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The Petersburg Borough gave the Petersburg Medical Center permission to apply for a second Paycheck Protection Program loan totaling $1.8 million at their meeting on Tuesday evening through emergency ordinance #2021-02. PMC applied and received a loan of the same amount in April through the Small Business Administration. Businesses that received a PPP loan had the opportunity to have the loan forgiven if the money was spent on certain expenses like payroll and rent. PMC had its loan forgiven in...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted against terminating the borough's declaration of disaster emergency, which was enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, at their meeting on Tuesday. Assembly Member Taylor Norheim requested the action item be on the meeting's agenda to address the borough's declaration of disaster emergency and determine if the new assembly agreed with the declaration. Assembly Member Dave Kensinger was voted on to the assembly after the municipal election earlier this...
The borough assembly approved Joatmon Enterprises LLC's request to lease tidelands at Scow Bay Turnaround at their meeting Monday to establish and operate a vessel maintenance business. The business will be built on a 6,400 sq. ft. section of the Petersburg Borough's lot two in the Scow Bay Turnaround Subdivision. In a written statement to the borough, Raleigh Cook said he plans on using the property to build a fabrication machine shop specifically designed for boat repair and building that...
The borough assembly approved an emergency ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2020 budget to appropriate $100,000 from the Economic Development Fund to the Petersburg Economic Development Council to offset financial impacts to the local community caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. "As our state and community work towards opening up our economy and getting businesses back online, this can offer hopefully a small bridge to help some of those small businesses during this time," said Vice Mayor Jeigh...
The borough assembly established a local emergency disaster fund in response to the COVID-19 outbreak at their meeting on Monday and moved funds to the Petersburg Economic development Council to help businesses who have been financially affected by the virus. The local emergency disaster fund was created by an emergency ordinance, which requires only one reading to be passed and lasts for 60 days. Because the borough anticipates the local emergency disaster fund being needed past the 60 days,...
The Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribe of Alaska has promoted Will Ware to chief of project development in Juneau, according to a prepared statement by Communications Coordinator Raeanne Holmes. In his new role, he will oversee Tlingit & Haida's land developments and provide broad oversight of the Tribal Transportation and Business and Economic Development departments. He previously served for over six years as Tribal Transportation Manager. Ware is of the Raven moiety and Ta'k...
The Petersburg Police Department will begin the process of seeking and hiring a police sergeant after the borough assembly on Monday gave Police Chief Jim Kerr authorization to fill the position. In the years that the police department has been short a sergeant, the borough has had to spend a considerable amount of money on overtime, according to Kerr at an assembly meeting in July. In the 2018 fiscal year, Kerr said the borough spent $155,214 in overtime. The police sergeant position, which...
George S. Doyle General Information Age: 66 Experience: Three years Medical Center Board Member Why do you want to serve on the PMC Board of Directors? Supporting a fiscally and professionally strong Medical Center for our community. As a current board member, I've become more aware of how dedicated the staff of the Medical Center is in providing quality care and services. What are your ideas to make the hospital run more cost efficiently? On a day to day basis the Medical Center staff does an...
A second forum was held last Thursday after the mayoral forum for the four assembly candidates running for two seats on the borough assembly. The candidates gave support for local issues and answered questions from representatives from KFSK, the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Petersburg Pilot. Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Marc Martinsen, Chelsea Tremblay and Aaron Hankins were each asked the same questions and had two minutes to respond. The order of the candidates changed with each...
Market winds down To the Editor: As another season comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment to thank our many supporters for helping make another year of The Market possible. Petersburg Economic Development Council is a deeply valued community partner and we are so grateful for their support. We also received a grant from the Alaska Farmers Market Association/USDA that helped with promotions and a batch of new stickers, thanks to the incredible artwork by Kaimia Designs. Above all else, thank...
At their meeting last Friday, the borough assembly approved 13 goals and objectives for Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht to work on in the upcoming 2020 fiscal year. The 13 items are a result of the manager's recent performance evaluation. Some of the goals and objectives have comments from Giesbrecht that go into further detail to better capture the assembly's intentions. A motion was made to adopt Giesbrecht's comments into the document. Giesbrecht said that he could get each of the items done...
The Visitor Industry Working Group will continue their discussions on economic growth in Petersburg through tourism in September it was announced at their meeting on Monday. The group of 20 members was pulled together by the Petersburg Economic Development Council and Liz Cabrera, borough community and economic development director, to locate potential ideas for economic growth in Petersburg, while maintaining a balance between Petersburg's quality of life and tourism economy. Members are...
As a result of its planning for the future work session, the borough assembly approved a list of issues on Monday for borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht to pursue. The work session addressed 132 suggestions for economic growth submitted during three public meetings conducted by Giesbrecht in January 2018. During the work session, Giesbrecht took note of the topics the assembly was most interested in pursuing and presented the list to the assembly, who agreed with the list. “None of what you’re voting on tonight will change anything,” said...
The borough assembly held a work session last week to go over comments submitted by residents on ways the borough can increase revenues and reduce expenses. Over a three week period in January 2018, 132 suggestions were submitted during three public meetings conducted by borough manager Steve Giesbrecht. The comments addressed the growing tourism industry, taxes on online shopping and increases in certain fees. “Since we had those three meetings, it might be good to at least let the community know that we looked at some of their s...
The borough assembly voted to direct borough clerk Debbie Thompson to draft an ordinance that would assign designated borough assembly seats in a 4-3 vote. Borough election ballots would no longer allow voters to choose which candidates they want to fill the open assembly seats, but instead, the candidates would choose a specific seat to run for. As an example, in last year’s borough elections, there were six candidates running for two assembly seats. Voters could choose no more than two candidates to fill the two seats. Under the soon-to-be d...
The borough assembly approved an amended fiscal year 2020 budget policy and community service grant application. A decision on the fiscal year 2020 capital projects list was postponed until January and the manager’s addendum to the budget policy, a document with suggestions on how to balance the budget, was also postponed until a time to be determined. Assembly member Bob Lynn made two amendments to the budget policy, which is a document that outlines how each department head will put their budgets together. One was a request for the a...
The borough assembly appointed Bob Lynn as Petersburg’s voting member on the Southeast Alaska Power Agency board of directors and Robert Larson as the alternate member for 2019 at an assembly meeting on Monday. This will be Lynn’s second year serving as Petersburg voting member on the SEAPA board. In his letter of interest, Lynn said he wanted to continue working on a long-term plan to replace the high-cost structural portions of a grid that has reached the end of its life span, a project that began during his first year on the board. He sta...
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Rosann Marie Dunham. At the age of 63, Rose succumbed after a long fight with cancer. She left peacefully with her children at her side in Silverdale, Washington on September 25, 2018. Rose was born August 2nd, 1955 to John and Margaret Smida in Beufort, South Carolina. Rose was the oldest of seven children in a military family and grew up helping her mother raise her younger siblings. The Smida family moved to Grant's Pass, Oregon; where... Full story
The borough assembly on Monday voted in favor of removing a discussion item from its agenda, which addressed the possibility of 900-passenger cruise ships stopping in Petersburg in 2020. “I think we just need to delay this,” said assembly member Nancy Strand. “We have a lot of things to discuss and it’s completely unnecessary to discuss it at this time.” Member Kurt Wohlhueter supported the decision stating the topic needs to have a community discussion before anything goes on the record. Mayor Mark Jensen, who requested the item be added to th...
Vote yes To the Editor: Push is coming to shove at the borough budget due to declining revenues. Management is having to make budget cuts. Property taxes and sales taxes are the largest two sources of revenue that pay for schools, police, fire protection, library and museum, even part of Mt. View Manor food service and KFSK. Now we have almost 600 senior sales tax exemption cards in our population of just 3,000. Sales tax revenue is consequently less. This October’s ballot proposition changes the sales tax program to give sales tax rebates t...
A Petersburg man in his second round of proceedings with the borough assembly has been approved to build a Scow Bay boat ramp that he will pay for. John Murgas, a boat hauler and owner of Island Ventures LLC, was green-lit by the assembly on Monday to lease tidelands and construct a temporary boat ramp at the Scow Bay Turnaround. The Petersburg Harbor Board, Planning Commission and Economic Development Council all recommended the assembly approve a lease for Murgas. The purpose of the ramp is...
The Petersburg Borough recently applied for a federal grant worth about $6.6 million to develop a boat haul out near town, and a man who does business there is retracting his support for the project after reading the application. John Murgas publicly endorsed the Borough’s application for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grant, before reading it. If Petersburg was selected, it would fund nearly all of the project costs around a plan to build a haul out and boat yard at the Scow Bay Turnaround. T...
Qualified voters in Petersburg will be asked to weigh-in on development of the Scow Bay fishing yard, and decide whether to authorize the Borough to put $500,000 down on the project, a fraction of the total cost but a concise statement that would turn the discussed expansion into a reality. Four members voted in favor and one against a decision to pass the spending question to voters, which asks if the city should use $500,000 of the Economic Fund --- a job-creation and economic development account --- to help build a small vessel haul out and...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The capital city of Alaska is looking to expand its borders. The Juneau Empire reported Sunday that the city and borough of Juneau have hopes of owning more of Admiralty Island, located south of the capital city, and a portion of land next to the Petersburg Borough. “In the near future, annexation of this region is mostly symbolic since there are no local residents or private properties,” Lands and Resources Manager Greg Chaney wrote in a memo to city officials. “In the long run, mineral development or tourism could g...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly gathered in its newly renovated municipal building this week during its February 27 meeting. During the meeting, the assembly passed 5-2 in its final reading an ordinance updating from city to borough code a Local Improvement District (LID) that allows for property owner-funded capital improvement projects. The ordinance would, in part, take advantage of the SECON asphalt plant while it’s in town by offering residents of select neighborhoods the opportunity to pay for their streets to be paved. The assembly a...
