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Petersburg was paid a visit by longstanding United States Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on Monday, part of a wider tour of Southeast that includes Ketchikan and Juneau. Extra chairs had to be brought into the Borough Assembly chambers to accommodate the audience, and people stood at the room's back and sides. Seated front and center, Young explained the session would be an informal way for people to give input and ask questions. "I'm here primarily to hear what's on your mind and what you'd like to...
Work is underway to stabilize the foundation and expand areas for parking and gear storage at the Libby Straight warehouse owned by Jeff and Susan Erickson. "We're shoring up the building and making more space for equipment storage," explained Jeff Erickson on Wednesday. The building was a part of the Libby Cannery located in Taku Harbor, according to Erickson. After a cannery fire, the building was constructed and never used and the building sat empty for many years. In the early 1950s the stru...
The Petersburg Medical Center will provide the public a time to create a living will using the Five Wishes document. The booklet allows anyone 18 years or older a way to control how they are treated if they get seriously ill and cannot speak for themselves. The meeting will be from 7-8 p.m. at the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room on Wednesday, April 19. The Five Wishes document will be explained and questions about it will be answered. Five Wishes is a living will that talks about people’s personal, emotional and spiritual needs as well as t...
PETERSBURG (AP) – A group of volunteers from five southeast Alaska communities is working to document bats as part of a program aimed at combating a deadly virus caused by the animals. Volunteers from Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, Sitka and Wrangell are participating in this year’s program, which is coordinated through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Over the last three years, the program has helped gather data to prevent White Noise Syndrome. The fungal disease has killed off more than 7 million bats in the Lower 48 since it was discover...
April 13, 1917 - W.E. Worth came in last Saturday from Whale Pass, where he had been employed for the past six months at the A. K. Foss logging camp. He had intended to return to Petersburg several months ago, but his boat froze in in December and the ice didn’t loosen up until the end of February. His non -appearance gave rise to a report that he was lost or drowned—now happily proven “greatly exaggerated.” April 10, 1942 – Under the direction of Carroll Clausen, local Defense Bond chairman, a Universal Pledge Campaign will get under way this...
Fluoridation proven safe To the Editor: The safety and effectiveness of community water fluoridation has been scientifically proven and documented for 60 years. Dental decay is still the number one disease of children. Water fluoridation can greatly reduce decay across the population. The safety and efficacy is supported by over 100 National and International organizations, the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Public Health Service(CDC), the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization, and the...
Mariya Kochubey from University of Washington School of Medicine will be completing her third year Family Medicine Clerkship at Petersburg Medical Center. She will be at PMC through May 5. Petersburg Medical Center is an official University of Washington Medical Student Clerkship site for rural Family Medicine. The experience that medical students get here may encourage them to pursue rural family medicine; perhaps even returning to our community someday to practice, according to Dr. Jennifer...
Police made contact with a man shouting vulgarities and making offensive hand gestures in front of the Rae C. Stedman Elementary School on Monday morning. He was also reported to be wearing a gas mask or respirator. In an email sent to parents and others, Principal Teri Toland said, “Today there was an individual in front of the building shouting offensive messages and using inappropriate hand gestures. We have spoken with police and (are) pursuing every legal avenue to insure students are safe. The police do not feel that the individual is a...
PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) – Alaska lawmakers have approved legislation that increases the size of the Petersburg Borough’s land grant from the state to include more than 14,600 acres (5908.54 hectares). The southeast Alaska borough is only entitled to about 1,400 acres (566.57 hectares) under state law and is looking to develop or sell off some of the additional property approved by the Senate on Monday, KFSK-FM reported. The bill would transfer 95 percent of the available state land in the borough that hasn’t already been designated for anoth...
April 5 — A theft was reported on Vesta St. Police provided assistance at the Papke’s Landing boat launch ramp. Suspicious activity was reported on Cornelius Road. Police responded to three disturbance calls. A motor vehicle accident was reported on Haugen Dr. A trespassing report was made at a Scow Bay Loop Rd. address. A domestic violence report was reported on S. Nordic Drive. Police responded to a disturbance at LeConte RV Park. A traffic offense was reported on Fram St. April 6 — A burglary was reported on S. Second St. A traffic stop...
The graphic showing a summary of the Board of Equalization decisions at their April 3 meeting incorrectly showed Assembly action taken on property appeals for Melinda Hofstad and Elizabeth Pawuk. The story appeared on page 6 of last week’s paper. Hofstad’s appeal was withdrawn and no action was taken. On Pawuk’s appeal, the Assembly stayed with the Assessor’s recommended valuation of $269,400....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its forecast for commercial salmon harvests this year, projecting a strong run of pinks for Southeast in 2017. If panning out as projected, the news should come as a relief to the region's fishermen after a disappointing 2016 harvest. The report details last year's commercial salmon season, which had come in about 30 percent lower than forecast. Alaska fishermen caught 112,500,000 salmon in 2016, of which 52.9 million had been sockeye and 39...
Petersburg's National Ocean Science Bowl Team traveled to Seward in February to compete with 16 schools statewide. The PHS team placed 8th overall, 5th on their research paper, 4th for the oral presentation and 4th on the overall project (a combination of the research paper and the presentation.) Teams conducted research, wrote a paper and made presentations on the topic of the warming Pacific Ocean and its impact on a resource in the community. Students selected the LeConte Glacier for their ce...
SITKA - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced April 10 that under Chinook salmon management provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty the 2017 abundance index for Southeast Alaska has been calculated to be 1.27, which results in an all-gear harvest limit of 209,700 treaty Chinook (non-Alaska hatchery-produced Chinook). The preseason troll treaty harvest allocation for 2017 is 154,880 Chinook or 108,320 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2016. While there is no ceiling on the number of Chinook salmon harvested in the...
Early Tuesday morning the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association's floating net pens were being moved into position near the mouth of City Creek, when a structural failure took place. Employees had to move the pen into shallow water along the Sandy Beach tide flats to make repairs. Crystal Lake Assistant Hatchery Manager Kevin Chase explained that a metal beam came loose and had to be reattached, forcing them to realign and re-bolt the listing structure before continuing. By 8:30...
Automation is coming to Alaska fishing boats in the form of cameras and sensors to track what’s coming and going over the rails. Starting next year, Electronic Monitoring systems (EM) can officially replace human observers as fishery data collectors on Alaska boats using longline and pot gear. Vessel operators who do not voluntarily switch to EMS remain subject to human observer coverage on randomly selected fishing trips. The onboard observer requirement originally included vessels 59 feet and larger, but was restructured in 2013 to include b...
JUNEAU (AP) – An Anchorage-based scientist says paralytic shellfish poisoning is to blame for the deaths of more than 300 puffins that washed up in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea last fall. Ecologist Bruce Wright’s opinion is different from most scientists who believe the puffins died of starvation. Wright, with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, believes the puffins and the thousands of common murres that died in the Gulf of Alaska in 2015 were affected by the shellfish poisoning. “My colleagues are reluctant to say the thing...
ANCHORAGE (AP) – Repair work is underway for a pipeline that has spewed hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of processed natural gas into Alaska’s Cook Inlet, home to endangered beluga whales and other marine mammals. The 8-inch (20-centimeter) diameter pipeline supplies gas for power to four Hilcorp Alaska, LLC production platforms. A spokeswoman said Monday that divers over the weekend discovered a 2-inch (5-centimeter) hole at bottom of the pipeline where it rests on a boulder in the sea floor. “Divers have identified the leak locat...
JUNEAU (AP) – The city of Juneau has decided to put up another $100,000 to defend itself in a lawsuit brought by the cruise industry alleging it misused funds paid by cruise ship passengers. The $100,000 approved by the Juneau Assembly on Monday was drawn from the city’s sales tax fund levied on merchants within the city. It is in addition to more than $283,000 the city has already spent in legal fees in the case. Some of the funds have been covered by marine passenger fees. The lawsuit filed by Cruise Lines International Association in Apr...
WRANGELL – The Stikine River Birding Festival celebrates the spring arrival of migratory birds, including hundreds of thousands of shorebirds to the Stikine River Delta. The 20th year of this Wrangell festival takes place April 27-30, 2017. This year’s schedule is now available online at www.stikinebirding.org. Highlights include family activities, photo and art competitions, birding excursions, bird banding demonstrations, and guest speakers. Presenters this year include Dan Ruthrauff from the USGS Alaska Science Center, who will share his...
The Ragnarök Rollers hosted their last bout for the month before heading to state-level play in May. Petersburg's roller derby team hosted Wrangell's Garnet Grit Betties on Saturday, the visitors' last before their summer hiatus. The high school gym bleachers were pretty well packed with spectators. Accounting for ticket sales, about 170 people turned out for the bout. "We were super surprised and excited that such a large crowd turned out," said Ola "PolkaOlka" Richards, a first-year skater...
