Sitka Sound Science Center education coordinator Kari Paustian (r.) leads a classroom session in one of Sitka’s elementary schools. Sitka’s school board worries that under a broad interpretation of a new regulation proposed by DEED, programs like this could be considered “in-kind services,” and counted against a community’s local contribution to schools. (SSSC photo)

Earlier this month, the state Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) issued a proposed change in regulations that would count local appropriations and in-kind services against the overall amount municipalities are allowed to contribute to their schools. 

Note: The comment period on DEED’s proposed rule change is open through July 23. To make a comment, email [email protected]. The state Board of Education will consider the rule change at its meeting on October 9, 2025. Learn how to participate.

Most cities already contribute a lot of money to schools for instruction: In Sitka, for example, it’s around $8-million, to the state’s $12-million. Sitka has a significant property tax base, and routinely pays as much as it’s allowed for schools. This is called “funding to the cap,” and it’s often heard in the news.

But Sitka also contributes a lot of other money for non-instructional expenses, like transportation and student activities, the swimming pool, and provides other in-kind support like building maintenance and ballfields. Add it all up, and the total lands between $2- and $4 million a year – and it’s never been counted against the cap.

Now, DEED proposes counting all local contributions, including in-kind, against the cap. The intent of the new regulation is to ensure that Alaska remains eligible for over $80 million in federal funding known as “Impact Aid.” To be eligible for this aid, the Department has to pass a so-called “disparity test,” and demonstrate that funding is equitable across the state.

Alaska has failed the disparity test a couple of times in recent years, and DEED believes changing the definition of “local contribution” will help the state pass. Others believe it will devastate school districts. Lon Garrison is the former president of the Sitka School Board, and now the director of the Association of Alaska School Boards in Juneau. As the public comment period on the new regulation is now open, KCAW’s Robert Woolsey asked Garrison to shed light on the issue.

Garrison: “The State of Alaska is now the only state in the union that receives funding from the federal government through the Department of Education to account for federal lands that are non taxable, that would reduce the opportunity for any kind of a local tax base to contribute to education. And so as we know, Alaska has a lot of federal lands. What the federal disparity test does is if a state receives those federal funds and uses it as a portion of what they put forward as funding for all schools, in other words, it’s used within Alaska’s foundation formula to help fund education. Then the state has to go through a disparity test that looks at whether or not there’s a great difference in terms of, you know, those districts that are are receiving the most money per student, and then what is the least amount.”

KCAW: “Does the disparity test factor in the non-instructional contributions that communities like Sitka and Juneau are giving? You know, in Sitka’s case, to support the performing arts center and to support the Blatchley pool, and maintenance — is all that factored into the disparity test?”

Garrison: “This is the exact question at the heart of the issue. I believe that in the past, what had happened was that most of the funds that were considered in this test were centered around funds that directly supported instructional operations and helped schools do their primary goal, which was instruction. And so when you read what the Department wants to go to, which is that any contribution by a local entity to the operations of the school would be considered within that calculation of local contribution.”

KCAW: Is the federal government applying pressure to the state to modify the way they do the disparity test? Or is it all coming from within the Department of Education here in Alaska?

Garrison: “No, our understanding, and the conversations that I’ve had with, for instance, Senator Tobin, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Senator Kiehl, and others, is that, no, the pressure is not coming from the US Department of Education. I think what has happened in the past is the state has said, ‘You know, we have some unusual and exceptional things that we want to pull out of that local contribution piece. Because, for instance, you know, many districts don’t have busing. REAA’s (Regional Education Attendance Areas) don’t have busing, even small, single-site school districts often have maybe limited busing, you know, like Galena City School District. So it really didn’t make sense that some of those things were included in that local contribution calculation. So that’s my understanding. There may have been other things that the state had asked for an exemption or a waiver on to the disparity test.”

KCAW: “Rep. Himschoot was at the latest Sitka School Board meeting, and she understands that this is kind of a very byzantine problem. I mean, it’s not easy for the public to understand school funding on a good day, But when it’s under threat like this, it’s even more complicated. And she said she thought this the simplest way for the state to avoid the complications of failing the federal disparity test was just to raise the BSA (Base Student Allocation), to have the tide flood rather than ebb, and bring all the boats up together. I take it that’s your position as well?”

Garrison: “Exactly. I and I think if we go back and look at the performance of the disparity test over the last decade, you will see that when the BSA was a greater proportion of, you know, it was more significant in terms of meeting the needed expenses of a district. You often didn’t see local communities having to contribute more to make certain that they were able to have the educational experience for their students. And I think back when I was on the Sitka School Board, what we could do, and that we weren’t having to ask the City and Borough for every little thing. You know, there seemed to be a relatively good balance. It was a challenge at times, but these are some of the most important things that make communities a place where people want to stay, people want to come to, where you want to raise your kids like you and I did there in Sitka, and the educational opportunity you know that they got because of the quality of education and because it was more adequately funded. So we feel like there is a strong indication that by more adequately funding education across the board, that disparity begins to go away.”

KCAW: “One thing Rep. Himschoot said at the Sitka School Board meeting was that there’s almost certainly nobody who doesn’t want equity in education across the state. This is not a haves versus the have nots. There are communities that, as you say, have a more robust contribution to their schools, but that doesn’t mean that those communities don’t want the best for the smaller, more remote communities in Alaska. So it seems like there’s a solution to this problem that’s a win for everyone. It’s just a matter of, how do you get there.”

Garrison: “I think one of our frustrations is that the issue has been around. We really have not come together as stakeholders in this issue, and the state hasn’t led anything to say, ‘Let’s come together and try to figure this out. What can we do? How can we work with the US, Department of Education? What makes sense?’ And that just doesn’t seem to be the attitude that they’re approaching the solution. And instead, it’s just kind of that top-down administrative approach. This would be one of the times where we should definitely be working together on this, and it doesn’t seem inclusive in that way.”

Two hikers make their way along the seven-mile trail to the summit of the Mt. Edgecumbe crater. While the trail is spectacular, it is typical of resource-intensive terrain encountered by trail builders. “It’s rainy, it’s muddy,” says Trail Works director Ben Hughey, “You have to constantly cut back brush and clear blow down, and almost every linear foot of trail has to be covered in rock or wood, armoring the tread from erosion.” (Lee House photo)

In his letter, US Forest Service Chief Thomas Schultz wrote that “the impact the Sitka Trail Works Team has made in promoting accessibility and stewardship within the outdoor spaces of Sitka is truly inspiring.”
Sitka Trail Works was founded in 1997 to retrain displaced workers following the closure of Sitka’s pulp mill. It now puts up to 130 volunteers to work annually maintaining Sitka’s extensive trail system, as well as planning for future projects.

Sitka Trail Works’s executive director Ben Hughey recently spoke with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about the challenges of trail building in Southeast Alaska.

KCAW: What about the work you do at trail works? Do you think came to the attention of the Chief of the Forest Service?

Hughey: “I think for this particular award, the local Ranger District nominated us because of the unique partnership and program we’ve been developing over the past few years to engage Alaskans in volunteer stewardship of trails. In particular, there are some unique challenges for small communities in Southeast Alaska when it comes to trail maintenance and development. First, there’s the environment. It’s rainy, it’s muddy. You have to constantly cut back brush and clear blow down, and almost every linear foot of trail has to be covered in rock or wood, armoring the tread from erosion. So it’s very resource intensive to maintain trails in Southeast Alaska’s rainforest, and we have less capacity in small towns, whether that’s funding from local governments, retired volunteers who happen to have a lot of experience and tons of time, or large nonprofit organizations that can shoulder tons of work. So given the resource demands and the capacity constraints, we needed creativity to address the desire of our communities to be able to still get outside and enjoy the trails.

KCAW: Did you participate as a volunteer with Trail Works when you were growing up in Sitka?

Hughey: I was actually on the crew as a high schooler. So in 2006 when I was a junior, I was hired by the Sitka Trail Works crew, and that’s how I got my start on trails.

KCAW: What are some of the projects of note recently where volunteer participation has been instrumental in making it happen?

Hughey: Yeah, I think the Mosquito Cove trail has had hundreds of volunteer hours poured into it in recent years. We just hosted the National Trails Day volunteer event there. Over 30 people came out, and we broke up into six different project teams. One of those was addressing the blasting site, where we had to use explosives to clear hazardous blow down from the trail, and volunteers helped move gravel and build turnpikes and make water crossings around the trail. A lot of folks were returning volunteers who really knew what they were doing and were able to attack more technical projects.

KCAW: What’s a turnpike?

Hughey: A Turnpike is a form of trail construction used in saturated soils, which we have many of here that has side wooden side rails, or sometimes rock side rails to hold in a gravel tread with some depth.

KCAW: I remember when Trail Works was founded, and I think the purpose of the organization at the time, or one of its justifications, was to retrain and re-skill pulp mill workers, or timber workers. Has Trail Works evolved past that original mission, or is that still sort of incorporated into the your purpose?

Hughey: Yeah, I think that the mission there is about addressing critical community needs with creative solutions. And Sitka Trail Works was founded to re-employ displaced mill workers, and now we’re employing locals to fill a need in trail maintenance capacity after the Forest Service terminated their trail crew this spring,

KCAW: You did a big fundraising effort to re-employ the fired Forest Service trail crew. How did that go?

Hughey: It was very surprising and heartening to see how much Sitkans were willing to chip in to ensure that we still had well-maintained trails. And because the Forest Service has such reduced capacity, Sitka Trail Works is now the only crew in town keeping trails open. We were able to fund a full trail crew, and we have four people working on the Mosquito Cove trail right now.

Moller Field re-opened in 2012 after a $2.6-million renovation, including artificial turf, which was paid for by the state. Sponsors of the proposed charter amendment believe that in order for Sitka to shoulder the costs of similar upgrades, it will have to bond (i.e. borrow) to cover the expense. They propose asking voters to allow excess revenue in the Sitka Community Hospital Dedicated Fund to pay off the bonds. (KCAW photo)

The Sitka Community Hospital isn’t around anymore. It was sold to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in 2019, in a deal that included regular deposits to a dedicated fund to support the retirements of former employees (PERS), and other city obligations involving the old hospital. That fund also takes in money from the city’s tobacco tax (around $800,000 annually). All that revenue is significantly more than needed to cover the obligations. Last year, then-finance director Melissa Haley proposed a charter amendment to allow the excess to flow into the city’s general fund. The assembly voted down the idea, and that’s when assembly member Chris Ystad began to think about upgrading Sitka’s sports fields.

“It kind of occurred to me that this may be a source to be able to pull some of these desires that I’ve heard throughout the community, of doing some revitalizing or (building) new facilities,” said Ystad.

Sitka has one artificial-turf ballfield that was built with state money; paying for a new one, or two, on its own is a considerable expense. Ystad and his co-sponsor, Kevin Mosher, proposed that the city take on bond debt to cover construction costs, and use the excess revenue in the Sitka Community Hospital Dedicated Fund to cover payments on the bonds.

Amending the Sitka Home Rule Charter to lift the restrictions on the hospital fund will require a vote of the people. Assembly member Thor Christianson thought it would be a hard sell, as written. Something similar had been tried a couple of decades ago – unsuccessfully.

“So when I saw this, I got flashbacks,” said Christianson. “PTSD from the last time we tried this. In the late 90s or early 2000s we tried this, and I backed it, and we had a packed room of people wanting us to do it, and it went down in flames. My concern with this is not the proposal. I think it’s a great idea, but I want to make sure that it has a chance.”

Still, there could be a lot of public support for new or upgraded athletic facilities. Several members of the public spoke in favor of the plan. Bridget Hitchcock is a physical therapist, and a former community hospital employee.

“Sitka has been long overdue for a multi use field and facility that can be used for a variety of sports, including track and field,” said Hitchcock. “It can also be used for adult recreation. I often see adults walking on the (artificial) turf field. I often bring my patients to lower Moller Field. A lot of adult leagues play on different facilities in Sitka. And it’s not that we don’t already have facilities, but I think having an enhanced facility, a beautiful facility – the turf is huge in a in a rainforest. It really does make a difference.”

Although the plan’s sponsors definitely have athletic fields and a new, all-weather track in mind, Sitka Trail Works director Ben Hughey thought there would be broader public support if the proposal itself was broadened.

“We’ve got some things to figure out, and so let’s not pigeonhole ourselves into one proposal at this stage, before we go to the ballot,” said Hughey. “Let’s call this recreational facilities. If we strike ‘athletic’ and replace the word with recreational, we just give ourselves a little more leeway for the future.”

Assembly member Christianson offered an amendment to strike the word “athletic” and replace it with “recreational,” but it failed on a split vote.

The problem, it turns out, wasn’t really with a single word. The problem was a lack of specifics. Assembly members are no different than other residents, most of whom don’t like to rush into any idea without a full understanding of the possible outcomes. The plan’s co-sponsor, Kevin Mosher, said he could have more details, if his fellow members would allow the plan to advance to another reading.

“Years down the line, when we’re working on this, there’s going to be some people who are not happy because it wasn’t what they wanted,” said Mosher. “We can’t please everyone. But I think that everyone can agree, or most can agree, that we want to invest heavily in our athletic future.”

The assembly gave Mosher his wish, and voted 7-0 to send the ordinance to second reading, on the understanding that more information was coming, and a third, and possible even fourth reading would be needed before the August 12 deadline, the last date that the assembly can put a proposition to the voters in the October municipal election.

Assembly puts another $715,000 into haulout project, with August completion date

The City of Sitka is going to put up $715,000 of its own money to cover some final expenses to complete the initial phase of a new marine haulout.

The facility was supposed to be functional this spring, but permitting delays created some early setbacks during construction of the pier over the winter.

With the travelift on site and operational, the goal of Phase I is to have a useful working area adjacent to the haulout. The lion’s share of the $715,000 will be spent on an electrically-heated washdown pad, with appropriate pollution controls, and some additional equipment, like a forklift.

Around $50,000 is to be spent installing three electrical pedestals. This is far fewer than envisioned for a future, full-size boatyard. But the hope is that extension cords with gang receptacles – called a “spider boxes” – will serve as a stop gap, until a more extensive electrical service could be installed in the future.

Assembly member Scott Saline nevertheless thought Sitka’s fleet was being shortchanged with only three electrical pedestals, and he had concerns about the electric heat in the pad. Park director Garry White was going over the rationale, when Saline interjected. 

White: “We did an overall estimate of getting electrical to each different yard stall or boat stall, and it was in the millions. So this is just a short-term kind of plug, just to get stuff going, so they can put spider boxes, so we can have electrical to at least to some of the boats that need it right off the bat.”

Saline: “I’m confused. Spider boxes or millions?”

White: “No, no, no. Millions is to get the full electrical outlets to each spot and have the lighting above it and everything else. This is just to bring power pedestals to have electrical go out through spider boxes to multiple spots.

Saline: So three boats?

White:  No, we’ll have three pedestals, but then they’ll have spider boxes that they can go out and hit (more).

Saline: So like 50 amps a boat. How many boats could haul out and fill up the yard if that was the case?

White: That is outside of my purview.

Saline: Gotcha. I’m still hung up on spending that money for the electric pad. My IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) buddies are telling me we shot ourselves in the foot with that design again, and I’m just bummed trying to figure out what you guys got going on out there. Good luck.”

Assembly member Chris Ystad pointed out that the former Halibut Point Marine yard was also equipped with about the same electrical setup, a few pedestals and spider boxes.  The assembly approved the $715,000 supplemental appropriation 6-1, with Saline opposed.

Deputy Administrator, Port Director created in City Hall reorganization

In other business, the assembly approved the creation of a new deputy administrator position in city hall, and a new port director position. The deputy administrator will oversee eight departments, including the Library, Harrigan Centennial Hall, Parks & Rec, Tourism, IT, Public & Government Relations, Police and Fire, and Human Resources. Six departments – the so-called “Executive Management Team” – will remain under the administrator. Those include the Municipal Clerk, Public Works, Electric, Finance, Planning & Community Development, and Port Director. The port director, in turn, will have oversight of the Harbormaster, the airport manager, the marine service center, and the new marine haulout.

Neva Street vacation

The assembly also approved on first reading the sale of an unused city right-of-way. Neva Street is shown on early plat maps connecting Edgecumbe Drive to Davidoff Street, but it’s never been developed. Neighbors have offered to purchase the 15,000-square-foot property for $29,000. Mayor Steve Eisenbeisz thought it was undervalued.

“Well, we are selling the public’s land,” said Eisenbeisz. “I’d like to go back and clarify that, because we have to remember that this is the public’s land. This is our citizens’ land, for about $1.92 a square foot. The average or the assessed value of the lots surrounding it vary from $6.51 a square foot all the way up to $11.69 a square foot.”

Planning director Amy Ainslie explained that the assessor arrived at the price, based on the fact that a utility easement would be created under most of the property. The sale – officially called a “vacation” – passed on first reading, 6-1, with Eisenbeisz opposed.

Fisheries Enhancement Fund distributed

Lastly, the assembly on Tuesday distributed $49,000 from the Fisheries Enhancement Fund among three organizations: The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, the Sitka Sound Science Center, and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The revenue comes from the $10-per-box tax the city applies to fish boxes leaving Sitka’s airport as luggage. In addition to the Fisheries Enhancement Fund, the fish box tax revenue goes into Harbors, the Sitka Permanent Fund, and the General Fund.

Gov. Dunleavy vetoed more than $122 million from Alaska’s annual budget plan before signing it into law on Thursday, June 12. His vetoes fell heaviest on education, eliminating more than $50 million from the state’s per-student education funding formula, and tens of millions intended for major school maintenance projects. (Alaska Beacon photo/James Brooks)

Over the last two years, the Alaska Legislature has tried three times to increase funding for the state’s schools – which haven’t seen a permanent boost in a decade – and Gov. Dunleavy vetoed all three.

In May, both houses of the Legislature, in a surprising show of unity, came together to override his latest veto, and approved sending the state’s cash-strapped schools another $700 per pupil.

There was one final chance for the governor to use his veto pen – the more or less procedural matter of the enactment of the state budget. Many thought it was unlikely that the governor would veto school funding in the middle of the summer, since it would throw school districts into financial chaos.

But he did, and it has.

The Sitka School Board met on June 18 to figure out what to do. They had budgeted assuming a $680 increase, and got a little breathing room when the Legislature opted for $700. The governor’s veto has knocked that down to $500, which – when combined with the automatic reduction in the city’s contribution – amounts to about a $500,000 loss to make up.

The board wrangled over the possibilities for a while, with at least two members reluctant to make up the difference with reserves, since that would leave the district with only about $275,000 to cover any emergencies in the coming school year.

The logjam was broken by the only board member not allowed to vote on the budget, student representative Francis Myers.

“The purpose of a fund balance and savings is to account for unexpected scenarios,” said Myers, “and this is an unexpected scenario we didn’t imagine would happen. And to lay off staff right now is very harmful to them, because it’s too late in the season to get a teaching job elsewhere. It’s too late in the season to go to a different school. Other job positions, they’ve opened and  they’ve closed. And so it’s not just laying off five teachers. We’re like, messing with their entire life for a year.”

That seemed to be what the five adult voting members needed to hear. Member Steve Morse said, “We keep this money for a rainy day, and it’s raining.”

Teacher Susan Brant-Ferguson, speaking from the public, said drawing down reserves was the only logical option.

“You’ve heard it from me before, but I feel like I have to say it again,” said Brant-Ferguson. “We have a fund balance for next year. It is not for the year after that. It is only for next year in my mind. And you have the obligation to give next year’s students the best education you can possibly give them.”

Superintendent Deidre Jenson reassured members that district reserves used to be held for major maintenance emergencies, which were now the responsibility of the city. The board ultimately approved the draw-down of reserves, 4-1, with Amanda Williams opposed. Williams was one of the district teachers who lost their job last year when the education bill was vetoed. She explained that she was uncomfortable taking reserves down to the level needed to cover this latest veto.

Rep. Rebecca Himschoot was in the audience for the meeting. She told the board that the bar for overriding the governor on the budget enactment was higher than for legislation, requiring a three-quarters vote of both houses, rather than two-thirds. “If it were just two-thirds,” said Himschoot, “we could override him tomorrow.”

Steve Lawrie established his reputation as a large-canvas portrait artist. But This Thing We Call the Ocean is an homage to fishing, and to the people who thrive in Sitka’s maritime culture. “Some of those people unload the boats, some of those people catch the fish, some of those people repair the boats,” says Lawrie. “There are paintings of boats at sea with usually gnarly-looking water, you know, because half the time it is.”

Sitka artist Steve Lawrie has been around a long time, and his acclaim has grown along with the size of his portraits: huge canvases that focus almost exclusively on the faces of his subjects. And while these faces are not often glamorous, every line (to quote singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile) tells us the story of who they are.

So naturally, the best place for Lawrie to hang his new exhibit is in a bar.

“Every now and again, we go in there for a beer and some fish and chips, and we have mutual friends that we meet there,” said Lawrie. “And Maite was looking around at the place and pointed out that this would be a good venue for paintings. And the more I thought about it, the more courage I got to do it. So, she kind of kicked me into this, and cracks the whip on the project.”

Maite Lorente is Lawrie’s friend and curator – and sometimes-collaborator. They partnered two years ago for an exhibit of paintings and writings inspired by the lives of Pam and Eric Bealer, who disappeared together from their home near Pelican in 2018.

That exhibit, called The Squirrel and Bear, was mounted in a more conventional space, with people slowly milling through, sipping wine, and eating cheese.

Certainly there will be wine at the opening of This Thing We Call the Ocean, and over the run of the show there will be pool, beer, and all the usual delights served up by Rita and her staff behind the bar. 

Lawrie began his career in Sitka as a commercial troller, and This Thing We Call the Ocean is an homage to fishing, and to maritime culture. The Pioneer Bar is probably ground zero of that culture in Sitka, if not the ideal space for art.

“Fishing has been here a long time,” said Lawrie. “We have these other powerful economic drivers in town, our tourism, our SEARHC hospital, but fishing is always there. It’s like a stainless steel backbone, if you like.”

Cruise tourism and healthcare are both growing in the region, but Lawrie is correct that fishing binds everything together in Southeast Alaska. And Lawrie’s portraits demonstrate that the people who work in fishing bind communities together.

“Some of those people unload the boats, some of those people catch the fish, some of those people repair the boats,” he said. “There are paintings of boats at sea with usually gnarly-looking water, you know, because half the time it is. So I’m trying to revitalize or refocus our Sitka look at fishing.”

The show features 28 portraits in all. Those already familiar with Lawrie’s work won’t be disappointed – but they may also be surprised. Decades into his craft, Lawrie says he’s continuing to evolve. Maybe, he’s even loosened up a bit.

“In this exhibition, there’s two old paintings, by old I mean, like 20 years or 25 years ago), a couple of portraits,” said Lawrie, “and then there’s one more recent portrait. So they are strikingly different to these paintings. These paintings are more tactile, the paints thicker. The artist is clearly having more fun. That would be me. They’re different. They’re heavier with the paint, and more bold.”

Others visiting the bar who’ve never heard of Lawrie may chafe a little. On any typical day, the Pioneer Bar is an unofficial maritime museum, with hundreds of photos of fishing boats representing several eras of fishing in Sitka, from the early 20th Century onward. Those photos aren’t going anywhere; Lawrie is just borrowing the wall space for a while. When his portraits come down, he expects that bar patrons will see the photos with a fresh eye.

“Paintings are different than photos, but yeah, there’s two art shows going on there, essentially,” he said.

This Thing We Call the Ocean, a show of 28 large canvases by Stephen Lawrie, opens at 3 p.m. on June 21 in the Pioneer Bar in Sitka, and runs through July 6.

The OVK – or Organized Village of Kake – petitioned the Federal Subsistence Board in 2020 shortly after nationwide lockdowns and supply chain disruptions threatened the food supply to the 500 residents of the community, located on Kupreanof Island, about 50 miles east of Sitka. (Melati Kaye photo)

The 3-judge panel handed down its ruling on June 2, in a case involving the Southeast community of Kake, which had asked the Federal Subsistence Board for an emergency hunt during the height of the pandemic in 2020. The board authorized the hunt over the objections of the state, which promptly filed suit.

James Brooks has been covering the case for the Alaska Beacon. He spoke recently with KCAW’s Robert Woolsey about what the decision means for subsistence in Alaska.

Note: In Kake’s emergency hunt in 2020, five deer and two moose were harvested out-of-season to mitigate a potential food shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brooks: “One of the best places to start might be to say that this is one of a number of lawsuits/conflicts between the state and the federal government over who should control subsistence hunting and fishing and how it should be run. In this case, you have to go back to 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic, and everybody was extremely worried about how we would get food here in the Southeast Alaska, and in villages like Kake, that worry was particularly large. So people appealed to the Federal Subsistence Board (this is the board that oversees and regulates subsistence hunting on federal land in the state of Alaska) and they said, ‘Can we have an emergency hunt so we can make sure we have food during the pandemic?’ And the board considered this proposal and said, ‘Yes, and to make it speedier, we’ll have the Tribe run the hunt.’ The State of Alaska had an issue with this and sued. It said, ‘Hey, opening a hunt is not within the powers of the Federal Subsistence Board.’ And so that was their argument that’s gone on for five years now, back and forth between the US District Court in Anchorage and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California, and all along the west coast. And now, just recently, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit confirmed that the Federal Subsistence Board acted legally when it opened that emergency hunt back during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

KCAW: “And that is a very significant ruling on the part of the US Ninth Circuit. Is Alaska going to pursue this further? Because, as you say, subsistence has been a tug of war between the state and the federal government since ANILCA.”

Brooks: “Right. And you have to understand that ANILCA, the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (it’s a mouthful, that’s why we call it ANILCA) says rural Alaskans should have a preference for subsistence hunting and fishing. But the problem is that the Alaska constitution forbids giving some residents preferential treatment in hunting and fishing. So as a result, the federal government now oversees and controls subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land, and that conflicts with the state’s interest, which is sharing hunting and fishing equally across all residents. And so that conflict has been continuing for 45 years now.”

KCAW: “Getting back to my question, James: Is the state going to be content with this ruling? Because it’s a fairly significant blow in this ongoing struggle between the state and the federal government over subsistence management.”

Brooks: “The state hasn’t said whether it’ll appeal this or not. This ruling was from three judges on the Ninth Circuit, and the state could ask the entire Ninth Circuit – all of the judges on that court – to hear the case and then rule, or it could appeal to the US Supreme Court. And the thought might be that that court (the Supreme Court), which is a lot more conservative than the Ninth Circuit, might be more favorable to Alaska’s interests.”

Sitka Rep. Rebecca Himschoot introduced a bill (HB 69) that would have increased student funding by $1,000 — the first substantial boost to schools in a decade. Even though she considered it a half-measure relative to the rate of inflation, legislators couldn’t muster the votes to override when the governor vetoed it. Sen. Bert Stedman’s Finance Committee arrived at a $700 increase that did survive a veto, but he’s not sure it’s enough to reverse the decline in teacher salaries that has eroded the ability to recruit even in-state graduates into the profession. (Gavel Alaska photos)

Alaska’s schools received the first significant permanent increase in state funding in a decade this year, after a remarkable parliamentary drama that took place over the last two years.

Sitka Representative Rebecca Himschoot doesn’t belong to either political party, but she is a career teacher, and she was a driving force behind the legislation to keep the state’s schools adequately funded.

The legislative session adjourned for the year on May 20. Himschoot recently visited KCAW and spoke with Robert Woolsey about her involvement in the effort to successfully pass school funding.

HIMSCHOOT: “There’s a lot of work that goes into an override like that. So I think for context, it’s important to realize that half of the funding the legislature appropriated in FY ‘24 had been vetoed. And then the following year, Senate Bill 140 was vetoed, which was a great compromise bill that had a lot of elements that were desired by people across the political spectrum. And then this year, House Bill 69 was vetoed, (KCAW: your bill), my bill correct, and so the legislature has been doing the will of the people we’re elected to represent for, I would say, a number of years now, only to run up against what some people call  the ‘61st vote.’ You have your 60 legislators, but without the governor, you can’t, you can’t get things done. So we’ve been trying for years to respond to what is nothing less than a crisis in our public schools across the state. And I think the override (of House Bill 57) that happened, there was a build up to that. Of course, there was a lot of conversation, a lot of hard work, a lot of compromise. So when the moment came, I think the most telling part of the override was that the Senate has to enter the House chamber. They take the role to make sure we’re all there. They pose the question, we voted and we left. There wasn’t a single floor speech that day, no one had anything to say. We’re done talking. We’ve exerted our will. We’ve exercised what we’ve been asked to do by the people of Alaska, and we’ve been doing it multiple times, and it’s time to finally act. And I think that’s what we saw that day.

KCAW: “What changed between SB 140 last year and HB 57 this year? because last year, after the veto, it’s like the wind went out of everybody’s sails, and the thing was swept off the priority list for a while. So what do you think changed? Was it that the makeup of the legislature changed, and that that kept momentum for education strong?”HIMSCHOOT: “Yes, I think there are two things that changed. One is exactly what you said, the momentum: We have coalition majorities in both bodies, so the House and Senate leadership, for the first time in many years, are aligned, and both were prioritizing education, and the reason they’re prioritizing education is the other thing that changed, which is the crisis has just grown to such a such a magnitude, that we must respond. We cannot kick the can anymore. When you see what’s happening in our schools and across the state, it doesn’t matter if it’s a rural school or an urban school, everyone is in crisis. When you see that, you have to respond, so by having aligned bodies and by allowing the crisis to get as bad as it has, yeah, collectively,  the will to do something, grows.”

Note: Although the legislature overrode Gov. Dunleavy’s third veto of education funding last month, there’s a possibility that he could still veto the actual appropriation of the funding anytime before June 19. A veto that late in the year, however, would throw many districts into financial disarray just as school is about to begin, and many legislators doubt that even this governor – a former school superintendent himself – would choose that option.

Sen. Bert Stedman sheds light on budget process

With over two decades under his belt in the Alaska Senate, Bert Stedman never appears terribly disturbed by what happens in the state capitol. He’s seen his share of both wins and losses, and understands that balancing those opposites are how things work in the legislature.

Stedman stopped by KCAW recently to reflect on the last legislative session. He spoke with Robert Woolsey.

I bumped into Sen. Bert Stedman in Harrigan Centennial Hall on the day of Sitka’s special election (May 28). Everyone else was weighing in at the ballot box on whether to limit cruise traffic in town.

Stedman was there to speak to the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was holding a two-day meeting. Stedman wants to see the fund modernized, and protected by a constitutional amendment that would prevent a simple majority of the legislature from draining the Constitutional Budget Reserve – where earnings from the fund are socked away.

He also wouldn’t mind if the Senate had a say in appointing trustees, but he doesn’t think that will happen.

“We don’t have the ability to confirm them, although we would like to,” said Stedman. “But we got this pesky document called the Constitution and Separation of Powers in the way, so we’re unable to accomplish that. And we would obviously like that (ability), but we do not. So they are appointed by the governor, and hopefully we’ll go back to the way it has historically been managed. And I’m not saying that there’s political cronyism going on today, but there seemed to be a whiff of it in here a little bit ago, and hope we put that in the rear view mirror and never see it again.”

On other money matters, Stedman has extraordinary influence. He co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which writes both the state’s operating and capital budgets. One positive outcome of this year’s legislative session was a $700 increase in per-pupil funding for schools – the BSA, or base student allocation. That $700 figure came out of Stedman’s committee.

“So we were pursuing the $680 BSA with the numeric within the budget plan to get to a balanced budget,” he said, “and we got an agreement from most of our colleagues – at least the recognition that there wasn’t going to be a $1,500 or $1,000 BSA, and we’re gonna have to have a different number. But some of them wish the number was different from $680. It could be $679 or $681, they were just tired of hearing $680. So the next day we decided, ‘Well, let’s just add $20 bucks. $700 is a nice round number. That’s where it came from. Just that simple.”

Stedman voted to sustain the governor’s veto of two previous bills that had larger increases to schools, but he joined 45 other legislators in overriding the governor’s veto of the $700 increase. However, he knows the issue is not settled.

“My guess is that this discussion is far from over,” said Stedman. “We have housing issues with teachers in a lot of the rural parts of the state. The retention issue – a lot of us believe that’s fundamentally based in salaries. Some of the entry level salaries are too low to retain them. When a young Sitkan graduates from Sitka High School, goes off and gets a teaching certificate, and then goes to work in the Midwest or Florida or wherever, because they can pay them more as an entry level teacher than we can in Alaska, something’s wrong. We have a higher cost of living. And then you take a look at Sitka, in particular, we have extremely high housing, so we get a double-whammy.”

Stedman, a Republican, shares the chairmanship of the Finance Committee with Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel. Hoffman manages the operating budget; Stedman takes the capital budget, the money for maintaining and building state infrastructure. Both budgets are closely connected to the price of oil, Alaska’s most valuable export.

Stedman is frustrated by policy from the Trump administration that runs counter to Alaska’s interests.

“The headwinds just keep getting worse out of Washington,” he said. “I mean, almost every other week there’s some bad news: We’re going to lose, you know, Medicaid reimbursements, and and then right before we left (at adjournment), it was LIHEAP (low income fuel assistance) for a lot of citizens, including some in Sitka. Anyway, there’s a whole litany of things on the hit list in Washington, and we don’t know how bad they’re going to be, but they weren’t positive. And the direction out of Washington to move oil prices down to stimulate the economy, that’s good for California, but it’s not good for Alaska, because we are an oil-based economy.”

Oil is very volatile right now; Stedman’s committee worked to cover basic capital expenses assuming the price would not drop below $66 per barrel. He says many of the expenses covered in this budget should be double – even triple – what the state can afford. Gone are the billions available only a decade-and-a-half ago. He sees more lean times ahead, if the White House gets its way.

“What I mentioned many, many times to my colleagues in both the House and the Senate, when they would bring up the budget, I’d just flat tell them, nobody’s getting anything,” Stedman said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re in the majority, or the minority, how long you’ve been here, what position you are in – it’s zero. Everybody gets a lump of coal. And next year, if we end up at $60 a barrel, you’re not even going to get the coal. You’re just going to get the bag it came in this year.”

Sen. Bert Stedman represents Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, and all communities in between. He’ll run for his sixth full term next year.

He’s baaaack. Caleb Gray is among the best of the relatively youthful anglers who have dominated the Sitka Salmon Derby in recent years. If his 34-pound king stays at the top of the leader board next weekend, he’ll take the $20,000 cash prize. (SSA photo)

Update, June 2, 2025

Caleb Gray is standing on the weigh-in barge in Sitka’s Crescent Harbor Sunday afternoon (6-1-25) as the seconds count down toward the end of the 70th Sitka Salmon Derby.

There’s always a chance someone might come charging in right at the wire with a bigger fish, but no other boats are in sight.

Caleb sounds the horn, bringing the derby to an end, and sealing his victory. It’s deja vu all over again, as he performed this same task two years ago as a seven-year old.

Horn toots twice…

Gray will take home $20,000 prize money if the result stands, and it likely will: his 34-pound king was over two pounds larger than his nearest competitor. Todd Nevers will take second place with a 31.8 pound king. Jeremiah Johnson will take third with a 30.8 pound king.

All results are unofficial until the awards ceremony on June 12 in Harrigan Centennial Hall.

With a one-fish bag limit, this was not the largest derby, but participants did surprisingly well despite gale-force winds that blew through on both weekends. 155 people fished in the event, turning in 312 kings weighing an average of 15 pounds. Collectively, that makes about 4,700 pounds of fish.

Only 12 competitors turned in a fish each of the five days of the derby. That kept total poundage averages below a more typical event, with a larger bag limit and better conditions. In addition to his third-place win, Jeremiah Johnson will claim the total poundage prize with 101.5 pounds. Riley Bernhardt – who won total poundage in 2019 as an eleven-year old – is in second place with 96.7, and Keri Gray will take third with 95.7 pounds.

Keri Gray is the mother of two-time champion Caleb Gray. Their boat, by the way, is the appropriately-named “Relentless.”

Original Report

9-year old Caleb Gray rocketed to first place on Memorial Day afternoon, turning in a king that bent the scales at 34 pounds – over two pounds ahead of his closest competitor.

If “Caleb Gray” sounds familiar, that’s because he was a major factor in both of the last two Sitka Salmon Derbies. In 2024, as an 8-year old, Gray was in third place after the first weekend, but was eclipsed on the second weekend, and eventually had to settle for $500 as the overall poundage winner. In 2023, when Gray first broke into the leader board as a 7-year old, he won the derby – and $10,000 – with a 32-and-a-half pound fish. And he also was the poundage champ that year, with 209 total pounds caught.

If his 34-pounder holds onto first place through the final two days of fishing next weekend, Gray will take the grand prize of $20,000 in cash.

As usual, there are plenty of other prizes – for daily hidden weights, and overall poundage – that kept competitors interested over the first weekend, despite the less-than-ideal weather.

Coming in behind Gray on the leaderboard after the first weekend are Todd Nevers, with a 31.8-pound fish. Jeremiah Johnson is in third with a 30.8 pounder.

Johnson leads the derby in overall poundage with 61.9 pounds. Jackson McGraw is second, with 58.6 pounds, and Keri Gray is third with 54.7 pounds.

This year’s Sitka Sportsman’s Association Salmon Derby is dedicated to the memory of Buzz Brown, a lifelong Sitkan and Vietnam veteran who passed away earlier this month.

Note: This story was updated on 5-29-25 to reflect Caleb Gray’s correct age — he is 9. When he first won the derby in 2023 he was 7, and he was 8 last year as the total poundage winner.

Roger and Mary Hames at their corporate offices in Sitka. Roger Hames says the prospect of selling Sea Mart and the company’s other related businesses first crossed his mind in 2009, when Carolyn Hammack – who built Lakeside Grocery shortly after Sea Mart opened – sold her store to the Alaska Commercial Company. Hammock (who died in 2014) was a few years older than Hames, but he realized that his own retirement was coming, sooner or later. (Hames Corp. photo)

KCAW: I wonder if we could get this conversation rolling by telling me about the opening day of Sea Mart.

Mary Hames: It was December 18, 1978 we were just back from our honeymoon. We had to change our wedding date so we could get back to be there for the opening day of the store. And I remember it was so much fun, because days and nights before the opening, we were in the store, and we had to price-check every item, because we were the first store in Alaska, or Southeast Alaska, to have those scanners and have UPC codes. So we took one item off of each shelf, every shelf, and we all had shopping carts. There were a bunch of us – friends came to help – and we just had to price check everything. It was so much fun.

KCAW: I imagine it was a big stretch financially to go from small downtown stores to a big place on the oceanfront. You probably had some people backing you who were very anxious about that opening day.

Roger Hames: Yes, interesting enough I left college after only a year and a semester because I wanted to come back and be a part of the family business. I sat with dad in and mom in multiple meetings trying to understand, you know, and we met with various financial institutions that we went to see all over the country, and this is in ‘77 (we bought the property in ‘77 I believe it), and then had to get the store financed to build. And I remember it was a $3 million loan to get that done. And it was not easy. And every time we turned around, we were turned down for financing. You just have to do everything you can to appease and please and make the bankers comfortable. So that was an education in itself for me. 

KCAW: I want to talk about the decision to sell. How long has this decision been percolating for you?

Mary Hames: At least a couple years. 

Roger Hames: Yes, a couple years at least. I mean it’s always been in the back of my mind. And you know, a family-run business –  it can be a blessing or it can be a curse, because it just can go either way. And the dynamics in a family operation, (family businesses are) just becoming less and less these days. And it doesn’t matter what the business is. In this case, it’s groceries. And so you think, ‘Okay, it’s going to be all right. You’ve got a lot of volume. It’s fast-paced. You’re turning your inventory all the time.’ But it’s not for everybody. And you know, I’m proud to say today we have five generations represented of the Hames-Rands family in our stores. It’s down to our grandkids who are checking in the stores…

Mary Hames: That’s really unheard of in a family business.

Roger Hames:  It is, but to pass along a family-owned business to the next generation, it’s not for everybody. And that happened.

Mary Hames: And running an independent grocery store today is not what it was like 40 years ago, or even 20 years ago. We used to go to a convention once a year in the Seattle area – the Washington State Food Dealers – and it was a huge group of independent grocers. We got to know all the family grocers, and we helped each other out. But that organization folded because the independents were just going away. So it’s kind of a sad thing, but it’s just the changing of the times. 

KCAW: How did the meetings go with staff? 

Mary Hames: A lot of them said, ‘Why did you wait so long?’ Some of them said, ‘We knew this was coming.’ And some of them ‘Oh no…’

Roger Hames: ‘…It took me completely by surprise.’ And I think about their futures. We think about their futures. And you know in releasing control of something how many lives you’re affecting? And over the years, every time I sign payroll, which my dad says, ‘As long as you can sign a check, sign it, because a handwritten check is very important.’ So you are responsible for people’s house payments, for their rent payments, for their boat payments, their car payments, (Mary: and their food,) yeah, to have food on the table. And that is a responsibility that I do not take lightly.

KCAW: What steps can you take to preserve that essence of SeaMart? Is that something that you can build into a financial transaction? 

Mary Hames: We’re hoping. However, we know ultimately that we’re not going to have any control. But finding the right fit, we have control of. We can help with that.

Roger Hames: I was surprised to know and find out there’s local interest that said, ‘You know, (we) wouldn’t mind talking to you about this.’ And it surprised me, and I’m thinking, wouldn’t that be cool to try to find someone locally, a group of people, another business, that could really make this happen? It’s not out of the question, but our net is cast very far and very deep and very wide.

KCAW: Who knows? But I have a feeling they’re going to have to come up with more than $3 million. That sounds like just inventory in a couple of aisles.

Roger Hames: At today’s prices, yes. (laughing) 

Mary Hames: That’s just the eggs, Robert! 

Roger Hames: Yes, our egg inventory: it’s in a vault now in the store. We have to lock it up. (more laughter)

Note: The Hames Corporation also owns Watson Point Liquors and the Cascade Convenience store in Sitka, and Newtown Liquor in Ketchikan. All will be changing ownership over a timeline that is uncertain. Roger Hames says the transactions could take months, or longer.

Eric Jordan examines the underside of his troller, the I Gotta, from the bow of a Harbor Department skiff. Jordan volunteered his boat to test the slings on Sitka’s new Travelift, which is the essential piece of Phase I of a publicly-owned boat yard at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. Further work is needed before boats can routinely use the yard however: A washdown pad will not be installed and operational until late summer. (KCAW/Woolsey)

Seeing Eric Jordan’s troller, the I Gotta, rise out of the water on the new Travelift, with the words “City of Sitka” painted across the massive upper beam, was an impressive site – for the few people who endured the wind and the rain to see it.

Although it was just a demo to test the slings, and the I Gotta was lowered back into the water not much later, it was still the first. Unfortunately, the board of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park was inconveniently stuck in their advertised meeting back in town, and didn’t get to watch.

Park director Garry White filled them in on the play-by-play. The grouting to secure the piles that support the Travelift pier had just cured that morning, after a long wait for warmer weather.

For White it was a good day, but one he hoped had arrived sooner. 

“Things are moving along,” said White. “I wish they were moving faster, but, you know, at one of the public meetings we said, ‘Let’s, let’s try to get this right instead of fast.’ And so we’re at the last few minutes here. The good news is, construction is done, the machine’s here, and once we get this operating agreement finalized, hopefully the pricing comes down to where some folks are a little bit happier.”

The operating agreement is being finalized with Kodiak-based Highmark Marine, who won the bid to manage the new facility. But other than the Travelift, there’s nothing to operate yet. Still missing is a permanent washdown pad, where boats will be sprayed down with high-pressure hoses after they come out of the ocean. White said rebar for the concrete would not be available, delaying the pad possibly for months.

In the following exchange, board member Lauren Howard asked White if that timeline could be refined.

Howard: “I know you don’t have a number, but like before we said maybe June. So now we’re thinking September? You say months for the rebar, that’s very ambiguous. Two months, five months?”

White: “Well,it  depends on how we can get through the appropriations to get the funding to get the rates lowered, and then finalize the contract with Highmark. I’m assuming that’s going to take a couple months. They told us from the time we pulled the trigger on the wash down (pad) until we get it constructed, is three months. We’re hoping that’s going to happen faster. So I’m thinking, August. I’m hoping.”

Howard: “I’ve had a lot of people call and ask when they can start scheduling. And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, June, July?’ So just a reference point of where they can think. A lot of people are planning. They’re trying to plan when they’re going to haul their boats. They want to haul here. So they want to have an idea of what they should be planning for.”

White asked board members to consider the option of spending $15,000 on a contract to install a temporary washdown pad, or to wait and spend the money on permanent upland improvements.

Among the audience members attending the meeting was Cooper Curtis, the CEO of Highmark. He had been in meetings earlier in the day to work out a plan that would lower the proposed rates to haul out boats and park them in the yard when it’s completed.

Curtis said the meeting had been productive, and while he couldn’t disclose the strategy they had discussed, he said, “It’s a good improvement. It will simplify the process, reduce the cost, which is what we’re all looking to do.”