Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 643
Thank You To the Editor: On Saturday evening, June 11, I was in serious health trouble while visiting Alaska on a friend’s boat, the Liliana. In severe pain, and having had open heart surgery years before, our skipper, was on the radio with the Coast Guard discussing how best to get me medical care. We were in Portage Bay, travelling in a trawler, with a top speed of 6-7 knots. A decision was made to send the police boat from Petersburg, staffed with an EMT team. The wind had come up, raising white caps in Stevens Passage, and the discomfort I...
Yesterday’s News May 20, 1916 – A request was received from the Petersburg Packing Company that water be turned on at the cannery June 1 and that the council fix the price for water service for the season. After considerable discussion and motions to make the price $2.50 per day, $50 per month for four months, and $300 for the season of four months, the rate was finally set at $75 per month for not less than four months. May 23, 1941 – The 42-foot C. G. R. Primrose II arrived in port Tuesday night to make her headquarters in Petersburg. Aboar...
WRANGELL - Four dozen elementary school students from the Wrangell and Petersburg areas partook in a field day, heading upriver for the 19th annual Stikine River field trip on May 3. Encompassing almost 700 square miles, since 1980 the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness Area has been managed by the United States Forest Service. Originating 335 miles away in Canada's British Columbia province, the winding river is a major contributor of wild salmon and home to many migratory bird species. For many in...
May 6, 1916 – A meeting of the council was held for the purpose of considering an estimate of receipts and expenditures for the year from April 1, 1916, to April 1, 1917. The finance committee's budget, which was prepared by Councilman Steberg, estimated the city's probable income for year at $8,115.43, with expenditures of $10,558.16, leaving a deficit of $2,442.73. To overcome this deficiency the council voted to base the tax levy for estimating purposes on a twenty-mill assessment which would make the total sum approximately $5,200. May 9...
April 15, 1916 – A new course of procedure in the matter of changing master's papers, which will be of great convenience to Petersburg's boats, is being arranged by the customs officials at Juneau, according to word brought from there by K. L. Steberg this week. The plan as stated by Deputy Collector Garfield is as follows: Owners of boats at Petersburg that wish to change papers without making the trip to a port of entry they will be permitted to have the master's oath taken here before a notary public. The notary is then to mail the papers t...
Bike safety To the Editor: I saw something horrible Monday night after work. I was headed down Haugen. There was a little girl on a pinkish bicycle across the street. She was ahead of me and headed downtown too. There are always cars waiting to clear the intersection this time of day. As I slowed to take my place in line, she reached the intersection. I thought she would stop and walk her bike across the street to the totem poles at the Forest Service. Instead, she turned immediately into the crosswalk. Right then, a gray car coming from...
WRANGELL - In an agreement reached March 24, the University of Alaska will be cooperating with Petersburg High School and the Wrangell Ranger District to conduct research at LeConte Glacier. Under the arrangement, the project will be undertaken by university researchers making third-party use of the high school's special use permit issued by USFS' Alaska regional office. The university's study will monitor the dynamics, glacial runoff and subglacial discharge of LeConte Glacier. It discharges...
wrangell — A crowd-drawing discussion on recreation funding held by the Forest Service Tuesday evening made the council chambers at City Hall feel unusually short for space. About two dozen members of the public met with staff of the Wrangell Ranger District to share their concerns about facilities maintenance. Listing concerns from greatest to least, residents participating at the meeting identified cabins, ATV trails and the overall recreation program as their top priorities, followed by trails, berry access, subsistence and stoves. F...
February 26, 1916 – The bait famine has tied up halibut fishing to a large extent recently. The Lovera and Mira arrived from Sitka on Thursday and reported no bait at that point. The Fram, Captain Ole Bensen, started on Thursday for Port Simpson, to get a supply for a number of boats. As the Canadian regulations require boats getting bait in that country to bring their catches to Canadian ports, there is some question whether the Fram will succeed in getting a cargo. February 28, 1941 – The Town of Petersburg now has its new fire truck – but d...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a Petersburg Planning Commission letter regarding a proposed amendment to the Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan. On its website, the U.S. Forest Service stated an amendment was needed after U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack directed the Tongass to transition its management plan to be more ecologically, socially and economically sustainable. “An amendment is needed to accelerate the transition to a young-growth forest management program, and to do so in a way that preserves a vi...
Vivian Elida Westre, 95, passed away February 12, 2016, with her two children at her side at Petersburg Medical Center Long Term Care. She was born July 17, 1920 in Ketchikan, Alaska to Gifford and Agnes Close. Her father built a home next to Sunny Point Cannery near where the Ketchikan ferry terminal exists today. Vivian spoke fondly of her childhood there and shared many interesting stories about her pet bear cub. At age 14 the family moved to Petersburg where her father worked for the U.S.... Full story
February 19, 1916 – Mr. and Mrs. James Allen, with the forestry launch Ranger 2, returned from Ketchikan, where they had been for several weeks. The launch has been equipped with a new lighting plant and other fixtures, and is now in shipshape for the season's work. Mr. Allen anticipates considerable activity in the lumber industry this year. The prices for lumber on Puget Sound have now advanced from one to four dollars per thousand feet. Lumber for boxes and general domestic use will be shipped north from Puget Sound this season, and it is e...
State Sen. Bert Stedman talked about how well the community would weather the state budget deficit during Petersburg’s annual Chamber of Commerce Dinner Saturday night. He said the community’s already endured difficult times, citing several wars and economic downturns, and has come out of it unscathed. “We’ve had these austere moments where we’ve had to pull together and this is just another one,” Stedman said. “I don’t sit in my office and eat a lot of Rolaids over it.” Stedman went on to discuss the legislative climate in Juneau and what h...
Since the Department of Transportation continues to push ahead on the Kake-Petersburg Road, it’s appropriate that the Borough Assembly takes action to divert funds from the project. Nothing kills a road project quicker than taking the money off the table. Repeatedly, citizens from Kupreanof, Kake and Petersburg have told Transportation officials the road is a bad idea. It’s not needed, it’s not cost effective and it needs to go away. Kake needs lower cost electricity and a road is not needed to address their power needs. Since as early as Ja...
Shame on you To the Editor: I don't understand why environmentalists get so excited about the timber sales the Forest Service is kind enough to make available for logging companies. Why protest? Everybody knows trees are a “renewable resource.” Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka, and Petersburg were all built on fishing, and logging mills – both lumber and pulp and some mining. Those towns didn't have to depend on tourism and chartering. If you look back in the 60's, 70's and early 80's these towns were booming, our economy was thriving. We had a lot o...
Ned Pence, 78, passed away January 15, 2016 peacefully at home. Ned was born on July 21, 1937. He grew up in Mackay, Idaho, with his parents and four brothers. In 1955 he left Mackay to attend the College of Forestry at the University of Idaho to study Forest Management. He received his B.S. degree in Forest Management in 1959 and married Arleen Westfall, the love of his life in Salmon, Idaho. After graduation he worked at many jobs as a professional forester in Washington, Idaho, Alaska, and... Full story
Permits will soon become available for those wanting an opportunity to visit Anan Wildlife Observatory this summer. Known primarily for its abundance of bears, the observatory was identified as Wrangell’s top attraction by a survey conducted by the city last summer. According to Forest Service records, Anan draws between 2,400 and 2,800 visitors each summer. These travelers contributed around $1.5 million to the local economy in 2014, making up more than a third of all tourism-related spending. Starting Feb. 1 at 8 a.m. the public will be a...
WRANGELL - Members of the community were invited to the Wrangell Ranger District Office on Jan. 13, to meet and greet with some of the minds behind the latest proposals for the future Tongass management plan. The United States Forest Service is amending the current Land and Resource Management Plan for the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest in the country. Covering 16.7 million acres in Southeast Alaska, 3.4 million acres of that has been set aside for resource development. The...
The Petersburg Land Selection Committee approved proposed language to request additional land allocation from the state legislature. “If we’re going to do something this session and we want to get the answers, then we need to get moving on it,” committee member Dave Kensinger said. Committee member Ron Buschmannn echoed that need and said Petersburg needs a greater area to select since it’s been left with slim pickings after a long awaited court decision. The Petersburg Land Selection Committee was put on hold until last month when the Alaska...
The federal subsistence deer season for federally qualified hunters continues on federal lands only in Unit 4 until Jan. 31, unless closed earlier by the U.S. Forest Service District Rangers....
The U.S. Forest Service announced Dave Zimmerman as the new Tongass National Forest Petersburg District Ranger. Zimmerman will arrive from Medford, Ore. where he served as the Timber and Special Forest Products program manager for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. "My current national forest is 1.8 million acres spread across five districts, so working on a district of similar size to my former forest will be exciting," Zimmerman said in a press release. "This will necessitate continued...
July Paine & Partners, LLC of San Francisco entered into agreements with two different groups to sell Icicle Seafoods. The Petersburg Public Library expanded its collection by 1.7 million titles after it joined a consortium of libraries across the state called the Joint Library Catalogue. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Peter Vermeer took command of the USCGG Anacapa, replacing Lt. Kathryn Cry. The Alaska Department of Transportation cancelled the scheduled summer sailings of the M/V LeConte that would hav... Full story
Work on the Petersburg Children's Center expansion is continuing smoothly as volunteers from around the community are donating sweat and supplies. Volunteers from Rocky's Marine helped install a new roof on the expansion that will allow the Children's Center to enroll around 20 more students from an already staggering waitlist. "Right now my waitlist is about 40, maybe 50 kids," Children's Center director Brandi Heppe said. The new expansion will enlarge one classroom and add another. A crew... Full story
January 8, 1916 – The army department has been trying for some years to switch the lines over to the postoffice officials, who heretofore have been reluctant to take charge, as they have always been operated at a loss. Postmaster General Burleson has been won over to the proposition, and will soon ask congress to turn the cable military telegraph over to him. Burleson recommends that the cable and telegraph and telephone wires be appraised by the interstate commerce commission and turned over to him before July, 1916. Congress will be asked t...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A federal agency has concluded that a southeast Alaska wolf affected by logging and hunting does not merit placement on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that Alexander Archipelago wolves on Prince of Wales Island and neighboring islands do not warrant additional protections. “Although the Alexander Archipelago wolf faces several stressors throughout its range related to wolf harvest, timber harvest, road development, and climate-related events in Southeast Alaska and coastal Brit...
