Sorted by date Results 4158 - 4182 of 5553
You're free to make your own choices now; don't be afraid to head out into the open ocean. That was the advice 2015 Petersburg High School Valedictorian Kyle Hagerman gave his peers during his graduation speech Wednesday evening at the high school gym. Thirty-two seniors graduated this year, "a group honestly, of both boys and girls, that got things done and did them at a high, high level," Principal Rick Dormer said. Dormer shared a story about surviving a flood during his college years at... Full story
As of Tuesday, the Alaska Legislature meeting in a special session in Anchorage had still not passed a budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. On Sunday, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a compromise budget passed by the House the previous day, which included some small concessions to the minority such as reversing cuts to the ferry system and per-student funding. A conference committee between the two chambers was being organized to negotiate an amended budget. However, any deal that would tap into Congressional Budget... Full story
Stedman Elementary School will be welcoming three new teachers into its ranks this fall. Principal Teri Toland announced last month that the school had selected new hires from a large, experienced candidate pool. She said the number of applicants was unprecedented and may in part be due to Alaskan layoffs. Education is facing big cuts with state proposed budgets. "As we went through the process, it became very clear there was a key group," Toland said. Coming in to teach fourth grade is Heather...
A new exhibit at the Clausen Museum puts the natural world of Mitkof Island at visitors' fingertips. Dubbed the Discovery Center, a large wooden cabinet-designed and crafted by Ty Cummins-houses displays of different local ecosystems and animals. Local painter and artist Doris Olsen filled those displays with a mix of items handcrafted from paper, clay and resin, and items foraged locally. Museum Director Brittany Zenge said the forest cabinet includes porcupine and wolf skulls as well as bird...
State Department of Environmental Conservation results are in, and there don’t appear to be any issues with water quality after an accidental spill of waste at the borough’s landfill in late March. The borough’s Wastewater Utility transports and buries piles of solid waste at the landfill about once a week. While digging a hole with an excavator, Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said, sludge sitting to the side to be buried slid down a hill to a stream that runs to the Sandy Beach Park area. Mike Solter with DEC’s Division of Water said th...
The New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC) group will be parading into Petersburg later this month. The 55 person group includes members from ages one to 74 who volunteer their talents as performers, musicians and educators to bring entertainment to rural communities. Locally, the Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) and Petersburg Parks and Recreation have been helping coordinate the group's three-day visit, June 28-30. The opening event is a collaborative potlatch and potluck put on by PIA and NOTC on...
Little ones will get the chance to see what track and field athletes do firsthand this weekend with the Petersburg High School team holding its first-ever Track Camp. “I don’t think kids understand what track and field involves” as meets are elsewhere, Coach Amanda Thomas said. “This will give the elementary kids an idea for what track is.” She added that the Track Camp, for elementary-aged children, is also a fundraiser for the PHS track and field team. Camp will be held Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the track field behind St...
A short-lived farm property tax exemption proposal died during an assembly meeting Monday afternoon. Assembly member Jeigh Stanton Gregor had been contacted by residents on the possibility of the exemption earlier this year and asked in January if he could work with staff to develop an ordinance for future consideration. On Monday he said he liked “the idea of promoting agriculture in Southeast” because it’s challenging, but added that he could no longer support the ordinance knowing the exemption would also apply to marijuana grow opera...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors is taking a closer look at future needs for the community’s hospital. The board approved a facility condition survey in the amount of $26,575 during its regular meeting on May 28. PMC CEO Liz Woodyard said Joann Lott from the Jensen Yorba Lott architectural firm came to look at long term care a few months ago, and that an assessment of the hospital’s condition was brought up at a following board meeting. That got put on hold, but during strategic planning, there was discussion about forming a c...
At a special meeting on May 15, the board of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) approved the purchase of 348 helicopter landing pad panels from Fibergrate Composite Structures of Dallas, Texas, for $135,360. The 4-by-12 foot molded fiberglass grating panels are part of the Swan-Tyee Intertie Helipad Project, which will see the construction of 105 landing pads along the transmission lines' 261 towers. At its March 25 board meeting, SEAPA anticipated 40 to 50 pads can be set up this year, with the rest slated for next year. The pads will...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report at Monday’s Assembly meeting: -On May 12, the Harbor Department had their annual surprise visit from the US Coast Guard Homeland Security unit to review the Borough’s Harbor Homeland Security Plan. They passed with no deficiencies. On May 26, Eddy Tagaban and Officer Jim Kerr attended the annual meeting in Wrangell with the Captain of the Port to discuss homeland security and other Coast Guard issues. -Public Works waited until after Memorial Day to begin work on the Columbarium foundat...
Following in his older brother Joe's footsteps, Petersburg High School graduate Ben Zarlengo has accepted an appointment into the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Academy Scholars Program. Joe, dressed in his uniform, presented Ben with that appointment, along with a scholarship totaling more than $400,000, at graduation on Wednesday. "I couldn't be prouder," their dad, Dan, said. Like his brother, Ben will first be going to a military prep college in Alabama for a year. Then, if he meets all the require...
He was alone on his boat, and it was a bit of a battle. Scott Stafford, of Petersburg, caught his Salmon Derby winning 50.9 pound fish on Saturday. Fishing from his 22-foot-long Alice Marie, just outside of the North Arm with fishermen from a dozen vessels watching nearby, Stafford said it took about 30 to 40 minutes to reel in the fish. The fisherman brought the king salmon up to his boat about seven times. It went under the boat, around the boat. Finally he got it to where the head was... Full story
The possibility of a borough-run marijuana store was once again broached during the Local Marijuana Regulation Advisory Committee’s second meeting as a whole group Wednesday evening. Dr. James Baker, a retired chiropractic physician with medical marijuana grow operations in Washington, presented a plan to the seven members in attendance at assembly chambers. “Think bold, not old,” he said. “There’s a lot of stigmas and misconceptions about marijuana.” Petersburg is looking at about $1 million in state budget cuts. Baker said a borough owned mar... Full story
Petersburg has moved from its wettest April on record to what’s looking to be its driest May. Despite rain Wednesday and more precipitation forecasted for today (Thursday), this May is “definitely still looking like it’ll be the driest,” said meteorologist Geri Swanson with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Juneau. Petersburg still had less than 0.3 inches of rain Wednesday afternoon, and was expecting less than a 10th of an inch with the day and Thursday’s forecast — the area’s “best chances” for rain before moving back into a high pressur...
Local public radio station KFSK is preparing for a $32,000 cut to their budget in the coming fiscal year, starting July 1. “The legislature hasn’t passed a budget yet, but we do know pretty firmly that we have a 23 percent loss to our state operating grant because the public broadcasting money is not even in the agenda for the second session now,” KFSK General Manager Tom Abbott said during a meeting with nonprofit representatives last Thursday. That equates to a $32,000 loss for the station, which Abbott said will be handled through cutti...
One of Petersburg's biggest construction projects is nearing its end as the other's just beginning. Work on the $8.6 million Haugen-Nordic road project started last week while nearly $3 million worth of runway resurfacing at the Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport is expected to wrap up by the end of next month, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said. Utility work at the end of Sing Lee Alley, on the south side of Rasmus Enge Bridge, got Phase One... Full story
The Petersburg School District’s financial future is still unknown, but it was looking bleak Monday evening. Governor Bill Walker announced Monday afternoon that he had vetoed parts of the budget packet that were unfunded, leaving Alaska’s schools funded at only 28 percent. The district’s budget for 2016 is at a “stopping point” until legislators finish the budget, Finance Director Karen Quitslund said, but fiscal year 2015 has already been impacted. The school board approved 2015 budget revisions during a special meeting Monday evening at the... Full story
The 34rd Annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce King Salmon Derby gets underway this Friday at 7 a.m. The derby continues through the Memorial Day Weekend and ends Monday at 5 p.m. Two tagged fish have been released at Frederick Point. The $10,000 fish is about a 15 lb. King, while the $5,000 King is a 28-30 lb. fish, according to Derby committee member Doug Welde who trolled for the Kings for two mornings this week. The $10,000 tagged fish prize is sponsored by Alaska Marine Lines and the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the $5,000 tagged... Full story
Things should be getting back to normal at the Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport fairly soon. A nearly $3 million rehabilitation project of the taxi and runway is expected to be finished by the end of June, said Jeremy Woodrow, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Airport Manager Dave Booker said they were told planes could start being parked in their usual spots today (Thursday). “We’ve just been pushing, pulling, towing airplanes,” he said. Workers from Knik Construction, of Bethel, have been repav...
Not common for the area, a short-lived thunderstorm caused a minor disturbance in Petersburg on Tuesday. At about 3:10 p.m., a lightning strike hit a tree, transformer line and transformer, putting "the whole island in the dark," Petersburg Municipal Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson said. "The tree was kind of hurt bad, the transformer line is OK, the transformer was destroyed and had to be replaced," he added. That work took about an hour and a half before power was back on. The transf...
Facing a Class B felony charge of burglary, 22-year-old Brittany Martin’s trial is set to begin July 21. Martin, of Juneau, was indicted on the felony charge of burglary in the first degree on April 24. According to the indictment document, she allegedly entered a residence in mid-February with the intent to commit theft. Martin, who is still in custody, attended an omnibus hearing Monday afternoon via phone from the jail. Assistant District Attorney Nick Polasky told Judge William Carey over the phone that the trial would likely last two to th...
Petersburg resident Gesabel Rosa, 22, was convicted of six theft charges at a proceeding before Superior Court Judge William Carey on May 18. Nineteen fraud charges, including two felonies, were brought against Rosa following a police investigation in December 2014 and January 2015. Rosa was alleged to have used a stolen credit card number from a Juneau woman who stayed at the Scandia House, where Rosa was working as a housekeeper, to make purchases at several downtown Petersburg businesses. Thirteen charges, including the two Class C...
Two Alaska high school students won top honors in a national competition for original scientific research. Ian Fleming, of Petersburg, earned first place and a $12,000 scholarship for his research on the negative effects of a common herbicide on coho salmon eggs. Michael Kaden-Hoffmann, of Fairbanks, won fourth place and $300 for a poster detailing research that supports the recognition of three and not just two species of the plant dwarf rosebay (Therorhodion), which grows in Alaska. Both...
The Assembly unanimously passed, on second reading, an ordinance that would create a special revenue fund to house Transient Room Tax (TRT) revenues. Those funds currently go into the General Fund, and Finance Director Jody Tow said moving them to a special fund will increase transparency during future budget decisions. Passing the ordinance will also result in the dissolution of the TRT committee and grant process they once oversaw. Assembly Member and Chamber of Commerce Director Cindi Lagoudakis said the Chamber board explained, “the T...
