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The Petersburg Medical Center Board held a work session with the Petersburg Borough Assembly last Friday where three proposed concepts for the location and design of a new hospital building were discussed. Members from the hospital board and the assembly along with borough and PMC staff heard from Bettisworth North architects who detailed the three site plans. The Excel Site, the Knob Hill Site, and the Creek View Site have some major differences but all feature a two-story hospital with...
The Petersburg Indian Association Tribal Council approved a motion during its meeting on Tuesday to pursue three projects that would open commercial and residential revenue streams for PIA using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. PIA has almost $3.9 million in ARPA funds, of which $3 million is budgeted for capital projects, that they now plan to put toward remodeling part of the PIA building, constructing a new building and parking lot on a PIA-owned lot, and buying two parcels of land...
The Southeast Alaska Farmers Summit is back in Petersburg this week for the first time since it began in 2015. It will take place at the Holy Cross House of the Lutheran Church, and Friday's presentations are free and open to the public. Attendees are just asked to sign in at the entrance, as attendance numbers will help with future funding. Bo Varsano and Marja Smets of Farragut Farm founded the summit as a way for Southeast farmers to connect and learn from one another about producing local...
Community members and guests attended the annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Banquet at the Sons of Norway last Saturday night where they heard from speakers and celebrated award presentations under the lights of the historic hall. Much to the delight of the audience, Petersburg's local bookstore, Sing Lee Alley Books and Gifts, was named the 2023 Business of the Year. The bookstore, owned by Nance Zaic, serves as a welcoming place for ship passengers visiting Little Norway and offers a cozy...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly prioritized its top three projects to seek federal funding for during its Feb. 6 meeting. After two rounds of voting, the assembly approved ranking the new Petersburg Medical Center project as its top priority followed by the Scow Bay standby diesel generation project and the Scow Bay haul out and wash down pad. The assembly voted 5-2 in favor of putting the new PMC facility at the top of the list with Mayor Mark Jensen and Assembly Member Donna Marsh opposed....
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht received mostly positive marks as part of his 2022 Performance Evaluation, which was approved by the Petersburg Borough Assembly during its Feb. 6 meeting. The evaluation was filled out by assembly members who judged Giesbrecht in various categories. Giesbrecht scored highly-mostly receiving scores of meeting expectations or exceeding expectations-in communication, planning, and managing resources. Assembly Member Donna Marsh wrote that she appreciates the manage...
The Alaska Board of Game approved a proposal to extend the deer hunt in the Petersburg Management Area by two months during its Southeast region meeting in Ketchikan last month. The change bumps the start date for the bow hunt up from Oct. 1 to Aug. 1. The bag limit will remain at two bucks and the season will run until Dec. 15. Kaleb Baird, who proposed the change, wrote that he was very glad to see it receive unanimous support from the board. "My goal in opening the PMA deer hunt August 1 was...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly gave approval to the Housing Task Force to continue working on three ideas to potentially expand local housing opportunities during Monday's meeting. With the assembly's support, the task force will continue pursuing the possibilities of creating a Petersburg Land Trust, identifying easily developable lots, and finding a new area in Service Area 1 suitable for manufactured homes. The assembly's decision does not ensure that these ideas are going to come to...
Petersburg's Sons of Norway Hall was bustling on Sunday afternoon as members readied the hall and prepared the featured courses for the annual Lutefisk and Lefse Dinner - a tradition so old no one can say for certain when it started. The dinner is both a celebration of lutefisk and homemade lefse and an opportunity for members to pass down ancient recipes and skills. Lutefisk is fish (fisk) preserved in lye (lut). This year, for the first time, Wendell Gilbert of Tonka Seafoods took sole...
After 42 years of leading Viking Travel, Dave and Nancy Berg are ready to hang up their hats while a familiar young couple takes over the helm. The travel business has changed dramatically since 1981 when Dave and Nancy started their business-from spending hours on the phone with Alaska Airlines and building relationships with the cruise ships to navigating the new world of the internet and persevering through the pandemic. The pair met when Dave made a stop in Ellamar, Alaska while sailing up...
Amid much speculation, it was announced during Monday night's Tribal Council meeting that the Petersburg Indian Association will not be purchasing the two properties owned by the Trading Union. According to Tribal Administrator Chad Wright, Trading Union General Manager Barry Morrison rescinded his offer to sell the properties that house the Trading Union and Evergreen Market Monday morning. PIA had the two commercial properties at 401 N. Nordic Drive and 404 N. Nordic Drive appraised and would...
Last Tuesday Humanity in Progress held the sixth annual Project Connect Resource Fair in Petersburg, an event that takes place in conjunction with the Point in Time Count, a nation-wide survey that happens on the same night each year "...to try and get a community understanding, in a certain point of time, of homelessness and housing insecurity," founding member Ashley Kawashima explains. The data collected from individuals experiencing housing or food insecurity is a vital tool for successful s...
Two proposals to open Petersburg Creek to black bear hunting failed at the Alaska Board of Game’s Southeast regional meeting in Ketchikan last month. The Petersburg Creek Closed Area, measuring 44 square miles, has been closed to black bear hunting since 1975 in order to provide a recreational bear viewing area near Petersburg and because of public safety concerns, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The area, however, is open to the hunting of other species. One of the f...
Clausen Museum Director Cindi Lagoudakis and local artist Suzanne Fuqua are both participants in the first "Portable Southeast" traveling art exhibition on display at the Clausen Museum through Saturday, February 25th. Lagoudakis was selected to be on a six member curation panel, representing diverse experiences and skill sets, to review submissions from artists around Southeast Alaska. Suzanne Fuqua's painting 'Forest Floor' was selected to be in the show and will be traveling through June for...
The Petersburg Police Department released its annual report last week, which includes an array of statistics that give insight into slowing local crime rates. The total dispatch center calls for service, which includes calls for police, fire, and EMS, saw its lowest activity in five years with 3,356 calls-down almost 400 from 2021. That number only includes calls for service and does not represent the total number of calls dispatchers receive, which Petersburg Police Department Chief Jim Kerr...
The Alaska Rural Water Association (ARWA) has named Petersburg Alaska's Wastewater System of the Year for 2022. "Petersburg stays on top of routine maintenance and keeps their certifications up to date. Not everyone does that," said Mark Wuitschick, who nominated Petersburg and works at ARWA as the Wastewater Training and Technical Assistance Specialist. Petersburg also goes beyond the minimum requirements, and the award highlighted efforts at composting removed solids, which the Petersburg...
During Tuesday's meeting, the Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 4-2 in favor of conducting a housing needs assessment with Vice Mayor Bob Lynn and Assembly Member Donna Marsh opposed. The housing needs assessment, which was recommended by the Housing Task Force, was proposed to evaluate local housing needs, provide recommendations for improving the housing situation, and help secure grant funding. The estimated cost of the assessment is $55,040 and will be paid for with funds received through...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department released its year end report last week, which shed light on the true value of community volunteers. According to the report submitted by Fire/EMS/SAR Director Aaron Hankins, having a volunteer-based fire department saves the borough between an estimated $759,200 and $1,138,800 in personnel costs per year when compared to a full-time career fire department. The estimation is based on having 8-12 employees staffing the local fire department-enough to...
The Petersburg Borough is pursuing the possibility of constructing a new float and dock at Papke's Landing with the help of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to keep the facility operational while the borough pursues full ownership. The Petersburg Borough Assembly has approved conceptual plans for an eventual major improvement project, but the rapidly declining state of the facility and delays to obtaining ownership have users of the facility questioning if it will...
The Local Emergency Planning Committee held its first meeting since April 2020 last Thursday where new and returning members were admitted to the committee to discuss the current state of emergency preparedness in Petersburg. According to Fire/EMS/SAR Director Aaron Hankins, the LEPC is a congressionally mandated program whose mission is to gather information on hazardous materials in the region, making them known to the public and planning for spill response, and to review and recommend local...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department responded to a house fire near 4.7 Mile Mitkof Highway on Wednesday, which destroyed the interior of the building. The fire was in an older two-story home constructed with logs at 471 Mitkof Highway on property owned by Michael Boggs. Though the investigation is ongoing, the fire is believed to have been caused by a wood stove according to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg. No persons were in the building when the fire broke out. The smoke from the building...
The Petersburg Indian Association held its annual election on Monday, which saw Tribal Council President Cris Morrison and Tribal Council Members Jaclyn Mae Eide and Joe Stewart reelected according to the unofficial results. Morrison, Eide, and Stewart all ran unopposed for the seats they will be retaining on the council. Morrison, who joined the council in 2017 and has served as council president since 2019, was reelected to a one-year term with 15 votes. "I am looking forward to working with...
During its Jan. 3 meeting, the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance in its first reading that would tie the service rates for self-pay residents at Mountain View Manor Assisted Living to the maximum service rates allowed for the facility under Medicaid. Medicaid raises per day services rates for Medicaid Residential Supported Living annually, but those increases have not been adopted by the borough. That is because the service rates charged for Medicaid RSL cannot...
Petersburg High School graduate Brooklyn Dormer was one of the singers in the third annual PBS New Year's Concert, "United in Song: Ringing in the New Year Together." A celebration of the diversity of American music, the concert was a nationwide musical journey highlighting well-known performers singing in unique and historic theaters across the country, including the Egyptian Theater in Boise, Idaho, where Dormer is a junior majoring in biochemistry with a minor in music. The PBS special...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted during Monday's meeting to award the construction contract for the Blind Slough Hydroelectric refurbishment project to McG/Dawson Joint Venture for an amount not to exceed $5,744,000. McG/Dawson's contract bid was evaluated by an engineering team led by Don Jarrett, P.E. with McMillen and was recommended to the assembly by both McMillen and Petersburg Municipal Power and Light. The project received four contract bids ranging from $5,744,000 up...
