Alaska’s remote Pavlof Volcano was shooting lava hundreds of feet into the air, but its ash plume was thinning Saturday and no longer making it dangerous for airplanes to fly nearby.

A narrow ash plume extends a couple hundred miles southeast from the volcano, which is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage, said Geologist Chris Waythomas of the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The eruption that began Monday seemed to be slowing on Saturday, but Waythomas said that could change at any time.

“Things could ramp up quickly,” he said.

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KODIAK — Kodiak postmaster William Kersch will soon call a new island home.

Next month he and his family will leave the Emerald Isle for Puerto Rico, where he will take over as postmaster of a US Postal Service office in Cabo Rojo on the southwest corner of the island.

Kersch has served as the postmaster in Kodiak for about seven years. This new job is a promotion and will give him a chance to serve a larger community of around 50,000 people.

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KETCHIKAN — After 34 years of working at Ketchikan’s Gateway Center for Human Services, including 10 years as medical director, Wandal William Winn is calling it a day.

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ANCHORAGE — Joan Naviyuk Kane feels the pull of an ancestral place where she’s never been, a crumbling ghost village built on stilts across the rocky face of a remote western Alaska island.

The Anchorage poet believes seeing King Island up close would enrich her art with a sense of place and her Inupiat Eskimo roots — and she’s hoping to fund a visit for herself and other descendants through crowdsourcing.

“It is our land,” she said. “It is our identity.”

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ANCHORAGE — This time of year across the country, gyms and auditoriums fill with robed students, “Class of 2013” balloons and the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” In Anchorage -- home to the highest concentration, per capita, of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders on the mainland -- another unique graduation tradition has taken hold among people from all backgrounds: the graduation lei. Draping a graduate’s neck with bands of candy and flowers has become as expected in many families here as watching a graduate fling a mortarboard cap into the air.

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The mining industry in Southeast Alaska has taken off in recent years. And as mining has grown as a sector of the local, regional and state economy, the University of Alaska Southeast has embarked on a mission to meet the demand for new mine workers.

That’s where the Center for Mine Training comes in.

The UAS Center for Mine Training is a vocational education program created to teach students what they need to know in order to work in a mine, provide safety training and ultimately place young adults in the field.

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Photo by Mindy Anderson

Photo by Mindy Anderson

Photo by Mindy Anderson

A logged area of Admiralty Island sandwiched between stands of old-growth forest regrows. Logging, second-growth timber and environmental protection were among the issues the Tongass Futures Roundtable tried to address.

The Tongass Futures Roundtable is shutting down. The organization tried to resolve Southeast Alaska forest-issue conflicts.

It formed about seven years ago.

Organizers hoped to bring together all parties involved in the forest to craft compromises on land-use issues, such as logging and habitat protection.

“The roundtable brought people together who had never had to sit across from each other at a table. The normal environment was a courtroom,” says Bruce Botelho, the group’s facilitator and moderator.

The former attorney general and Juneau mayor says roundtable members decided to end their work during a meeting earlier this month.

“One of the benefits for us to dissolve right now is to create the opportunity for people to come together and perhaps learn from our experience, but also build on it. And one would hope that any assembly of stakeholders would truly bring back the whole range of participants,” he says.

A map of the Tongass National Forest. Image courtesy USFS.

Membership originally included industry, government, tribal and environmental leaders. But about two years ago, the state, timber representatives, four towns and some conservation groups pulled out.

“We didn’t have enough movement in the direction we felt needed to occur,” says State Forester Chris Maisch, one of the original roundtable members.

“So the governor decided it would be best to put state energy and time and resources into a task force, which he established through an administration order,” he says.

Maisch chaired that task force, which released its final report a few months ago.

It recommended a number of actions meant to increase logging. One was expanding state forests. Another was revising state rules to help small timber operators.

Yet another called for the federal government to turn two million acres of the Tongass over to the state to be managed for harvest.

Maisch says the timber task force has since shut down.

Botelho says the roundtable eventually decided it couldn’t fully do its work without the groups that left. It will cease operations July 1st. But he says it achieved some of its goals.

“We devoted a great deal of time to examining the proposed mental health land exchange between the state and the trust and ended up endorsing a process, which is underway. And I think that, absent the support of the roundtable, would have been more difficult,” Botelho says.

He says some of the roundtable’s working groups will also continue meeting. One focuses on Alaska Native issues, another on sustainable forests.

The Tongass Futures Roundtable had about 35 members and tried to reach decisions by consensus. State Forester Maisch says that just didn’t work.

“It was a well-intentioned effort. And a lot of people spent a lot of time in trying to make that process work. And unfortunately, it just wasn’t the right time and the right place. So it’s too bad that it didn’t come to a better conclusion,” he says.

The roundtable had funding support from the Rasmuson Foundation and other donors. The Juneau office of the Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization, staffed the group.

Roundtable Coordinator Norm Cohen says money was not the reason the group decided to dissolve.

The Ketchikan City Council talked about Fight Club Thursday, but deferred a motion to ban the popular event from a city-owned facility.

After an enlightening discussion about the potential danger of various body fluids, the Ketchikan City Council delayed voting on the proposal, which would ban boxing and mixed martial arts at the Ted Ferry Civic Center.

The delay was to allow Ketchikan Fight Club officials a chance to respond to the proposal. They were out of town this week and not able to comment.

Council Member Bob Sivertsen proposed the measure. He said the civic center, where weddings, music performances, etc., take place, is the wrong venue for events that regularly result in bloodshed.

“Blood-borne pathogens, the alcohol, problems in the bathrooms, most recently, I understand they used a moldy tarp, which after everybody walked on it and ground it in, it was also now a moldy carpet that took extensive cleaning,” he said.

Sivertsen said the center has plans to renovate, including new carpet, and he’d like the city to seriously consider ending the Fight Club’s use of the center.

Civic Center Manager Rhonda Bolling said she has no problem with the Fight Club or the organizers, but, “The things that come along with the fights, the blood, the vomit – you get hit in the spleen, you vomit – there’s a lot. It takes a full day after the event to air it out. It’s pretty messy.”

Bolling said she charged the Fight Club extra for cleaning after the most recent event, and organizers weren’t pleased. But, she said, she believes the approximately $200 extra charge was reasonable.

“I didn’t think that was excessive to charge for cleaning the whole gallery corridor, with beer just sopped into the carpets, because that part is not tarped,” she said.

Bolling adds that the Civic Center loses money, even with the extra charges, when the Fight Club holds its events there.

The Council discussion then delved into the proper procedures for cleaning body fluids.

“ Rhonda, how do you deal with the blood-borne pathogens and the vomit?” Sivertsen asked. “Is your staff trained to appropriately clean and disinfect that?”

“No,” Bolling answered. “I just learned after the last event, because the Fire Marshal asked me, ‘Did he wear glasses when he was cleaning that up?’ I’m looking at him: ‘He wore gloves.’”

Fire Chief Frank Share gave a few details on what’s required in state regulations when cleaning body fluids, which can transmit disease.

“For us at the fire department, we have to dispose of it properly,” he said. “I have an infection control officer I have to send in to training every year, you have to have a policy on hand, how you’re going to deal with it, how you’re going to clean it. One of the things it talks about, you can’t have any eating, drinking, cosmetics or smoking anywhere that you’re going to have blood-borne pathogens, which is exactly what this facility is used for.”

Mayor Lew Williams III suggested deferring the motion to give Fight Club organizers a chance to respond to the concerns raised. Sivertsen agreed that’s the “polite thing to do,” but he said he likely won’t change his mind.

In the meantime, the Council asked City Manager Karl Amylon to look into the issue, including calling other communities where boxing events take place, and finding a contractor for proper cleaning services.

The unemployment rate in Alaska continued to fall last month, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which announced that the seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment declined two-tenths of a percentage point to 6 percent.

The City and Borough of Juneau is tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the state. Before seasonal adjustment, which compensates for the general trend toward the economy having more jobs in summer and fewer in winter, Juneau’s unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, as is the rate for the North Slope Borough.

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Girl Scout Troop 4075 handed over a hand-painted garbage container Thursday at the regular Ketchikan City Council meeting.

The Scouts were working on their Bronze Award, and they took turns at the lectern explaining the process during the public comment of the Council meeting.

Above is an excerpt from Thursday’s Ketchikan City Council meeting, when members of Girl Scout Troop 4075 gave a decorated garbage can to the city for use at one of the new bus shelters.

The school district budget is on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly agenda again Monday, this time for adoption following a public hearing.

The nearly $42 million district budget would include $7.75 million from the borough. That’s about $3.5 million more than the minimum required by state regulations.

The School Board had requested $7.6 million in local funding. However, that didn’t include expenses that the district has paid for in the past, such as building insurance, snow removal and contracted services.

The ordinance in front of the Assembly on Monday includes a stipulation that any local contribution above the minimum required by state law depends on the district paying for the contractual and in-kind services. The ordinance passed in first reading during the Assembly’s last regular meeting.

The Assembly’s Monday meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. in Assembly chambers at the White Cliff building. Public comment will be heard at the start of the meeting.

The Alaska Department of Transportation will be inspecting bridges in Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island next week.

According to DOT, travelers in the area might experience intermittent lane closures on various bridges. The inspections start Tuesday and last through May 27.

Routine bridge inspections help DOT plan future bridge replacement, repairs and maintenance activities, and help the agency identify immediate safety concerns.

Petersburg’s Mayfest art offerings include a show of nearly 20 new works by local painter Pia Reilly. Reilly’s known for her bold watercolors which often portray dreamlike scenes of flowers and trees. Sometimes her subjects are found in a more natural setting and sometimes they’re framed by windows and flanked by objects of everyday life. Reilly’s been working on her new exhibit since early this year. Matt Lichtenstein recently stopped by her studio to talk about it:

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Pia Reilly

Among the traditional offerings at this year’s Mayfest celebration is the Little Norway Art Show. Local painters, sculptors, carvers, photographers and other artists contributed over 60 pieces for display at the Clausen Memorial Museum. Matt Lichtenstein stopped by for a preview earlier this week with Museum Director Sue McCallum:

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The Little Norway art show can be viewed at the Clausen Museum from 9:30 to 5 Friday and Saturday and then 10 to 2 on Sunday. Admission is free.

Downtown Petersburg busy with its annual celebration of Norwegian culture and local color as the 55th Little Norway Festival continues. There’s plenty of art, music, dancing, food and drink. This weekend promises plenty more.I spoke with the festival committee’s Holli Flint and Katie Eddy about Saturday and Sunday’s Mayfest schedule, starting with the annual Lop the Loop run/walk which begins at eight in the morning on Saturday:
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Petersburg Children’s Center kids and teachers head downtown for the festival

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Dave Neutzel and Nick Ponzetti with Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL) discuss plans for tomorrow’s Annual Wildlife Cruise (1:30 – 4:30 PM Sat May 18, advance tickets $45 at Old Harbor Books). Also, the Red Dirt BBQ (6-10 PM Tue May 21, Bayview Pub, advance tickets $15 Old Harbor Books/$20 at the door), benefits Autism Speaks.

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Rofkar named Alaska’s 2013 Distinguished Artist. Geologists discover remnants of undersea volcano in Misty Fjords.

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Join us for a conversation on “Square Foot Gardening” on Morning Edition, Monday, May 20th, beginning at 8:20 am.  Kalvin Traudt of the Tongass Community Foods Alliance will be on hand to answer your questions, and KRBD’s Deb Turnbull will speak about KRBD’s square foot garden experiment.    We’ll discuss what square foot gardening is, things to consider when setting up your garden, and how this method allows you to grow more food in less space.

This is a call-in show, so if you have stories to share or questions about square foot gardening, we’d love to hear from you that morning.   225-9655 or 1-800-557-5723.

This will be the first in a series of call-in shows focusing on locally grown, sustainable produce and animal husbandry.

Victoria Merritt with the Craig Parks and Recreation report for May 17.   CraigPR051713