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The bid for a new baler was awarded to Recycle Systems by the borough assembly at an assembly meeting on Monday for an amount not to exceed $535,327. The bid came in under the $600,000 that was allocated for a new borough baler by the assembly. All the bids that were placed came under the allocated $600,000, but public works director Chris Cotta recommended the bid be awarded to Recycle Systems. "The proposal offered by Recycle Systems was found to be outstanding in every regard, as well as...
The Petersburg Medical Center board of directors attempted to pass a resolution at their board meeting last month granting authority to specific board members to work with one of the hospital's financial institutions, but the motion was tabled until this month's meeting. The resolution would have allowed the president, vice president and treasurer of the board to perform such actions with Hilltop Securities as opening a brokerage account and transferring and purchasing stocks and bonds. The...
Petersburg Medical Center Controller Rocio Tejera delivered her first financial report to the board of directors on April 25 explaining the hospital's financial standing during the month of March and the fiscal year-to-date. PMC's gross operating revenue was just about on target for March, but the net operating revenue was $1,362,274, which was five percent over the $1,292,686 target for the month. Both the gross and operating revenues from the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2018...
Four students in a nursing program through University of Alaska Anchorage graduated with an associate's degree in applied science in nursing and received their nursing pins in a pinning ceremony on Thursday at the Elk's Lodge. Valaree Nilsen, Audrey Morton, Adam Axmaker and Carolyn Kvernvik had completed most of the two year program at the Petersburg Medical Center. The four graduates are the first to go through the program in Petersburg. Nichole Mattingly and Rosa Niemi led the program as UAA...
The Public Safety Advisory Board supported filling the vacant EMS coordinator position and replacing two fire engines at their meeting last Friday. While the EMS coordinator position does exist, it has not been funded or filled in about six to eight years, according to Fire Marshal Ryan Welde. The position has an annual salary of $96,147. The EMT coordinator duties, include responding to calls and splitting the day-to-day duties with Welde and fire/EMS director Sandy Dixson. Additionally, an...
A special meeting was held on April 17 by the borough assembly to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2020 Petersburg Borough budget before it goes before the assembly for its first reading on May 6. Finance director Jody Tow presented a slideshow detailing the general and enterprise funds for the proposed budget. Expenditures in the general fund total $9,567,149 for the 2020 budget, but it's balanced out by $9,571,545 in revenues. The total amount of excess of revenues over expenditures is...
Superior Court Judge William Carey ordered the release of $100,099.46 to Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in trust for Alaska Airlines and Dan Kane on Wednesday, April 24. The court held the funds in escrow while Petersburg Attorney Fred Triem filed an appeal of the case Estate of Helen Lingley vs. Alaska Airlines, Inc. and Dan Kane. The court issued final judgment in the matter in March 2018 and ordered Triem to pay costs, attorney fees and a $10,000 fine to Alaska Airlines counsel for the costs...
The Visitor Industry Working Group will continue their discussions on economic growth in Petersburg through tourism in September it was announced at their meeting on Monday. The group of 20 members was pulled together by the Petersburg Economic Development Council and Liz Cabrera, borough community and economic development director, to locate potential ideas for economic growth in Petersburg, while maintaining a balance between Petersburg's quality of life and tourism economy. Members are...
At their monthly meeting on Thursday, the board of directors for the Petersburg Medical Center discussed the idea of holding their meetings in the borough assembly chambers to better receive the community. "It's more to do with community engagement," said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter. "It just seems like a more centralized location." Hospital board meetings are currently held in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room in PMC on the fourth Thursday of every month. If the monthly board meetings were to be...
On Monday, the Southeast Alaska Power Agency board of directors postponed a reimbursement plan that would repay Petersburg and Wrangell for their additional power costs over the past few months, but agreed to distribute the funds by June 30. According to Bob Lynn, Petersburg’s representative on the SEAPA board, there was a motion to approve the reimbursement at Monday’s meeting, but the board was uncertain about how to report the reduction in SEAPA’s revenue for tax purposes. Lynn said SEAPA wan...
The editorial staff of the Petersburg Pilot and Wrangell Sentinel earned ten awards at this years Alaska Press Club contest. The awards were announced at the APC awards banquet in Anchorage on Saturday night. Work published in 2018 was judged. First place awards went to Brian Varela for a culture story about PIA and Sealaska teaching Sea Otter skin sewing, and Caleb Vierkant for a business story about the close of the cruise ship season in Wrangell. A second place award went to Caleb Vierkant...
Seafood industry researchers to casual history buffs will use and enjoy Tin Can Country - Southeast Alaska's Historic Salmon Canneries. This copiously illustrated edition is filled with stories, essays, historic photographs, custom made maps and colorful salmon can labels that together tell the story of S.E. Alaska's seafood industry from the time of tidewater Tlingit fish traps to today's highly mechanized, competitive corporate-conglomerated industry. It's a perfect coffee table book, because...
Life in a small fishing village, filled with opinionated fishermen and fisherwomen comes to life in this well-written story that was released last December by author and retired schoolteacher Christi Slaven. By the time you reach the final page of Home is Where the Fish Are, you'll have ridden out a night long storm that slammed, "a hundred tons of green water onto the deck," followed by a second monster that broke windows and sent green water and glass into the engine room. Equally descriptive...
The borough assembly approved a second follow-up letter at last week's assembly meeting regarding a letter sent to Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen in November requesting information about a possible review of the Tonka and Big Thorne Integrated Resource timber contracts. "It feels like we've been stonewalled for the last six months on that," said vice mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor at a borough assembly meeting on April 15. "Frankly, I want to put this issue to bed." The letter is the third...
Those at Alaska Marine Lines, including President Kevin Anderson, always closely watch salmon forecasts in Southeast Alaska. In recent years, salmon runs in the region have been lower than average, and the shipping company has felt it. "We had a bad year last year here in Southeast Alaska," Anderson told a crowd at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday. "If we were just in Southeast Alaska, we would not have been profitable." Fortunately for AML, the company isn't solely dependent on Southea...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency, representing the communities of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Ketchikan, decided to postpone a reimbursement plan to its two northern communities in their last meeting. Petersburg and Wrangell took on additional costs to keep the lights on in their towns over the past months, which they felt SEAPA should compensate them for. In a brief summary of recent events, Wrangell and Petersburg both receive hydropower from Tyee Lake. Due to dry weather last year, however,...
The Petersburg School Board held a work session on Thursday with district staff in which board members heard presentations on three new classes coming to Petersburg High School. Beginning in the fall, the Petersburg School District will be offering a food science class, a computer science principles class and a class that prepares high school students for a career in teaching; however, if enough students don't register for the classes, they won't be offered. Students will get the opportunity to...
At a school board meeting last week, Petersburg School District Director of Activities Jaime Cabral said that a recent research project revealed that school districts within Southeast Alaska spent $1.9 million in one year traveling with Alaska Airlines. The figure only takes into account the amount of money the region spends on travel for activities, like basketball games at other schools or regional and state competitions. Cabral said that Alaska Airlines is looking at possible solutions to...
The borough assembly approved a resolution on Monday opposing Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proposed 2020 fiscal year budget that also lists the direct impacts of the budget to the borough. Resolution #2019-06 urges the governor and the Alaska Legislature to adopt a more balanced budget that only includes budget cuts that are backed up with an analysis of the cut's economic and social impacts to Alaska residents. According to the resolution, the proposed budget would do significant damage to the economie...
The captain of the fishing vessel Alaskan Girl has been indicted on federal charges of discharging 16,000 pounds of pollutant into the waters of Sumner Strait in June 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. According to information provided in a plea agreement filed on April 15, the F/V Alaskan Girl skippered by Brannon Finney, was enroute from Wrangell to Petersburg with four bags, known as super sacks or brailer bags, onboard. Each 4,000-pound bag contained sandblast waste generated...
Between 2013 and 2016, the deer population on Mitkof Island was on an upward trend, according to Stephen Bethune, Unit 4 area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game based in Sitka. It is difficult for ADF&G to survey the exact number of deer on Mitkof Island, so it tracks population trends over a several year period, according to Bethune. To determine the trends, ADF&G uses deer pellet surveys, hunter harvest rates and aerial surveys. Between 2004 and 2008, the deer...
The borough's contract assessors gave the borough assembly, who were acting as the board of equalization, a review of the remaining unsettled property tax appeals between property owner Andrew Cowan and the assessor on April 9. Every four years, the borough's contract assessors cycle through different areas of the borough evaluating current building permits as needed. This year the assessors evaluated the canneries and properties near the borough's cemetery. The assessors received 81 appeals...
During Monday's borough assembly meeting, assistant fire chief Dave Berg presented a petition to the assembly requesting that they fill the vacant emergency medical services coordinator position. The petition had over 25 signatures from members of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department. If the borough were to fill the vacant position, then the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department would have a designated person available to train EMS volunteers and free up Fire/EMS director Sandy Dixson's time...
Taking advantage of the sunshine Southeast Alaska has been experiencing this spring, Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter paddled 135 miles in his kayak to Ketchikan by himself as a way to test his endurance. His journey began Friday, March 29 at Banana Point and he arrived in Ketchikan the following Monday. He was greeted by staff at Peace Health Ketchikan Medical Center. Hofstetter said he had been planning to visit the facility and build a relationship with the staff, but flights...
The Petersburg Park and Recreation Center will be temporarily reducing their hours of operation beginning May 1 due to understaffing. Currently, the community center is open Monday through Saturday from 6 A.M. through 9 P.M. and 1 P.M. through 7 P.M. on Sundays. Starting May 1, the community center will only be open from Tuesday through Saturday from 6 A.M. through 9 P.M. According to Parks and Recreation director Chandra Thornburg, the new schedule will allow Parks and Rec staff to keep the...
