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The 2022 general election polls closed Tuesday night, putting an end to the campaign season and kicking off a two-week waiting game as ballots are counted until the final results tabulation on Nov. 23. As of Wednesday evening, 80% of the ballots cast statewide have been reported according to the Associated Press. With Alaska now using ranked choice voting in statewide elections, those ballots are only reporting votes for candidates whom voters ranked as their first choice. So far in Petersburg...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly will hold a special meeting on Nov. 11 to decide if it will appoint the law firm of Jermain, Dunnagan, & Owens to serve as the special legal counsel in a lawsuit brought against the borough and Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson in her official capacity. During its meeting on Monday, the assembly discussed the appointment of the law firm which had been recommended by Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht and Borough Attorney Sara Heideman. After a lengthy discussion, the...
The Petersburg and Wrangell Ranger Districts are seeking comments for nine proposed cabins as the U.S. Forest Service looks to construct new cabins in areas that are closer to communities and accessible by road or saltwater. According to the project's scoping letter, the Forest Service plans to redistribute the cabin system on the Tongass National Forest to meet increasing demand and to make cabins easier to travel to and easier to maintain. The four proposed cabins in the Petersburg area...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted against a resolution during Monday's meeting that would have set 6 p.m. as the start time for all assembly meetings. Resolution #2022-17 narrowly failed by a 3-4 vote with Assembly Members Thomas Fine-Walsh, Dave Kensinger, Bob Lynn, and Jeff Meucci opposing the time change. The resolution came after Jim Floyd presented the assembly with a petition with over 70 signatures at its last meeting, which alleged that holding assembly meetings at noon makes them...
Bob Lynn was elected vice mayor by the Petersburg Borough Assembly during its meeting on Monday in a 5-2 vote with Mayor Mark Jensen and Assembly Member Scott Newman opposed. Newman made a motion to elect Assembly Member Donna Marsh as vice mayor, which was seconded by Assembly Member Dave Kensinger for the sake of discussion. Kensinger said that he was not opposed to Marsh becoming vice mayor but thought that it would be prudent to elect someone who had been on the assembly for at least a...
The Petersburg High School wrestling team made the long trip up to Anchorage last weekend for the Anchorage Christian Schools invitational, the largest competition they have attended yet, and were rewarded with their best performance of the season. "We just turned it on and we did really, really well," Coach James Valentine said. The Petersburg boys placed fifth overall, making them the top team from Southeast at the competition. Kaden Duke and Wyatt Litster both flew through their brackets,...
On a night where ghosts and goblins roam the streets, Petersburg residents had a bigger problem to worry about. A landslide occurred near 5.5 Mile Mitkof Highway on Monday around 4:30 p.m., damaging power lines and taking down trees to completely block the road. The slide left Petersburg without power and a row of cars waiting along Mitkof Highway to see if they could get home for the evening. According to Fire Chief Jim Stolpe, firefighters searched the area around the landslide and there were...
The City Creek king salmon release site will close after a decision was made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (SSRAA). The decision to close the release site comes as a result of a combination of factors according to sources from the two organizations. The City Creek release site was a collaboration between Fish and Game and the SSRAA which utilized funding from the Pacific Salmon Treaty mitigation funds and saw its first... Full story
Members of the newly formed Housing Task Force held their first meeting in the assembly chambers on Oct. 26 to begin discussing ways the borough could address local housing challenges. "The main thing that we're trying to do is to come up with a set of recommendations that we can give to the assembly and then they can decide what they want to do," said Dave Kensinger, the facilitator of the task force and a member of the Petersburg Borough Assembly. The task force features a group of Petersburg...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board will hold a work session on Nov. 10 to discuss the hospital's strategic plan for the next five years. Recommendations for the plan were formulated at a managers retreat on Oct. 19 and PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said he would present his notes from the retreat at the upcoming work session. The recommended focuses for the plan include community engagement, financial stability, staffing, and patient healthcare among others. During the PMC Board meeting last...
The Petersburg High School wrestling team headed to Sitka last weekend for a two-day tournament which gave the Vikings a good look against many of their regional opponents. Though not every school that attended brought their full team, each student still got about five matches to help build their experience, which Coach James Valentine said was the most important thing. "It was awesome because we saw schools that their program has been gone for the last couple years," Valentine said. Petersburg...
The Petersburg High School swim team closed out its season at the regional championships last weekend. Though none of the swimmers from Petersburg will be traveling to the state championships, the Vikings did post some of their best results of the season at their last meet. The Thunder Mountain girls placed first after scoring 160 points. Brooklyn Whitethorn placed fifth in the 100-yard freestyle, going sub-1-minute for the first time this season with a 59.13 second swim. The Juneau-Douglas...
Petersburg Search and Rescue found a missing hiker on Sunday off of a U.S. Forest Service road near the South Ferry Terminal after a two-day search according to Fire/EMS/SAR Director Aaron Hankins. Hankins reported that the Alaska State Troopers received a call about the missing man, who is in his early thirties, around 5 p.m. on Saturday after he did not return from his hike on time, at which point Search and Rescue was activated through SAR Captain Patrick Fowler. SAR members were debriefed...
The RM038 moose hunt ended on Oct. 15 with 116 harvested during the season according to Hilary Wood of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Of the 116 harvest this year, 104 were legal while 12 were deemed illegal. The overall number of moose harvested is down 16 from the record 132 harvested in the 2021 season and is just under the previous five-year average of 119.6. This year Kupreanof Island was again the most successful area for hunters by far with 41 legal moose harvested, though it...
Early in-person voting for the 2022 state general election opened on Monday. Petersburg residents can vote ahead of election day in the community center activity room Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Nov. 7. The election will use ranked choice voting where voters will be able to rank the candidates in each race based on their preference. After the polls close, each voter's first choice vote will be counted. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the candidate who...
A barge is now partially submerged in the Wrangell Narrows near 4 Mile Mitkof Highway after taking on water. The barge, owned by Charles Davis, initially began sinking on the morning of Oct. 15, causing the creosote pilings, beams, and dock sections on the barge to roll off into the water. Davis said they are not sure what caused it to start sinking but that after it began they moved the barge to the beach and spent the day working to contain the mess by keeping what was on the barge from...
The Petersburg High School volleyball team has stayed busy these last two weeks with students competing in both the Juneau Invitational Volleyball Extravaganza and the South Seeding Tournament in Wrangell. Before the JIVE tournament, the Lady Vikings also had a warmup match at Thunder Mountain, which the hosts won, in what was a great test against a very good team according to Coach Jaime Cabral. "For our first game of the year to be against them it was a challenge for our girls," Cabral said...
The Petersburg High School wrestling team got more valuable time on the mat last weekend at the Brandon Pilot Invitational in Juneau as the season gets into full swing. Students competed in round robin matches on Friday followed by a tournament on Saturday where six Petersburg wrestlers placed in the top three of their weight classes. DD Toyomura, who won a regional championship last season, and Jonas Anderson both placed first in their brackets. Senior Kyle Biggers placed second in the...
The Petersburg High School swim team competed in the Sitka Invitational on Oct. 14-15 in what was the team's third meet of the season. The two-day meet offered the Vikings their last chance to face their local competition before the regional championships. Freshman Brooklyn Whitethorn finished third in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:15 and fourth in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. Logan Tow swam the 500-yard freestyle in 5:46, his fastest time of the season, to place...
On a night where ghosts and goblins roam the streets, Petersburg residents had a bigger problem to worry about. A landslide occurred near 5.5 Mile Mitkof Highway on Monday around 4:30 p.m., damaging power lines and taking down trees to completely block the road. The slide left downtown Petersburg without power and a row of cars waiting along Mitkof Highway to see if they could get home for the evening. According to Fire Chief Jim Stolpe, firefighters searched the area around the landslide and... Full story
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public input on proposed cabin projects in Alaska made possible through funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Of the $18 million allocated to the Forest Service for recreation cabins and historic buildings, $14.4 million will go toward cabin projects on the Tongass and Chugach National Forests. Over 50 cabin projects have been proposed across Alaska. And though only a handful will be funded, projects in the Petersburg and Wrangell Ranger...
The Petersburg School District board unanimously voted to revise its FY23 budget during its Oct. 11 meeting to account for $262,000 in one-time funding allocated to the district by the Alaska Legislature. The one-time funding will make up for cuts to activities, instruction, and support line items made when the budget was first adopted in June-before the legislature approved the funding. The initial budget did not include the $262,000 in one-time funding and was also based on a district student...
Stedman Elementary School students got an education in fire safety last week from members of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department who visited the school to give demonstrations and show instructional videos. The Learn Not to Burn program has been on hiatus for the last couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were able to visit the fire station for some instruction last year, but this was the first time since the pandemic that PVFD members have been back in the school as...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 6-1 to approve an ordinance adjusting the borough's FY23 budget in its second reading during Monday's meeting with Assembly Member Thomas Fine-Walsh opposed. The assembly unanimously approved of two amendments during the second reading of Ordinance #2022-15. The first, proposed by Assembly Member Bob Lynn, would create a new special revenue fund to account for $1,006,800 million allocated to the borough in new American Rescue Plan Act funding. Finance...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously during its Oct. 17 meeting to nominate Assembly Member Dave Kensinger and Chelsea Tremblay to a new housing task force formed by the Alaska Municipal League (AML). The task force is seeking nominations from member communities and it will also have a child care subgroup. According to a Nils Andreassen, the executive director of AML, the goal of the task force is to gather information from members about their housing challenges and collaborate on...
