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Construction on a long-planned sewer line repair project at the Petersburg Community Aquatic Center will begin May 18, and the pool will close for at least the first month of work as contractors cut through concrete slab floors to access blocked and disconnected drain lines beneath the locker rooms. Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne told the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday that the project, carried out by Ketchikan Mechanical Inc. and Rainforest Contracting, will run through...
Petersburg’s street sweeper is back on the job after a weeks-long breakdown, as the borough and the Alaska Department of Transportation race to clear months of accumulated safety sand from local roads ahead of Little Norway Festival week — and ahead of the annual repainting of lines on the state’s highways. The heavy sand load is evidence of the region’s punishing winter. Relentless snowfall through the season required repeated applications of sand and grit to keep roads safe, leaving more material on the ground than a typical year. Getting...
Petersburg juniors and seniors will get a crash course in adult financial life Friday morning when Tongass Federal Credit Union hosts its biennial Get Real Financial Reality Fair at the Parks and Recreation gym. The fair works like a high-stakes simulation game. Each student arrives at a registration table, picks a career and receives a corresponding income, then works their way around a circuit of staffed tables — buying a home, choosing transportation, selecting health insurance, setting up a phone plan and managing daily expenses — all while...
Petersburg Medical Center Youth Programs is heading into summer with roughly 1,300 hours of programming planned, a slate of new and redesigned camps, and a message for families who might think the cost puts it out of reach: help is available. “If your kid wants to participate in a program, we’ll get them in a program,” said Katie Holmlund, who directs the PMC Youth Programs. Several successful former summer programs are returning, as are many of the mentors who run them. Holmlund said 75 percent of this summer’s staff are returning mentors...
The Petersburg Public Library and the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program are offering two youth programs this summer, backed by a new grant that will help cover the cost of both — part of a broader menu of learning and outdoor opportunities available to Petersburg kids in the coming months. The library’s annual reading program is returning in a new form this summer, rebranded as the Great Summer Challenge and running from June 5 through July 19. Program Coordinator Kari Petersen said the six-week initiative is open to children ages zer...
The U.S. Forest Service is organizing a push to clear invasive plants from the lower Raven Trail this month, with volunteer opportunities open to the public. Forest Service invasive species coordinator Joni Johnson told the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday that two maintenance problems have been building along the lower trail: the spread of invasive non-native plants, and sod-forming vegetation encroaching on the trail tread itself and contributing to erosion. Reed canarygrass, she said,...
SEARHC cut the ceremonial ribbon on its new $300 million Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center in Sitka on April 23. The event for the five-story, 234,528-square-foot facility featured a traditional blessing, a welcome and addresses by leaders of SEARHC and the Sitka community. Charles Clement, SEARHC president and CEO of 14 years, said in his remarks, “This has been a real challenging project to pull together, beginning to end.” “It has come to represent much more than a building for me,” said Clement, of Metlakatla. “It represents our commitmen...
A free Tai Chi program at Petersburg Medical Center has quietly been building a following since fall 2023, and this month it's opening the door to new participants with a beginner class starting May 13. The program is part of a substantial four-year federal grant focused on fall prevention, administered through the Administration for Community Living under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant funds two evidence-based programs in Petersburg: Bingo Size, an exercise and...
On a Friday afternoon in Jill Lenhard's class, the sound of crying babies filled the room – crying robot babies, that is. The babies were new, and the class, including Lenhard, was still figuring out how to use them. "I took one baby home to see how it all worked, and I took it home in a grocery sack because I didn't want to walk down the street carrying a baby," Lenhard told the class. "But then when I got home and I laid it on the counter my husband was like, 'What is this?!'" These robot b... Full story
The state ferry Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, has been delayed a second time coming back to work on the busy summer route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. The ship is now scheduled to make its first northbound run from Bellingham on June 5, according to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s online reservations site. The state will keep the Kennicott on the route until the Columbia is ready to go back into service. When the Columbia returns, the Kennicott will tie up at the dock in Ketchikan. The Marine Highway S...
WRANGELL - They had lived in the same house at 8.5-Mile Zimovia Highway since 2019, with Tim and Shei Gillen renting the downstairs apartment from homeowner Bruce Levine. All three lost their home and just about everything they owned in a fire Monday afternoon, April 27. Levine also lost his two dogs, and the Gillens lost two cats in the fire but were able to save their three dogs. They buried the cats last week. Levine suffered burns on his hands and face and was hospitalized a couple of days;...
KETCHIKAN – At 2:22 a.m. Monday, May 4, Ketchikan Public Utilities Telecommunications Division engineers became aware of a drop in local internet service and immediately contacted their downstream provider CityWest, located in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. By 6:30 a.m., KPU knew that the internet had been cut by vandals northwest of Prince George, British Columbia, resulting in an internet blackout in Ketchikan. Acting KPU Telecom Division Manager Dan White, in a phone call with the Daily News on Monday, explained what happened and how t...
On Thursday, May 7, the Alaska Judicial Council will hold a public hearing to solicit public comment on 21 Alaska District and Superior Court judges, plus one Alaska Supreme Court Justice, who will be on the ballot in this year’s judicial retention election. A retention election determines whether each judge will spend another term in office via voters’ decisions to vote “yes” or “no” on their retention. Retention elections are nonpartisan and they occur in evenly numbered years. The Alaska Judicial Council invites community members, including...
A Silicon Valley company and a Petersburg-raised developer are teaming up to bring a small artificial intelligence data center to the former Ocean Beauty pier and cannery facility, a proposal that drew both cautious enthusiasm and skepticism from the public at last week's borough assembly meeting. Sam Anoka, founder and CEO of Greensparc, addressed the assembly April 20 via Zoom, outlining plans to deploy what he described as a micro-scale data center at the property owned by Andrew Mazzella,...
Construction has begun on the expansion of the Tlingit and Haida Airport Subdivision near Mountain View Manor, and the first visible sign of that work - the removal of roughly 300 feet of the area's popular boardwalk trail - has prompted some dismay from residents who say they were caught off guard by the closure. The boardwalk trail section that runs through the muskeg from the Mountain View Manor area toward the Hungry Point Loop trail will remain closed to the public for the duration of...
The Alaska Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to reform the state’s pension system for public employees, ending months of debate on future retirement benefits for Alaska’s state and municipal employees, including teachers and police officers. The measure aims to address the consequences of a 2006 decision by Alaska lawmakers to eliminate the state pension plan that guaranteed income in retirement, and replace it with a 401(k) style plan that has since left many public-sector workers without the funds to retire securely. Union leaders and oth...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a joint resolution last Monday with the City and Borough of Wrangell establishing a framework for sharing hydroelectric power from the Tyee Lake project and coordinating future energy-intensive economic development. Wrangell Borough Manager Mason Villarma, in a March 24 report to the Wrangell Assembly, described the resolution as formalizing “a proactive framework for collaboration as both communities pursue energy-intensive economic opportunities.” Villarma framed the agreement as set...
The first draft of the Petersburg School District's budget anticipates a $343,000 deficit, which is more than last month's estimate. In a presentation to the school board on Thursday, April 24, school officials said that's because the district's enrollment projections went down, and they had hired more paraprofessionals. But other expenses, like health insurance and curriculum costs, turned out lower than expected. The district is planning to spend $11.6 million next school year. Last year, the...
There are two types of people in the world, those who salivate at the idea of being a lighthouse keeper, and those whose mouths go dry at the idea. What is it about lighthouses? They're a symbol of isolation, but their purpose is to connect with and protect others. They're used as a metaphor for everything from hope to knowledge to love, but name a book, movie, or TV show with a lighthouse that doesn't have someone die in it. Lighthouse keepers are stereotyped as antisocial hermits, but who...
Petersburg's Borough Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a highly anticipated lease agreement with American Cruise Lines, a small cruise ship company that frequently stops in Petersburg. It's increasing its summer visits to town, and wants to build a cruise ship dock for its small passenger ships in Petersburg. The Borough will lease part of its tidelands at the end of Dock Street next to the U.S. Coast Guard Dock to the company, which will build a mooring float and gangway there to support... Full story
The Keet Yaakw is the first Alaska Native-designed canoe to be launched out of Petersburg, at least since Petersburg was incorporated as a town in 1910. Petersburg Indian Association Tribal Council Vice President ShaaL'aanee Brandon Ware described the feeling of bringing the new canoe towards shore at Sandy Beach, where it was unveiled to the public. "Coming into the bay, I knew we were seeing the same thing our people have seen since time immemorial... when it was a seasonal fish camp for thous...
The Friends of Petersburg Libraries marked their 25th anniversary Tuesday with a celebration at the Petersburg Public Library that doubled as a community tribute to two figures who have shaped the library and the town's cultural life for decades: revered Petersburg historian Don Nelson and retiring library staff member Chris Weiss, who served the library for nearly 40 years. The event drew community members, library staff, borough officials and representatives from the Clausen Museum to share...
The U.S. Forest Service is bringing its Tongass National Forest Plan revision process to Petersburg this week, with an in-person community workshop scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in the Borough Assembly Chambers. The event is part of a series of workshops running across 19 Southeast Alaska communities through early May — a rare opportunity for the public to provide direct input before the agency completes a draft plan. Revision coordinator Erin Mathews described it as “a bonus” engagement round not typically built into the feder...
Dear Readers, it's a pleasure to announce that your local newspaper, the Petersburg Pilot has been named Alaska's Best Weekly Newspaper for 2025. The Pilot staff works hard to bring you a top notch local paper each week, and it is a much appreciated affirmation of the effort and all the community support that makes that effort possible. Whether you pick up a copy each week at one of the dozen business vendors around town, or are a subscriber, or are one of the local advertisers who, through...
