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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers are considering a request by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration that the state take over part of a federal environmental permitting program, though some members of the Senate's budget-writing committee have expressed concerns with the potential costs. Administration officials have said the idea behind the proposal is to speed the construction of roads, bridges, mines and drilling projects, the Anchorage Daily News reported. While the state would have to follow federal standards, critics of the proposal sa...
A couple days leading up to the event, Cindy Rodgers began saying, with a hint of concern, "It looks like it may rain Saturday." And she was right, rain it did, but no matter what the weather was doing, Rodgers was going to walk the Circle of Life. Rodgers, 75 and celebrating a birthday soon, moved to Petersburg a decade ago to be closer to her brother, Jim, and sister-in-law, Pia Reilly. Rodgers does tai chi, likes to drink red wine-but only if she has someone to drink with-and she loves...
Petersburg High School and Mitkof Middle School Principal Rick Dormer announced that he will be leaving at the end of the school year to become the principal at Ketchikan High School after 13 years in Petersburg. Dormer said that he has been looking at other opportunities for a couple of years and that now feels like the right time for a change as the district comes out of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, believing that a leadership change would be healthy for the district. "It's n...
Two Petersburg residents have pleaded guilty to providing false information with the intent of implicating another in an offense after accusing a Petersburg Police Department officer of sexual misconduct in 2020. Julie Ruhle and James Vick claimed that Officer Louis Waechter touched Ruhle, who was under arrest on charges of driving under the influence, inappropriately as she climbed into the back seat of a police car on Sept. 28, 2020. According to the court complaint, body cam footage of the... Full story
Global supply chain shortages and delays have extended past grocery stores, car dealers and electronics to the Alaska Marine Highway System. The state ferry Kennicott was delayed coming out of winter overhaul. Instead of returning to service last week, as had been scheduled, the ship left Ketchikan on Tuesday for a two-week trip to Juneau, Yakutat and then into the Gulf of Alaska before sailing into Bellingham, Washington, to fully start its summer runs. The Kennicott's scheduled return to servi...
The Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs Task Force (SEACAD) conducted an operation during the week of April 17 which saw an estimated $177,400 worth of illegal narcotics seized in Petersburg according to Petersburg Police Chief James Kerr. The narcotics seized by SEACAD include crack cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and others. The SEACAD Task Force is a collaboration between the police departments in Southeast, the Alaska State Troopers, and federal law enforcement agencies which...
Alaskans for Better Elections will hold a presentation on Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers on Thursday at 6 p.m. and via Zoom as the special election to fill the late Rep. Don Young’s seat approaches. Jason Grenn, the executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, will discuss how the system works as well as the differences between the primary and general elections. Grenn will also host a public Q&A at Salty Pantry from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Friday to answer additional que...
A petition filed in the Alaska Supreme Court last month seeking the return of a superior court judgeship to Wrangell and Petersburg was denied by the court last week. The petition argued that the Alaska Legislature created the superior court judgeship to serve the communities of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kake but that it was improperly moved to Ketchikan after it was labeled as a position in the Ketchikan superior court by the Alaska Judicial Council. The application named attorney Fred Triem...
The Petersburg Indian Association is looking to complete two projects next year which would increase public access to parks according to Tribal Administrator Chad Wright. PIA has entered an agreement with the Petersburg Borough to provide design and construction for the replacement of the staircase at Eagle's Roost Park after discussions with Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. The approximately 60-foot wooden staircase allowed beach access until it was removed because of its poor con...
The Petersburg School Board voted this month to update the district's science curriculum and add new courses at the high school. The update to the science curriculum looks to keep it in line with new standards set by the state of Alaska. School board members had an opportunity to hear about the updates to the curriculum and what the new classes would entail at a work session on April 8. The class order in the science curriculum will see a shift over the next five years to allow for each grade...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously in favor of two ordinances in their first readings during Monday's meeting, with Assembly Member Bob Lynn excused, which would increase the rates residents pay for water and sewage utilities. According to Utility Director Karl Hagerman, the increases included in Ordinance #2022-05 and Ordinance #2022-06 would be the first rate increases since 2018 and are needed to meet increased costs and expenses. Hagerman included a report in the meeting packe...
The Alaska House of Representatives voted last week to turn an oil-price surge into money for schools, repayment of tax credits the state has owed to oil explorers for years, and $2,600 payments for Alaska residents this fall. The House voted 25-14 to send its state operating budget proposal to the Senate, which is developing its own version. The two budget plans, which set spending for public services starting with the new fiscal year on July 1, will be negotiated into a compromise bill and...
The Petersburg Medical Center is reporting a "significant increase" of COVID-19 cases in both the hospital and the Petersburg School District within the past week. "The community should assume COVID-19 is spreading quickly, impacting schools, daycares, and local business," the release read. The hospital also reported that the PMC Dashboard's case count is not an accurate reflection of cases in the community as it does not include the results of at-home antigen tests. At-home tests and KN95...
The Harbor and Ports Advisory Board reviewed a conceptual design document last week for improvements to the Papke's Landing marine facility including the construction of a new ramp, a new float dock, and expanded parking. Alan Murph with Harai and Associates, who drafted the plans, presented the concepts at the meeting and said the project would be broken up into phases for a total estimated cost of $6,410,000. The document depicts a new 255-foot by 215-foot parking lot which would be built on...
Petersburg is expecting a 35% increase in passenger berths from last year as the cruise ship industry rebounds from two summers hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer has the potential of seeing 11,000 cruise ship passengers across 107 port calls according to Dave Berg, president of Viking Travel and a ships agent for Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska. Some of the cruise lines that will visit Petersburg this year include Alaska Dream Cruises, American Cruise Lines, National Geographic, and...
The Petersburg Medical Center is bringing back its Health and Safety Fair after a four-year hiatus and is encouraging members of the community to come to the in-person event on June 4 and the blood draws leading up to it. The health fair, which is usually held every two years, was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the theme of this year's event is "Getting Back on Track." The in-person event will be held in the community gym from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. where booths will be set up to...
The state budget plan adopted by the House earlier this month includes an additional $263,000 in one-time funding for the Petersburg School District, an almost 5% boost from a state aid formula that has not increased since 2017. The one-time appropriation for a total of $57 million may be the political compromise to help Alaska's 54 school districts this next year as lawmakers continue to debate a change to the formula in state statute. Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter discussed House Bill...
Juneau-based Alaska Seaplanes will add Wrangell to its route map starting May 26. The company, which operates a fleet of 14 single-engine aircraft, mostly nine-passenger planes, will run a daily flight from Sitka to Petersburg to Wrangell and back to Sitka. Encouragement from SEARHC "was instrumental" in starting the Sitka-Wrangell service, Andy Kline, Alaska Seaplanes marketing manager, said last Wednesday. SEARHC is based in Sitka where it operates the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center, providing...
With more than 260 would-be ferry passengers stuck on a waitlist for travel out of Bellingham, Washington, and sailings full until late July, the Alaska Marine Highway System has scheduled an extra run of the Matanuska to bring the people and their vehicles to the state. The additional sailing is scheduled to leave Bellingham on May 25. There was time in the ship’s schedule, which ferry management had been holding open in hopes the Matanuska could restart service that week to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after being gone from the C...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery closed Sunday with a final tally of approximately 26,350 tons harvested according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The number harvested was just over half of the 45,164-ton guideline harvest level (GHL) and over 10,000 tons more than what was harvested last year. Between the first opening on March 26 and the final opening on April 10, the fishery opened each day except for April 3. In the final five days of daily openings, approximately 6,990...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been hoping since last August to bring back the Columbia to service this year after an almost three-year absence, but with the start of the summer schedule only weeks away the state has not announced a decision on the ship. The Columbia's summer return is contingent on hiring enough crew to replace staff that were laid off, retired, quit or moved to other ships since the state's largest ferry was pulled out of service in the fall of 2019. "We're pouring a...
The state Board of Fisheries' decision last month to move the Southeast commercial shrimp pot fishery from a fall start to spring means there will be no harvest this year. The Department of Fish and Game told the board that a spring harvest could help build up the region's shrimp stocks, which are in decline, by taking fewer egg-laden shrimp than in the fall. Wrangell shrimpers, however, are questioning the wisdom of the switch, which they said could hurt marketing efforts and reduce the value...
Second COVID-19 vaccine booster doses are available in Petersburg and are primarily being administered at Public Health according to Petersburg Medical Center Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Bryner. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a second booster dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine last month for those aged 50 or older and for immunocompromised individuals who received their first booster shot at least four months earlier. Though Public Health has taken the primary role of...
WRANGELL-If visitors read the bear-sighting sheet at Anan Wildlife Observatory, which the workers fill out every season, bear names would sound more like tax forms: 7-05-A, for the first bear spotted on the stream to fish on July 5, and 7-05-B, for the second bear spotted on July 5. Well, humans only do so well with numbering systems before our penchant for nicknames kicks in: Casino, Crack and Scuba Sue, to name a few. Bear naming can be a controversial issue, Dee Galla, outdoor recreation...
Forty years ago, Marlene Cushing was working as the community public health nurse when she attended the first meeting of Women's Aid in Violent Emergencies (WAVE). It was April and the head dispatcher of the Petersburg Police Department (PPD) was there and the assistant director of the children's center showed up, too. And so did a handful of other women looking to volunteer and make a positive impact when it came to dealing with domestic violence (DV) locally. But Cushing says, credit for...
