City of Unalaska

The City of Unalaska has a new plan to develop public parks, recreation and cultural infrastructure and programs through at least 2035. The city council unanimously approved the 121-page master plan on March 11.

A 28-year-old fisherman was reported missing Friday in Unalaska. The City of Unalaska said in a press release that Jacob Riley Veeser was last seen at midnight on April 4 walking down the GI “dolphin” dock at the UniSea Inc. processing plant.

The Unalaska City School District has approved its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, and is asking the city for about $6.14 million. The school board unanimously approved the budget draft at its meeting earlier this month. The proposal has gone through various revisions and discussions, including a town hall and committee meetings. Now, it will head to City Hall where council members will decide how much funding they can spare for the island’s schools.

Emergency officials in Unalaska are closely watching an active volcano near Anchorage. Scientists said Mount Spurr is likely to erupt within weeks or months.

Earlier this month, commercial snow crabs started hitting Unalaska’s docks again, for the first time in nearly three years. The Bering Sea snow crab fishery reopened in mid-October, after billions of the crab disappeared and the fishery was shut down in October 2022. This season’s first catch was delivered on Jan. 15. Opilio, or snow crab, is generally fished in the new year and into the early spring. The season runs through the end of May.

Unalaska’s U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit is responding to a distressed vessel near the island’s landfill.The F/V Northern Endurance ran aground near Iliuliuk Bay along Summer Bay Road sometime Thursday morning. The Unalaska Fire Department responded to the incident around noon.

Some Unalaskans were preparing to hit the streets in their four-wheelers and side-by-sides after city council members voted Tuesday to remove a local ban on all-purpose vehicles. But on Thursday evening, Mayor Vince Tutiakoff Sr. vetoed the change to city code, citing safety and enforcement concerns.

Trident Seafoods’ St. Paul processing plant won’t open to take snow crab deliveries this season. But the Pribilof Island community will still see some economic benefits from the harvest, thanks to a new agreement between the cities of St. Paul and Unalaska. The Unalaska City Council unanimously approved a resolution at a special meeting on Jan. 3 that will allow snow crab, or opilio, that’s normally processed by Trident in St. Paul to come to Unalaska instead. St. Paul will receive the seafood taxes and fisheries business taxes associated with that portion of the harvest, like they normally would.

Unalaskans will go to the polls Oct. 1 to vote on two City Council seats: Seat G and Seat F. This year, just one of those is contested. Incumbent Shari Coleman is facing challenger Abe Palmer for Seat G, and councilmember Alejandro “Bong” Tungul is running for reelection for Seat F.

Officials with the National Weather Service, and other state and federal organizations, say Unalaska is prepared for a tsunami. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, they presented local officials with tsunami and weather-related readiness certificates.