Kodiak Island Borough

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Three out of four new Kodiak Island Borough Assembly members were sworn in last night after this month's municipal election results were certified.

But the fourth elected candidate, Jeremy Williamson, was not.

KMXT reports.

According to borough documents, Williamson was not sworn in because he has contracts with the Kodiak Island Borough through his general contracting business, Aim Maintenance.

According to borough documents, Aim Maintenance won contracts for the maintenance of Road Service Area Number One, Bayview, and Monashka in 2025 that don't expire until March of next year.

Williamson was open about his business with the borough during the assembly candidates forum on September 8th.

Mark Anthony Viscocho and Scott Arndt won the other three-year seats with 757 and 632 votes respectively.

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... to the state from the old BLM leases, and there were 15 grazing leases in the heart of everything during World War II within the Kodiak Borough.

That's counting Sitkinak Island, Ugalamik Island, and Chugach Island, and a few other little outlying islands in the archipelago.

And they had up to, I believe, 3,500 head of cattle that fed the war effort and all the soldiers within the state during the war.

... big.

Yeah.

N- now we're down to three active leases within the Kodiak Borough.

That would be ourselves, the Burton lease in Merrill Cape, which is now Kodiak Bison Company, I believe.

I'm your host, Davis Hovey.

On this week's recap, the superintendent of the Kodiak Island Borough School District, Daniel Brighman, resigned this week after spending less than three months on the job.

There's an ongoing climate of cuts, loss, and negativity, and it's very stressful for this board of education and for the leadership.

Potential loss of public confidence and trust often occurs, and we need a paradigm shift.

As somebody who makes a living fishing, it's an honor and humbling to be working for an organization like this.

And he says he'll be keeping an eye out for new Board of Fish and Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission appointments after a new governor takes office next year.

The Kodiak Island Borough School District is fully staffed with teachers this year.

As KMXT's Catherine Irving reports, administrators credit the district's temporary visa program and a pivot many districts are making to help their international hires obtain permanent resident status for keeping turnover low.

The Kodiak Police Department and state wildlife troopers attempted to scare off a juvenile brown bear that appeared near Main Elementary School this Friday afternoon.

According to a Facebook post from the Kodiak Island Borough School District, the bear showed up right at lunchtime at around 12.23 p.m. As a precaution, all students from Main Elementary and the nearby Kodiak Middle School and Kodiak High School were kept inside for the rest of the school day, according to the district.

Kodiak Police and Alaska State Troopers arrived on the scene at around 12.30 p.m. Kodiak Deputy Chief of Police Francis De La Fuente wrote to KMXT in a text message that they were attempting to push the bear back towards the Pillar Mountain area using non-lethal guns with noise-making shells.

However, De La Fuente says the bear disappeared into the woods between the Aquatic Center and the softball field on Mill Bay Road.

He says they don't know if the bear decided to bed down in the woods or if it left the area.

De La Fuente says it's important that people remain cautious in the area around Main Elementary, as it's possible the bear is still there and it could come out of hiding in the evening when there are less people around.

Monday marked the beginning of early voting in this year's municipal elections for the Kodiak Island Borough and City of Kodiak.

KMXT's Davis Hovey has more on what voters will see on the ballots.

And I've seen over the years that often young people have no idea, have no idea how lucky they are to be born in this country and be a citizen.

Aside from his decades in the legislature, Stephen spent years in public office through his time on the Kodiak City Council as a Kodiak Island Borough Assembly member, borough mayor, and on the local Board of Education.

Stevens, who is also 85 years old, also spent 25 years teaching at Kodiak College.

As for what's next, Stevens says he's in the middle of writing a play about events that took place during the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands during World War II.

And I've seen over the years that often young people have no idea how lucky they are to be born in this country and be a citizen.

Aside from his decades in the legislature, Stevens also spent years serving the public through his time on the Kodiak City Council as a Kodiak Island Borough Assembly member, borough mayor, city mayor, and on the local board of education.

Honestly, the most fun I've ever had in politics in 40 years was on the school board because everything you deal with deals with kids and helping them move ahead and helping them graduate and go on to college.

And so that relationship to education has always been really important to me.

Stevens is 85 years old, according to his previous campaign site.

So what's next for Stevens? He says he'll be serving on a Kodiak College advisory board, which is a University of Alaska Anchorage campus, and he is in the middle of writing a play about events that took place during the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands during World War II.

You can listen to the full interview with retiring state senator Gary Stevens on kmxt.org. And our final story for this week, the Kodiak Island Borough School District Board of Education is considering closing a school to balance its budget.

At a work session on September 8th, Kodiak School District Superintendent Daniel Brigman proposed three potential scenarios for next school year's budget.