Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 106
January The borough assembly received a proposed update to its zoning code that would introduce a new form of affordable housing, an expansion of the historical and industrial districts and the end of a requirement for businesses to include parking downtown. The borough assembly held a work session to discuss a plan to impose restrictions on the senior tax exemption. A possible annual fee to sales tax exemption card holders was agreed upon ranging between $50 and $60. Police Chief Kelly Swihart...
More shipping containers filled with plastic fishing nets, crab lines and other gear left Dutch Harbor last week for recycling plants in Europe, and two more will soon follow from that port and Kodiak. “We’re accepting trawl and crab line and halibut gear and all of it is going to Bulgaria to be sorted,” said Nicole Baker, founder of Net Your Problem and the force behind the recycling effort that began loading and shipping gear last year. “I expect that three more containers from Dutch will be going to Europe in the next few weeks, so we shou...
Since the cost to ship recyclables is lower than the price to ship municipal solid waste, Public Works Director Chris Cotta recommended that the borough continue operating its recycling program during an assembly meeting on Monday evening. “Although the recycling markets continue to be unpredictable, the costs of our program have been reduced to the point where they can be accommodated within the current operating budget,” said Cotta. Although the value of recyclables has continued to remain low, mixed paper, which makes up 1/3 of Pet...
A forum was held on Monday that allowed representatives from KFSK, the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Petersburg Pilot to ask borough assembly candidates a variety of questions on local issues. All the candidates were present for the two hour long forum except for Donald Spigelmyre. He said he is unable to take a seat on the borough assembly; however, he was unable to withdraw from candidacy before the deadline to withdraw had passed. His name will still appear on the ballot in the Petersburg municipal elections on Tuesday. Each...
Tiny cod fish are reappearing around Kodiak. Researchers aim to find out if it is a blip, or a sign that the stock is recovering after warming waters caused the stocks to crash. Alaska's seafood industry was shocked last fall when the annual surveys showed cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska had plummeted by 80 percent to the lowest levels ever seen. Prior surveys indicated large year classes of cod starting in 2012 were expected to produce good fishing for six or more years. But a so called "warm...
Petersburg’s commingled recycling processing fees are going up 50 percent after China closed their market to most American recyclables, said Public Works Director Chris Cotta. The current rate to process commingled recyclable waste is $32.45 per ton and will increase to $49.84 per ton, said Cotta. Petersburg’s commingled recycle program got most of its funding from the revenue the recyclables generate; however, the market rate has dropped from $136 per ton in March 2017 to $21 per ton in March 2018. The borough pays $126 per ton to dispose of...
More big bundles of old fishing nets will soon be on their way from Dutch Harbor to Denmark to be remade into high end plastics. It will be the second batch of nets to leave Dutch for a higher cause and more Alaska fishing towns can get on board. Last summer a community collaborative put nearly 240,000 pounds, or about 40 nets, into shipping vans that were bound for a Danish ‘clean tech’ company called Plastix. The company refines and pelletizes all types of plastics and resells them to makers of water bottles, cell phone cases and other ite...
The most common piece of gear on a seine vessel is also one of the deadliest – the rotating capstan winch used for winding ropes. Anyone who has ever worked aboard a seiner has horror stories of close calls, or worse. “The deck winch is the most powerful thing on the boat. It’s the scariest piece of machinery that we work with. My feeling when I was caught in it was that I was completely helpless. There was nothing I could do,” said fisherman Noah Doncette who participated in a video for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Hea...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A policy change in China has officials in the Alaska panhandle city of Sitka anticipating a major change in the city’s recycling program. China is the top purchaser of Sitka’s recyclables and advised the World Trade Organization in July that it planned to ban imports of 24 types of recyclables. The city’s recycling contractor, Republic Services, has now put Sitka on notice that it might have to stop accepting mixed paper, plastics and cardboard as of Nov. 1, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported last week. Mayor Matt Hunter...
Officials in Petersburg were scrambling about two weeks ago when the borough recycling program almost shut down because the country recycling is sent to nearly refused to take it. The recycling in Petersburg is exported to China, and in a national effort to become more environmentally friendly, it announced that importation policies would become stringent, said Karl Hagerman, the Public Works director. The borough works with a recycling company called Republic Services that sends disposables to Seattle. From there, most is sent to China,...
Despite a high participation rate in the Petersburg Borough’s recycling program there is still too much recyclable material going to the baler facility, according to Public Works Superintendent Karl Hagerman. 95% of Petersburg’s 1,200 sanitation customers participate in the recycling program, but Hagerman says the waste diversion rate hovers around 16%. Hagerman wants to move that number to 30-50%. Recycling can make a significant difference in the cost of removing trash from Mitkof Island. The sanitation department pays $113/ton to ship garbag...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaskan Brewing Company’s plans to expand its Juneau-based facility could help spur the consolidation of the city’s waste services. The brewery is looking to purchase four lots owned by the City and Borough of Juneau for additional retail, storage or office space. The transfer would displace the city’s water utility and public drop-off area for household hazardous waste, The Juneau Empire reported. “We’re interested, so it could happen fairly quickly on our schedule,” said Alaskan Brewing Company spokesman Andy Kline, ...
WRANGELL – Taking up the mantle left by the Lions Club after it closed its Wrangell chapter last summer, the Garnet Grit Betties roller derby team is continuing its aluminum collection program. For two decades the club had raised money for itself through the program, as aluminum is one of the few recyclable materials which can turn a profit for collectors. Reprocessing the material is considerably more efficient than producing it from bauxite ore, a savings which makes it more profitable than i...
January Public Works rolled out the borough's highly anticipated blue cart recycling program. The borough received $820,117.61 from the annual raw fish tax. Dave Zimmerman was hired as the new Tongass National Forest Petersburg District Ranger. The assembly continued discussing the reallocation of the Kake access road funding. Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins took part in a budget crisis presentation at Sons of Norway Hall. The visit was the first of many by representatives throughout the...
The borough"s blue cart recycling program began at the beginning of the year and seems to be running smoothly, according to Public Works Director Karl Hagerman. "Overall the community has really accepted the new system," he says. "Customer satisfaction, I think, is pretty good and we"ve received very little negative feedback over the program." After the start of the program, Public Works distributed a handful of smaller 64-gallon blue carts to low volume households who requested them. The... Full story
Alaska is one of a handful of U.S. states to launch a go-to website aimed at keeping ocean acidification in the public eye. The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, a collaboration of state and federal scientists, agencies, tribes, conservation, fishing and aquaculture groups, went live last month. Its goal is to provide a forum for researchers to share their findings, and to connect with coastal residents concerned about future impacts on their communities. Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide (CO2)...
Early signs point to continuing headwinds in world markets for Alaska salmon. Global currencies remain in disarray, the ongoing Russian seafood embargo is diverting more farmed salmon to the U.S., and tons of product remains in freezers from back to back bumper sockeye runs. (The majority of Alaska’s salmon goes to market in frozen, headed and gutted (H&G) form.) One plus: aggressive market promotions have kept reds moving briskly at retail outlets at home and abroad and removed some of the back log. “What the Alaska industry really needs is...
During the January 19 Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following: Power & Light has completed the major re-write of our Emergency Action Plan required by FERC for our Blind Slough Hydro. A tabletop exercise to familiarize plan holders with the new document has been scheduled for January 21. The next SEAPA meeting will be held in Wrangell on February 11-12. This will be the first meeting of the new year, so there will be an election of officers. We will be having weekly diesel runs on...
Public Works kicked off the start of the week by distributing the long awaited blue recycling carts on Monday, but some Petersburg residents found the cans just flat out huge. The size of the 96-gallon carts were the subject of a social media post on Facebook's "Buy & Sell & Trade PSG AK" page that received almost 70 comments. Many of the comments were humorous and at one point the recycling program was compared to Obamacare, and one person even suggested they might cut windows in the cart and... Full story
January-June January Petersburg School Superintendent Lisa Stroh resigned from her position citing family medical issues as her reason for leaving although communication between borough staff and student letters indicated turmoil between Stroh and school staff. Two third and fourth grade elementary students published their own class newspapers. Former Petersburg School District Maintenance Director Tye Petersen was sentenced to 12 years in prison for Distribution, Receipt and Possession of... Full story
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report at Monday’s regular Assembly meeting: Power & Light is nearing the end of a major rewrite of the Emergency Action Plan required by FERC on our Blind Slough hydro. Power & Light and Public Works spent significant time putting up Christmas lighting for the tree and street poles. Excellent cooperation made the job go smoothly. Thanks to Power & Light, Public Works, Matt Bryner, Pete and Theresa Litsheim, Ray and Gladys Olsen for such a beautiful community Christmas tree this year. The P...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a letter supporting grant funding towards the Alaska Department of Fish and Game local knowledge study of salmon fisheries in southeast Alaska. “The proposed project is important to our community as a means of archiving and disseminating our cultural heritage as it relates to local salmon fisheries and the stocks that sustain them,” the letter states. “We support the collection of local and traditional knowledge that is held among our community members. Documenting this knowledge and making it avail...
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following at the Borough Assembly’s November 2 meeting: Municipalities across the state are seeing evidence of pressure on courts and prosecutors to reduce pre-trial incarceration. Other chiefs report bail amounts set at arraignment have been significantly reduced and prosecutors have been directed to seek lower bail amounts to lower bed days in the jails. Presiding Judge Stephens has ordered the courts in our region to be closed for additional days to cut costs. This is expected to s...
Petersburg recyclers must exclude glass from their comingled bags beginning November 1 after the Petersburg Borough’s recycling vendor found an excess of glass, along with blue recycling bags in the co-mingled stream. Petersburg Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said earlier this year the borough’s recycling vendor Republic Services broke apart a recycling bale to determine a breakdown percentage of each recyclable material. “When we have a large percentage of the blue plastic which is not a... Full story
Public Works Director Karl Hagerman reported the following information to the Petersburg Borough Assembly in lieu of Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht’s absence: The underground cable connecting the Blind Slough hydro plant to our distribution system failed, and that portion from the plant to the hatchery had to be replaced. Harbor staff continues to remind people to give them a call so they can keep an eye on your boat when owners leave town. It is also important for folks to check their skiffs during our very wet weather. The Public Works c...
