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The Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board discussed the hospital's current staffing situation and turnover as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect its operations during its meeting on January 27. The meeting packet featured a report provided by Human Resources Director Cynthia Newman which included a list of new hires, terminations, and the numbers of other employee statuses at the hospital in 2021. During the previous year, PMC welcomed 26 new employees but had 37 terminations. The... Full story
The Petersburg High School boys and girls varsity basketball teams are set to travel to Juneau and Haines this weekend to play their first matches in two weeks. The Vikings will first face Thunder Mountain on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. before both teams travel to Haines to play on Friday and Saturday. The teams did not play last week after they were unable to go to Craig but plan to make up those games at the end of the season according to Vikings Head Coach Rick Brock. Craig had also previously planned a trip to Petersburg in early January...
This year's mature herring biomass in the Sitka Sound is expected to be the largest ever with a forecasted 225,820 tons according to Sitka Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The high forecast has also resulted in the highest guideline harvest level (GHL) ever set for the annual sac roe herring fishery of 45,164 tons or 20% of the sound's total mature herring biomass. Dupuis said the biggest factor impacting the forecast is the "very large" class of...
The Mitkof Middle School robotics team is making their final preparations for the upcoming robotics state tournament after placing first in the innovative project category at the regional competition in December. The team claimed first after wowing the judges with their concept to streamline loading and unloading at the Alaska Marine Lines facility in Petersburg. The students first got the idea of doing their project with AML after Kurt Kivisto gave them a tour of AML's local warehouses and...
Rae C. Stedman Elementary School called for aid, and Petersburg answered. The school was threatened with the closure of four classrooms in February and March as some teachers were set to take leave while there were no available substitute teachers before four Petersburg residents stepped up to fill the need. Casey Knight will fill in for Hillary Mullen's Kindergarten class on February 3-4, Erin Streuli will step in for Erin Willis' Kindergarten class from February 28 to March 9, and two classes...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held a work session Monday afternoon to brainstorm ideas for how funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act can be used. The assembly invited representatives of various community organizations to discuss their needs and ideas for how the $634,382 can be distributed. The work session came as a result of numerous discussions at regular assembly meetings on the desire to find ways to spend the money received through ARPA and members of the community reaching...
Hammer & Wikan Grocery is set to welcome four self-checkout stands in early February according to Grocery Store Manager Todd Hampton. The self-checkouts will replace registers two and three following a remodeling of the checkout lanes with the hope of adding convenience to the shopping experience according to Hampton. "We're just trying to bring Hammer & Wikan up with the times and try to match what other places are doing in the lower 48," Hampton said. Though the recent nationwide staffing...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team took home the winner's trophy after going undefeated in last weekend's basketball tournament hosted by Su Valley in Talkeetna. The Vikings won all three of their games in a tournament that they almost did not make it to after the team's flight from Petersburg last Wednesday was delayed. They flew out later that day, but by the time they reached Juneau their connecting flight had already left. After spending the night in the capital, the team...
About 50 people, some holding anti-abortion signs, marched along Nordic Drive on Sunday afternoon in observance of National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The marchers began gathering at the corner of Nordic Drive and Dolphin Street for the annual March for Life just before 1 p.m. and marked the beginning of the march with a prayer. Pastor Lee Corrao, who organized this year's march and invited local churches to participate, said people came out to make a statement of their pro-life beliefs. "We...
The Petersburg High School girls basketball team traveled to Talkeetna for the Rally at Denali tournament last weekend, making it to the championship match where they fell to Wrangell in their first meeting of the season. The six teams who traveled were broken up into two groups at the tournament which Head Coach Dino Brock said was a good environment to play against competitive teams outside their conference. "I thought that the weekend showed us that we really need to work on," Brock said....
The Petersburg School Board voted to continue universal masking throughout the district as part of its COVID-19 mitigation plan Tuesday night. At the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, teachers and parents spoke to the board both in support and against the continuation of universal masking. Those who supported universal masking cited the high number of positive cases nationwide with the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant and their belief that remote learning is more harmful to...
The Supporting Health Awareness and Resiliency Education (SHARE) Coalition hosted a Community Café Saturday afternoon on Zoom which centered on the future of child care in Petersburg. The meeting gave members of the community, including representatives from the Petersburg Borough Assembly, Petersburg Medical Center, and the Petersburg School Board, an opportunity to hear about the challenges facing local child care providers and to discuss ways to support children, providers, and parents who...
The Petersburg Medical Center's COVID-19 Dashboard reported 20 active cases Wednesday evening and a positivity rate of 24.7% during the previous week. The Petersburg School District reported one case at each school among staff and students Wednesday. PSD is no longer posting the number of people in quarantine. The Petersburg School Board also voted to continue universal masking at all schools during its board meeting Tuesday night. According to the Alaska Department of Health and Social...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly presented a draft agenda of its upcoming American Rescue Plan Act funding work session and discussed the items it included during Tuesday's meeting. The assembly is hosting the work session to give members an opportunity to discuss opportunities to allocate their ARPA funds and determine what local organizations or groups are in need of relief. The borough was awarded with $634,382 in ARPA funds that must be obligated by December 31, 2024 and expended by December...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly heard from staff on the borough's procedures when hiring employees and examined documents included in the application process for general employees and for police officers during Tuesday's meeting. The review of the hiring practices followed the firing of Johnny Duane Pickle who began working as a police officer in probationary status with the borough on June 22, 2021 until his employment was terminated on January 3, 2022. Pickle's termination came after an...
Applications for relief funding opportunities which could help local businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to open soon according to Community and Economic Development Director Liz Cabrera. In a recent email sent out by Cabrera, she reported that additional funding will be coming through Round 2 of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration CARES Act Fisheries Relief, Phase 2 of Child Care Provider Stabilization Grants, and Round 2 of ARPA Nonprofit Recovery Fund...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed Ordinance #2021-22 in its third and final reading Tuesday evening, increasing the FY22 budget. Passing unanimously in its first two readings, the ordinance sets out to increase the budget for dredging the South Boat Harbor by $271,600. The ordinance also accepts an additional $553,081 in Fisheries business Tax Revenue and transfers $353,081 of that to the Harbor Fish Tax revenue fund. The ordinance would also see the borough accept $1,222,750 from the...
The Petersburg High School junior varsity basketball team took on the Sitka Wolves on Friday and Saturday in its first home games of the season, giving young players their first taste of high school athletic competition. Last weekend's action was originally set to see the Petersburg boys and girls varsity teams play against Craig but that was canceled due to high COVID-19 case counts on Prince of Wales Island. After the cancelation, Activities Director Jaime Cabral invited the junior varsity... Full story
Southeast Alaska was covered in a fresh layer of snow last weekend followed by rainfall which caused frozen roads, flooding, and damage to buildings across the region. The NWS issued a winter storm warning in anticipation of last weekend's weather with the expectation of total snow accumulations of 3 to 13 inches and wind gusts up to 45 mph for cities in Southeast including Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. Petersburg recorded 7.5 inches of snowfall on Saturday which brought the total snow de... Full story
An officer at the Petersburg Police Department, who was hired on June 22, 2021 as a Police Officer II in probationary status, is no longer employed by the Petersburg Borough after an internal investigation was conducted following a complaint according to Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson, who is also the borough's human resources director. In an interview with the Pilot, Pickle confirmed that his employment with the borough was terminated on January 3, 2022. First reported by the Juneau Empire on Ja... Full story
Petersburg has reached 27 active cases of COVID-19 according to the Petersburg Medical Center's COVID-19 Dashboard which was last updated Tuesday. The Petersburg School District has also begun reporting cases after students returned to school this week. As of Wednesday, Rae C. Stedman Elementary School had three active cases and four on quarantine, Mitkof Middle School had two active cases and one on quarantine, and Petersburg high school had three active cases and four on quarantine. According...
The Petersburg School Board held a work session Tuesday night to discuss potential changes to the district's COVID-19 mitigation protocols before its next regular meeting. While no action was taken at the over two-and-a-half-hour work session, it gave the board members an opportunity to prepare for action at the next board meeting and hear from experts about current guidelines and the state of the pandemic. The work session was originally scheduled for January 4 but was postponed due to flight...
Applications are now open for apartments within the Vakker Sted affordable housing complex according to Glenn Gellert of Swell, LLC. The building on Excel Street across from the Petersburg Medical Center is still set to open to residents in March as the project nears completion. It will house 15 apartments, including two one-bedroom units and 13 two-bedroom units, that will be mostly leased to residents making 60% or less of the local median income Though construction is progressing, exterior...
The installation of permanent lights at the ice skate pond will not be completed this winter after early freezing conditions and shipping delays hindered progress on the project according to Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. The project aimed to make the ice skate pond safer and generate more use by the community during the winter by putting up lights on two poles next to the pond. Payne said that Rock-N-Road Construction donated time to dig a trench and install an underground conduit to run cables between the poles, but after the...
Petersburg High School boys and girls varsity basketball games were canceled this weekend after Craig was unable to travel due to COVID-19 cases in their community according to Activities Director Jaime Cabral. The matchups would have been the first home games of the season for the Vikings and Lady Vikings. In their place, Petersburg will host a mini-tournament where the PHS boys junior varsity team will split into two teams and play against the junior varsity teams from Sitka and Juneau-Douglas. The teams will not be playing full games in...
