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Name: Richard Burke Age:38 Experience: Civil Engineer. US Navy Submarine Service Vet. 1998-2003. AAS in Civil Engineering Technology, Mount Hood Community College 2005, BS Forest Engineering, Oregon State University 2010. Lived in Petersburg for 7 years. 5 years in Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department. 2 years on Petersburg Borough Planning & Zoning with a very good attendance record. I wrote Proposition 6 on this ballot. Why do you seek public office? I love Petersburg, and I think I can make...
The 39th annual harbor conference is scheduled to begin next week at the Sons of Norway Hall in Petersburg. The Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators will start events on Monday, October 3 and continue through Friday. Check-in will be 2:00 p.m. on Monday and a welcome reception at the Elks Club will be at 5:00. After that, the week will feature nearly 30 events sprawled across the five days. Petersburg last hosted the conference in 2003....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The new owners of Alaska’s largest newspaper have laid off reporters, editors and other employees just days after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the Alaska Dispatch News. Co-Publisher Ryan Binkley wouldn’t disclose how many of the 212 employees were laid off, but described it in a story published Thursday as a significant change in the size of the newspaper. Binkley didn’t immediately return messages from The Associated Press. He said he realized a lot of employees would be hurt by layoffs, but it was necessa...
The radio station in Petersburg received more than $100,000 of individual donations in fiscal year 2017, which has reinforced the nearly 50 percent of state funding that has been slashed the last two years. From June 2016 to July 2017, Station Manager Tom Abbott said KFSK received $105,180 in donations almost exclusively from Petersburg residents. "KFSK is in the top 10 for per capita giving among all radio stations in the nation," Abbott said, "which is something that Petersburg should be...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A movement has begun to return part of Juneau’s land to those who originally inhabited it. The city and borough of Juneau’s Lands Committee will discuss a proposal to give Indian Point, also known as Auke Cape, back to the Native Alaskan Auk’w Kwaan tribe at its Oct. 23 meeting, Deputy Lands and Resources Manager Dan Bleidorn said Thursday. The committee plans to discuss the proposal by Goldbelt Heritage Foundation Executive Director Dionne Cadiente-Laiti with the intention of passing it on to the Assembly for conside...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Bill Walker’s latest proposal for closing the gap between state revenue and spending is a limited tax on payroll wages and self-employment income. Walker, an independent, is calling the proposal a modified “head tax.” The matter will be addressed at an Oct. 23 special session, the fourth this year, that Walker announced Friday. A crime bill is also on the agenda. The Republican-led Senate earlier this year rejected a House-passed income tax. The state is grappling with a multibillion-dollar deficit amid continu...
Voters in Petersburg will be asked if the Borough should spend up to $500,000 on developing a small vessel haul out and work yard at Scow Bay. The Borough assembly in July approved a resolution to be placed on the October 3 ballot that would ask whether $500,000 should be spent on developing Scow Bay. The project had been estimated to cost $7 million. The $500,000 would identify to grant foundations that Petersburg is committed to spending its own money on the project, said Glo Wollen, the harbormaster. “Therefore spending this money [would s...
The first proposition listed on the election ballot will ask voters if the City of Kupreanof should own the dock connected to its shores. As it stands, the State of Alaska owns the Kupreanof dock, but it has not maintained it in decades, Mayor Tom Reinarts said. “We have been studying that dock for a long time,” Reinarts said. “We have only done bits and pieces to keep it in reasonable shape so it is useable. It is to the point it needs a whole lot more help.” In order for the state to transfer ownership to Kupreanof, the Borough charter...
There are three tax-based ballot questions in this year’s election, with two having an impact on shopping in the Petersburg Borough and a third affecting local businesses. Proposition #2 asks if the borough should increase the sales tax exemption on high dollar purchases. Currently, sale taxes are capped if a person spends $1,200 on a single purchase. The borough is asking if it should increase that cap to $1,500, a move that would generate revenue, said Debbie Thompson, the borough clerk. “For...
The North End Ferry Authority in Prince of Wales, dogged by years of what executives call mismanagement and ill-advised spending, has restarted plans for another try at a ferry that connects Coffman Cove, Petersburg and Wrangell. The most recent ferry was called the Rainforest Islander. The Authority's inception was in 2012, and it closed indefinitely in May of last year. Before 2012 there was the Inter-Island Ferry Authority's MV Stikine with the same route. Now, Don Nicholson, a North End...
The 2017 Alaska Permanent Fund checks will be $1,100. Eligible Alaskans can expect their checks to be disbursed on October 5. Last year the checks were $1,022. Since 1982, a total amount of $38,127.41 has been distributed to each eligible Alaskan, according to the State of Alaska PFD website....
The hospital Board of Directors held a work session on Friday to further discuss its relationship with the Borough, to which it feels like the ugly stepchild. Jeigh Stanton Gregor was at the meeting to represent the Assembly and offer his input on the discussion. “Feeling triggered by the ugly step sister comment,” Stanton Gregor said, “I don’t think anyone feels that way. We want to know what you want. Tell us what you want the relationship to be like.” The board discussed adding a provision to the Petersburg Charter that would require t...
King Salmon Due to conservation concerns, the retention of king salmon is prohibited in all Southeast Alaska salt waters, including the Petersburg/Wrangell area. This closure went into effect 12:01am, Thursday, August 10, 2017. All king salmon caught must be immediately released unharmed. Coho Salmon Coho salmon catch rates in the marine fishery remained high during the last week but anglers can expect to see declining catch rates in the marine fishery. Freshwater fishing for coho was slow to start the season but catch rates have been...
Registered voters in Petersburg will be asked if the city should keep fluoride in its city water supply, and citizens are ratcheting up their stance on the issue from both sides. Sandy Volk, a dental hygienist, regrets not giving her kids more fluoride vitamins when they were young. Living near Papke’s Landing, Volk’s household didn’t receive city water, which had then and does now have a dose of fluoride in it. So she gave her kids fluoride compacted into a pill. She said the schools and recreation facilities all ran on city water, which...
The Petersburg Assembly approved a “groundbreaking” request from the harbormaster on Monday that gave thumbs up to start blueprinting the south harbor dredge project. Glo Wollen said boats in the south harbor are running aground and getting stuck at waterfront entrances and stalls. “Our fishing fleet is going aground on higher portions of the low tide in the south harbor,” she said. “There are boats getting stuck coming in and out.” As a result, Wollen coordinated an agreement between the Boroug...
The United State Ambassador to Norway will be in Petersburg at the end of the month to talk about priorities in the Arctic, Jeigh Stanton Gregor reported at an Assembly meeting on Monday. The Sons of Norway will host a reception for Ambassador Kare Aas on Saturday, September 30 at 2:00 p.m. at the SONS hall. Aas is scheduled to give a presentation titled “Norway’s Priorities in the Arctic.” “It’s a pretty neat topic especially since the U.S. has a vested interest in the Arctic through Alaska,” said Glo Wollen, who helped coordinate the visit....
Voters in Petersburg are going to decide on October 3 whether off-highway vehicles should be allowed on most streets in town, prompting the question of how law enforcement responds to ATVs on streets now, and how they might if the Borough code is changed. The proposed ordinance change would allow for any off-highway vehicles -- side-by-sides, golf carts -- to be driven on every Petersburg street besides Haugen Drive, South Nordic Drive, Mitkof Highway and Scow Bay Loop. This does not include snow machines or snowmobiles. When asked about the AT...
A man who pled guilty this week to illegally shooting two bears on Admiralty Island in 2015 was sentenced to $13,000 in fines guaranteed, one-year probation and loss of hunting privileges for five years. Griffen Fales, 20 years old from California, appeared via phone before Judge Desiree Burrell in the Petersburg District Court on Tuesday. Fales pled guilty of two counts of taking a brown bear in closed season, two counts of fail to salvage, and one count of fail to possess a non-resident locking tag. An investigation from Alaska Wildlife...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — Hungry bears seeking garbage have been seen in much larger numbers than normal this year and five have been killed so far in 2017, officials said. The number of bears killed is a 15-year high for the area, The Ketchikan Daily News reported Wednesday, quoting Alaska Department of Fish and Game Biologist Boyd Porter. Police killed one of the bears and officers have received constant calls from residents about bears wandering in the city, said Ketchikan Police Chief Joe White. “I’d say at least two or three calls a day p...
With Southeast Conference wrapping up in Haines this morning, municipalities, businesses and individuals from around the region should have a better idea of how the economy is faring. Each year, SEC’s Southeast Alaska By the Numbers report looks at the preceding year’s demographic and labor statistics, noting trends and making forecasts where possible. Released just this week, the report for 2016 indicated it had been a tough year for the region, economically speaking. For the first time since 2007 jobs and earnings were both down from the prev...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The winning bidder for Alaska’s ferry Taku wants to turn the 352-foot (107-meter) vessel into a waterfront hotel and restaurant in Oregon. Portland resident Jonathan Cohen’s $300,000 bid on Friday was six times higher than the next bid, The Juneau Empire reported. Cohen represents a group of Portland investors who want to make the mothballed ferry a floating hotel at a pier in northwest Portland. “Our hope is to bring it to Portland, Oregon, where we’re based and to use it as a way to give this very historic vessel a...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An environmental activist is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider placing anchored rafts in the ocean as resting platforms for walruses after stampedes killed 64 animals on Alaska’s northwest coast. Rick Steiner, an environmental consultant and former University of Alaska marine conservation professor, pitched the idea two years ago. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded it didn’t have the money or manpower to provide artificial resting platforms that might give a few walruses relief but not b...
WRANGELL — Three years after a major tailings dam failure in Canada’s British Columbia province, an environmental advocacy group will be meeting with assemblies and residents in Southeast Alaska communities soon. Salmon Beyond Borders is a campaign driven by a combination of fishermen, businesses in the tourism and recreational sectors, civic groups and concerned citizens. Working with tribal counterparts on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, the group has primarily been focused on maintaining water quality along transboundary rivers. In...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Some of the highest insurance rates in the nation just got a little bit cheaper. Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield is the sole provider for the Alaska individual health insurance market. It announced Tuesday that its rates will decrease 26.5 percent for 2018. The company says on average, that means a person paying $1,000 this year will pay about $770 next year. The insurer attributes the decrease to a significant reduction in the use of medical services and the state’s establishment of a program to address high claims s...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) will be conducting a Bowhunter Education Course if enough individuals are interested. An NBEF / IBEP bowhunter certificate is required in Alaska to hunt in “Bowhunting Only” areas of the state. Many drawing permit hunts near urban areas are for bowhunting only and hunters may not apply for the permit unless they have successfully completed a bowhunting certification course approved by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Alaska Bowhunter education program meets the National Bowhunter Edu...
