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A barred owl named Glaucus (for her gray coloring) and a red tailed hawk named Jake (originally from Kake) are traveling from Sitka to Petersburg Thursday with an ambitious three day schedule of presentations. Their visit is part of the on-going Rainforest Festival and is being funded by a grant from the Petersburg Community Foundation and in collaboration with Partners in Education. Avian Director Jennifer Cedarleaf and Avian Care Specialist Hannah Blanke will escort the raptors. Their first pr...
Saturday morning a group of concerned Petersburg residents met at the Wright Auditorium to participate in the second Childcare Community Café to address the childcare crisis affecting the local workforce, businesses, families, and economy. The meeting, hosted by the SHARE (Supporting Health Awareness, Resilience, and Education) Coalition, began with a viewing of a 23-minute video entitled "Voices for a Better Future: Community Impacts of Childcare in Petersburg," followed by a community... Full story
During Monday evening's Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay gave a report on the progress of the Early Childhood Education Task Force. The task force, which was established in April and is chaired by Tremblay, is composed of 14 members broken up into three subgroups-Access and Brainstorming, Staff and Administrative Support, and Policy and Details. According to Tremblay's report, the Access and Brainstorming group has identified and discussed barriers for...
Cindi Lagoudakis What is your age? 68 What experience do you have? I have served as Assembly Member and as Mayor, and am a current member of the Hospital Board. Why do you seek public office? I see being involved as a responsibility, and one that I enjoy. Do you support the construction of a new Petersburg Medical Center building? Yes, for multiple reasons. Having seen some of the building issues firsthand, I do support construction of a new hospital building. The staff have been making a good...
Jeigh Stanton Gregor What is your age? 45 What experience do you have? I have 20 years of leadership experience. I was responsible for keeping groups of kids and adults safe year-round in the Montana wilderness. My leadership skills were also used to help strengthen program leadership teams. Currently, I've been on the assembly for 8.5 years, and we've addressed many issues during this time. Two recent issues come to mind that I'd like to highlight: I made an amendment to make community gym...
New housing opportunities may be on the horizon following the Petersburg Borough Assembly's approval of Ordinance #2022-12 in its first reading Tuesday. The new ordinance, which received a 6-0 vote with Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor excused, is designed to allow tiny houses, detached accessory dwellings, and multiple buildings on a single lot-all within Service Area 1. Assembly Member Thomas Fine-Walsh, who brought the ordinance forward, summarized its three parts and said he believed the...
Petersburg's Rainforest Festival has two seasons under their belt now working in their new year-round format. Since their start on Earth Day, they've hosted six events, including guided walks, art workshops and a solstice ephemeral art show. "I think it's going pretty well," said festival organizer Sunny Rice. "We've been able to spread out the work a little bit and take advantage of people coming through town that we otherwise would have missed." As they move into the season when the festival w...
Words of advice have been running through Joseph Tagaban's mind ever since meeting his NBA idol Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors. "Take small little steps, test yourself and you'll eventually make it," the five-time NBA All-Star and four-time champion told the 15-year-old boy from Petersburg. The advice takes on new meaning since Tagaban recently found out that his fight with cancer is not over as was previously thought. What started as a routine checkup in Seattle last week... Full story
A press release Wednesday announced that starting this fall, the Kinder Skog Nature Program will be transitioning from a program under the umbrella of the Petersburg Lutheran Church to a program housed under the Petersburg Medical Center Community Wellness Department. Results from a 2021 local childcare needs assessment and Community Café in January 2022 funded by the Petersburg Community Foundation highlighted the systemic industry challenges facing childcare and early childhood education. In...
The Petersburg Medical Center Foundation will host its 8th annual Paddle Battle on Saturday, August 6 with the goal of raising funds to help support education. "I would consider it kind of a revival of the event because the last two years have been pretty quiet as far as the Paddle Battle," said Community Wellness Coordinator Julie Walker. "We've still held the event during the height of the pandemic but it was small and we're really looking to revive the event and encourage more participation...
Volunteers, many from the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, spent the week leading up to the Fourth of July preparing the annual fireworks show. They gathered at the ballfields Sunday evening to set up the shells, mortars, and a new wireless firing system. The system is being used this year partially thanks to $1,000 in prize money awarded to Dave Berg by the Petersburg Community Foundation after he was named Petersburg Community Volunteer of the Year. Prior to the show, Berg linked up a...
Two candidates have filed for candidacy in this year's election to fill Rep. Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins' seat in the Alaska House of Representatives. Kreiss-Tomkins, who first elected to the seat in 2012, announced earlier this year that he will not seek reelection. House District 2, which was newly created by the Alaska Redistricting Board, spans Southeast Alaska from Prince of Wales Island to Yakutat and includes Petersburg, Sitka, Kake, and Craig. The candidates running for the seat are Kenny...
The Devil's Thumb Shooters competed in the 18th Annual AlaskaYESS State Championship in Chugiak last weekend. 11 shooters from Petersburg attended the four day long competition at the Birchwood Shooting Park which saw 115 students from across the state take part. They competed in all seven styles of shooting featured at the competition and also got the chance to socialize with shooters from other communities. "We are continuing to build our program and it is going strong and it shows when we go...
Property Development To the Editor: I would like to encourage the borough to proceed with developing building lots on borough land, much of which happens to already be subdivided and adjacent to borough utility services. The lack of available and affordable building lots is slowing growth through the lack of housing. The community is unable to provide housing for necessary workers for the school and hospital as well as the fishing and fish processing industry. Another aspect of borough involvement in supplying building lots is the fact that,...
The Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board voted to support a pilot program which could see the hospital offer after-school child care programming as soon as fall 2022 through its Community Wellness department. Julie Walker and Becky Turland, who was recently appointed to the Early Childhood Education Task Force, spoke to the board during last Thursday's meeting about their idea for the program which grew from the results of the child care needs assessment completed by the SHARE Coalition...
The Petersburg Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Alaska Community Foundation, announced on Saturday the 10 organizations receiving grants this year. The event, hosted by Glo Wollen, saw volunteers, politicians, business owners, and other prominent community members gather to support local programs. Before the grant awards, the foundation announced a new annual award-Petersburg Community Volunteer of the Year. Dave Berg was chosen as the award's first recipient which also comes with...
Our mother, Lois Ellen was born on August 26th, 1935 in Mandan, North Dakota to Alice and Carl Schiller. Growing up on a family farm, following the Great Depression, were challenging times in the rural Midwest: no electricity, running water or phone service. Mom could recall meager living with no money for holiday celebrations or frivolous gifts. A favorite memory was a ballpoint pen given to her when she was learning to write. Education was extremely important to her father, and he impressed... Full story
Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay gave a report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly on March 21 about a meeting which discussed housing needs in Petersburg and what organizations are doing to support those experiencing homelessness. Representatives from the borough, Humanity In Progress, Working Against Violence for Everyone, the Petersburg Medical Center, the Petersburg Indian Association, and other local organizations were in attendance at the March 10 meeting. "The goal of these meetings is to...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly hosted a work session Wednesday evening to discuss child care needs in the community and ways the borough could be involved in helping find sustainable solutions for providers and families. Child care challenges have been discussed recently at the assembly level, a Community Café hosted by the SHARE Coalition, an ARPA work session, and other public meetings with issues including child care staff recruitment and retention, availability and costs for families, and...
There were multiple accounts with outstanding balances when Sharlay Mamoe took over as director of the Petersburg Children's Center. A board member suggested writing letters to the people. Payments began coming back almost immediately, often with apologies. Those balances attest to the difficulty families face when it comes to paying for childcare. If a couple or a single parent cannot afford the rates at PCC, Mamoe will grab an application for the state-funded Child Care Assistance Program... Full story
Attendees to the upcoming Séet Ká Festival in town should leave with a wealth of knowledge because the goal of the event is to increase cultural awareness for, and uplift, the Indigenous people of Séet Ká Kwáan. The event spans five days, Feb. 10-14, and the idea for it came largely from Avery Sakamoto, a busy, local Lingít advocate. Last spring, Sakamoto was invited to join the Rainforest Festival Committee, and it only took a couple days after the first meeting for inspiration to strik...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held a work session Monday afternoon to brainstorm ideas for how funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act can be used. The assembly invited representatives of various community organizations to discuss their needs and ideas for how the $634,382 can be distributed. The work session came as a result of numerous discussions at regular assembly meetings on the desire to find ways to spend the money received through ARPA and members of the community reaching...
The scholarship fund created to honor the memory of Helen and Sig Decker is a little different from most. In addition to the usual requirements of being a graduating high school senior who is going on to postsecondary schooling, applicants must have worked in commercial fishing or seafood processing. It's recognition that the Deckers worked in the industry for years before they died in a car accident in Petersburg on July 28, 2020, at 19 and 21 years old, respectively. The family made...
Having tough conversations at work is part of what Ashley Kawashima signed up for when she became a behavioral health clinician at the local hospital. But some of the hardest days come when she has to be honest with a person, looking to her for assistance, about the limited number of resources available. Just imagine, someone seeking shelter and all Kawashima can offer them is a tarp or tent. "That can be very soul-crushing," she says. "And that was a big part of why we wanted to start Humanity... Full story
The Supporting Health Awareness and Resiliency Education (SHARE) Coalition hosted a Community Café Saturday afternoon on Zoom which centered on the future of child care in Petersburg. The meeting gave members of the community, including representatives from the Petersburg Borough Assembly, Petersburg Medical Center, and the Petersburg School Board, an opportunity to hear about the challenges facing local child care providers and to discuss ways to support children, providers, and parents who...
