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Jaime Cabral, Petersburg High School and Mitkof Middle School Assistant Principal and Activities Director, was named the 2026 Assistant Principal of the Year by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals (AASSP) at a ceremony in Anchorage last weekend. The recognition came while Cabral was already in Anchorage, in the middle of coaching his volleyball team at a tournament. Cabral's wife Heidi picked him up between games, drove him across town to accept the award, and rushed him back...
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Though the federal government shutdown jeopardizes the program that subsidizes scheduled air service to more than 170 cities nationwide - including Wrangell and Petersburg - Alaska Airlines has said it will continue uninterrupted service to its contract communities in the state. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which manages the almost 50-year-old Essential Air Service program, had notified participating carriers that funding would run out on Oct. 12. But the department later sent out a...
Petersburg's municipal election received the highest number of ballots this year in over a decade. A total of 1,280 ballots were cast and canvassed, including one outstanding ballot. It was the highest turnout since Petersburg voted to become a borough in December 2012, which saw just over a hundred more ballots than this year. There were a couple of contested races for local office this year, namely for mayor and for Petersburg's Borough Assembly. It was Bob Martin's first time running for an a...
The engine of a small plane failed on Oct. 7 near Petersburg with two occupants on board. The pilot emergency landed on a remote road on northern Kupreanof Island. But the plane - a Cessna 172 wheeled general aircraft, with small tires - hit a rock when landing and flipped over in the muskeg; both occupants were able to get out and walk away uninjured. That's according to two people from Petersburg's volunteer fire department, the pilot from Petersburg who picked them up from Kupreanof, and...
Construction is underway on an open-sided equipment storage shed adjacent to the Petersburg harbormaster's office, a project designed to protect the harbor's maintenance equipment from winter weather. The steel structure, being built on an existing timber dock at the intersection of Excel Street and Harbor Way, features a 10-foot interior clearance that slopes to 13 feet. The roof-only design, with open sides, will shelter harbor equipment including a telehandler, four-wheelers for snowplowing,...
This Saturday, the Petersburg Public Library is hosting the opening reception for TalisWoman, this year’s iteration of Petersburg’s long-running Women’s Art Show. While the library regularly features art displays and maintains a permanent art collection, hosting a curated exhibition complete with an opening reception is a rare occasion. The last time the library hosted a curated art show was the touring exhibition “Decolonizing Alaska” back in 2018, which spanned the library and the Clausen M...
"I wanted to do something different, challenge myself as a director and challenge the students," says Elsa Wintersteen, director of Petersburg High School's drama program. "Doing something scary... that can actually evoke feelings of discomfort in people is a really hard thing to do." For this fall's production of Dracula, that challenge includes scaring the hometown audience, then, next summer, taking their show on the road to the largest theater festival in the world - Edinburgh Scotland's Fri...
Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Abby Posner will perform in Petersburg on Saturday, Oct. 18 and will lead a morning workshop on music theory and songwriting. Posner, who won the 28th Annual USA Songwriting Contest in 2023, is making a special stop in Petersburg during a weeklong Alaska tour centered around Parlor in the Round, an Anchorage-based songwriter showcase. Though Petersburg is not hosting the full Parlor event this year, the Petersburg Arts Council made special...
Search and rescue efforts continue in the Kuskokwim River delta in the aftermath of devastating storm surge and hurricane-force winds brought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. The storm tore homes from their foundations and sent them floating away. One woman was found dead in Kwigillingok on Monday, according to Alaska State Troopers. The search for two more people unaccounted for in that community will continue, by boat and air, the state troopers said on a Facebook post. Search and rescue is... Full story
Officials with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development have walked back a proposal to limit local governments’ funding for public schools, instead asking the State Board of Education to take no action on the item last week. The State Board of Education was set to vote on a controversial measure that many school officials and education advocates say would bar local municipalities from providing much-needed funding and support services to local schools. Instead the board voted unanimously on Thursday, at a DEED official’s req... Full story
As Alaska’s population of working-age adults shrinks, according to economists, other demographic groups have become bigger segments of the labor force: seniors and teenagers. Residents who are 65 and older made up 6.2% of the Alaska worker population in 2023 after steadily increasing over two decades, according to an analysis by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. In 2003, that age group made up just 1.8% of all working Alaskans, according to the data. For teenagers, the two-decade trend has been different. In 2003, t... Full story
Bob Lynn decisively won Petersburg's mayoral race in the October 7 municipal election, defeating fellow assembly member Scott Newman 807 to 443 votes, while Proposition 1 - limiting the senior sales tax exemption to only low-income seniors - squeaked by with a nine-vote margin. The unofficial results showed strong voter participation, with a record-breaking number of early and absentee ballots cast before election day (647) and the highest local voter turnout (1279) since the borough formation...
During Monday's meeting, the Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a $768,330 design-build contract, for the Scow Bay standby diesel generator project, marking the next step forward on a voter-approved bond-supported capital project that has been in development for more than four years. The contract, awarded to Dawson Construction LLC of Juneau, covers engineering design, heavy equipment moving tasks and project commissioning for the new generator facility. "It is important to note that the...
Petersburg’s borough assembly is taking up U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan’s offer to talk about H.R. 1, also called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). H.R. 1 is a wide-ranging spending and tax bill that was signed into law in July. The bill includes much of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, including changes to Medicaid, tax cuts, and phasing out clean energy tax incentives. In Alaska, the bill directs more oil and gas leases in Southcentral’s Cook Inlet, and offers tax cuts for whaling captains. Many impacts of the bill in Alaska...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly heard from Tidal Network representatives during Monday's assembly meeting, as the organization's proposed communication tower has raised some concerns in the community. On September 2, the assembly voted unanimously to proceed with direct negotiations for the sale of a small piece of borough-owned land, 10,040 square feet of adjacent to the fire hall, to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska for its broadband enterprise, Tidal...
The Wrangell port commission has started work on a proposed ordinance intended to solve the problem of inactive vessels taking up moorage space while a growing waitlist strains harbor capacity. Commissioners discussed the idea at their Sept. 4 meeting. Harbormaster Steve Miller said there are about 25 to 30 boats waiting for moorage space, prompting the look at new rules. Inactive vessels taking up space is an ongoing problem, Miller reported to the commission. Harbor staff “have been working diligently to address vessels that have been i...
In the main bay of the former Wikan Enterprises building, Mike Corl fabricates a new fuel tank for a customer's Bayliner. On the other side of the wall, in what will soon be a retail space and front office, 19-month-old Charlotte hums happily on a rug, playing with a plastic T-rex. Her mother Ashley keeps an eye on her from her big desk where she is working on the launch of Corls Customs LLC. This is what family business looks like for the Corls, who purchased the Dock Street property last...
A shutdown of the federal government is beginning Wednesday after Congress failed to find agreement late Tuesday to continue funding operations. Essential services — including Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and food-stamp benefits — won’t stop while airports will continue to operate. But the impacts in Alaska, home to a large federal workforce, could be significant. Alaska has been through federal shutdowns before, said Dave Owens, the representative in Alaska for the American Federation of Government Employees, in an interview on Tuesd...
As concerns mount over the looming government shutdown which would defund the WIC program that provides food support for pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children, along with ongoing SNAP benefit disruptions in Alaska, Humanity in Progress in ramping up its efforts to address food insecurity in Petersburg with their Empty Bowls, Ending Hunger fundraiser this Saturday at the Sons of Norway Hall. The event, taking place October 4 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. offers community members...
Reporters and editors at the Homer News and Peninsula Clarion announced their resignations on Monday, citing a decision by the papers’ corporate owners to bow to political pressure to amend an article about a vigil for the slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk. The resignations, which include two editors and two reporters based in Homer and Kenai, were scheduled to take effect in two weeks, but managers at Carpenter Media Group fired all four immediately. Carpenter Media Group, an international chain, owns the News, Clarion and the Juneau Empir... Full story
Despite a light turnout due to threatening weather on Saturday, a handful of volunteers showed up to finish compacting gravel on the Bike Park's newest trail addition. "Today was basically putting the park to bed," said Pat Blair of Wheelhouse Bikes, a board member of Friends of the Petersburg Bike Park. "I wanted to finish that trail. That was my intent." The newly completed portion of the trail extends the ride through the woods, adding some length with "a lot of slope to it," allowing riders...
Proposition 1 Yes – 633 No – 624 Petersburg Borough Mayor (One 3-year term) Bob Lynn – 807 Scott Newman – 443 Borough Assembly (Two 3-year terms) Bob Martin – 825 Jeff Meucci – 539 Donna Marsh – 520 Raliegh H. Cook – 286 Tony Vinson – 221 School Board (Two 3-year terms) Sarah Pawuk Holmgrain – 1,042 Hospital Board (Three 3-year terms) Joni Johnson – 933 Cindi Lagoudakis – 874 Joseph Stratman – 853 Planning Commission (Two 3-year terms) Write-in: Joshua Adams – 66 Planning Commission (One 2-year term) Sarah Fine-Walsh – 833 Harbor & P... Full story
Alaska residents can expect to receive their 2025 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend of $1,000 beginning in early October, according the Alaska Department of Revenue. The 2025 dividend amount of $1,000 per recipient was set by the Alaska Legislature in House Bill 53, and is a sharp decrease from the 2024 PFD amount of $1,702 allotted to each eligible resident. More than 600,000 Alaskans, according to the Department of Revenue, will begin receiving their dividends early next next month. Depending on how applications were filed, the DOR states,... Full story
Another field season of whale research has concluded at Five Finger Lighthouse, and Dr. Fred Sharpe will hold an open forum on Thursday at the Petersburg Public Library to discuss their latest efforts. Five Finger Lighthouse provides an extraordinary whale research venue because of its isolated location – miles from the nearest shore in the rich waters of Frederick Sound, buffered from the open ocean by miles of mountainous islands. "We're shielded from the global rise of ship noise in the Pacif...
