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With the coming of spring, the Petersburg High School baseball team took the field this week for practices as the start of the season fast approaches. The team aspires to repeat last year's feat of reaching the state championship game, but this time around they want to take that extra step and win it all. "Our goal is to be on a trajectory to get back and win that game," Head Coach Jim Engell said. "It wasn't in our grasp but it was there, it was close, we could taste it and we didn't get it....
Petersburg residents are set to see the assessed value of their residential properties go up this year brought on by the current real estate market. According to a report from the Appraisal Company of Alaska, the majority of the increases to assessed residential property values in Petersburg will range from 10% to 20%. Assessors Mike Renfro and Martins Onskulis with the Appraisal Company of Alaska gave their report on the 2023 estimated tax assessments for the borough during Monday's Petersburg...
Petersburg High School graduate Izabelle Ith was announced as one of the eleven members of the Alaska High School Hall of Fame Class of 2023 earlier this month. The Hall of Fame honors individuals who exhibited integrity while achieving excellence in high school athletics and activities according to the Alaska School Activities Association. During her high school career, Ith was a leader on the track, in the pool, and in the classroom. Ith won four state track titles in the 100-meter hurdles...
An interactive workshop focused on equipping community members with the skills to get involved in the Federal Subsistence Board process will be held this Saturday, March 25 at John Hanson Hall. The community workshop will be put on by Ashley Bolwerk, a subsistence fish biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, and Heather Bauscher with the Sitka Conservation Society. Bolwerk and Bauscher developed the workshop in order to help residents better understand the Federal Subsistence Board process and...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board named a new CEO during its meeting earlier this month while the need for additional generation remained a central talking point according to a report from Vice Mayor Bob Lynn and Utility Director Karl Hagerman. The SEAPA Board selected Robert Siedman as the agency's new CEO, pending contract negotiations. Siedman was appointed as acting CEO at the December board meeting and is set to replace former CEO Trey Acteson who retired from the role at the end of...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team closed out its season at the ASAA State Championships last weekend in Anchorage, finishing fifth in the 2A tournament. "My first thought is that we 100% absolutely belonged there," Head Coach Rick Brock said. "I was real happy we went, glad just because they worked so hard and it's an honor and a privilege to go up there and I'm so happy we got the at-large bid and then played well up there." The Vikings earned their spot with a 58-55 win in the...
The Petersburg High School cheer squad took center stage last weekend, winning the 2A Region V Cheer Championship at Thunder Mountain High School during the regional basketball tournament. First-year Coach Andrea Weathers said it took a lot of work over the season to get to where they were at regions and that the competition was a "huge learning opportunity." The nine-member team was made up of Jonas Anderson, Lakell Deinhardt, Kaden Duke, Nya Eby, Becky Fisher, Meghan O'Soup, Lillith Odegaard,...
Alaska school districts are scrambling to prepare for the new programs and policies outlined under the Alaska Reads Act that are set to go into effect next school year. The act has little funding attached to it and its implementation comes after three years of education interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which have left some questioning if districts will be able to meet all that it requires in the short time they have to prepare. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the act in June 2022 in an...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has begun its herring surveys in the Sitka Sound this week ahead of the sac roe herring fishery opening. According to reports from Sitka Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis, no herring schools or spawn have been spotted from the air since surveys began on March 13. However, herring predators including humpback whales and sea lions have been repeatedly spotted in the area. Sea lions have been seen daily along the Kruzof Island shoreline between Inner...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team competed in the regional tournament last week, playing three games over four days. Though the Vikings ultimately fell against Metlakatla in the championship game and against Wrangell in the runner up game, Petersburg booked its ticket to the state tournament through an at-large bid. In their first game of the regional tournament, the Vikings beat Wrangell in a tight 32-31 victory. "We were able to keep ourselves in that game by holding down their...
The Petersburg High School girls basketball team ended its season at the regional tournament in Juneau last weekend after losing in both of their appearances. "The kids definitely played hard, I thought that they left everything out on the court," Head Coach Dino Brock said. The Lady Vikings lost their first game against local rivals Wrangell 48-10 as Kiara Harrison led the Lady Wolves with 17 points. Petersburg played well defensively to start the game but struggled to make baskets and trailed...
The South Harbor dredge project has been suspended until this fall as the end of the environmental window approaches. An estimated 29,351 cubic yards of material have been dug out of the harbor-about half of what the project intends to remove. The last dumping of material in Frederick Sound was on Feb. 23. According to Harbormaster Glo Wollen, the project has seen hard digging, causing the project to take more time and energy than anticipated even with the equipment they have on hand. So far...
The Petersburg School District board held a discussion during its meeting on Tuesday covering where the district currently stands financially and its need for additional revenue to prevent a negative fund balance in FY24. During the discussion, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter and PSD Director of Finance Karen Morrison gave a presentation detailing how funding has declined in recent years while costs have spiked. According to their presentation, the true value of Alaska's school funding has...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department is welcoming a new batch of ETT certified volunteer responders who recently completed an ETT certification course and can now provide more assistance on calls and help respond better to emergencies. EMS Coordinator Josh Rathmann said the newly certified responders will be a huge help to the department as they continue bouncing back from a drop off in participation during the pandemic. The ETT course was developed for smaller communities that are not able...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved an ordinance in its first reading on Monday that would amend the charter to allow borough employees, including those at the school and the hospital, to serve on certain borough boards. The ordinance proposes allowing borough staff to serve on boards and commissions except for those that directly administer their employment. For instance, under the new ordinance a Petersburg Medical Center employee could run for the borough assembly or the school board...
The Viking Swim Club competed at the Age Group Championship meet in Anchorage last month where Petersburg swimmers racked up seven gold medals, three silvers, and seven bronzes. From Feb. 17-19, over 320 swimmers from 21 teams across Alaska traveled to the competition after hitting time standards to earn the chance to race. 16 VSC swimmers attended the meet including Ryder Diehl, Hakon Eddy, Cadence Flint, Devyn Flint, Olivia Hinde, Cyrus Hulebak, Zia Hulebak, Kendyl Lachapelle, Bella Miller,...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board voted unanimously to pursue a final site plan for the new hospital facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View conceptual designs during its meeting last Thursday. The Knob Hill and Creek View concepts are both located at a site along Haugen Drive and behind the Elizabeth Peratrovich building. The decision to continue designing the new facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View concepts was also unanimously recommended by the project's steering... Full story
COVID-19 cases have dropped at the Petersburg Medical Center's Long-Term Care facility after it faced its biggest outbreak of the pandemic last week. During the PMC Board meeting on Feb. 23, LTC Manager Helen Boggs reported that the facility had seen eight positive cases among residents as well as a few staff members. She also said residents had all been treated prophylactically with either Paxlovid or Remdesivir and were doing fairly well. On Wednesday, Boggs wrote that all of the COVID...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved comments for decisions on land selections that could be conveyed to the borough during its meeting on Feb. 21. The comments were for a modified final decision regarding conveyance of lands at Thomas Bay and a preliminary decision on 3,283 acres of municipal selections across the borough, both issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The Thomas Bay selections would see approximately 550 acres of state-owned land be conveyed to the borough....
The Petersburg School District Board approved the calendar for the 2023-24 school year during its February meeting. Though some draft calendars that had been presented at a previous board meeting saw some significant shakeups in the schedule, the calendar that ultimately passed is generally similar to previous years. The school year will start on Aug. 29 and finish on May 30 and will have 172 student days. Some of the changes to next year's calendar include giving students Nov. 1 off instead of...
A car crashed off an embankment near 210 Mitkof Highway at around 5:50 p.m. on Monday, according to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg. The lone occupant in the vehicle, a woman in her 70s, was uninjured in the crash but was taken to the Petersburg Medical Center for observation. According to Berg, the woman lost control on a straight stretch of road while driving her SUV northbound on Mitkof Highway. The car went off the road onto a snow-covered embankment, which gradually sloped down about 15...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team faced the Wrangell Wolves on the road last weekend, taking one win and one loss from the trip. "Anytime you can walk away with a split on the road that's a good thing," Head Coach Rick Brock said. The Vikings were beaten 52-49 after pushing the game into overtime on Friday night. Daniel Harrison led Wrangell's scoring with 15 points while Jack Engell made 22 and Kyle Biggers put up 19 for Petersburg. The Vikings took an early lead but followed...
The Petersburg High School girls basketball team closed its regular season in the rowdy atmosphere of Wrangell's homecoming games last weekend. Wrangell won the first game 38-13 as Kiara Harrison led the Lady Wolves with 25 points. Petersburg struggled from the offset and were held to just two points in the first half, but the Lady Vikings' full court pressure helped keep them in the game. The Lady Wolves stamped their name on the game in the third quarter with 17 points, bringing the score up t...
It has been a week of dramatic change for the hundred-year-old Petersburg institution-on Monday the Trading Union was officially renamed Petersburg IGA and by the end of the week new owners Mike Ward, his daughter Caroline Bangs, and her husband Travis Bangs hope to have the grocery store's shelves fully restocked with fresh product. "I got crew over from Wrangell, crew over from Haines, and we're power stocking this place," Ward said. Ward, who is in his 44th year actively managing grocery... Full story
The Petersburg Medical Center Board held a work session with the Petersburg Borough Assembly last Friday where three proposed concepts for the location and design of a new hospital building were discussed. Members from the hospital board and the assembly along with borough and PMC staff heard from Bettisworth North architects who detailed the three site plans. The Excel Site, the Knob Hill Site, and the Creek View Site have some major differences but all feature a two-story hospital with...
