KUCB - Unalaska

After admitting a sick ringed seal from Unalaska, veterinarians at the Alaska SeaLife Center are cautiously optimistic about his chances for recovery.

The male seal was found earlier this month, lying on a rusty pipe on the beach.

In addition to being far outside his natural habitat, he was underweight, balding and lethargic.

“Although this seal has a laundry list of health issues, his feisty demeanor shows promise,” said Dr. Kathy Woodie of the SeaLife Center.

The seal is now receiving 24-hour care in Seward for dehydration, malnourishment and parasites.

He can’t be released into the wild. But if all goes well, he’ll be sent to live in a marine mammal center after rehabilitation.

This ringed seal is the third to turn up in Unalaska in about a year.

While it’s strange to see ice seals in this part of the state, Sea Grant agent Melissa Good has said she’s not too concerned.

She asked Unalaskans to contact the Department of Public Safety at 581-1233 if they spot any stranded marine mammals.

Unalaska’s mayor has survived a recall effort that accused him of misconduct and poor leadership.

According to initial election results, 62 percent of voters supported Mayor Frank Kelty, who was waiting at City Hall when the polls closed Tuesday night.

“I was concerned that it would be pretty tight and maybe come down to the absentees,” Kelty said. “But it didn’t, and I want to thank the community for their support.”

Election officials counted the 463 ballots by hand after the voting machine jammed.

Their tally showed 177 Unalaskans voted “yes” to recalling Kelty, while 286 voted “no.”

There still are 74 absentee and questioned ballots that must be canvassed Friday, but City Clerk Marjie Veeder said they won’t affect the final results.

Kelty will remain in office for the rest of his term, which expires in October 2019.

He said he’s glad the recall is finally over — for both himself and the community.

“I just hope that the animosity and anger go away and that we can work together for the betterment of Unalaska,” Kelty said.

Kelty said his first goal is to build a positive relationship with the new city manager.

The Unalaskans who sponsored the recall petition weren’t immediately available for comment.

They had charged Kelty with pursuing an illegal dock agreement with the shipping company Matson, along with criticizing his leadership and respect for public process.

The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued another injured mariner from a fishing vessel near Cold Bay, marking the fourth such medevac in a week.

Officials say the F/V Ocean Rover was fishing 70 miles west of the community on Sunday, when a man onboard reported suffering from abdominal pains.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew was sent to hoist the 59-year-old man from the vesse. He was transported to Cold Bay and then Anchorage for emergency medical care.

Meanwhile, three other mariners were rescued from the fishing vessels Golden Alaska, Ocean Peace and Northern Patriot last week. Each vessel was operating north of Cold Bay.

The recall election of Unalaska Mayor Frank Kelty is set for March 6.

A recall petition signed by 172 community members seeks to remove him due to allegations of misconduct in office – specifically attempting to sole-source land use agreements for the Unalaska Marine Center positions 5-7.

Kelty has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The petition effort was led by nine sponsors including Ryan Burke, Erin Enlow, Jeff Treannie, Clint Huling, Robert Marquardt, Alena Syverson, Christina Chamberlain, Jason Gates, and Amanda Gates.

Kelty does not plan to appeal the recall effort, but if he changes his mind, then he has until Jan. 25 to file an appeal with Alaska Superior Court.

The City Council also approved a contract extension with interim City Manager Nancy Peterson at the Tuesday night meeting. Now she will stay on through Feb. 16.

Peterson informed the council that as of Jan. 4, there have been 13 more applications for the city manager position and one of those may be someone the council wants to add to their pool of qualified candidates.

The council decided early last month to hold off on their original timeline for hiring a city manager because of lack of a good pool of applicants.

At that time, the pool had dwindled from eight qualified applicants to three.

The council plans to do an initial round of interviews the first week in February.

The city also will be in the market for a new director of public safety.

Mike Holman will be stepping down from his post, Peterson announced that at the end of the month, after being on staff for 23 years.

Senior Fire Captain Mike Hanson is filling in as interim fire chief until that post is filled.

The former Fire Chief Arlie Colvin resigned late last month.

Peterson has said filling this role is “a top priority” and the city will be accepting applications for the fire chief position until Feb. 6.

The city council also appointed Dennis Robinson as the inaugural vice mayor. The

vice mayor steps into the role of mayor should the office become vacant or if the mayor is absent.

Robinson will hold the post until the next regular election.

After months sitting abandoned in Unalaska, the state announced on Dec. 22 its intention to dispose of the F/V Akutan.

The processor was abandoned in Unalaska’s Captains Bay in September following a disastrous fishing season in Bristol Bay where the ship’s owner went broke, the crew went unpaid, and it’s 158,000 pound haul of salmon was declared unfit for human consumption.

Numerous state and federal agencies were working to move the vessel, but no one stepped up to take responsibility of the vessel until now.

“I think now we’ve recognized the potential harm that this vessel could cause as it sits there all winter,” said Clark Cox of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. “We want to see if we can take the next appropriate steps to rectify the issue.”

The state is looking for buyers interested in the vessel.

If there are two or more prospective buyers, they will conduct a public auction or the F/V Akutan will be donated for scrap or destroyed.

Cox said a couple people have called in with interest, but because of the vessels location and condition he has not had lots of people offering heaps of money.

“I don’t see a lot of value in the vessel to be quite honest,” Cox said. “Others may, but I don’t.”

In the event that DNR ends up owning the vessel, Cox said they are looking for partners to bear the burden of paying to remove it — partners like the city of Unalaska.

At the last City Council meeting of 2017, Ports Director Peggy McLaughlin briefed the council on the status of the Akutan.

“In order to get rid of the vessel, someone had to take control of the vessel,” McLaughlin said. “DNR had no skin in the game other than they had the authority to take control of the vessel.”

McLaughlin says the city has explored various options to get the vessel out of city limits including scrapping it, scuttling it, and towing it to the Lower 48.

Scrapping would cost about $500,000.

But McLaughlin believes the U.S. Coast Guard may be able to do an emergency scuttle of the vessel — for that, the cost could be as low as $31,000 and as high as $205,000.

A number Mayor Frank Kelty says sounds reasonable.

“If it would cost $200,000, to get it out of here forever, I would encourage the council to think about considering that,” Kelty said. “If that is what it is going to take.”

The council is expected to continue it’s discussion of the F/V Akutan at the Jan. 9 meeting.

Unalaska’s fire chief says he was forced to resign Friday and less than 24 hours later put on a plane to the Lower 48.

“I basically was given the door and right before Christmas, too,” Arlie Colvin said at the airport. “If I did not resign, they were going to not give me one penny, no ticket out of here, and (I’d have to) be out of my apartment by (Dec.) 31st. I didn’t have no more than $15 to my name because I’m helping to pay for stuff back home.”

Colvin believes he was pushed out by Public Safety Director Mike Holman while the interim city manager was out of town.

Citing personnel issues, the City of Unalaska is limited in what they can say about Colvin’s departure.

In a news release, Interim City Manager Nancy Peterson said, “we fully understand the need to have solid leadership in the fire division and aggressively recruiting to fill the chief position is our top priority.”

Colvin said that he was suspended on Dec. 19 for tardiness, incomplete tasks and problematic memos. He says all of the allegations have simple explanations — he was late because of migraines and received limited training on writing the memos.

Two days later, Colvin said he went to a meeting and was suspended again.

The next day he says he was forced to resigned.

“I wasn’t even given written warning,” Colvin said. “It was basically suspension and then (I was) terminated.”

Colvin was told that he was not working out.

“And that I have caused a friction between the police and the fire department and that is not the case,” Colvin said. “I was trying to be the mouthpiece and help the volunteers.”

Colvin thinks the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he prevented the police from turning a room he wanted to use as an office for a new fire chief into a break room.

“The fire department has been treated like a stepchild and an afterthought,” Colvin said. “You’re not going to get another fire chief that’s going to work under the police chief.”

Colvin said he never would have taken the job had he known he would have to work under the head of public safety.

During his hiring process, former City Manager Dave Martinson and current Public Safety Director Mike Holman promised that he would have full control of his budget and operational concerns would run through the city manager.

Colvin asked for a couple of days to pack up and sell his belongings, but the city said no.

In a news release the city says they bought Colvin a ticket for Dec. 23 so that he could spend Christmas with his family in Indiana.

“Within 22 hours, I had to give up my cat,” Colvin said. “I’m having to a lose a family member of mine. Granted it’s not a human, but I fell in love with a cat. ”

A search of available flights shows as of Colvin’s departure there were flights for sale from Unalaska to Anchorage almost every day through the end of the year.

Colvin had planned on spending the rest of his career –- at least 20 years — in Unalaska. And if given the chance, he’d come back in a heartbeat.

“I want to come back,” Colvin said. “I want to be the fire chief here.”

But for that to happen Colvin said he would have to report directly to the city manager not the head of public safety.

Unalaska’s Department of Public Safety has struggled to keep a fire chief on staff for the past year and a half.

In May 2016, Zac Shasteen resigned from the position. In March, the city hired D.J. Dunn to fill the role, but terminated his contract before he could start — following charges of sexual assault against him in Illinois.

Colvin was on the job for three months.

For now, Volunteer Captain Salvador Alvarado and Fire Captain Ariel Hernandez are the primary points of contact for the department.