUs. Juneau currently offers nearly $14,000 to homeowners seeking to develop them on their properties.

The assembly will review the ordinance for a final time at its next meeting in early October.

The community is welcome to tour Pacific High School’s garden, greenhouse, and the recently completed learning shelter made from young-growth timber from the Tongass. PHS Principal Matt Groen, PHS Garden Coordinator Andrea Fraga, and Sitka Conversation Society Community Catalyst Chandler O’Connell join KCAW to talk about what’s in store for the celebration this Friday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. Listen to the conversation here:

Every Sunday, a prayer is read for sea-faring Sitkans at St. Peter’s by the Sea. Built in 1899, it’s one of the oldest Episcopal churches in Alaska. 

As its name suggests, St. Peter’s by the Sea used to be right along the water. But today, it’s separated from Crescent Harbor by Lincoln Street, a stretch of grass, and a pedestrian walkway.

“Lincoln Street wasn’t here. It was Beach Road, and it was just a gravel road just above the beach.”

Mim McConnell, the senior warden of St. Peter’s, says before Lincoln Street McConnell says the building shows its age.

“We live in a really wet environment, and we all know what happens to a house that isn’t taken care of. Rain and wind can destroy it pretty quickly.”

Renovations have been underway, which will help the building better withstand the elements and preserve its storied features, like its bell from Philadelphia.

To reach Sitka in the 19th century, it was shipped thousands of miles around the southern tip of South America. Once it got here, the church realized the bell tower they had already put up was too small. 

“I mean you’re not going to send a bell back.”

So a bigger bell tower was built. And there’s another detail that came about by mistake. Above the front doors, in the middle of the circular stained glass window, there’s the Star of David. 

“That was apparently intended for someplace else, and we got the wrong one. At least that’s the story that’s been passed down.”

In 2024, a stonemason helped repair stone buttresses and the staircase out front. The next step is to add gutters and replace the weathered cedar shakes on the roof  with composite shingles starting in April. 

“You can see how some homes around town, left alone, will eventually collapse, and so that could happen here.”

Between the church and its rectory, McConnell estimates repairs will total near a million dollars. It’s a tall order, but she says grants and donations will help keep the building standing and its doors open. 

Local live storytelling event Sitka Tells Tales is coming to the Harbor Mountain Brewery stage this Thursday, September 24, at 7 p.m. For this event, called “Why Not? Stories of Taking Risks, Making a Change and Giving Back,” Sitka Tells Tales partnered with the Sitka Legacy Foundation. Ellen Frankenstein, Ben Hughey, and Jennifer MacDonald joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to share what attendees can expect from the event. Listen to their conversation here:

Election season is underway, and local organizations, Raven Radio included, have been holding candidate forums to familiarize voters with who and what will be on the upcoming municipal election ballot. 

One candidate Sitkans haven’t had a chance to hear from much is assembly write-in candidate Mary Ann Hall. 

During a Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce forum on Wednesday (9-16-26), assembly candidates were asked pre-provided questions on housing, childcare, and economic development. 

Hall, who serves on the local emergency planning committee said if elected, her experience in Sitka will help her on the assembly. When asked what role the city should play in improving the availability and sustainability of childcare in Sitka, Hall said elders should be part of the solution. 

“I heard about this community in the Northeast, and what they do is they use older people as volunteers to come into the childcare center and help with them, like coloring books and reading stories and teaching them art and stuff like that,” Hall said. “These retired people can teach these kids something that they know, and you could have two groups: one group [of] the older people come in four hours, and then the second group come in in the next four hours. So I think that would work.”

You can find interviews with candidates, questionnaires, forums, and a sample ballot on KCAW’s Election Hub. The Chamber is hosting a mayoral forum on Wednesday, September 23.

Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, October 6.

Artificial intelligence, truancy, and enrollment. These are a few of the topics Sitka School Board candidates dove into in KCAW’s live election forum on September 17. Phil Burdick, Matt Potter and Kat Richards joined KCAW for the hour-long forum and answered listener questions. Listen back to the full forum here:

Full mayoral and assembly forum audio is available on our election hub. You’ll also find candidate interviews, questionnaires, and voting information. Early voting kicks off on Monday, September 21/today at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday October 6.

Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, October 6. Nine candidates are on the ballot running for public office — three are running for the mayor’s chair, three more are vying for two open assembly seats alongside one write-in candidate, and three are running for three open seats on the Sitka School Board. Voters will also weigh in on one ballot proposition. Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson, Deputy Municipal Clerk Holley Bayne, and Assistant Municipal Clerk Brian Schoenfelder joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss early voting, ballot contents, and other election details. Listen to their conversation here:

For interviews with candidates, questionnaires, candidate forums, and a sample ballot, head to our Election Hub here.

Thousands of passengers disembarked the cruise ship Norwegian Joy as it finally pulled up to Sitka’s dock on Thursday morning, three hours after its scheduled arrival. 

“There was an announcement this morning from the captain just saying that there’s an issue with a whale at the front of the ship, and that it was going to be inspected by local authorities, and until that had been looked at, we weren’t allowed to go into the port,” Lee Page told KCAW as he waited in line at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal.

Page, from Scotland, said he boarded the cruise ship in Seattle last Friday on his first trip to Alaska. He’s one of roughly 4,000 passengers aboard the Norwegian Joy who were told Thursday morning that the cruise ship hit an endangered fin whale while the eleven-hundred-foot vessel was en route from Hoonah to Sitka. 

Page said they weren’t given much more information as they waited on the boat about two miles offshore, and a team of responders from the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and a tugboat removed the dead whale from the bow. 

A whale strike, Page said, wasn’t on his bingo card. 

“[It’s] quite sad, isn’t it? When you think about what we’re all here for,” he said. 

Lauren Wild, a local whale biologist and part of the stranding network response team, said while they were towing the whale from the ship to a Sitka-area beach, it sank offshore. 

“The whale is in the cove, about 40 feet off the beach, sunk onto the bottom,” she said. “But we were able to tie it off to some trees up on the beach.”

Wild estimates the fin whale is 35 to 45 feet long, and likely a juvenile male. The circumstances of the strike are still unclear — Wild said they don’t know where, en route, the whale was hit, but she hopes a necropsy, or animal autopsy, will help determine if it was already dead or if the strike is what killed it. 

“We’re hoping that we can get the whale up onto the beach at some point so we can do a necropsy and learn more about its cause of death, the health of the whale, and other life history parameters like what age demographic it was,” Wild said. “They can be really valuable specimens.” 

NOAA Fisheries declined KCAW’s interview request. In an email, spokesperson Jennifer Angelo said in total, there have been 10 documented whale strikes involving cruise ships in Alaska since 2001, but not all were confirmed, and not all necessarily resulted in the death of the whale.

“It is difficult to determine the exact number of whale-vessel strikes because it is likely many collisions go unnoticed by the vessel crew, occur in remote areas, or result in carcasses sinking or drifting away, preventing detection,” Angelo said.

This is the second documented fin whale to come into an Alaskan port on the bow of a cruise ship this summer. A pregnant fin whale was hit by a ship headed into Seward in June.

Wild said typically, fin whales are seen further offshore in the Gulf of Alaska, and it’s unusual to see them in Sitka Sound. 

“We haven’t had a cruise ship bring a dead whale into Sitka Sound, in my knowledge, at least in the last 10 or 15 years,” she said. “I think it’s an unusual thing for Sitka.” 

Wild reminded Sitkans that fin whales are endangered, and it’s illegal to scavenge or collect parts of the whale, and asked members of the public if they see the remains to steer clear. She hopes her team will be able to get the whale to shore and get more information before a forecasted storm hits the area in the coming days. 

An unnamed spokesperson from Norwegian Cruise Lines said in a written statement they are deeply saddened by the situation, and that they’re cooperating with authorities and wildlife experts in this process. 

“This is a sobering reminder of the importance of ongoing collaboration among the maritime, scientific and conservation communities. We remain committed to operating responsibly, complying with applicable laws and regulations and supporting efforts that contribute to the long-term health of marine life,” the statement read. 

The Norwegian Joy is scheduled to arrive in Skagway on Friday. 

If you see a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead marine mammal, call the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Statewide 24-hour Stranding Hotline at (877) 925-7773. 

Sitka Pride and the Unitarian Universalist Church will host the first installment of the Winter Blues Film Club with a local film screening. Quinlyn Holder and Bruce Gazaway joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the club and the screening of Holder’s film “Watching the Whole Way Home” 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Coliseum Theater. Listen to the conversation here: