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            Last week when Alaska Senator Mark Begich was on APRN’s Talk of Alaska, he suggested Kodiak’s rocket launch facility could see increased use in the future. He said with private launches on the increase, the KLC might be well-placed to take advantage of that:
            “Kodiak one piece in the sense of a missile testing site, which will continue to probably expand, to be very frank with you, because there are private missile issues in the sense of launches, satellite launches that they want to utilize that facility for, because it has commercial value," Begich said. "You just saw Space-X, which is a private company just launched another successful, at this point, satellite and payload to the space station. That’s the kind of thing I think Kodiak gets into because there’s a lot of commercial activity we can benefit from and its great jobs.”

            He said there are concerns regarding continued military launches from Kodiak, because of budget-cutting in Washington – which he supports:
            “The big concern we’re starting to hear is, okay, you’re going to deal with all these budget cuts, but people want to take the Defense Department kind of off the table. Well, that’s unacceptable. Everyone has to be at the table," he said. "This problem we’re dealing with, this $16-trillion debt didn’t happen over night, didn’t happen over Democrats or Republicans, it’s everybody. So we’ve got to deal with this, and it means everything has to be at the table.”

            Begich and the other legislators return to Washington next month, though whether a lame duck Congress can deal with the budget issues before an end-of-year deadline remains to be seen.

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            A few random bear sightings on the east end of town a few weeks ago has turned into a rash of garbage cart and Dumpster raids by hungry bruins. Just over the last weekend, there were a couple dozen complaints made to the borough code enforcement officer, city police, and Alaska Waste.
            Rick Vahl is the Kodiak manager of Alaska Waste. He said the company is working closely with authorities so a consistent message is getting out to residents.

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            The Alaska State Troopers are investigating a sizable theft of cash in Larsen Bay. The troopers say that a Larsen Bay city official reported the theft of $5,906 to them on October 5th. The money was missing from the city offices. The troopers announced the theft Monday. Larsen Bay is a community of about 90 on the west side of Kodiak Island, 60 miles southwest of Kodiak City.
            The investigation continues, but troopers have determined the theft occurred sometime between August 30th and October 1st.

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            In June, work crews from Island Trails Network spent about two weeks in Halibut Bay collecting marine debris. The crew returned to Kodiak with the debris and finally had a chance to sort through the trash this past weekend. Tom Pogson is the in charge of marine programs, outreach and education for Island Trails Network and said members from the community came out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to help sort the debris for shipment and recycling off island.  
             “On Friday we had members of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment came and helped. And that was a huge help, three of them showed up," Pogson said. "And then on Saturday we had three members of Boy Scout Troop 626 and their Scout Master Steve Paulson, and that was a huge help.”

            Pogson said the volunteers helped wrap up most of the sorting and he expects to ship the debris sometime this week.