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The Petersburg High School jazz and concert bands attended Musicfest in Juneau last week which allowed students to see performances from high school bands from across Southeast and take part in educational clinics. Director Charlie O'Brien said the festival, which was returning after being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was a good opportunity for the 20 students to hear from and perform in front of other musicians. "That's what makes it such a special event and the audience is so support...
As the weather gets better and people begin to spend more time outdoors, those traveling to Sandy Beach will find it neat and tidy thanks to the work of a group of volunteers. Parks and Recreation staff, Petersburg Rotary Club members, and other volunteers gathered at Sandy Beach last Saturday to hold a cleanup event to get the park ready for spring and summer events. Volunteers picked up trash, animal waste, branches, and other clutter along the trails throughout the park. The clean-up efforts...
WRANGELL—A lightly used 32-foot-long police jet boat moored at Heritage Harbor may be sold to save money. The borough assembly at a work session March 22 went over its insurance expenses ahead of finalizing its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It discussed insurance costs for the old hospital, earthquake coverage, museum exhibits and about $6,000 a year the borough pays to insure the police boat. “I understand the business end of it,” Chief Tom Radke said March 29. “I hate to lose it. Right now, it’s still under discussion.” Radke said the...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to approve Resolution #2022-05 during Monday's meeting, signaling its opposition to two bills in the Alaska State Legislature which would make changes to commercial passenger vessel wastewater monitoring. The Ocean Ranger program was created in 2006 when Alaska voters passed Ballot Measure 2 requiring the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to station U.S. Coast Guard certified marine engineers onboard cruise ships to monitor the...
The House Finance Committee has rejected the governor's proposal to rely almost entirely on federal funds to operate the Alaska Marine Highway System next year, with the Senate Finance Committee moving in the same direction. The committees differ on the amounts but both want to see more state money in the budget for the ferries, using some federal infrastructure money to replace state dollars but not nearly as much as the governor. Total appropriations for the ferry operating budget next year...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday that the sac roe herring fishery in the Sitka Sound will continue with daily openings from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in waters off the western shore of Baranof Island to the south of Sitka until closed by a field or advisory announcement. As of Tuesday, an estimated 19,400 tons of herring have been harvested so far which is still less than half of the record 45,164 guideline harvest level. The openings on last Thursday through Saturday occurred in...
WRANGELL–When contractor Jesse West said, "we destroyed everything," it sounds pretty bad, out of context. But that's exactly what his Petersburg company Rainforest Contracting was hired to do - pull down the old Anan bear viewing deck and walkway and put up a new one for the U.S. Forest Service. "So far we've demo-ed everything that was up there," West, president of Rainforest Contracting, said March 29. "It's all stacked in piles and ready to get taken out of there." The concrete and wood an...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to create a task force focused on addressing child care challenges in Petersburg and finding sustainable solutions during Monday's meeting. The creation of the Early Childhood Education Task Force came as a result of the ongoing discussions of child care needs in the community which identified issues with retention and recruitment of employees and the lack of availability of child care for families. Assembly Member Jeff Meucci opened by saying...
With the first statewide use of ranked choice voting in Alaska on the horizon, the Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed holding an information session to inform community members on how the new voting system works. The upcoming special election will use ranked choice voting, which was approved by Alaska voters in 2020, to determine who will fill the late Rep. Don Young's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives until the term expires in January 2023. During Monday's assembly meeting, Assembly...
A woman crashed off Mitkof Highway near Scow Bay Loop Road Saturday around 8:30 a.m. after losing control of a truck according to Assistant Fire Chief David Berg. The driver and her dog were uninjured in the crash but the truck was totaled. According to Berg, the woman said she was driving toward town when she discovered that she could not stop the vehicle. She pulled into the ferry terminal parking lot and made a couple of turns, but did not stop the truck, and got back on the road headed away...
The unified command of the U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Western Towboat continues to lead the response efforts to the grounding of the tugboat Western Mariner which ran aground in the Neva Strait on March 21. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the incident occurred at 2:55 a.m. on March 21 when a temporary steering failure onboard the tugboat caused the 286-foot freight barge Chichagof Provider in tow to collide with the...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries adopted a revised king salmon management plan during its March meeting in a compromise which will see sport fishery limits set prior to the start of the season based on a tier system instead of changing in-season. The hope is that the 80/20 split between the commercial troll and sport fisheries will be maintained while allowing all non-residents who travel to Alaska to catch king salmon the opportunity to do so. "In this plan the caveat there is when we're at those...
Alaska Marine Lines has announced increases to its general rates and fuel surcharges in Southeast as fuel prices continue to rise. On November 4, 2021, a release signed by Director of Pricing Margretta Grace announced that AML had filed with the Surface Transportation board to increase the general rate for shipments into, out of, and within Southeast by 4.8% effective January 30. The release cited inflation, rising costs, and the labor shortage as reasons for the increases. "Southeast Alaska is...
WRANGELL-A shortage of pilots amid a labor dispute has forced Alaska Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights since last Friday. Pickets went up Friday at airports in Seattle and elsewhere on the airline's West Coast route system. Alaska reported it canceled 9% of its service on Friday, about 120 flights, and 7% on Saturday, which affected about 12,000 travelers that day. Flight cancellations were down to 6% on Sunday and about 3% on Monday. "We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration we...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney say they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic elevation to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden’s nominee a burst of bipartisan support and all but assuring she’ll become the first Black female justice. The senators from Alaska and Utah announced their decisions Monday night ahead of a procedural vote to advance the nomination and as Democrats pressed to confirm Jackson by the end of the week. GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced last week th...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, joining a field of 50 other candidates seeking to fill the seat held for decades by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a state Division of Elections office in Wasilla, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson. Palin, a former Alaska governor who was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has the biggest national political profile in the packed field that includes c...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery has seen multiple openings over the past week which have resulted in approximately 7,300 tons of herring harvested as of Tuesday according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After four days of two-hour notice, the first fishery opening was held on March 26. Though there was no herring spawn observed in the aerial survey that day, department and industry vessels observed herring in the sound. The opening occurred from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and...
The Petersburg Medical Center hospital board hosted Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium CEO Charles Clement at its meeting on March 24 to give the public an opportunity to hear from him about SEARHC's current plans and opportunities for collaborations between the two entities. The assembly chamber was packed during the meeting and even more people logged in on Zoom to hear Clement answer questions sent by board members and hospital staff regarding the future of health care in... Full story
Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay gave a report to the Petersburg Borough Assembly on March 21 about a meeting which discussed housing needs in Petersburg and what organizations are doing to support those experiencing homelessness. Representatives from the borough, Humanity In Progress, Working Against Violence for Everyone, the Petersburg Medical Center, the Petersburg Indian Association, and other local organizations were in attendance at the March 10 meeting. "The goal of these meetings is to...
The Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs hosted a ceremony Tuesday in the Petersburg High School gym to welcome home and remember Vietnam veterans. The event marked Vietnam Veterans Day which falls on March 29 and was originally scheduled for 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Forrest E. Powell III with the DMVA opened the ceremony and introduced Chamber of Commerce President Jim Floyd who welcomed attendees. Floyd spoke on the history of Petersburg and of the...
HAINES-Of the roughly 3.8 million Ukrainian refugees who've fled their country since Russia's invasion last month, one, an 82-year-old woman from Odessa, is now living in the Upper Chilkat Valley with no return ticket home. Alla Blazhko-Getman is living with her daughter and son-in-law, Natalia and Hans Baertle, across the bridge at 26 Mile Haines Highway. Natalia, a former high school teacher in Ukraine who moved to Alaska in 2010 after marrying, said she attempted to fly her mother out of...
WRANGELL-The hooligan are back. When the eagles disappear from town and the sea lions start hauling out on the beach at Lesnoi Island, it's a pretty sure bet hooligan season is upon the Stikine River, said David Rak, forester at the U.S. Forest Service in Wrangell. If you go to the north side of Wrangell Island, Rak said, you can hear the sea lions barking from a spot where hundreds haul out on the beach at Lesnoi Island. "When the eagles all disappear from town, they're over there," Rak said...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A former state lawmaker and an orthopedic surgeon each announced plans Monday to run for Alaska’s U.S. House seat following the death of Republican Rep. Don Young. Republican former state Sen. John Coghill said he filed to run in the race to fill the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in January. Al Gross’ campaign said Gross, an independent, would file Friday to run as a candidate to fill the remaining term and to seek a two-year term. Coghill said after praying about a possible run, he came away with the thought that...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday that a state Senate district pairing part of east Anchorage and the Eagle River area by the board tasked with rewriting Alaska’s political boundaries constituted an “unconstitutional political gerrymander.” The court said it was affirming a finding by Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews regarding Senate District K. Two House districts equal one Senate district. The Senate district at issue pairs a House district that includes part of Anchorage’s Muldoon area with an Eagle River are...
The tugboat Western Mariner ran aground Monday morning while towing the barge Chichagof Provider through the Neva Strait according to the U.S. Coast Guard. At 2:55 a.m. watchstanders in the Sector Juneau command center received a radio call from the Western Mariner stating that the 286-foot containerized barge in tow had collided with the tug, causing the tug to run aground. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, a temporary steering failure onboard the tugboat caused...
