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WRANGELL — The Wrangell area will be without an Alaska Wildlife Trooper for the foreseeable future, according to the state agency’s Juneau office. The vacancy was created by the transfer of Trooper Scott Bjork to the Juneau area earlier this month. Citing budgetary constraints, head of Southeast Detachment Lieutenant Jon Streifel confirmed Monday the post will remain unfilled until the department knows what the upcoming budget will look like. “It’s a new transition,” he said. As the new legislative session convenes this week in Juneau, s...
The Community Advisory Board of American Seafoods Company announced it will be accepting applications for its Alaska community grant program. The deadline for applications is Feb. 17. Since its inception in 1997, the CAB has granted over $1.25 million to organizations and programs in Alaska. For this particular application, small grants totaling $38,000 will be allocated to community projects addressing issues such as hunger, housing, safety, education, research, natural resources and cultural activities. The majority of awards range from $500...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – President Barack Obama is proposing to designate the vast majority of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area, including its potentially oil-rich coastal plain, drawing an angry response from top state elected officials who see it as a land grab by the federal government. “They've decided that today was the day that they were going to declare war on Alaska. Well, we are ready to engage,” said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate energy committee. The designation would set aside an addit...
The Assembly voted 5-1 to bid on land at Papke’s Landing in the winter auction of the Mental Health Trust Land Office. Assembly member Nancy Strand was the sole vote against the resolution. “I can’t support the Borough getting involved in anything at Papke’s Landing until Papke’s Landing is in a Service Area,” Strand said. “We shouldn’t have asked ‘should we acquire these three lots?’ I think we should have asked ‘how much do you want your taxes to go up so we can acquire these three lots?’” Mayor Mark Jensen said he had some concerns about t... Full story
Paine & Partners of San Francisco has announced the sale of Icicle Seafoods according to multiple news sources including Undercurrent.com and other seafood industry news sites. According to Laine Welch of the Fish Factor, Pacific Seafoods is seen as a frontrunner for buying Icicle. Other sources theorize that Icicle is a “mini-conglomerate” that would make the company attractive to multiple buyers if broken up. The Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group is a family owned operation that has operations spanning the west coast from Mexico to Ala... Full story
On Jan. 16, Superior Court Judge Philip M. Pallenberg issued his decision affirming the Borough’s determination that a Wrangell Ave. home owned by Karen Ellingstad and Fred Triem is a “dangerous building” according to municipal code. The ruling comes after more than two years of back-and-forth about the structure’s fate between the owners and the Borough culminating in the homeowner’s filing a notice of appeal in Superior Court on Jan. 2, 2014. The appeal was in response to a non-compliance hearing held Dec. 2, 2013 in which the Borough A... Full story
Though many of the thirty individuals who showed up at the public meeting held last Wednesday to discuss the Kake-Petersburg Intertie (KPI) expressed their support for the project, a spirited discussion also ensued about the various components included in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the environmental review process. The review process is required under NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) for any projects that will have a...
Max Worhatch IV is this year’s Chamber of Commerce Rain Game winner with a guess of 115.75 inches. The total reported precipitation by NOAA for 2014 was 115.87 inches, meaning Petersburg saw higher than average precipitation this year. According to NOAA, annual precipitation for the area is 109.95 inches. Chamber Director Cindi Lagoudakis said the winner came down to the numbers beyond the decimal as 13 contestants guessed the rainfall at 115 inches. A total of 248 entries were received for this year’s contest. The lowest and most opt...
The Petersburg School Board approved a new search proposal with the Alaska Association of School Boards (AASB) to conduct a search for a new PSD Superintendent after the Board accepted previous Petersburg School District Dr. Lisa Stroh’s resignation and settlement release agreement, which grants her administrative leave with pay and benefits through June 30, 2015—the same benefits outlined in a paragraph of her hiring contract provided to Stroh should she be fired without cause. Questions have been raised as to whether or not the board fir...
Jasmine Ieremia will be spending the 2015-16 school year abroad in Thailand. The Petersburg High School freshman learned the location of her studies abroad after attending a winter orientation for Rotary Youth Exchange students last weekend in Anchorage. "It (the orientation) was really for the outbounds to learn what country they were going to and just to learn some tools to use on their exchange dealing with people and dealing with being away from home," Ieremia said. She said that spending a...
The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved Tuesday night a $69,350 bid to replace a boiler in the middle school. Ketchikan Mechanical Incorporated submitted the second lowest bid to the district and will replace the current leaky boiler that was originally installed in 1984. The boiler will likely be replaced by the end of March. Harri Plumbing was the high bidder at $143,600. Schmolck Mechanical Contractors bid second highest at $141,637. Superior Plumbing and Heating bid the job at $89,740 and Raincountry Contractors was the lowest bidd...
After some discussion about the jurisdiction of two new sections of a municipal code governing parking regulations, the Borough Assembly voted unanimously to pass the ordinance on its second reading. The ordinance was tabled in early October pending Police Chief Kelly Swihart’s return from an 11-week training in Virginia. The ordinance will transfer two new sections to Title 11 of the former-City of Petersburg’s traffic ordinances into Borough Code. Assembly member Bob Lynn said he’d like to see the ordinance apply only to Service Area 1 rathe...
According to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht’s report to the Assembly, the ad hoc committee formed to investigate possible local action regarding state herbicide use is working with State House representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins’ office to pursue legislative action on the issue after efforts to meet with officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) dead ended. “His office is in the process of checking with the State’s legal representation to get a ruling on the ability of local municipalities to restrict actions...
The Price Comparison chart on page 16 of last week’s paper referred to Petro and reflected pricing offered by Petro Express for gasoline and diesel fuels. Heating oil prices for Petersburg are labeled as Petro and reflects prices listed by Petro Marine. The Pilot regrets the error....
Richard Patteson was selected to serve as the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla Commander for Petersburg for the next two years at the Change of Watch ceremony held Jan. 14. Ken Hamilton will serve as the vice commander. Patteson has been volunteering with the auxiliary for about five years including a recent two-year term as vice commander under the outgoing Flotilla Commander Rod Herbrandson. The Petersburg chapter of the auxiliary currently has 14 members and Patteson said part of his duties as commander will involve recruiting new members....
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Alaska State Troopers are continuing to investigate the death of a man who was struck in November by a vehicle in a small southeast Alaska village. The Juneau Empire reports 61-year-old Barton Rose was struck and seriously injured in an apparent hit-and-run on Nov. 7 in Kake (kayk). He was flown to Anchorage for treatment. He died seven weeks later on Dec. 24. A trooper from Juneau traveled to Kake to investigate the incident. Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters says no arrest has been made in the case. Kake is 90 miles...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — Jurors in Alaska have found a commercial fisherman guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a Kansas diver who died while harvesting sea cucumbers. The jury on Friday found Joshua Wodyga (woh-DY’-gah) not guilty of manslaughter. Prosecutors argued that Wodyga’s negligence in maintaining an air compressor and air filter led to the death of Levi Adams, 32, of Leawood, Kansas. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and drowning while he and Wodyga were diving in 2013 in waters off Mountain Point. Mark Osterman, Wodyg...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — An autopsy has been ordered for a 20-year-old Wrangell man who died of injuries suffered in a Ketchikan jail. Alaska State Troopers say Brendon Sample on Thursday attempted to hang himself with a bed sheet while alone in a cell at Ketchikan Correctional Center. Corrections staff found him unresponsive. He was taken to Peace Health Ketchikan Medical. He stayed in the intensive care unit until 1 a.m. Friday, when he was flown to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage. Sample was pronounced dead Saturday in Anchorage. O...
Local Trident Seafood’s infrastructure is undergoing a small remodel over the coming months. Trident Southeast Manager John Webby said the mess hall, which was originally constructed in the 1920s, needs several repairs and freezing capacity in the plant is being expanded. “We’re adding a little more ice making capacity and we’re streamlining, upgrading and remodeling the plant inside to slightly modernize it a little bit,” Webby said. Trident staff is doing most of the work and the company is bringing in a contractor from down south to work o...
On Jan. 7, former Petersburg School District Maintenance Director Tye Petersen was sentenced to 12 years in jail, followed by 25 years of supervised release for Distribution, Receipt and Possession of Child Pornography. U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess presided over the sentencing hearing in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage where Petersen has been in custody of the U.S. Marshal Service since his arrest in October 2013. Petersen, 46, was arrested after federal investigators and local police conducted a search warrant of his home and... Full story
The Petersburg School Board accepted Petersburg School District Dr. Lisa Stroh's resignation and settlement release agreement last week, which grants her administrative leave with pay and benefits through June 30, 2015. Stroh cited family medical issues last December for requesting temporary administrative leave, but submitted her resignation December 31. During the special meeting, Petersburg Borough Assembly member John Havrilek questioned the board's decision to grant Stroh pay while not... Full story
When Intergalactic Nemesis' creator and producer Jason Neulander was tasked with performing his radio play in front of much larger than usual audiences at a much larger than usual venue, he decided to add another element, creating a performance experience unlike any other. "I got invited to bring the project in that format (radio drama) into this huge theater and felt like the venue was too big for watching a radio play and came up with the idea of projecting comic book art work...in order to...
After nearly three months of training at the FBI National Academy (NA) in Quantico, Va., Petersburg Police Chief Kelly Swihart has returned to full-time work at the department, bringing new contacts and knowledge with him. Swihart said one of the biggest benefits of the training was having the opportunity to get perspectives from police officials in departments around the U.S. and the world. "One of the leadership projects we did, we had...a major from Georgia, a deputy chief from Arlington, Tex...
Twenty-year-old Christafur Morrell pleaded guilty to an amended charge of Attempted Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the 2nd Degree at a change of plea hearing in Ketchikan Superior Court before Judge William Carey. The original charges he faced – Possession of Heroin with Intent to Distribute and Possession of Heroin – were dismissed. Morrell was indicted by a grand jury last July following an incident where local police seized around $75,000 worth of heroin. Morrell is not a resident of Petersburg but was staying at the Sca...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Coast Guard says a lifejacket likely saved the life of a woman who fell into the frigid waters of Tongass Narrows in Ketchikan. KTUU-TV reports the 26-year-old Metlakatla woman was canoeing Sunday along south Pennock Island and heading for Annette Bay when she fell out of the canoe and had to swim to shore. Coast Guard spokeswoman Diana Honings says the woman was able to call the Ketchikan Police Department, which relayed the information to the Coast Guard The call came in at 3 p.m. and Coast Guard rescuers in a 25-foot r...
