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The Petersburg High School cross country teams took part in the Region V meet last weekend in Sitka, and the girls team ran away with the team championship. The girls will send seven runners to state in Anchorage this weekend, and they’ll be joined by one member of the boys team. “The girls did awesome,” coach Debby Eddy said. “They were incredible, they ran like a pack.” Kayleigh Eddy put up a personal record (PR) barely edging out teammate Shyla Cook for second place. Less than 30 seconds after Cook crossed the finish line, Melanie Chase fini... Full story
The municipal building renovation project is coming along, and a cornerstone of the finished project will be the new facility for the Petersburg Police Department. Last month, steel jail cells were shipped up from Colorado, putting the facility one step closer to completion. "It looks pretty good," says Chief Kelly Swihart. "I think we have it set up in a way that's really going to ensure safety for inmates and employees." Swihart classifies the old cells as "fairly secure, but I wouldn't say th... Full story
The second full week of moose hunting in RM038 will come to a close on Thursday. The count concerning illegal kills remains low with three of 51 moose deemed illegal. Those figures could quickly change with the five-day required check in period, according to Rich Lowell, area wildlife biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Lowell says since 2009, when the moose antler restrictions were altered to allow the harvest of bulls with two brow tines on both antlers, the annual moose...
Last week Alaska's Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott delivered the keynote address at Southeast Conference's annual meeting in Petersburg. Mallott talked about the below average pink salmon runs, the Alaska Marine Highway System and transboundary rivers mining issues in Southeast. Mallott in an interview with the Pilot, discussed current issues facing the region, including this year's Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) and the importance of the ferry system. Mallott said he is in full agreement with...
Touring guitarist Chris Proctor visited town this week to give a workshop at the library and play at the Sons of Norway Hall. The concert took place Tuesday night, and it was Proctor's second time playing the old wooden hall in the last five years. Proctor is known for playing solo, acoustic six and 12-string guitar, and almost completely leans toward instrumental music. Years ago, he won the highly competitive national fingerstyle guitar championship in Kansas. Proctor defeated 39 other...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held its second reading for an ordinance concerning an excise tax being applied to all marijuana and marijuana products in the borough at its meeting Monday. Any proposed tax would depend on the results of the upcoming Oct. 4 municipal election. If voters approve marijuana sales, a tax of $25 per ounce could be charged on the cultivation, manufacture and importation of marijuana and any marijuana products for commercial use. In the first reading of the ordinance assembly member Nancy Strand voted against an... Full story
PHS cross country took on a hill-filled course in Juneau last weekend, and the girls came in second to Juneau-Douglas by one point. Head coach Tom Thompson said the finish, with the exception of regions last season, was the best he's seen a girls team have in his five years of coaching. The girls had five runners in the top 15, and Thompson said they looked "powerful." Kayleigh Eddy improved on her time from last year on the course, en route to a fifth place finish. Standout freshman Melanie... Full story
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia is scheduled for a trip to Oregon for repairs after divers noticed a bent starboard propeller late last week, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. “Not a huge bend, but there was a noticeable bend,” he said. “That was the only visible damage the divers noticed.” Earlier in the week, the vessel was traveling Lynn Canal to Haines or Skagway when those onboard noticed a vibration. Soon after, it was discovered the vibration happened when the vessel exceeded...
So far the moose season for the Petersburg, Wrangell and Kake area is looking much better than last year when it comes to illegal kills, according to Rich Lowell, area wildlife biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). “We’re at two right now, two out of 23,” he said of total illegal kills. “But that could change in a heartbeat.” Lowell said hunters have five days to check in a harvested moose, so there’s still a chance the total for the first week of the season could increase. In 2015, 34 moose were taken during the first week...
Petersburg played host to the Alaska Recreation and Park Association’s 2016 conference last week, with around fifty parks and recreation director and employees in town. On Thursday morning, they were joined by about 30 students and a handful of community members for the keynote address by Greg Morton. Morton is the CEO of the Northern California Human Resources Association, based in San Francisco, California. His message was all about the importance of balancing life and work, and overcoming personal challenges. In 2014, he suffered a s...
The Petersburg High School swim team headed to Juneau last weekend, and put up some good performances even though the team scoring didn’t reflect individual efforts, according to head coach Andy Carlisle. “We didn’t do great score wise, but we weren’t really paying attention to that,” he said. “We were just focusing on individual swims.” Carlisle said there were a few disqualifications, which hurt team scoring, but they happened because swimmers left the starting block early. The swimmers were...
It's been just under a month since Ian Andersen departed Prudhoe Bay on his bike, and he spent part of last week in Petersburg. Andersen will spend the next year or so riding from Alaska to Argentina, and he couldn't be more excited, because he's making the 17,500-mile trip to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries and disabilities. When it comes to bikes, Andersen, 24, will be the first to tell you he doesn't know much about them. He completed a couple of two or three weeklong tours with...
The walls of her classroom might still be a little bare, but Joyce Metsa is working on that while settling into her new role teaching math at Petersburg High School. Metsa began her teaching career in 1988, with a few breaks here and there, and spent the last 10 years as an educator in Metlakatla. She doesn't see herself teaching in five years, because retirement is calling her name, but for right now she's loving Petersburg and her new students. "There's an openness to kids here," she says....
The borough"s blue cart recycling program began at the beginning of the year and seems to be running smoothly, according to Public Works Director Karl Hagerman. "Overall the community has really accepted the new system," he says. "Customer satisfaction, I think, is pretty good and we"ve received very little negative feedback over the program." After the start of the program, Public Works distributed a handful of smaller 64-gallon blue carts to low volume households who requested them. The... Full story
The school year is well underway and Jasmine Ieremia is back in class at PHS after spending a year studying abroad with the Rotary Exchange Program. She"s been back in town for four months, and the time has allowed her to reflect on living in Thailand. Ieremia says she missed American culture, and the tonal language of Thailand was difficult. She knew enough to get around and do regular everyday things, but conversation was limited. Another hurdle was the steep learning curve of driver and...
The Petersburg Children"s Center began the school year earlier this month with a new look after recently completing a renovation. Teachers and kiddos were welcomed with a spacious expansion, but it wouldn"t have been possible without overwhelming support from the community. "This whole process has included many, many people. Jim Schwartz and Bob Lynn have been here throughout the entire project," PCC director Brandi Heppe wrote in an email to the Pilot. "Jim Roberts and Kurt Wohlhueter were...
To comply with HB156, the school board unanimously approved the sex education curriculum and the teachers of the curriculum for the school year at their board meeting Tuesday night. The board held an open work session Monday night to hear from staff that will be teaching this year”s sex education courses. The teachers gave board members a rundown of past curriculum and their approach to this school year. “It was almost two hours of information. I feel like we came away with a real clear understanding of what is being taught,” said board presi...
PHS cross country had an exceptional met in Metlakatla last weekend, with nine runners earning personal records (PR). The girls team placed first, edging Ketchikan by one point for the victory, and the boys took second as a team. Senior Kayleigh Eddy ran a PR for the first time since her sophomore year. She was closely followed by Erin Pfundt and Meghyn Parker, who placed third and seventh. Pfundt and Parker also put up PR”s. Madisyn Parker crossed the finish line next in 14th place and seconds later Eva Lenhard earned 16th place and a PR. F...
A state outreach program designed to shake some sense into Alaskans, with the help of a mobile earthquake simulator worth over $100,000, stopped by Petersburg last week. Each year the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) sends out a mobile trailer unit to different communities in an effort to raise awareness of earthquake risks. However, this year is the first for the simulator traveling around Southeast Alaska, according to Jeremy Zidek, public information...
The PHS swim teams traveled to Sitka last weekend for the first meet of the year. The meet offered two days of events and showed the strongest events for the Vikings so far would be anything involving freestyle, according to head coach Andy Carlisle. "We had everybody do pretty good, especially in our freestyle races," he said. "Our other races weren't as good as the freestyle ones, but they were still pretty good overall." On Friday, the girls team took third place behind Juneau-Douglas and... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to send a letter urging an alternative route to logging Alaska Mental Health Trust (AMHT) lands south of town at its Tuesday meeting. The land in question is on steep hillside located above Mitkof Highway, and the borough would rather see land exchanged than logging. Last month, the AMHT board announced plans to go forward with timber sales of lands near Petersburg from Scow Bay to south of Twin Creek, if a land exchange is not approved by Congress on Jan. 15. There is also AMHT land near Ketchikan. The...
Petersburg hosted around 200 cross country runners last weekend for a sunny installment of the Jack Eddy Invitational. The boys ended up taking fifth as a team and the girls earned second place coming in behind a tough Juneau-Douglas squad. "The weather was beautiful and the kids ran excellent," said assistant coach Debby Eddy. The PHS girls had nine runners in the field and the top six times were clocked within two minutes of each other. Kayleigh Eddy crossed the finish line first, taking...
The municipal election on Oct. 4. is fast approaching as the deadline for candidates to file came and went. Mark Jensen will run unopposed for mayor. Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Kurt Wohlhueter and Marc Martinsen are all running for two open assembly seats. Sandra Stevens is seeking a three-year term with the school board, leaving one vacant seat still open. Darlene Whitethorn is throwing her hat in for an open hospital board seat, but three, three-year terms do not have candidates. The planning and zoning commission has Otis Marsh and Yancy Nilsen l...
The assembly held its first reading of an ordinance amending borough code by imposing excise taxes on marijuana businesses within the borough. According to borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht, the assembly can elect to implement an excise tax on marijuana products, and that doesn’t need to be voted on. However, any additional taxes on licensed facilities would need to be voted on. Local resident Marj Oines took the time to speak on the potential excise tax at the meeting, during public comments. Oines noted any funds from an excise tax would g...
With the seasonal peak behind it, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is expecting one of the worst shortfalls for salmon in recent memory. As of last Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-season blue sheet summary estimated just over 102,245,000 salmon had been caught statewide, with less than a quarter of that caught in Southeast. Despite a fair showing for sockeye, the state’s fishermen would be fortunate enough to harvest half the 263,463,000 salmon estimated caught last year. The news has not been good for the local comme... Full story
