Sorted by date Results 1192 - 1216 of 5553
In February 1946, the S.S. Yukon ran aground near Seward. The passengers on board were thrown into cold, oily water as they waited to be rescued. One of those passengers was Art Hammer, this year's Christmas tree lighter. Hammer, 99, was born on July 7, 1921. He attended school in Petersburg and graduated from Petersburg High School in 1939. Three years later in 1942, he enlisted with the United States Army and served until 1946. He had just been discharged when the S.S. Yukon went down. Hammer...
Two Petersburg residents are facing charges after accusing a Petersburg Police Department officer of sexual misconduct. James R. Vick and Julie C. Ruhle claimed that Officer Louis Waechter allegedly touched Ruhle inappropriately while arresting her on charges of driving under the influence on Sept. 28, but body cam footage of the interaction does not support the claim, according to the court complaint. Vick and Ruhle now face a misdemeanor class A charge for knowingly giving false information to...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht will be narrowing down the list of finalists for the Parks and Recreation Department director position from five candidates to two or three candidates this week, with help from borough staff and members from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Twelve candidates applied for the director's position, which was left vacant when the previous Parks and Rec. director, Chandra Thornburg, resigned in January. Since then, Giesbrecht has been the acting director. The...
Devon Guthrie is fascinated by cars, but never understood how they worked. Then he saw a picture of an old 1951 CJ-3A Willys Jeep sitting in a lot in Skagway. Now it sits in the Petersburg High School shop where Guthrie works to refurbish it each morning. "I've always been interested in cars, but never been able to learn about them," said Devon. "This is one of the ways I can learn." His dad, Alex Guthrie, also had a Jeep when he was younger. After talking to the owner of the Jeep, who was a...
The Park and Recreation Center's Aquatic Center opened to the public on Nov. 23 following temporary repairs in the boiler room. Initial contractor estimates projected the pool to reopen on a temporary basis in anywhere from three to four months, according to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. He said the contractors were able to find parts and materials much sooner than anticipated, though some had to be air freighted to town from the East Coast. "Slowly, but surely, the parts rolled in," said...
The 2021 preseason terminal run forecast for Stikine River large Chinook salmon is 9,900 fish. The forecast is below the lower end of the Escapement Goal Range (EGR) of 14,000 to 28,000 fish. The 2020 terminal run size was 11,750 large Chinook salmon with an escapement of 10,670 fish. The 2021 preseason terminal run forecast for Taku River large Chinook salmon is 10,300 fish. The forecast is below the lower end of the EGR of 19,000 to 36,000 fish. The 2020 terminal run size was 15,980 large Chinook salmon with an escapement of 15,590 fish....
A performance evaluation of Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht conducted by the Borough Assembly found that the manager meets or exceeds expectations when it comes to his work ethic. Giesbrecht was evaluated on nine different categories of his performance. Several questions were presented to assembly members in each of the categories, and they ranked his performance as "needs improvement," "meets expectations," "exceeds expectations" or "evaluator has no basis for judgment." Giesbrech had a...
Petersburg High School students in David Owens' shop classes came together last week to build a ramp for a student at Rae C. Stedman Elementary school who will be wheelchair bound for the next few months. After school on Nov. 18, Owens became aware of a local family who was in immediate need of a wheelchair ramp. Fifth grader Marley Estes had recently suffered a serious fall and had to have an emergency operation in Anchorage, said her mother, Delia DeMent. Estes has to stay off her injured foot...
The Petersburg Emergency Operations Center confirmed four new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Petersburg, according to three joint press releases between the Petersburg Borough and the Petersburg Medical Center. One case was confirmed on Friday, one on Saturday and two on Sunday. An Alaska resident recently traveled to Petersburg and was later deemed a close contact of a positive case identified on Nov. 14, according to one of the press releases. The individual later tested positive...
The Petersburg Salvation Army put together 75 boxes packed with all the fixings needed for a complete Thanksgiving dinner for local families and individuals in need. Fifty-eight of the boxes went towards families and included turkeys that were donated by the Lutheran Church's women's group. The remaining boxes went to single individuals and included a Cornish game hen. All the food in the boxes were either donated or purchased with donated funds. Major Loni Upshaw said the Salvation Army spent...
A faulty connection between an extension cord and freezer onboard a vessel in South Boat Harbor caused a small fire on Monday afternoon. People were walking by the F/V Aleutian Dream at around 3:40 P.M. on Monday when they noticed an extension cord hanging over the top of the boat's pilot box was on fire. Harbor Department staff quickly shut off power to the boat, said Dave Berg, assistant fire chief with the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department. The fire had put itself out by the time any...
An Urban Corporation for the Petersburg area would claim 23,040 acres of federal land within the Petersburg Borough should Congress pass legislation put before them by Alaska's congressional delegation. The Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act would amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) to allow native residents in Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Tenakee to form Urban Corporations and receive 23,040 acres of...
Borough residents are now required to wear a face covering in public buildings, work settings and at outdoor public gatherings of 50 people or more following the approval of public health mandate #8 by the Borough Assembly at their Monday meeting. Monday's discussion on whether the assembly should pass a borough-wide face covering mandate left assembly members and the community divided. After several amendments to the mandate, public health ordinance #8 was able to pass in a 4-3 vote. The...
The Borough Assembly approved a letter on Wednesday to Alaska's congressional delegation asking they postpone enacting a bill that would transfer borough land to a Urban Corporation in order to gather the opinions of local residents that would be impacted by the decision. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Fulfillment Act of 2020 looks to authorize land transfers to five Southeast Alaska native communities that did not receive land under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971...
Three new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in town since last week's COVID-19 community update, according to joint press releases between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The first two cases were identified on the morning of Nov. 14. One positive case was confirmed to be a local resident who is traveling out of state, according to a joint press release. The individual is isolated at their destination and will remain there until they have recovered. The person was not in...
Petersburg Indian Association received six declaration of candidacy letters for four seats on the Tribal Council, including the one-year council chair seat. The deadline to submit a letter of declaration of candidacy was on Monday, but anyone still interested in running for a seat on the council can fill out a letter of intent to run as a write-in candidate. Interested tribal members have until Nov. 23 at 4 P.M. to submit a letter of intent. Christina Morrison, the current Tribal Council...
As the state continues to count absentee and early ballots for the Nov. 3 election, Alaska House District 35 has seen its voter turnout rate jump from 26.25 percent to 64.74 percent as of Nov. 18, according to statistics from the Alaska Division of Elections. Only the ballots that were cast in person on Election Day were tabulated into the initial unofficial results, resulting in a 26.25 percent voter turnout for District 35 and a 23.88 percent voter turnout for the Petersburg Borough,...
Like most people in town, Ashley Lohr's summer travel plans were cancelled this year. Instead, she hunkered down in her workshop and churned out handmade earrings and necklaces at a pace that made her feel like she was an artist in residency. All 70 pieces of Lohr's jewelry, as well as six paintings, will be on display at the Clausen Memorial Museum until Nov. 28 in a solo exhibit titled, Equilibrium. The exhibit showcases how far she has progressed as an artist and jewelry maker in the past...
The Borough Assembly approved a health mandate on Monday that requires intrastate travelers arriving in Petersburg be tested for COVID-19 before or upon their arrival to town. Public health mandate #9 also lists procedures and protocols for anyone arriving in Petersburg through the James A. Johnson Airport or the Alaska Marine Highway System. If an individual arrives in town with proof of a negative test result, the test must have been taken within 72 hours, according to the mandate. If the pers...
The Borough Assembly extended the borough's health mandate that places COVID-19 protocols on vessels docking and disembarking at borough harbor facilities for the fourth time at their meeting on Monday. Public health mandate #5 requires anyone onboard a vessel that is looking to enter Petersburg harbor facilities and is subject to Alaska interstate and interstate travel protocols be screened by Borough Public Health Officer Mark Tuccillo before disembarking. If any crew members or passengers...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released preliminary data on state salmon harvests for 2020. Information for Southeast Alaska shows that only half as many fish were hauled in this year compared to last year. 2020 data shows that 14,301,964 salmon were harvested this year, totaling a little over 74 million pounds. The estimated ex vessel value for this harvest is about $50 million. This is a major decrease from 2019 numbers, reported at about 32 million fish, 163 million pounds, and...
The Petersburg Borough, including the city of Kupreanof, saw a 23.88 percent voter turnout on Election Day earlier this month, with 707 of the 2,961 registered voters casting a vote in person on Nov. 3, according to unofficial results from the Alaska Division of Elections. According to Sally Dwyer, a local resident who handled early voting for the state, over 650 residents cast in person absentee ballots prior to Election Day. In a press release from the Alaska Division of Elections on Nov. 9,...
With the hopes of encouraging residents to resist pandemic fatigue as Alaska approaches the eight month mark of battling COVID-19, the Petersburg Emergency Operations Center released a health alert on Thursday, Nov. 5 reminding residents of the protocols they can take to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while keeping schools and the local economy open. Public health alert #3 strongly recommends, but doesn't mandate, six mitigation strategies. Residents are asked to wear a face covering when...
Rae C. Stedman Elementary School brought on board six new teachers this year as the school looks to create smaller class sizes to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the building. One of the new teachers is a face some students may already know. After teaching at the Mitkof Dance Troupe, Kaili Swanson decided she wanted to do something to help the community push through the COVID-19 pandemic. She received an emergency teaching certification through the state and started teaching kindergarten....
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