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The Petersburg Borough Assembly talked at length in a meeting last week about forming a tax committee, made of community members who could explain how tax finances work and eventually bring recommendations to the council. “I’ve had a chance to talk to several members of the community who had all kinds of questions about senior citizen property tax exemptions and overall sales tax,” said Jeff Meucci, an assembly member. “And what the trends are.” As a result, the assembly agreed to ask community members to sit on a short term – possibly si...
A local Petersburg artist illustrated two children's book with ancient stories from the Tlingit and Haida native tribes, and the goal in her work is to connect people with symbols, shapes and patterns. Janine Gibbons illustrated "The Woman Who Married the Bear" and "The Woman Carried Away by Killers," two oral traditions of the respective native tribes. "You, as an American citizen, should know more about symbols and shapes and patterns," Gibbons said. "And repetitions of shape, and patterns...
November 16, 1917 – The eleven-ton gas boat Helen of Wrangell, owned by Richard Hofstad, was wrecked at the north end of Level Island, November 1, at about 11 am. A storm was raging at the time, and with engine trouble the craft became unmanageable. Captain Hofstad and his engineer started for shore in a skiff which capsized and they were washed ashore. The men were unable to signal help from the point where they had stranded so were forced to spend a night there. November 20, 1942 – Practice was started last week on the Senior Class play “Li...
The remodel of the Petersburg Municipal Power and Light building is asking for an additional $60,000 in contingency dollars to address items that were left out of a ‘bare bones’ plan in 2015, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works director. “There wasn’t a whole lot of thought about this being the long term headquarters of the department,” Hagerman said. “Being that the construction of a new headquarters in Scow Bay has been eliminated from consideration and the current offices will be the PMPL headquarters for many years into the future, the...
A group of high school seniors at PHS are learning how to manage finances in a career readiness course. Students manage hypothetical loans, credit cards, 401k retirement plans, write checks and compete against classmates for who can be most fiscally responsible. “There may be a little bit of financial trash talking,” said Jim Engell, the careers class teacher, speaking at a school board meeting on Tuesday. “It’s been fun listening to the kids deal with real life scenarios, and I’m hoping it’ll reap the benefits down the road for them in ways th...
The Alaska National Guard will host a town hall meeting this Thursday in Juneau to provide an update on the Alaska National Guard in Southeast Alaska, present some of the challenges facing the Guard, and hear concerns from citizens in the community. Maj. Gen. Laurie Hummel, adjutant general for the Alaska National Guard, will host the meeting and will be accompanied by several Army Guard and Air Guard senior leaders, a chaplain, a recruiter and a representative from the state’s Office of Veterans Affairs. The focus of the town hall will be a...
Run Borough like a business o the Editor: At the last Borough Assembly meeting there was a discussion about forming a tax committee. It was mentioned that "nothing came of the last tax review committee." I was a member of that committee. We spent countless hours and several weeks reviewing every line of the tax ordinance and made several recommendations for change, most of which were implemented, and we thought improved the ordinance. A better summation of our efforts might be that we determined Petersburg residents were already taxed out. If...
The Southeast Alaska 2018 pink salmon harvest is predicted to be in the average range, with a point estimate of 23 million fish (80% confidence interval: 3–44 million fish). An actual harvest of 23 million pink salmon would be below the recent 10-year average harvest of 38 million pink salmon, but near the average even-year harvest since 1960 (25 million). The 2018 pink salmon harvest forecast was based on the average of 5 recent even-year harvests (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016). Forecast Discussion: The 2018 harvest forecast of 23 m...
Nov. 8 — Extra patrols were requested on Lumber St. Police assisted with a lockout on Lumber St. Jordan B. McCombs, 28, received a citation for parking violation. An injured deer was reported in the vicinity of N. Nordic Dr. Nov. 9 — Suspicious activity was reported at 7.5 mile Mitkof Hwy. Katie J. Edfelt, 28, was held in protective custody and later released. An impaired driver was reported on Mitkof Hwy. Nov. 10 — Suspicious activity was reported at an undisclosed location. A disturbance was reported at a Mitkof Hwy. location. Two alarm...
(JUNEAU) A joint letter sent Wednesday to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from Alaska Governor Bill Walker and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Representative Don Young emphasized the “potential catastrophic effects on Alaska’s communities” from upstream mining activities in British Columbia (B.C.) and urged the U.S. federal government to “help protect overall U.S. interests in this situation.” The letter also called the Tulsequah Chief “an example of an inadequate response by the B.C. government....
It was senior appreciation night for the Petersburg volleyball team on Thursday, where it shutout Wrangell in arguably its best performance of the season, said Jaime Cabral, its head coach. Petersburg swept Wrangell in three games with little resistance. The team adjusted and became quicker and cleaner since its last home game when it was beaten handedly by Juneau. But since then, Petersburg mounted a run. The team is now 15-0 in conference play, 15-2 overall. "We have a bunch of kids who want t...
In an injury-ridden state, Petersburg wrestling hosted eight teams for a round-robin tournament, finishing second overall in the senior and parent appreciation weekend. Petersburg rostered eight wrestlers to start the Viking Face Off and Scramble on Friday. By Saturday, the team was down to six. The injuries started when two girls on the 11-person roster left the team permanently before the meet even started. Then, freshman Ruby Massin was injured and elected not to suit-up. The setbacks...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —Tourism leaders in Alaska are asking Congress to increase U.S. Forest Service recreation funding. Tourism leaders representing 49 businesses in Southeast Alaska wrote in an open letter last week that the U.S. Forest Service’s budget has shrunk by nearly half in a little more than a decade, hampering growth in southeast Alaska’s visitor industry. The U.S. Forest Service’s funding for recreation on the Tongass and Chugach national forests declined 46 percent from 2004-2014, the businesses said. That’s hurting businesse...
WRANGELL — Wrangell’s mayor chose the community’s new voting and alternate member on next year’s Southeast Alaska Power Agency board. Based in Ketchikan, the regional power provider services that community, Wrangell and Petersburg. The three member utilities pool production from their hydroelectric facilities and collectively purchase power from the agency through 25-year power sales agreements, with the current agreement extending through 2034. Decisions guiding the agency is overseen by a governing board consisting of five voting directo...
Fewer men and women went out fishing in Alaska last year, in a familiar cycle that reflects the vagaries of Mother Nature. A focus on commercial fishing in the November Alaska Economic Trends by the State Department of Labor shows that the number of boots on deck fell by five percent in 2016 to about 7,860 harvesters, driven by the huge shortfall in pink salmon returns and big declines in crab quotas. Fishing for salmon, which accounts for the majority of Alaska’s fishing jobs, fell by 6.4 percent statewide in 2016, a loss of 323 workers. T...
One of the state’s public ferries will help collect data on ocean acidification during its regular route. The news was announced last week by Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center at University of Alaska Southeast, which has partnered with the Alaska Marine Highway System, British Columbia’s Hakai Institute, Alaska Ocean Observing System and other federal agencies on the project. The vessel chosen for the data collection study is the M/V Columbia, which at 418 feet and a gross tonnage of 3,946 is the ferry system’s largest. On its route betwe...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska House isn’t giving up on the special legislative session, even though the Senate has called it quits. The House majority coalition on Monday announced plans to hold technical sessions until the special session ends Nov. 21. The House plans for the two Juneau members to preside over the technical sessions, for which attendance isn’t mandatory, to keep the special session alive. That will force the Senate to hold similar sessions since one body can’t adjourn without the other. Special sessions can last up to 30 d...
Women, 29 years old and under, with limited or no access to healthcare can get exams and reproductive health services on a sliding scale at the Petersburg Public Health Center’s Nov. 27 - Nov. 29. The clinic will offer exams and reproductive health services, as well as STD testing. All services will be provided by a nurse practitioner with Public Health Nursing, the Alaska Division of Public Health. Appointments are required at 772-4611....
Mon., Nov. 20 Stedman Elementary - Regular release time: Kndgtn 1:15, Grades 1-5 2:45pm. Scheduled conferences, 3-8pm. Mitkof Middle School - Regular release time: Grades 6-8 3:00pm. Conferences, 4-8pm (call middle school office for scheduling information). Petersburg High School - Regular release time: Grades 9-12 3:00pm. Walk-in conferences, 4-8pm Tues., Nov. 21 Stedman Elementary - Early release time: Grades Kndgtn -5 1:15pm Scheduled conferences, 1:20 - 8pm. Mitkof Middle School - Early release time: Grades 6-8 2:20pm. Conferences, 3-8pm...
Ray Olsen, 91, sat at a Veterans Day assembly in Petersburg on Friday in a wheelchair, with his hands folded on his lap. In a blue parka and sporting a trim white beard, he watched as students praise his service, and he stood for the honorary moment of silence. Olsen, who was a first class petty officer in the Navy from 1944 to 1945, watched middle schoolers read their definition of a veteran; he sat when high schoolers recited the Gettysburg Address; and he listened to the band play the "Armed...
