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Petersburg residents can now file for candidacy in this year’s municipal election, which will be held on Oct. 3, 2023. 20 seats will be up for election this year, including two on the Petersburg Borough Assembly currently held by Dave Kensinger and Jeff Meucci. Both seats on the assembly are three-year terms. Katie Holmlund is the lone incumbent on the Petersburg School District Board up for election this year—also for a three-year term. The Petersburg Medical Center Board will have three seats on the ballot this fall. The seats that are cur...
U.S. Forest Service personnel have spent the summer cutting through debris along the popular Petersburg Lake Trail as part of a trail maintenance project funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. The 10.5-mile trail has been nearly impassable for years due to fallen trees, mud, and rotted out wooden walkways, preventing hikers from accessing the cabin that sits on Petersburg Lake on foot. "The trail has been degrading for a long, long time and the Forest Service, we just haven't had funding to...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska wants the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a federal agency’s rejection of a proposed copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor in a statement last Wednesday said having a case heard directly by the Supreme Court rather than first in the lower courts is “an extraordinary ask, but it’s appropriate given the extraordinary decision being challenged.” “The EPA’s order strikes at the heart of Alaska’s sovereignty, depriving the State of its powe...
August 3, 1923 – During the coming month a conference of naval experts, Congressional experts and Admirals will hear the results of an extensive exploration of the Alaskan coast on the part of the Aeroplane service as regards to possible harborage and refuge in Alaskan waters. The naval aeroplane carrier Cuyama is due in Ketchikan this week on her return voyage to Seattle. The Cuyama has been operating in northern waters all summer with two planes and four pilots exploring the coastline for possible points of refuge in time of war and c...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board unanimously approved the hospital’s operating budget for the next fiscal year at its June board meeting. PMC CFO Jason McCormick presented the draft FY24 operating budget at the meeting, which features a budgeted total operating revenue over the next year of $25.34 million. The budgeted revenue is an optimistic increase from the estimated FY23 total operating revenue of $22.46 million—mostly driven by a budgeted 18% increase in net patient revenue from the previous fiscal year. According to McCormick, PMC nee...
Drivers along Sandy Beach Road have been pulling over and taking notice of an unusual visitor on the water this week. The largest single mast sailing yacht ever built has been anchored off the northern shore of Mitkof Island. Built in 2004 and refitted in 2013, the superyacht M5 measures around 255 ft long – longer than most of the small cruise ships that visit Petersburg during the summer – with a towering 290 ft mast and a keel down draught of 33.5 ft. A 29-ft tender is stored in the laz...
Volunteers needed for a worthy cause To the Editor: I’d like to share a little about our new bike park and its progress. As you may know the City has granted use of borough land for a new bike park. This bike park is the property of the city and will be managed by Petersburg Parks and Recreation. The construction and maintenance of the park will be all volunteer. No city resources (other than the land) will be required. The park will consist of a series of jumps, bumps, turns, and berms built so that they are linked together into a fun trail l...
Elected officials who say the proposed Alaska North Slope natural gas project is closer than ever to putting steel pipe in the ground and money in the pockets of construction workers should take a break from their political grandstanding and pay attention to the facts. Not a single analyst tracking gas projects around the world ever mentions Alaska when they list developments with the best potential of getting built. The talk about multiple liquefied natural gas export projects going to construction along the U.S. Gulf Coast, in Qatar,...
Olivia Rose, the Pilot's new full time news reporter, arrived in Petersburg on Sunday. She was born and raised in a small town near San Francisco and appreciates the nuanced community service role of the local newsroom. Olivia developed her journalism skills and sharpened her writing chops serving as Editor in Chief for The Lion school newspaper at Loyola Marymount University, from which she is a 2023 magna cum laude graduate in Journalism. She's contributed writing to multiple publications,...
July 26 – An officer responded to a report of a disturbance on Kiseno Street. An officer conducted a welfare check on an individual and found all okay. Property was reported lost on Odin Street. Property was reported lost in South Harbor. Two abandoned vehicles were impounded from the South Harbor parking lot. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of a black bear getting into a secured trash can on Dolphin Street. The Alaska Wildlife Trooper (AWT) and Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) were notified. July 27 – PPD rec...
July 12, 2023 Magistrate Judge Rachel Newport presided over the arraignment for State of Alaska v. Jonathan Wilson Barnett Randrup. The defendant entered a not guilty plea to the charge of Violating Conditions of Release and was released on own recognizance with all conditions remaining as previously ordered. Magistrate Judge Rachel Newport presided over the arraignment in State of Alaska v. Alejandro Melendez Aguilar. The defendant pleaded not guilty to three counts of Misconduct Involving a Weapon in the 4th degree, Reckless Endangerment,...
Eighteen Petersburg youth ages 7 to 12 have been spending their afternoons at Sandy Beach Park participating in Petersburg Medical Center's ORCA (Outdoor Recreation Creation Adventure) Theatre Camp, an eight-day experience that uses nature as a backdrop to educate and inspire children with their local environment while practicing life skills through theater with Camp Director Brad Younts. Younts, who earned his BFA in theater at Boston's Emerson College, has been involved with theater for more...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board discussed holding future board meetings in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers last week in an effort to make their meetings more accessible to the public as the new facility project progresses. The board typically holds its meetings on the last Thursday of each month at 5 p.m. in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room, located on the first floor of the hospital. Though hospital board meetings are open to the public, both in person and over Zoom, they are not broadcast by KFSK like the assembly and school...
Sharon Paulson moved her family from Juneau to Petersburg in July and will teach fourth grade at Stedman Elementary School this fall as one of several new additions to the Petersburg School District's roster of educators. This will be her fourth teaching position in Alaska, where her entire career as an educator has taken place. Paulson attended undergrad at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia before moving back to her home town of Wakarusa, Indiana, where she wrote for the local...
The K-5th grade library program at Stedman Elementary School will welcome home a former Petersburg resident and long-time friend to the community, Debi Tice. One of several new hires to Petersburg School District, Tice now holds the title of Elementary Librarian and Intervention - the latter half reflecting a measure of the Alaska Reads Act. Tice started teaching in Petersburg in 1998, leaving and returning a few times, then ultimately taking her teaching career abroad to Brazil, China, and...
Scientists and staff with the U.S. Forest Service are hopeful that the blackheaded budworm outbreak that began three years ago throughout the Tongass National Forest is beginning to decline. Data collected earlier this year revealed not only the extent of the damage done by the half-inch insect but evidence showed the worms are dying off. Elizabeth Graham, an entomologist with the Forest Service, said in a news conference on July 20 she has seen firsthand that there is lower activity of the bug...
Alaska public school teachers short of supplies this year have a new source to turn to for funding, and it’s not the local school budget. Each teacher could receive $650 to $750 from the state in federal pandemic relief money. Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development will devote $2 million in federal pandemic relief money to fund teacher requests. “By helping teachers directly with their classroom needs, DEED is supporting our teachers in our shared mission to provide an excellent education for every student everyday,” said de... Full story
The state government is taking aim at eliminating one of the most common barriers for people who want to open child care centers in remote communities: The state requirement for a special internet connection called a “static IP address.” Every device connected to has its own Internet Protocol, or IP, address. While most device addresses can change, static IP addresses don’t. They can be costly and hard to get in remote parts of Alaska where internet access is a known challenge. Would-be child care providers in remote parts of Alaska have said...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state board of education last Wednesday delayed action on a proposal that would bar transgender girls from participating on high school girls’ athletic teams in Alaska, with several board members saying they wanted more time to consider the issue. Opponents of the proposal called it discriminatory and unconstitutional and said it would likely lead to litigation. Supporters, including Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, said it is needed to ensure fairness in girls’ sports. The board heard more than 2 1/2 hours of publi...
Telecommunications company GCI will end its longtime email service next year, a move that will force customers to transition to new email providers. Spokespeople with GCI, Alaska’s largest telecommunications company, said the service will end sometime in mid-2024. At that point, customers will no longer be able to access or use their gci.net account, according to a draft fact page posted online. “We will provide our customers formal notice at least six months in advance of email deactivation deadline,” GCI spokeswoman Heather Handyside said...
Salmon: King salmon fishing in the Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough THA closed on July 31. It is still possible to encounter a king while trolling for coho as we have some king salmon feeding here throughout the year. Remember to purchase a king salmon stamp if you hope to harvest a king. A legal king salmon must be greater than 28 inches from tip of snout to tip of tail (in its natural open position). Also keep in mind that effective July 15 the nonresident anglers annual harvest limit is now one king salmon and any king salmon harvested from...
