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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...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report at last Thursday’s Regular Assembly meeting. As requested by the Fire Department, a new fire hydrant will be installed next to Piston and Rudder in conjunction with road work. Two old cement mixers were donated to the Wastewater Department by Dave Carlson. The mixer drums from the trucks will be converted into rotary composters. There was a small landslide next to the road leading to the Cabin Creek dam. The water line is not in any danger but Public Works crews will perform some w...
Kodiak volunteers were scrambling with front end loaders and dump trucks to ready 200,000 pounds of super sacks for the first pick up of a massive marine debris removal project that begins in Alaska this week. The month long cleanup, which is backed by a who’s who of state and federal agencies, non-profits and private businesses, will deploy a 300 foot barge and helicopters to remove thousands of tons of marine debris from some of the world’s harshest and most remote coastlines. “This is a really big deal for Alaska. We have one of the world...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report at Monday’s Assembly meeting: Community Development and Finance staff are working to streamline the process of issuing building permits and other land use permits. With both departments in the same building, we need a new procedure for customers to help make the process easier. Community Development staff have also begun the process, with the attorney, to develop procedures and new documentation (letters, notices) for use with the new nuisance ordinance. Fire/EMS Director Sandy D...
A petition to retain the blue bags as part of the Borough’s curbside recycling program has been withdrawn by its sponsor Angela Davis and 13 co-sponsors, bringing to an end a several months long debate about the future of recycling collection in Petersburg. Davis submitted the withdraw in a letter to the Borough dated April 23. In it she wrote, “In light of the approval of resolution #2015-09…I do not feel that it is in the best interest of the community to have increased garbage rates and to have two competing recycling programs.” The resolut... Full story
Petersburg residents will get to choose whether to haul their recyclables to the curb in a cart or a blue bag, following the Assembly’s approval of a resolution Monday night that provides for the dual program. The new program is aimed at maximizing recycling participants, some of whom favor the continuation of the blue bag program and others who’d like to see a move to a cart-based system. The resolution that passed on a 5-1 vote includes all the elements of the initiative petition submitted by Angela and Wes Davis and certified as suf... Full story
Some 66 percent of Petersburg's sanitation customers pay for a 32 gallon cart and receive the recycling incentive rate of $28.19/month. Though this rate is among the highest of all communities surveyed, Petersburg is also the only municipality that offers curbside pickup of commingled recycling as part of its sanitation service. Juneau also offers curbside pickup for recyclables, though sanitation customers pay an additional $5.65 for the service, bringing their small-bin rates to $27.50/month,... Full story
Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson said she will be certifying the most recent application for petition submitted by Angela Davis and Wes Davis, which includes a resolution to continue the blue bag recycling program. The application was submitted in response to the Assembly’s March 16 vote to move to the recycling collection in house and replace the blue bags with carts. The Davis’ submitted the application last Wednesday after a previous application was found to be insufficient due to unenforceability. The resolution included with the most rec... Full story
The Borough Assembly voted 5-2 in favor of delaying the purchase of a new sanitation truck for the recycling program. Though the Assembly approved the transition to a cart-based system on March 16, an as-yet unresolved citizen initiative to retain the blue bag system for two more years gave several assembly members pause on moving forward with the truck’s purchase. Angela Davis and Wes Davis filed an application for initiative petition with Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson on March 31, which outlined a two-year, blue bag program with a c... Full story
With the filing of the second initiative petition comes additional time to continue discussion on the Borough’s recycling program. Yes, it delays the purchase of recycling equipment, but it does allow citizens, the assembly and the borough staff to reach consensus on how the program may be carried out. The report this week by Karl Hagerman noted the diverse range of pricing of recycled materials. Glass is priced at a negative $30/ton while aluminum comes in at $1,500/ton. Currently the Borough receives a $67/ton value for their mixed loads, o...
Angela Davis and Wes Davis and ten other sponsors may be asking for your signature on a petition for a resolution to retain the blue bag recycling program for at least two more years. The Davis’s—owners of Ruger’s Trucking, the current recycling contractor–filed an application for an initiative petition with the Borough clerk on Tuesday, and it is currently under review by Borough attorney Jim Brennan. If approved by the attorney, the Davis’s would have a limited time to collect 255 signatures, which would then bring their proposed resolutio... Full story
April 3, 1915 – Seventy-five members of congress are to come to the Pacific coast during the spring and summer, according to a Washington press dispatch. They will, so it is stated, all visit San Francisco, and the majority of them intend to come north to the Sound. Now if a big party of these Statesmen could be persuaded to devote a few weeks to an Alaska trip, they would hereafter be in position to legislate more intelligently for the Northland than has been customary in the past, with their information as to conditions and needs of the t...
What am I missing? To the Editor: How are . . . 100's of big, blue plastic containers that will continuously need replacing and recycling, or will end up as another huge item in a landfill; a huge truck that will continuously require gas and will end up in a landfill; a specially trained city employed mechanic to maintain the truck; the part time use of two full time city employees with full employee benefits; a baler facility now reduced to fewer hours of use, supervision, and maintenance less expensive and more environmentally friendly than...
The borough will transition to a cart-based, in-house recycling program. The assembly passed an ordinance 5-2 at Monday's meeting that budgets for the switch. Sixteen residents spoke on the issue-the vast majority of who were in favor of keeping the current system-as part of an extended comment period before the vote. Many speaking against the changes to the blue bag program cited their satisfaction with the current collection system. "I think Ruger and PIA (recycling contractors) did a good... Full story
Don't give up on recycling To the Editor: I have been a proponent of recycling for decades. The recycling effort, which has been managed and maintained by the municipality for as long as I can remember, is just that: an effort to renew, reuse, and recycle. It's what is best for our community and our planet. From having to separate our recyclables to hauling them to various drop-off places around town to hauling them to the baler facility to hauling commingled blue bags to our curb, recycling in Petersburg has been quite a journey where much...
While the sanitation department gets the go-a-head to purchase recycling carts and a new collection truck, the Borough’s recycling program took a giant hit Monday night. The goodwill that is necessary to build the recycling program was sacrificed to meet the financial goals of the sanitation department. Ruger’s Trucking built a significant following as they fulfilled their contract to collect recycling for the Borough and many of their supporters have vowed to pull out of the program due to the heavy handed treatment dealt to Wes and Ang...
Kids will be able to receive a free vision screening when the Mendenhall Flying Lions come through town March 24-25. The Juneau-based organization will be at the Petersburg Public Schools screening elementary and middle school students, and appointments can be made for children who are home schooled or for those who are not school-aged (down to 6 months old). The screenings measure kid’s refraction, pupil sizes and corneal reflexes and compare them to age-based criteria. “It identifies quite a few problems, and it’ll tell us, those kids withi...
Share your opinions on recycling To the Editor: If you are a participant of the blue bag recycling program, then please be aware of the changes being presented. The borough assembly is very close to deciding whether or not to take over the program and turn it into a cart-based system. We signed up for the present program because it is not only a worthy program, but it is designed to be very convenient. The borough assembly proposes a system that is inconvenient and, in my opinion, will be a costly mistake. This program needs to appeal to those...
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
Community opinions needed To the Editor: The Petersburg Borough Assembly needs community opinion regarding the co-mingled recycling program. Monday, March 16th at 7:00pm the Assembly will decide if the current blue bag program should continue as is or if they will approve the new supplemental sanitation budget. This budget includes the purchase of a new $210,000 garbage truck and purchase 96-gallon blue cans for $75,000 (this does not include wages, fuel, maintenance, insurance; all the expenses the operate). This new plan will cut the hours...
The assembly was divided on a proposal to transition to an in-house, cart-based recycling program this summer. The transition comes with a $285,000 price tag, which would cover the one-time cost of purchasing 96-gallon carts and the purchase of another collection truck. Bringing the program in-house would save the borough $66,000 a year in expenses related to the current recycling program, which includes a contract with Ruger’s Trucking for curbside pick up as well as the continual purchase of blue bags. The ordinance, including the p... Full story
January More than 600 Petersburg residents signed up for the borough's recycling program. The Petersburg Land Selection Committee requested the borough pursue legislative action regarding the State's calculation of land entitlement for the Petersburg Borough after the committee's determination that the State's selection of land was inadequate. The Petersburg School Board approved a $2.3 million exterior wall renovation project for the Rae C. Stedman Elementary School. Petersburg School District... Full story
Though 97 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with Petersburg’s commingled recycling program, Public Works staff have also been alerted to possible improvements – including a switch to a cart-based program and bringing collection in house – after reviewing the results of a community survey that wrapped up last month about the program. At Monday’s Assembly meeting, Public Works Director Karl Hagerman presented the results of the survey, which was intended to help the department assess community satisfaction, cost effecti... Full story
Borough Manager Steve Geisbrecht presented the following report to the assembly at Monday’s regular meeting: Medicaid recertification for the Mountain View Manor is approved. We’re good for two more years. Final touches are being put on the ten recently installed windows at Elderly Housing. Liz Cabrera met with Bob Weinstein from Senator Begich’s office on federal issues of interest and arranged for a tour of the Police Department. There was some progress on the dismantling of the Ellingstad/Triem house at 1011 Wrangell Avenue. The roof and a...
WRANGELL — There's finally a place to put discardable gill nets in Wrangell, perhaps at last solving a problem that has been hassling the island. In a recent survey, Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian General Assistance Program (WCA-IGAP) found that illegal dumping was residents' number-one environmental concern. Among the items being abandoned, old gill nets were a particularly troublesome issue. “It has been a problem in the past,” said Ruby McMurren, project supervisor at Wrangell Public Works. “Nets were being dumped everywh...
