Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 417
Lower back pain, that's what made Dave Thynes start running one fall, almost a decade ago. He'd grown tired of going to the medicine cabinet for multiple ibuprofen, and occasionally having to resort to pain killers, as a means to cope with "goofed up discs." He chipped away at running and, after a rocky period of his back adjusting, it became his new thing. "By the wintertime I was feeling really good with my gains, and I had lost a lot of weight," Thynes says. "So, I just went ahead and got... Full story
Having tough conversations at work is part of what Ashley Kawashima signed up for when she became a behavioral health clinician at the local hospital. But some of the hardest days come when she has to be honest with a person, looking to her for assistance, about the limited number of resources available. Just imagine, someone seeking shelter and all Kawashima can offer them is a tarp or tent. "That can be very soul-crushing," she says. "And that was a big part of why we wanted to start Humanity... Full story
Leaving his warm house and family behind at 2:30 a.m., during winter months in order to plow snow can be downright taxing for Martin Odegaard. The Public Works (PW) foreman lives out on Cabin Creek, and he's no stranger to putting chains on his pickup just to make it to work. Recently, it took him a half hour to complete the three-mile drive, no joke. "I know the road pretty well, know what to look for, and I've always got it figured out how I'm gonna make it in," Odegaard says. "Always made... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held the first reading of an ordinance designed to amend municipal code regarding the local improvement district (LID) process on Tuesday night. The program is aimed at taking advantage of the SECON asphalt plant while it’s in town by offering residents of select neighborhoods the opportunity to pay for their streets to be paved. Lake Street resident Joel Randrup spoke to the assembly last week about the issue, and did so again this week. He wanted to reiterate his characterization of the LID as having a “majorit...
The Petersburg Indian Association held board elections earlier this month, but it took until Tuesday for the results to be certified because of a candidate challenge, according to a press release. The challenge, brought by William Ware, resulted in a challenge committee being formed on Jan. 11. The challenge committee was comprised of one election official, two election committee workers and two PIA tribal members. However, on Jan.15, Ware withdrew his challenge in a letter clarifying the intent of his challenge as regarding the election...
David Plagens worked as a police officer in west Texas on the border of New Mexico and Mexico prior to accepting a position with the Petersburg Police Department. He has four years of law enforcement experience, including three years as a deputy and one as a jailer. Plagens is married and his wife Jolie will be moving to the island this spring, maybe mid-April. Plagens has only been in town a couple of weeks, but he already has a healthy respect for the local fishing community and wet weather. "...
After spending four years with the U.S. Navy working military police, Luis Waechter is looking forward to the slower pace of life in Petersburg. "The last three years of my Navy contract I was deployed out in the Middle East, so everything about Petersburg is better in that aspect," he says. "I like the quiet, small town community here." Waechter recently moved to the borough after accepting a position with the police department. He is originally from South Carolina and fell in love with...
The average temperature for Petersburg last year was 46 degrees, the warmest on record, and it also marked the 34th driest, according to NOAA warning coordination meteorologist Joel Curtis. Local records were set for warm weather in March and a new lowest recorded rainfall happened in October. The minimum temperature was also the warmest on record, he said. As for precipitation, Curtis said it was just under 93 percent of normal, with 101.18 inches falling. That's an 8.05 inch departure from...
The Petersburg has one confirmed case of Pertussis or whooping cough, according to a notice sent out by Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter on Tuesday afternoon. “We have been working with the Medical Center and Public Health Nurse to determine the best course of action for sharing accurate and helpful information with staff, parents, and community members,” Kludt-Painter wrote. “This is not a public health emergency, but we need to be cautious and aware.” The email described the case as being found in a small child, but did not specify if it w...
Susan Ohmer was raised to work. She learned what it meant to work hard early in life, so the idea of taking months off work for a sabbatical is truly foreign to her. As the executive director for Petersburg Mental Health, Ohmer was recently chosen as one of six Alaska nonprofit executives to be recognized by the Rasmuson Foundation Sabbatical Program. "It still doesn't seem like it could happen, like it's real," she says. "It's ironic that I'm someone who for 23 years has had difficulty taking...
The state has so far not received any applications from a number of floathouse owners contacted last autumn. Since October, the Department of Natural Resources has been reaching out to identified owners of floating facilities anchored along the Stikine River’s tidal area, the land which is under its clear jurisdiction after resolving a longstanding dispute with the United States Forest Service last March. The floathouses being targeted are those anchored within the tidal influence of the river, which ends just beyond the terminus of Shakes S...
The Petersburg school board met Tuesday night to discuss the loss of federal secure rural school funding due to the program seemingly ending in 2017. Board president Sarah Holmgrain said the program has not been funded on a federal level beyond this year, and the school district stands to take a significant hit for the change. In 2015, Congress re-authorized the funding through the current year; however, the discussion going forward for Petersburg will be how the district learns to live without. The school receives about $600,000 from secure...
An application for an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) permit alteration to release 40 million chum salmon in Thomas Bay brought forth by the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA) has been approved. The application process has taken just over a year to secure the location, north of Petersburg, for the release but the change is something NSRAA general manager Steve Reifenstuhl has been thinking about for a while now. “I looked at Thomas Bay approximately 20 years,” he says. “Had temperature probes out there to ev...
Brian Lynch didn't have to hike up Petersburg Mountain or go aboard a vessel in search of his photo "BW" that was recently selected for an exhibition dedicated to flowers. All the local photographer had to do was go out to the garden and look over by the wood shed. "I was out there playing around and this was out there," he says. "I flipped my camera so it was on monochrome because I had decided to do it in black and white." He saved the photo and gave it a "goofy name" then kind of forgot...
The Lady Vikings basketball team traveled to Haines last weekend and ended up playing postponed games on Monday and Tuesday due to bad weather. Head coach Dino Brock said the girls are so used to traveling that the delay didn't negatively impact his squad. Teams playing in Southeast have to be prepared for anything, Brock said. "They handled it very well," he said. "They are pretty used to weird things happening." Brock said the girls started the game on Monday with more energy than Tuesday's...
The PHS boys' basketball team opened up conference play in Haines this week with two victories. The team spent multiple days in Juneau due to bad weather so the games were rescheduled for Monday night and Tuesday afternoon. "With the weather changing daily and the kids needing to continually make adjustments, I thought they handled it very well," head coach Rick Brock said. "Monday, we knew, would be a long day going in and we just tried to prepare for it." Brock believed the postponed games had...
Paving proposal unanimously The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday to approve a program known as a local improvement district or LID. The program is taking a private approach to funding paving improvements in a select number of neighborhoods around town. Public Works director Karl Hagerman gave details about the program at the assembly’s last meeting and assembly members asked for a resolution prior to granting any approval. The time also allowed assembly members to learn more about LID and why Hagerman was so passionate a...
January Public Works rolled out the borough's highly anticipated blue cart recycling program. The borough received $820,117.61 from the annual raw fish tax. Dave Zimmerman was hired as the new Tongass National Forest Petersburg District Ranger. The assembly continued discussing the reallocation of the Kake access road funding. Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins took part in a budget crisis presentation at Sons of Norway Hall. The visit was the first of many by representatives throughout the...
Borough finance director Jody Tow recently had a small scare concerning the annual fish tax the borough receives from the state. The original figure the state gave Tow was $336,847, which would have been the lowest in 15 years, but after reaching out for confirmation she was told the figure was only half of what Petersburg would receive. Tow said the borough will receive almost $337,000 as an initial payment, then get an additional $327,000 due to a timing issue with the state’s fiscal year cut off. If it wasn’t a scare for Tow, it was def...
The borough assembly held its first meeting of 2017 on Tuesday, and had a somewhat full slate on the agenda including a noncompliance hearing of an order to vacate and repair or demolish a dangerous building at 510 Lumber St. Borough building official Joe Bertagnoli and Power and Light electrician Gary Morgan gave oral and written evidence documenting the dangers at the location. Both borough employees said multiple attempts have been made to bypass the borough’s efforts to keep people out of the property by diverting power. The location is u...
The Lady Vikings’ basketball team traveled to Anchorage for the Rally of The Regions Tourney and ended up going 3-1. Head coach Dino Brock said the team performed well all weekend and he had no complaints about dropping a game. “I was very happy with the first games of the year,” Brock said. “I thought we got exactly what we wanted. We saw improvement from every player, from the first game to the last game.” The team also impressed coach Brock with its improvement on offense and defense as the weekend progressed. The junior varsity team show...
Head coach Rick Brock liked playing four games against unfamiliar teams with different styles last weekend in Anchorage, and the Vikings won all their games by double digits. The non-conference games gave the Vikings a warm up for Haines this weekend, where the boys will continue to contribute as a team and show their depth. “One of our strengths this year will be the fact, that most times, we can have five guys on the floor that have the capability of scoring,” he said. “That makes it difficult for other teams to guard us.” The play of juni...
The borough assembly will see a resolution at its next meeting to approve a program known as local improvement district or LID. Approval of the resolution would be the first step of many in taking a private approach to paying for paving a select number of neighborhood streets in town. Public works director Karl Hagerman says LID is already on borough books, but it’s rarely utilized and he thinks it could do well to improve the borough before SECON pulls their asphalt plant out next year. If the resolution fails to pass the assembly next week no...
Earlier this month, PPD responded to a request from the harbormaster to conduct a welfare check of a harbor resident. On Dec. 16, Edward Bottani was found deceased aboard the M/V Glider moored in North Harbor. Bottani had not been seen for two or three days and harbor staff contacted PPD out of concern. The Medical Examiner’s office was contacted and is continuing the investigation, as no immediate cause of death was apparent, according to PPD Chief Kelly Swihart. The death is not believed to be suspicious, and Bottani’s next of kin have bee...
The municipal building might have been a quiet construction site over Christmas, but prior to the break public works director Karl Hagerman says up to 25 men had been working in and around the building to complete Phase 1. Additional men will be brought in to make the mid-January deadline, if necessary, he says. That means the Petersburg Police Department's move from the south side of the building should go as planned. Hagerman says the PPD move will take place Jan. 15 through Feb. 15. "There...
