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The Alaska Board of Fisheries has approved significant changes to the Wrangell Narrows-Blind Slough Terminal Harvest Area Salmon Management Plan, creating new king salmon sportfishing opportunities for resident anglers while working to protect crucial hatchery broodstock. Last year’s controversial closure of freshwater fishing for king salmon in Blind Slough prompted a community driven effort to change the area’s salmon management plan. Proposal 159, developed by the Petersburg Fish and Game Advisory Committee with input from community mem...
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This month the Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) was honored at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet with the Community Impact Award — for transforming local transportation infrastructure through decades of partnerships, generosity, and community engagement. Glowing with pride as she presented the award, Petersburg Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne described the partnership between the borough and PIA “in creating and maintaining trails for the community, along with ro...
Six fathers of Mitkof Dance Troupe students will bravely step into the spotlight this Saturday competing to be crowned Mr. MDT in a male pageant fundraiser to raise money for updates to the dance studio’s facilities. The event, taking place at the Elks Ballroom, features dads who answered the call after some persistent recruitment tactics from the dance teachers. “We literally begged them,” said Kelsey Lambe, MDT dance teacher. “We wrote them letters,” said fellow MDT teacher Olivia Reid. A few seemed willing, but mostly the letters went unan...
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday ordered all federal departments and agencies to submit reorganization plans outlining how they would implement large-scale layoffs before March 13. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell wrote in a seven-page memo the reason for the expected layoffs is that the “federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt.” “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public,” they wrote. “I... Full story
Petersburg Police Chief James Kerr presented the department’s annual report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly at last week’s assembly meeting, offering a summary of the department’s past year. Assembly Member Jeigh Stanton Gregor thanked Chief Kerr and Fire/EMS Director Aaron Hankins for “for taking the time to put those [reports] together for us.” And Stanton Gregor encouraged to the public to read through the reports which are included in the 2/18/25 meeting packet on the borough’s website. The Petersburg Police Department reported an increa...
WRANGELL — The Alaska district attorney’s office has dropped drug-related charges against Wrangell residents Cooper Seimears, 39, Jacob Marshall, 29, and McKenna Harding, 29. Marshall remained in custody as of Feb. 21 for violating his terms of release on a previous charge, while Seimears was released once the charges were dropped. Harding was the sole defendant to post bail before the charges were dropped on Feb. 13. The initial charges came after police executed dual search warrants on the Seimears residence at 820 Zimovia Ave. and the Hardin...
Petersburg’s Emergency Services Director Aaron Hankins presented the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department’s 2024 annual report to the assembly last week. Hankins writes in the report, “2024 gave us a few hurdles to overcome with the resignation of our EMS Coordinator, changes within the officer corps, new regulations and aging equipment. Thankfully, with new leadership and staff in place, new recruits, and with help from the Title 3 USFS receipts we are looking like we are in a little better shape going into 2025.” “Response times remain on...
Budgets are tight for some schools in Alaska again this year, but in Petersburg, the borough budget is also tight. Borough officials are saying it’s going to be tough to get the Petersburg School District the local funding school officials say they desperately need. Last year the Petersburg borough’s budget was nearly $400 thousand dollars in the hole. At an assembly work session with the school board on February 6, Borough Manager Steve Geisbrecht said there will likely be similar problems this year. “I try not to be a downer at every meeting...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy says “it’s like Christmas every day now” since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Some other state Republican leaders spent Tuesday talking of a winter blunderland. “It’s Christmas every day if all you expect is coal in your stocking, “ Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said in response to Dunleavy’s assessment. “It’s a tough, tough time for all of us.” Dunleavy’s holiday-season cheer is based largely on the prospect of uninhibited oil drilling and similar industrial activity that might or might not h...
Red king crab commercial permit holders in Southeast Alaska will have a better chance of fishing in the coming seasons. The Alaska Board of Fisheries approved a change in management regulations proposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) that allows for a conservative commercial fishery when crab stocks aren’t enough for a typical competitive opening. Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crab can bring in over $100 each. But commercial openings have been few and far between — just one in over a decade. Sev...
Federal employees across Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest received termination notices over Presidents Day weekend, part of what union leaders are calling an "intentionally dishonest" nationwide purge of civil service workers that has hit Alaska's rural communities particularly hard. In Petersburg, as of Sunday evening, at least nine Forest Service probationary employees were terminated, with seven more terminated in Wrangell. Most of those affected were early-career professionals... Full story
Three properties on Sing Lee Alley were damaged during a series of break-in attempts late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Marina LeBlanc was home when she heard someone breaking in through the front door of Sew What, her sewing and upholstery shop on Sing Lee Alley. She turned on lights, and reportedly saw someone flee from the property. LeBlanc called police, who responded within minutes. Unable to secure her damaged door frame, she wedged it closed with a table and, understandably...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to cancel plans to replace the controllable-pitch propellers aboard the state ferry Columbia next year, opting to keep the 52-year-old ship in service until a replacement vessel is built. The propulsion system project was estimated in 2022 to cost as much as $20 million. The Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, serves the ferry system’s longest and most heavily traveled route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. It had been scheduled to head into a shipyard for much of next y...
At the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce annual banquet on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, High Tide Parts was named Petersburg’s Business of the Year. Owned by Wes and Angela Davis, the automotive and marine supply NAPA parts retailer has expanded operations in their new location at 1103 S. Nordic Dr., where throughout the past year they have been building an large shop facility which expects to be operational in coming months. Their crucial role in serving local industries and the investment they h...
The Southeast island community of Petersburg held a town hall meeting on Feb. 10 to discuss the future of tourism in "Alaska's Little Norway." The borough is considering a potential partnership with a small cruise ship company and may see more tourists in coming years. While the conversation welcomed ideas related to tourism in general -like emergency services, trails and public restrooms- much of the discussion pertained to increasing tourism, especially from cruise ships, and what that means...
A voting error led one Alaska House of Representatives minority-caucus member on Wednesday to vote to move a public-school funding increase one step closer to passage through the Alaska House of Representatives, at a time when the House’s majority caucus has a narrow margin. Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, joined 20 members of the House majority in voting to move House Bill 69 from the House Education Committee to the House Finance Committee. Twenty votes were needed. If signed into law, HB 69 would permanently increase the state’s per-student pu... Full story
WRANGELL — Tidal Network is scheduled to break ground for construction of its first permanent wireless internet tower on Feb. 19. Tidal Network is the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida’s broadband internet service company. After receiving a $50 million federal grant to construct 20 towers across Southeast, the company pinpointed Wrangell as the host site for its first tower. The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the 3-Mile location where the tower will be constructed. The “groundbreaking” ceremony will be mostly symbolic: Tidal Network...
It’s time to expand the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station to handle growing demand — particularly from heat pumps — the plant’s operator said of its plans to line up $20 million in funding and a federal permit to add a third turbine to the facility. The Tyee Lake station started supplying Wrangell and Petersburg in 1984. It was built with two turbines rated at 10 megawatts each, with an empty bay at the Bradfield Canal facility to add a third turbine when needed. That time is now, said Robert Siedman, chief executi...
Petersburg's local DMV office has moved into the historic Thompson Building on South Second Street, which is something local residents may need to know as the federal deadline to obtain a REAL ID quickly approaches. Starting on May 7, 2025, to fly within the United States every traveler 18 and older will be required to have a state-issued REAL ID or another acceptable form of identification like a U.S. Passport. But your regular state issued driver's license will no longer be enough. "It's not...
The Mitkof Middle School Lego Robotics team recently competed in the state competition in Anchorage. The tournament was composed of 29 schools across Alaska, and Petersburg's team placed fourth overall, qualifying – for the first time ever –for the national meet held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in June. Petersburg's team's remotely operated vehicle project took first place in the category for innovation to help solve real world problems. Innovation was one of the four categories the team com...
When Ravenstail and Chilkat weaving nearly disappeared, it was saved by a small handful of dedicated artisans. Now, a Petersburg weaver has won a $20,000 business grant to help revive this traditional artform. Dzijúksuk (Debra O'Gara), a raven frog from the cedar bark house of the Teeyhittaan clan, was selected as one of two winners in Spruce Root's 2024 Path to Prosperity competition. The artist's business, Raven's Nest Regalia and Arts, will focus on creating traditional regalia for sale, teac...
In last week’s story “K9 unit request rejected due to budget concerns,” the Pilot incorrectly stated that this requested K9 unit would be the first K9 unit in the borough, but readers have pointed out that decades ago there was a K9 unit working with the local police. Archived copies of the Petersburg Pilot from around thirty years ago confirm that Petersburg Police Department did have a canine unit once before. Sam the drug dog was purchased in March 1992, paid for mostly by community donations. Sam worked with the Petersburg Police for around...
The Alaska Senate is considering a bill that would allow parents who are owed child support to apply for the Permanent Fund dividend of the parent who is delinquent in their payments, providing a work-around to collect from parents who do not bother to apply for their annual PFD. “The reality is that in some cases,” said Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar, the bill’s sponsor, the owing parent either forgets to apply or decides not to apply out of spite to deny the money to the other parent. Under state law, garnishment of the dividend for child...
A proposal to establish a Petersburg police K9 unit was rejected by the borough assembly Monday in a 4-2 vote, with members citing budget uncertainties despite strong support for the program's anti-drug objectives. The Petersburg Police Department had requested approval for a dual-purpose police service dog that would be trained in both patrol work and narcotics detection. The department highlighted an urgent need, pointing to "multiple search warrants for illegal narcotics" executed over the...
