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Gov. Mike Dunleavy says “it’s like Christmas every day now” since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Some other state Republican leaders spent Tuesday talking of a winter blunderland. “It’s Christmas every day if all you expect is coal in your stocking, “ Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said in response to Dunleavy’s assessment. “It’s a tough, tough time for all of us.” Dunleavy’s holiday-season cheer is based largely on the prospect of uninhibited oil drilling and similar industrial activity that might or might not h...
Red king crab commercial permit holders in Southeast Alaska will have a better chance of fishing in the coming seasons. The Alaska Board of Fisheries approved a change in management regulations proposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) that allows for a conservative commercial fishery when crab stocks aren’t enough for a typical competitive opening. Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crab can bring in over $100 each. But commercial openings have been few and far between — just one in over a decade. Sev...
A damaged undersea communications cable has disrupted cell phone service in Petersburg and other Southeast Alaska communities – the Alaska Communications (ACS) subsea cable system serves as a carrier for multiple cell providers, including AT&T. The broader regional outage began around 9:15 p.m. Thursday, with ACS and AT&T customers in Juneau, Haines, Skagway and Gustavus reporting limited or no service. Alaska Communications confirmed Friday that damage to their subsea cable system was the c... Full story
Federal employees across Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest received termination notices over Presidents Day weekend, part of what union leaders are calling an "intentionally dishonest" nationwide purge of civil service workers that has hit Alaska's rural communities particularly hard. In Petersburg, as of Sunday evening, at least nine Forest Service probationary employees were terminated, with seven more terminated in Wrangell. Most of those affected were early-career professionals... Full story
Three properties on Sing Lee Alley were damaged during a series of break-in attempts late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Marina LeBlanc was home when she heard someone breaking in through the front door of Sew What, her sewing and upholstery shop on Sing Lee Alley. She turned on lights, and reportedly saw someone flee from the property. LeBlanc called police, who responded within minutes. Unable to secure her damaged door frame, she wedged it closed with a table and, understandably...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to cancel plans to replace the controllable-pitch propellers aboard the state ferry Columbia next year, opting to keep the 52-year-old ship in service until a replacement vessel is built. The propulsion system project was estimated in 2022 to cost as much as $20 million. The Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, serves the ferry system’s longest and most heavily traveled route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. It had been scheduled to head into a shipyard for much of next y...
At the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce annual banquet on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, High Tide Parts was named Petersburg’s Business of the Year. Owned by Wes and Angela Davis, the automotive and marine supply NAPA parts retailer has expanded operations in their new location at 1103 S. Nordic Dr., where throughout the past year they have been building an large shop facility which expects to be operational in coming months. Their crucial role in serving local industries and the investment they h...
The Southeast island community of Petersburg held a town hall meeting on Feb. 10 to discuss the future of tourism in "Alaska's Little Norway." The borough is considering a potential partnership with a small cruise ship company and may see more tourists in coming years. While the conversation welcomed ideas related to tourism in general -like emergency services, trails and public restrooms- much of the discussion pertained to increasing tourism, especially from cruise ships, and what that means...
A voting error led one Alaska House of Representatives minority-caucus member on Wednesday to vote to move a public-school funding increase one step closer to passage through the Alaska House of Representatives, at a time when the House’s majority caucus has a narrow margin. Rep. Mike Prax, R-North Pole, joined 20 members of the House majority in voting to move House Bill 69 from the House Education Committee to the House Finance Committee. Twenty votes were needed. If signed into law, HB 69 would permanently increase the state’s per-student pu... Full story
WRANGELL — Tidal Network is scheduled to break ground for construction of its first permanent wireless internet tower on Feb. 19. Tidal Network is the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida’s broadband internet service company. After receiving a $50 million federal grant to construct 20 towers across Southeast, the company pinpointed Wrangell as the host site for its first tower. The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the 3-Mile location where the tower will be constructed. The “groundbreaking” ceremony will be mostly symbolic: Tidal Network...
It’s time to expand the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station to handle growing demand — particularly from heat pumps — the plant’s operator said of its plans to line up $20 million in funding and a federal permit to add a third turbine to the facility. The Tyee Lake station started supplying Wrangell and Petersburg in 1984. It was built with two turbines rated at 10 megawatts each, with an empty bay at the Bradfield Canal facility to add a third turbine when needed. That time is now, said Robert Siedman, chief executi...
Petersburg's local DMV office has moved into the historic Thompson Building on South Second Street, which is something local residents may need to know as the federal deadline to obtain a REAL ID quickly approaches. Starting on May 7, 2025, to fly within the United States every traveler 18 and older will be required to have a state-issued REAL ID or another acceptable form of identification like a U.S. Passport. But your regular state issued driver's license will no longer be enough. "It's not...
The Mitkof Middle School Lego Robotics team recently competed in the state competition in Anchorage. The tournament was composed of 29 schools across Alaska, and Petersburg's team placed fourth overall, qualifying – for the first time ever –for the national meet held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in June. Petersburg's team's remotely operated vehicle project took first place in the category for innovation to help solve real world problems. Innovation was one of the four categories the team com...
When Ravenstail and Chilkat weaving nearly disappeared, it was saved by a small handful of dedicated artisans. Now, a Petersburg weaver has won a $20,000 business grant to help revive this traditional artform. Dzijúksuk (Debra O'Gara), a raven frog from the cedar bark house of the Teeyhittaan clan, was selected as one of two winners in Spruce Root's 2024 Path to Prosperity competition. The artist's business, Raven's Nest Regalia and Arts, will focus on creating traditional regalia for sale, teac...
In last week’s story “K9 unit request rejected due to budget concerns,” the Pilot incorrectly stated that this requested K9 unit would be the first K9 unit in the borough, but readers have pointed out that decades ago there was a K9 unit working with the local police. Archived copies of the Petersburg Pilot from around thirty years ago confirm that Petersburg Police Department did have a canine unit once before. Sam the drug dog was purchased in March 1992, paid for mostly by community donations. Sam worked with the Petersburg Police for around...
The Alaska Senate is considering a bill that would allow parents who are owed child support to apply for the Permanent Fund dividend of the parent who is delinquent in their payments, providing a work-around to collect from parents who do not bother to apply for their annual PFD. “The reality is that in some cases,” said Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar, the bill’s sponsor, the owing parent either forgets to apply or decides not to apply out of spite to deny the money to the other parent. Under state law, garnishment of the dividend for child...
A proposal to establish a Petersburg police K9 unit was rejected by the borough assembly Monday in a 4-2 vote, with members citing budget uncertainties despite strong support for the program's anti-drug objectives. The Petersburg Police Department had requested approval for a dual-purpose police service dog that would be trained in both patrol work and narcotics detection. The department highlighted an urgent need, pointing to "multiple search warrants for illegal narcotics" executed over the...
While many economic indicators in Alaska draw concern, outdoor recreation stands as a bright spot, generating $3.1 billion in economic output in 2023. That's according to Mariyam Medovaya, who is coming to Petersburg next week to discuss the growing potential of adventure tourism as the guest speaker at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet on Feb. 15. "Outdoor recreation is kind of an underappreciated giant of American economy," says Medovaya, noting that Alaska ranked first among...
Alaska nonprofits face immense uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants and loans. That’s the message state lawmakers heard during a House Judiciary meeting Monday afternoon. Laurie Wolf is executive director of the Foraker Group, a state nonprofit association that advocates for the sector. She said nonprofits in the state receive about $1.2 billion from the federal government yearly, and that funding impacts every Alaskan. “Every Alaskan is a nonprofit beneficiary, because nonprofits are woven into the fabric of ou... Full story
WRANGELL — The Wrangell Police Department successfully executed a dual search warrant on Jan. 28 after a month-long investigation into a local drug ring. Cooper Seimears, 39, Jacob Marshall, 29, and McKenna Harding, 29, were charged and arrested following the 8 a.m. search warrant execution. Seimears and Marshall face eight drug-related felony charges and one misdemeanor. Harding faces drug-related charges of one felony and one misdemeanor, though she and Marshall, her fiancée, each face two additional misdemeanors for keeping drugs near th...
Information about Petersburg students and school staff may have been compromised after hackers got into a software system on December 28. The company behind the system, PowerSchool, said the data breach was worldwide. Robyn Taylor is superintendent of the Petersburg School District. She said the system keeps school information organized. "If you think old school, pre-computers, we all had filing cabinets," she said. "And that's where we would store all the information about a student, about...
The state of Alaska is bringing in less money than it is spending, and is on pace to finish the current fiscal year with a deficit of $171 million, according to figures presented Tuesday. Lacey Sanders, Gov. Mike Dunleavy's top budget official, told the Senate Finance Committee that spending from the Constitutional Budget Reserve likely will be needed to close the gap. To do this would require support from three-quarters of the House and three-quarters of the Senate. That's a critical... Full story
Facing steep growth in demand, constant turnover and employee retirements, Alaska’s health care industry has a staggering need for new workers, a new report says. “To meet those variables, we have to find over 9,400 new health care workers every single year,” Jared Kosin, executive director of the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, said on Monday. Kosin, who presented the information to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, characterized the workforce situation as a good news-bad news story. “I’m like, ‘Hey, we have these opportuniti... Full story
Southeast Alaska fishermen filled the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan on Tuesday to ask the seven-member Alaska Board of Fisheries to grant them opportunities in state-managed fisheries for all "finfish" species, namely Chinook salmon and herring, that sustain communities, industries and cultural traditions regionwide. The Board on Tuesday heard more than seven hours of public testimony regarding fisheries for salmon and trout species, as well as herring, that are the subject of 87...
A fire damaged a Petersburg home on South 2nd St. on the afternoon of January 27. No one was home at the time of the fire, except for two dogs, Daisy and Marz, who died in the fire. Volunteer Fire Department spokesperson Dave Berg said the house was tightly sealed, which deprived the fire of oxygen, and slowed the fire. He said it was clear that the fire had actually died down by the time first responders arrived. "When I pulled up on the place, it was heavy smoke coming from the eaves and...
