Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 196
The Alaska Marijuana Control Board approved the license for Petersburg's first marijuana cultivation operator, Southeast Moog Droog, on Tuesday. Operated by Gary Morgan, the growing facility will be in a 500 square-foot Quonset hut style building near his home in the Papke's Landing subdivision. Morgan participated at the Juneau hearing via teleconference. His license was approved easily with little fanfare. Morgan said the building has passed the state's inspection and is very secure. The...
The Petersburg Medical Center has to remedy a housing crunch this year, as they will be evicted from three of the six apartments they rent from Petersburg Mental Health's seven unit apartment building on Fram Street. Evictions would happen now through June. The PMC provides housing for locums and short-term employees and pays up to $1,100 per month for each of the 6 units they currently occupy. CEO Liz Woodyard told the hospital board last Thursday that the hospital likes to have housing within...
The Borough Power and Light Dept. has a fund balance of $7.5 million dollars. That's a lot of money by any standard, but remember, $3 million of that is required to remain in reserve, as mandated by the Borough's fiscal policy. It equals 6-month's operating cost for the utility. In 1985 when Petersburg and Wrangell went onto hydropower supplied by the Tyee Lake facility, rates were lowered, but set high enough to enable the utility to build reserves to move their downtown plant out the road....
Over 30 people turned out for a meeting to discuss long-term goals for developing the Scow Bay turnout last Thursday at the Halingstad-Peratrovich building. Members of the PEDC committee and the Harbor Advisory Board were in attendance and the meeting was led by Dick Somerville representing PND Engineers, Inc. in Juneau. Somerville displayed three drawings showing possible development options for the property. One proposed upgrading the existing ramp into a 40-ft. x 420-ft. concrete plank struct...
We were warned that power to a 200 amp electrical service panel would eventually fail, so we planned to upgrade when we resurface the parking lot next to The Pilot next summer. On Monday, Murphy’s Law #3 seemed applicable. “If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will go wrong is the one that will cause the most damage.” On possibly the coldest night of the year, power to the newspaper pressroom failed. That power failure put two of the four heat pumps providing heat to our buildings, out of service. The tempe...
A mechanical delay and lost luggage put former Petersburg mayor Dave Carlson and wife Celia at the Fort Lauderdale airport just minutes before shooting broke out in Terminal 2 baggage claim area on Friday. The Carlsons left their Bend, Oregon home for a 10-day cruise aboard the Harmony of the Seas, 6,000 passenger cruise ship destined for the Caribbean. A mechanical put them in Ft. Lauderdale 6 hours late, without their luggage. They were told Friday morning that American Airlines had...
A mechanical delay and lost luggage put former Petersburg mayor Dave Carlson and wife Celia at the Fort Lauderdale airport just minutes before shooting broke out in Terminal 2 baggage claim area on Friday. The Carlsons left their Bend, Oregon home for a 10-day cruise aboard the Harmony of the Seas, 6,000 passenger cruise ship destined for the Caribbean. A mechanical put them in Ft. Lauderdale 6 hours late, without their luggage. They were told Friday morning that American Airlines had... Full story
The Borough Assembly acted appropriately to advance the sale of property at 919 Sandy Beach Road by continuing the rezone process and eventually putting the land up for auction. Assembly member Eric Castro noted correctly that the action would not impact the character of Sandy Beach nor harm the petroglyphs and fish traps on the nearby tide flats. Visitors seeking out the petroglyphs access the site from Sandy Beach Park, not by crossing over the borough owned lot. The borough’s administrators will use revenue from the sale of three parcels o...
The State of Alaska provided Petersburg pedestrians with one of the most important safety measures that money could buy. They completed the Haugen Drive walking path to Sandy Beach Park. It’s a smooth, dry solid walking surface that’s easy to navigate with strollers, bikes, dogs or kids. However, it can only keep walkers safe if they use it. We continue to see people walking along the sometimes very narrow Haugen Drive right-of-way, at night, wearing no reflective clothing and with no light. Certainly there’s no prohibition to walking next...
After nearly a year of planning, the volunteer committee headed by David Byrne has established a plan to distribute moose burger meat (from illegally shot moose) to non-profit agencies and food service providers in Petersburg. Under the proposed distribution protocol, Trooper Cody Litster will take the moose to Trading Union or Hammer and Wikan for butchering. The meat will be ground into burger, packaged and delivered to the Community Cold Storage for freezing, pending approval by the Borough. Distribution of the meat to various organizations...
Voters who want to ban commercial growing and sale of marijuana within our borough should not be intimidated by some of the arguments for allowing the enterprise to exist. Voters should remember that there is no harm in waiting. 1. Wait for federal law to change. Should other states allow for the commercialization of marijuana, it’s likely elected officials will change federal regulations. 2. Wait for banking regulations to change. Eventually legal business enterprises will have to be permitted to deposit funds in federally controlled banks. 3...
Petersburg is hosting two conferences this week and next. On Thursday and Friday the Alaska Recreation and Park Association meets. On their schedule are topics entitled: “Love Your Job…Love Your Life; Managing for Millenials; Laughter Yoga in Your Parks and Do You have a Dog Park? Or Has Your Whole Community Accidentally Become a Dog Park?” Who says Parks and Recreation Dept. directors don”t have a sense of humor? Next week the Southeast Conference meets on Monday through Thursday. President Garry White points out in his conference welcome...
Suzanne Wood, co-founder of Mitkof Highway Homeowners Association, on Sept. 1, sent a letter to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority seeking records for the 11 August 2016 Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s Resource Management Committee Meeting and Executive Session and for the 24 August 2016 AMHTA Board of Trustees Special Meeting. The documents, according to the letter, “are necessary for us to ascertain how the Trust could transition from the ongoing and forward-moving AMHTA-US Forest Service administrative land exchange process to s... Full story
While we see little need for the Entrance Island state float in Hobart Bay, the Borough Assembly should devise and negotiate a way to acquire the docks and floats on Kupreanof Island and Papke’s Landing. Both are located along Wrangell Narrows. Yes, significant repair and upkeep costs will be required to maintain the facilities but enough people within the Borough make use of them to justify ownership of the structures. We support the takeover for the same reasons we supported the Borough purchase of Mental Health properties at Papke’s Lan...
While some are frustrated with the ongoing discussion of opting out on allowing retail marijuana sales in Petersburg, it’s good to have the discussions now, rather than later. For some, the reality of the situation is coming to light. While we continue to believe the will of the voters should be followed, Petersburg Assembly members must continue the discussion and craft Petersburg’s ordinance for retail sales of marijuana to suit the wishes of the citizens. We believe the majority favor the retail sales of the drug but based on comments we...
The Alaska Marine Highway System brings more to S.E. Alaska than transportation. It’s also an economic driver for all of Southeast. Most of the benefits fall to small rural communities. For every $1 in benefits paid to subsidize the system’s operation, $2.30 comes back to local economies in jobs, spending, shipping and other services. The report from the McDowell Group states the ferry system is directly responsible for 1,017 jobs and indirectly responsible for 683 who are employed by businesses benefitting from the state ferries. Put another w...
Since the Department of Transportation continues to push ahead on the Kake-Petersburg Road, it’s appropriate that the Borough Assembly takes action to divert funds from the project. Nothing kills a road project quicker than taking the money off the table. Repeatedly, citizens from Kupreanof, Kake and Petersburg have told Transportation officials the road is a bad idea. It’s not needed, it’s not cost effective and it needs to go away. Kake needs lower cost electricity and a road is not needed to address their power needs. Since as early as Ja...
The public was not well served by the Borough’s marijuana advisory committee. At least not the 58-percent of Petersburg voters who favored legalized marijuana sales within Alaska. Many, like myself, feel the commercial sale of marijuana in Alaska is an abomination for which we will pay a significant price in both human capital and health care costs. But nonetheless, voters approved it and those citizens deserve due process. Chair Jeigh Stanton Gregor told the assembly the committee should be disbanded because of their ineffectiveness. M...
It was an eventful week. A big highlight was the anniversary celebration of the marriage of Bob and Carroll Nilsen who were wed on December 15, 1955. Sixty years of marriage is indeed something to celebrate and their family and friends certainly pulled it off nicely. Following their vow renewal at the Lutheran Church on Wednesday, I asked Bob if the marriage vows were easier said the second time around. Bob replied, "This is the third time." He explained they were married before a Justice of... Full story
Marc Fries a scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. continues his work to track the Petersburg fireball, which passed over Petersburg early on Saturday, Nov. 21. Fries told the Pilot, via email on Wednesday, "I've been able to find the location of the camera at the harbor with sufficient accuracy to plot the azimuth from the camera towards the fireball. Shadows from the fireball are clearly visible in that camera image. The blue line in the Google Earth image is the direction...
Despite the articulate and sometimes emotional comments presented to the school board, we think the board is justified in approving its draft policy for memorials on school property. The policy allows for temporary memorials and sets the terms for commemoration events. Key policy components are: 1. Memorials can be an ongoing visual reminder of what happened. Memorials need to be an opportunity of choice for families, friends and the public. 2. The fact that schools are designed primarily to support learning and should not serve as the main...
It’s appalling that since 2006 the ranks of the Petersburg Alaska Army National Guard (AANG) have dropped from 11 members to 2. Worse yet, as in Petersburg and Wrangell, the AANG facilities in many rural communities across the state sit empty. How did the leadership in the AANG allow this to happen? Our report published this week, exposes some of the reasons, and possibly excuses, for this downturn. Budget cuts, higher recruiting standards and lack of recruiting effort all are a part of the reason. Why is Guard leadership allowing the 761st M...
The school board proposed policy on memorial placement on school property does a good job of justifying the reasons behind the creation of this policy. In short, the school will work with families to select appropriate memorial activities and events following the death of a student or district employee, but the school cannot become the site for permanent memorials. The District also states the circumstances upon which existing memorials will be maintained or continued. The policy is posted on the school district website and at district offices...
A 25 h.p. DC motor that drives our printing press failed last Thursday, delaying the print edition of the Petersburg Pilot. A Seattle printer printed the paper Thursday night and delivered it to Alaska Airlines freight terminal, but the delivery person failed to fill out the paperwork required for shipping, which caused another delay in the paper's arrival in Petersburg. Our staff fielded hundreds of calls and visits in our office from our readers, and explained the reason for delay. We...
A significant benefit to living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone’s business. Some consider this a detriment, but in the case of Proposition 1, which appears on October’s election ballot in Petersburg, and as Proposition 2 in Wrangell, the Financial Disclosure requirement is not needed. Currently, municipal officers and some candidates for elective office must file a financial disclosure statement. Depending upon how a person’s company is legally organized, the law can be very intrusive, or in the case of a corporation it can r...
