2013 Kodiak Crab Festival is running Thursday, May 23rd through Monday, May 27th. Join us Memorial Day Weekend for great food, rides, games, grand parade and more!

Schedule of Event Forms
Click here for the most up-to-date Crab Fest Schedule of Events will be posted on the Crab Fest Events page and listed in the Crab Fest Guide in the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

Crab Fest Merchandise
Visit the Chamber Office to purchase all your Crab Fest gear...t-shirts, sweatshirts, beanies, fleece jackets, pins, posters, and more! VISA and MasterCard accepted. You can also purchase Crab Fest merchandise at our online store.

Crab Fest Pre-Sale Tickets
Crab Fest pre-sale ride and game tickets are on sale now at the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and businesses around town including Associated Island Brokers, Best Western Kodiak Inn, Cost Savers, First National Bank, Grand Slam Toys & Cards, KeyBank, Kodiak Daily Mirror, KMXT, KVOK/KRXX, Mack's Sport Shop, Norman's, Residential Mortgage, Senior Citizens of Kodiak, Shelikof Lodge, Sutliff's True Value, and Western Alaska Fisheries. A sheet of 45 tickets (35 ride tickets and 10 game tickets) is just $40. Golden Wheel rides and games will be at Crab Fest all five days.

Volunteers Needed

Would you like to volunteer in the Chamber's "Crab Festival Headquarters" booth? Booth volunteers announce upcoming events on the loud speaker, answer questions, and sell Crab Fest merchandise. Our past volunteers can assure you it's great fun! The booth is open during regular festival hours (Thursday:12pm-8pm, Friday-Sunday: 10am-8pm, Monday: 10am-5pm) and volunteers typically work two hour shifts. Please email the Chamber at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your availability if you're interested in volunteering.

Visit the Crab Fest web page or contact the Chamber at 486-5557 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with all your Crab Fest questions.

After conducting the housing and economic survey in January, we could plainly see that our community identified affordable housing as a major issue. After some consulting with community leaders, we decided the best approach was to host the inaugural meeting of the Kodiak Housing Task Force committee on April 17, 2013. Invitations were extended to a wide variety of community members and leaders. Those in attendance were: Jerome Selby, Carol Austerman, Aaron Griffin, Rich Walker, Eloise Lenhert, Darlene Williamson, Capt. Jerald Woloszynski, David Anderson, Bob Brodie, Melanie Calderon-Ladislao, Robenett Sagalkin, Duane Dvorak, CDR Daryl Schaffer, LCDR Andrew Brown, Mark Anderson, and Melissa Griffin. One of the critical members of the task force that was missing was Kevin Arndt - someone who could represent the builders and developers in the community. The committee decided that in order for the task force to continue moving forward, they would need a few builders & developers at the table and set a follow-up meeting for May 14.The committee discussed a wide variety of community housing facts and ideas (listed below) that would help the group develop strategies towards the goal of improving affordable housing over the next few years.

• Committee must have developers/builders as part of the group. Too many questions regarding construction that only they can answer.
• Implementation of strategies and proposals would start with generating ideas and then working with appropriate entities towards change.
• Availability of land is limited. A few developers in community have land available, but don't feel the need to develop.
• Community has been pushing code limits and the borough has limited code enforcement.
• Lack of utility infrastructure availability and capacity to land that might become available.
• Lot development costs are very high.
• High construction and shipping costs.
• Spruce Cape and Swampy Acres could be developed, but it needs utility infrastructure and lot development will be expensive.
• Coast Guard housing development limited due to current regulations and funding availability. Coast Guard assessment of current housing need is an additional 20, 3-bedroom, duplex style homes. Discussed utility capacity, management and maintenance of any new housing development.
• Committee suggested that some goals and strategies that work towards affordable housing would take more than 3 to 5 years, especially the development of infrastructure.
• Contamination problems exist on some available land.

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.

Imagine your own business. Would you allow your salespeople to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By insisting that your staff dress professionally, you are telling your customers that you care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same is the case with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organized, focused and you really mean business.

Why Hire A Designer?

A lot of online business owners start with no money. They have to do everything themselves -- the preparation of a product, the development of a marketing strategy, the actual building of a website to cater to their product's marketing needs.

As their business expands over time, they will find that their simple "homemade" site might not be enough to cover everything, and they will have to take a day or two away from other work to dedicate themselves to updating their website.

Sounds familiar? Chances are, you're someone who is used to keep close tabs on where you spend your money. You may be hesitant to hire someone to do something that you could have done yourself. However, there is a lot more to hiring a designer than just finishing up a job that you don't want to do.

When you hire a web designer to do your job for you, you are doing more than just handing over the "dirty job" to someone else. In fact, by paying a little money, you can let the designer worry about the annoyances that always seem come haunting when you're halfway through the job. That way, you will be more focused and have more time to spend on your actual business strategy.

On the other hand, the designers you hire are professionals so they are good at what they do. By outsourcing your web design jobs to them, you won't have to worry when problems surface because you can always get them to fix it for you. Again, they will be able to pinpoint the problem and fix it faster than you probably will be able to.

Also, the work you pay for will turn out more professional than what you can achieve because the designers have been doing it longer than you have.

So, remember to not just work your business, but grow your business too!