Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 1172
Petersburg Medical Center ended its 2020 fiscal year with a gross operating revenue of $20,325,510, which is one percent over what the hospital had anticipated at the start of the fiscal year, according to PMC Controller Rocio Tejera at the PMC Board of Directors meeting on July 30. When deductions from revenue adjustments and allowances are made to the gross revenue, PMC still has a net operating revenue of $17,072,677 for the fiscal year. That number was two percent higher than what PMC had or...
The borough assembly agreed at their regular meeting on Monday to hold a remote town hall meeting on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 4 P.M. to inform the public on the details of the civil emergency provisions ordinance and allow members of the community to ask questions about the ordinance and suggest changes to it. The assembly was expected to pass ordinance #2020-19 at their regular meeting on Monday, July 20, which would have made the temporary civil emergency provisions a permanent part of borough...
Four individuals died in a car crash that occurred late Monday night or early Tuesday morning on Mitkof Island when their SUV drove off the roadway near the 27 mile marker of Mitkof Highway at a high rate of speed, according to a press release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Two of the passengers were Wrangell citizens Siguard Decker, 21, and Helen Decker, 19, according to the ADPS press release. Another passenger was identified as 29-year-old Ian Martin of Petersburg, according to...
With the retirement of one long time postal employee and the resignation of another, the Petersburg Post Office has been left short staffed, causing shorter window hours and longer wait times, according to James Boxrud, a spokesperson with the United States Postal Service. The local post office is normally staffed with four employees, including Postmaster Kim Aulbach. Recently, all the postal duties have fallen on Aulbach and one other employee while USPS prepares to send two employees from...
Two positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified among non-residents who arrived in the community on July 20, according to a joint-statement between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center on July 23. As of Wednesday morning, the borough was still reporting both positive cases of the virus as active. Borough Incident Commander Karl Hagerman said on Friday, July 24 that the two individuals submitted test samples upon arrival at the James A. Johnson Airport and immediately got onto...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly extended the borough's temporary civil emergency provisions emergency ordinance for a third time at a special meeting on Friday, July 24 after three amendments were made to the document. The temporary civil emergency provisions ordinance lays out how the borough would respond to an emergency and the authority that the borough manager and incident commander have in an emergency situation. "I hope everybody on the assembly and the community can see the pandemic is...
Since 1984, the building that houses the Petersburg Courthouse has been painted white with brown trim running along the top edge of the building and down the front, but the colors have been inverted in a recent paint job leaving residents to question the decision to paint a large downtown building brown. One might blame the owner of the building, Jesse Olson of Blue Glacier LLC, for the choice of paint, but he said he didn't pick the paint color. The Alaska Court System did. Olson bought the...
The Southeast Conference released the results of a business survey the organization conducted in June that shows all responding businesses, including those in Petersburg, reporting significant financial losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's basically a snapshot where businesses in the region think the economy is going," said Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Board Vice President Dave Kensinger. "We see the survey, and it's pretty grim." A total of 460 businesses from 23 communities in...
The United States Coast Guard transported two people, and two dogs, to Petersburg after their skiff became stuck underneath an overhanding tree in Kah Sheets Bay on Sunday, according to a USCG press release. Coast Guard Sector Juneau received a report from a Good Samaritan of a man overboard in Kah Sheets Bay, according to the press release. The owner of the skiff had fallen into the water when the vessel became wedged underneath an overhanging tree, according to the press release. The man...
At 12:27 P.M. on Saturday, power went out in parts of Petersburg. Three minutes later, downtown Wrangell was also left in the dark, leaving Petersburg and Wrangell officials to think that the two incidents were related. "The issues in both communities seem too close together to be considered a coincidence, but no one has been able to explain why the cutout failure in Petersburg caused a feeder in Wrangell to drop out," said Petersburg Utility Director Karl Hagerman in a statement to the...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted on Monday to postpone the third reading of the civil emergency provisions ordinance to Sept. 21 with a public hearing to be held before the final reading. Ordinance #2020-19 updates language in the civil emergency provisions of municipal code to reflect the conception of the Petersburg Borough. Additionally, the ordinance adds language that isn't present in the municipal code that establishes actions the borough manager or incident commander can take during...
Petersburg is currently experiencing its fourth wettest summer, with the potential of becoming the wettest summer on record, according to data from the National Weather Service in Juneau. From June 1 through July 18, Petersburg had 12.42 inches of rain. According to NWS data, Petersburg had 15.74 inches of rain in 1945, which set the record for the highest amount of rainfall in one summer. In June, Petersburg experienced 7.55 inches of rain, according to NWS data. It was the rainiest June since...
There have been zero active cases of COVID-19 in town since Thursday, July 16 when the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center first announced that all cases of the virus have since recovered. "It's a nice place to be," said Borough Incident Commander Karl Hagerman at the COVID-19 community update on Friday, July 17. "That's a nice number. Zero active cases is the perfect number for Petersburg." Hagerman confirmed on Friday that cases of COVID-19 that were reported locally, from both...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board of Directors has awarded a bid for the replacement of a damaged submarine cable to Sumitomo, a Japanese firm, according to Board Chairman Bob Lynn. Lynn updated the Petersburg Borough Assembly on the project at their meeting on Monday. SEAPA received three bids for the project, and while Sumitomo’s bid wasn’t the lowest, the company has made a name for itself in the United States. Lynn said the project is expected to cost somewhere between $9 and $11 mil...
After the expiration of an emergency ordinance on April 30 that allowed the borough assembly to set a quorum telephonically, the assembly continued to hold remote meetings throughout May and June, but the action taken during those meetings is valid, said Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson in an interview with the Pilot on July 8. Although the assembly didn't extend emergency ordinance 2020-07 to allow them to continue meeting telephonically, they did extend emergency ordinance 2020-08 on May 18. The...
Four individuals died in a car crash that occurred late Monday night or early Tuesday morning on Mitkof Island when their SUV drove off the roadway near the 27 mile marker of Mitkof Highway at a high rate of speed, according to a press release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Two of the passengers were Wrangell citizens Siguard Decker, 21, and Helen Decker, 19, according to the ADPS press release. Another passenger was identified as 29-year-old Ian Martin of Petersburg, according to... Full story
The borough assembly voted in favor of amending borough code to add language for a civil emergency response in the ordinance's second reading at the assembly meeting on Wednesday. Ordinance #2020-19 updates language in the civil emergency provisions of municipal code to reflect the conception of the Petersburg Borough. Additionally, the ordinance adds language that isn't present in the municipal code that establishes actions the borough manager or incident commander can take during an...
American Cruise Lines has cancelled their voyages through Southeast Alaska this summer leaving Lindblad Expeditions as the last cruise line with port calls in Petersburg this summer. ACL had originally planned to make about 11 stops in Petersburg this summer, with the American Constellation making the cruise line's first stop at the end of June, according to a statement made to the Pilot in May by ACL CEO Charles B. Robertson. Paul Taiclet, vice president of ACL, said on Monday the decision to...
A visitor from outside of the state with COVID-19 was identified at the testing site at the James A. Johnson, according to a joint-statement between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The individual arrived in Petersburg on June 30, but overloaded laboratories in Washington led to a delay in the results of the test. According to the joint statement, the individual spent a few days with friends who were also non-residents at a United States Forest Service cabin in Beecher's Pas...
The borough assembly voted in favor of a memorandum of agreement between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center for an asymptomatic testing program at their assembly meeting on Wednesday. The agreement would allow the borough to fund an asymptomatic COVID-19 testing program through PMC with money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act for cannery workers who live in town year round. The program is estimated to cost $177,800. There are no preventative measures...
Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr spoke in support of the Petersburg Police Department, in statement to the Pilot, while condemning the actions of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer that held his knee on George Floyd's neck while in police custody. Kerr denied the Pilot an in person interview to talk about the ongoing national conversation about police reform, citing the opportunity for an officer to have what they say interpreted the wrong way in the current climate; however, he did s...
Upgrades to the Raven Trail are about 80 percent done, with construction expected to be completed by the end of the summer, said Petersburg District Ranger Ted Sandhofer. Reconstruction of the trail first began last summer. The second and third mile of the current Raven trail will be reconstructed to address steep, muddy and slippery locations on the trail, according to a decision memo released by the USFS. Sandhofer said the remaining work consists of replacing wooden steps with aluminum steps...
The borough assembly unanimously approved two emergency ordinances at a special meeting Thursday morning that cleared up a quorum problem. Ordinance #2020-20 retroactively establishes a quorum for the May and June assembly meetings, despite the assembly not meeting in person. Ordinance #2020-21 allows the assembly to telephonically establish a quorum for the next 60 days. A previous emergency ordinance approved by the assembly allowed them to meet a quorum telephonically, but it expired on...
Three local residents were arrested when a GPS placed in a package with controlled substances led authorities to them on July 1. Aaron W. Bradford, Breann S. Dawe and Samuel W. Nelson IV all face two charges of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the second degree, a class A felony, one charge of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third degree, a class B felony, and one charge of tampering with physical evidence, a class C felony, according to court documents. On June...
The borough assembly was expected to meet Wednesday, after canceling their Monday meeting, to hold their regular meeting and address an issue with the assembly meeting a quorum telephonically, but the meeting was postponed to give the public time to review two emergency ordinances. Monday's regularly scheduled meeting was cancelled due to internet issues at the borough building and was rescheduled to Wednesday. Two emergency ordinances, ordinance #2020-20 and ordinance #2020-21, were added to th...
