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“I’ve never seen market conditions as bad as they are now,” Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told a conference of Southeast business, community and municipal government leaders last week. “Last year we said we reached rock bottom,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said of low prices, weak markets and reluctant consumers. But then he added, “we’ve scraped off more levels,” reaching deeper to the bottom. All of the participants in the fisheries panel discussio...
Crew shortages continue to plague the Alaska Marine Highway, the ferry system’s director told a gathering of Southeast officials last week. “Our biggest shortage is in the engineering department,” where the 54 ship engineers on the payroll as of Jan. 26 were far short of the 81 needed for full staffing, Craig Tornga told a gathering of community, business and government leaders at the Southeast Conference on Feb. 7 in Juneau. “We’re short in the wheelhouse,” he added, down eight from a full contingent of 79 in the master, chief mate, secon...
An ordinance amending Petersburg municipal code was passed in its first reading by the Petersburg Borough Assembly last week. At its second reading during the next assembly meeting a public hearing on the ordinance will take place. The ordinance would amend borough code to increase the assessed property value requirement for disposal of borough property from $500 thousand to $2 million. Currently, voters must approve of any sale or trade of borough property with an assessed value $500 thousand or higher. The ordinance seeks to change that requi...
February 15, 1924 – Petersburg is a real home town. Home conditions are ideal. Lots for building can be bought from $50 up. There is just the right drainage to the land for sanitation; the water is pure; no better school facilities can be found anywhere; there are many beautiful places for summer picnics and outings; there are churches, social halls, a library and, last but not least, there is the most beautiful and safe harbor in Alaska. Wind storms that rage elsewhere never cause more than a ripple in Petersburg Harbor. Once a boat is tied u...
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected the Blind Slough Hydroelectric Project to receive up to $2.9 million in Hydroelectric Efficiency Improvement Incentives which will complete funding for the hydro project, support the facility improvements, and enable the borough to shift money to the Scow Bay Generation Project. "The whole energy efficiency grant is set up to help projects that will increase energy efficiency and small hydro," Utility Director Karl Hagerman told the Pilot. Hagerman...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: Last week was a bucket-filler: I was able to connect with constituents from across the district through the school administrators' fly-in and Southeast Conference. On Friday I was thrilled to be able to attend a workshop on how to fund schools to provide the opportunities we all want for our students. While I'm sure there's a lot going on behind the scenes on the bill to raise the BSA, it has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote. The part of the bill that funds...
February 7 – An officer conducted foot patrols downtown. An officer conducted a welfare check. An illegally parked vehicle was moved at the direction of an officer and a warning was issued. An officer responded to a reported disturbance on Kiseno Street and determined it was non-criminal. A post-incident report was filed concerning a disturbance on South 2nd Street. A trespass notice was served. February 8 – A driver on Dolphin Street was issued a warning for an inoperable headlight. Found property was brought to the Petersburg Police Dep...
Alaska’s courts have had a backlog of cases since courts shut down for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The backlog has persisted, in part because of attorney shortages. The court typically carries many pending cases, but the number of pending cases is currently 27% higher for felonies and about 13% higher for misdemeanors than it was in 2019. “The overall numbers are going down, which is what we want to see,” said Stacey Marz, the Alaska State Court System’s administrative director. “We want to see fewer cases that are pending.” In the yea... Full story
The International Pacific Halibut Commission released the halibut numbers for 2024 on Feb. 5 following their annual meeting. The IPHC oversees management of halibut along the Pacific coast — from California, through British Columbia, and across coastal Alaska. During their annual meeting in January each year, the commission adopts the total mortality limits for halibut distributed across the areas they regulate. The adopted total mortality limits for 2024 amount to a net weight of 35.28 million pounds (Mlb), a decrease from the 36.97 Mlb d...
WRANGELL — State geologists were able to more accurately measure the movement and damage from massive landslides that poured across roads in the middle of the island in November because just a few months earlier the state and U.S. Forest Service had collected detailed images and data — literally laser-focused — of the terrain. The Forest Service and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys partnered in July to conduct an aerial survey of the entire island, using airborne lasers to map out ground cover, geology and slopes for f...
Petersburg's boys varsity basketball team played against teams from Klawock, Su Valley, and Thunder Mountain on their home court last weekend. Over the course of the round robin tournament, the Vikings put on a dominant performance taking strong wins against each of their opponents with several individual and team-wide highlights. They kicked off their tournament run on Thursday with a great start against Klawock. "We started out ahead 20-10 at the end of the first quarter, stretched that lead...
Petersburg's Lady Vikings took on a four-game tournament against teams from Klawock and Su Valley this weekend on their home court. Up against tough competition, the team couldn't reach the same heights as their previous homecoming games against Wrangell, but there was still a lot to learn from the experience. According to head coach Matt Pawuk, the team had a rougher start to their first game of the tournament against Klawock on Thursday. "Klawock got out to a little bit of a lead in the first...
Sitka's Mount Edgecumbe volcano is wired. On Jan. 26, the Alaska Volcano Observatory announced the completion of a new instrument network intended to measure the activity of a volcano that could be awakening after a period of dormancy. The network includes four seismic stations and four sites that measure the way the ground is deforming as magma moves deep below the volcano. Since April 2022, the movement of that liquefied rock has caused hundreds of small earthquakes and raised concerns that... Full story
Darryl Olson was born on January 18, 1942, in Petersburg, Alaska, to Dagney Marie (Loseth) Olson and Paul "Bud" Ivar Olson. He was the oldest of five, having two brothers and two sisters. Darryl grew up fishing with his father, Paul. He attended Petersburg High School and after graduation he married his dream girl, Mary Ann Hasbrouck, on March 10, 1962. They were happily married for fifty-nine years, when she preceded him in death in 2021. He worked for J&H Logging as a choker setter until he... Full story
Jean Elizabeth MacDonald was born July 15, 1929 in Petersburg, Alaska, to Georgiana and Gordon MacDonald. She loved her childhood in Petersburg and maintained a strong emotional attachment to her hometown, attending Petersburg picnics in Seattle whenever possible. Always a freespirit, Jean created a bit of a scandal the summer between her junior and senior year when she donned a dress she'd made from parachute silk and married Airforce Captain Marvin Rice while they flew over Petersburg. Though... Full story
