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    Now that the Royal Dutch Shell floating drill rig Kulluk has been safely anchored up in Kiliuda Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard is launching an official “marine casualty” investigation into its grounding.
    Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, the Coast Guard commander in Alaska, ordered the formal investigation into the circumstances and contributing factors involved in the grounding of the giant floating drill rig on the shore of Sitkalidak Island New Year’s Eve.
    A Coast Guard release stated a formal marine casualty investigation is convened when a vessel problem has considerable regional significance, may indicate vessel class problems, or is the best means to assess technical issues that may have contributed to the incident.
    The formal inquiry will be led by a Coast Guard investigating officer yet to be named. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will assist as technical advisers.
    The investigation will probe every aspect of the grounding and events that led up to it, including the causes of the incident, whether there is evidence that any failure of material or whether there is evidence of misconduct, inattention, negligence or willful violation of the law by any personnel.
    The marine casualty investigation likely will take several months to complete.

A school bus sits in the ditch on the Chiniak Highway. Only the driver, who was wearing a seatbelt, was onboard. Scott Bonny photo

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    Road conditions in Kodiak are regularly treacherous, but fortunately, we have people who go out in the wee hours to maintain them before we drive to work or send our kids to school. Crews plow the roads when they’re covered in snow or sand them when they’re covered in ice.
    But sometimes it’s not enough.
    That’s what Scott Bonny thinks of the maintenance of the Chiniak Highway – it’s not enough. Bonny has driven the twisty, hilly, sometimes icy 40-mile road twice a day for over 20 years, and he says road conditions are bad and getting worse.
    “Yesterday, a school bus went off the road. Fortunately there was just a drive. He had a seatbelt on and his head was bumped. Shortly before that, Friday, she hit a bump, burst her wheel and flipped her car. We’re not expecting for miracles out there, and yet in 22-years we’re seeing, the last couple years, a significant drop off in maintenance.”
    Despite living in Chiniak since 1990, Bonny says the conditions are getting so bad, he and his wife are actually considering relocation.

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    Sometime before noon on Sunday local listeners started hearing the signal dropping out. The source of the problem was high atop Pillar Mountain at the site of KMXT’s transmitter. Inclement weather and looming darkness prevented a trip to investigate the problem until early yesterday afternoon.
    Around 1 p.m. yesterday KMXT’s volunteer engineer, Joe Stevens, made the trek up the mountain with Willy Bethea, the operations and programming manager for the station. The two were aided by Nick Kesling of Island Trails Network, who volunteered his time and drove the duo up in a tracked vehicle.
    Stevens said the microwave antenna that provides the studio to transmitter link was covered in ice, which may or may not have been the problem, but he switched the signal to the spare antenna, fixing the problem. Stevens said exactly what was causing the primary antenna to act up is still unknown. He said the icy tower made it too risky to climb up and actually inspect the antenna.
    KMXT’s signal to Saint Paul Island and the translators in the Kodiak Island villages remained unaffected by the faulty antenna, because those signals are sent straight from the station’s studio on Borough Hill.  Stevens said the same was true for online streaming, which feeds directly to the internet at the station. During the outage, internet listening on KMXT.org skyrocketed.

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    The Kodiak High School volleyball season wrapped up more than two months ago, but that doesn’t mean the sport isn’t alive and well in town. Yesterday kicked off the winter coed league through Kodiak Parks and Recreation and many more opportunities for community members to bump, set and spike are on the horizon. Merissa Koller has coached for the Kodiak bears and various community teams and said there will be a women’s volleyball tournament this weekend.
    The tournament itself will start at 9 a.m. with pool play to determine where each team will be placed in the tournament bracket. Koller said the hope is to separate the teams into gold and silver brackets to allow for more even playing. Prizes will be given to the winners of the gold division. Koller estimates the tournament to run all day and encourages participants to bring plenty of snacks and water.
     Next month Koller said the male volleyball enthusiasts of Kodiak will have an opportunity to hit the court for a tournament of their own.  
    Waiver and entry forms for both the men’s and women’s tournaments can be found online at Kodiak volleyball dot wordpress dot com. The current coed volleyball league will run through February and a women’s league will start up on February 25. She said any interested ladies can contact Corey Gronn with parks and recreation.