Sorted by date Results 476 - 500 of 596
Petersburg Police Officer Jim Kerr has been promoted to sergeant. Chief Kelly Swihart said a promotion board made up of himself, Captain John Hamilton, Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht and Sergeant Joel Smith from the Wasilla Police Department evaluated four candidates during the review process. "We took a three pronged approach to get a good solid evaluation," Swihart said. "The scores were tighter than I expected. It wasn't an easy decision for the board to make the recommendation." Those up...
Petersburg Mental Health Services will take the reins on running a second Pedometer Challenge this spring after Petersburg Indian Association found out it couldn’t secure grant funding for the program. Interest in last year’s challenge sparked and Mark Banda, PIA Tobacco Prevention Specialist saw participation double from what was expected. “What started out at about 150 assumed participants turned into 200 very quickly and that followed up and turned into over 300,” Banda said. Banda gave pedometers to participants who were able to track h...
A local quilting group that sends its blankets to a charity organization found out its quilts aided those in the Philippines affected by Typhoon Haiyan. The storm has killed thousands and displaced more than half a million people since it struck earlier this month. Heidi Lyons is a member of The Ruth Circle, the quilting group that meets twice a month in the Lutheran church. Every year it donates more than a hundred quilts across the world to those in need. “They’ve gone to Africa and they’ve gone to Southeast Asia,” Lyons said. “All the quilts...
Petersburg High School Choir students Frances Abbott and Stephanie Pfundt attended the National Association of Music Educator's All National Honors Choir in Nashville, Tenn. The girls auditioned for the honors choir last spring and were notified of their acceptance in July. Pfundt received the good news in an email from her music teacher Matthew Lenhard. "I was fishing on my dad's boat," Pfundt said. "It was nine o'clock at night and I was up in the wheelhouse and I started screaming. All the... Full story
Petersburg School District kids will likely eat new and fresher foods at school if the district receives funding from the state to remodel the school’s kitchen. Carlee Wells, Director of Child Nutrition for PSD, said she’s been pushing to renovate the kitchen since she started the job in 2011. Wells and head cook Carol Larson prepare breakfast and lunch for around 200 hungry students and employees every day. The kitchen, located in the elementary school, shares its space with the cafeteria and...
Petersburg School District students and staff hosted a Veteran's Day Assembly in the Wright Auditorium Monday morning. Elementary and middle school students sang songs and played instruments for more than 15 Petersburg veterans and other assembly attendees. After the music those attending the event thanked and shook the hands of the veterans, one of whom served during WW2. Petersburg high school and middle school students attended and watched a video presentation detailing the lives and...
Kevin Colson, Wildlife Biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, gave a presentation in the public library conference room Tuesday night about moose populations and their long journey to Southeast Alaska. To help tell the story, Colson for the past year and a half has worked with Petersburg high school teacher Joni Johnson and her science students as they collect and catalogue moose DNA samples. Before moose made their way to Southeast, a very recent occurrence that didn’t happen until the early 1900s, they lived in the boreal f...
Blue skies greeted more than 30 runners who participated in this year's Turkey Time 5K race. Winners of last Saturday's event guessed closest to their finish time rather than finished the fastest. Runners weren't allowed to carry watches, phones or any device that would allow them to guess or tell the time. The finishing timer also faced away from the runners and they crossed the finish line under the basketball court outside of the community gym. Eleven runners guessed within a minute of their...
The Vikings volleyball squad nearly beat the Sitka squad in what head coach Jaime Cabral described as a "heart wrenching" match last weekend during the regional double elimination tournament in Sitka. Sitka beat the Vikings in the first round but lost to Mount Edgecumbe in its next game. Sitka faced Petersburg again in an elimination game where the Vikings took the first two matches. "The girls came out on fire. Everything was working," Cabral said. "Passing was phenomenal." But Sitka hit back a...
The Petersburg Planning Commission unanimously approved to send a request to the borough assembly to update the current comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan is a guide to how to develop the community and land within the municipality including things such as utilities, recreation and housing. The plan was last updated in 2001 and updating it is essential to the requirements of borough formation. “We’re giving an overview of the whole process that’s going to take a very long and involved time,” commission chair Susan Thomason said. Officia...
Local writer Edward May is self-publishing his new book "Sourdough Starter: The Mother Sponge." The book is a collection of 27 profiles taken from audio interviews May transcribed and condensed for the Anchorage Daily News between 2006 and 2008. The stories detail the experiences of Alaskans who had lived in the territory before it became a state. May paints the lives of Tlingit fishermen, loggers, trappers and transplants across his pages. "That's the kind of interview I specialize in," May...
Borough residents will soon likely have the option to participate in a co-mingled recycling program after the assembly approved an updated sanitation ordinance during first reading. The Petersburg Borough will incentivize recycling by increasing garbage collection rates by 20 percent—a monthly increase of around $5 for most users. Those who choose to recycle won’t have to pay the difference. “The folks that choose not to recycle for whatever reason would then end up paying higher cost that would help fund the program,” said Karl Hagerma... Full story
Petersburg Indiana Association officials are hoping by March to restore recently cut employee hours. Former Tribal Administrator Bruce Jones laid off himself and three other administrative positions last month in an effort to balance PIA’s budget. Most other PIA positions are paid for through grant funding associated with its programs and services. Ronelle Beardslee, PIA Office Manager, said in combination with those layoffs and other efforts, PIA’s financial situation is back on course. “It was very difficult to cut these positions,” Beardslee... Full story
During its Monday meeting, the borough assembly extended Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht’s employment contract for an additional five years with one year’s severance pay. Giesbrecht’s annual salary starting this October through September 30, 2014 is $113,500. The assembly will conduct an annual evaluation next year and again negotiate his salary. The assembly conducted his latest performance evaluation last month. The purpose of the evaluation, according to the document, is to “increase communication between the borough assembly and the boroug...
The sales tax ordinance review committee met last Wednesday and discussed the challenges of interpreting language in the code. The review committee’s mission is to simplify the code and collection procedures, and to generate an equal or greater amount of revenue so the borough does not have to decrease services or increase property taxes. Jody Tow, Borough Finance Director, brought up a section of the ordinance dealing with how to define non-profits and the exemptions they receive. According to the ordinance, qualified nonprofits that are e...
Sue Flint served her last day on the borough assembly Monday after stepping down after four years as a member. She thanked Mayor Mark Jensen, the assembly, staff, family and the citizens of Petersburg. "These four years have been exciting and I came up with my own little top six list," Flint said. First on the list was the creation of a smoke free workplace followed by the revitalization of Mountain View Manor, the creation of the new fire hall, finding a good city manager and the opening of...
The Petersburg Borough assembly will conduct a non-compliance hearing regarding a structure at 1011 Wrangell Avenue at its December 2 meeting. The hearing comes after Leo Luczak, Director of Community Development, deemed the structure a 'dangerous building' according to municipal code. In June, Luczak wrote in a letter notifying owners Fred Triem and Karen Ellingstad, "Exclusive of the piling foundation, which has failed, the building suffers thirty-three percent or more of damage or...
Southeast Alaska’s 2013 pink salmon harvest estimates are predicted to be around 22 million fish. Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports those numbers to be below the recent 10-year average of around 41 million pinks but close to average of the past five even years. Andy Piston, ADFG research biologist, said through most of the 1990s and early 2000s the odd and even year harvests weren’t much different. But in 2006 their poor survivals changed the cycle of the fish. “Even year pinks were way below average,” Piston said. “Ever since the...
The Petersburg Medical Center Foundation awarded Margaret Hunter a $10,000 scholarship after a unanimous vote by the hospital board. Hunter is currently enrolled at Montana State University in the Montana Medical Laboratory Science Program. The Norma J. Tenfjord Scholarship is awarded to Petersburg residents who agree on coming back to town and working at PMC after receiving their education. Recipients must work for two years at PMC or pay the scholarship amount back with 8 percent interest. There was some concern during the meeting whether or...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 6-1 to retain the library advisory board. Advisory boards currently meet to discuss potential issues or programs with borough department heads and then bring those recommendations to the assembly as issues arise. The assembly has been systematically reviewing advisory boards during the past several months and has let several dissolve. Some criticisms of the boards are that there are often not enough members present to form a quorum or, depending on the board, that there isn’t enough turnover to keep i...
Federal authorities arrested 45 year-old Tye Leif Petersen, Petersburg District School's recent Maintenance Director, on charges of Distribution of and Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography Involving a Prepubescent Minor or Child Under 12 Years of Age. The charges come after a joint investigation between the Petersburg Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to an FBI affidavit, last July an investigator searched a Yahoo! E-mail account... Full story
Survey data recently released to the Petersburg School District shows “cyber bullying” as a risk factor in the community and school officials are taking steps to curb the act. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, filled out by high school students last February, compares local risk behaviors with state averages. Cyber bullying is a form of harassment through the medium of electronic devices and social media. 15.4 percent of Petersburg high school students reported to have been cyber bullied compared to 14.7 percent reported statewide. While the numb... Full story
What started as a two-woman operation consisting of a secretary and a fresh college grad has turned into a multi-program, community wide mental health center that serves several hundred clients a year. Petersburg Mental Health Services celebrated its 20-year anniversary last week where board members and other guests gave accolades to PMHS Executive Director Susan Ohmer-the once wide-eyed and idealistic college grad who came back to her hometown in 1993. When Ohmer returned to Petersburg an organ... Full story
The Subsistence Division of Alaska Department of Fish and Game is looking to interview local residents about their experiences on the Stikine River as it attempts to better understand Chinook salmon declines. The Chinook Salmon Research Initiative, a state-funded research project aimed at better understanding statewide salmon stocks, is funding the local project. In 2001, fishermen harvested more than 70,000 Chinooks from the Stikine. By 2009, those numbers dipped below 20,000 harvested fish. Rosalie Grant, Subsistence Research Specialist for...
Alaska Wildlife Trooper Cody Litster is looking for information from the public on an unsalvaged deer found around 20 yards off the road near Woodpecker Road. A concerned hunter reported the animal to Litster. The Trooper said the deer appears to have been shot and left to die without harvesting any meat from the animal. “This was a fairly nice buck and it was senselessly wasted,” Lister said. “This one is an absolute loss.” Litster said hunters sometimes shoot a deer and it runs away and is unable to be tracked. “Those instances are very rare...
