City of Kotzebue

Baldwin said she was proud of her role in helping to secure over $20 million in grants for the city, and other achievements like rebuilding the city’s human resources, public relations and planning departments.

Her resignation comes as the city faces multiple vacancies and recently-hired employees.

“It feels as though there's a never-ending stream of problems with the water supply here,” Deb Lawton said. “We are one of the richest countries on earth, and I am gobsmacked by the fact that we cannot get our collective act together to provide drinking water to people.”

The 30-year-old Baldwin said in an email to KOTZ that she was humbled to be nominated and selected for the award.

According to the release, KFD responded to a second fire on Otter Street on Wednesday around 9 AM. Firefighters extinguished a blaze in an abandoned house. The cause of that fire is also unknown and under investigation.

At the start of February, sewer and water lines at the Kotzebue Regional Jail froze up, hindering prisoners’ toilet usage. Since then, the sewer lines have been thawed, but city manager Jeff Congdon says the jail still has no running water.