SENIOR WALK – Sitka High School seniors walk through the halls of Xoots Elementary School wearing their graduation attire this morning as they are congratulated by students. The seniors walked through the halls of both elementary schools and the middle school this morning. Seventy-four seniors will be graduating in the ceremony which begins 7 p.m. tonight in the school gym. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Assembly members are weighing their next steps in hir [ ... ]
Jamison Dunn, Felix Myers, Nai’a Nelson, Kylie Orlando, Benjamin Hedrick, Clarence Joaquin, Dani [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The leader of a Southeast commercial fishing organiza [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Sitka High swept to victory in a three-game softball [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Grants totaling $92,240 from the Sitka Alaska Permanent Charitable Tr [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
For the second time in two years, the Alaska Legislature passed a [ ... ]
SJ Museum Posts List
Of Summer Native Artists
The Sheldon Jackson Museum will host several artists t [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
May 17
A traffic complaint was turned in at [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
At a sparsely attended meeting Thursday, the Assembly [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Well over 100 Sitkans attended a town hall-style prese [ ... ]
By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Planning Commission passed two conditional use permit [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The single finalist in the Assembly’s search for a [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
A driver was medevacked early this morning following an accident in the 20 [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Competitors will line up Saturday for the 40th annual [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
More Alaskans will be able to access food stamps following law [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
In the last days of their two-year session, Alaska lawmakers pass [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
May 16
At 12:41 a.m. a man wa [ ... ]
Climate Building Science
As we wean ourselves off of fossil fuels by electrifying our homes, we cons [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A fire destroyed a small island house in Thimbleberry [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola has included $5.8 million for [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city announced Wednesday that $62,795 was stolen [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A day of street performances, art, food and music, cap [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS,
CLAIRE STREMPLE and
YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The 33rd Alaska State Legislature [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Legislature has passed a bill that combines carbon sto [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Bear Market Looking Good for Sitka Fortress
By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka’s Fortress of the Bear has grown in popularity in recent years, which means it has to expand its operations to accommodate the increased traffic.
First on the list? Giving visitors a little more elbow room on the observation deck.
“We can’t complain, because we’re on the good side of it. But there were days last year when people were really packed in up there,” Evy Kinnear, who runs the Fortress with her husband Les, told the Chamber of Commerce, Wednesday.
Les and Evy Kinnear are looking to expand their bear rescue operation and the related tourist attraction into a larger area with new facilities and new programs. But first on the list is expanding the observation deck, which is at the top of the “habitat” enclosure where the bears live.
Les Kinnear said the expansion will increase the available viewing area by 40 percent. And like the other improvements the Kinnears have made at the Fortress, it will be built with found and reused materials.
“Everything has been reused from whatever was around and that’s how we’ve been able to sustain what we’ve done,” Evy said.
Since the Kinnears opened the facility in 2002, the Fortress has housed 13 bears, five of which were relocated to zoos in New York, Texas and Montana.
The facility includes two giant masonry enclosures that were built at waste water clarifiers when the area, now part of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park, was the site of the Alaska Pulp Corp. pulp mill.
Evy said she and Les would like to begin rehabilitating bears for release back into the wild. That – and an expansion of their current facility – is on their list of long-term goals. To get there the Kinnears are eyeing a purchase of the Fortress property that they presently lease from the city at $50 a month.
The Gary Paxton Industrial Park Board of Directors, which oversees the land at the industrial park, is open to selling the land, although paperwork related to a federal easement in the area is holding up the process.
Evy Kinnear (Sentinel Photo)
The operation has been housed in the old clarifier tanks from the APC mill since 2002. Evy said the group has transformed the area considerably but is always looking at improvements.
“We’ve done a lot of work but it still has an industrial look about it. We would love to change that,” Evy said.
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20 YEARS AGO
May 2004
The budget just approved by the Legislature shows Sitka School District may expect a nearly $900,000 increase in operating funds from the Legislature, Superintendent Steve Bradshaw said today. “We’re extremely happy, but we will still have to make cuts in the budget,” Bradshaw said.
50 YEARS AGO
May 1974
Bruce Hays, 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hank Hays, spelled his way to the number 10 spot last weekend in the state spelling beer sponsored by the Anchorage Times.