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The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved a list of capital projects for the district at their Tuesday evening meeting. Maintenance Director Dan Tate helped prepare and prioritize the list, which outlines the district’s needed capital projects for the coming six years and is required for submittal to the legislature for possible grant funding. Rather than being a straightforward list of priorities, projects are ranked strategically to garner points from legislators who prepare an overall ranked list for funding for new capital p...
While students have been enjoying a summer away from school, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter and other staff have been working behind the scenes preparing for the upcoming year. At Tuesday’s regular School Board meeting, the superintendent also apprised the board of a new evaluation tool that the district will begin using to assess teachers, librarians, counselors and principals this year. The evaluation is required by the state and Kludt-Painter said she and her staff have been working to implement a state-approved evaluation tool that w...
WRANGELL — Area golfers teed off for cancer treatment last weekend, during Wrangell Medical Center's tenth annual Rally For Cancer Care Tournament at Muskeg Meadows. The yearly tournaments raise funds for the WMC Foundation's cancer care program, which assists patients with travel and lodging expenses as they seek treatment for various forms of cancer. Fifty-nine women took part in Saturday's tournament, which featured noncompetitive, fun challenges on the course. Twenty-one of the participants came from Petersburg, and tournament organizer O...
Vice Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis attended an invitation-only meeting in Juneau to discuss transboundary mines last week. The meeting was organized by Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, tasked by Governor Bill Walker to lead a work group on the issue, ahead of a scheduled Juneau visit Aug. 22-24 by B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett. In addition to mayors from Southeast municipalities, there were also industry, fishing and Native group representatives in attendance, as well as state representatives from...
The Humpy 500 go-cart race, a 20-year Petersburg tradition that saw local kids and families teaming up to build and decorate carts for racing down PFI hill, will come to end this year. The event has been held annually in October to celebrate the end of the canning and summer fishing seasons, but in recent years the number of participants has dwindled, said PFI Manager Patrick Wilson. “Trying to energize the town, community and families to do it doesn’t seem to be working well,” he said. “So we’re gonna call it quits for now.” Wilson said... Full story
An ordinance to allow voters to determine whether or not local public officials should be exempt from state financial disclosure requirements was passed on second reading by the Assembly at Monday’s regular meeting. By Alaska State law, certain public officials are required to report their income sources and other assets in an effort to ensure private interests do not conflict with their public service. Municipalities reserve the right to exempt their local public officials from the requirement, and locally there has been concern that not d... Full story
Corey Wall from MRV Architects in Juneau presented the latest plans for the municipal building remodel to Borough staff in late July. The plans are currently at the 45 percent mark and Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said the plans may hit the 95 percent benchmark by late summer at which time the Assembly will vote on whether or not to send the project out to bid. The bulk of the funds for the estimated $9.8 million remodel—some $6.4 million—are already secured through a combination of state legislative grants ($5.2 million) and money all... Full story
In the article "Study of harbor financials yields 11 percent rate increase recommendation" of the July 30 issue of the Pilot, it was erroneously stated that the Northern Economics consulting firm is based out of Seattle, Wash. The firm is based out of Anchorage, Alaska....
The Assembly and Borough staff discussed public safety issues at Monday’s Assembly meeting. While Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht delivered the news that decreased staff at the Juneau prosecutor’s office may lead to more case dismissals, Assembly member John Havrilek proposed instituting a dual Neighborhood Watch and Crime Stoppers program to help reduce crime in Petersburg. Giesbrecht said the prosecutor’s office sent an email saying that decreased staffing may lead to more case dismissals for Petersburg based on the “disp...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — New voluntary guidelines for cruise ships and other tour boats aimed at protecting harbor seals, especially vulnerable nursing pups, in Alaska’s glacial fjords were announced Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Previous voluntary guidelines called for vessels to stay at least 100 yards away from seals on ice floes. After determining that seals are 25 times more likely to flush into cold fjord water at that distance, the agency came up with a new voluntary guideline of 500 yards, a buffer of more th...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries last week released its 2015-2016 Proposal Book for review. Some 215 proposals were accepted for review during the board’s regulatory meetings. Regulations potentially to be affected include Pacific cod and finfish in the Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Bering Sea-Aleutian Island areas; Bristol Bay finfish; Arctic, Yukon and Kuskokwim finfish; and statewide finfish. Proposals may be downloaded off the board’s website in sections, as well as for full meetings, at www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=f...
Deer hunting season began for Alaska residents and nonresidents in much of the Unit 3 management area last Saturday, lasting through Nov. 30. Bow hunting on Mitkof Island and the Petersburg Management Area, hunting on the remainder of the Mitkof, Woewodski and Butterworth islands, and residential hunting on the Lindenberg Peninsula portion of Kupreanof Island all begin on Oct. 15, and are subject to other limitations. Outlooks for this year’s season for Sitka black-tailed deer are much the same as last year, with smaller harvests expected t...
A public comment period is currently underway for two draft documents released as part of the Comprehensive Plan process-a land use map and a document outlining the financial state of the Borough's harbor facilities. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht explained that the latter document details the financial component of the Waterfront Development Plan, which is being drafted alongside the Comprehensive Plan and will guide future decisions about Petersburg's harbors. In addition to examining the... Full story
Staffing changes at the Petersburg Police Department (PPD) have led to a new scheduling model that will have police officers filling in on dispatch shifts as part of their weekly duties. Police Chief Kelly Swihart said that the idea for the new schedule came after receiving notice that two dispatchers would be leaving the department, including head dispatcher Doc Lopez who’s retiring after 21 years with the department. Instead of replacing those positions with dispatchers, Swihart said they’ll be recruiting sworn officers who will serve in bot... Full story
The US Forest Service and Korpela Construction crews have broken ground on a new half-mile portion of the Raven's Roost Trail. Construction began July 17 on the section which will connect the new trailhead that was built last year-beginning across from the Sandy Beach parking lot-to the existing trail that winds through the muskeg behind the airport up into the Tongass National Forest. The new portion of trail will be similar to the half-mile portion of easy-grade, gravel trail built last year.... Full story
School enrollment will be a little bit easier for parents and staff this year as the Petersburg Medical Center (PMC) was selected to pilot a program that will transmit vaccine records, sports physicals and other pertinent medical information directly to the school. “We’ve been asked to pilot a program through AeHN (Alaska eHealth Network), which is a state-affiliated program,” said PMC Informatics Director Jill Dormer at last Thursday’s hospital board meeting. “They are going to pay us…to set up an interface connection with the school dist...
WRANGELL — The jury in the trial of Greg Salard found the former family physician guilty of two child pornography charges, for receipt and distribution. A lesser, third count was not deliberated by jurors. Judge Anthony Burgess presided over the proceedings, which lasted seven days. Jury selection began last week, and the trial included five days of testimony. Prosecutors finally rested their case on Monday, after the court heard from a federal investigator, arresting officers and a computer specialist. Evidence shown during the trial i...
Eighteen-year-old Skipper Erickson was the most recent in the Petersburg troop to join the rank of Eagle Scout. Erickson took the scouting oath for the rank in a ceremony on July 3, capping off six years of involvement in the local scouting program. "I've been in the boy scouts here since 6th grade; that's when you can join," Erickson said. "And I've been working to get my Eagle badge until now, getting all the badges and requirements done." Over the years, Erickson has been working on...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Tourists who want to look at seal pups resting among Alaska’s glacial fjords may be making things harder for the marine animals. Cruise ship traffic in the glacial fjords an import nursery area for harbor seal pups has increased ten-fold in the past 30 years, the Juneau Empire reported. Biologists like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration’s John Jansen have been collecting data on seals in the fjords of southeast Alaska. Jansen has been studying harbor seals in Disenchantment Bay, one of the fjords among...
WRANGELL — On Sunday Alaska Native and Canadian First Nations groups will mark the first anniversary of the Mount Polley tailings dam collapse in a ceremony on the Stikine River. On Aug. 4, 2014, a rupture in the tailings dam servicing the British Columbia mine released billions of gallons of metals-tainted effluent into waters that fed into the salmon-rich Fraser River system. Earlier this month the mine’s owner, Imperial Metals, received a restricted permit from the provincial government allowing it to reopen Mt. Polley, using an alt...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker said he believes his bill to expand Medicaid would have passed the Legislature if brought to a vote but that the legislation never seemed to be progressing toward that end. Walker announced this month his intention to accept federal money to expand Medicaid, calling the move his “final option” after lawmakers had tabled his bill for further review. In an interview Monday, Walker said that every day the state waits to expand Medicaid it is saying “no” to people who could be getting health care coverage. Estimates...
A humpback whale that was first sighted in Lynn Canal in 1972 was re-sighted by researchers earlier this month feeding off Cape Fanshaw in Frederick Sound. The 44-year span between the two sightings of the whale, dubbed "Old Timer" by researchers, is the longest re-sighting span of an individual humpback in the world. Dr. Adam Pack, a marine mammal researcher at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Hilo, and photographer Jim Nahmens spotted the whale on July 12 while doing research aboard the M/V...
The Borough Assembly is working to put a proposition on the Oct. 6 municipal ballot that exempts candidates running for local public offices from a state requirement to disclose income, business interests and other assets. An ordinance to put the exemption to the voters passed on its first reading at Monday’s regular meeting. Prior to Borough incorporation, public officials were exempt from the financial disclosure requirements. However, after Borough incorporation, in the 2014 municipal election, the exemption was put back up for a vote and n... Full story
The 2nd annual Paddle Battle sponsored by the Petersburg Medical Center Foundation saw 33 paddlers this year and one ride-along pup. Paddlers from age seven to 66 took to the water with 22 folks completing the full 14-mile course from the Papke's Landing launch ramp to Sandy Beach Park. Paddlers paid a $20 entry fee and asked for pledges for each mile paddled. So far over $11,000 has been raised, including a $3,000 contribution from First Bank, with more donations still trickling in said PMC... Full story
Users of services in the Alaska Court System (ACS) will be seeing new fees for some services and fee increases for other services beginning August 1. The increases were approved by the Alaska Supreme Court in June. “The increased or additional court fees were developed in response to the state’s current budget shortfall,” said Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell, adding that the increased revenue from the fees goes into the state’s general fund, per Administrative Rule 5(b), rather than being retained by the court. Burrell said filing fees ha... Full story
