Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 596
State Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins said creating an image of fiscal responsibility in the state legislature trumps "real need" in communities across the state. "Early readings are indicating that we want to do everything we can to cut, cut, cut and keep things lean even if it means communities that have real needs suffer," Kreiss-Tomkins said. He was responding to questions from Petersburg Borough assembly members concerning state funding and fiscal forecasts and those effects on the borough's... Full story
The Petersburg Land Selection Committee is asking the borough to pursue legislative action regarding the state’s recent calculation of land entitlement for the Petersburg Borough. According to Alaska Statute, newly formed boroughs are entitled to no less than ten percent of the “maximum total acreage of vacant, unappropriated, unreserved (VUU) state general grant land within the boundaries between the date of incorporation and two years thereafter…” Committee member Liz Cabrera said the committee feels the state’s determination is inadequat... Full story
The sales tax ordinance review committee didn't come to a consensus on any changes to the senior exemption and will meet twice more before making final recommendations to the borough assembly. The committee is charged with reviewing the sales tax code and to make any changes so the borough can generate an equal or greater amount of revenue so it doesn't have to decrease services or raise property taxes. More than ten people attended the meeting and several spoke against eliminating the exemption...
The Vikings basketball squad placed 4th at the Anchorage Christian School’s Invitational Tournament in Anchorage last weekend. The Vikings lost a tough first game 57-43 against Barrow. Head Coach Rick Brock said Barrow is one of the better quality teams in the state. “We played them last year and were looking forward to see where we’re at this time of the year,” Brock said. The Vikings fell behind 15-5 in the first quarter but played strong in the second and closed the gap to 22-20 at the half with Barrow leading. But the Vikings missed...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht forecasted a “status quo” budget to the borough assembly last Monday. “It’s a status quo budget meaning we’re not changing services,” Giesbrecht said. “We’re not going to offer more services. We’re not going to offer less services. We don’t expect to have to make major changes to mill rates or sales tax rates.” The budget assumptions offer a guideline for department heads as they begin creating their fiscal year 2015 budgets. In the FY 2015 budget, $200,000 is being transferred to a Property Development...
The Petersburg Parks and Recreation Department is taking applications for this year’s second annual ‘Losing Big Petersburg’ competition. Donnie Hayes, parks and rec director, said the competition will bring together ten Petersburg residents who have “a desire to make a change in your health and wellness, that’s it.” Each contestant will have a set of guidelines to follow each week. They will participate in stress relieving activities such as progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing and journaling. Contestants must also engage in r...
Petersburg residents donated $20,088.72 this holiday season, an increase of more than $3,400 compared to 2012. Lt. Caleb Fankhauser, corps officer/pastor, said with Thanksgiving being so late in November this year, there were five less days available for contributions. “That could have been $3000,” Fankhauser said. “Petersburg proved that time doesn’t matter. They pulled out their support regardless of the number of days we had.” The top bell-ringing group was The Vessel Owners Association followed by the Rotary Club, The Salvation Army Advisor...
The Petersburg Borough Sanitation Department has set February 4 to be the start date of the new comingled voluntary recycling program. Residents who want to participate must call Public Works at 772-4430 to sign up. Once that’s done, sanitation staff will drop off blue bags, free of charge, at residences and businesses during the week of January 20. Current residents who already practice curbside recycling will be automatically transferred into the new program. After the initial rollout of the recycling program, free bags will be available f... Full story
Matt Lichtenstein, recent KFSK news director and now full-time troller fisherman, just earned $5000 in crowd funding after the Petersburg Economic Development Council (PEDC) implemented a new program earlier this month. PEDC partnered with the international non-profit Kiva Zip to offer a micro-financing option for local entrepreneurs and small businesses. “In our case, PEDC acts as a trustee for Kiva Zip so we’re kind of their on the ground person and we endorse a borrower,” said Liz Cabrera, PEDC director. Lichtenstein announced his inten...
John Swanson bought four lots at a public auction held during the borough assembly’s last meeting. The four undeveloped lots on Valkyrie Street came with a $78,000 price tag for Swanson after bidding higher than Andy Kittams. Kittams went as high as $23,000 on lots 2, 3 and 4 but stopped after Swanson upped the bid each time to $24,000. “That was higher than what the normal value would be on those properties,” Swanson said. Swanson bought lot 5 for the minimum purchase price of $6,000—the assessed value Mike Renfro, assessor for the borough... Full story
Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent and Southeast Alaska Power Agency board member Joe Nelson made a motion to suspend the Petersburg-Kake Intertie Project last week. Nelson made the motion after SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson reported to the board about future funding challenges associated with the project. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the City of Ketchikan and the City of Saxman all listed the Swan Lake Reservoir at the top of their capital project lists. Governor Sean Parnell’s fiscal year 2015 capital project list doesn’t include the pro... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to go ahead with negotiations with Wrangell, Ketchikan and the Southeast Alaska Power Agency to provide a conversion plan for the transfer of operations and maintenance of the Tyee Hyrdo Facility from the Thomas Bay Power Authority to SEAPA. The vote comes after the Wrangell Assembly drafted a resolution earlier this month that, in part, accepts SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson’s August 19 offer to take over operations at TBPA. As part of the conversion plan and Acteson’s offer, the resolution states tha... Full story
The Lady Vikings blew the competition away last weekend during their first games of the season. The girl's squad beat Thorne Bay Friday evening 51-12. Grace Weller scored 17 points and Kyla Willis scored 8. "It was a great all around game," Head Coach Dino Brock said. "It was very balanced scoring." The Lady Vikings beat Haines Saturday morning 51-30. Kylie Wallace was the high scorer with 20 points. The squad finished the tournament with a win against Cordova. Weller led with points, scoring...
John Glenn, owner of Stikine River Forest Products, announced Monday evening his plans to build a mill in Petersburg. “I have contacted several property owners and we are in the process of sending offers or accepting offers of sale,” Glenn said during his announcement to the borough assembly on Monday. Glenn said he has located a piece of property near the airport that exists within industrial zoning and has power and water connections. He said the construction of the mill would be done in two phases. Phase one would consist of a full bre... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly released Monday night an entire memorandum written by its borough attorney concerning the borough’s relationship with the Petersburg Medical Center that had previously been redacted. The assembly released a redacted version two weeks ago after The Petersburg Pilot and KFSK submitted public record requests. The motion to release the entire document failed after two of the three assembly members, John Havrilek and Nancy Strand, voted against its release. The assembly then unanimously voted to pass a redacted v... Full story
The Petersburg Borough assembly unanimously voted Monday evening to give local construction company Tamico Inc. the contract to build the commercial drive-down dock. Of the six companies bidding for the project, Tamico quoted the lowest total price at $7,775,625. The project will be funded from more than $10 million worth of accumulated state grants awarded to Petersburg over three years. Harbormaster Glo Wollen said she’s been waiting for this project a lot longer than that. “I was on a black cod trip in 1993 in Sitka when the first one in... Full story
The borough assembly will hold a public hearing concerning the recent changes made to the landfill’s salvage program. The changes come after the sanitation ordinance was updated to include the new recycling program. Karl Hagerman, public works director, reworked the fee structure. Originally, a salvage permit cost $5 for two days and $100 for an annual permit. After the changes, the annual permit was eliminated and a day use permit now costs $10 for one day. Ole Whitethorn has now objected to the change several times during assembly m...
The Borough Assembly acted correctly in releasing the complete text of the city attorney’s opinion on the relationship issues between the borough and the hospital. Important topics were previously redacted that need to be the part of the upcoming discussions between the hospital board, borough assembly and the public. While the hospital has operated in a largely autonomous fashion for decades, Petersburg Medical Center’s decision to request financial assistance from the borough logically shifts the discussion to who is ultimately res...
Three incumbent directors of the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce were elected to seats on the board in the annual elections. Hillary Whitethorn, Fran Jones and Donn Hayes were elected to two-year terms. When the new board members are seated, the directors will elect officers and make appointments to fill up to five vacancies on the board. Fran Jones was president of the board during the past year and served with Jon Wright, Beth Loesch, Seth Scrimsher, Dave Kensinger, Ron Loesch, Nick Ohmer, David Byrne and Cate Kowalski....
Joshua Franklin plead guilty to five counts of Burglary in the 2nd degree yesterday after being accused of breaking into multiple businesses around Petersburg last August. The five Class C felonies are connected to break-ins at Petersburg Motors, AP&T, Wikan Enterprises, the Petersburg Parks and Recreation building and the Hammer & Wikan grocery store. Police received reports on August 28 of break-ins and burglaries throughout the day from those locations and later obtained search warrants after viewing surveillance footage from the parks and r...
The Petersburg Viking wrestling squad took 9th place in the state tournament in Anchorage last weekend-ahead of every other Southeast team. "We ended up in a good position," Assistant coach Ed May said. "We're very, very happy with the outcome." Freshman Buddy Stelmach, wrestling in the 98-pound weight class, placed 4th in the tournament. "It was pretty fun," Stelmach said. "There were a bunch of other kids up there that were a lot bigger and more experienced." Stelmach broke his wrist early in...
The boys Viking basketball squad came home with a win from last weekend’s series against Ketchikan. They beat Ketchikan 58-46 on Friday night and lost a close game Saturday 46-55. The games were the Vikings first this season and head coach Rick Brock is happy with his team so far. “It was a great way to start the season,” Brock said. “Anytime you can go on the road and come away with a win is a success.” The Vikings led Friday’s game by ten points at the half. Ketchikan came back and played a strong second half but the Petersburg team was ab...
Petersburg High School's advanced culinary arts students will be cooking at the ProStart culinary competition in Anchorage this spring. The nationally recognized program brings student chefs from around the state where they'll form teams and cook a three-course meal in one hour. Louise Lindley, culinary arts teacher, said she's gearing her class up for the tough competition. "They'll have 20 minutes to set up their station and they have one hour to execute two identical recipes," Lindley said....
Heather Thomas, owner of the local video store and director of Sea Monster Films, stands shivering underneath the porch as rain beats down. "I just need a few seconds to think," Thomas says to her crew. But Thomas and her crew don't have the luxury of seconds. Starting Thursday evening, Sea Monster Films had 360,000 seconds to come up with an idea, write a script, shoot scenes, edit and produce a short film. It's now Saturday. With roughly 180,000 seconds left, they have an idea, a script, now...
Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson has recommended to borough officials an electric rate increase. The recommendation comes after a revenue requirement study that shows an average operational loss of $266,000 a year since 2010. John Heberling, D. Hittle& Associates engineer and consultant, began a revenue requirement study more than a year ago. “The electric rates are insufficient right now to recover the necessary revenue requirement that you do have,” Heberling reported to the assembly. “The bottom line is that we’re... Full story
