Posts by Davis Hovey

Repairs on Nome’s Westgold Dock are almost complete, at a cost so far of close to $1.5 million. With KNOM, port director Joy Baker shares details of all that’s happened since her staff first discovered damage on June 10.

The Federal Subsistence Board has eliminated the hunt for cow moose in Kotzebue and the surrounding areas covered by Unit 23 for the 2019 – 2020 regulatory year.

Youth in Elim are starting to trade in their bikes for scooters and roller-skates now that they have paved roads to ride on. Through a $12-million project funded by Kawerak, Elim now has approximately three miles of paved streets throughout town.

The U.S. Coast Guard inspected oil storage facilities in 15 Bering Strait region communities in late July. Their final report won’t be released until this fall, but USCG officials’ preliminary observations indicate they didn’t find anything out of the ordinary in the region.

The remaining dozen crabbers still looking for red king crab in Norton Sound this season are having a difficult time finding the Alaskan crustacean.

Last week, Norton Sound Health Corporation unveiled its new health clinic in the community of Shaktoolik, located on the eastern shore of Norton Sound. NSHC says an upgraded facility in Diomede is next on their docket.

IPOP LLC, the company registered with a proposed mining project in the Safety Sound area outside of Nome, has amended their request to operate a test dredge this month. They now have permission to do exploratory work for a two-week period between August 15 and October 31.

As sub-Arctic waters warm — in places, by double digits Fahrenheit — scientists are observing marked changes in marine life population densities. Lyle Britt, the recently appointed supervisor for NOAA Fisheries Bering Sea bottom trawl survey, says he’s never seen an ecosystem shift on this level in his decades-long career.

As of January 2019, packages sold by Amazon and shipped to the Nome zip code (99762) include sales tax, based on the city sales tax rate (5%, 7% seasonally). Both local residents and the city itself are still acclimating to the change.

From 10pm Thursday to 8pm Friday, Nome received 2.43 inches of rain, breaking the all-time record for most precipitation in 24 hours, last set in 1956.