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WRANGELL, Alaska (AP) – State plans to store contaminated soil near a recreation area in the Alaska Panhandle could be stalled by the U.S. Forest Service. CoastAlaska News reports, state officials seek to move nearly 20,000 cubic yards (15,291 cubic meters) of lead-laced soil in a rock quarry south of Wrangell. Officials say they want the soil moved because it poses a threat to marine environment and have prepared it with phosphate-based product so the lead won't leach into soil or waterways. To move the soil, the state needs a road permit, w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska state capital's electric utility is set to change hands late next year, but some in the city are looking for a way to keep it under local control. Avista, which is the parent company for Juneau's power company, Alaska Light Electric & Power, is in the process of being bought by Canadian energy company Hydro One. The sale is expected to close in late 2018, the Juneau Empire reported. The two heads of Juneau Hydropower — President and CEO Keith Comstock and Managing Director Duff Mitchell — have expressed inter...
At the age of 23, Harvey Gilliland left his job at Western Union Telegraph Company in Seattle to take a job at the White Alice Communications System (WACS) in Duncan Canal, just 9-miles from Petersburg. The site was 2.25 miles from the beach, according to Gilliland, and sat on a mountain at a 2,460 ft. elevation. The steep terrain between the site and beach required a 6.25-mile road with 5 major switchbacks, Gilliland noted. Following two weeks of indoctrinization in Anchorage, "another guy and...
The history of the code name White Alice is lost to history. Those devising the code name may have selected it as an acronym or just a name with no special meaning. One claim has Alice an acronym for Alaska Integrated Communications Enterprise. Air Force regulations required two words in a code name. A second word White, represented the long Alaskan winter. Alice White would work, but a silent screen star already had that name and person's names could not be used. Transposing the two words...
After the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb on August 24, 1949 the United States nuclear monopoly came to an end. Enemy bombers flying over the Arctic Circle from air bases above the Arctic Circle could reach the American heartland in a few hours. Early warning radar stations in Alaska and Canada could provide advance warning of a Soviet bomber attack, but the radars would only be effective with efficient and reliable communications to military control centers. The first Alaska radar network comm...
Last week The Pilot reported that Karl Hagerman is the director of the Community Development department. That is incorrect. Liz Cabrera is the director of Community Development....
The Petersburg Public Health Center has been outfitted with kits to help soften the blow of prescription drug and heroin overdoses long enough to get a person into treatment, said nurse Erin Michael. The health center is offering free overdose kits to anyone in Petersburg. In the kit is a nasal spray with naloxone, brand-name Narcan, which reverses respiratory depression that occurs while someone is overdosing on opioids. “This is a good thing for Petersburg,” Michael said. “Ultimately, it can save lives and buy someone time before they can g...
Turnover rate is a figure often monitored by employers in different ways, interpreted differently by one manager to the next and calculated using unique formulas. But there will always be a singular constant – money. The cost to replace an employee can be in the thousands. And turnover rate is often unforgiving, as it usually accounts for any person separating from his or her job. Borough governments in southeast Alaska often approach turnover differently, if they approach it at all. The H...
The Pilot calculated annual turnover rate for each Petersburg Borough department by using employee documents from 2013 to 2016. Here’s how it was done. The turnover rates presented reflect full-time staff only, and Mindy Swihart, the Borough Deputy Clerk, confirmed the data. After the data was calculated, every department head, along with the Borough manager and human resources officials, were asked to comment and confirm the turnover rates. To compute annual turnover rate, the number of full-time employees who left a department for any r...
National Geographic has a new cruise ship and it stopped in Petersburg on Monday, where the Chamber of Commerce gifted the captain with an inaugural plaque to commemorate the ship's first visit to the city. "On behalf of the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce," David Byrne said to Captain Andrew Cook. "We would just like to welcome you and your crew and your guests to the city of Petersburg." Marc Cappelletti, the director of expedition development on the ship, ushered representatives from the...
Why do a story on Petersburg Borough employee turnover? We were asked this question many times in the days leading up to the publication of this week’s story by reporter Ben Muir. Employee turnover is costly, for both private businesses and government. Replacing an employee requires: • Training time • Possible damage to equipment and property by inexperienced employees • Productivity losses • Lower teamwork output • Additional cost of overtime for remaining employees until vacancy filled Often managers don’t think about employee retention, be...
Hunters are reminded the Unit 4 general season deer hunt begins August 1. The bag limit is restricted to bucks only through September 14. Beginning September 15 either sex may be taken. During the bucks only portion of the season, evidence of sex must remain naturally attached to the meat, or antlers must remain naturally attached to the entire carcass. Hunters must have a valid hunting license and deer harvest tickets in possession while hunting. Harvest tickets must be validated in sequential order and unused tickets must be carried while...
On Aug. 1 at approximately 12:52 p.m., Alaska State Troopers received a report from the International Response Coordination Center (IRCC) regarding an SOS activation from an InReach personal locator beacon (PLB). The GPS coordinates provided indicated that the signal came from Thunder Mountain approximately 11 miles east of Petersburg at approximately 1900’. The United States Coast Guard responded to the area and located 42 year old Ryan Littleton of Petersburg who was not in distress and the SOS function was accidentally activated. L...
Heather Thomas, a mother of two and co-owner of Rocket Raptor Films, is directing a feature-length movie set to be filmed in Petersburg. Thomas wrote the script to "The Last 40 Miles," a survival drama set in a post-apocalyptic world where one man went for a hunt and returned to a calamity-stricken world. "Most of my movies start with a question or an interesting scenario," Thomas said. "To my knowledge, I don't know of any post-apocalyptic themed survival dramas in Alaska." Confused and wary...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – The U.S. Forest Service and an Alaska-based Native corporation announced the transfer of 12 square miles (31 square kilometers) of land from the Alaska Native corporation to the Admiralty Island National Monument. The land is part of the 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) Sitka-based Shee Atika Corp. logged between 1984 and 2002 after the Sitka urban corporation selected it as part of its land entitlement under the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act. Under an agreement between the Forest Service and Shee Atika s...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – The University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel, Sikuliaq, recently completed the first cruise of its spring and summer research program in the Bering and Chukchi seas. University scientists and researchers from the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences spent the month of June aboard Sikuliaq studying spring productivity and food web dynamics as well as the negative effects that disappearing sea ice cover may have on Arctic habitats. This 20-day voyage had scientists at sea between St. Lawrence Island and Point H...
WRANGELL – On Monday Gov. Bill Walker signed into law a capital budget for the 2018 Fiscal Year, which had been adopted by the Legislature in a brief special session on July 27. The new budget includes $5,000,000 in the Municipal Harbor Facility Grant Fund, precisely what will be needed for Wrangell’s Harbor Department to proceed with an overhaul of the facilities at Shoemaker Bay Harbor. “We’re excited,” said Wrangell harbormaster Greg Meissner. The aging facility has about passed its useful life, with a portion already closed off to moorag...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Fish and Game officials euthanized a massive black bear that had been causing problems in an Alaska mobile home park area for several years. The bear was euthanized Tuesday morning after an incident Saturday in the Switzer Village Mobile Park area in Juneau, where it became trapped in the arctic entry area of a trailer. Resident Leoni Johnson said her husband had just left for work and she was in the back of their home where her two dogs, Buttons and Rocky, “started going nuts.” “I heard this ‘bang bang,’” she said....
WRANGELL – The symposium at last week's Bearfest was an opportunity for experts in bear-related research to share some of their knowledge about the different species, as well as highlight the work they have done in their different fields. Lance Craighead of Montana's Craighead Institute has been a longtime supporter of Wrangell's annual festival, which celebrates the area's robust bear population. Speaking last Wednesday, the environmental advocate sought to convey how people directly aff...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The lone insurer offering policies on Alaska's individual health insurance market has filed for an average rate decrease of about 22 percent next year. If approved, this would be the first time the average rate has decreased under the current federal health care law in Alaska, a remote state where high health care and premium costs have been an ongoing concern. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield attributed the requested drop in rates to factors including the payment of high-cost claims through a state program and a sharp r...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Gov. Bill Walker said Friday that he will probably run for re-election. But he currently has more pressing issues on his mind including crafting a tax bill that he hopes will garner support from lawmakers. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Walker said it’s imperative that revenue issues be addressed this year. He expects to unveil a tax proposal for consideration sometime this year, but he could not provide a timeline for doing so or details on what the bill might include. He did say it would not be...
PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) – Two men suing the Petersburg, Alaska borough, a local police officer, a regional narcotics task force and state law enforcement are trying to broaden the lawsuit into a class action that would allow more plaintiffs to join. Danny Thompson and Greg Richeson claim in the lawsuit that Petersburg police officers in separate 2013 investigations obtained search warrants and seized property from their homes and did not return it for years. Thompson said his belongings have since been returned but Richeson is still waiting f...
Debbie Thompson, the Petersburg Borough clerk, denied petition applications on Monday that aimed to recall four Assembly members, causing the group leading the effort to huddle and rethink options moving forward. Sara Heideman, who is an attorney and the Borough legal counsel, reviewed recall applications for Eric Castro, Nancy Strand, Jeigh Stanton Gregor and Kurt Wohlhueter. She recommended the applications be ruled insufficient in a letter to Thompson which led Thompson to notify Gary Morgan, the leader of the application, of the rejection....
PETERSBURG — On July 20, the Juneau Grand Jury issued a four-count indictment against William Christopher Allen. The charges stem from a vehicle crash on July 4, 2016, that claimed the lives of Molly Parks and Marie Giesbrecht, and injured Catherine Cardenas, all of Petersburg, according to a news release from the Petersburg Police Department. Charges on the indictment include: (2) Counts of Murder in the 2nd Degree, (2) Counts of Manslaughter and (1) Count of Assault in the First Degree. An arrest warrant was issued by the Juneau Court with b...
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) has been conducting preventative maintenance work in Petersburg with the goal to extend the life of the existing asphalt. This is a normal maintenance process to seal the asphalt surface before it begins to visibly deteriorate with age, according to Aurah Landau with the Alaska Dept. of Transportation and Public Facilities. Landau reported that DOT&PF understands that the chip seal process has impacted some members of the traveling public. DOT&PF is taking all necessary...
