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With a crew working six days a week, construction at the Crystal Lake Hatchery facility is moving along on schedule. "We're basically on schedule, which is a little bit surprising for a construction project," Bill Gass said with a laugh. Gass is the production manager for Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (SSRAA), which is contracted to operate the Crystal Lake facility by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Sport Fish Division. The incubation building and generator shed a... Full story
Mad hatter auctioneer Brad Taylor ups the bidding for a package at Saturday night's Viking Swim Club auction. All told, organizers said the event raised about $25,000 for the club. "The live auction was up from last year while the silent auction was down from last year. This was Heather Conn's and my first year coordinating the auction so we learned a lot and plan on doing it again next year," co-organizer Savann Guthrie said....
Though the case is still under advisement with a judge, the building at 1011 Wrangell Avenue owned by Karen Ellingstad and Fred Triem has been taken down. “The building is down. We’re still in the process of cleaning up,” Ellingstad said in a phone interview this week. “We’re not done cleaning up everything. It’s not done done, but the house is down.” She added that work on dismantling the building has been done in stages since late August of this year. “It’s a long process,” she said. The owner’s have salvaged many of the materials from th... Full story
A pair of Cattle Egrets, or "fathers of all ticks" as they are known in their native home, were cause for much stir in Petersburg, landing hundreds of miles north of their typical habitat and luring one birding enthusiast, James Levison, to fly from Fairbanks to catch a glimpse for his personal records. The birds, originating in Africa, came to America in 1953, spreading to California in 1964 and were first recorded in Ketchikan in 1981, and have been sighted very rarely in other parts of...
Petersburg Medical Center's board of directors will be looking to fill some holes in its ranks left vacant after recent municipal elections. PMC CEO Liz Woodyard said the board can advertise for the positions, making appointments as those interested in serving appear, but more dramatic changes will require voter input. "Since we are, officially, a seven member board, we still have to have a quorum of four," she added. "Should you ever want to go to a five member board, because some boards are...
October 31, 1914 – Secretary Lane has finally decided to remove the land office for Alaska from Seattle to Juneau, the removal to take effect the first of January next. Great satisfaction is expressed throughout the country over the removal of this important division of the land office to a point nearer its field of operation, thus facilitating the immense amount of work for the land office in connection with the opening to the coal fields and the construction of the railroad. November 3, 1939 – The Chamber of Commerce met Wednesday night at...
The hospital’s debts took a dive after a large payment went out to pay off the cost for improvements to the electronic health records (EHR) systems ― down to $643,576 owed from a former $1.2 million. “We have made a significant payment on that with the money we received from the Meaningful Use (EHR incentive program),” CFO Doran Hammett reported, with CEO Liz Woodyard adding in that the debt was incurred previously, but payments were not required until funds began arriving from the incenti...
The Petersburg Vessel Owners Association hosted a presentation by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) exploring long-term halibut trends. IPHC Executive Director Bruce Leaman and quantitative scientist Ian Stewart presented the findings and fielding questions from the audience. The data collected look at halibut stocks from across the Pacific, from Alaska to British Columbia, Canada and south to Washington and Oregon. Stewart said that the IPHC has 100 years worth of data on the Pacific stock of halibut, which help IPHC to exami...
At his arraignment held Oct. 23, Petersburg resident Mark Weaver, 59, plead not guilty to two felony charges of Possession of Unregistered Destructive Devices. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie C. Longenbaugh presided over the arraignment at the U.S. District Court in Anchorage. Weaver was indicted by a Grand Jury on those two charges following an explosion in the Petersburg rock quarry July 13 where he sustained injuries and was subsequently transported for treatment to a hospital in Washington. Following the incident, local police, the FBI and off...
October 21 Christian Buschmann appeared before Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell for Further Proceedings for a Failure to Appear Warrant. A representation hearing was set for Oct. 28 while the defendant tries to secure an attorney. Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell presided over an arraignment for Chelsea Berg, appearing on a charge of Commercial Fishing without Photo ID. The defendant entered a plea of no contest and was sentenced to a $500 fine with $250 suspended, a $50 police training surcharge and one year of probation. Chance Day appeared...
October 22 Police received a report of a suspicious person. A caller reported an abandoned vehicle. A possible theft was reported. An officer received a request for assistance with individuals. A caller reported a person swearing and yelling and entering the caller’s business. An officer responded to a request to make contact with an individual about a family issue. Officers responded to a request for assistance in getting an individual home. October 23 A theft was reported to police. A caller reported that fuel was possible in the water and o...
After Nov. 4 the last of the political adverts will finally hibernate for the year, marking the end of a particularly clamorous electoral season. But before Alaska voters cross that final hurdle and head to the polls, they should be aware of three measures awaiting them at the ballot. Ballot Measure 2 – Allowing marijuana legalization and regulation If enacted, this bill would tax and regulate the production, sale, and use of marijuana in Alaska, making its use legal for persons aged 21 or o... Full story
While the Vikings Varsity volleyball team is away, the JV girls went to play in Sitka — and they played hard, winning the majority of their matches with Assistant Coach Arlana Corl. “It was an exciting weekend,” she said. “We went to a tournament with small schools, and the larger schools had their JV teams. There were, I believe, nine schools represented with 18 teams total. We had two. Most schools send their JV (teams) to the tournament.” Starting out with pool play, Corl said the Vikings were divided up into the mostly sophomore team one...
The wrestling Vikings are continuing to bring in wins, mixing up their rosters and rankings over the weekend at Juneau. "It was a pretty big meet, but we only brought seven guys - our two captains, John (Brooks) and Bill (Ware), they stayed here," Coach Dan van Swearengen said. To fill those empty slots, he brought along "a couple of the younger guys," who had been waiting, with varying amounts of patience, for a chance to wrestle more outside competition - and they performed surprisingly well....
In last week’s regular Assembly meeting, members decided to draft an ordinance to address herbicide spraying in the Borough. This represents the next step in a more than year-long process addressing potential herbicide spraying by the state and the lack of opportunity for public input on the issue. The issue has been ongoing since March 2013 when the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) changed their regulations regarding herbicide use. Under the new regulations, agencies seeking to apply herbicides are required to draft an I...
It has been a warm start to winter inside Petersburg Elementary schools, and the comfort and cost-saving benefits of the building's remodel continue to be realized as the first round of bills roll in well under budget as work wraps up on the building's renovation. The project began in April of this year at a cost of $2.3 million. It was designed by Juneau architectural firm, Jensen Yorba Lott and installed by Alaska Community Contractors. "They're in the final stages of the punch list for things... Full story
Elks Member Matt Pawuk passed out awards to young competitors at the hoop shoot, starting with Charlotte Martin, holding Savina Pawuk, who took second in the girls 8-9 division....
wrangell — Some changes to the federally-administered subsistence fisheries were recommended by the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council (RAC) at its three day meeting at Wrangell’s Nolan Center last week. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Robert Larson explained the meeting’s agenda featured an uncommon mix of proposals from the state boards of Game and Fisheries, since the regulatory cycles of both synchronized with each other this year. “It doesn’t happen very often,” he noted. Of particular concern for Wrangel...
Alaska Department of Fish and Game workers are on the trail of a persistent raider of trash cans in the Severson subdivision. For a few weeks now, residents in that area and surroundings have complained of a bear in the area upsetting garbage cans and spreading refuse in its search for a meal, reported Rich Lowell, ADFG wildlife biologist. Unfortunately, the abundance of food items in the area have made trapping, accomplished by enticing the ursine in question into a cage, difficult, as there appears to much tastier fare readily available in...
Petersburg youths wishing to spend a year overseas should begin looking to filling out an application with the borough’s Rotary Club soon. “We are looking for high school students who are freshmen or sophomores to apply to be a Rotary exchange student and go for their sophomore or junior year,” said Dave Berg, Rotary member. “These kids will be selected here soon and go out on exchange August of 2015 for approximately 10 months to one of 20,220 different countries we exchange with.” While many y...
An agreement is currently being worked out between the Alaska Mental Health Trust (AMHT) and the United States Forest Service (USFS) that could see the transfer of between 18,000 and 20,900 acres of state and federal lands. “I’ve been working on this personally for seven years,” said Paul Slenkamp, resource manager for the AMHT Land Office. He is currently working with Forrest Cole, USFS forest supervisor for the Tongass National Forest. “We’ve been moving through this administrative exchange...
Phone lines to listen in at the Medicaid Reform Advisory Group’s final public input session were overwhelmed on Wednesday, as about 88 callers from across the state attempted to dial in to the Anchorage meeting. The meeting is the final in a series soliciting public input for the recently formed group. Gov. Sean Parnell named nine Alaskans to the board on March 7, with the expressed goal of crafting a “meaningful proposal to the state’s Medicaid program.” Cathy Stadem, public information officer of Alaska Department of Health and Human Service...
Petersburg Medical Center Board members were apprised of the hospital's ongoing measures to stay current and protected against Ebola and other infectious agents on Wednesday in a report by Elizabeth Bacom, infection control and lab director for the hospital. Though the hemorrhagic fever is unlikely to ever arrive on the island, Bacom said it remained sound practice to be prepared for anything, and continually updated measures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) applied to several diseases. “Ebola is not the only disease t...
