Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 172
The borough assembly wisely voted against sending Mayor Jensen’s letter to Viking Cruise Lines asking them to refrain from bringing their ships here until Petersburg can determine what level of tourism it can handle. The letter suggested that Petersburg can only handle 250 visitors per day. In fact, Petersburg regularly handles much larger numbers throughout the summer in addition to summer cannery workers and visitors arriving on the airlines and ferries. Sales tax revenue from visitors is needed to replenish the borough coffers as more and m...
The borough assembly vote unanimously not to pass an ordinance that would clarify language in the Marine Passenger Fee at an assembly meeting on Monday. "At this point, I'd like to just kind of see it go away," said assembly member Jeff Meucci. "Right now we have a sales tax ordinance in place, we have the Marine Passenger Fee in place. The Marine Passenger Fee goes into effect in 2019. It just seems like at one time or another we just get caught up in the minute details of this ordinance that...
Context needed To the Editor: Context was missing from the article about the visitor industry information meeting (November 7). For example, we had approximately 9,000 cruise ship visitors this summer, down from a peak of 18,000 in 2006. And now there’s a marine passenger fee. At $5 each, that means an additional $45,000 for our community. Imagine if we had that in place when we had double the passengers we get today. Did you know we already have days where 400+ people are in town when multiple ships are here at the same time? Yes, it can g...
The Petersburg Borough’s in-kind portion of a feasibility study to determine if the United States Army Corps of Engineers will dredge South Harbor and allow smoother egress increased by $50,000, and was approved by the assembly on Monday. “The money stays with us,” said harbormaster Glow Wollen at the assembly meeting on Monday. “We only use it if we spend it for this project. The borough’s in-kind contributions have increased to $100,000, from $50,000, which the borough has paid $32,349.11 of to date, according to a letter from Amber C....
The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce hosted a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss and receive community feedback on the possibility of larger cruise ships coming to Petersburg. In August, Viking Cruises met with representatives from Petersburg while looking for possible new ports in Southeast Alaska for 2020. The ships can hold approximately 900 passengers and 140 crew members. "If you think about this as a win-win situation, some of these ships they provide a visitor base, not only for visitors...
Don’t miss the Tues., Nov. 6 meeting in the Assembly Chambers to discuss the impacts of cruise ship passengers on our community at 5:30 p.m. Petersburg has welcomed summer visitors since the 1960s and before that hunters and sport fishermen made less frequent visits to the ‘burg. Even today, Petersburg attracts guests because we’re, “off the map,” and are able to maintain our small working-town atmosphere. Despite the laments of a few, Petersburg businesses have grown the visitor industry into a viable part of the local economy. We all benefit...
WRANGELL — The cruise ship season closed in Wrangell earlier this month. The Oceania Regatta was the last cruise ship that pulled into the city dock in 2018. According to a draft schedule from the chamber of commerce, the season will reopen in May of 2019. For Wrangell, and Southeast Alaska in general, tourism is an important aspect of life. Stephanie Cook, with the chamber of commerce, said that 75 cruise ships visited Wrangell in the 2018 season, ranging from small size to large ships with about 1,500 passengers. This influx of people is v...
A resolution to request the USDA’s inspector general conduct an audit of the Tonka and Big Thorne Integrated Resource timber contracts to determine if Petersburg is owed monies failed in a 2-4 vote by the borough assembly at a meeting on Monday. “This is just my attempt to make sure that specifically Petersburg has all the funds coming to them from these timber sales, and if not, let’s go to the next step and see how we’re going to find out,” said assembly member Jeff Meucci, who request the resolution be put on the agenda. The Washingto...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) – Kodiak is expecting 31 cruise ships next year, the most vessels the Alaska city has seen in a single year, officials said. The last cruise ship of the season docked in Kodiak last week, bringing the 2018 total to 19 vessels, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported last week. Discover Kodiak Director Aimee Williams said”word is getting out” about what the area has to offer. Kodiak’s size and remote location provides an authentic experience that appeals to visitors, she said. “People on those ships like the fact that they get...
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...
The Petersburg Medical Center is currently vaccinating the public, six months and older, for influenza. "This is typically when we start vaccinating as soon as we get the vaccine, which can be in September, October and then we try to vaccinate people sooner rather than later," said Joy Janssen Clinic manager Jenna Olsen. Residents are encouraged to schedule an appointment to be vaccinated. PMC also has a supply of the high dose for people 65 years of age or older, said Olsen. A flu shot clinic...
On Thursday, a cruise ship docked in Petersburg that sent several passengers to the ER. The first patient was tested positive for influenza. Petersburg Medical Center was waiting until the end of September or Oct. 1 to start immunizing staff members. "On Thursday, we decided to do it that afternoon," said director of nursing Jennifer Bryner at a Petersburg Medical Center board meeting on Wednesday. About 75 staff members were vaccinated on Thursday, and there are only a few left who needed to...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Alaska environmental managers have issued notices to eight cruise ships for violating air quality standards during the summer cruise season. The state Department of Environmental Conservation found nine violations this year, the highest number since 2014, the Juneau Empire reported this week. Four violations were found on Holland America Line ships, Princess Cruises had two, Royal Caribbean had two, and the Norwegian Cruise Line had one, according to the department. The department will forward the violation notices and its...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —Gov. Bill Walker has signed into law state spending bills, rejecting funding for a south-central Alaska bridge project and a Vitamin D deficiency study. Walker vetoed $2.5 million for the dormant Knik Arm crossing project. He ordered a halt on new spending on that project years ago. He also axed a roughly $500,000 study aimed at determining the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiencies in pregnant women and babies. Walker said a similar study is ongoing. Walker signed legislation calling for limited, structured draws from A...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A small cruise ship company is already offering trips to Alaska as part of an effort to persuade the industry to set sail for the state earlier in the year. UnCruise Adventures has launched cruises in southeast Alaska a few weeks before the first large passenger vessel is due in Juneau at the end of the month, the Juneau Empire reported Friday. “It’s the whole idea of making May the new June and April the new May,” said Dan Blanchard, the company’s CEO. “We can do that in southeast and even a little bit in south centr...
Researchers at a lighthouse near Petersburg have been conducting behavioral studies of humpback whales, trying to understand their diverse communication system, and this summer the humans are ready to talk back. Dr. Fred Sharpe, a research biologist with the Alaska Whale Foundation and part-time Juneau Lighthouse Association keeper of the Five Finger Lighthouse in Frederick Sound, gave a talk in Petersburg to about 100 people last Thursday. Sharpe has spent 30 summers at the lighthouse and was...
The outlook for tourism in Petersburg this summer is showing an increase in cruise ship passengers, while the rate of independent travelers is still unclear. Dave Berg, co-founder of Viking Travel Inc., says cruise ships are scheduled to make 133 stops in Petersburg this summer, which is up from 110 last year. "More stops, more passengers," Berg said. That could mean more dollars spent in downtown businesses. "More sales tax," Berg said. "Which basically trickles down to the economy and it's...
WRANGELL — Wrangell Medical Center Foundation last month issued a letter to supporters informing them it would forgo its annual fundraiser weekend this year. For the past ten years the Brian Gilbert Memorial Golf Tournament and fundraiser dinner is hosted in Wrangell each May in order to raise money for the Foundation. The Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to support the community’s medical needs. The funds it handles fills a few roles, primarily supporting WMC’s bid for a new facility but also procuring new equipment, funding its cance...
The keynote speaker at the chamber of commerce dinner last weekend is the owner of a cruise line that specializes in exclusive trips, and he announced that one of his ships based in Sitka is moving its homeport to Petersburg. Dan Blanchard, owner of UnCruise Adventures, operates a fleet of nine ships, seven of which are in Alaska. Blanchard announced at the Sons of Norway hall on Saturday that the Safari Quest would be homeporting in Petersburg starting this year, and the captain is his...
The borough assembly on Monday finalized two ordinances that plan to generate revenue by charging fees on tax exemption cards and cruise ship passengers who come to Petersburg. Assembly members approved an ordinance to impose a $100 annual fee on senior citizens who qualify and apply for a tax exemption card. The fee is waived to qualified applicants who sign an affidavit claiming they have a combined household income that doesn’t exceed $20,000. Household was defined at the meeting as a tax filer, plus a spouse, plus dependents. The senior s...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The number of cruise ship visitors in Alaska is primed to make a sizeable jump in the next two years, a cruise industry expert said. John Binkley, the president of Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said his organization has predicted that the number of cruise ship visitors will jump 19 percent between 2017 and 2019, the Juneau Empire reported Wednesday. Binkley said that would mean 200,000 more visitors in Alaska. About 1.1 million cruise visitors came to Alaska in 2017, which was the most in state history, h...
The borough assembly held a work session on Monday to discuss a plan to impose restrictions on who's eligible for senior sales tax exemption, along with a shorter talk on a passenger fee for cruise ships. In a public discussion, hosted by the assembly to hear community member input, an agreement was made that an annual fee ought to be charged to those who'd like a sales tax exemption card. The goal would be to offset costs that go into processing exemption cards for those 65 or older. The...
December 28, 1917 Mr. Anderson reports that the company’s manager, M.B. Dahl, who is now in Tacoma, plans to return north in February, when it is probable he will start the building of a one-line cannery at Saginaw Bay. The company is also considering the matter of building a cold-storage plant, for the handling of halibut, salmon, and other varieties of fresh fish. December 25, 1942 Santa Claus appeared as scheduled at the Emblem Club pot-luck supper and party last Tuesday evening. Children of Elks and Emblem Club members were especially f...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The cruise industry has dodged a tax increase after Alaska’s U.S. senators helped strike the provision from the tax bill that passed the Senate. The bill approved early Saturday includes other provisions that Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan hailed as significant for Alaskans, including allowing oil and gas drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Murkowski called the package “a critical milestone in our efforts to secure Alaska’s future.” The measure also would pro...
