Sorted by date Results 1 - 24 of 24
The South Nordic Drive construction project that had been planned to kick off this fall likely won’t begin until spring 2015. Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) project manager Keith Karpstein said the delay came after securing nearly 100 required right of way easements from property owners along the affected roadway. “If there’s an impact to the adjacent property owners we have to work with them to get the necessary rights to work on the property even on a temporary basis,” Karpstein said. “Most of these impacts were temporary... Full story
A 59-year-old Petersburg man was injured Sunday afternoon in the borough rock quarry after handling what explosive experts have identified as Tovex - a commercial grade explosive typically used for blasting in quarries, mines and road construction. An individual called 911 around 1 p.m. reporting the injured man lying outside of the Petersburg Medical Center Emergency Room and informed dispatchers he could have been injured by dynamite, a Petersburg Police press release states. "The injured pers... Full story
July 18, 1914 – With the coming of the new federal reserve banking system will come new styles of paper money. Under the bank act each of the twelve federal reserve banks will receive advances from the federal reserve in the form of federal reserve notes, a distinctly new sort of money. Commercial paper will be the collateral advanced by the various banks as security for these notes. The treasury department has samples of this new paper money now under consideration, notes of $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 denominations. All will be printed in g...
Monthly Enhanced 911 (E911) surcharges will increase to $2 a month for Petersburg Borough cellphone users if the Borough Assembly approves the rate increase as an ordinance during the next assembly meeting. The funds will help finance maintenance on the E911 Emergency Communications Fund, an anticipated cost of $500,000 during the next several years. Every municipality across Alaska sets a similar charge, which helps install and maintain emergency communication systems. In Petersburg, there is only $29,700 currently available in the fund due... Full story
The Southeast Seine fishery is performing as expected despite a closure last week, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) biologist Dan Gray. “As expected, we have a fairly low pink salmon forecast and it’s early yet in the development of that run, but it looks like what we thought,” Gray said. In the Hidden Falls terminal harvest area, the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association needs 180,000 chum salmon for brood stock. As of July 8, only 5,000 passed the barrier net and into a containment area. “Without that in place i...
Petersburg Indian Association is accepting E-waste through August 30 in an effort to prevent harmful elements that exist in electronics, such lead and mercury, from entering the environment. "This is our first E-waste program through the Indian General Assistance Program, the environmental program here at PIA," said Jason Wilson, PIA tribal resource director. "If you can plug it in we'll take it." Electronic waste can be deposited in the yellow totes outside at the baler facility until the...
July 9 A caller reported a possible trespass. A caller reported a vehicle going into a ditch. A caller reported credit card fraud. A caller reported a boat on fire near the ferry terminal. The fire department was paged. Police received a report of a disabled vehicle. A caller turned in found medication. A caller reported a vehicle blocking a driveway. July 10 A power outage was reported. Police gave a warning to an individual for lane travel. Police arrested Anthony E. Green, 23, for Driving While License is Canceled, Suspended or Revoked....
July 10 Clifford Squartsoff appeared before Magistrate Judge Burrell for a Petition to Revoke Probation. The defendant entered a denial. The court scheduled further proceedings. John Martin appeared before Magistrate Judge Burrell on charges of Driving While License is Canceled, Suspended or Revoked and Failure to Provide Immediate Notice of Accident. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty. The court set conditions of release. July 15 John Staples appeared before Superior Court Judge Carey on charge of Driving Under the Influence. The...
PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) — The hatchery in the southeast Alaska community of Kake is scheduled to close Monday, though it remains possible that a regional hatchery group could still take it over. The Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association has been looking at whether it makes financial sense to operate the Kake Gunnuk Creek hatchery after it closes its doors. Factors being considered as part of that include installation of new equipment to recirculate and regulate water in Gunnuk Creek and high energy costs, association general m...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Pacific herring are returning to Auke Bay to spawn in the most significant numbers seen in decades. Whether the fishery is becoming healthier won't be seen until scientists see if the eggs are fertilized and if they survive. The Juneau Empire reports Lynn Canal herring stocks have been depressed for decades. For the past seven years until recently, first Lynn Canal and then Southeast herring stocks were under consideration for listing as an endangered species, but neither population was deemed distinct enough for the l...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Southeast Alaska's watersheds are changing quickly, and researchers are working to figure out how, why, and what those changes mean. Sanjay Pyare, Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Systems and Landscape Ecology, Sonia Nagorski, Research Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences, Brian Buma, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Ecology, and other researchers affiliated with the University of Alaska and the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center _ including graduate and undergraduate students _ on a recent F...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Sunday is the deadline to register to vote, update voter information or change party affiliation ahead of next month's primary. Regional offices of the Division of Elections, in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome and Wasilla, will be open for voter registration from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The division says it also accepts voter registration applications submitted by mail, fax or email. Division Director Gail Fenumiai said in a news release that changes made after Sunday will not be e...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A new fiscal year means layoffs for Juneau, where the combined city and borough was dealing with a $6 million deficit. Juneau has cut the equivalent of 12 fulltime employees as of Tuesday. KTOO reports other employees have had their hours cut, and it could translate to reduced services for residents. Among other cuts to meet the budget will be reduced hours at the downtown library and the city museum, the elimination of the city's bear awareness program and slower snow plowing in the winter. Officials also cut the adult b...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Water crept up on homes and closed roads and popular hiking trails Friday, as residents braced for possible record flooding after the release of water from a glacially dammed lake. The old record of 11.18 feet on Mendenhall Lake, set in 1995, was broken by Friday afternoon, as the lake water level reached 11.8 feet, then began to drop slightly, the National Weather Service said. Authorities have been monitoring the lake and Mendenhall River to see when they would crest f...
Ocean chemists are calling it “revolutionary technology” as unmanned gliders track how melting glaciers may be intensifying corrosive waters in Prince William Sound. “It’s been hugely successful. We’ve flown these things all over inside and outside of Prince William Sound, we’ve had great control over them, we’ve been able to move them to exactly where we want them to be. They are making thousands of measurements all over,” said Jeremy Mathis, director of the Ocean Environment Research Division at the Pacific Marine Environmental L...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A new attraction on Alaska's Kodiak Island features exotic dancers who entertain fishermen on a converted Bering Sea crabbing boat dubbed the “Wild Alaskan” — and it's already encountered choppy regulatory seas. Barely open for business, the floating bar and grill was briefly shut down by the Coast Guard after someone reported that a water taxi was overloaded as it transported patrons to the 120-foot vessel. Wild Alaskan owner Darren Byler said he is “100 percent sure” that whoever notified authorities doesn't lik...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Federal law enforcement officials are investigating after a 48-foot female whale well-known in the waters of southeast Alaska was killed in a collision with a boat. A tour-boat operator found the whale, which had been seen in the waters of southeast Alaska for nearly 40 years, near Funter Bay on July 1. The carcass was hauled to a nearby beach, where a necropsy was performed July 3, officials said Friday. “The left mandible was fractured and the right mandible was traumatically dislocated from the cranium,” Dr. Kathy...
