Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
The St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church caught fire last Thursday, leaving much of the building in ruins and covering Petersburg in smoke. According to a statement from Fire Marshal Ryan Welde, the fire has been ruled accidental in nature and was a result of maintenance work. The fire originated at ground level on the exterior of the building facing Dolphin Street. It then traveled up the wall via rigid foam insulation located behind the vinyl siding and continued to spread into the eaves... Full story
July 13, 1923 – Two boats were added to the local fleet recently when the Dorn and Urania were launched and commissioned from Skog Shipyard opposite Scow Bay. The Dorn was built for Larsen and Peterson, owners of the Dorn Island fox ranch. She is 32 feet in length with a 9 ½ feet beam and powered with a 30 horsepower engine and is said to be one of the speediest boats of her class in this section. The Urania is a 60 foot boat built for Enge, Dehrdahl and Dan Molver and is powered with a 60 horsepower Fairbanks Morse semi-diesel engine. Both bo...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a bid award for a project that would replace approximately 200 feet of sewer lines beneath the Community Center during its July 3 meeting. The project will close half of the Community Center while the floor is ripped up and the main sewer line and lateral lines are replaced. The Community Center has been experiencing sewer problems for the last couple of years, such as toilets not flushing and water fountains draining onto the floor,...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Backers of an effort to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting system violated campaign finance rules and obscured the source of their funding, including forming a church that could have allowed donors to gain tax advantages for their contributions while skirting disclosure mandates, a complaint alleges. The complaint was filed by Alaskans for Better Elections, which was behind the successful 2020 ballot measure that replaced party primaries with open primaries and instituted ranked choice voting for general ele...
Join the Volunteer Fire Department To the Editor: Now that we have seen the ugly damage to the church that a structure fire does so quickly, it should be obvious why Petersburg needs a fire department. But a fire department is not just big red trucks, air packs, hoses, and axes. It needs volunteers — people who have the skills to deal with the serious problems that lesser mortals run away from. PVFD always needs more volunteers to learn to serve as firefighters, emergency medical technicians, search team members, and non-tactical supporting w...
Opponents of ranked-choice voting in Alaska want to put an initiative on the ballot so that voters can overturn the law in the 2024 election. To do that, they need to collect signatures from about 26,000 registered voters to win a spot on the statewide ballot. To do that, and then run a statewide campaign to convince a majority of voters to dump the new voting system, they will need money. Six-figure money. Which means fundraising. But the laws around soliciting and accepting campaign donations are a problem for people who want to remain...
July 5 – Officers responded to a noise complaint on South 5th Street. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of concern about fireworks. An officer responded to a report of an unsecured building, secured it and notified its owner. An officer responded to a minor vehicle accident in the south parking lot at Sandy Beach Park. An officer responded to a report of suspicious activity on Haugen Drive and determined it was unfounded. An officer responded to a report of suspicious activity on South Nordic Drive and determined it was n...
The fog was thick and freezing. Ice crystallized on every spruce branch and ocean-sprayed rocky cleft. Akusha Island was wrapped up tight in an icy cloud. The Croman family must have huddled close for warmth in their rustic cabin, isolated forty miles north of Petersburg on the island they used as a fox farm. The foxes depended on them for food and water but otherwise the critters ran free since it was too far to swim to another shore. Eventually the family would round them up and harvest their soft silver-blue pelts. By the next morning the...
Mountain View Food Services will begin holding in-person meals at Mountain View Manor's dining room this Monday, bringing the elderly dining program one step closer to its pre-COVID state. Since March 2020, the program has exclusively functioned as a meal delivery service due to COVID-19 concerns, but after a board decision on Tuesday, the dining hall will open its doors to the program once again. "Prior COVID, all the meals were to be eaten in the dining room unless someone was considered to...
A potential Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) wholesale rate increase has been deferred by at least a year due to record high power sales in Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell this spring, according to Vice Mayor Bob Lynn. “It’s a record, I mean it’s about 5% above any previous sales that we did this past winter, which is pretty significant,” Lynn said during his July 3 report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly about the latest SEAPA Board meeting The SEAPA Board last approved a wholesale rate increase in December 2022, raising the pri...
A private dump truck hit a guy-wire supporting a power pole on the dump hill Wednesday, cutting power to the baler facility and water treatment plant, according to Utility Director Karl Hagerman. The outage also affected Sandy Beach Road, North Nordic Drive, Wrangell Avenue, Petersburg High School, OBI, and Petersburg IGA. Petersburg Municipal Power and Light was alerted to the incident near Reservoir Road around 10:10 a.m. and responded. According to Hagerman, the guy-pole that was attached to...
Ness family members from across the country gathered at Ness Point in Petersburg last Saturday to dedicate a bench to relatives Erick, Ragna, Leo, and Carl Ness. Crafted by local artist Josef Quitslund, the bench depicts an early 20th century view of Ness Point-the current location of Eagle's Roost Park-where three houses and a large garden built by Petersburg pioneer Erick Ness previously stood. "[The point] is everything. Even to talk about it brings emotions for me," said Erick Ness'...
In Alaska, only a third of children meet the state’s goals to be ready for kindergarten. But the state’s share of funding for Head Start, a mostly federally funded child care and health program that promotes school readiness specifically for low-income families, is lower than it was a decade ago. This year, the Legislature earmarked $5 million for an increase so the state’s Head Start programs could match federal contributions, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed most of it, slashing the increase to $1.5 million. It’s left program directors like Ma... Full story
Alaskans are having a harder time accessing child care now than they were five years ago, an expert told a new task force charged by Gov. Mike Dunleavy with developing a plan to make child care in the state more available and affordable. The task force, which Dunleavy formed in April, had its first public meeting on June 28 via Zoom with about 60 people, including the dozen task force members, in attendance. The group has until the end of December to deliver an initial plan to address the state’s child care challenges. At stake is the w... Full story
They say 'To dare is to do,' and Scott May, 59, did just that when he successfully completed the first known open-water swim across Frederick Sound. May, aided by his wife Bridget Wittstock and Tom Thompson in a boat alongside him, completed the 4-mile swim on Wednesday in about four hours, starting from Horn Cliffs on the mainland and making landfall at Frederick Point. "I didn't think I'd really actually do it and I really didn't tell anybody, but when I said it to a few people then I was...
WRANGELL – From a "beary" pie contest to a cub-o-war, art workshops, live music and a usually sold-out dinner, BearFest is returning for its 14th year. The activities start July 26. The popular educational and cultural event celebrates bears and the surrounding environment. Along with the activities, educational opportunities and symposiums and a bear safety session are planned. One of the more popular features of BearFest is the dinner and fundraising auction held at the Stikine Inn and Restaurant, which will begin at 6 p.m. July 28. T...
