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A rare sight in summer, last week a strong display of northern lights was visible on the night of the new moon. The team of scientists conducting whale research based out of Five Finger Lighthouse photographed the phenomena. That team, known as WhaleSpeak will depart the lighthouse this week and will be offering a community presentation at the Petersburg Public Library this saturday about their research on the loud aerial vocalizations of Southeast Alaska’s humpback whales....
Be it boating safety classes, courtesy vessel inspections, maritime observation missions or last-minute substituting for chefs on Coast Guard Cutters, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary provide support to Coast Guard units and promote boating safety in local communities. And now, the Auxiliary in Petersburg will stand up a local Flotilla after years operating as a detachment. The Coast Guard Auxiliary has about 20,000 volunteers nationwide - about 225 in Alaska, which is District 17 for...
Months after Petersburg Close-Up students met with her staffers in Washington D.C., Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola took a tour of the Petersburg Medical Center facilities during her first visit to Petersburg. Also having visited Juneau, Sitka, Metlakatla, Ketchikan, and Wrangell with her reelection campaign staff, Rep. Peltola was on a "whistle stop through Southeast Alaska during the sunniest week of the year," she said with a smile. On a tour of the current Petersburg Medical Center building, Rep....
August 15, 1924 – This afternoon a most disastrous fire broke out in the power plant of the Kennecott Copper Corporation resulting in the total loss of the plant, at an estimate of between $1,500,000 to 2,000,000. The fire began about 3:15 on the top side of the number four boiler and in two minutes it was a roaring inferno of smolder and flame barely giving time to the men on shift to make good their escape. The mill, machine shop and a number of the employees residences in the immediate vicinity escaped with a similar fate through the p...
Fish and deer carcasses, propane bottles, and glass, all of these nonrecyclable items have shown up in the Petersburg Borough Sanitation Department's comingled recycling bins. Commingled means customers' recyclable materials don't need to be sorted into plastic, aluminum, paper, etc. However, the recycling must be clean and free of food and debris. Glass is not recyclable in Petersburg. But there are glass drop-off locations for the public at the baler and at Public Works. "At 303 South 2nd Stre...
To modernize an old expression, Alaskans are fiddling while the Permanent Fund burns. Not literally, of course. The Permanent Fund’s stocks and bonds, real estate deeds, lease agreements and investment contracts are all safely stored. But the fiddling part, that’s true. And because it’s a state election year, we can expect a lot of candidates to turn up the volume on their fiddles. No matter how off-key the music, no one ever loses an election by playing happy tunes about big Permanent Fund dividends. No one wins an election talking about...
Kudos to Koenigs To the Editor: Good for Donald Koenigs pursuing his request for public records. In years past most of my requests for public records were stymied by city employees, sometimes with hostile undertones. I did not have the wherewithal to pursue the requests. Karen Olsen Circle of Life To the Editor: Life has a way of making circles and my parents Earl and Mary Benitz, recently made their circle back to Petersburg. I impulsively said, “Well I’ll take care of them” three years ago and it’s been an adventure with me. They are back an...
True political leadership requires accurately describing the challenges facing our state and nation and proposing realistic solutions. Nancy Dahlstrom, a Republican running for Alaska’s sole Congressional seat, has already failed this test. In an interview broadcast on Alaska News Nightly on July 16, Ms. Dahlstrom stated that, if elected, her “first priority” representing Alaska in Congress would be to get “the border wall closed” and force “16 million-plus people who are in the country illegally” (an inflated number) to “go back to where t...
August 7 – A driver on North Nordic Drive was issued a warning for an inoperable headlight and expired insurance. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of bear activity in the Skylark Way area. PPD received a report of vehicles and boats blocking two fire hydrants at two locations on Unimak Street and they were relocated at the direction of an officer. A deer that was struck and killed by a vehicle on Mitkof Highway was not salvageable. Palmer Thomassen was remanded for allegedly violating conditions of release. An officer r...
A big black bear went through the Petersburg Airport Subdivision on Saturday night looking for an easy meal inside any unsecured garbage cans. Luis Silva's motion activated camera picked up the bear struggling to get into this big can that was secured with ratchet straps....
April 3, 2024 At arraignment, defendant Samantha Mable Bean entered a not guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge of Assault in the fourth degree. Defendant was release on own recognizance. April 5, 2024 At a change of plea proceeding, Jessie Roundtree entered a guilty plea to Assault in the third degree and a guilty plea to Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the fifth degree. On July 26, 2024 he was sentenced to 730 days in jail with 695 days suspended and five years of probation. At a change of plea proceeding, Clyde Forest Brown...
Jill Lenhard moved to Ketchikan last August to take a teaching job at Ketchikan High School, but she – and her husband, music teacher Matt Lenhard – both got caught up in this year's teacher layoffs that impacted public school districts across the state. Fortunately for Petersburg, this meant the perfect candidate was unexpectedly available to fill a new teaching vacancy at Mitkof Middle School. Lenhard had spent over 20 years in Petersburg as a vital component of the school district's Eng...
The featured exhibit in the lobby of Petersburg Public Library is a tribute to Petersburg English teacher, basketball coach, and longtime local Poet Laureate Lee Ribich. It proudly showcases his five books of poetry along with school yearbooks and momentos that attest to Ribich's contributions over the decades. On Saturday afternoon, after the exhibit was unveiled, friends and family gathered at the library's fireplace to hear a reading of selected poems from Ribich's collection. Lee and his...
Up to $83 million in federal funds have been approved for small business loans to be offered through a consortium of Alaska tribes. Announced last Tuesday, the funds are part of the U.S. Treasury’s broader effort to support tribal economies, with up to $415 million being funneled into developing the economies of 220 tribes, according to a Treasury news release. Of that group, 125 tribes make up the consortium from Alaska. “These funds will serve some of the most rural populations in the United States, creating jobs and expanding capital acc... Full story
Lifted on a yellow forklift, Jeff Randrup pulls the chord of the steam whistle at the OBI plant to signal the milestone achievement of processing 100,000 cases of pink salmon this season. The whistle bellowed throughout downtown just past noon on Monday, Aug. 12....
The annual Rally for Cancer Care Golf tournament, also known as Fun and Frolic, was held Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Muskeg Meadows, in Wrangell. This year Desi Burrell and 39 other women from Petersburg went to Wrangell to participate in the annual event. This isn't your normal golf tournament; no score is kept and no skill is required by participants. "It keeps getting better every year," Burrell said. "If you've never golfed in your life, you could still have a really good time. There w...
At the height of the food stamp backlog last November, pro bono attorneys and other volunteers at Alaska Legal Services got more than 600 requests in one month from Alaskans seeking a fair hearing to get their overdue food benefits. So the 97 requests that came in this July didn’t feel like anything the group couldn’t handle, said Leigh Dickey, the nonprofit’s advocacy director. But the number is still alarming, she said, and it’s double last month’s requests. Dickey said the state’s Division of Public Assistance is still dogged by the same pr... Full story
Heavy fishing on chinook salmon by sport fishermen — including nonresident charter customers — is taking fishing opportunity from Southeast Alaska’s commercial troll fishing fleet this summer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last Tuesday that trollers in August and September will likely lose out on the remainder of the summer troll fishery allocation for Chinook because sport fishermen across Southeast are on track to exceed their summer 2024 allocation by about 14,000 Chinook, and because of a regulation change that the depar...
Smokey Bear turned 80 years old on August 9, 2024. Community members joined the U.S. Forest Service and Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department to celebrate Smokey Bear's birthday with cake, crafts, and photos with the longtime icon of wildfire prevention at a birthday party held behind the Forest Service building on Friday. From left to right: Carin Christensen, Smokey Bear, Tiare Simbahon, Caroline Dowd, Alex Rodriguez-Smith....
Calvin James Hankins was born on July 23, 2024, weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces. He was 20.5 inches. Calvin is welcomed by his parents, Aaron and Keely Hankins, his sister Aria and his brother Greyson....
The ridge ascent up Manzanita Peak, on the east side of Mitkof Island, traverses just over 11 miles without a marked trail and gains 2667 feet elevation. These hikers spent 12 hours hiking the peak on Sunday to see the views of Dry Strait, Coney Island, and LeConte Bay from the top....
