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Because of the alleged antics of a few bad apples, city ordinance 961 has been created, revised and discussed and will soon go before the city council. The ordinance revises the chain of command in the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD) along with other functions. The ordinance was due for a revision because a lot has changed since current volunteer Sam Bunge assumed control of the department as a paid chief during his tenure (1998-2008). Any leader of a volunteer organization will readily admit that it is difficult to maintain...
We welcome members of the Local Boundary Commission to Petersburg. The long awaited public hearing on Petersburg’s proposal to dissolve the City of Petersburg and form a new borough government is underway. Testimony on Petersburg’s borough petition started on Wednesday and will continue through Friday with the culmination of the LBC’s decision on the city’s borough formation effort being presented on Friday at 3 p.m. according to the proposed agenda. The chair has ultimate control of the agenda. Meetings are held at the city council chamber...
PETERSBURG — The Alaska Marine Highway ferry Matanuska crashed into the face of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods dock in Petersburg at 1:00 p.m. Monday. The M/V Matanuska was negotiating a turn in Wrangell Narrows prior to the accident as it prepared to dock at the Petersburg ferry terminal on its southbound trip. Heavy damage was sustained to the face of the Ocean Beauty dock. Dock piling were broken and the hydraulic crane was dangling over the water. In addition to the dock damage, the second f...
Police Chief Jim Agner warned the Petersburg Rotary Club members on Wednesday that a jump in heroin use in town is likely to cause property crimes to increase. “We have a heroin problem in town and it’s epidemic in Alaska,” Agner said. He estimated that Petersburg is consuming as much as $750,000 a year of heroin. “With that level of heroin use, we’re going to have a huge increase in property crimes. The money has to come from somewhere. If you have a $300 a day habit, you’ve gotta come up with $300 a day,” the Chief stated. He added that ho...
Last year the Sons of Norway Fedrelandet Lodge #23 celebrated their 100th birthday as an organization. This year, the SONs celebrate the 100th year of their hall’s construction. The amazing thing about the Sons of Norway Hall is that it was built in just three months. That is an incredible feat given the state of construction technology in 1912. Given the size of the structure, an incredible number of volunteers must have showed up for the work party to get such a project completed in such a short time. Today, the same can-do attitude prevails...
Plans for making construction improvements to the Blaquiere Point boat launch ramp will be met with outright glee by those who have used the largely unimproved site. Getting onto the Stikine River via the Blaquiere Point launch site defied the oft quoted phrase, “getting there is half the fun.” Likewise, retrieving your boat, particularly at low tide, was an adventure. Finding pickup trucks stuck in the mud as the tide rolled in; seeing broken down vehicles and boat trailers abandoned on the rocky slope; removing beached deadheads prior to usi...
“High fish volumes and high prices in 2011 made for a very, very good year in Petersburg,” according to comments by Dave Ohmer at Wednesday’s Rotary Club meeting. Despite lower quotas for halibut in Area 2C, higher prices helped to make up for lack of volume. Historically high prices that averaged $6.61/lb. for halibut according to industry data, with accompanying prices for black cod, were good for fishermen. Buyers however, pulled back on purchases leaving over three million pounds of halibut and some inventories of black cod in the freez...
The U.S. Coast Guard has advised permit holders for the annual Sitka Herring Sac-Roe fishery that they will increase the number of boarding teams in Sitka and will, “conduct immediate on-scene boardings of intentional collisions that occur during the fishery.” The letter was sent to all permit holders in late February by S. W. Bornemann, Captain, U.S. Coast Guard, Captain of the Port in Southeast Alaska. The captain noted the USCG has conducted multiple investigations of collisions, near misses...
Barb and Mike Luhr accepted the Chamber of Commerce plaque naming Piston and Rudder as the Business of the Year. The couple and local shareholders purchased the local shipyard and merged its operations with their company in 2011. Piston and Rudder also constructed a new retail facility as well as expanded the shipyard operations. The award was presented at the Chamber’s annual meeting last Saturday evening, which was attended by about 85 people at the Sons of Norway Hall. Bob Heinrich from Conoco Phillips spoke on the company’s operations in...
Newly installed security cameras at the city harbors have enabled the department to photograph freeloaders attempting to stuff personal trash into harbor dumpsters. While boat owners are entitled to dump reasonable amounts of boat related trash into harbor dumpsters, oven ranges and full-size chest freezers don’t belong in the public trash bins, according to Harbormaster Glo Wollen. On March 5 in the South Harbor near the city crane dock, security cameras clearly captured images of i...
While we understand the reasons many feel the Town Hall Meeting with Deputy Attorney General Richard Svobodny was not productive, the meeting did benefit Petersburg. Face-to-face meetings are good for all parties. It’s easier to deal with people you know and with those who know you. It is pretty evident that folks attending the meeting will be calling Mr. Svobodny in the not too distant future. Frankly, there seems to be undisclosed reasons why Juneau D.A. David Brower has sidestepped any efforts to improve communications with Police Chief J...
A claim for unemployment insurance benefits made pages of Petersburg Indian Association emails and financial statements public last week, and reveals reasons why two employees and four board of director members resigned last October. Susan Harai was the director of the Indian Reservation Roads (IRR) program for the PIA and claimed there was a $300,000 to $360,000 deficit and discrepancy involving the IRR grant monies, according to the report of the State Employment Security Division’s f... Full story
PIA Tribal Administrator Will Ware on Wednesday rebutted information made public when former employee Susan Harai appeared at a public hearing for unemployment benefits on Feb. 9. “I was perplexed and surprised,” at the accusations made against me at the hearing, Ware said. “It was character assassination.” The allegations of missing Indian Reservation Roads (IRR) grant money being used for other PIA projects was based upon, “misinterpretations and mislabeling of accounts,” according t... Full story
Two Petersburg Indian Association tribal council members presented testimony at the unemployment benefit hearing on Feb. 9 for employee Susan Harai showing their determination to resolve the financial crisis reported to them by Roads Director Susan Harai and bookkeeper Nicole Dean. Ultimately, distrust of tribal leadership along with failure to secure a new, outside auditor to look at the tribal books resulted in their resignations from the tribal council. Jeanette Ness, former council...
Juneau District Attorney David Brower told The Pilot this week he will not attend the town meeting set for February 21 in Petersburg, but that Deputy Attorney General Richard Svobodny would attend. In a phone interview, Brower said, “he would like to be there,” but would be on leave at the time of the scheduled meeting. He added that he did write Police Chief Jim Agner a letter regarding the 38% case dismissal rate. Agner confirmed receipt of the five page letter on Wednesday and said he had not had time to read it. When asked if a sol... Full story
Our community is quite blessed. The weekly police reports are short and smattered with inconsequential notations of our winter existence in a small town. While big city felons wreak havoc elsewhere, our police respond to reports of birds impeding traffic while being fed on city streets. (We wonder why good old-fashioned stationary bird feeders won’t do the trick.) Gathering teens are reported acting suspiciously, and responders discover all is well. The police report is also our lost and found column. Everything from cash to jewelry to cell p...
Despite the difficulty of leaving Juneau in the middle of the legislative session, Deputy Attorney General Richard Svobodny plans to attend Petersburg’s Town Hall Meeting on February 21. “Whether case dismissals are good or bad is very difficult to tell,” said Svobodny. In general, dismissals can indicate problems with policing, problems with the District Attorney’s office or problems with the court. “Case dismissals are not always bad. Sometimes cases should be dismissed,” according to Svobodny. Just the term, “sufficient evidence,” ca...
After approving the report of Jensen, Yorba, Lott, Inc. the city council agreed Wednesday night to have councilor Sue Flint, Mayor Dwyer and the city manager lobby for design funds for the city police station when they are in Juneau next week. The council agreed it was important not to jeopardize the city’s drive-down dock funds while seeking project funds for the design of the new police station. During discussion it was noted that the state funds allocated to build the new fire hall were designated by the legislature for public safety b...
As of Thursday night, the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department began responding to emergencies from their new fire hall. Trucks and emergency vehicles, with lights flashing, drove to the new Haugen Drive location and started the process of moving-in. During the Thursday night move-in over 40 volunteers from all branches of the department (EMS, fire, search and rescue) were present. Locker assignments and bunker gear storage were assigned to each member based upon tenure with the department....
Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson reminded the city council Tuesday night of the department’s efforts to relocate their downtown plant to Scow Bay. Nelson said in 1983 the city-owned utility provided 60% of the town’s power with diesel generation and 40% came from the Blind Slough hydro facility. In 1984 the city went to 100% hydropower generation when the Tyee Lake project came on-line, providing power to both Wrangell and Petersburg. Despite a rate decrease the utility con...
On Tuesday night the city council revised its current fiscal year budget by reallocating funds to cover unanticipated expenditures during the current year. With the completion of the Kings Row road project, remaining construction funds in the amount of $185,834 were returned to the city’s property development fund. Additional attorney fees of $125,000 were added from the city general fund reserve account to cover Redistricting ($30,000); City Attorney ($10,000); Labor Attorney ($10,000) and Borough Formation ($75,000). Damage to the harbor c...
It all started with a pat on the back from the Chief of Police who praised the work of one of his employees at the end of the city council meeting. Nothing to worry about I thought. But Chief Agner stammered a bit and then broke into unabashed praise for his wife, Sgt. Heidi Agner. The Chief started, “Normally I don’t do this. It is going to be a little odd because it’s somewhat nepotism related. But I really would like to recognize Sgt. Heidi Agner. Sgt. Agner …who through a great deal of diligence, who for well over a year, has been working...
Wednesday morning fog rolled along the icey shore of Frederick sound....
On Friday, Jan. 6, law enforcement officials seized $62,000 in drugs destined for sale and distribution in Petersburg. According to a news release, Petersburg Police Department and Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) drug task force seized 4 ounces of brown heroin and 2 ounces of methamphetamine. On Tuesday, January 10, officials arrested Juan Carlos Murillo-Garcia, 37, on charges of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the 4th Degree. According to police he is being held in the Petersburg jail on $50,000 bail and a...
Despite suggestions to the contrary, no changes were proposed to the library site plans following a council work session on Monday. Councilor Don Koenigs questioned access problems since the library parking lot extended into the city street rights-of-way. Koenigs asked if the city needed to vacate the streets and if snow removal was going to be an issue. The driveway entry to the library will be on Second Street and the exit will extend into the Ira II right of way. Public Works Superintendent...
