Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 110
PETERSBURG – Three packages of major reforms to the Alaska Marine Highway System went under the microscope on Wednesday at Southeast Conference. Facing an aging fleet, declining service and tightening state budgets, the regional economic development organization is working to rethink the $150 million transportation network serving Alaska’s southern coast. The Alaska Marine Highway System is an agency within the Alaska Department of Transportation. For most of its life, it has been managed by state employees and overseen by appointees of the...
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following during the May 2 Assembly meeting: Un-cruise insurance has paid all but $7,652 of the Middle Harbor repair. Staff has invoiced the remaining balance. Officer Dodson and Dispatcher Huettl resigned on April 18, 2016. A search is underway to fill the positions with one FT dispatcher and one three quarter time dispatcher. This will reduce police coverage and personnel costs slightly. Abatement on the municipal building began May 2. Chief Swihart was appointed to the Alaska Police St...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly advanced the borough’s comprehensive plan Monday evening. The plan outlines and recommends strategies for borough management and the development of transportation, economy, recreation and tourism over the next two decades. The plan is several years in the making. A consulting firm in Anchorage, hired to update the borough’s plan, met with community members during that time, took surveys, interviewed citizens and received public comment. Planning and Zoning (P&Z) member Dave Kensinger attended the ass... Full story
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...
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
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a resolution on Monday to establish budget policies with the intention of providing sound management of borough funds. The adoption of the document means setting guidelines to assist with annual budget preparation and current administration requirements. Document guidelines include policies regarding how to handle the general fund balance, capital projects and employee travel, among others. The only amendment to the resolution was brought forth by assembly member Nancy Strand concerning the...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved at its Nov. 2 meeting a resolution that urges the state of Alaska to amend the Mariculture Revolving Loan Fund to allow non-profit shellfish hatcheries to apply for loans with the state. The state’s revolving loan fund provides long term loans for Alaska owned mariculture operations. According to the resolution, the Petersburg Borough Assembly “believes that it is in the best interest of the State of Alaska and the mariculture industry that non-profit shellfish hatcheries be eligible to utilize the fun...
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following information during the October 5 borough assembly meeting: Four Petersburg High School students are participating in this year’s Junior Firefighter Program. The annual Fire Prevention Program for Rae C Stedman elementary school kids kicks off this week, Oct. 5-9. EMS Director Sandy Dixson will attend the grant required Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Fall Preparedness Conference in Anchorage, Oct. 5-10. Harbor staff is winterizing the harbor f...
The Petersburg Children’s Center (PCC) is one step closer to adding an additional classroom, and capacity for a dozen more students, after a variance was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission earlier this week. The proposed expansion includes a 20 foot addition to the building, which will expand an existing classroom and house a new one for toddlers and pre-schoolers, as well as a ramp extension and separate entrance for the room. PCC Director Brandi Heppe said that more space is needed to be able to accept some of the more than 40 chi... Full story
July 3, 1915 – The Mariposa, which passed through the Narrows, south, Sunday, is said to have carried the most valuable cargo ever taken out of Alaska. It included 1,200 tons of copper ore, valued at $840,000; raw furs from the interior, $60,000; gold dust and bullion, $700,000; total value, $1,600,000. July 5, 1940 – Alaska's canned salmon will meet increasing competition from California produced canned fish this year, a report from the advertising committee office of the Canned Salmon Industry says. The report indicates that production of...
Justices with the Alaska Supreme Court are now mulling over the boundary dispute case between Petersburg and Juneau. If Juneau prevails, Petersburg could be forced to revert back to city status. The City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court over a Superior Court Judge’s ruling in favor of the newly formed Petersburg Borough’s northern boundary line, which Juneau had earlier sought to annex, in March 2014. The Alaska Supreme Court heard both sides’ arguments on June 17 in Anchorage. Juneau attorney Amy Mead said... Full story
Looking to start up a business or expand one? Have ideas that are full of planet, people and profit possibilities? There’s a contest going on right now that could benefit someone just like that. For the third year, the Haa Aani Community Development Fund, Inc. and Nature Conservancy are holding the Southeast Alaska Path to Prosperity (P2P) contest. Haa Aani Office Administrator Shawn Blumenshine said they work with both existing small businesses and new startups during the entrepreneurial competition. Two winners receive $40,000 each to go t...
A nearly $12 million cut in state funds is on tap for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game if state policy makers have their way. That was one early outcome of legislative House finance subcommittee meetings last week, as they wrapped up the first step in a budget process that will see cuts in agencies and programs almost across the board. According to Juneau Resources Weekly, the ADF&G budget reductions cut across all divisions with sport fishing facing the most personnel losses at 12 seasonal jobs. The Division of Habitat could lose $400,000;...
The first-ever Southeast Commercial Growers Conference will be held in Petersburg Feb. 27 - March 1. The event will bring together commercial food and flower growers from across the region to swap ideas and information about how to run a successful venture in a tricky microclimate. Marja Smets and Bo Varsano, owners of Farragut Farm, are organizing the event. Smets said one of the reasons she wanted to put on a conference was to spread local farming knowledge that's not available in other forms....
Alaska seafood marketers are ramping up promotions and bankrolling a global $1 million media blitz to counteract a tough sockeye salmon market. Sockeyes are by far the most valuable salmon catch, often worth two-thirds of the value of Alaska’s entire salmon fishery, but last summer’s unexpected surge of reds left lots of inventory in freezers, and record US imports of competing farmed salmon from Chile and Norway combined with the prospect of another big run at Bristol Bay make for a sockeye sales squeeze. Alaska’s approach will be patte...
An update to the Borough’s Comprehensive Plan is in full swing after consultants arrived in town last week for the first of four scheduled visits with community members and the planning team. “We are in town really kicking off the process with the community. We have a series of meetings and opportunities for the community to come talk to us,” said Shelly Wade, a consultant with Agnew Beck on hand at the community open houses held Wednesday and Thursday. The Comprehensive Plan Wade and her team will be formulating this year creates a bluep... Full story
Summer 2014 was a busy one for Petersburg, with tourists bringing more charter business to town and spending more on hotels and retail than the previous summer. This summer the Borough collected over $35,000 in sales taxes from charter businesses, almost double what was collected over the same time period in 2013. The Borough also collected about $4,000 more each in bed tax revenue and retail sales tax revenue. Marilyn Meucci of the Visitor Information Center said she thought that a rebounding economy played a large role in the increased...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report to the Assembly at Monday's regular meeting: The library landscaping request for proposals is planned for mid-December through January. The North Harbor project letter of completion was received on Oct. 29 and a final payment was made. Last week the abutment was poured and Tamico is currently securing the last girders on the Drive Down Facility Approach Dock. Rock-N-Road Construction has trenched the uplands and is working with...
Assembly members unanimously moved to go out to bid for the design of a haul-out facility at Scow Bay, looking to begin the long process that will eventually transform 11.5 acres of waterfront property into a work yard to properly clean vessels. Though the idea has been bounced around for many years, it was only recently that the borough gained an actual opportunity to put plans in motion. “In 2011 the Planning and Zoning Commission, Harbor Advisory Board and City Council approved a conceptual design for a small vessel haul-out, including a was...
The Kake Access project, or "road to Kake," has a long history. Below is information about the project in the last five years. The Kake Access road was included as a budget item in 2010, but Governor Sean Parnell vetoed the project after receiving public pressure to do so. In the spring of 2012, Senator Bert Stedman included the Kake Access road in the capital budget under Gov. Parnell's "Roads to Resources" program which appropriated $870 million for transportation projects for fiscal year 2013. Some $40 million of that was budgeted for the...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted down 2-3 a request for proposals (RFP) that would have allowed consultants to bid on assisting the borough in developing a comprehensive plan. The comprehensive planning process is extensive and covers things such as updating zoning and land use, identifying and selecting state land for economic and community development, evaluating housing availability and affordability, the impact of tourism and other quality of life issues. Developing a harbor master plan will also be included in the comprehensive plan....
Scow Bay Turnaround limit rumor To the Editor: Over the last couple of weeks, the Petersburg Borough Assembly has received letters from out of town boat owner expressing concern that the borough is planning to place a load limit on the Scow Bay Turnaround ramp and they would no longer be allowed to have their vessel hauled out at the turnaround. We are writing in hopes of putting an end to this rumor by stating as clearly and unequivocally as possible: No one is proposing a load limit on the ramp at the Scow Bay Turnaround. A load limit is not...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly tabled a Harbor Advisory Board request to construct 120 feet of bulkhead as part of the Drive Down Dock project. The harbor board’s request comes after a lower than expected project bid left the harbor with $1.9 million in surplus state grant funds and a desire to build bulkhead which has existed in conceptual designs of the project since the early 1990s. In a memo for the assembly, Harbormaster Glo Wollen writes, “In the late 90's when discussion of placement of a community cold storage facility occurred, the...
Petersburg Economic Development Director Liz Cabrera presented a brief overview of the Petersburg economy to the borough assembly. Cabrera used data from a bi-annual economic trench report to provide statistics on economic indicators such as median wages, jobs, food costs and sales trends. According to December 2012 data, Petersburg’s food costs are 20-30 percent above Anchorage. The data comes from a one-time snap shot of prices for one weeks worth of food for a family of four. There are 948 private sector jobs, a 2.4 percent increase over the...
