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The 2022 pink salmon harvest is forecasted to be in the weak range in Southeast Alaska with an estimate of 16 million fish according to a report from NOAA Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. According to the report, the 2022 forecast is approximately half of the 10-year average harvest of 34 million pink salmon but is higher than the 8 million predicted in 2020, the last even year harvest. Southeast Alaska Pink and Chum Salmon Project Leader Andy Piston said trawl surveys...
As the holiday season approaches, the post office continues to shorten the hours of its service window after facing staffing issues. The window's hours were cut in half this week, now only being open from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, causing increased wait times as lines grow longer. The Borough Assembly held a discussion about the issues at the post office during its meeting on November 17 which was asked for by Assembly Member Dave Kensinger....
The Borough Assembly approved a change order during its November 17 meeting for repairs to the motor pool shop which was damaged in a fire in August of 2019 and the borough is in the process of rebuilding. According to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht, the changes to the project are mostly covered by the borough’s insurance and are related to either fire damage or fire codes. Included in the order are additional asbestos tile removal, the repairing of fire damaged x-bracing, and shim crane r...
The Borough Assembly discussed providing guidance for volunteer projects on borough property during its November 17 meeting. Assembly Member Bob Lynn requested Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht draft a document outlining requirements for future projects during the previous assembly meeting. The discussion of a need for the standards stemmed from the assembly's decision to distribute up to $20,000 to pay for the Deck Out The Deck project at Mountain View Manor after funds were needed for...
The Petersburg School District updated its testing protocols Friday, Nov. 26 to allow students identified as close contacts at the school to continue attending in person classes according to an announcement from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Changes were made to the COVID-19 guidelines after a firmware update from the CUE molecular test manufacturer caused performance irregularities. According to the announcement, the district will be suspending CUE tests and introducing new quarantine...
The Borough Assembly passed Ordinance #2021-20 during Wednesday's meeting which amended the previous emergency masking ordinance brought about by the increase of COVID-19 cases in Petersburg. The language of the new ordinance was heavily changed during its discussion so that it would not require businesses to deny admittance to offenders of the ordinance and would not introduce a fine structure for violators. The new ordinance only added a requirement for masking in communal spaces such as...
Veterans drove by the schools Thursday morning as part of the Veterans Day Parade while students and staff waved flags and cheered them on. Cars lined up on North 5th Street as students assembled in front of the school with red, white, and blue signs thanking veterans for their service. The Mitkof Middle School band first welcomed the veterans along the parade route, performing marching tunes as the cars turned onto Dolphin Street. Students from Stedman Elementary lined the street holding flags...
Stedman Elementary School and Mitkof Middle school transitioned to remote learning this week due to the rise in COVID-19 cases according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. The elementary school started online instruction on Tuesday while the middle school moved online on Thursday. Kludt-Painter wrote in her announcement that the district is experiencing multiple staffing issues as Petersburg continues to see high community spread. Contact tracing efforts within the district are also being...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 21 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday for a total of 84 active cases. 19 cases were cleared by Public Health and 65 new cases have been reported in the past week. Currently Petersburg Borough has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 in the United States of America, with an averaged daily rate of 262 new infections per 100,000. This is according to the New York Times hot spots map, which displays a county-by-county average of new reported cases over...
A car rolled into a ditch near 10 mile Mitkof Highway at around 8 a.m. Monday due to ice on the road according to Assistant Fire Chief David Berg. The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, EMS, and Petersburg Police Department were paged out to the accident and found the occupants of the vehicle, a young woman and her dog, uninjured. According to Berg, the vehicle was stopped waiting for traffic before turning onto Mitkof Highway near the Falls Creek fish ladder when it began to slide on the...
COVID-19 cases continue to rise, impacting the Petersburg Medical Center's staff and operations as the hospital approaches its breaking point. As cases go up, work effort and stress levels among hospital staff increase as they battle the virus. "...this spike ... is impacting practically every component of the community, and there's one, two, and three degrees of separation with each other, so it affects our staff, daycare, kids," PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said. When a staff member is affected by...
The Petersburg School Board met virtually for its regular meeting on November 9 where members listened to a presentation on the audit for the year ending June 30, 2021. Bikky Shrestha from BDO USA, LLP presented a summary of the company’s findings to the board including the financial data from FY21. According to Shrestha, BDO conducted the entire audit remotely and Shrestha was the only person who was able to come to Petersburg. Apart from a couple of issues on the financial statements, Shrestha said, “the majority of the audit went really smo...
The Clausen Museum is displaying the profiles of six Alaska Natives to mark November as Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Clausen Museum Director Cindi Lagoudakis said the profiles she chose to write were of people who had some connection to Southeast Alaska and may not be well known. "We tell a lot of stories about Amy Hallingstad and Elizabeth Peratrovich, and not to take away from their importance in Alaska Native Heritage and history, but there are other people that have...
The Petersburg Indian Association has started a new program to help tribal households whose subsistence harvests have been impacted by COVID-19. According to Tribal Administrator Tracy Welch, the subsistence impact program was made possible through funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which she said was a follow up to the Cares Act passed by the federal government in 2020. Through the act, Congress designated $30 million for federally recognized tribes in coastal or Great...
The Alaska Redistricting Board adopted its final proclamation of redistricting November 10, marking the boundaries that will be used for house districts and senate pairings for the next decade. New districts are drawn every 10 years based on data collected from the U.S. Census. This year the state was divided into 40 districts, each with an approximate population of 18,355 people. The new districts were also required to be compact, contiguous, and socioeconomically integrated according to the...
A small audience gathered Sunday afternoon, socially distanced in the pews of Petersburg Lutheran Church, to experience the music of concert pianist Roman Rudnytsky. Audience member Susan Erickson gave the concert rave reviews. "It was joy ... rapture ... an awesome 90 minutes of piano," said Erickson. "He is a maestro ... and we are so fortunate in Petersburg that someone of that caliber came to our community." Roman Rudnytsky has spent a lifetime mastering the piano. His parents were...
Construction has finished on the Kake Access Road project and the road and boat launch opened to the public October 29 according to Garrett Paul, project manager with the Department of Transportation. The project improved between 20 to 25 miles of existing roads and added six miles of new roads. It spans a total distance of 42 miles from Kake to the new boat launch. The total cost of the project was $40 million, consisting of $34 million for the construction contract and $6 million for project...
The Borough Assembly approved an emergency ordinance Friday which requires that masks must be worn inside all public indoor spaces. Petersburg saw a dramatic increase in cases in the week leading up to the meeting. The Petersburg Medical Center reported 15 new cases November 1, one of the highest recorded in a single day, and Friday saw the total number of active cases stand at 63. Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor called for the special assembly meeting to consider the emergency ordinance and...
Businesses in Petersburg are feeling the impacts of global supply chain challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The manufacturing of some goods is slowing down and shipments are being delayed or canceled altogether, leading to shortages and stores guessing when to order more products. “It comes down to two main things: the labor shortage and the lack of resources,” Hammer & Wikan General Manager Jim Floyd said. While the company could previously rely on 80 to 90 percent of orders com...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 21 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total active cases to 79, the most Petersburg has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. 64 new positives were reported in the past week. Community spread is escalating rapidly according to PMC which is asking people to follow mitigation recommendations. PMC remains in red status and though they will attempt to keep all appointments, they warned that they may experience limitations or rescheduling...
Parks and Recreation are working on a project to set up lights near the ballfield at the ice skate pond to provide safety to users of the pond during the dark winter months, according to Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. She hopes the two light posts standing next to the pond, which do not have lights installed yet, will allow the pond to get more use from members of the community. In the past, Rock-N-Road Construction has taken a light stand that runs on diesel to the pond so that...
With the holiday season coming up many people look to help the Salvation Army by either donating food and clothing or volunteering their time, but some recent challenges are affecting the charitable organization's operations according to Salvation Army Major Loni Upshaw. Bags of donations are sometimes being dropped off in front of the Salvation Army's thrift store after hours, leading to items intended to be donated being stolen or ruined by the weather. "We've been dealing with the stealers,...
The Petersburg Indian Association is making progress on constructing the Mountain View Manor boardwalk trail and now has a 2022 estimated completion date according to Tribal Administrator Tracy Welch. The Tribal Transportation Program works on projects such as trails, sidewalks, and street construction that are included in PIA's long range transportation plan which is updated every year. Members of the public can give feedback on future projects and the council makes a priority list of projects...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 12 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday for a total of 48 active cases. Community spread is rapidly occurring, causing closures and staff shortages, and PMC is asking people to follow mitigation recommendations. 37 of the 48 cases were identified within the past seven days according to the Petersburg COVID-19 Dashboard. 93 COVID-19 tests have been sent to a reference laboratory and results are expected in the next 3-5 business days. PMC has moved into red...
After months away from family and friends, Joseph Tagaban hopes to return home to Petersburg in time for Thanksgiving. Joseph was checked into Seattle Children's hospital in January after it was discovered that a lump underneath his tooth was a type of cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). So far he has gone through four rounds of chemotherapy and is now finishing his recovery from the fourth round. He was also taking an experimental drug called gilteritinib but is now off of it and is awa... Full story
