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WRANGELL - Christina Florschutz, an aide at Evergreen Elementary School, survived the 11-Mile landslide killed at least four people Nov. 20 - even after debris destroyed her home and trapped her overnight. The evening of the slide, Florschutz went upstairs to take a shower. After she got out, she heard "a horrible noise, a very loud noise." Before she could react, the landslide slammed into her house, tossing her "like a piece of weightless popcorn" around the room until she lost consciousness....
An arrest has been made for the recent string of burglaries of downtown Petersburg businesses. Zachary Bray, 27, was taken into custody by Petersburg Police Department (PPD) on Nov. 22. According to charging documents filed with the court by PPD, an initial warrant to search a package was issued after USPS Postal Inspectors received a report from the Petersburg Post Office of multiple suspicious contacts with Bray seeking to collect a suspicious package, followed by a break-in at the post office. PPD Officer Jared Popp executed that search...
WRANGELL — People living near the landslide’s path had a harrowing night Nov. 20, as homes were evacuated and first responders searched for people who were unaccounted for. Stan Guggenbickler was missing overnight after going for a drive on the evening of Nov. 20. He had baked a cake for his son’s 18th birthday and wanted to let the cake cool before frosting it, so he headed up the road from his house at Panhandle Trailer Court to Middle Ridge cabin in his truck. After turning onto the road to Middle Ridge, debris covered his exit, trapping h...
WRANGELL - Heavy rains, high winds and the unique topography of the area likely caused the Nov. 20 landslide at 11-Mile. The type of landslide that hit Wrangell is called a "debris flow" - a "notably destructive" event that is common in the region, said state geologist Barrett Salisbury at a Nov. 21 press conference. They occur when soil becomes so saturated with water that individual pieces of soil are no longer touching each other, and lack the strength to hold themselves in place. Debris...
A series of landslides hit Sitka more than eight years ago during heavy rain, with the largest striking a new subdivision and killing three workers. It prompted the community, led by the Sitka Sound Science Center, to set up a landslide warning system. The system includes rain gauges and soil-moisture sensors spread around town, with a website that advises people of the risk level of a landslide. It took about four years to develop the system — and a lot of federal grant money. “We started when we had our landslide. We started calling sci...
WRANGELL — First responders and volunteers working at the site of the deadly landslide have a Wi-Fi signal, thanks to a backpack satellite-link setup the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska sent to Wrangell. The council’s operations center keeps the Starlink setups in Juneau and Sitka for emergencies and community use, said Chris Cropley, director of the Tidal Network at Tlingit and Haida. The council sent two of its Starlink packs to Wrangell on Nov. 22, and the service was up and running at the landslide response sit...
On Nov. 20, the Petersburg Borough Assembly approved the sale of borough-owned tidelands to Wikan Enterprises, Inc. at the price of $112,564. The price tag includes the appraised value of the property, the cost of the appraisal, and two years worth of the remaining lease agreement. Wikan Enterprises is a well established business of almost 30 years as a marine repair shop that specializes in diesel engines. Sheri and John Wikan applied to purchase the property located at 103A Dock Street, which they have leased for the duration of their...
WRANGELL - One juvenile female and two adults are confirmed dead after a massive landslide 11 miles from town covered three homes on Monday night. Three people - one adult and two juveniles - were still missing as of late Tuesday evening. Local and state rescue teams are engaged in an ongoing search. First responders arrived at the scene soon after the slide was reported at 8:51 p.m. Monday. Shortly after, they started a "hasty search" for survivors, said Austin McDaniel, communications... 
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WRANGELL - Multiple resources are responding Tuesday to help people affected by the massive landslide at 11-Mile on Monday night that killed at least three, with three others still missing. The growing list includes food, temporary shelter, or just a warm place to spend the day with family and friends. Angela Stires, an evacuee and a nurse at Wrangell Medical Center, said she and her family were provided rooms at the Stikine Inn, which has been offering shelter to people displaced by the...
At the Fire Hall on Dec. 2, PMC's Community Wellness Specialist, Becky Turland, and Youth Program Coordinator, Katie Holmlund, will instruct a free Youth Mental Health First Aid training course where members of the Petersburg community can become certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid. "It's a free training that has potential to save a life," Holmlund told the Pilot. This year, Turland and Holmlund completed a Youth Mental Health First Aid Facilitator Course - a three-day course offered... Full story
A Haines man says a mix of ignorance and bad luck on a recent mountain goat hunt led to his killing of a brown bear in self-defense and potentially $1,500 worth of fines. On Sunday, Oct. 29, 33-year-old Ethan Julian of Haines was issued three citations by the Alaska Wildlife Troopers for failure to salvage all edible meat from a goat, failure to salvage the hide and skull of a brown bear and unlawful possession and transportation after he took two claws off the brown bear as a trophy. Each citation was paired with a $500 fine. All are...
The Petersburg Borough Wastewater Utility department will pursue a loan increase from the state of Alaska for the Pump Station 4 replacement project. “The money has already been approved by the voters, the assembly already approved all of this, but how it’s allocated is a change,” Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht told the Pilot. “Now we’re going to have to put more money into Pump Station 4 than we thought we would originally.” In 2019, Petersburg voters passed Resolution 1 and approved $8 million in debt service for water and wastewater...
"I would like to make a motion to stop the acquisition of this land," said Mayor Mark Jensen during the Nov. 6 Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting. Those words spelled the beginning of the end for the Petro 49 building acquisition process that started in 2018. Five years ago, the borough sought to acquire the old Union Oil building and property at 703 S. Nordic Drive from Petro 49, Inc. with the intention to establish a Harbor Department maintenance facility and storage area there in the future....
The Haines Borough Assembly unanimously voted to end its contract with assessor Michael Dahle at the end of the year after nearly 600 residents signed a petition calling for his removal. The petition gained hundreds of signatures in less than a week after it was released to the public on Monday, Nov. 6. The resident-led call for action follows a summer of public backlash after some residents saw a dramatic rise in their property assessments and resulting tax bills. Borough officials have said the rise in property values is the result of a hot...
Now in its 15th year, the applied fisheries program at the University of Alaska Southeast draws students from across the state and across the country. Not just ocean states like Florida, but the Great Lakes state of Wisconsin, and even landlocked Wyoming and Kentucky this semester. “Our enrollment has been increasing,” said assistant professor Lauren Wild, who has taught in the program since 2020. Students attend online or, she said, if they live in an area without adequate and reliable high-speed internet service, the school will send the...
Alaska’s minimum wage will increase on Jan. 1, 2024 from $10.85 to $11.73 an hour, in accordance with a law put in place by a 2014 citizen initiative, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced. The law mandates regular increases in the minimum wage to match inflation rates as determined by the Consumer Price Index in Anchorage. Compared to the rest of the nation, the state’s minimum wage is “a little bit middling right now,” said Joelle Hall, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO. It appears on track to stay that way for at... Full story
For some, the holiday spirit doesn’t kick in until the evening of Dec. 24, when the stockings are already on the mantle. For others, Christmastime is a monthslong extravaganza that starts when the last trick-or-treaters say goodnight and ends sometime in late January, when the Christmas tree is a pile of needles on the floor. The right time of year to put up a tree is a deeply personal decision, but regardless of your holiday decoration timeline, the annual Spotify spike of “All I Want for Christmas is You” streams has already begun, and the f...
Late Monday night, a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Sitka crashed on Read Island in Farragut Bay during a search and rescue mission for a nearby fishing vessel -leaving four helicopter crew members in need of urgent rescuing, as well. The prompt response from Petersburg's emergency services played a crucial role in the successful rescue operation that resulted in the survival of all four helicopter crew members. Two members were discharged from the hospital Wednesday morni...
“The Municipal Harbor Facility Grant is the single most significant funding tool available to Alaskan Harbormasters to plan, maintain, and recapitalize port and harbor infrastructure,” states the resolution passed at the Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting on Nov. 6. The assembly voted in support of the resolution to urge the Governor and Alaska Legislature to increase the amount of money made available to municipalities in the state’s harbor match grant program in order to adjust for inflation. According to the Alaska Department of Trans...
The borough’s human resources department provided a progress report about the municipality’s newly implemented safety measures during the Borough Assembly Meeting Nov. 6. In September, Alaska Public Entity Insurance (APEI) representatives presented a safety review of the Petersburg Borough during a regular assembly meeting. Assembly members and human resources staff left that meeting with actionable recommendations to address safety concerns within the borough. Part of that was the establishment of a formal Borough Safety Committee. Becky Reg...
In the past three weeks, four downtown Petersburg businesses have reported burglaries. The Petersburg Police Department confirmed all four incidents are the subject of active investigations. The Blomster Hus flower shop was the most recent incident, with staff arriving Monday morning this week to find the cash register had been pried open by a burglar over the weekend. A week earlier, security cameras captured footage of a burglar searching for cash after breaking into the Petersburg Moose Lodge. “Security camera footage from the Moose Lodge h...
The National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) named Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter as Alaska's 2023 "Community Star." Hofstetter is being recognized by the national organization for his dedication to enhancing rural healthcare and addressing the health needs of the Petersburg community through wellness and prevention activities, education, collaborative partnerships, and accessible at-home care. "Phil and PMC have advanced local healthcare through numerous...
The Petersburg Borough and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) agreed to increase wages for union workers in the most recent ratified contract approved by the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Nov. 6. The Petersburg Municipal Power & Light department (PMPL) has struggled for over a year to hire an Electrician/Operator and a Journeyman Lineman, which burdens the few workers that are there. Sam Caulum spoke at the Nov. 6 borough assembly meeting, representing himself and a majority of IBEW members at PMPL. He said the prolonged...
WRANGELL — In a livestreamed lecture sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute, ethnohistorian Zachary Jones presented on the U.S. military’s 19th century attacks on the Tlingit villages of Kaachxhaan.áak’w, Kéex’ Kwáan and Xutsnoowú Kwáan — present-day Wrangell, Kake and Angoon. Though the attacks occurred over 150 years ago, their effects are still felt by Tlingit communities today, Jones said, and community leaders are still seeking restitution. In 1867, the U.S. government paid Russia $7.2 million — less than two cents per acre — for the t...
WRANGELL — Members of the Wrangell Fish and Game Advisory Committee are concerned about the future of commercial salmon fishing as Alaska’s tourism industry continues to expand, bringing in more non-resident fishers on charter trips. The advisory committee supports amending state regulation to prevent the Southeast sport fishery from exceeding its 20% share of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s annual harvest ceiling for king salmon. The committee voted Nov. 7 to support a proposal calling for tighter state regulation of the charter catch and q...
