Sorted by date Results 226 - 250 of 323
Administrators gave a report to the School Board on Tuesday on the state assessment tests that Petersburg rolled out for the first time in Spring 2017. After results from the assessments of Petersburg students came flooding in through spreadsheets and color-coded graphics, comparison tables and measurements of proficiency, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said it remained an indicator, just “one piece of the picture of a kid.” Test results from the Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools, also known as PEAKS, were reported to the Peter...
The body of 24-year-old Jase Payne was found late Monday near a dock at Rocky Point Resort in Petersburg, Ending what had been a four-hour search by family members, state troopers and local police. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were notified at 6:52 p.m. on Monday that Payne was missing, last seen on the dock of Rocky Point Resort about 10 miles south of town. “Family members had been conducting hasty searches of the nearby Wrangell Narrows with no results,” wrote a press release from the State of Alaska daily dispatches. “Petersburg Alaska Wildl...
Alaska state troopers are asking for the public’s help in seeking the person who fatally shot a black bear and left it in a ditch along Mitkof Highway on Monday or Tuesday. Trooper Cody Litster responded to a call Wednesday morning of a black bear dead at mile marker 19 near Crystal Lake Hatchery. It had been shot but the bear had been dragged from the ditch and onto the road, left mangled and half eaten. “You wouldn’t want to eat in a wet, nasty ditch, right?” Litster said. “Might as well put...
Both Petersburg Cross Country teams finished in the top five at the Wrangell Invitational on Saturday, with runners clocking personal records despite an uphill-finishing course. The men's team finished in fifth place, out of 10 teams competing, and the women's team finished in third among seven. Of the 118 male runners, Petersburg's Brennan Skeek came in 15th place and ran a personal record time of 18:23. Sophomore Kole Sperl placed in 22nd place with a time of 18:45. Junior Tolin Eddy finished...
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will be conducting road work this week in Petersburg, according to a press release submitted by spokesperson Aurah Landau. Crews will be chip sealing on Mitkof Highway near Papke’s Landing Road and also near Scow Bay Loop Road. Machinery will be on the roads, painted center lines will be gone and speed and other road conditions will be changing. “Please pay close attention to sign and flagger directions for safety,” the press release said. After the work, gravel will be loose on th...
The Petersburg Police Department was unaware when it hired an officer in 2015 that he had allegedly been fired for sexual harassment from his last position. The officer would later have an affair with an informant in Petersburg, allegedly, then leave the department for apparent unrelated reasons, only to commit more sexual misconduct at his next post in Washington State. “We very quickly realized this is not a person we want working in this state,” said Bob Griffiths, the executive director of the Alaska Police Standards Council. “As much...
The Petersburg Borough is one step closer to saving thousands of dollars on gravel road upkeep in residential areas, said Chris Cotta, the assistant director at Public Works. The Borough Assembly approved a bid award to Reid Brothers Construction in a meeting on Tuesday for nearly $43,000 for asphalt waste to be crushed and later used as a replacement for gravel, Cotta said. “The thought has always been that we could crush up the material and turn it into usable recycled asphalt product,” Cotta said in a recommendation letter to the Ass...
The Borough Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority recommendation to participate in a regional scrap metal recycling system. The approval fast tracks a financial plan that will organize a barge to come to Petersburg and pick up any scrap metal waste the community wants to dispose of, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works director. A five-year “master plan” agreement with Waste Management and SEASWA has formed in surrounding regions and Petersburg committed to it this week. The...
After years of filming, Jeff Mittelstadt was able to offer a private screening to about 140 people in Petersburg, the town which supported the making of his whirlwind documentary, "Staring Down Fate." Mittelstadt had an idea in 2011 to put together a series of short films on the red wolf conflict in North Carolina. He would make an interactive online documentary with graphics to illuminate the science and economics of the red wolf, while telling the stories of people on all sides of the issue....
A 13-mile race on Labor Day is often not the first activity that comes to mind on a day that celebrates hard work, yet more than a dozen Petersburg folks laced-up to run or walk a half-marathon on Monday morning. About 15 people participated in the 2017 Rain Forest Run with donations to the event going to the Petersburg Cross Country team. Joe Viechnicki organized the race before running in it, despite a dogged knee and slim expectations. "I'm a little sore," Viechnicki said the next day. "I...
The Petersburg Cross Country teams placed at the top of the leader boards in the Klawock Invitational on Saturday. The women's team took first place in Klawock, routing the competition by nearly 30 points. The men's team took second place after losing by three points to Ketchikan. Sophomore Kole Sperl led the men's team by taking third place overall, notching a personal record of 18 minutes 42 seconds in the 3.1-mile race. Other personal records come from freshman Brennan Skeek, who placed...
The body of 24-year-old Jase Payne was found late Monday near a dock at Rocky Point Resort in Petersburg, Alaska ending what had been a four-hour search by family members, state troopers and local police. Alaska Wildlife Troopers were notified at 6:52 p.m. on Monday that Payne was missing, last seen on the dock of Rocky Point Resort about 10 miles south of town. “Family members had been conducting hasty searches of the nearby Wrangell Narrows with no results,” wrote a press release. “[A] Petersburg Alaska Wildlife Trooper and Petersburg Polic... Full story
The rain in Petersburg came in consistent droves this summer, and temperatures were cooler than normal, leaving climatologists fixed on explaining sporadic weather patterns in the past and surely in the future. Petersburg experienced its seventh wettest summer since reports began at the National Weather Service in 1924 — yet there are two days left, said Rick Fritsch, the climate program leader with the department in Juneau. “You had an extraordinarily wet summer,” Fritsch said. “It’d be better if I reported how many days you didn’t ha...
The hospital in Petersburg is an independent operation that makes its own decisions, despite being owned by the Borough. It makes finance decisions on its own with no proviso that the Borough oversee those moves. But one condition in the Borough Charter says the Petersburg Medical Center Board and the Assembly should meet annually. And they did last week — the first joint meeting since March 2015, confirmed by Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson. “There hasn’t been any dialogue between the Borough and the hospital,” said George Doyle, a hospita...
Demand for nurses is growing in Alaska enough for Petersburg to open its first student-degree program with online lectures and on-island lab training. The program, sponsored by the University of Anchorage Alaska, started on Monday. The program is a two-year associate's degree with four students from Petersburg seeking to become a registered nurse with little travel off-island, said Nichole Mattingly, the local site coordinator. "In small communities like this we want to invest in nurses who are...
The hospital in Petersburg is a Band-aid station that’s aging in sections invisible to the vast majority of the community. That is according to its consultant, Monica Gross, the author of a long term planning report for the Petersburg Medical Center that was released last week. In it, she outlines a range of surveys she conducted with hospital staff and community members with regard to remodeling or replacing the hospital. In a Hospital Board meeting last week, she first addressed an apparent misconception of the Medical Center, which is its f...
Richard Lowell of Alaska Department of Fish and Game said he received a text message on Tuesday that read "this is why we have bears in town." Along with the text was a photograph of salmon carcasses sprawled across the center of Mill Slough in Petersburg. Reports of discarded salmon bodies near the city are common, unfortunately, and a significant driver of increased bear activity in residential areas, said Lowell. Those who get rid of fish on public or private land and along roads can see...
There are new species of squid near Petersburg, and determining their population is like measuring fog, according to one researcher who has defied Alaska squid assumptions for years. In a presentation at the Public Library on Tuesday, Stephanie Hayes, a PhD student in Marine Biology, which she has refined to squid research, described the Armhook species. New to the Petersburg area, the Armhook Squid has increased in prevalence, despite being told that it hadn't been the case, Hayes said....
The race for mayor on October 3 is between the former mayor who resigned a few months ago and his replacement, who had previously hinted strongly she wouldn’t run but was asked to reconsider by a “number of people.” Mark Jensen is running for the mayor post after an abrupt exit in May. He will contend with Cindi Lagoudakis, the interim mayor and previous Assembly member, said Debra Thompson, the Borough Clerk. Jensen had resigned after expressing contempt for the actions taken by the Assembly and Borough. He left on the heels of a decis...
Rain is expected for the next week in Petersburg, along with the start of school. From elementary on up about 475 students will funnel into classrooms Monday morning. The Petersburg High School and Mitkof Middle School will have a projected 148 and 97 students, respectively, said Principal Richard Dormer. The elementary school will enroll a projected 230. There will be four new teachers this year. Ryan Hayes will teach high school math; Alenna Nilsen will teach social studies in the middle...
There will be eleven candidates running for Borough leadership on the ballot in October, including a contentious run for the mayor post, and a six-person race for two Assembly seats. The folks running for a seat on the Assembly -- there will be two -- include: Bob Lynn, Richard Burke, Ken Hamilton, Brandi Marohl, Jeff Meucci and William Ware. Cindi Lagoudakis will be running against Mark Jensen for the mayor post. The Petersburg School Board is looking to fill two seats in the election but received one submission for candidacy from Sarah Pawuk...
Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis in an Assembly meeting on Monday said the governor is hoping to visit Petersburg to sign a land selection bill and perhaps stay overnight to view ongoing projects in the community. Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis said in a report that she met with Gov. Bill Walker to discuss Senate Bill 28, which if signed would increase the Borough state land grant from 1,400 acres to more than 14,600. The bill passed the House and Senate on the last day of session in May largely due to the joint...
Alaska department of Fish & Game trapped a black bear on Howkan Street Monday evening, which comes as officials are ratcheting-up outreach to residents about securing garbage cans in residential areas. The Police Department retrieved the trap at about 11:00 p.m. on Monday. Inside the cylinder cage was a roughly 175-pound, "medium-sized" bear, said Captain John Hamilton. The bear will be transported to mainland Alaska and released at the north side of Thomas Bay, he said. This appears to be one...
The highly anticipated total eclipse that swept across much of the country on Monday went viral, prompting some analysts to revel in the moment and others to seemingly mock its brevity as bombastic and uneventful. In Petersburg, minutes before the eclipse began Monday morning, about 100 people viewed the NASA live stream in the library. Some young onlookers adorned eclipse glasses, ready to gaze into the projector, as the moon was about to shade the sun. "It was so nice of the library," said...
A Petersburg woman who owns a retail marijuana shop appears to be in the early stages of expanding her operation into a growing facility as well. Susan J. Burrell, owner of The 420, a cannabis shop located behind The Fisherman's Net Cafe, has officially applied for three marijuana licenses, according to the Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office. The applications focus on growing marijuana near or above her shops on North Nordic Drive. Burrell is applying for a Standard Marijuana Cultivation...
