Winter in Unalaska by Sam Zmolek
Your voice in the Aleutians.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
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.

Council Weighs Funding For Local Nonprofits

Chrissy Roes/KUCB

Tuesday the Unalaska City Council heard requests for funding and proposals for the municipal budget. Many community leaders expressed concern state-funding cuts could impact their proposed budgets.

“We might take a little bit of a cut, but we’re one of the smaller programs in the state. So, we’ll roll with it. Whatever happens, we’ll make it work," said USAFV director M. Lynn Crane.

Nine groups have filed for community support grants. Most have requested the same amount of money as in prior years. But there are two non-profits – KUCB and the Convention and Visitors Bureau – asking for more. And one – the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, or APIA – is asking for less.

Although no decisions are being made now, some council members didn’t shy away from providing their opinions on which projects merited funding. Both council members Frank Kelty and David Gregory expressed support for a $13,000 request from the Unalaska Divers Association.

"I think it would be worthwhile to support this. They got quite a group already of divers and I think there’s a lot of interest in town of people wanting to do it," Kelty said.

The group says they would like to buy four sets of scuba gear to making diving more accessible to the community.

 But Mayor Shirley Marquardt cautioned it’s too soon to make decisions about funding.

"It's very easy when things come right out to say yeah absolutely, but there’s still more information still discussion to be had – so I’d just caution council on that," Marquardt said.

City manager David Martinson echoed the mayor.

"Given some of the conversation about whether or not funding gets cut at the state level I think again this is a process that hinges on what happens in the state legislature which could effect what you can and can not afford," Martinson said.

As the different departments of the town presented their budgets, one cost was questioned again and again.

"I look at this document and every department the health insurance costs are up substantially," Kelty said.

"I agree. They’re rising all across the state," Marquardt said.

Another concern for the council is the airport’s inability to break even.  Port Director Peggy McLaughlin says the need to do more maintenance is keeping profits down.

"We keep nipping away at various programs to increase revenues and then here come the requests for the need to do more maintenance on it," McLaughlin said.

After four hours without completing the agenda, the council adorned. The 2017 town budget will be finalized at the final city council meeting in May.

Zoë Sobel reported for KUCB from 2016 until 2019. She returned to KUCB after a year living in Nepal and Malaysia as a Luce Scholar. She then returned to KUCB as a ProPublica reporter August of 2020 through August of 2021.