Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 323
The assembly approved a bid award on Monday to spend about $59,000 on the electrical portion of a power outage response project, which raised questions from members as to why it can’t be done by Power & Light linemen. The award was given to Engineered Solutions Group, Inc., which is tasked with installing a new sectionalizing switch in Circuit 63, so the utility can isolate Icicle Seafoods and the Trading Union during outages and other line work, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works Director, in a letter to the borough manager. It’s called the...
After two months without a hospital board meeting, the medical center CEO gave a report to the assembly on Monday that highlighted its newest staff, projects, in-house statistics and a board that recently added two new members. Liz Woodyard, the Petersburg Medical Center CEO, spoke to the assembly on Monday, starting with a note to long term care. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave the nursing department a five star rating based on health inspections, staffing levels and quality...
The Petersburg Borough wants to hear ideas from the community that could save the public money, and it’s offering a stage without an assembly meeting tone. “I hear from people all the time that this meeting scares people,” said Steve Giesbrecht, the borough manager, speaking at an assembly meeting. “They don’t want to come and talk because it’s very formal, so I am going to try to go the other way with this.” Giesbrecht is referring to his proposal to host a series of public open houses, or gatherings, which he said could facilitate in...
Petersburg volunteer firefighters and police spent about three hours knocking down a boat fire in the South Harbor on Saturday. At about 8:40 p.m. Saturday, Petersburg police responded to an electrical fire aboard the F/V Defiant. Ryan Welde, the fire marshal, confirmed that the fire department responded at the same time. He could not confirm when the department left, but the last report for the police was about 11:50 p.m., according to police Captain John Hamilton. Harbor officials were also...
The Petersburg wrestling team spent three days wrestling last weekend in Klawock and Craig, where a Viking freshman came off injury and finished on top for most of the trip. Ruby Massin was kept out of the home meet last weekend because of an ankle injury. She started her return in Craig on Thursday with a first place finish. In Klawock on Friday, Massin finished second with two pins. On Saturday, she took first place again in her weight class with two more pins. She finished the weekend 6-1, said Dan Swearingen, the Petersburg head coach....
The Petersburg Borough Assembly talked at length in a meeting last week about forming a tax committee, made of community members who could explain how tax finances work and eventually bring recommendations to the council. “I’ve had a chance to talk to several members of the community who had all kinds of questions about senior citizen property tax exemptions and overall sales tax,” said Jeff Meucci, an assembly member. “And what the trends are.” As a result, the assembly agreed to ask community members to sit on a short term – possibly si...
A local Petersburg artist illustrated two children's book with ancient stories from the Tlingit and Haida native tribes, and the goal in her work is to connect people with symbols, shapes and patterns. Janine Gibbons illustrated "The Woman Who Married the Bear" and "The Woman Carried Away by Killers," two oral traditions of the respective native tribes. "You, as an American citizen, should know more about symbols and shapes and patterns," Gibbons said. "And repetitions of shape, and patterns...
The remodel of the Petersburg Municipal Power and Light building is asking for an additional $60,000 in contingency dollars to address items that were left out of a ‘bare bones’ plan in 2015, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works director. “There wasn’t a whole lot of thought about this being the long term headquarters of the department,” Hagerman said. “Being that the construction of a new headquarters in Scow Bay has been eliminated from consideration and the current offices will be the PMPL headquarters for many years into the future, the...
A group of high school seniors at PHS are learning how to manage finances in a career readiness course. Students manage hypothetical loans, credit cards, 401k retirement plans, write checks and compete against classmates for who can be most fiscally responsible. “There may be a little bit of financial trash talking,” said Jim Engell, the careers class teacher, speaking at a school board meeting on Tuesday. “It’s been fun listening to the kids deal with real life scenarios, and I’m hoping it’ll reap the benefits down the road for them in ways th...
It was senior appreciation night for the Petersburg volleyball team on Thursday, where it shutout Wrangell in arguably its best performance of the season, said Jaime Cabral, its head coach. Petersburg swept Wrangell in three games with little resistance. The team adjusted and became quicker and cleaner since its last home game when it was beaten handedly by Juneau. But since then, Petersburg mounted a run. The team is now 15-0 in conference play, 15-2 overall. "We have a bunch of kids who want t...
In an injury-ridden state, Petersburg wrestling hosted eight teams for a round-robin tournament, finishing second overall in the senior and parent appreciation weekend. Petersburg rostered eight wrestlers to start the Viking Face Off and Scramble on Friday. By Saturday, the team was down to six. The injuries started when two girls on the 11-person roster left the team permanently before the meet even started. Then, freshman Ruby Massin was injured and elected not to suit-up. The setbacks...
Ray Olsen, 91, sat at a Veterans Day assembly in Petersburg on Friday in a wheelchair, with his hands folded on his lap. In a blue parka and sporting a trim white beard, he watched as students praise his service, and he stood for the honorary moment of silence. Olsen, who was a first class petty officer in the Navy from 1944 to 1945, watched middle schoolers read their definition of a veteran; he sat when high schoolers recited the Gettysburg Address; and he listened to the band play the "Armed...
The assembly unanimously denied a request by the Petersburg Housing Coalition that asked borough departments for data and solutions to the homeless population in town. Assembly Member Jeff Meucci asked for the coalition’s request to be on the agenda, not because he supports it, but rather that he wants the public to be represented. “I kind of feel strongly that people come up here and speak at the podium, and in the past, their letters or their requests -- it seems like they fall on deaf ears,” Meucci said. “I just wanted to make sure that when...
Soon after Rachel Kvernvik's dad died at sea in 2002, she wrote him a letter, sealed it in a bottle and threw it in the ocean, never thinking it would be opened. She was 16 and looking for closure. About 15 years later, on Halloween day 2017, a man told Kvernvik that he and a group of campers had found the bottle in 2003. The campers hadn't contacted Kvernvik for 15 years. They had broken the bottle, read the letter and returned it to the ocean, where they said it belonged. Afterward, they could...
Rain Country Quilters showcased about 40 quilts at its annual quilt show at the recent Oktoberfest event. Also included were antique quilts dating back to the Civil War. Rita Byrer, who's with Rain Country Quilters, estimated the group raised more than $700 through a silent auction in the high school library. That number will be confirmed at a meeting next year, at which they will decide what Petersburg organization a portion of the money should be donated to. Marcy Gelhaus was given the...
Firefighters on Tuesday responded to a distress call from a woman whose front lawn had caught fire, which burned her arm and nearly ignited the front porch, until a man who noticed the escalating blaze stopped to help. At about noon on Tuesday, the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire on Philbin Lane, where the homeowner had been injured, said David Berg, the assistant chief. The owner later said she was cooking when a grease fire ignited in her kitchen. She rushed the...
Mayor Mark Jensen reported on Monday that Gov. Bill Walker is scheduled to visit Petersburg next week to sign a borough land bill. Senate Bill 28, Petersburg Municipal Land Selection Bill, will entitle the borough to 14,666 acres of state land after it is signed by Walker. The Deputy Press Secretary to the governor, Jonathon Taylor, confirmed that the visit is scheduled. Walker is slated to sign the bill and give remarks on Thursday afternoon at the Sons of Norway Hall....
The Petersburg Volleyball team continued its regular season winning streak in Metlakatla last weekend where they went 5-0 in conference play. The varsity volleyball team played its second and final conference seeding tournament last weekend. The winning streak has reached 12 in conference play for the Vikings and places them as the number one seed heading into the Region V 2A Volleyball Championships to take place in Peterburg next weekend. The Petersburg streak began in September after...
Four Petersburg High School swimmers went up against about 30 teams at the state championship in Anchorage last weekend, where two finished in the top 10 and nearly all swam personal record times. “We did really well,” said Andy Carlisle, the coach. “All the swimmers were either right at their best time or a little faster.” The state meet is separated into two days. On Friday, 16 swimmers race in each event, and eight move on to the finals. Senior Van Abbott was the only Petersburg swimmer to advance to the finals on Saturday. He finished seven...
The Petersburg Swim & Dive team was in Juneau last weekend for the Southeast Regional Championships, where four athletes qualified for the state meet on Friday. "It went really well," said Coach Andy Carlisle. "Even the kids who didn't make it to state were lights-out swimmers." Sophomores Maddy Whitethorn and Maria Pfundt, along with seniors Britton Erickson and Van Abbott, qualified for the state meet in Anchorage starting Friday. Regionals were split into preliminary races on Friday and...
Medical staff, an advocacy group and the police station in Petersburg have created a three-pronged approach to sexual assault cases. "Understanding what sexual assault is, it's kind of eye-opening," said Annette Wooton, the executive director of a Petersburg advocacy group called WAVE, or Working Against Violence for Everyone. "For a lot of people, when you look at the statutes, you realize 'oh, I've been assaulted.'" The Sexual Assault Response Team, or SART, is headed by local police, medical...
Tom Gregoire, a northern California pastor with five kids, had wanted to work in Petersburg the last three years, and in Alaska for decades. "I've been trying to figure out how to get back to Alaska since I was 17," said Gregoire, sitting in his study at the Petersburg Bible Church. "And it took me until I was 40 to make it." Gregoire was born in Kodiak but moved to California before he could remember much. He became a part-time pastor while working in construction. He had three children with hi...
The First Baptist Church in Petersburg started its search for a new pastor last week, coming after Don Higgins resigned due to health reasons. The first step for the search committee is to find an interim pastor to replace Pastor Higgins. Butch Young, who is the chair on the search committee, said the Southern Baptist Convention in Anchorage will assist in finding a likely retired pastor to step in. "We are praying that Don Higgins recovers completely and is able to return to preaching," Young s...
Trooper Cody Litster was about to pack everything he needed for the day into his truck one Thursday morning when he got a phone call about a shooting in his jurisdiction, 50 miles away. "It seems like it's all making sense now that I've asked a few more questions," said Litster, on his first call with a school administrator in Kake, who reported the shooting. Litster, a wildlife trooper, was in Petersburg when he first heard from Kake, a small village with no local police that's two hours away...
