Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 301
The recent sale of Borough owned land on Sandy Beach Road brought to light the shortcomings of the borough government when it comes to managing their land. Obviously, there is a pent-up demand for building lots. The value of real estate, as we all know, is based on location and availability. Since the borough owns land that is desperately needed to provide housing for the community, it’s time that they develop it and make it available to the public. The borough has platted land in the Tlingit-Haida subdivision, on property uphill behind Lake S...
It all began about 45 years ago on my second visit to Petersburg to seek bank financing for the purchase of the newspaper that replaced the failed Petersburg Press just 28-months earlier. At 23 years of age I was to become the youngest newspaper publisher in Alaska. After filling out the loan application for National Bank of Alaska branch manager Fred Morino, it didn't look good. The newspaper assets that would collateralize the 3-year note didn't even total 50% of the requested loan ... even...
With the firing of Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Executive Director Angela Rodell at the corporation’s quarterly board meeting, a full explanation needs to be provided to the public. Why is it logical to fire the person in charge of the state’s $83 billion nest egg, particularly after the fund’s value grew by 29.73 percent over the past year under her leadership? During her six years on the job the fund grew from $51 billion to $83 billion. Rodell has pushed for careful, thoughtful management of the fund and has advocated for a conservative...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly’s attempt to abate a public health crisis in Petersburg Wednesday night went nowhere. Creating an ordinance to bring the rule of law into play failed. With no enforcement there will be little change. Possibly, but unlikely, the discussion carried out at Wednesday night’s meeting could change some minds, but it’s doubtful. Given the comments voiced by a majority of the speakers Wednesday night, no amount of peer reviewed science or proven medical knowledge is going to change the minds of those who choose to ignor...
The October borough election brings clarity to both borough administrative staff and elected officials as they assess the needs for mandates and new policies during the ongoing pandemic including COVID testing, social distancing, masking and vaccination policies. The bold and brash campaign statement, “Nobody’s been listening,” in reference to elected officials was proven false by the electorate. Elected persons on the assembly, school board and hospital board clearly were listening to all sides of the COVID issue and wisely chose optio...
We encourage voters to vote YES on the $7.8 million bond issue proposed by Petersburg Power and Light to pay for back-up diesel generation and the refurbishment of the Crystal Lake hydro plant. Petersburg has enjoyed the benefits from the construction of the Crystal Lake hydro project that was built by forward thinking residents in the 1920s. The current operation, that was last upgraded in 1957, generates power at 1.3-cents per kilowatt hour. It’s a bargain rate compared to anywhere else in Alaska or the Lower 48. The project will enable f...
We encourage a NO VOTE on Proposition #2, which seeks to remove the Frederick Point East Subdivision from Borough Service Area 1. Changes to Service Area 1 boundaries proposed under the proposition are unnecessary and ill advised. In 2012 voters approved the creation of the Petersburg Borough boundaries. Terms for governing and taxing the borough were established, and the measure passed with 55% approval by the voters. Proponents argue few to no services are available to the Frederick Point East (FPE) property owners and consequently they pay t...
The school board did what was needed to assure the best chances of keeping the schools open this year. School board president Sarah Holmgrain succinctly stated online what needed to happen this year: “It’s mostly for me about keeping the school open, keeping quarantines down, keeping unvaccinated kids safe, and unvaccinated staff able to remain at school when they’ve been in close contact. “We simply do not have enough subs (substitute teachers) to cover if we have even a small outbreak at the school. That means parents are home, not at work...
It seems like we've been here before. Mask use is low, positivity rates are low (3.3%), only 3 active cases in town and 55.6 % of us are fully vaccinated. The temptation is to let our guards down as COVID-19 fatigue sets in and makes us forget about masking, social distancing and hand washing protocols. That is all that needs to happen to allow a surge of cases to run amok in Petersburg. To avoid infection, get vaccinated. The much higher transmission rate of the delta variant is one of the...
A new group of citizens are advocating in favor of SEARHC to provide for the future health care needs of Petersburg. After all, it worked in Wrangell after the community leadership grew weary of writing checks to keep their facility operating. Petersburg is however a different story. Petersburg Medical Center is financially self-sufficient and carries an investment account balance enabling them to get through occasional lean times. They have an attentive hospital board that is elected to seats...
We congratulate Joyce Cummings on her semi-retirement from her 35-year tenure at First Bank. We have observed first-hand Cummings commitment to her work and her fellow employees. Over the years she became an expert at mortgage loan production and has been repeatedly named as a top loan producer by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation in Southeast Alaska. For decades we have watched as she trained new employees and branch managers about all things Petersburg as it related to First Bank. She...
It's been almost a year since the Petersburg Borough was made aware of raw sewage being dumped from a home owned by Courtney Johnson at 410 Mitkof Highway. At Tuesday's assembly meeting, assembly member Jeff Meucci asked borough officials to give a report at the next meeting on the status of the order of abatement issued last summer. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said it looks like the borough will be forced to shut the water off to the home, making in uninhabitable. First, officials will...
The word is already out. Pilot reporter Brian Varela is leaving Petersburg this week. His 3-year Petersburg career is drawing to a close. He's moving up in the world and will write for the 45,000 circulation Ventura County Star, a DAILY newspaper in Camarillo, California, just a stone's throw from his hometown of Oxnard. As a matter of fact, his beat will be his hometown. When Brian arrived three years ago, we had some problems. Not with him, but the education he received from a university...
Despite the fact that there were specific reasons why the five landless communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Tenakee were not included in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, legislation is being crafted to grant each community 23,040 acres of land from the Tongass. Natives in these communities did not meet the requirements for inclusion under the legislation. In Petersburg's case, natives from surrounding villages came here to fish and hunt each summer and retu...
Tim and Polly Koeneman were looking for a fun performance car, in 2003 when they decided to steer away from "traditional investments," and purchased a 1967 Shelby American GT350 from Scott Steward, Secretary/Treasurer of Auto Purchasing Agency, Inc of Pasadena, California. Tim told the Pilot, "I have been following cars for a number of years and knew that Shelbys had kept their value well through the years since Shelby American quit producing the cars after the 1967 model year. "The 1967 model w...
As of Wednesday morning, nearly half of the 118 Petersburg applications for financial help with rent and utilities had been approved or were pending a final decision, according to the state agency running the federally funded program. Stacy Barnes, AHFC Director, Governmental Relations & Public Affairs emailed the Pilot that 52 of the applications had been approved and $94,192 has been paid to Petersburg landlords and utility companies. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. received about 30,000...
A suggestion by Assembly member Taylor Norheim that term limits are needed for borough assembly seats is yet another solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Norheim says it will, "free things up for other people," to run. As long as former counselor Marc Martinsen continues to place his name on the borough ballot, it proves to us the term limit won't create more open or robust elections for the borough. Besides, assembly members themselves spoke against the proposal. Assembly member Tremblay...
Changes to Service Area 1 boundaries proposed under Ordinance 2021-08 are unnecessary and ill advised. The issue has nothing to do with services available to the Frederick Point East (FPE) property owners. They currently pay the lowest tax assessments for their properties. Millage rates don't have to be revised. Because they lack amenities available to other property in Service Area 1, the assessments reflect that fact. A waterfront 12,000 sq. ft. lot in the Frederick Point East subdivision is...
We're getting closer to achieving the required herd immunity levels needed to abate the spread of COVID -19 and the expanding variants as the virus mutates across the worlds' populations. According to the State of Alaska, Petersburg is second from the top (behind Skagway) in attaining the most vaccinations. Petersburg's rate stands at 72.94 percent as of Wednesday. Vaccine hesitancy is the major roadblock to the U.S. achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe...
The Alaskan Republican Party's censure of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for voting to convict former President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial, and now ousting her as a GOP candidate in next year's election displays the worst traits of party politics. It's no wonder that Congress is battling such partisanship and why little is accomplished unless a single party controls both houses of Congress and the White House. If a Senator or Congressman is obligated to vote the party line on every issue, r...
The Supreme Court of the State of Alaska ruled last month that Superior Court Judge William Carey acted correctly in disqualifying Petersburg Attorney Fred Triem from representing the Estate of Helen A. Lingley and upheld his order dismissing the lawsuit filed by Triem against Alaska Airlines, Inc. and its supervisor Dan Kane. Triem filed the lawsuit for the wrongful termination of Lingley, from the company in December 2012 after the woman was terminated from her customer service position in...
It should be obvious by now that no amount of peer reviewed science or proven medical knowledge is going to change the minds of those who choose to ignore common sense guidelines to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Masking, social distancing and good hygiene have all been proven to flatten the curve of infections and hospitalizations here and across the country. The fact that Petersburg has moved from a handful of positive COVID-19 tests to 36 in the past week is because the basic...
Today (Feb. 11) will be a significant day for hundreds of Petersburg residents who head to the community gym for the second dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. Yet others received their first dose of the vaccine last week. Petersburg is taking yet another step towards a more normal life which we expect could bring an end to mandates, masks and the endless arguments being made in opposition to the health mandates that have clearly enabled Petersburg to minimize infections that have largely been...
On Jan 29 the EOC used the CodeRED system to encourage residents who are interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to sign up on the Petersburg Medical Center's waiting list. "Coordinating the vaccine implementation is one of the most important things we can do to beat the virus and getting the word out to make this happen is critical," according to the Borough's website statement. The use of the CodeRed system in this case, was wrong. Use of this emergency notification tool last Friday was...
We applaud the work of the entire Petersburg Medical Center staff and everyone that worked with them to get over 350 COVID vaccinations into the arms of residents last Thursday. The vaccination effort was a seamless, speedy and efficient undertaking that should be copied by any community providing mass vaccination clinics for their citizens. No doubt the process will become even more streamlined as additional vaccine doses are delivered and administered in the coming months. This is proof once...
