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Some readers have suggested that this newspaper make exceptions to the public record. A retired doctor from the Virginia Mason Medical Center stated our report of a lawsuit brought against local doctors and the Petersburg Medical Center should not have been printed until the lawsuit was settled. In another case, WAVE representatives told us the names of those seeking protective orders should be omitted from our reports. Neither can happen. Because we are a newspaper, we print the public record. Legally, it defines our purpose as a...
The debate over adding fluoride into Petersburg’s water has opponents and proponents debating the accuracy of online information, the use of junk science, addressing personal medical issues and plain old misinformation. Most interesting is the fact that hundreds of citizens, whose homes are not even connected to Petersburg’s water system, will be voting on Proposition #7 that will decide if fluoride will continue to be added to the local water supply. If fluoride added to drinking water was indeed harmful, the story would have made page one of...
Attorney Fred Triem this week filed a motion for reconsideration on the appointment of class officers in the case of Arlene Bell Hanson et al., vs. Kake Tribal Corporation and the motion was rejected by the Superior Court and returned to Triem because he is no longer a party to the case. Court Clerk Brandy Boggs returned Triem’s documents with a memo stating: “You are not a party to this case. Only parties to the case are allowed to file documents in the case…. There will be no action on your filing and they are being returned to you.” Superio...
Local attorney Fred Triem appeared before Superior Court Judge William Carey on August 22, to argue that his client Helen Lingley had given him verbal permission to reach a settlement with her former employer Alaska Airlines to resolve a wrongful termination claim Triem filed on her behalf five years ago in 2012. Lingley was terminated from her customer service position with Alaska Airlines in Juneau for removing a customer's lost ear buds from the baggage lock-up area of the terminal, for...
Why do a story about a Petersburg police officer that left the department a year ago? Because the public needs to know that performance standards are being upheld and that the people that enforce the laws are doing so with integrity. Despite the far-reaching scope of the information rich digital age, it’s still possible for job applicants to present false or deceptive information to an employer. For that reason, Bob Griffiths of the Alaska Police Standards Council is at work, making a mark in the sand so good people get hired and the bad o...
The Petersburg Medical Center and three of its physicians are being sued over a wrongful death claim being brought by Mary Katasse Miller. Superior Court Judge William Carey set the trial date for November 20, 2018 at a scheduling conference on August 21. Also named in the suit are PMC physicians Courtney Hess, M.D., Kris Sargeant, M.D. and Jennifer Hyer, M.D. Hess has been employed at PMC since July 2014, Sargeant since Aug. 2012 and Hyer since Aug. 2011. Miller represents the Estate of Malcom Miller and herself. Her late husband died on June...
Why do a story on Petersburg Borough employee turnover? We were asked this question many times in the days leading up to the publication of this week’s story by reporter Ben Muir. Employee turnover is costly, for both private businesses and government. Replacing an employee requires: • Training time • Possible damage to equipment and property by inexperienced employees • Productivity losses • Lower teamwork output • Additional cost of overtime for remaining employees until vacancy filled Often managers don’t think about employee retention, be...
We hope the recall sponsors will decide to drop the proposed recall effort. Their time will be better spent looking for candidates that will be willing to file for candidacy and campaign for three open seats on the Assembly this fall. The city manager’s proposal to replace the retiring power and light manager with an inexperienced electrical superintendent is fraught with opportunities for failure. It will provide good campaign fodder for the fall election. It was highly unlikely that the attorney providing the opinion that gave the go-ahead fo...
The Borough Assembly should push forward with long-term airport parking at the James Johnson Airport. We've all walked thousands of yards to get from airport parking lots to ticketing concourses at Lower 48 airports, but in Petersburg we all want to park just 10-20 steps from the terminal entryway. The Planning and Zoning Commission has brought forward a cost estimate of $65,000 to build a 35-space lot right across the street. Lynett Campbell, Chief of Southeast Region Aviation Leasing said the...
We find the evolving process to fill the power and light superintendent’s position becoming almost bizarre. The effort required to pound seemingly square pegs into round holes is exhausting to watch. To have two persons, making the same salaries while accomplishing the same job a single person filled just weeks ago, belies the intent to save money for the borough. Selecting the superintendent’s revised job description, and eventually advertising the position, should take highest priority. To move an administrator with limited electrical bac...
“I didn’t like what was happening with the (department head) restructuring thing. I didn’t have the energy to go through that fight,” two-term mayor Mark Jensen stated in explaining his single sentence resignation from the Petersburg Borough Assembly on May 18. If the department head changes had been proposed earlier, “it could have worked, instead of cramming it down our throats,” Jensen noted of the manager’s plan to realign department heads following the retirement of Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson. “The day after the last meetin...
Former Borough Mayor Mark Jensen said he was not aware of the Borough Manager’s decision to move Karl Hagerman into the Electric Superintendent’s position until a May 2 email from Steve Giesbrecht announced the personnel changes. The email began: “Please join me in congratulating several of our peers.” Next Giesbrecht wrote that both Public Works Superintendent Karl Hagerman and Asst. Public Works Superintendent Chris Cotta had accepted the positions of Utilities Director and Public Works Director, respectively. The email stated, “Both Karl and...
Alexis Francisco, Hana Newman, Helen Martin, Tanya Spears, Madisyn Parker and Julia Evens passed the State of Alaska Certified Nursing Assistant certification examination on June 2, according to program coordinator Angela Menish. Testing included both written and practical skills. All six have completed CNA classes that have been provided since September and include a minimum of 60 classroom hours and 80 supervised skills and clinical experience hours. The students learned basic skills to...
Following a recommendation from the Petersburg Medical Center's Long Term Planning Committee the hospital board voted Thursday night to proceed with building a new hospital in lieu of making extensive renovations to the existing facility. In May 2016 architects from the firm Jensen Yorba Lott presented the PMC board with five options: do nothing; make systematic replacements; make phased renovations; build an addition and renovate in phases and construct a new facility. PMC CEO Liz Woodyard...
Following an executive session on Tuesday, Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported via email that he and Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson would work on the preparation of job descriptions for both the Electrical Superintendent and the proposed Utility Director position. Giesbrecht wrote, “The Assembly continues to be interested in any opportunity to save the community money, so they are mulling their options over…. We are all really concerned about future budget challengers, and the reorganization would have helped, but I am sure we will fin...
We find the turmoil created by proposing that an inexperienced electric utility supervisor take over the Power and Light Department a very risky decision. It backfired. And it’s not about Karl Hagerman. Every employer would like to have a worker like Karl, but he needs time to learn the job before he can run an electric utility department. Unfortunately for the community, we lost a good mayor who worked hard for the Borough. Mark Jensen could not support the manager’s proposal for replacing retiring Joe Nelson and decided to resign rather tha...
Four traffic cameras have been placed at Haugen and Nordic Drive locations to collect both pedestrian and vehicle data for the Alaska Dept. of Transportation, according to Ryan Siverly, Regional Highway Data Manager. Cameras are mounted to telescoping poles attached to street signs. At the base of the pole is a battery pack. Data is relayed to equipment in an ADOT van for storage. The cameras are placed at the corners of Nordic and Dolphin, Nordic and Haugen, Haugen and Second and at Haugen and...
A grand jury indicted Randal K. Long on three counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance on Wednesday May 24. Long was arrested by the Petersburg Police Department on April 26 after search warrants were executed and 1,500 doses of Methamphetamine were seized from two locations. The indictment allows prosecutors to proceed with a criminal case against Long. The search was carried out with the cooperation of multiple law enforcement agencies. The seized drugs had a street value of...
“Outstanding students in athletics, activities and scholastics,” is how Principal Rick Dormer will remember the PHS Class of 2017. The senior class members have, “distinct personalities, and are funny kids who lighten up your day,” according to the principal. “Their personalities will be missed by the staff. Respectfully, they were a handful in Middle School, but they have grown into mature young adults,” Dormer added. Dormer noted the athletic achievements of members of this year’s championship basketball team and the impressive feats of the c...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht's proposal to replace the retiring power and light superintendent with Public Works Superintendent Karl Hagerman, received strong criticism from both the public and the assembly on Monday night. Hagerman started with the City of Petersburg as a Water and Wastewater plant operator in 1992, and was named to the Public Works Director position by City Manager Bruce Jones in 2001. Hagerman has no experience in managing an electric utility. Petersburg Power and Light...
Researchers from the University of Alaska Southeast and Oregon State University have returned to Petersburg to continue fieldwork at LeConte Glacier to gain a better understanding of how tidewater glaciers interact with the ocean and how the ocean interacts with the glacier. This is the second and final year of fieldwork for collecting data from both below the bay and above the bay, where time-lapse cameras record glacial movement throughout the year. Jasmine Nahorniak holds a Masters Degree in...
A grand jury indicted Kenneth L. Birch, 36, on two counts of sexual assault, one in the first degree and one in the second degree. The indictment was filed in the Petersburg Trial Courts on May 11. On May 12 Birch entered a not guilty plea to the charges and the trial was set for July 18. On May 2, in a probable cause statement filed by the Petersburg Police Department, the police responded to a report of a sexual assault on April 30 at 11:44 p.m. The victim told police she had been lying on her stomach on Birch’s bed watching TV while doing l...
Representatives of the IBEW Local 1547 office in Ketchikan and the Power and Light Superintendent of Wrangell Power and Light have responded to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht’s proposal to appoint Public Works Director Karl Hagerman to head the Petersburg Power and Light Department. Jay Rhodes, Assistant Business Manager of the IBEW Local 1547 wrote in a letter to Giesbrecht on May 12, “The proposed combining of the Power and Light Superinte-ndent with that of Water Wastewater Supervisor poses serious safety concerns for employees of the Pow...
Petersburg Police responded to an apartment fire at the Narrows Inn on Friday at 11 p.m. and rescued the tenant from the burning structure, according to volunteer fire department spokesperson Dave Berg. Berg said when the ambulance and engine arrived, police had already entered the structure and pulled a victim to safety. According to Police Chief Kelly Swihart, Derek Thorsen broke a window to vent smoke, and Kalin Rosse and Carl Tate entered the apartment and pulled the victim out. The fire...
Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson announced his retirement effective June 30. Nelson has held the position since March of 2003. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht proposes to fill the vacancy by merging management duties and will propose to the Assembly that Public Works Superintendent Karl Hagerman fill the PMP&L vacancy and assume the title of Utilities Director. Hagerman started with the City of Petersburg as a Water and Wastewater plant operator in 1992, and was named to the Public...
