Sorted by date Results 762 - 786 of 5587
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking to repeal the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule which could restore protections to roadless areas within the Tongass National Forest according to an announcement from November 23. The 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule, approved under the Trump administration on October 29, 2020, allowed for road construction and timber harvesting in the Tongass which was previously protected by the 2001 Roadless Rule according to the USDA. The repeal comes as the department...
The Petersburg School District updated its testing protocols Friday, Nov. 26 to allow students identified as close contacts at the school to continue attending in-person classes, according to an announcement from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Changes were made to the COVID-19 guidelines after a firmware update from the CUE molecular test manufacturer caused performance irregularities. According to the announcement, the district will be suspend the use of CUE tests and introduce new...
Long-term and short-term parking at Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport will require payment beginning December 1. DMC Enterprises LLC, composed of equal partners Derek Lopez, Michelle Lopez, and Chadam Lopez, applied for and received a land use permit from the state of Alaska for the airport parking lot and will begin charging customers depending on how long their vehicles are parked. Their idea began in March when they purchased the former Pacific Wings building where Alaska Seaplanes is now...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 10 additional cases of COVID-19 Tuesday for a total of 68 active cases. According to the Petersburg COVID-19 Dashboard, there have been seven healthcare worker infections and PMC inpatient utilization is at 50%. The PMC staffing level is currently labeled as inadequate and the hospital's medevac capability is limited. The Petersburg School District, which is not currently in session because of Thanksgiving, reported 21 cases among staff and students in the...
Petersburg's annual Parade of Light and Christmas tree lighting ceremony will take place on Friday. The parade portion of the event was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic according to Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Administrator Mindy Lopez, but it returns this year and will feature beloved characters spreading holiday cheer. The parade will start at 5:30 p.m. near Trading Union and will head south along Nordic Drive towards the municipal building. 15 minutes before the parade,...
The Borough Assembly voted to approve the first reading of Ordinance #2021-18 which aims to cover the utility revenue requirements and update language in the borough code during its November 17 meeting. The increase to electric rates is based on the results of a rate study conducted by D. Hittle & Associates. The rate study concluded that an increase in revenues is required to make up for the debt services associated with the Blind Slough Hydroelectric Refurbishment and the Scow Bay Standby...
After a delayed opening due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, local artist and teacher Ashley Lohr's show "Wander" opened Saturday at the Clausen Museum. The show is Lohr's 13th solo exhibit at the museum and features a diverse array of enamel jewelry, paintings, and digital artwork. With more time due to the pandemic, she had the opportunity to try different things with her art and take on new styles. "The title is wander because I kind of let myself wander in different mediums this year," Lohr...
The Borough Assembly held a special meeting shortly before its regular meeting November 17 to consider Resolution #2021-16, authorizing the sole source purchase of two replacement boilers for the aquatic center. The boilers, which were installed in 2006 and are used to heat the air and water in the center, are nearing the end of their service life according to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht as fuses are blowing out and the boilers are having problems keeping temperature. Giesbrecht said they...
The 2022 pink salmon harvest is forecasted to be in the weak range in Southeast Alaska with an estimate of 16 million fish according to a report from NOAA Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. According to the report, the 2022 forecast is approximately half of the 10-year average harvest of 34 million pink salmon but is higher than the 8 million predicted in 2020, the last even year harvest. Southeast Alaska Pink and Chum Salmon Project Leader Andy Piston said trawl surveys...
As the holiday season approaches, the post office continues to shorten the hours of its service window after facing staffing issues. The window's hours were cut in half this week, now only being open from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, causing increased wait times as lines grow longer. The Borough Assembly held a discussion about the issues at the post office during its meeting on November 17 which was asked for by Assembly Member Dave Kensinger....
The Borough Assembly approved a change order during its November 17 meeting for repairs to the motor pool shop which was damaged in a fire in August of 2019 and the borough is in the process of rebuilding. According to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht, the changes to the project are mostly covered by the borough’s insurance and are related to either fire damage or fire codes. Included in the order are additional asbestos tile removal, the repairing of fire damaged x-bracing, and shim crane r...
The Borough Assembly discussed providing guidance for volunteer projects on borough property during its November 17 meeting. Assembly Member Bob Lynn requested Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht draft a document outlining requirements for future projects during the previous assembly meeting. The discussion of a need for the standards stemmed from the assembly's decision to distribute up to $20,000 to pay for the Deck Out The Deck project at Mountain View Manor after funds were needed for...
The Petersburg School District updated its testing protocols Friday, Nov. 26 to allow students identified as close contacts at the school to continue attending in person classes according to an announcement from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Changes were made to the COVID-19 guidelines after a firmware update from the CUE molecular test manufacturer caused performance irregularities. According to the announcement, the district will be suspending CUE tests and introducing new quarantine...
The Borough Assembly passed Ordinance #2021-20 during Wednesday's meeting which amended the previous emergency masking ordinance brought about by the increase of COVID-19 cases in Petersburg. The language of the new ordinance was heavily changed during its discussion so that it would not require businesses to deny admittance to offenders of the ordinance and would not introduce a fine structure for violators. The new ordinance only added a requirement for masking in communal spaces such as...
Veterans drove by the schools Thursday morning as part of the Veterans Day Parade while students and staff waved flags and cheered them on. Cars lined up on North 5th Street as students assembled in front of the school with red, white, and blue signs thanking veterans for their service. The Mitkof Middle School band first welcomed the veterans along the parade route, performing marching tunes as the cars turned onto Dolphin Street. Students from Stedman Elementary lined the street holding flags...
Stedman Elementary School and Mitkof Middle school transitioned to remote learning this week due to the rise in COVID-19 cases according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. The elementary school started online instruction on Tuesday while the middle school moved online on Thursday. Kludt-Painter wrote in her announcement that the district is experiencing multiple staffing issues as Petersburg continues to see high community spread. Contact tracing efforts within the district are also being...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 21 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday for a total of 84 active cases. 19 cases were cleared by Public Health and 65 new cases have been reported in the past week. Currently Petersburg Borough has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 in the United States of America, with an averaged daily rate of 262 new infections per 100,000. This is according to the New York Times hot spots map, which displays a county-by-county average of new reported cases over...
A car rolled into a ditch near 10 mile Mitkof Highway at around 8 a.m. Monday due to ice on the road according to Assistant Fire Chief David Berg. The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, EMS, and Petersburg Police Department were paged out to the accident and found the occupants of the vehicle, a young woman and her dog, uninjured. According to Berg, the vehicle was stopped waiting for traffic before turning onto Mitkof Highway near the Falls Creek fish ladder when it began to slide on the...
COVID-19 cases continue to rise, impacting the Petersburg Medical Center's staff and operations as the hospital approaches its breaking point. As cases go up, work effort and stress levels among hospital staff increase as they battle the virus. "...this spike ... is impacting practically every component of the community, and there's one, two, and three degrees of separation with each other, so it affects our staff, daycare, kids," PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said. When a staff member is affected by...
The Petersburg School Board met virtually for its regular meeting on November 9 where members listened to a presentation on the audit for the year ending June 30, 2021. Bikky Shrestha from BDO USA, LLP presented a summary of the company’s findings to the board including the financial data from FY21. According to Shrestha, BDO conducted the entire audit remotely and Shrestha was the only person who was able to come to Petersburg. Apart from a couple of issues on the financial statements, Shrestha said, “the majority of the audit went really smo...
The Clausen Museum is displaying the profiles of six Alaska Natives to mark November as Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Clausen Museum Director Cindi Lagoudakis said the profiles she chose to write were of people who had some connection to Southeast Alaska and may not be well known. "We tell a lot of stories about Amy Hallingstad and Elizabeth Peratrovich, and not to take away from their importance in Alaska Native Heritage and history, but there are other people that have...
The Petersburg Indian Association has started a new program to help tribal households whose subsistence harvests have been impacted by COVID-19. According to Tribal Administrator Tracy Welch, the subsistence impact program was made possible through funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which she said was a follow up to the Cares Act passed by the federal government in 2020. Through the act, Congress designated $30 million for federally recognized tribes in coastal or Great...
The Alaska Redistricting Board adopted its final proclamation of redistricting November 10, marking the boundaries that will be used for house districts and senate pairings for the next decade. New districts are drawn every 10 years based on data collected from the U.S. Census. This year the state was divided into 40 districts, each with an approximate population of 18,355 people. The new districts were also required to be compact, contiguous, and socioeconomically integrated according to the...
A small audience gathered Sunday afternoon, socially distanced in the pews of Petersburg Lutheran Church, to experience the music of concert pianist Roman Rudnytsky. Audience member Susan Erickson gave the concert rave reviews. "It was joy ... rapture ... an awesome 90 minutes of piano," said Erickson. "He is a maestro ... and we are so fortunate in Petersburg that someone of that caliber came to our community." Roman Rudnytsky has spent a lifetime mastering the piano. His parents were...
Construction has finished on the Kake Access Road project and the road and boat launch opened to the public October 29 according to Garrett Paul, project manager with the Department of Transportation. The project improved between 20 to 25 miles of existing roads and added six miles of new roads. It spans a total distance of 42 miles from Kake to the new boat launch. The total cost of the project was $40 million, consisting of $34 million for the construction contract and $6 million for project...
