Public Radio for Alaska's Bristol Bay
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bristol Bay and Beyond, January 2

Joanne Knight

DPD Chief talks battling the heroin trade in town, new mini-libraries should be popping up soon, Manokotak has a new VPSO, and more ...

Bristol Bay and Beyond for January 2, 2015. Happy New Year, and thanks for joining us.  Coming up in this next half hour, we’ll talk with the Dillingham Police Chief about how citizens are helping law enforcement crack down on drug activity in town. Manokotak has a new VPSO, Dillingham will have new ways to borrow books soon, and Gabe Dunham has a rundown of news in the fishing industry.  Those stories and more coming up, after a look back at some of the week’s headlines.

Do you have ideas or feedback for us? Maybe you've written a poem, song, essay, taken a photo, or have someone in mind we should interview for Bristol Bay and Beyond.

Send an email with your comments and suggestions to news@kdlg.org, or reach the host at dave@kdlg.org

The KDLG News line # is 907.842.2200.

Last weekend’s arrest of Darcie Clark for selling heroin in Dillingham was the first such arrest in several months. Police say information from citizens, but specifically in this case a confidential informant who agreed to make a drug buy from Clark, led to the arrest. For more about this, Dillingham Police Chief Dan Pasquariello join us now:

BBB_5_Pasquariello_SEGMENT.mp3
DPD Chief Dan Pasquariello sits down with KDLG's Dave Bendinger to talk about the effort to curb heroin trafficking in Dillingham.

Credit Unalaska Dept. of Public Safety (KUCB)
Drugs seized by Unalaska Police last May.

In Unalaska last May, police made a major drug bust at a convenience store after an informant made a “controlled buy.” Officers seized more than half a million dollars worth of methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine, allegedly in the possession of Tam Nguyen and Thu McConnell.

The two were indicted in state court, and Mr. Nguyen was indicted by federal authorities as well. But the case against the two has run into problems for prosecutors. For more we turn to our colleague Lauren Rosenthal, the News Director at KUCB in Unalaska.    

Lauren I understand the state, at least, has now dropped all charges against both defendants?

BBB_5_Lauren_Unalaska_SEG.mp3
Listen here ...

For one more bit of law enforcement news on this week’s Bristol Bay and Beyond, we turn to the village of Manokotak, which welcomed a new Village Public Safety Officer last month. Joanne Knight is a teacher at the school and writes for the Bristol Bay Times newspaper. She wrotea profile of the VPSO this week.

Joanne, tell us more about Manokotak’s new VPSO and where he’s from?

BBB_5_VPSO_SEGMENT.mp3
Joanne Knight spoke with KDLG News about the new Manokotak VPSO. Her article appears in this week's Bristol Bay Times, which is on newsstands now.

These students of shop teacher Bob Burns designed and built these "Little Free Libraries," which will be popping up around town in the weeks ahead.

Here we are in another year, each of us hopefully setting goals, hopes, and dreams for the 12 months ahead. If one of those goals is to read more, you’re certainly not alone. You may also be in luck:  As Connor Ito tells us, Dillingham will soon have more places to borrow a good book:

123114_web_Little_Libraries_NEW.mp3
Friends of the Library member Rachel Bobbitt tells Connor Ito what these take-a-book, leave-a-book locales are all about.

Connor Ito has been back with KDLG this winter. As some of our listeners may remember, Ms. Ito spent three of her high school semesters in our broadcasting class, learning how to produce radio and later to do some reporting, as you just heard. She graduated DHS as the co-valedictorian last summer, and began her further education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the fall.

I was curious about the experiences of a Dillingham-grad turned UAF freshman, so I asked Connor to join us for more. Thanks for doing this Connor:

BBB_5_Connor_SEGMENT.mp3
Listen here ...

Credit State Dept. of Epidemiology

Just before Christmas we learned of an outbreak of botulism that was attributed to some seal oil in Twin Hills. That outbreak appears to have been contained, and those who had been hospitalized have since improved. The Department of Public Health is looking to get the word out about this dangerous illness, and Dillingham Public Health Nurse Gina Carpenter came by this week to share more:

BBB_5_Gina_SEGMENT.mp3
Gina Carpenter has more on botulism.

Public Health will be offering a free informational meeting on botulism at the Dillingham Library from 12-1pm Monday.

Gabe Dunham is the Marine Advisory Program agent for Bristol Bay. He can be reached at the UAF Bristol Bay campus in Dillingham.

What's happening in the fishing industry? Gabe Dunham, the Marine Advisory Program agent in Bristol Bay, is here to share what he's been watching in the news the last week.

BBB_5_Gabe_SEGMENT.mp3
Listen here ...

Follow the MAP Bristol Bay and see what Gabe's reading during the week by 'liking' his facebook page.

Credit Animal Planet

For our parting shot this week ... it seems there are plenty of good things to look forward to in 2015, from new Star Wars and Bond films, to a potentially record setting sockeye run back here to the Bay. There are other things that seem less appealing, like a new reality TV show focused, somewhat, on our fishery:

010215_BBB_reality_segment.mp3
Will this show help the brand of Bristol Bay sockeye? I'm skeptical.

For details on Animal Planet's new show, and the captains' biographies, click here.

That's it for this week's Bristol Bay and Beyond, our weekly newsmagazine on KDLG. We hope you join us each Friday at 12pm and 6:30pm on AM670.

Send comments, suggestions, and other fun feedback to news@kdlg.org or dave@kdlg.org.

Have you taken a stellar photo this week that be our cover photo? Send it to us! We'll credit you, and then hound you for more photos thereafter.

Sunset seen Christmas Day off Snake Lake Road. (you can do better than this!)