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United Fisherman of Alaska members gather in the Sons of Norway hall this week as it conducts its 2015 Fall Board Meeting. Board members representing 35 Alaska commercial fishing organizations began their meeting Tuesday, Oct. 27 where representatives of Lt. Governor Mallott, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Anchorage and other independent commercial fishing agencies gave presentations to the board. Much of the time was devoted to internal discussion regarding seafood...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report at Thursday’s Assembly meeting: - The next regular SEAPA meeting will be held in Petersburg, Sept. 23-24. It is a public meeting. - The annual FERC inspection of Blind Slough Hydro has been scheduled for Sept. 23. It will include a table-top exercise of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP). - The aquatic center has had some water issues over the past week. Brian Haley was called in to come take a look. The hot water has been intermittent over the end of last week, but a part has been o...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ A committee of House and Senate lawmakers voted Tuesday to sue Gov. Bill Walker over his effort to expand Medicaid in Alaska, with Republican legislative leaders calling it a separation-of-powers issue. The Legislative Council vote followed a closed-door executive session in Anchorage. The vote was 10-1, with Rep. Sam Kito III, D-Juneau, dissenting. Walker called the council's actions disappointing and said he is not wavering in his position. Walker moved to expand Medicaid coverage to people ages 19 to 64 who are not...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker said he believes his bill to expand Medicaid would have passed the Legislature if brought to a vote but that the legislation never seemed to be progressing toward that end. Walker announced this month his intention to accept federal money to expand Medicaid, calling the move his “final option” after lawmakers had tabled his bill for further review. In an interview Monday, Walker said that every day the state waits to expand Medicaid it is saying “no” to people who could be getting health care coverage. Estimates...
JUNEAU (AP) — The state health department has hired a consultant to help recommend next steps as Gov. Bill Walker's administration plans to implement Medicaid expansion and looks to make further changes to the existing Medicaid program. The contract with Agnew::Beck Consulting LLC calls for a final report in January recommending alternative models of Medicaid expansion and options to help contain costs within the Medicaid program. The report will serve as a briefing document for the Legislature on reform opportunities and allow for the departme...
Despite dimming income over the past fiscal year, board members for Southeast Alaska Power Agency were informed the future is still a bright one. At its June 18 meeting in Ketchikan, CEO Trey Acteson reported SEAPA remains financially strong and well-positioned leading into the next fiscal year. Sales revenues through last month were $1.3 million below budget, or about 12 percent. While weather volatility has played a hand in the shortfall, a consistent drop from anticipated power consumption by Ketchikan through the 2015 fiscal year has also...
The assembly continues to be divided on changing the current blue bag recycling program to a cart-based system that would also bring collection in-house. The ordinance containing the budget item for the sanitation department narrowly passed its second reading at Monday’s meeting with members Bob Lynn, Kurt Wohlhueter and John Havrilek opposing. The sanitation fund is one of two enterprise funds that are not currently meeting their reserves goal. The budget policy approved by the assembly last November established that reserves should equal at l... Full story
JUNEAU (AP) — A review of the commission that regulates commercial fisheries participation in Alaska details inefficiencies, a backlog of permit applications and options for restructuring. The report requested by former Gov. Sean Parnell reviewed operations of the three-member Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. That board decides how many fishermen can participate in a limited fishery and who receives the permits. Parnell requested the review in August after the Legislature sought its own audit. It was written by Tom Lawson, former d...
Assembly members received a report on the Borough’s annual audit performed by BDO at last week’s regular meeting. BDO partner Michelle Drew informed the Assembly of the ins and outs of the fiscal year 2014 audit. “The audit received a clean audit opinion, an unmodified opinion, and that’s kind of the highest report card you can get from an external auditor,” Drew said. The Borough ended the fiscal year with $10.4 million in total revenues for the general fund, while total expenditures amounted to $8.9 million. Drew said that total revenues...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) board members met in Petersburg Nov. 13-14 to discuss the results of their annual audit and other business. Independent auditing company BDO performed this year’s audit, which followed both generally acceptable auditing standards as well as government auditing standards, required because SEAPA received some $5.99 million in state grants of which $1.11 million counted as state expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 2014. BDO’s Assurance Director Joy Merriner was present via teleconference for the... Full story
Petersburg schools had, overall, a clean audit on a good fiscal year, which ended June 30. The school was able to set aside a healthy amount, budgeting for future maintenance around a law that capped reserve limits at 10 percent of schools’ expenses. “In our opinion, the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects,” said Eric Campbell, a partner in the international services firm BDO, which completed the school’s audit. “That’s a clean or unmodified opinion. That’s what you want. (Finance Director Karen Quitslund) does a gre...
When Father Thomas Weise returned to his apartment at Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church after a trip to Wrangell last winter, he was greeted by a chilly sight. "I came home from Wrangell and the water in my tub had frozen," Weise said. "I'm like 'why is my tub frozen?'" To find out Weise took a look underneath the building. That's when he first saw the bare joists supporting the floor and decided it was time to improve the building's insulation, starting from the bottom up. Instead of...
The Petersburg Medical Center (PMC) hospital board meeting last week covered many topics, several of which revolved around financials as the center received their annual audit and a financial report indicating a break-even year for the fiscal year ending June 30. One new cost also came to the fore as Maintenance Director Mike Boggs reported the fuel oil boiler—one of two boilers used to heat the facility— has a leak and needs to be retubed. However, due to the cost to repair and maintain the old boiler, an estimated $37,900, and fuel costs to...
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht presented his report to the assembly at Monday's meeting. Replacement lighting at the South Harbor is finally nearing completion. We plan to remove the last of the old fixtures during the high tide on August 13. The old fixtures are mounted on the pilings, which makes them difficult to access except at a high tide. Power and Light is ordering material and getting ready for the new line extension for the Drive Down facility. The borough is preparing to do a significant amount of right-of-way clearing t...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following information during the last Borough Assembly meeting: Petersburg Police Chief Kelly Swihart and Giesbrecht met with community stakeholders regarding transient/homeless issues. The group discussed potential problems and solutions and is gathering more information. Swihart assisted Superior Court Judge Trevor Stevens and staff with a security assessment of the courthouse. There were several highlights from the recent Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) Board meeting in Wrangell. Official...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly released Monday night an entire memorandum written by its borough attorney concerning the borough’s relationship with the Petersburg Medical Center that had previously been redacted. The assembly released a redacted version two weeks ago after The Petersburg Pilot and KFSK submitted public record requests. The motion to release the entire document failed after two of the three assembly members, John Havrilek and Nancy Strand, voted against its release. The assembly then unanimously voted to pass a redacted v... Full story
An auditing company presented their financial report to the Petersburg School Board Tuesday evening and congratulated the district on reining in its expenses. The school district’s revenue over expenses was $153,000 in total. It also increased its general fund balance by more than $100,000 from last year. Eric Campbell with BDO gave the presentation. When he went over the student activity fund budget Campbell said there were more student activity funds than he’s ever seen. “Every student in Petersburg has an activity fund,” Campbell joked....
The Petersburg Medical Center Board voted on Thursday to repay a $1.2 million credit line to Wells Fargo bank; a loan that was initiated in 2006 to pay for equipment and meet payroll needs. PMC has recently come under scrutiny after Petersburg voted to become a borough and it came to light that for public entities, such as PMC, borrowing money without a public vote is not allowed under the state constitution. PMC Board President Tom Abbott said paying back the loan is “in keeping with state law.” The loan will be paid back by using reserve fund... Full story
Volunteers are needed to test drive some new money-saving methods for ‘do it yourself’ energy audits on fishing boats. “Just as with a home audit where you try and understand where your energy is going, you can learn how your vessel is consuming energy and find places where it might be wasted or not used as efficiently as possible, and frankly, most fishing vessels are not very energy efficient,” said Terry Johnson, a marine advisor with Alaska Sea Grant in Anchorage. Johnson is part of a team working on a three year project to find ways to red...
Petersburg Medical Center had the presentation of its financial audit during the regular meeting of the PMC Hospital Board Thursday evening. Eric Campbell of Mikunda, Cottrell & Co., Inc. Certified Public Accountants & Consultants of Anchorage presented the audit. “You have a clean financial opinion for this audit,” Campbell stated. “The total assets were up $1.1 million higher than the previous year and that is cash and receivables.” Campbell also explained that PMC has $700,000 more cash and liabilities were $2.3 million and that is up by $... Full story
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board of Directors voted on Tuesday, Dec. 11 to hold off on accepting an operations and management proposal from D. Hittle and Associates which recommends the streamlining of operations and management at the Tyee and Swan hydroelectric projects under a single operator. SEAPA commissioned the report, which was released in September, as an alternative to current staffing and risk management solutions at both locations. According to the agency’s chief executive officer, Trey Acteson, the change in operating s... Full story
Let’s Talk continues To the Editor: Imagine a community where your viewpoint is heard and where a variety of different opinions are valued and respected. Last Wednesday nearly 60 people took part in “Let’s Talk Petersburg: A Community Conversation”. The event, hosted by the Petersburg Public Library and the Petersburg Community Foundation, focused on having respectful, open conversations and sparking discussion about the issues that are important to our community. We tackled some difficult issues. Small towns can be cliquish and gossip oriente...
Using a $245,000 grant from the Alaska Energy Authority, the City of Petersburg improved the energy efficiency of their city shop building, harbor office, Scow Bay fire hall and the community gym. According to Community Development Director Leo Luczak, the city kicked in an additional $50,000 from the city’s building maintenance fund to complete additional work on some of their buildings. Luczak said $85,000 of the funds were used for weatherization and insulation upgrades to buildings and the balance went to upgrading light fixtures in each o...
More borough government To the Editor: Is now the time for more government? It sounds like the City of Petersburg is having trouble rounding up candidates for the proposed borough Assembly. Who would be foolish enough to sit on an Assembly that is dead set on more purchases and more spending? That person would be eaten alive if he or she tried to stop the spending. Why extend this kind of government to a huge borough area that will require more government? Extra staff will be needed for such a large area. That will only be the beginning; there...
October is National Seafood Month – and it also marks the start of one of the busiest months for Alaska’s fishing industry. The state’s biggest crab fisheries get underway in the Bering Sea on October 15 – the Bristol Bay red king crab catch will hold steady at 7.8 million pounds, while the snow crab harvest has taken a dip to 66.3 million pounds, down from about 80 million pounds last season. The St. Matthew Island blue king crab fishery is also down a bit to 1.6 million pounds. Hundreds of divers in Southeast Alaska are plying the depths...
