Sorted by date Results 3717 - 3741 of 5574
At its board meeting in Ketchikan April 28, Southeast Alaska Power Agency agreed to look into the feasibility of putting in a third generating unit at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility. The proposal was put forward by board members representing Wrangell and Petersburg, whose communities Tyee predominantly powers. Operating since 1984, the Tyee hydro facility uses water from a natural lake, which is funneled into a drop shaft feeding two generating units that together generate 25 megawatts of power. In the original construction, the...
Petersburg power went out Tuesday morning after a rotten tree fell into lines in Ketchikan. “Our outage resulted from a large tree in the Ketchikan lines, which took down the whole SEAPA transmission system,” Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson said. Ketchikan Public Utilities electric division manager Andrew Donato said the tree hit a point where the Southeast Alaska Power Agency line comes into Ketchikan. “These power lines contained, at the very top, SEAPA 115 KV lines followed by our sub transmission followed by our distr... Full story
Lawrence (Lori) Christiansen was sentenced this week after admitting guilt for charges related to the distribution of heroin and methamphetamine. The state’s case against Lars Christensen, who was also facing charges of two counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the 2nd and 3rd degrees, was dismissed in February. Federal and local authorities arrested Lars and his brother Lawrence Christensen in January after receiving and handling a package containing 25 grams of heroin and 36 grams of methamphetamine addressed to their m... Full story
Petersburg Parks and Rec is finally getting to upgrade portions of the City Creek Trail and Hungry Point Trail, thanks to a local partnership with the Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) and grant funds. Parks and Rec director Donnie Hayes says this has been in the works for nearly 10 years, well before borough formation and Hayes coming to town. "Before my time there had already been discussions between the Petersburg Indian Association and Petersburg Parks and Recreation, about ways that we... Full story
Incoming Petersburg School District teacher Rowan Beraza is headed to town this June to teach Spanish and English in the high school and middle school. Beraza, a Fairbanks native, taught for the past year in Metlakatla after earning her teaching license and master's degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She also taught oversees in Southeast Asia after teaching Spanish as an adjunct professor at UAF. "I decided to try teaching English as a foreign language overseas," Beraza said. "I...
A local restaurant owner will be expanding her business and plans to open The 420, potentially Petersburg's first retail marijuana business. Susan Burrell has owned and operated the Fisherman's Net Café and Gift Shop on North Nordic Drive since 2013. Within the past year, she began selling pipes and other marijuana smoking products, but said she hadn't planned until recently to open up a retail store. "I had no intention of being a retail store because I figured the competition was going to be...
Kyle Hagerman's father, Karl, likes to refer to him as "well adjusted." Kyle is soft-spoken, humble about his intelligence and a cancer survivor. Although he only has one, maybe two, memories about the battle with cancer he fought and won. Kyle was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia one week after turning two years old. For Robyn Hagerman, Kyle's mother, the emotion of the day is inescapable. "Let me tell you this, I am the emotional Hagerman, so don't you feel bad," Robyn says... Full story
Along with a slew of other awards, the Petersburg Pilot won best weekly newspaper in Alaska at this year’s Alaska Press Club awards competition—the annual awards program recognizing quality journalism in print, radio and television across the state. “This weekly has it all: amazing color photos, such as the blue iceberg, solar storms and orcas; and a terrific layout,” wrote Cheryl Thompson in her judges’ comments. “Very clean and easy to read. And I love the ‘Yesterday’s news’ section.” Some of the entries included photo submissions by Care... Full story
Petersburg Borough staff is moved out of the municipal building and construction workers from MCG Constructors/DCI are ready to move in as the $6.8 million project to remodel the old building gets underway. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said there’s a few items left in the old building such as broken chairs, old computer equipment and police vehicle seats. “The move is pretty much done,” Giesbrecht said. “We’ve got odds and ends from the old building that will probably get trashed. It’s just stuff that no one has any interest in and we don...
The Kake Access road project is officially dead after the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) nixed the project’s environmental impact statement (EIS). “A Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an…EIS was published in the Federal Register on January 22, 2013,” a notice on the federal register states. “The FHWA is issuing this notice to advise the public that FHWA and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) will no longer prepare an EIS for the Kake Access project.” In 2004, a state transportation plan identified... Full story
Karen Hofstad has a collection of a couple hundred or so seafood related cans and labels that would make fishing industry historians salivate. The majority of the collection represents the salmon industry and canneries throughout Alaska, including Kodiak, Petersburg and Wrangell, and they are the inspiration for trash cans worthy of a framed photograph. Last summer Bruce Schactler, a fisherman from Kodiak, contacted Hofstad to ask her to share her labels to create 30 trash cans to help... Full story
Over 50 band and choir students participated in the Region V Music Festival in Ketchikan last weekend, and the results show the PHS music program led by director Matt Lenhard continues to improve. The event brought groups from all over Southeast together and focuses on celebrating the region's close-knit music community. The festival is non-competitive, but offers participants the opportunity to gain ratings. PHS concert band, jazz band and choir performed during the event, and there were two... Full story
Local Petersburg resident Eliza Warmack will be a new 5th grade teacher at Rae C. Stedman Elementary School next year. Eliza, her son Ari and her husband Glenn Warmack came to Petersburg four years ago from Sand Point in the Aleutian chain where Eliza taught kindergarten for two years. "We actually moved up there (Sand Point) for a teaching job," Eliza said. "We were in Portland and I taught there for a year and did some subbing for Portland Public and there was just not a job to be had. The...
The Rasmuson Foundation has chosen a collection of Petersburg artists’ works to put in its newly renovated office space in Anchorage. In its promotion of the arts, the Rasmuson Foundation awards funds through the ‘art acquisition fund’—grants to museums across the state so they can purchase local art to display. Kelsey Potdivan, Rasmuson Foundation program fellow, said about 28 museums across the state are involved in the program and those museums then provide several pieces to Rasmuson to display for 18 months. “The museums that we’ve original...
Nine Petersburg High School students traveled to Skagway earlier this month for the annual art event known as Art Fest. The event was held April 7-10 and open to high school students throughout Southeast. Over 80 students gathered in Skagway, a destination not really known for hosting regional events. "Traveling to Skagway was definitely a highlight because it's not a typical place that students get to travel to," says Ashley Lohr, PHS art teacher. Of the nine students Lohr took to the event,...
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says there should be above normal temperatures during the summer months of June, July and August, and equal chances for normal precipitation. So expect typical amounts of rain, but more warm days than Petersburg has seen in the past couple of summers, says NOAA forecaster Kimberly Vaughan. “And that’s because we are transitioning from an El Niño to the La Niña,” she says. As for this past winter, Vaughan says it was the second warmest on record for Petersburg, and fifth lowest for snowfall. The average t...
JUNEAU (AP) — The pilot of a commuter plane that crashed in southeast Alaska had said he was going to take an alternate route due to cloudy weather before the plane went down, according to a preliminary accident report. The report from the National Transportation Safety Board on the April 8 crash that left three men dead, including the pilot, 60-year-old David Galla, was released Thursday. The passengers killed in the accident on Admiralty Island were Greg Scheff, 61, and Thomas Siekawitch, 57. The only survivor, 21-year-old Morgan Enright, r...
JUNEAU (AP) — Students and teaching assistants have arrived back in Juneau from a remote mountaineering class that was cut short when one of their professors was mauled by a brown bear. They said Tuesday night that they were tired and not yet ready to talk about Forest Wagner, 35, who was teaching the class on Mount Emmerich near Haines when he was attacked by the brown bear sow on Monday. The mountain is near Kicking Horse River in Alaska's panhandle. A student hiked into cellphone range on the mountain and called Haines police, who r...
The Petersburg School Board approved the employment of two new teachers within the district. Eliza Warmack will join staff as a 5th grade teacher beginning in the 2016-17 school year and Rowan Beraza will be a secondary language arts and Spanish teacher beginning the same time. The School Board also approved the principal contracts for another year. Middle and high school principal Rick Dormer will receive a salary of $97,116 and elementary principal Teri Toland will receive a salary of $88,773. They also approved exempt contracts for finance... Full story
WRANGELL - A passenger plane based out of Wrangell crashed on Admiralty Island April 8, during a morning flight to Angoon. Of the four onboard the Cessna 206, the pilot and two passengers were killed. A third passenger, Morgan Enright, 21, of Ketchikan, survived the crash. The United States Coast Guard and Sitka Search and Rescue transported her from the scene and she remains in critical condition in a Seattle hospital. Alaska State Troopers identified those killed in the crash as pilot David... Full story
The North End Ferry Authority is prepared to resume ferry service on Friday, after shutting down for the winter due to low customer traffic. The Rainforest Islands Ferry will complete four weekly trips from Coffman Cove to Banana Point with the M/V Rainforest Islander. North End Ferry Authority general manager Kent Miller says a small repair was needed before the start of the season, but other than that, things are looking good. The repair to the vessels’ cooling system required taking the boat out of water in Wrangell, but it was completed e...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is looking for citizen scientists to track bat local bats in an effort to track the development of a deadly fungus affecting bats known as 'white nose syndrome.' ADFG's Fish and Wildlife technician Steve Lewis gave a talk at the Petersburg Public Library Saturday where he provided a bat primer and informed locals on how they can help ADFG better understand local bat populations. Lewis said no one knows where white nose syndrome came from but that it's prese... Full story
A little more than a year ago on a cold winter morning, not unlike many Petersburg couples, Meggan and Donnie Hayes were eating breakfast. Out of all those couples, the Hayes may have had the most honest, albeit brutally honest, conversation shared in that moment. In-between slurps of cereal, Meggan told Donnie she didn't love him anymore. Not only did she not love him, she told Donnie, she didn't even like him. "We had been through such a time in our marriage where I just said that because that... Full story
Clare Painter has always liked a little adventure in her life, and she recently undertook a challenge she never saw coming–reality TV. She will appear on Fox Network's new reality show "American Grit" on Thursday, April 14, at 5 p.m. local time. Painter moved to Petersburg in 1986, and spent two summers working salmon and black cod at Cold Storage, then spent the next 20 years working on fishing boats. "Fishing was always challenging, it was always changing," Painter says. One of the biggest p...
JUNEAU (AP) — Delta Airlines says it will no longer offer flights from Juneau in the fall and winter months because demand from Alaska residents at those times is low. Mike Medeiros, Delta's vice president in Seattle, said the flights will end this year on Aug. 31. The airline will still offer flights in the spring and fall, The Juneau Empire reports. The Atlanta-based airline started flying between Juneau and Seattle during the spring and summer of 2014. The flights created competition, marking the first time in nearly 20 years that Alaska Air...
