KCAW

Recently appointed Sitka School Board member Kat Richards has filed to run for a full term. Richards works for the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium as a nurse educator, and is a former Sitka School District employee. KCAW sat down with Richards to learn about her experience and interest in serving on the board. Listen here:

Transcript forthcoming

The Sitka Police Department invites the community to Sitka Night Out on Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the covered area and playground at Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School. Sitka Police Chief Mike Hall joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the free, family-friendly event, which will feature games, food, refreshments and an opportunity to meet Sitka police.

Long-time Sitka Assembly Member Thor Christianson filed to run for mayor Friday afternoon (7-31-26). 

Christianson is a resource manager at Southeast Region Emergency Medical Services — a local organization that aims to strengthen emergency care in remote areas of the state. He is currently serving his sixth term on the assembly, and is the longest-serving assembly member in Sitka history. 

Christianson is the second candidate to throw his hat in the ring for the mayor’s seat. Assembly Member Kevin Mosher filed earlier this month. 

KCAW’s Hope McKenney sat down with Christianson to talk about his priorities, if elected.

TRANSCRIPT:

CHRISTIANSON: I’ve been doing this a long time. Somehow or another, I wound up being the longest-serving member of the assembly in the history of Sitka. So I think I know the job, and plus there are a number of projects, large and small, that I really want to see done. And I think that I will be able to facilitate that a bit better as mayor.

KCAW: You’ve seen a lot. You’ve served on the assembly on and off since the ’90s. Like you said, you’re the longest-serving assembly member in Sitka history. What are some of the biggest issues facing Sitkans right now? And if elected as mayor, how do you propose to address them?

CHRISTIANSON: Well, I think they all boil down to affordability, at this juncture, and quality of life, which are related but not exactly the same. Unfortunately, we’re limited in our ability to affect a lot of the issues of affordability. However, there are some things that the assembly can help with. One of the biggest, I think, is going to be getting city land on the market in the right way in such a fashion that it provides housing that is not crazy expensive, and we’ve got a few parcels of land that are in the works right now. One of them is a piece of land that we got from the Alaska Pulp [Corporation] that’s pretty good sized, and it has utilities nearby, roads nearby, but it’s going to take some real work to get that to the market. And working on getting utilities and things, and hopefully with some help from the feds or the state, so that we can get them to people at a reasonable amount. And it’s just going to take a lot of work, a lot of pushing and being creative, and collaborating, and it’s not going to happen tomorrow. But we have to keep working at it. We’ve got other things — obviously the childcare initiative we’re working on. We’ve got some other smaller things that we’re working on to get more economic activity in the winter, and those all are just going to require time and energy. And it’s kind of funny, but in the last few years, I’ve been re-energized. I have more energy now on the assembly than I did back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, mainly because I think I understand the job better, and that’s part of the reason I’m running for mayor because I believe I understand the things that a mayor can do to facilitate those conversations and facilitate those projects, bringing people together, getting divergent viewpoints, if not agreeing, at least agreeing to disagree, and making sure that everybody is heard, so that even if you don’t get exactly what you wanted, you know you got heard. I’ve learned a lot from other assembly members, other mayors, so I think I can bring to the table a lot of that together on my own. And I can say I run a lot of meetings, both professionally and at the assembly, and I think I can do good meetings and make sure I get everybody heard.

KCAW: What are some of the decisions you are most proud of during your time on the assembly?

CHRISTIANSON: Big and small. Way back [during] my first term, I worked to get the hoist put in down at the seawall, and at the time, I was kind of not laughed at, but they were like, “Okay, please shut up about this, and we’ll get it put in.” And I think it’s proved, you know, that’s a smaller one, but it’s proven useful. I think getting and supporting the schools over the years. We have a very school-supporting assembly right now, but it hasn’t always been that way. And I’m very proud of the fact that both of my girls were in the school or are in the school district, as was I. And so that’s a big one. Working right now on the childcare initiative. I don’t know if that’s going to go, but you won’t be able to say we didn’t try. Securing funding for SAFV was a big one, and that was, gosh, a while back. Although we still continue to do it. And honestly, this is going to sound funny, but I get phone calls sometimes late at night, and people want to talk about something, and I feel very comfortable doing that. And being able to talk to somebody, [I] may or may not be able to help or fix their problem, but making sure that they get heard and maybe sometimes helping them. I mean, I get off one of those phone calls and I feel even if I wasn’t able to make them happy, I feel good about the job I’m doing, and that’s one of the things I feel good about.

KCAW: What else should people know about you before they vote in the municipal election this October?

CHRISTIANSON: It’s kind of funny because at least people who pay attention to city stuff probably know me pretty well already. They should know that I’m willing to try things. You can’t be too afraid of failure to try and do something that’s a little bit different. So you know that I’d be willing to do that. You should know that I will listen to you, I may or may not agree with you, but if not, I’ll make sure that you know why. You’ll know that I’m going to be here. I know Sitka’s history, both politically and just in Sitka, because I’ve lived my whole life here — on again, off again when I was younger — But again, I’m no stranger to Sitka, and most people know me, and they should know that I will give everything I can to make Sitka work in all the different ways that means.

Three seats on the Sitka School Board, two Sitka Assembly seats, and the mayor’s chair are up for grabs this year. The deadline to file to run for local office is Friday, August 7. Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, October 6.

Sitka Assembly members grappled with how to use a recently-awarded multimillion-dollar state grant at their meeting Tuesday night (7-28-26), and ultimately landed on Lincoln Street upgrades. 

The Alaska Department of Commerce awarded Sitka $4.5 million in mid-July. The money comes from $37.5 million in unspent cruise ship passenger tax funds. Sitka is one of 16 communities to receive a portion, along with Juneau, Ketchikan, and Hoonah. 

The state gave the city just 30 days to pick a single project for the money, with limitations. Head tax dollars can only be used “for projects to repair, maintain and upgrade port facilities and harbor infrastructure, enhance passenger safety and provide services to vessels and passengers,” under state law. 

On Tuesday, the assembly discussed the possibilities for the funding, including the rehabilitation of the seawall at the city’s cold storage facility on Katlian Street, the installation of an electric bus charging station under the O’Connell Bridge, and even a passenger ferry that would taxi tourists from the cruise ship dock to downtown.

After some lengthy discussion, Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz was frustrated. 

“I came into this discussion excited for four and a half [million dollars], and I’m leaving here kind of discouraged, honestly,” he said. “I don’t want to do this, but I want to tell John [Leach] to just give it back. You know, turn this letter into a paper airplane and send it back with Bert [Stedman].”

Ultimately, Eisenbeisz suggested that the assembly ask Municipal Administrator John Leach to move forward with submitting the downtown Lincoln Street project. Plans to renovate the city’s downtown thoroughfare have been in the works for years. He said for several reasons, he thinks it would be the best fit for the grant. 

“We’ve been told time and time again that Lincoln Street is one of the tension points with visitation,” Eisenbeisz said. “Whether it is bathrooms in places where people don’t want them, or if it’s streets that are open or closed when people don’t want them, it brings a lot of contention to our visitor industry. It’s been this body’s goal to get that taken care of, so that we can ease congestion downtown and allow visitors to flow more freely and allow locals their space that they need as well.”

Leach said the most recent estimate to complete the Lincoln Street upgrades is $15.5 million, but that he wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be more than that. The city has already earmarked about $6.5 million for the renovation.

“We still have a funding shortfall of about $9 million to get that project completed,” Leach said.

The assembly decided to move forward with the Lincoln Street request, but said the city can still decide not to accept the money. 

The city has to submit its plan to the state by mid-August. If the proposal is approved and the city accepts the money, it will have five years to spend it.

Zofia Danielson with the Sitka Sound Science Center joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the organization’s marine debris cleanup program and an upcoming event featuring marine printmaking event. Listen to the conversation here:

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s musical theater camp is bring the works of Cole Porter to Sitka with Anything Goes. Zeke Blackwell, Jhonen Burbank, and Eve Thompson joined KCAW for the morning interview to discuss the show, a spectacle featuring 31 cast members, a pit orchestra of 18, and close to 100 costumes. Listen here:

Performances are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Sitka Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at the door and online.

Sitka School Board President Phil Burdick filed to run for a second term last week. Burdick worked as a teacher in the Sitka School District for 15 years and an administrator for a decade. He says consistency on the school board will ultimately lead to better outcomes for kids. Listen to our interview with Burdick here:

KCAW: If you’re reelected, this would be your second term on the school board. Why have you decided to throw your hat in the ring again, Phil?

Burdick: I think last time I threw my hat in the ring because there were some very specific tasks. We needed to hire a superintendent. We needed to get ahead of the budget. Those things have been taken care of. I’m throwing my hat in the ring for consistency. We all know that everything in education is about consistency, and so to have a consistent school board for a number of years is really beneficial to kids ultimately because we set policy, we set budget priorities, and if that continually turns over, you know, staff don’t really know what’s coming down the pike, and that causes stress, and then that rolls downhill to the kids. So I think a consistent school board ultimately leads to better outcomes for children.

KCAW: What experiences on the board shape your decision making the most, and and how do they shape it?

Burdick: I think for me, my experience as an educator, so 25 years, 15 as a teacher, 10 as an administrator, all in Sitka, and so I’m very committed to this community. I’m very committed to our schools and our children and our families, and I come to the school board table with that experience and that that relationship, the relationship that I built with families in my schools. So, so for me, being on the school board is just extending that relationship that I’ve been able to build for the last 30 years.

KCAW: Should you be reelected, you talk about consistency and and maintaining those relationships that you’ve already built. What other goals are are rising to the top for you, you know, for your for your next term?

Burdick: For the next three years, what I want to focus on is we had a board goal last year of improving external communication, and I want to continue that goal because I want to hear from the community what it is that they want our students to know and be able to do, and where those priorities are. Then the board should budget those priorities. And so I’m really hoping that we can create those priorities from community input, and be able to budget strategically instead of budgeting chaotically, which is what it is with educational funding and the way that the system is set up and the way the timelines are set up, and, you know, all of the stress that goes around budgeting for a school district. If we can be strategic about how we do that, I think we could take some of that stress, again, off of staff, off of teachers, off of kids.

KCAW: The last time you ran, you stepped in kind of in the 11th hour as a write-in candidate, and and the school board, oftentimes you have about the same number of candidates as there are seats, maybe one more in a really good year. What would you say to folks who are considering running for the for the board to to encourage them to to try their hand at it?

Burdick: It’s difficult to run for public office. It takes time. It takes energy, but I think what I would remind people is that we’re in it together and we’ll support you. I think that we can have differing opinions and viewpoints and still come at the work in a collaborative way. I think some people shy away from the fact that ‘I’m not this enough, I’m not that enough, I don’t have enough time.’ I would say you are enough, and you could do enough. I think anybody who’s got an interest in community and family and schools would be a perfect candidate, and that’s probably everybody who’s listening.

KCAW: Anything else that you think the voters should know about you or about the work that the school board’s been doing over the last three years?

Burdick: I think less about me and more about the school board because this group, Mr. Rioux has a bunch of experience, and…this is really only my third year of experience on a board, while I have educational experience. Ms. Amundson is new, Mr. Potter is new, Ms. Richards is new, and that seems to be the trend over the last five or 10 years, is that we keep struggling to to build when it’s always refreshed every year and sometimes mid-year. I think it’s important for people to know that there’s a learning curve when you get on that board. Even though I had 25 years of experience in education, when I got to the school board, I knew nothing, and so I’m learning as I go. If we can remember to come to that, you know, we’re learning and growing in our positions and our roles on the school board, then I believe that we can really do great things for kids, which is the ultimate goal.

Burdick is the first to file for one of three open school board seats. Two assembly seats and the mayor’s chair are also up for grabs this year. The deadline to file to run for local office is Friday, August 7.  KCAW will interview candidates as they file. Then, in September, we’ll host several candidate forums, and publish a local election guide which will include interviews and questionnaires, so voters can learn where candidates stand on local issues. 

Sitka Assembly Member JJ Carlson filed Thursday (7-23-26) to run for a second full term. She’s the first to bid for an assembly seat this year. 

Carlson works for Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum. She’s served on the assembly since she was appointed in the fall of 2022 to fill a vacancy left by Rebecca Himschoot, who was elected to the state legislature. Carlson was elected to a full term in 2023. 

KCAW’s Hope McKenney sat down with Carlson to talk about her decision to run again.

TRANSCRIPT:

CARLSON: I think I learned a lot in my first four years. I was appointed and then elected, and you know, there’s just a learning curve. There’s a lot that this municipality does. We run all of our own utilities, and it takes a bit to understand how that all fits together and see that big picture. I think at this point, I have a really good grasp of that big picture, and so now in my second term, I think I’d be very good at piecing together details that see a multi-level approach to getting some good decision making and some good things moving forward for this community.

KCAW: And tell me a little bit more about yourself.

CARLSON: Yeah, the other side of the story, right? You guys probably all know me as the assembly member JJ, but I do a lot around. I have a nonprofit management job. I volunteer quite a bit. I’m in the running community. You maybe see me painting crosswalks, being in the arts community here, doing stuff with kids, participating in some programs for our elders as well. It’s really hard to really pin me down. You know that’s the Sitkan. We’re always wearing multiple hats and serving our neighbors in different ways, and I really fit into that. So thanks for that question because that’s what Sitka is: that kind of community approach, and you might see someone in one light, but you know there’s so many different angles.

KCAW: What do you see as some of the biggest issues facing Sitkans right now? And if elected to a second term, how would you address those?

CARLSON: There’s a lot of cost of living concerns. There’s a lot of things facing my generation, the kind of working middle, and it’s an expensive place to be. It’s a lovely place to be. We have a great community. There’s so many attributes. It’s the financial side that is really stressing people out and causing maybe some unnecessary moves out of town. And the place of an assembly member can be to balance some of that. We have to cover our costs, but maybe we can do it in a way that doesn’t burden, you know, that working family.

KCAW: During your four years on the assembly so far, what are some of the things that you’re most proud of?

CARLSON: So many little things, but the big ones were kind of starting that tourism task force, and then starting that tourism commission to really look at how to best manage the situation that we found ourselves in in the last five years with that visitation from the cruise industry. And you know it’s something to be worked with. Limiting ourselves was an option. The town decided not to do that, so the management approach was what we went with, and I was a big part of bringing that to fruition.

KCAW: And you’re from Sitka. Does that play a role into you running for the assembly?

CARLSON: Absolutely. Born and raised here, an ’80s kid in Alaska was just a dream of so many, and I was able to live it. And you know, having that background, seeing really what we come from and the challenges that developed over time, that could have maybe been addressed a little bit sooner, I’m looking at that as a lens, seeing what was going on now and how to kind of adapt and and create solutions that don’t perpetuate forward. This is a great place to raise a family. I was blessed with that as a kid, and I’d like to see my neighbors, my classmates from high school, you know, myself being able to do that here. And there’s a lot of that kind of stuff that you wouldn’t quite pick up on as a potential concern or an immediate concern if you didn’t have kind of some decades here in this state, and I just want to be able to bring all of that knowledge that’s just kind of embedded in me forward to best serve this community. I think being on the assembly is a good way for me to kind of balance my skills that I developed that decade or two that I was gone and brought back, and really using that decision-making capacity that my master’s degree of decision-making is basically what architecture school is, and apply that to the place I love and the place I want to be and the place I want to succeed, you know, most in this world.

KCAW: Well, I don’t know that I have more questions right now. Is there anything else that I should have asked you, or you’d like to share?

CARLSON: Sitka is a great spot, and I think if we all work together, we can keep this place being the dream that we live. And I’m just wishing that Sitkans can trust and see that I did a good job in the last four years with the detailed work and with the big picture work. You know, I’m a steady voice. My decision making, my record shows, is pretty solid. I add to the conversations and deliberation, and sponsor a few things here and there too that really, really bring some good things to Sitka. And you know I’m very open to listening and hearing what the community wants, and then considering that and folding it into how I vote at the table.

Esmeralda Goncalves, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and former Fulbright Scholar, is in Sitka on a 2026 Craft Research Fund Grant. She joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss her current work — research that focuses on Indigenous textiles in Alaska, beadwork and the intersection of religion, particularly Russian Orthodoxy. Listen to the conversation here:

Learn more about Goncalves and the project here.

Lowering the winter sales tax rate, and upping the summer one. That was a popular proposal discussed at a Sitka Assembly work session on Tuesday (7-21-26) aimed at addressing the island’s childcare shortage.

Finding available and affordable childcare in Sitka is tough. Organizations trying to solve the problem have named it a top concern for young families in the community. 

“I’m very lucky to be in the situation I am to have daycare lined up, but it took until my child was five months old to know that I had a space available for her, and I signed her up the month I found out I was pregnant,” Skyleen Bottani told the Sitka Assembly on Tuesday.

She’s a parent to a seven-month-old and works as a mortgage lender at a local bank. 

“I do mortgages, and I’m seeing more parents stay home so they can help raise their grandchildren, or take equity out of their home to help kids buy homes to stay in Sitka,” she added. 

Bottani, along with several other community members, testified to the assembly on the importance of finding an affordable solution that includes career development.

Annette Evans heads up the Betty Eliason Child Care Center, which has operated in Sitka for nearly five decades. She said after setting up their second infant room, it took three months to get the staffing lined up so parents could finally enroll their kids. 

“It really comes down to the staffing,” Evans said. “We could add more children to our facility if we had the staff. We could keep children in our facility if we [could] keep our staff.”

And assembly members agree. They hope to incorporate a career pathway into a $1 million a year plan to address the childcare issue. But how the city is going to pay for the plan is still a question. Assembly members have discussed a winter sales tax increase, an alcohol tax, and removal of the sales tax cap, but finding a stable, dependable funding source has proved difficult for a city with already narrow budget margins.  

“We have spent the last year trying to figure out something besides the sales [tax],” Assembly Member Thor Christianson said. “Everybody’s been throwing out everything, and I haven’t heard anything that works, and if somebody has an epiphany, great. But it has to be stable, and it has to be something that we can know how much to put into the fund. And ultimately, Sitka is going to have to decide how important this is to them.”

But on Tuesday, at the suggestion of Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz, the assembly asked staff to look into how much a summer sales tax increase and winter decrease would bring in — that would put the summer sales tax at 7% and winter tax at 4%. Sitkans already pay a seasonal sales tax. Voters approved a permanent 6% summer tax rate in 2023 to establish a fund for school infrastructure projects.

“If we do a 1% sales tax up in the summer, and then 1% down in the winter, it’s kind of a give and take there,” Eisenbeisz said. “We’re easing the burden on those who stay here throughout the winter, while taking advantage of revenue streams that come through town in the summer.”

Eisenbeisz also suggested the city look at where it can tighten its belt and find money in its existing revenue streams to put towards a solution.

The assembly plans to discuss the issue again at its regular meeting on September 8. A sales tax change would ultimately have to go before the voters for approval.