2019 opened for Sitka with the longest federal government shutdown in history, and ended with the loss of a homegrown Alaskan literary giant. KCAW’s Katherine Rose and Robert Woolsey review the year’s highs and lows — from the release of the governor’s “apocalyptic” state budget and a tense court battle over herring, to student activism and acrimonious city politics. The last year of the decade delivered a fair share of economic and political whiplash, but there is plenty to look forward to in 2020. Or, as the late, great Richard Nelson would put it: “See you next time!”
Here is some additional detail on the stories referenced in this podcast:
Guardian Flight Crash
A Guardian air ambulance flight from Anchorage to Kake, disappeared on January 29 at a little after 6 in the evening. Some debris was found the next day floating in the water about 20 miles west of Kake.
Three Juneau-based crew were lost: 63-year old pilot Patrick Coyle, 30-year old flight nurse Stacie Rae Morse (who was 27 weeks pregnant) and 43-year-old flight paramedic Margaret Langston. Although the wreckage was eventually recovered, the crew was never found.
The cause remains a mystery: The plane was on a normal approach descending through 5,000 feet in good weather when it literally dropped off the radar — plummeting 2,500 feet in about 15 seconds according to the NTSB crash report.
The story took another turn when CoastAlaska news learned through a FOIA request of mission logs that Air Station Sitka’s three helicopters didn’t fly on that search. A helicopter came across the gulf from Air Station Kodiak.
Governor Dunleavy’s First Budget
Newly-elected Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy released a preliminary budget on February 13, 2019, generating a range of reaction among the public.
Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins referred to the budget as ‘apocalyptic.’ It contained deep cuts to — or the outright elimination of — a variety of agencies and services, including the Marine Highway System, the University of Alaska, the Pioneer Homes, K-12 Education, and Public Broadcasting.
Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman was unhappy with Dunleavy’s attempt to sell the newly-constructed Mt. Edgecumbe Aquatics Center. There was also considerable public backlash over a similar decision to sell the state-owned Sheldon Jackson Museum.
Hospital Merger
The most heated opposition to the merger of Sitka Community Hospital and SEARHC had cooled by the time the final Town Hall meeting on the issue was held in March. About 60 Sitkans attended, but only 10 voiced concerns. The deal was finalized on August 1.
Climate Activism
Sitka youth joined the global climate activism movement led by 16-year old Swede Greta Thunberg. Sitka High students joined a nationwide climate strike the day after Thunberg’s historic speech to the United Nations.
But many Sitkans in 2019 didn’t need students to remind them that the climate was changing: The deer and goat populations hit record highs, and bears remained active well into December, and Silver Bay experienced a much larger-than-normal bloom of cocolithophores, turning the water jade green.
The Courts
The conflict over herring moved into the courts in 2019. The Sitka Tribe asked for an injunction against the commercial Sac Roe Herring fishery, claiming that the management was flawed. A judge denied the request, but in the end commercial seiners never left the dock: Weak markets for the smaller-than-average herring stock kept the fishery shut down for only the second time in over four decades.
There were three discrimination lawsuits filed against the Sitka Police Department in August, and only one has been resolved. Former detective Ryan Silva reached a mediated agreement for $325,000 in October.
Silva blew the whistle on the department’s procurement of automatic weapons and claims he was harassed and demoted over the issue. The city’s insurance carrier decided to settle, and the city admits no wrongdoing.
Silva also claimed his support of Mary Ferguson put him at odds with police department management. Another former detective, and the only sworn female officer, Ferguson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the department last October, and has been scheduled for trial in March. So far, during several preliminary hearings on the Ferguson case, no one’s mentioned anything about mediation, so this might actually go to trial.
A third lawsuit filed by former jailer Noah Shepard in February will likely go the route of the Silva case and be settled by mediation.
And not every case in civil court in 2019 involved the Sitka Police Department! A Sitka jury in October ruled against a woman who claimed she was seriously injured by a falling ceiling decoration in Harrigan Centennial Hall in 2016. Sandy Sulzbach was rehearsing for the New Archangel Dancers’ “Big Show” on Alaska Day that year when she was injured. She sued for $3.7 million in damages, but was denied.
City Hall
Just a day after the assembly approved the sale documents for Sitka Community Hospital in April, they held a routine “administrator evaluation meeting” but that meeting quickly turned into heated debate over Brady’s termination.
They decided to reevaluate Brady after 90 days, but then after about 60 days, brought his job up for discussion again, this time voting on a 4-3 vote to dismiss him. Then they went on an expedited search for a city administrator.
The assembly also enacted a hiring freeze this year, and established a subcommittee that reviewed all vacant jobs — both lasted for about six months before the new assembly overturned them in October. And there were quite a few vacant jobs at city hall this year. They’ve managed to fill some of those posts: There is a new planning director, a new assessor, and a new city administrator who will start working this spring. But the city still lacks a library director and a human resources director, and a full-time utility director.
Richard Nelson (1941-2019): ‘See you next time!’
Richard Nelson died November 4. The last time KCAW interviewed him was in May, when he won the Rasmuson Distinguished Artist award.
Nelson wrote classics like Make Prayers to the Raven and The Island Within, but made a name in radio for his program Encounters. He produced 109 individual episodes from his backyard in Sitka to the deep Australian Outback.
A big memorial weekend planned for Richard Nelson in Sitka April 25-26. I guess we’ll See You There!
Honorable mentions
KCAW News produces far more stories of interest than we could ever include in a ten-minute show on New Year’s Eve. Here are a few we wish we had time to include in our broadcast:
— Elias Erickson becomes Alaska’s youngest school board president.
— Larry and Robyn McCrehin’s lifelong dream of turning their home into a Pirate House.
— And our top business story of 2019 was the unexpected demise of Baranof Island Brewing Company, known locally as BIBCO. Businesses come and go in Sitka, but there was a genuine affection in the community for the local microbrewery — and genuine surprise that the loss involved so much public funding.
