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This year's Little Norway Festival will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Norwegian Constitution on May 17, 1814. Mayfest began in Petersburg more than 50 years ago and Janet Holten, Chair of the Little Norway Festival, said it has grown ever since. "In 1958 when Alma Wallen and Bernadine Trones founded the festival, I don't know if they would have ever dreamed that it is as big as it is now," Holten said. "It was to mark the coming of spring, the sending off of the fleet,... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly will discuss the impacts of the University of Alaska timber sale on South Mitkof Island after two members of the community shared their concerns last week. Dave Beebe represented the City of Kupreanof and spoke before the assembly. He cited studies by Geologist Dr. Douglas Swanston from the 1970s regarding unstable slopes and potential landslide issues posing threats to public safety. “Essentially the whole state holding is documented as unstable slopes within a half mile of pubic roadways,” Beebe said. “If... Full story
The Petersburg roller derby team has been practicing and gearing up all winter and spring for such an event but what should derby spectators expect? “They should expect to see a bunch of women in really tight pants skating around in circles hitting each other,” said Roller’s head coach Rebecca Anderson. Anderson said roller derby bouts are similar to football games. “Take a football field and imagine both teams are lined up at one goal line,” Anderson said. “Imagine that both quarterbacks, instead of passing the ball, the quarterback... Full story
May 16, 1914 – Considerable interest has been aroused in medical circles in Germany by a man who can swallow small animals and return them alive. The doctors supposed that performances of this characters, which are frequently given at county fairs, were tricks by which the eye of the onlooker was in one way or another deceived. In this case, however, a medical practitioner of the highest standing reports that the animals were undoubtedly taken into the stomach. May 17, 1974 Celebrating the Pilot's 40th Year – The 17th annual Little Norway Fes...
In the face of declining funding for the Tongass National Forest, Petersburg Ranger District managers are looking to the public for help to figure out which type of recreation programs and facilities will stay and which will go. “We’ve come up with a general niche that we think would be suitable for the community, suitable for the district to continue to maintain in the future,” Petersburg District Ranger Jason Anderson said. “But it does leave stuff off the map. There are certain things that aren’t going to get addressed and the idea was...
It’s common knowledge the Vikings reined supreme 1,000 years ago as they built long ships to pillage Europe and discover North America. What may not be well known is the Viking had a parliament style of government. Local and Norwegian cultural historian Sue Paulsen said representatives would meet for two weeks each summer. “People would represent each hamlet,” Paulsen said. “They would send a person, a representative, a legislator if you would. They would vote on any changes that they wanted to have.” Paulsen said representative governmen...
Shortly after Glo Wollen was named harbormaster, she stood before the city council and advised them that the North Boat Harbor was one storm away from breaking loose and floating into Wrangell Narrows. That body took her seriously. Today, the 56-year old harbor is history. The new harbor features roomier berths, better fire protection, upgraded water and power services and is a facility worthy of Petersburg’s hard-working fleet. With the opening of the brand new North Harbor, we take note that this was one of the smoothest construction p...
Vision for the Petersburg Borough To the Editor: I see a diverse population living in relative harmony, made up of people who respect the opinions and beliefs of others even if they disagree with a viewpoint or don’t share the belief. A community where cooperation and compromise for the common good is the norm. I see a borough that lives in harmony with its environment. One that uses resources in a sustainable way to allow its residents to make a reasonable and fulfilling living. Supporting, but not subsidizing, fishing, timber harvest, r...
May 8 Lucas Killian was absent for an arraignment hearing before Magistrate Judge Burrell. The defendant moved out of state and was unable to be served. The court set a $250 warrant. Gordon Lyons appeared before Magistrate Judge Burrell for a petition to revoke probation. The defendant entered a denial plea for the petition. The court set conditions for release....
May 7 An officer received a complaint concerning an individual blocking a right of way. A caller reported an individual who placed a recycling bag on their property. May 9 A caller reported a woman yelling and screaming, waking people up. A caller reported a black car speeding. An officer responded to a request to check on kids sitting on a railing. A caller reported being threatened. An officer made contact with a group of individuals at Sandy Beach Park past dark. May 10 A caller reported loud music and requested music be turned down and...
Petersburg High School track team athletes performed well in a meet last weekend and several are on the right track to qualify for state. Petersburg athletes competed against Ketchikan and Thorn Bay in Ketchikan. Andrew Mathisen ranked first place in the long and triple jump events and he also performed well in the 400-meter dash and 200-meter dash finals. Alan Jensen threw the discus 130 feet for first place and Ben Zarlengo threw 121 feet, finishing in second. Zarlengo also finished second in...
The Petersburg Vikings baseball team won its first varsity game since the team’s creation eight years ago. The Vikings have played at the junior varsity level until last year. Head Coach Jim Engell said Saturday’s victory over Ketchikan was unprecedented. “It was the best all around game we've played, not only this year, but maybe in our team’s history,” Engell said. The Vikings jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning and held that lead into the fifth when they added four more points to the score. Ketchikan fought back and scored fo...
The Petersburg Borough’s total taxable assessed value decreased from estimates early this year forcing the borough to cut back on its contingency expense account by more than $40,000. Property tax revenues decreased by $42,122 from what was budgeted before the appeal process that took place last month where property owners had a chance to dispute borough assessor Mike Renfro’s original assessments. Renfro said he ended up dealing with around 200 appeals. “There were quite a few of them changed,” Renfro said. “The majority of those claims we...
The Planning Commission scheduled a public hearing to review an appeal made by Aaron Miller and Katrina Miller against a zoning violation issued by Community Development Director Leo Luczak. The violation comes after the Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 3-2 against rezoning the Miller’s property in the Olsen Subdivision from residential to commercial. The Millers requested the rezoning through the commission last year and want to build a warehouse on their property to store commercial fishing gear. They currently have gear stored there that do...
The debate over which sector – commercial or recreational fishing – provides the bigger economic punch can finally be put to rest. The annual ‘Fisheries Economics of the US’ report by the Dept. of Commerce shows once and for all that in terms of values, jobs, sales and incomes the commercial sector far outscores recreational fishing. A breakdown of the extensive report by market analyst John Sackton shows that in 2012, commercial fishing had $140 billion in sales compared to $58 billion for sport fishing. And for the value contributed to the...
JUNEAU (AP) — The threat of fires in the nation's largest national forest has subsided. CoastAlaska reports Tongass National Forest Fire Information Officer Seth Ross says a fire warning has been rescinded. Continued dry, warm weather last week prompted the warning. Hunters, hikers, boaters and campers were asked to be extra careful in extinguishing fires because conditions were right for fire activity. Ross says it appears the area is now coming out of that warm, dry period into normal Southeast weather and that prompted the cancellation of t...
WRANGELL — The borough assembly voted 5-0 in favor of a motion authorizing negotiations over the Tyee Lake power facility. The vote was taken on May 7 in open session after a roughly two-hour closed-door executive session with borough attorney Bob Blasco. Assembly members declined comment on the motion or the executive session, saying they were legally constrained from open discussion on the proceedings. The vote comes after a seeming impasse over the future of operations and maintenance at the facility stemming from an April 4 c...
