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Democratic governor candidates Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich, and Republican candidates Bernadette Wilson and Dave Bronson led in early vote counting for Alaska's Tuesday primary election for governor. Seventeen people, including two Democrats, 12 Republicans and three independents, are seeking to replace Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is term-limited and unable to run again this year. As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, with 378 of 402 precincts reporting results from election day, Kreiss-Tomkins had 21.... Full story
Petersburg's Community Aquatic Center reopened its pools this week after being closed since mid-May for a sewer-line repair beneath the facility's concrete floors. However, while contractors finish up the job and reconcrete the locker room floors, swimmers will need to adjust to reduced capacity and altered access, announced Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. The leisure and wellness pool and the lap pool have reopened as of Tuesday morning on Aug. 18. The sauna and the second-floor...
Early vote counting in Alaska’s statewide, top-four primary election showed no surprises in the state’s two federal races. For U.S. Senate, Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola led a 16-candidate field with 378 of 403 precincts reporting results as of 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. Peltola had 48% of the votes counted to that point, while Sullivan had 42.8%. Republican challenger Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg was in third with 2.4%, and Democratic candidate David Leslie was in fourth with 1.1%, only sli... Full story
A Petersburg man is pleading not guilty to two felony drug charges after police said they found methamphetamine and fentanyl in his car. According to police reports, Alaska Wildlife Trooper Cody Litster conducted a traffic stop on 32-year-old Cory Drew Wilson on August 5. After smelling alcohol, Litster asked Wilson to step out of the car, and a small ziploc fell onto the ground. Local police officers also responded and said the contents in the bag tested positive for 5.5 grams of meth. Police said Wilson told them he had two guns behind his... Full story
The votes are adding up for Alaska’s primary election, which happened Aug. 18. Poll workers say Petersburg had strong voter participation in this year’s primary. In the Petersburg-Kupreanof precinct, 555 voters cast ballots in-person on Tuesday by the time the polls closed. That turnout was higher than the previous primary held in 2024, which officially saw 393 ballots from Petersburg. Not including early or absentee ballots, the unofficial local primary results from votes cast on Tuesday are as follows: For U.S. Senate, Petersburg voters fav... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, voted unanimously Monday night to grant in part an appeal by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and order the borough Planning Commission to take a formal vote on the tribe’s subdivision application at 1200 Haugen Drive. The CCTHITA, doing business as Tidal Network, had appealed the Planning Commission’s inaction at its July 14 meeting, when a motion by Commissioner Floyd to approve the minor subdivision died for lack of a second. Because no...
Construction on a new set of breakwaters at Banana Point wrapped up on Aug. 7. Petersburg Public Works Director Aaron Marohl said the project will improve safety at the boat launch, which is about 25 miles south of town. "This will create a safer boat ramp for both the water taxis and our sporting teams that go back and forth between here and Wrangell," he said. Banana Point is an important transportation hub between Petersburg and other communities. The boat launch was originally built by the s...
The remains of an infant girl who was taken from a Thomas Bay cave nearly a century ago are coming home to Petersburg next month for burial. Stephanie Aikins, who is coordinating the project for the Petersburg Indian Association, said the infant — known to those working on her return only as “Baby Girl” — will arrive on the morning jet Friday, Sept. 4. A welcoming ceremony of singers and dancers is planned on the tarmac as she is unloaded. “She will be back on her land for the first time in almost 100 years,” Aikins said. For Aikins, this repat...
Early tallies from Tuesday’s statewide primary election showed overwhelming support for a ballot measure that will restrict the amount of money that political candidates can accept from groups and individuals. With 377 of 402 precincts reporting by 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Ballot Measure 1 had the support of 71.5% of participating voters. That’s only slightly less than the 73% margin that a similar ballot measure received in 2006. The limits imposed by that 2006 measure remained in place until 2021, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S... Full story
The University of Alaska Board of Regents unanimously approved a cut in the tuition rate for out-of-state students to create a standard tuition rate for all resident and nonresident students across campuses and degree types, beginning in fall 2027. The board preliminarily approved the change at a special meeting on Tuesday. A final vote is expected in November. University officials said the goal is to simplify students’ billing and attract more students to the University of Alaska. “It really moves steps forward in our goal to student rec... Full story
WRANGELL – Southeast Alaska isn’t particularly known for regular blue skies and sunny days, but that isn’t stopping progress on a new solar farm in Wrangell. The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) began preliminary construction earlier this summer on its solar farm out near 6-Mile. To satisfy federal investment tax credit requirements outlined in last year’s Trump administration tax and spending plan, known as the Big Beautiful Bill, the company was required to start building before July 4, 2026. “By breaking ground and putting in the substa...
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The Petersburg Borough Assembly last Monday passed the second reading of an ordinance establishing a new Thomas Bay Service Area, building the legal and financial framework the borough says it will need as it prepares to sell off state-platted land it acquired three years ago. Ordinance 2026-17 creates the service area and adds a new chapter to borough code defining its boundaries, the services it may provide, and how those services could be paid for. But according to a memorandum from Community Development Director Liz Cabrera, adoption “does...
For a third straight summer, Katie Holmlund - the youth program coordinator behind Petersburg Medical Center's Kinder Skog outdoor program - led a group of local teenagers on a sea-kayak expedition down the south end of Mitkof Island, roughly 50 kilometers over 10 days in collaboration with the guiding outfit Onward and Upward. Eight students and five instructors launched from Banana Point, worked their way out to Woewodski Island, and backtracked home. By the last few days, the adults were most...
Petersburg's St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church caught fire and burned to the ground in July 2023. It was a devastating blow to Petersburg's Catholic community, which spent three years without their own church. Father Thomas Jose was in his first year in Petersburg when the church burned down. He said other faith communities propped the church up in its darkest days - like Petersburg's First Presbyterian Church, where St. Catherine of Siena held mass as they sorted out the construction of a... Full story
Shannon Baird, finance director for the Petersburg School District, has been named a recipient of ASBO International's 2026 Emerging Leaders Scholarship Award, an honor that comes with a $2,000 travel reimbursement grant and free registration to the national organization's annual conference this fall. Baird said she was one of 17 recipients selected nationwide this year. The award recognizes newer professionals in school business and accounting, and winners take part in their own reception and...
Alaska lost a higher percentage of its federal workforce last year than almost all U.S. states to sweeping Trump administration cuts, according to a newly published analysis by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. By the end of 2025, Alaska’s federal workforce was 10.5% smaller than it had been at the end of the prior year, according to the analysis, published in Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the department’s research section. In the fourth quarter of 2025, after many workers accepted buyouts or early ret... Full story
On one of Petersburg's rare warm, sunny days, Dan Sullivan was sitting in a little folding chair in his home workshop. All around him were shelves full of various tools and parts. "I play music down here with friends sometimes, and make lots of sawdust and clean my fishing gear," Sullivan said, looking around. The candidate for U.S. Senate had recently finished up the paperwork for accepting campaign donations, a process he described as "excruciating." He said that originally, he hadn't planned... Full story
Independent U.S. House candidate Bill Hill brought his campaign to Petersburg last week, fielding questions at a Q&A session hosted at the Harbor Bar and later sitting down with the Petersburg Pilot to make his case for unseating first-term Republican Rep. Nick Begich III. Hill, a lifelong Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and retired school superintendent from Naknek, is running as an independent in a race he now frames as effectively two-way, after Democrat Matt Schultz ended his campaign and...
WRANGELL – Wrangell is getting closer to a major expansion of its downtown waterfront, building a new rock wall and adding fill to gain a couple of acres for expansion of the Marine Service Center, a public park, covered pavilion, parking and possible future commercial development along Campbell Drive. The overall project also includes an extension to the City Dock. City Hall staff briefed the borough assembly on plans at a work session July 28. The entire project could total around $15 m...
Petersburg's Medical Center recently had their biggest Pedal/Paddle Battle event yet with officially $25,135 raised a new all time high for the 12th annual event. This year's event saw over $2500 raised by champion sponsors, over $1000 raised by partner sponsors, over $500 raised by supporter sponsors and $18500 raised by corporate sponsors. "We have been successful in getting more corporate sponsors for the event each year," Community Wellness and Public Relations Manager Julie Walker said....
A long-delayed project to replace Petersburg's downtown streetlights is finally underway, with the first new poles installed last week and the rest expected to go up over the coming weeks, Utility Director Stephan Harbour told the assembly Monday. The borough is installing 13 new LED poles downtown and purchased two more as spares for accident replacements - 15 in all - at a cost of about $138,000. Two were already standing as of Monday, one in front of the federal building and one across the st...
Mitkof Island, like much of Alaska, is home to black and brown bears. Living in bear country, securing trash is a vital management procedure in the fall. This was seen last year, when, due to bears entering town and going through trash cans, several were killed by local law enforcement. Petersburg has time now to prepare for the fall season. Wildlife Biologist at Fish and Game Frank Robbins stresses that keeping trash secured is the most important thing for residents to manage the bears coming to town this year. “The solution is not p...
Hunters, recreational users and people who just want to enjoy the quiet and lake view should be able to reserve the new U.S. Forest Service cabin at Little Lakes, near the Long Lake trailhead in the middle of Wrangell Island, by this fall. Construction started in May - a little later than planned, due to heavy snow at the site - and the Forest Service is looking forward to completion by the end of September, Tory Houser, Wrangell District ranger, said last week. The Áax'w Sáani Cabin - Tlingit f...
WRANGELL — The Wrangel borough spent just over $1 million responding to the deadly November 2023 landslide that killed six people and is still owed about $346,000 after last month’s federal approval of reimbursement for debris removal costs. Last month’s approval of almost $638,000 in federal and state disaster funds is in addition to about $72,000 already paid to the borough to reimburse for utility repair costs and temporary shelter expenses. “Although the reimbursement wait is long, the borough has sufficient reserves and the delay is not...
