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Two candidates who are up for the Fire/EMS director position visited Petersburg this week. Stephen Jellie and Rhys Mateo were in town to meet with community members and conduct their final interviews in front of a panel and with Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. One of the two could be replacing Sandy Dixon who is retiring at the end of June. Jellie has been involved in fire emergency services since he began volunteering when he was 18. He worked in emergency services in the federal government...
The Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board voted to support a pilot program which could see the hospital offer after-school child care programming as soon as fall 2022 through its Community Wellness department. Julie Walker and Becky Turland, who was recently appointed to the Early Childhood Education Task Force, spoke to the board during last Thursday's meeting about their idea for the program which grew from the results of the child care needs assessment completed by the SHARE Coalition...
The Petersburg Medical Center Health Fair is returning for the first time in four years this Saturday in the community gym. The in-person fair, organized by the Community Wellness team, will feature speakers, booths, prizes, and more. After its cancelation in 2020 because of the pandemic, this year's theme is "getting back on track" with the hope of returning focus to preventative care such as annual health checks, something that many set aside while spending the last two years mitigating... Full story
The Petersburg High School track and field team ended its season strong with many students setting new personal records at the ASAA Division II State Championships in Anchorage last weekend. Head Coach James Valentine said his team was better equipped at handling the heat than at the regional tournament and spoke highly of their performance. "The whole team in general, I thought, looked better than they did when they were at regions because the pressure was off, they had more fun doing it, and...
Petersburg Medical Center staff discussed how a surge of COVID-19 cases in Petersburg has affected hospital operations and the community during its hospital board meeting last Thursday. According to Dr. Selina Burt, over the past month the hospital has had to reshuffle its staff to cover shifts of those who had to stay at home with the virus, but that at this point operations are mostly back to normal. PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter also reported that there has recently been "a little bit of an explosi...
Ted Cheeseman, the co-founder of Happywhale, gave a presentation to the people of Petersburg last month on the online whale documentation project and what has been learned through the contributions of users. Happywhale is a program which uses pictures of whale flukes submitted by users to identify whales and chart where they have been spotted. Cheeseman co-founded it after speaking to scientists about how regular photographs could be collected and used as data to research individual whales. The...
The Petersburg High School baseball team will be competing in the ASAA DII State Championships this weekend after earning an at-large berth. The first-seeded at-large Vikings traveled up to Wasilla High School on Wednesday ahead of their final competition of the season. They will face off against Fairbanks’ Monroe Catholic in their first game on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Win or lose, they will play again on Friday versus either Palmer or Kodiak. Head Coach Jim Engell said his team’s goal this season is to play a game on Saturday at the state tou...
Heidi Drygas, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, visited Petersburg as part of her campaign for lieutenant governor during the Little Norway Festival in late May. Drygas is running with independent Bill Walker who served as Alaska's governor from 2014 to 2018 against incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy in this year's election. The trip marked her first visit to Petersburg and during her time in town she set up a booth to talk to members of the community...
The Alaska State Legislature approved its budget at the end of the legislative session last week which includes $20 million toward the construction of a new Petersburg Medical Center facility. The hospital board has been vocal of the need for a new medical facility and is taking a phased approach through development as funding becomes available. $8 million in funding was also approved earlier this year as part of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's congressionally directed spending requests. Though the $20...
The Petersburg High School track and field team battled Southeast rivals and the elements in Ketchikan at the regional championships last week. Head Coach James Valentine said that though they did well, he could see how the heat impacted the performance of his young team. "I love our team, we showed up, we physically showed up, however every week whenever we do this it's sometimes hard to be like every week is the best week," Valentine said. "This last week really showed what the pressure and...
The Petersburg High School baseball team fell short in their final home series of the season against state powerhouse Juneau-Douglas last week. The Vikings' chances in their three losses were mired by a combined 18 errors. "It's plaguing us, and we got to figure out a way to stop it because if we're going to win games it's going to be because we don't make errors," Head Coach Jim Engell said. The Vikings suffered from seven errors in Thursday night's game which they lost in extra innings 10-9....
The Petersburg Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Alaska Community Foundation, announced on Saturday the 10 organizations receiving grants this year. The event, hosted by Glo Wollen, saw volunteers, politicians, business owners, and other prominent community members gather to support local programs. Before the grant awards, the foundation announced a new annual award-Petersburg Community Volunteer of the Year. Dave Berg was chosen as the award's first recipient which also comes with...
After a meeting last Tuesday, National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions is allowing passengers and crew from their ships to go ashore and inside business in Petersburg according to Dave Berg, president of Viking Travel and a ships agent for Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter, Dr. Mark Tuccillo, who serves as the borough’s public health officer, and Berg met with representatives from Lindblad to discuss the company’s policy COVID-19 policies and work toward allowing people to visit town. Acc...
5 students in the Class of 2022 will graduate next Tuesday in a ceremony which will run similar to those before the pandemic. It will be held at 7 p.m. in the high school gym and will be open to everyone with no assigned seating. It will also be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person and the link has been posted on the school's website. PHS Principal Rick Dormer said staff and seniors will organize around the community center and will be welcomed into the gym as the band plays Pomp...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 5-2 in favor of the FY23 budget in its second reading Monday with Assembly Members Thomas Fine-Walsh and Jeff Meucci opposed. Three amendments to the budget were approved during the meeting. Assembly Member Bob Lynn made two amendments that were both approved unanimously. The first was a recommendation by Utility Director Karl Hagerman to correct the absence of lineman apprentice wages and benefits in the budget. The second set aside $40,000 in ARPA lost...
Ambler Moss, the Petersburg School District's new secondary school principal, and his wife Thandar Myint visited Petersburg for the first time last week after he was offered the position. During their trip, Moss toured the schools, talked with students and staff, and met with members of the community during a meet and greet Friday evening. "We're psyched, we're excited about it, my wife's very enthusiastic about it," Moss said. Moss has experience teaching K-12 and has served as the head...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire in Middle Harbor on Monday after smoke was spotted coming from a docked boat. The fire was on the Lady Lou, owned by Terry Slafter, and came from the oil stove on board, according to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg. Berg said the stove may have had an installation problem that was a result of age and use and it appeared to have fallen down on one side. The area underneath and surrounding the stove was charred. According to Berg, it... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously to appoint 11 people to the Early Childhood Education Task Force during Monday’s meeting. The task force will be made up of Jessica Doril, Hannah Flor, Denise Gubernick, Katie Holmlund, Sharlay Mamoe, Jeff Meucci, Stephanie Payne, Chelsea Tremblay, Becky Turland, Glo Wollen, and Chad Wright. The assembly also voted unanimously to appoint Tremblay as the chair of the task force. The task force was created following multiple public meetings and work sessions which identified problems with r...
The Petersburg High School baseball team is looking to bounce back in their final home series this weekend after taking three losses against Sitka last weekend. The first game on Friday saw the largest loss for the Vikings with an 11-1 score line, but Head Coach Jim Engell said it could have been a lot closer. Lathum Johnson started on the mound for the Vikings and was playing well until he reaggravated an abrasion on his hip by diving back to first base on a pickoff move. Though Petersburg was...
A new triathlon club sponsored by Parks and Recreation is welcoming interested community members of any skill level to train for upcoming races. Scott Burt, who organized the group and is in the process of becoming a certified Ironman coach, believes the club will provide a supportive environment for people who want to train in the sport. “I just saw Parks and Rec as being a perfect venue to be able to bring all of these people together that share a common interest so that we could train together, so that we could benefit from each other’s exp...
Following a successful bid opening, the South Harbor dredge project is gearing up toward an October start date according to Harbormaster Glo Wollen. South Harbor, which was completed by the state in 1984, has faced problems with the bottom of the harbor rising and boats going dry in stalls during certain stages of the tide, making them unusable. Wollen said that since it was completed "we've had issues of the glacial rebound occurring and also with earthquakes and different things we've noticed...
2 students on the Petersburg High School track and field team competed in the Capital City Invitational last weekend which saw many on the young team get personal records in their largest meet yet. “It was just such a fun experience especially for like, again, some kids this is their first time on a track ever, first time even in the sport ever, you know, and it was so much fun, so I think overall the team did well,” Head Coach James Valentine said. Uriah Lucas took first in the 3200 meters, finishing “with absolute style” and a school...
The Petersburg School District has made a contract offer to a new secondary school principal which was approved by the school board during Tuesday's meeting. According to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter, the district's hiring committee interviewed several candidates for the position in a shorter "streamlined" hiring process and has offered the position to Ambler Moss for the upcoming school year. Kludt-Painter said Moss brings with him over 25 years of experience in education and reported tha...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted in a close 4-3 vote in favor of the borough's proposed FY23 budget in its first reading during the assembly's May 2 meeting. Before the meeting, the assembly held a work session where Finance Director Jody Tow gave a presentation reviewing the budget and department heads spoke on upcoming expenditures. Tow reported that "costs have increased dramatically" throughout the borough, impacting the upcoming year's budget. New contracts with the Petersburg...
The Petersburg High School baseball team went up against the Kayhi Kings in a home series last weekend but lost all three games against the tough opposition. "They're just a really good team and I can't say enough about the program, they've historically been a really good team for years and they do everything the right way," Head Coach Jim Engell said of the visitors. The Kings took a mercy rule victory in the first game Friday night, beating Petersburg 10-0 after five innings. Lathum Johnson...
