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The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved an Education Incentive Program, which looks to support child care professionals and improve retention in the field, during Monday's meeting. The assembly voted 6-1 in favor of the trial program with Assembly Member Donna Marsh opposed. The Education Incentive Program will award bonuses ranging from $2,000 per year to $5,000 per year to child care educators and is structured in three tiers based on their level of education. The hope is to encourage local...
Everything you could possibly want to know about fish, from their biological characteristics to the commercial fisheries that harvest and sell them to the governmental entities that regulate them, is available through the University of Alaska Southeast applied fisheries program. Catering to high schoolers, recent graduates and seasoned professionals alike, the school's online and in-person programs prepare students for jobs in the industry. Applied fisheries is a workforce development program...
For students, seeing eight mats laid out on the floor of the Alaska Airlines Center and an arena packed with hundreds of the top wrestlers in the state can be intimidating, but the nerves did not stop the Petersburg High School wrestling team from making their name known on the biggest stage. Petersburg took fourth overall in the Division II state championships, making them the highest ranked 2A school at the tournament, and five Vikings placed in the top six of their brackets. When the dust...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is cutting back on port calls while it sends its ships into their annual winter overhaul. As a result, Petersburg will go without any state ferry service for three weeks this winter. There will be nothing northbound out of Petersburg after the Kennicott's scheduled Jan. 6 sailing to Sitka and Juneau until the Matanuska comes back to service after its winter work and stops here northbound on Feb. 3. The Kennicott's last southbound run before winter overhaul is...
December 22, 1922 – The Kake mail boat Trygve broke her tail shaft and went adrift at Point McCartney last Sunday forenoon and for three days considerable anxiety was felt for her safety. She arrived Petersburg safely on Thursday morning in tow of the Americ which had been sent out in search of her. The Trygve made Kake last week and was bucking a hard Taku wind on her return trip when the shaft parted. Paul Adams, a native of Kake, was a passenger on the boat for Petersburg. He at once took the skiff and rowed a distance of seven miles to Kake...
The Petersburg School District Board unanimously approved a major revision to the FY23 budget during its meeting on Dec. 13, which will see a new projected ending fund balance of $622,672. According to Finance Director Karen Morrison, the proposed budget revision was based on an average daily membership student count of 429.6 students, which was calculated in October and is above the threshold for three school funding. The final student count numbers brought the district's foundation funding up...
During its meeting on Dec. 13, the Petersburg School District Board voted unanimously to amend the district's COVID-19 mitigation policy, changing when students and staff can return to school following a positive test. The new policy states that students and staff who test positive can now come back to school on a date determined by the Petersburg Medical Center, possibly allowing them to return earlier than what the previous guidance allowed. If students and staff who test positive do not obtai...
The case of the purloined judgeship To the Editor: In 1982 our former Representative, Ernie Haugen, persuaded the Alaska Legislature to create a new judgeship and designated its vicinage in the Petersburg-Wrangell region to serve our neck of the woods, but there was a catch. Before passage of the bill, the Senate added a rider to the bill, a Letter of Intent stating that the new Superior judgeship could be authorized only on the condition that Petersburg’s old District Court judgeship be decommissioned. The deal was like giving up an old F...
Newly reelected Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week unveiled his proposed state spending plan for the next budget year. By far, the largest single expense in the entire state budget is the Permanent Fund dividend. The governor’s budget proposes no increase in state funding for public schools and a reduction in funding for the university system. No significant increases for road repairs, snow removal, mental health services, or more staff to help the backlog of food stamp applications which has created hours-long hold times for callers needing help. L...
WRANGELL — Dusty Cowan, 41, of Wrangell, was sentenced to seven years in prison last week for online enticement of a minor and distribution of indecent materials to a minor. His crimes included “soliciting sexual photos from a minor as well as sending photos of his (genitals) to the minor,” according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Law. The victim was 14 years old when Cowan began initiating sexually explicit conversations and video chats with her via Facebook Messenger. He had known the victim since she was in kindergarten and was...
December 14 – An officer assisted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on 7th Street. An officer provided a civil stand-by on South Nordic Drive. An officer conducted a traffic stop at the South Harbor crane dock. A vehicle on Lumber Street was impounded. A vehicle impeding snow removal on North Nordic Drive was moved at the direction of an officer. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of ravens scattering trash on Harbor Way. Jack Galaktionoff was arrested on Howkan Street for allegedly Violating Protective Order. PPD received a r...
November 22, 2022 Magistrate Judge Rachel Newport presided in an arraignment hearing for Maxwell Charles Peeler in the Petersburg District Court. The defendant entered a not guilty plea and the State intends to reduce the charges to the violations. A trial was set for December 20. November 28, 2022 Superior Court Judge Katherine Lybrand, in the Petersburg District Court presided over a change of plea hearing in State of Alaska v Britt Banry. Count 1, negligent driving not a commercial motor vehicle, was admitted to by the defendant and the fine...
A man who allegedly stole $58,000 from a Haines tour operator earlier this fall was apprehended Dec. 6 in Riverton, Utah, according to Haines Police. As of Dec. 13, Charles was in a Utah jail pending extradition to Alaska. Haines Police Officer Maxwell Jusi said Riverton police arrested Charles after Haines police received a tip about his whereabouts. Two Riverton police officers made the arrest at a movie theater in a shopping mall, according to a Riverton police report. One of the officers worked with an acquaintance of Charles to coordinate...
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Rep. Elect Rebecca Himschoot held two joint public office hours in Petersburg earlier this week to meet with community members ahead of the legislative session starting next month. The pair were at Glacier Express Cafe Monday afternoon and Salty Pantry Tuesday morning. Kreiss-Tomkins, who currently holds the Alaska state House seat representing Petersburg and Sitka, announced earlier this year that he would not run for re-election after having held a seat in the...
The South Harbor dredging project has made some progress this month as crews from contractor Western Marine spent the last couple of weeks assessing the area and beginning to dredge the outside of the harbor. Though site work on the project is still in the early stages, crews have taken over half a dozen loads of material, with approximately 500 cubic yards of material in each load, to the disposal side in Frederick Sound according to Harbormaster Glo Wollen. They began their work at the end of...
The Petersburg High School girls basketball team took two tough losses at home last weekend against the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs in their first games of the season. Head Coach Dino Brock said the losses gave the young team a better sense of what they are doing well and what they will need to work on as the season ramps up. "At this point in the season it's exactly what you want-a non-conference game against a very good opponent," Brock said. The Lady Vikings lost Friday's game 67-18 as they...
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the state in the Metlakatla Chiefs last weekend, winning one of two in their first games of the season. "Either home or away, anytime you can get a split in our league against a really good team it's a good weekend," Head Coach Rick Brock said. The Vikings took Friday night's game 41-38 after some late drama with Jack Engell, Rik Cumps, and Kieran Cabral all scoring in the double digits. The lead was...
Less than five years ago, prospects appeared bright for Bering Sea crab fishers. Stocks were abundant and healthy, federal biologists said, and prices were near all-time highs. Now two dominant crab harvests have been canceled for lack of fish. For the first time, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in October canceled the 2022-2023 harvest of Bering Sea snow crab, and it also announced the second consecutive year of closure for another important harvest, that of Bristol Bay red king crab. What has happened between then and now? A sustained... Full story
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Friday approved disaster declarations for several distressed fisheries, including the recently canceled Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red crab harvests. The declarations are for poor or closed Alaska harvests going back to 2020. They cover failures in the crab fisheries for this season and last season, the closure of king crab fishing in Norton Sound in 2020 and 2021, the collapse of chum and coho harvests in the Kuskokwim River area, the poor... Full story
A joint House-Senate committee of the Alaska Legislature voted against accepting $20 million in federal aid to seafood processors, with lawmakers saying that a new state law prevents them from accepting that much money outside the normal state budget process. The 3-4 vote came Wednesday during a meeting of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, which makes financial decisions on behalf of the Legislature when lawmakers are not in session. The failed vote means seafood processing companies in Alaska will wait several more months to receive... Full story
SEATTLE (AP) — Cooke Aquaculture has filed an appeal against Washington state’s decision to end its leases for fish-farming using net pens in state waters. In court documents filed Dec. 14, the New Brunswick, Canada-based seafood giant said that the decision was arbitrary, politically motivated and contrary to science, radio station KNKX reported. In a statement, Cooke said it has a state Supreme Court ruling and legislative mandate on its side that supports the farming of native species. It also said that the 30-day deadline to harvest fis...
Shoppers hoping for a little relief at the grocery store for their holiday meals will be disappointed by the Consumer Price Index released Tuesday. The CPI shows inflation cooling but food prices — particularly for some holiday staples — remain high. The CPI increased 0.1% in November, which was lower than some economists expected. Over the last 12 months, it rose 7.1%. Food went up 0.5% last month after an increase of 0.6% in October. The food index climbed 10.6% over last year. “The headline inflation numbers are encouraging for the gener... Full story
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