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On September 16 The Alaska Recreation and Parks Association presented their annual awards. Local resident Sally Dwyer was presented with the Distinguished Service award, Outlook Park was given the Facility Excellence Award, and the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce was recognized with the Outstanding Organization Award. The Distinguished Service Award is given to a deserving individual and/or groups whose voluntary contribution of time and effort over the years has improved the quality and quantity of leisure opportunities through park, recreation...
August 12, 1916 – The submersible wrecking scows to be used in raising the Northland arrived in port Thursday evening, and, after taking on a pilot, continued on to Kake. Captain Wie, of the Northland, and Captain Bisset, in charge of the wrecking outfit, who were in town the fore part of the week, returned Thursday evening on the San Juan to Kake. It is expected to have the Northland raised and towed to Petersburg within the next eight days. A new branch in the fishing industry of this vicinity is the securing of shark hides, but for what purp...
State House hopeful Sheila Finkenbinder visited town last weekend to meet locals and garner support for her campaign opposing House District 35, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins in the upcoming election. "I was thinking the other day of the things I did before my opponent was born," she said. "Grew up, went to college, married, had kids." Finkenbinder's main message to voters is the fact she has experience her opponent does not, including proven experience in job creation and economic...
Overwhelming generosity To the Editor: We, as a family, continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity and outpouring of support and love from Petersburg, our family, and our friends. Thank you. It does make a difference. I cannot say that we are doing okay, but we are surviving and slowly, more accepting of our loss. A very bright light in our lives has gone out, but we have many more. Joey and Josh, our families, friends, folks from Electra, Texas, and the amazing community of Petersburg. All of you lighten our lives, and are helping us...
The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce sold 3,100 $2 tickets and 94 $100 tickets, according to PCC manager Mara Lutomski. The top winners of the $2 Raffle are Britni Birchell $500, Bill Olson $750, and Liz Pawuk won two round-trip Alaska Airline tickets and $1000 cash. The big winners of the $100 Cash Raffle were PFI Crew $500 and Ken Kvernvik took home $1500. There were also two double winners in the $100 Cash Raffle. Sue Flint’s name was pulled back to back, with two different people spinning the tumbler and drawing her name. Darlene W...
July 8, 1916 – Petersburg's first soda fountain was installed last Monday in Dr. Pryer's Drug Store and from now on ice cream soda promises to be a popular item on the soft-drink bill of fare. July 4, 1941 – According to government reports more halibut was brought into Petersburg July 1 than into any other port in Southeastern Alaska. A total of 123,000 pounds was landed here that day. Local facilities were nearly swamped for a short time but all the boats were taken care of with remarkable promptness. July 1, 1966 – The flight deck of the a...
Fourth of July organizers have decided to restart the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce raffles, before choosing a winner. The raffles were put on hold due to the early morning fatal car wreck on July 4. Tickets for the $100 raffle and $2 raffle will be sold at Lee's Clothing, Rexall Drug and the Visitor Center until Monday at 3 p.m., according to PCC manager Mara Lutomski. The winners will be drawn at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12. Anyone who wants to attend the announcement is welcome, but there will not be a formal ceremony. Winners need not be...
Generally Fourth of July events happen on July 3 and 4, but this year, with the Fourth falling on a Monday the committee was looking for options to extend the weekend fun. This year, there will be events held on Saturday through Monday, with an entire new slate of activities scheduled to take place on Sunday, according to Petersburg Chamber of Commerce manager Mara Lutomski. "If we didn't have any events on Sunday the momentum would have been lost," she said. "But the Lighthouse church, Nathan...
June 24, 1916 – About 800 fish, the first of the season, were received at the cannery. They came from the Colpoys traps, and consisted of 40 Kings, a few humpbacks, small cohoes and chums, and the balance sockeyes. Last year the Colpoys traps were first lifted on June 21, with a catch of 3,500. A few boxes of sockeyes were also brought in a week previous to that date by seine fishermen and shipped fresh. June 27, 1941 – Sand has been hauled away from Sandy Beach in such large amounts that it has become necessary for the Forest Service to ann...
June 17, 1916 – The work is in progress this week of fixing up 150 feet of Hogue's warehouse on the approach to the Citizens' wharf for the Gardner shrimp-packing plant. Lou Wing, who last season was engaged with the local cannery, is to be foreman of the new industry. The fishing and packing of shrimp is expected to start within the next week. June 13, 1941 – At the regular weekly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Monday there was not much new business under discussion. President Earl Ohmer made a report which will be of much interest to...
Popular doesn't make it good To the Editor: Learning facts is important. Re-learning facts is also important, and sometimes exacting and painful. Take tobacco. Around 400 years ago people colonizing in Virginia learned to smoke tobacco from local Native Americans. “Recreational,” yet addictive, this poison began killing Americans. Only around 50 years ago the medical science started to prove the obvious - millions of people go to an early grave because of smoking tobacco. I’ve lost family members and friends, as has every person reading these w...
Petersburg Chamber of Commerce manager Mara Lutomski was treated to an action-packed ending of the 35th Annual Salmon Derby on Monday night. It was the first year overseeing the derby for Lutomski, who had fished the derby before, but never experienced the final minutes at the weigh station before. "It was nice to see that a crowd of people had gathered, which I had been told would happen," she said. "People wanted to see the last action. But everything had been so slow, kind of trickling in thr... Full story
The 35th Annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce King Salmon Derby gets underway this Friday, May 27 at 7 a.m. The derby continues through the Memorial Day Weekend and ends Monday at 5 p.m. Two tagged fish worth $10,000 and $5,000 will be available for anglers this year. Derby committee member Doug Welde reported the king salmon were tagged on Wednesday morning near the mouth of Wrangell Narrows. The $10,000 prize is sponsored by Alaska Marine Lines and the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. The $5,000 tagged fish is sponsored by Hammer and Wikan. N... Full story
LNF thank you To the Editor: On behalf of the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Little Norway Festival Committee, I would like to thank everyone who has helped make the 2016 Little Norway Festival a complete success. There is not enough room to thank everyone individually, as this was truly a community-wide effort. The Chamber membership, their staff, and the LNF Committee all gratefully say "Tusen Takk." Janet Holten, Chair Little Norway Festival Committee Marijuana To the Editor: Helping people to understand the opt out option that the...
The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce board of directors knew exactly what to do when faced with finding a new administrative manager. They contacted Mara Lutomski. She had shown prior interest in the position and the board thought of her as a qualified replacement for John Havrilek, who recently retired from the position. "We had about three days together," she says laughing of training with Havrilek. "He showed me the ropes. It is basically a self-starter position." Lutomski is currently in her... Full story
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 29, 1916 – The pipe line in the north end of town is again in working order, having finally thawed out last Monday. It had been out of commission from the N. Martinsen residence north to the end of the walk, and, although frozen up since early in the winter, no breaks were found in the pipe. May 2, 1941 – What seems to be the culmination of the hard fight of the Petersburg community to secure the improvement of Wrangell Narrows, was the authorization of a bill which should soon be reported out of committee in the national congress. A few...
April 22, 1916 – An advance in passenger rates is announced by the Border Line Transportation Company, effective with the next sailing of the Al-Ki from Seattle. The new rates between Petersburg and Seattle are $23 first-class and $14 second-class, the increase being $4.00 and $1.50 respectively. No change is announced in fares between Alaska ports. A. E. Austin, representing the Tacoma Grocery Company, was a Petersburg business visitor the fore part of the week. Mr. Austin reports a brisk and growing demand in Alaska for his company's s...
Petersburg Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Hayes helped save Petersburg shoppers’ money this year after voicing his opinion during this week’s borough assembly meeting where the assembly appeared set to vote against allowing two sales-tax free days. Before Hayes interjected, Assembly member Cindi Lagoudakis said approving sales tax free days in light of the state’s fiscal challenges would send the wrong message. “I understand merchants have said that it’s some of their best sales days of the year. It’s really unclear to me whether tha...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following during the March 21 Borough Assembly meeting: A Firefighter 1 Course started on February 13. One person is attending all of the classes and two people are hit and miss. Emergency Trauma Technician Course started on February 28. There are 9 participants (four current firefighters, three new EMS volunteers, and two will not volunteer). EMS Director Sandy Dixson taught two Basic Life Support for Health Care Provider courses (total 12 people), and we had three individuals go through the...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly is asking for an increase in financial information from organizations requesting community service grants from the borough during this year’s budget hearings. “One thing I would like to ask that be added to all of the people that are applying for these grants is to put a detailed financial statement like if you have holdings on property or bank accounts,” Mayor Mark Jensen said during Monday’s meeting. “It’s going to be tough times financially and if some people have a better wherewithal to take a little bit of a...
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...
Petersburg Chamber of Commerce members sat down at their annual banquet last Saturday evening at the Sons of Norway Hall. Halibut and prime rib were on the menu and chamber members bid on deserts and won raffle prices such as gift certificates and even 49,000 Alaska Air miles. Alaska Airlines Director of Sales and Marketing Scott Habberstad was one of the banquet speakers. He gave a brief history of the company, which began in 1952, and discussed its present and future. “It’s a great time for the company,” Habberstad said. “We had a great y...
Charlie Christensen's boat, the Angela Marie, sank on February 15, 1994. After hearing a recording of the mayday call, Christensen took to the podium. "That still leaves me a little shaky," Christensen said. His boat started sinking stern first and towards the door to the port side. "I firewalled the engine and turned the boat hard over so it would lay over the other way so the door would be up," Christensen said. "I went out the door on and top of it was where the survival suits were. I...
