Melody Moline, Seward Harbor’s Senior Administrative Assistant, is hereby named the Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators Employee of the Year for the Seward Harbor. Melody began working for the City of Seward’s finance department on September 9, 1999 and then transferred to the Seward Harbor in September 2008. Her financial knowledge has brought a valued skillset to the Harbor that has allowed the department to work on Harbor financial records without utilizing finance employees and has ensured problems are solved in an expedited manner. Melody has had many achievements at the harbor. She implemented two software changes and successfully worked through all major and minor issues during both these transitions. She solved several issues during the installation of the new electric program for the new B and C floats. Amongst many other accomplishments, Melody has also helped facilitate many tariff changes as the Seward Harbor has grown and instituted changes over the years. Without Melody’s ambition and attention to detail, the Seward Harbor could not have made these changes in a proficient manner. She has worked with a few disgruntled customers during her time at the harbor, but always responded with the utmost professionalism. Melody implemented a schedule for our annual Salmon Derby that has worked well throughout the years. She was instrumental in the 2018 AAHPA Conference, working with many entities for a very successful conference. Melody has been a team player for her entire time here at the Seward Harbor. Melody will be retiring at the end of 2020 and she will be greatly missed. She deserves being recognized by the AAHPA members as the Seward Harbor Employee of the Year.

Administrative Assistant Mary Wolf is hereby named the Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators employee of the year for the City and Borough of Juneau for 2020. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Docks and Harbors pivoted to make several operational changes. Mary needed to relocate her work station from the Port Director’s office to the Auke Bay office. With no hesitation, she said, “I am happy to help wherever I can”. Mary hit the ground running and displayed a positive attitude, provided great customer service, organized, cleaned, and completed all tasks with pride. Mary was instrumental in helping the newly hired Administrative Assistant II become familiar with harbor operations and was always willing to assist her in any way possible. She provided immense support to the Harbormaster on multiple administrative and daily tasks without hesitation. She also continued to manage the IVF reservations and made sure Docks & Harbors employees were recognized on their birthdays. Mary is constantly looking ahead to make sure day-to-day operations run smoothly and she provides gentle reminders when needed. Two particular efforts deserving extraordinary recognition were her willingness to step-up and assist at the CBJ Emergency Operation Command led Centennial Hall COVID pop-up testing facility. Additionally, Mary was key in the successful execution of the 2019 AAHPA Conference in Juneau which resulted in numerous accolades from those in attendance. Her desire for constant improvement within Docks & Harbors and attention to detail ensured the 2020 summer season was extremely successful. Mary has proven to be an outstanding teammate and a major asset to the department, always going above and beyond and she is well deserving of the award of Employee of the Year for 2020.

Director Steve Corporon has announced his retirement from Ketchikan Port and Harbors, effective October 2nd, 2020. Steve has served the community of Ketchikan for 20 years, and Ketchikan Port and Harbors for 13 years. He is known for many accomplishments, but the one his staff values most is his leadership ability; he has proven to be an incredible leader and his staff values his knowledge, understanding, and management style. You will be hard pressed to find a staff member working under Steve that doesn’t love coming to work every day. Steve has been instrumental in orchestrating the project engineering and administration for countless Capital Improvement Projects for both the port and the harbors, utilizing both his Civil Engineering background and years of service in the United States Coast Guard. The list is lengthy when trying to acknowledge the skills and assets Director Corporon has brought to the department in his years as Port and Harbors Director: millions of dollars in grant funding, cooperative agreements between State of Alaska entities and the port and harbors, infrastructure improvements and development, serving on boards around the city and state representing Ketchikan Port and Harbors, creating and harboring positive and valuable working relationships within the City of Ketchikan as well the community, and on and on. Steve also serves the community on a personal level through numerous non-profit organizations, such as being active in the arts community playing roles on stage, as well as being involved in the local public radio station, and serving with the Ketchikan Lions Club. Director Corporon will be greatly missed by his staff, colleagues, friends, and community at large. We all wish him the best in his retirement adventures, and want to acknowledge his life-long career as a civil servant. His legacy of leaving things better than he found them will live on in Ketchikan.