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The KUCB Newsroom provides newscasts Monday through Thursday at noon and 5 PM on KUCB Radio. You can find many of our local news stories here.

Repairs Finished At Unalaska's Powerhouse, While City Recruiting Continues

KUCB Staff

After dealing with a handful of electrical outages earlier this month, Unalaska's powerhouse is fully operational again.

That's according to the city's Public Utilities Director, Dan Winters. He fielded questions from Mayor Frank Kelty during Tuesday's brief City Council meeting.

"We're all good to go at the powerhouse? No more upcoming power outages?" Kelty asked of Winters. "He's giving me the thumbs-up."

Winters offered a thumbs-up to signal that his department has repaired a faulty transformer protection relay, which had caused a key control switch to run aground.

With that system now closed, Winters said the city's electrical service is back to normal.

The council also heard an update on City Hall staffing from new Assistant City Manager JR Pearson, who was hired last week by new City Manager Erin Reinders.

With both of their positions filled, Pearson said he and Reinders are working to hire a full-time finance director and a full-time police chief.

"The finance director position has been reposted," said Pearson. "The staff interviewed an applicant for the police chief [over the phone], and we're planning for an on-site visit during the week of July 15."

Unalaska's Finance Department has been led by interim director Jim Sharpe since Clay Darnell's resignation in March.

The city has been without a full-time police chief since the retirement of Mike Holman in January of 2018. Jennifer Shockley served as acting chief for about a year before resigning, which prompted the city to bring back former chief John Lucking on a temporary contract.

Laura Kraegel reported for KUCB from 2016 until 2020. She was KUCB's news director starting in 2019. We are proud to have her back in the spring of 2023 filling in as an interim reporter for KUCB.
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