Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 123
The Alaska Marine Highway System is working faster to hire more crew, trying to fix problems that slowed the process so much the past four years that the state failed to keep up with retirements and resignations. The hiring process was so cumbersome and excessively choosy that the state brought aboard just a few new workers out of 250 applicants forwarded by a search agency over the past year, according to a January report from the recruitment contractor. “Since 2019, AMHS has lost more staff annually than recruitment efforts can replace. F...
In a change of plans from just a few weeks ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System reports it lacks enough crew to operate the Kennicott this summer. The loss of the Kennicott from the schedule likely would mean dropping service to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and the loss of two additional port calls in Petersburg each month, May through September. It also could jeopardize state ferry service to Yakutat on the cross-gulf route, and abandoning plans to run the Kennicott to Bellingham, Washington, once a month to help move the heavy load of su...
An ongoing shortage of crew is the “No. 1 risk factor” for the Alaska Marine Highway System, Transportation Department Deputy Commissioner Katherine Keith told legislators. As of a Feb. 2 presentation to the Senate Transportation Committee, the ferry system was short just over 100 crew for full staffing to efficiently operate the winter schedule, about a 20% vacancy factor for onboard employees. The ferry system, however, is able to run its schedule with crew members picking up extra shifts and overtime to cover the work, and with man...
The federal ship has come in for the Alaska Marine Highway System, carrying more than $284 million for upgrades to old vessels, money to help pay for a new ferry, dock repairs, additional service to small communities and even a proposed electric-powered ferry for short runs. The Federal Transit Administration announced the awards last week. The grants were awarded under a competitive application process, but Alaska’s congressional delegation wrote the provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2022 with the intent of s...
Other than still needing crew if it is to put the Hubbard into service for the first time since it was built a few years ago, the Alaska Marine Highway System believes it has enough staff to operate the confirmed runs of its proposed summer schedule this year. The state ferry system has been plagued by staffing shortages the past couple of years due to retirements, resignations and hiring efforts coming up short, temporarily sidelining vessels on occasion. “We’re still really pushing hard on recruitment,” Shannon McCarthy, communications direc...
The state ferry Matanuska will not return to service from its winter overhaul as scheduled next month and will require millions of dollars more of steel replacement work if it is ever to get back to work. In its place, the Alaska Marine Highway System plans to put the Columbia back to sea after almost 30 months in layup status to save money. The loss of the Matanuska will mean more than a month without ferry service for Petersburg. The ship had been scheduled to resume sailings the first week of February to replace the Kennicott, which was...
It’s past time for the Southeast and coastal Alaska communities to be heard regarding the collapse of our ferry system. It’s time to more forcefully make our Alaska Marine Highway needs known by energizing the Southeast Conference, the Southeast Conference of Mayors, and other organizations. Southeastern and coastal Alaska are entitled to have a highway functioning just like our roaded neighbors to the north. The newly passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill provides the federal funding to make this happen if we don’t let it slip away The AMHS...
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...
The nation's eyes are on the U.S. Senate and House races in Alaska, but anyone wanting to know the outcome will have to be patient. Defending their seats are two high-profile women. In the Senate is Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump – and who has been the target of ire from Trump and from hard-liner conservatives. She trailed Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka by a small margin, 42.7% to 44.4% of the first 216,000 votes counted. But Murkowski w... Full story
There are three not-so-new medical providers seeing patients at Petersburg Medical Center. Dr. Alice Hulebak is back, and her husband Erik Hulebak is now a Physician's Assistant (PA). Also, Angela Menish has completed her education and is now working as a nurse practitioner. Dr. Alice Hulebak has worked at Petersburg Medical Center before, from 2010-2013, but moved back to Albequerque, New Mexico for her husband to attend PA school. Most recently they worked in Kalispell, Montana but had been... Full story
Three years after adopting a pricing plan that adds a surcharge for passenger, vehicle and stateroom fares on popular sailings, the Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to suspend the program for its fall/winter schedule. The ferry system's "dynamic pricing" added 5% to 50% to ticket prices, depending on the percentage of a ship's capacity already booked - similar to airlines raising prices as flights fill up. The Alaska Department of Transportation announced the decision last Friday to...
August 18, 1922 An all-Alaskan products dinner at which the Territory of Alaska will entertain five hundred Washington state newspaper men and their friends is the event planned as the closing feature of the eleventh annual Journalism Week next year. It will be the third in a series of State Press Association social affairs. The first was the Northwest products dinner, the second was the Hawaiian banquet. Alaska proposes next year to outdo all previous efforts. All foods used in the preparation of the dinner will be sent directly from the...
Look around Southeast and you will see a lot of evergreen trees that aren't so green. Southeast Alaska's hemlock and spruce trees are fending off an assault by a number of pests and diseases, most notably a caterpillar that causes the conifers to turn reddish-brown. The main culprit is the western blackheaded budworm, a moth caterpillar that feeds on hemlock and spruce needles, according to U.S. Forest Service Alaska Region entomologist Elizabeth Graham in Juneau. Graham said Southeast trees...
Beer and wine have been available at the bars on board the state ferries Matanuska and Kennicott since late May after the amenities were closed seven years ago, reportedly to save money. The ferry system “has collected feedback on the bar reopening through customer surveys answered by Kennicott and Matanuska passengers — all positive comments,” Sam Dapcevich, Department of Transportation spokesman, said last week. “I’ve also heard from a few Southeast Alaska residents who are happy to see the bars reopened.” There is no additional staff expense...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has enough crew to operate its summer schedule, though it still lacks a sufficient cushion to handle worker illnesses, injuries and personal leave without holding over staff for extra shifts. “We have been holding people longer than they would like,” Transportation Department spokesman Sam Dapcevich said last week. And the state ferry system is far short of the additional staff that would have been needed to bring the Columbia back to service after a three-year absence for maintenance and a money-saving tie...
Alaska state ferry service between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, resumed on Monday afternoon. The last state ferry voyage to the Canadian port city was in late fall 2019. The Matanuska made a quick round trip Monday and is scheduled for another voyage on Friday. "(The) Matanuska made a test sailing to Prince Rupert about a week ago and all went to plan," state Transportation Department spokesperson Sam Dapcevich wrote in a Friday email. This summer's service is limited, with...
After 56 years of service in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet and almost three years tied up at a Ketchikan dock, unused and in need of costly repairs, the Malaspina is headed to another career as a privately owned floating museum and employee housing. Plans also call for using the ship as a classroom for maritime industry jobs. The state last week accepted $128,250 for the 408-foot-long passenger and vehicle ferry from the recently formed Ketchikan company M/V Malaspina. The company is a subsidiary of Ward Cove Dock Group, owned by John...
The largest of the state ferries, the 499-passenger Columbia, was still listed as inactive on the Transportation Department website as of Monday, with no indication it will go back to work this summer as was planned nine months ago. Last August, the department’s draft summer 2022 schedule included the ship “penciled in” to run May 11 through Sept. 14, with weekly sailings to Southeast from Bellingham, Washington, “pending crew availability.” The run would have included weekly stops in Wrangell. After months of nationwide advertising for crew,...
Alaska property owners have paid more than four times as much in premiums than they received back in claims under the National Flood Insurance Program going back to 1980. “It’s kind of ugly,” Lori Wing-Heier, the state’s insurance division director, told legislators this spring. “We don’t have the storms they get in Texas or Louisiana.” The nationwide program, which is voluntary for states and communities, has been around for more than half a century. It pools together property owners from all the states and territories, much like group he...
Global supply chain shortages and delays have extended past grocery stores, car dealers and electronics to the Alaska Marine Highway System. The state ferry Kennicott was delayed coming out of winter overhaul. Instead of returning to service last week, as had been scheduled, the ship left Ketchikan on Tuesday for a two-week trip to Juneau, Yakutat and then into the Gulf of Alaska before sailing into Bellingham, Washington, to fully start its summer runs. The Kennicott's scheduled return to servi...
With more than 260 would-be ferry passengers stuck on a waitlist for travel out of Bellingham, Washington, and sailings full until late July, the Alaska Marine Highway System has scheduled an extra run of the Matanuska to bring the people and their vehicles to the state. The additional sailing is scheduled to leave Bellingham on May 25. There was time in the ship’s schedule, which ferry management had been holding open in hopes the Matanuska could restart service that week to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after being gone from the C...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been hoping since last August to bring back the Columbia to service this year after an almost three-year absence, but with the start of the summer schedule only weeks away the state has not announced a decision on the ship. The Columbia's summer return is contingent on hiring enough crew to replace staff that were laid off, retired, quit or moved to other ships since the state's largest ferry was pulled out of service in the fall of 2019. "We're pouring a...
The Petersburg High School jazz and concert bands attended Musicfest in Juneau last week which allowed students to see performances from high school bands from across Southeast and take part in educational clinics. Director Charlie O'Brien said the festival, which was returning after being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was a good opportunity for the 20 students to hear from and perform in front of other musicians. "That's what makes it such a special event and the audience is so support...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, joining a field of 50 other candidates seeking to fill the seat held for decades by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a state Division of Elections office in Wasilla, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson. Palin, a former Alaska governor who was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has the biggest national political profile in the packed field that includes c...
