Sorted by date Results 2525 - 2549 of 5587
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska House’s populist vote earlier this week to pay Alaskans the full amount for their oil-wealth fund checks was undone Friday, as House leaders hoped to clear the way for a budget vote. Lawmakers on Friday rescinded the earlier vote after debate over Alaska Permanent Fund dividends gummed up efforts to pass and send to the Senate a state operating budget. Rather than a full payout, estimated at about $2,650, lawmakers voted for a $1,600 dividend this year. Monday’s vote for a fully funded dividend, held durin...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker wants to spend $9.5 million for a centralized statewide 911 dispatch system. To help pay for it, Walker is proposing redirecting much of the $10 million he requested for surveying on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to better understand the oil resources there. Walker’s budget director, Pat Pitney, said money for seismic work isn’t needed now. Pitney says $8.3 million of the $10 million proposed for seismic work would be redirected to the dispatch system, with $1.5 million of the r...
A 15-year-old, fading mural in Petersburg is getting about four coats of paint added by volunteers in town. The Our Town mural, which hung above the parking lot across the street from the Wells Fargo bank since 2003, currently sits on the second floor of the Petersburg Indian Association Hallingstad-Peratrovich building. The 40-foot painting is broken into 11 plywood panels, and about 15 volunteers have been working in groups of three or four since January to layer heavy duty paint. Pia...
Rachel Newport is taking over as clerk of the trial court office in Petersburg. "It's a big job," said Desiree Burrell, the magistrate judge in Petersburg. "It's very important." Newport is a Petersburg native, and now she'll be manager of its court system. She'll handle all of the filing and be the in-court clerk as well. "She's really the face of the court system in Petersburg," said Clayton Jones, who's been filling in from Ketchikan. Newport was one of the clinic receptionists at the...
Over a period of 60 years, Petersburg has had four weekly newspapers, one of which operated under two different names. The Petersburg Pilot is the fifth paper and was founded on February 8, 1974. Newspaper history in Petersburg began on January 18, 1913 with the appearance of The Progressive, "published every Saturday" by J.E. Rivard and J. Frederick Johnson. Rivard was editor. The Progressive survived only a year. Johnson's name last appeared on the masthead on March 8, 1913 and the paper's...
A Petersburg man is facing controlled substance charges after police intercepted a package shipped to him that contained about an ounce of heroin. Kelsey McCay, 25, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, according to the Petersburg Police Department. McCay was the subject of an investigation after police developed information that heroin was being shipped to him. A search warrant of the package was granted and police discovered just... Full story
The Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors decided last week it would invite the finalists for the CEO position to town likely in mid-April. After an executive session to discuss which of the four finalists — one is from Petersburg — to bring to town, the board decided to invite all three. Philip Hofstetter is the vice president of hospital services at the Norton Sound Health Corporation in Nome. Hofstetter, a clinical audiologist, has 25 years of experience as a healthcare professional, 19 of which are in rural Alaska at a Level 4 Cri...
Superior Court Judge William Carey ordered Petersburg Attorney Fred Triem to pay $99,159.02 to Alaska Airlines counsel Davis, Wright, Tremaine LLP to settle claims sought by the law firm for costs, attorney fees and a $10,000 sanction for his misconduct in continuing a lawsuit against Alaska Airlines after his client Helen Lingley died. Triem represented Lingley who was fired from her position with Alaska Airlines for taking ear buds from an airline storage area. Lingley died on June 24, 2016 while the Airlines and Triem were actively pursuing...
The outlook for tourism in Petersburg this summer is showing an increase in cruise ship passengers, while the rate of independent travelers is still unclear. Dave Berg, co-founder of Viking Travel Inc., says cruise ships are scheduled to make 133 stops in Petersburg this summer, which is up from 110 last year. "More stops, more passengers," Berg said. That could mean more dollars spent in downtown businesses. "More sales tax," Berg said. "Which basically trickles down to the economy and it's...
The sweeping remodel of the power and light building in Petersburg is on schedule to finish at the start of May, but there were several changes to the plan for the old building with “good bones.” Karl Hagerman, the utility director, says the complete remodel of the Petersburg Municipal Power and Light building, which hasn’t had a dramatic change in at least 30 years, will be done by May 1. The remodel includes full insulation, an entrance that removed the blind spot at the North Nordic and Haugen drive intersection, a reception desk on the f...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska House on Monday voted to pay out a full Alaska Permanent Fund dividend this year, but residents shouldn't start thinking about how they'll spend the big check just yet. The measure now moves to the Senate, where leaders have been lukewarm to funding a full check. Alaskans haven't had a full dividend check since 2015, when nearly every resident pocketed $2,072. The last two years, the check has been cut in about half as the state has eyed potential use of Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to help cover state c...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said it has been overestimating how many Chinook and sockeye salmon make it up the Taku River. Department officials said the statistical bias is being corrected by new state-of-the-art studies, the Juneau Empire reported Sunday. The department said it had been overestimating the salmon numbers by 30 to 40 percent. The estimates were conducted using a decades-old “mark-recapture” system. Department coordinator Ed Jones said seal predation and the old system have caused much of the prob...
A Petersburg man is slated to be named national president of a storied fraternal organization that has about 780,000 members. Mike Luhr is scheduled this July to be installed as national president, or grand exalted ruler, of The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America. Luhr got his start with the Elks in 1977 at 21 years old. He worked through the ranks, and by 2001 became the president in Petersburg. He moved to the state level in 2004 when he was elected as a...
WRANGELL — The Wrangell Borough Assembly in a special meeting last week adopted a letter outlining its intent to potentially partner up with Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium on Wrangell’s hospital. Held on March 22, the early evening meeting covered some of the pros and cons of third party partnership for managing Wrangell Medical Center. The hospital is public asset owned and managed by the borough, one of only a handful in the state still run independently of a larger healthcare service. WMC has been “hemorrhaging money,” assembl...
WRANGELL — Safety was the watchword of last week’s meeting of the Wrangell Public School Board, with parents and staff alike weighing in on security at Wrangell’s public schools. The crux of their concern was an incident involving a high school student on February 12, in which the student was recorded by peers during class discussing the setting off of fireworks or explosives at the school, with the intention of getting expelled. Faculty and the school administration had been alerted to the conversation by concerned students afterward. Super...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – State labor officials say Alaska lost about 2,300 jobs in February compared to the same month last year. Total employment fell an estimated 0.7 percent in February from February 2017. Employment in oil and gas jobs declined 6.8 percent through the loss of 700 jobs. Retail was down 2.3 percent with the loss of 800 jobs. Construction fell 0.8 percent, representing a loss of 100 jobs, a smaller loss than in recent months. All three sectors of government lost jobs. The manufacturing sector and the transportation, w...
WRANGELL — In a special meeting of the City and Borough Assembly on March 15, members finally moved ahead toward replacing Wrangell’s water treatment plant. The outdated plant has had a number of production problems over the years, starting not long after its construction in 1999. Reliant on a combination of ozonation, roughing and slow-sand filtration before disinfection, high sedimentation from its two water reservoirs has made treatment a time consuming, inefficient process. Poor filter performance has subsequently been impacting water qua...
About a dozen people recently spent a day learning about Tlingit culture at Sandy Beach Park, as part of a Girl Scout Gold Award project. Nine students, including Avery Herrman-Sakamoto, who culminated her Gold Award project at the Tlingit Culture Camp on March 15. Herrman-Sakamoto has been a scout since the second grade. She decided in the fifth grade to work toward the Gold Award, the highest honor in the Girl Scouts. And now, a junior, she has worked on this capstone project since September....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Thursday the extent of its king salmon sport fishing restrictions this season. Citing a poor preseason forecast, the department has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (See map) In the waters adjacent to the Stikine River, which include District 8 and a portion of the Back Channel in District 7, the retention of king salmon will be prohibited starting... Full story
The union that represents most borough employees voted Tuesday to reject a three-year contract with the borough, upending the agreement and scrambling both negotiating sides to decide what to do next. After the assembly ratified the three-year bargaining agreement in early March, it was up to the Petersburg Municipal Employees Association to decide whether to do the same. The association majority rejected it Tuesday evening. Some association members still feel a distaste for the last contract agreement, said Justin Haley, president of the...
The school board on Tuesday approved a three-year contract agreement with teachers, moved forward with a cafeteria kitchen remodel and celebrated the arrival of the district's new activity bus. The labor agreement between the Petersburg School District and Associated Teachers of Petersburg was finalized for the years 2019 through 2021. In it there's a 2 percent raise stretched over three years for the base salary of teachers. There will be a half percent raise in the first year, one percent rais...
In her final semester, Elisa Larson had one more chance to compete in high school, and since her left knee is torn and volleyball is over, she became a state champion in poetry. Larson won the Poetry Out Loud State Finals earlier this month, beating 10 others and scored more along the way. In the fall, Larson tore her ACL and lateral meniscus during the volleyball state tournament, ending her sports career in high school. The team would go on to win that tournament but might not have gotten ther...
The Petersburg Medical Center health fair this year is a way to educate the community and offer complete blood tests for a fraction of what it would cost normally. But it shouldn’t be an excuse to shun a physician’s office until the next health fair comes around two years from now, said Liz Bacom, the laboratory, imaging and infection control manager at PMC. “There are individuals who pretty much don’t see a physician unless they are hauled in by an ambulance,” said Bacom, as the legitimacy of her statement refrained her from laughing....
The library in Petersburg is about a month away from unveiling its 20-foot storyteller totem pole. The Petersburg Public Library is adding a roughly $40,000 red cedar totem pole called the "Storytellers Pole," carved by Tommy Joseph, a Tlingit carver from Sitka. Joseph had an idea about 11 years ago to build a totem pole that caters to children and the storytellers they grow up with. He pitched the idea to the Petersburg library about four years ago, and it stuck, but the library had to wait...
The PHS jazz band is hosting a fundraiser this weekend to help defray high costs of having to fly to Juneau unexpectedly for the music festival. The Petersburg jazz band, and a few songs from the concert band, will play at the Sons of Norway Hall on Saturday evening from 7 p.m. to 9. The event comes as ferry scheduling in Petersburg has been unpredictable and lately non-existent. The ferry won’t be able to take roughly 60 band, jazz and choir members to the music festival in mid-April, making flight tickets about $250 each. The goal is to c...
