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Petersburg is hosting two conferences this week and next. On Thursday and Friday the Alaska Recreation and Park Association meets. On their schedule are topics entitled: “Love Your Job…Love Your Life; Managing for Millenials; Laughter Yoga in Your Parks and Do You have a Dog Park? Or Has Your Whole Community Accidentally Become a Dog Park?” Who says Parks and Recreation Dept. directors don”t have a sense of humor? Next week the Southeast Conference meets on Monday through Thursday. President Garry White points out in his conference welcome...
The school year is well underway and Jasmine Ieremia is back in class at PHS after spending a year studying abroad with the Rotary Exchange Program. She"s been back in town for four months, and the time has allowed her to reflect on living in Thailand. Ieremia says she missed American culture, and the tonal language of Thailand was difficult. She knew enough to get around and do regular everyday things, but conversation was limited. Another hurdle was the steep learning curve of driver and...
JUNEAU – The final step is expected this week for a nonprofit organization to take over a Juneau health center serving homeless and uninsured residents that it started managing last year. Wrangell-based Alaska Island Community Services began managing Front Street Community Health Center in May 2015 at the request of the center's board. Board member Mariya Lovishchuk said a final vote on the transfer will take place this week, The Juneau Empire reported. AICS offers medical, dental and behavioral health services in Wrangell, Gustavus and N...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A Juneau-based organization has received nearly $930,000 in federal funds to help revitalize Alaska Native languages. The Sealaska Heritage Institute will use the grant from the Administration for Native Americans to support a program dedicated to teaching the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. The project will serve participants in Juneau, Sitka, Metlakatla and Hydaburg over a three-year period. The institute is looking for eight participants to become proficient in one of the three languages. Four mentors w...
The Petersburg Children"s Center began the school year earlier this month with a new look after recently completing a renovation. Teachers and kiddos were welcomed with a spacious expansion, but it wouldn"t have been possible without overwhelming support from the community. "This whole process has included many, many people. Jim Schwartz and Bob Lynn have been here throughout the entire project," PCC director Brandi Heppe wrote in an email to the Pilot. "Jim Roberts and Kurt Wohlhueter were...
To comply with HB156, the school board unanimously approved the sex education curriculum and the teachers of the curriculum for the school year at their board meeting Tuesday night. The board held an open work session Monday night to hear from staff that will be teaching this year”s sex education courses. The teachers gave board members a rundown of past curriculum and their approach to this school year. “It was almost two hours of information. I feel like we came away with a real clear understanding of what is being taught,” said board presi...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska imports 96 percent of its food, and the governor says that should change. Gov. Bill Walker spoke during a conference for the National Association of Farmer”s Market Nutrition Programs, the Juneau Empire reported. “When we became a state, we used to raise half the food that was consumed in Alaska,” Walker said. The state now produces 4 percent of the food its residents consume. “That”s partly because we have grown since statehood in population, but also we”ve sort of lost our vision a bit,” Walker said. “We got a...
DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska (AP) – A 45-year-old man from Mexico was located unharmed Monday after failing to return on time from a hiking trip to an abandoned city bus in the Alaska wilderness made famous by the popular book and movie, both titled “Into the Wild.” Denali National Park officials say the search for Carlos Castrejon was called off after he was found in good condition. He was last seen Wednesday when he set off to find the abandoned Fairbanks city bus near the national park. He intended to be back Saturday. Offic...
WRANGELL – A former Wrangell resident joined an Alaska canoe group in supporting a North Dakota tribe protesting construction of an oil pipeline across sacred lands. Earlier this month Ken Hoyt met up with members of the Juneau-based One People Canoe Society for a three-day spiritual journey on the Missouri River. For a week they joined a growing group of people protesting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near tribal land. The pipeline is planned to be an 1,172-mile connection be...
A state outreach program designed to shake some sense into Alaskans, with the help of a mobile earthquake simulator worth over $100,000, stopped by Petersburg last week. Each year the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) sends out a mobile trailer unit to different communities in an effort to raise awareness of earthquake risks. However, this year is the first for the simulator traveling around Southeast Alaska, according to Jeremy Zidek, public information...
Suzanne Wood, co-founder of Mitkof Highway Homeowners Association, on Sept. 1, sent a letter to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority seeking records for the 11 August 2016 Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s Resource Management Committee Meeting and Executive Session and for the 24 August 2016 AMHTA Board of Trustees Special Meeting. The documents, according to the letter, “are necessary for us to ascertain how the Trust could transition from the ongoing and forward-moving AMHTA-US Forest Service administrative land exchange process to s... Full story
PETERSBURG – A school on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska that saw only a handful of graduates last year is closing its doors due to a lack of students. The small school on the northern end of the island in Port Protection is closed for the fall semester. The closure comes after the recent shuttering of two other schools in the Southeast Island School District, KFSK-FM reported. Superintendent Lauren Burch said the Port Protection school had only a few graduates this year and that there are no school-age children left in the small c...
Endangered humpback whales in nine of 14 newly identified distinct population segments thave recovered enough that they don’t warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act, NOAA Fisheries said this week. International conservation efforts to protect and conserve whales over the past 40 years proved successful for most populations. Four of the distinct population segments are still protected as endangered, and one is now listed as threatened. Commercial whaling severely reduced humpback whale numbers from historical levels, and the United S... Full story
WRANGELL – Local air travelers were invited to the airport for a question-and-answer session August 25. A delegation of managers with Alaska Airlines fired up a grill out front, fielding questions people may have about the phasing out of the services “combi” fleet next year. Since its introduction in 2007, the 737-400 combi has been a unique facet of travel within the state, combining cargo conveyance with passenger service in the main cabin. Until it phases them out, Alaska Airlines is the only major domestic carrier to still use the combina...
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority trustees come across as a bit heavy-handed in their effort to make an argument that their land parcels in Ketchikan and Petersburg need to be sold and logged before Congress acts on a land sale agreement that is before the Congressional body. To suggest that the S.E. timber industry will collapse and leave their timberland valueless in the next 6-months seems improbable. Timbered land parcel values very likely fluctuate with market conditions rather than the state of the S.E. Alaska timber industry. To...
JUNEAU – Costs for Alaska’s expanded Medicaid program have exceeded first-year estimates by roughly $30 million so far, leaving some concerned about the impact the program may have on the state budget once the federal government stops covering the entire tab. Gov. Bill Walker expanded Medicaid to provide coverage to thousands more lower-income Alaskans. Enrollment began last September, and as of July 31, nearly 20,400 people had signed up. The federal government is expected to fully cover the health care expenses for the expansion enro...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to send a letter urging an alternative route to logging Alaska Mental Health Trust (AMHT) lands south of town at its Tuesday meeting. The land in question is on steep hillside located above Mitkof Highway, and the borough would rather see land exchanged than logging. Last month, the AMHT board announced plans to go forward with timber sales of lands near Petersburg from Scow Bay to south of Twin Creek, if a land exchange is not approved by Congress on Jan. 15. There is also AMHT land near Ketchikan. The...
The municipal election on Oct. 4. is fast approaching as the deadline for candidates to file came and went. Mark Jensen will run unopposed for mayor. Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Kurt Wohlhueter and Marc Martinsen are all running for two open assembly seats. Sandra Stevens is seeking a three-year term with the school board, leaving one vacant seat still open. Darlene Whitethorn is throwing her hat in for an open hospital board seat, but three, three-year terms do not have candidates. The planning and zoning commission has Otis Marsh and Yancy Nilsen l...
The assembly held its first reading of an ordinance amending borough code by imposing excise taxes on marijuana businesses within the borough. According to borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht, the assembly can elect to implement an excise tax on marijuana products, and that doesn’t need to be voted on. However, any additional taxes on licensed facilities would need to be voted on. Local resident Marj Oines took the time to speak on the potential excise tax at the meeting, during public comments. Oines noted any funds from an excise tax would g...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s attorney general says marijuana social clubs are illegal, addressing what had been a hazy area following the state’s legalization of recreational pot. The opinion does not apply to licensed retail marijuana shops, for which state regulators are considering rules for allowing cannabis consumption. At issue are clubs that charge fees for patrons to use marijuana onsite or that otherwise provide access to a significant number of people to consume marijuana there. Those, according to the opinion by Attorney Gener...
The month long moose hunting season is ready to begin next week, opening on September 15 and lasting until October 15. For the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake game unit, last year’s moose season turned out being the third best on record according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game harvest data. Area hunters had a 13-percent success rate, with 103 males harvested by 772 participating hunters. A total of 1,061 permits had been issued. After a reasonably mild winter, the moose population appears to be doing well. An aerial survey of the S...
With the seasonal peak behind it, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is expecting one of the worst shortfalls for salmon in recent memory. As of last Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-season blue sheet summary estimated just over 102,245,000 salmon had been caught statewide, with less than a quarter of that caught in Southeast. Despite a fair showing for sockeye, the state’s fishermen would be fortunate enough to harvest half the 263,463,000 salmon estimated caught last year. The news has not been good for the local comme... Full story
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A dog is back home safe with its owners after a pilot who had just landed a floatplane spotted it struggling in an Alaska waterway and rescued it. Pilot Mike Hudgins pulled the miniature sheltie named Misty from Tongass Narrows on Sunday. The animal had been swimming alone in the channel between the Ketchikan International Airport ferry dock and Taquan Air’s floatplane dock. Hudgins had finished giving a tour to a family when he called out to Misty, who was about 40 yards ahead of where he landed. “She started to turn...
Jon Pust comes from a family filled with musicians and artists, including a couple of cousins who are "topnotch painters." Pust used to work construction and drove some truck, but after he taught himself how to carve soapstone and alabaster into wildlife it suddenly became his career. After seeing some soapstone carvings with his wife Dawn, she challenged Pust to try his hand at the craft. "At first I thought she was nuts, but she finally talked me into trying it and I made three or four pieces... Full story
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA) board approved the sale of timber on two parcels they own in Ketchikan and Petersburg on August 24. According to the Trust, the sale will move forward if Congress does not pass legislation this session requiring the U.S. Forest Service to exchange land with equal timber values for the parcels. According to the Trust the two land parcels will be rendered valueless if they are not marketed soon. The parcel of land near Petersburg runs along a section of uplands along Mitkof Highway that is prone...
