Sorted by date Results 4418 - 4442 of 5587
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...
JUNEAU (AP) — A 57-year-old Ketchikan man with a history of violence will spend four years in a federal prison for attacking a member of the Coast Guard. Jon William Munhoven was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Juneau. He also must serve three years of probation. Munhoven was arrested on Sept. 2, 2013, when a 25-foot Coast Guard boat from Ketchikan responded to a call for help from a vessel where a man said Munhoven had bloodied his nose. The Coast Guard crew placed Munhoven in handcuffs and he kicked a member of the crew in the face d...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — The supervisor of the Tongass National Forest will retire his year. The Ketchikan Daily News reports Forrest Cole has set his retirement for April. Cole has been forest supervisor since 2003. A Forest Service announcement says he held positions in the Petersburg, Juneau and Yakutat ranger districts and the Stikine Administrative Area. The Tongass is also losing its deputy forest supervisor. Tricia O'Connor in February is transferring to the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. She has been in Alaska for more than 10 yea...
JUNEAU (AP) — Juneau is putting the brakes on marijuana businesses. The Juneau Empire reports the Juneau Assembly voted Monday to not consider issuing any land use permits for marijuana farms or documentation related to pot businesses until Oct. 19, or six months after the legislative session ends. The Legislature is expected to write regulations for marijuana businesses this session following voter approval of the recreational use of marijuana. The assembly's action doesn't have much of an effect on the general public. Marijuana still bec...
The Petersburg Advisory Committee met last week to discuss proposals and potential changes to fishing regulations that will eventually head to the Board of Fisheries for ultimate approval. “Every three years anybody and everybody can put in a proposal to the board of fisheries to change existing regulations, add new regulations or delete regulations,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Petersburg Area Management Biologist Troy Thynes said. “They can’t deal with state statutes but these are just the codified regulations.” The committee...
Long time Petersburg resident Megan O’Neil, 26, is the newest Petersburg Vessel Owner’s (PVOA) Association Executive Director. O’Neil, who grew up in the fishing community since she was a kid, came back to town in 2010 after graduating from Northern Arizona University earning a degree in accounting and finance. O’Neil said she’s always been interested in fishing and the new job allows her to be more involved. “I came back after college to keep fishing and this gave me an opportunity to be a bigger part of the industry,” O’Neil said. “My job i...
Petersburg School District Superintendent Lisa Stroh submitted a letter of resignation to the Petersburg School Board December 31 citing family medical issues as her reason for resignation. Stroh requested administrative leave from December 16 through January 5, which the school board granted. "She felt a need to get down to Montana quickly," said school board member Sarah Holmgrain. "She asked for a leave of absence and while down there determined that she needed to stay." The board hired... Full story
Elections for five positions on the Petersburg Indian Association’s (PIA) Tribal Council will be held Monday at the ANB/ANS hall from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eligible tribal members who are interested in declaring their candidacy or nominating a candidate must do so by 3:30 p.m. today at the PIA offices. “This time we have three 1-year terms, we also have one 2-year term and every year the board chair’s open so there’s a one year board person chair open,” said Tribal Resource Director Marco Banda. Banda said that so far five individuals have decl... Full story
Volunteer bell ringers from the Rotary Club collected the largest kettle donations on record for Petersburg, nearly $6,000, as part of the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign that ended Dec. 24. In all the campaign raised $16,292 this year. The Petersburg Vessel Owners Association racked in the second largest donations through their ringing efforts and First Bank garnered third place. In all about 20 individuals and groups manned kettles over the one month span of the campaign. The Red K...
Grant coordinator Ginger Evens updated the school board on recent initiatives of the Healthy Living Grant including recent staff training related to mindfulness based stress reduction techniques and dealing with childhood trauma. The Petersburg School district was one of eight Alaska school districts that were awarded the grant from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services beginning last fiscal year. The district receives $150,000 annually, amounting to about $600,000 total during the grant’s four year duration. Recently, staff h...
About 30 seniors who previously received a sales tax exemption card from the Borough were not issued a new card after Borough staff reviewed eligibility following two ordinances that went into effect Jan. 1. The two eligibility changes require seniors – individuals age 65 and older – to be borough residents and to have resided in the borough for at least a year with intent to remain indefinitely and make a home here. Following similar requirements to receive a Permanent Fund Dividend from the...
The Wrangell and Petersburg Assemblies will soon vote on an ordinance that will turn the Thomas Bay Power Commission (TBPC) into a member appointed advisory committee, activated only at the behest of both assemblies. The TBPC oversaw the Tyee Hydroelectric Plant until operations and management of the plant were transferred to the Southeast Alaska Power Authority (SEAPA) last summer. Since then, TBPC members, in conjunction with both municipalities’ assemblies, have been trying to figure out t...
JUNEAU (AP) — Isolated in the rainforest of Southeast Alaska, residents in Kake are thinking of alternative energy. In that, they're not unlike the inhabitants of any other rural Alaska community. What makes Kake special is the way it's approaching the topic. After exploring wind energy options in partnership with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council in 2010, the Organized Village of Kake and five other Alaska Native communities received a U.S. Department of Energy grant for a different approach: solar power. Kake installed 24 solar p...
