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Which came first, the magister squid fishery or the magister squid market? A Juneau charter fishing operator was just awarded a $230,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find out, and area fishermen might soon have a chance to diversify in the face of declining stocks and high barriers to entry in other markets. “It’s the chicken and the egg. Do you start researching on how to catch them or if there’s a market?” said Richard Yamada, who’s dedicated the last several years to learning more about magister...
HAINES — The Southeast Alaska State Fair board canceled a meeting scheduled for Wednesday to take public input about the scheduling of Juneau Drag for this summer’s fair citing perceived threats from some residents. The scheduling of the event prompted opposition from some who expressed concerns that drag was inherently sexual and inappropriate for a public setting. About 100 people wrote emails to the fair board and staff both in support and in opposition to the act. “We received several concerns from community members about people using...
Haines—A couple armed with bug nets wading through roadside fireweed were searching for bumblebees in the Chilkat Valley north of Haines last month as part of a research effort to see if the Western Bumblebee’s range includes Alaska. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists are considering proposing that the species be added to the endangered species list. “It’s disappeared over a big chunk of its former range which stretched from California out to some of the western states and all the way up into British Columbia at about 55 degrees north,...
HAINES-Of the roughly 3.8 million Ukrainian refugees who've fled their country since Russia's invasion last month, one, an 82-year-old woman from Odessa, is now living in the Upper Chilkat Valley with no return ticket home. Alla Blazhko-Getman is living with her daughter and son-in-law, Natalia and Hans Baertle, across the bridge at 26 Mile Haines Highway. Natalia, a former high school teacher in Ukraine who moved to Alaska in 2010 after marrying, said she attempted to fly her mother out of...
Haines-Lynn Canal fishermen might have an opportunity to diversify if a Juneau-based fishing charter and lodge owner is right about his hunch that a viable commercial squid fishery could exist in Southeast. Richard Yamada, who's been operating fishing charters for 40 years, has been looking for ways to reduce the impacts on his business from king salmon declines. He speculates that an observed influx of magister squid in the northern inside passage might be one factor in salmon survival. About 1...
Haines - Klukwan resident and Diné (Navajo) artist Clara Natonabah wrote and sang a Navajo song that was featured this month in a Disney Junior Shake Your Tale with Chip 'N Dale music video. The song, titled "Hózhóogoo Dahwiit'áál" (We Will Sing in Beauty), was released on YouTube and appears in the cartoon where the popular Disney cartoon characters dance to Natonabah's song. Natonabah was chosen by Disney to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. "I was asked to part...
It's not easy to create a five-star dish using beets, anchovies, chili powder, Cheetos and gummy bears. But that's just what the 16 chefs in this year's Chilkat Chef Competition in Haines had to accomplish recently. More than 140 people attended a cooking competition in Harriet Hall where six teams had 50 minutes to incorporate those five mystery ingredients, revealed after the timer started, with a Chilkat coho salmon. The chefs had to prepare four plates for each judge and a fifth plate to...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly advanced 5-1 the fiscal year 2018 budget in its second reading with several failed budget amendments that would have kept property taxes from rising and given power and light around $775,000 to help purchase property on Birch Street to build a parking lot. Assembly member Kurt Wohlhueter proposed the latter amendment in order to help power and light replace aging infrastructure. Power and Light superintendent Joe Nelson said purchasing the property is something his department could do in the upcoming year in...
Voters may soon decide whether or not they want to raise the sales tax cap to $5,000 and to eliminate the exemption for the sale of goods purchased within the borough for use outside of it. The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved in its second reading an ordinance that would send those questions to the voters for the October 3 election. Chamber of Commerce administrator Mara Lutomski asked the assembly to reconsider putting the questions on the ballot after a group of chamber and other community members discussed the issue. “…we believe it...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted to approve in its final reading an ordinance that provides an eight cent power rate for the school buildings despite continued pleas from Petersburg Medical Center staff to give the hospital the rate as well. The break-even power rate applies to the aquatic boiler room, the aquatic center, the high school, middle school and elementary school. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without...
Voters may soon decide whether or not they want to raise the sales tax cap and to eliminate the exemption for the sale of goods purchased within the borough for use outside of it. The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved in its first reading an ordinance that would send those questions to the voters for the October 3 election. Assembly member Bob Lynn originally pushed for the sales tax questions to be on the ballot. But he said he was now on the fence after talking with local business owners who told him they would lose money to out of...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted in its second reading to approve an ordinance that provides an 8 cent power rate for the school buildings. The break-even power rate applies to the aquatic boiler room, the aquatic center, the high school, middle school and elementary school. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. During its last meeting, member Jeigh Stanton Gregor suggested the assembly appro...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a resolution opposing H.R. 232 — an act sponsored by Alaska Congressman Don Young that would transfer up to 2 million acres of Tongass National Forest to the state of Alaska. The assembly voted to table the resolution during its last meeting and rewrite some of the language member Bob Lynn said wasn’t in the best interest of the borough. The rewritten language, in part, states, “…transferring ownership of major portions of the Tongass National Forest within the Petersburg Borough to the State of Alaska w...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed a request made by the Petersburg School District and Petersburg Medical Center to pay a lower power rate but ultimately voted to only provide it to school buildings, instead of all municipal buildings including the hospital. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. “The school, the hospital and the borough have been getting together in these meetings to try t...
The Petersburg Borough assembly unanimously voted to eliminate a prepayment discount on annual moorage rates in an effort to align with a rate study that recommended the borough increase harbor fees by 12 percent. Harbormaster Glo Wollen told the assembly the harbor department loses between $22,000 to $30,000 a year because of the prepayment discount. Petersburg has the second highest rates in Southeast Alaska and Wollen said eliminating the discount would cushion an overall rate increase. “We had a pretty drastic rate increase two years ago an...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly tabled a resolution opposing H.R. 232—an act sponsored by Alaska Congressman Don Young that would transfer up to 2 million acres of Tongass National Forest to the the state of Alaska. The land that would go into state control includes subsurface lands, roads, campgrounds and cabins and the resolution cited concerns that logging would supersede other land uses. “Whereas, the Alaska Timber Jobs Task Force from which this federal land transfer strategy originated was heavily weighted to timber industry rep...
At this week’s Assembly meeting, Community Development director Liz Cabrera presented to the Petersburg Borough Assembly an outline for how to update the borough’s zoning code that hasn’t been brought up to speed since 1986. Cabrera said many parts of the code are contradictory due to small updates in some sections but not in others, that the processes used are cumbersome and slow and that the zoning is restrictive. “A lot of the definitions in the code are nonexistent, blurry, unclear, really difficult to interpret and apply consistently, real...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly gathered in its newly renovated municipal building this week during its February 27 meeting. During the meeting, the assembly passed 5-2 in its final reading an ordinance updating from city to borough code a Local Improvement District (LID) that allows for property owner-funded capital improvement projects. The ordinance would, in part, take 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. The assembly a...
Tanner crab estimates are down from the previous season although there is enough to go around for a successful fishery. Mature male Tanner abundance estimate is 4.9 million pounds, down from the 5.6 million estimate from the previous year, according to a Alaska Department of Fish and Game press release. "The Tanner crab harvest strategy sets the season length based on the mature male biomass estimate and the number of pots registered at the start of the fishery," ADFG region one lead crab...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed a request made by the Petersburg School District and Petersburg Medical Center to pay a lower power rate last month. The request comes after meetings between PSD, PMC and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. "The school, the hospital and the borough have been getting together in these meetings to try to figure out ways that we can continue to function in the way the community wants without having to cut...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed but took no action on possible amendments to the borough charter during its Feb. 6 meeting including changing the planning and zoning commission into an appointed body instead of elected and making the ability to change sales tax rates and exemptions an assembly decision rather than by the voters. According to the assembly agenda discussion item “Borough staff and the assembly have run into the Petersburg Borough Charter provisions that have made business difficult at times and may need to be a...
On November 4, 2014 614 Petersburg voters, 58 percent of those who turned out, scratched their pencils on a ballot, darkening a little oval marked ‘yes’ to Ballot Measure 2, titled “An Act to Tax and Regulate the Production, Sale and Use of Marijuana.” In the description of the potential law, the first line of the ballot measure read, “This bill would tax and regulate the production, sale and use of marijuana.” According to Petersburg Borough data, 39 percent of voters turned out for the November 2014 election, which, besides the vote for borou... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly continued to discuss the prudence of taking ownership of three dock facilities after the state offered to transfer the facilities along with more than $700,000 and the responsibility of operation and maintenance. Last February, the state offered to transfer the Entrance Island, Kupreanof and Papke’s dock facilities to the borough. In a letter from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner Marc Luiken said he applauds the borough’s willingness to accept responsibility and ste...
Local, state and federal law enforcement made two arrests this week associated with the possession and distribution of methamphetamine. After the Petersburg Court issued a warrant June 6, police searched 214 North Nordic Drive Apt # 5 and found suspect Mao Sovanmony, 43, hiding in a closet. “In the closet where Mao was hiding, a knife was found, multiple baggies, a scale and more packaged suspected methamphetamine,” a criminal complaint states. “The total weight of methamphetamine recovered was approximately 60.00 grams. Officers recov...
The Petersburg Community Foundation awarded $15,000 worth of grants this year to six Petersburg organizations. WAVE, KFSK, The Children’s Center, The Petersburg Arts Council, the Salvation Army and the Mitkof Dance Troupe were all beneficiaries of the grant monies. Petersburg Community Foundation chair David Wallen said this was the first year PCF was able to give out that much money. “It was an easy choice because we had more money than we needed available and we ended up just giving it all,” Wallen said. “(The money) is derived from how muc...
