Sorted by date Results 3001 - 3025 of 5625
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska mayor is having second thoughts about a voter-imposed ceiling on how much money the borough government can collect from year to year. Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Karl Kassel said budgeting for the future based on a mathematical formula is flawed. No formula can take into account all of the unforeseen circumstances that impact local government, he said. Kassel’s comments come as the tax cap marks 30 years in effect, the Fairbanks Daily News reported. Signatures are being collected to put the tax-cap que...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Luck Dunbar was napping during a routine flight when he heard a loud noise, woke up and realized the commuter plane was dropping. Dunbar was one of five people aboard the plane Monday morning when it was heading from Skagway to Juneau, Haines radio station KHNS reported. An engine failure prompted pilot Joshua Poirier to make an emergency landing in the ocean. “(Poirier) pointed over by Coghlan Island and he said, ‘I think we’re going to lay her down over here,”‘ Dunbar said. As the plane dropped, Dunbar said he was thin...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A teacher shortage across the nation has added to Alaska’s ongoing problem of educators fleeing the state, leaving school districts scrambling for teachers with just a few weeks until classes start, school officials said. Numbers from August 4 show 155 teaching positions and 90 special education positions are open across the state, according to Alaska Teacher Placement. About half of Alaska’s school districts are still looking for teachers to hire for this school year, KTOO-FM reported. Lower Kuskokwim School Distr...
Beginning in 2018, Alaska fishermen, some of whom may not have the space on their vessel or life raft capacity for a NOAA Fisheries observer, will have the option to use an electronic monitoring (EM) system instead. NOAA Fisheries is integrating EM into the North Pacific Observer Program for the 2018 fishing year. An EM system uses cameras and associated sensors to passively record and monitor fishing activities-work traditionally accomplished by human observers placed onboard commercial...
An appointed member of the Petersburg School Board has decided against running for an open position in the October election and instead hopes to be a candidate for one of the open seats on the Borough Assembly. Brandi Thynes Marohl was appointed to the School Board last year. She was expected to run for one of the two open seats in the October election. That is until she announced publicly during a School Board meeting Tuesday that she submitted candidacy paperwork for a seat on the Assembly ins...
BIRCHWOOD, Alaska (AP) – Construction at an Alaska police training facility is nearing completion and project managers have said it should open this fall. The Southcentral Law Enforcement Tactical Training Center in Birchwood will have four shooting ranges for local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Construction is expected to cost $4.6 million, the land was purchased for $1.95 million, and the project design costs were approximately $487,000, said Alan Czajkowski, director of maintenance and operations for the Anchorage Public W...
Chinook Salmon A total of 66,000 non-Alaska hatchery origin (treaty) Chinook salmon were harvested by trollers during the first summer opening and mark select fishery, leaving an estimated 31,000 treaty Chinook salmon remaining from the annual troll allocation. However, with many of the Chinook salmon stocks from Alaska, Canada, and Washington that contribute to Southeast Alaska/Yakutat commercial troll fishery exhibiting poor production and not meeting escapement goals or objectives in 2017, conservation measures are necessary to reduce...
JUNEAU – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the retention of king salmon is prohibited in all Southeast Alaska salt waters, king salmon may not be retained or possessed; any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday, August 10 through 11:59 p.m. Saturday, September 30, 2017. The Southeast Alaska king salmon sport fishery is managed under the directives of the Southeast Alaska King Salmon Management Plan (5 AAC 47.055). T...
The Petersburg Medical Center set a goal to generate $10,000 from the 2017 Paddle Battle fundraiser, but nearly a month has passed and the number is about half that, despite there being more participants. The Medical Center had raised $5,535 from the kayaking expedition since last week, said Sarah Holmgrain, the foundation secretary treasurer for the hospital. The event hosted 43 people, which is about 10 more than the previous three-year average. "The last three years we did meet the $10,000...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Wildlife biologists say all indications point to a good season for deer hunters in the Juneau area. During surveys this spring, biologists counted an increase in pellets, and as such, they're expecting an increase in successful hunts. Biologists count “pellet groups” — piles of droppings —to assess the health of deer populations in different areas around the southeast region of the state, the Juneau Empire reported. Alaska Department of Fish and Game regional supervisor Ryan Scott said the amount of pellet groups ca...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A new six-year study on guns in Alaska shows the state has the highest rate of gun ownership and one of the top rates of gun deaths and injuries in the U.S. The study was published on Wednesday by the Alaska Section of Epidemiology, the Juneau Empire reported, It examined three statewide databases and found almost 1,500 people were injured or killed by firearms from the start of 2009 to the end of 2015. Figures compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention show Alaska's firearm death rate is the s...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have been looking into the science behind tsunami risk for Alaska's coastal communities. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, reported Sunday Tsunami modelers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, Elena Suleimani and Dmitry Nicolsky, recently shared their discoveries to Juneau and Sitka in hopes of better preparing those communities for potential tsunamis. Alaska is home to 60 and 70 coastal communities that could be hit by Tsunamis. Alaska has the l...
Boats and trailers lined the launch ramps, residents thronged the beaches, plastic ducks bobbed in Twin Lakes, and Juneau basked under the sun on a record-breaking weekend. The capital city has had a full week of temperatures at or above 70 degrees, and the weekend brought the warmest days of the year so far. Saturday’s high temperature of 81 degrees beat the old record of 80, set in 2009, and is the hottest day of the year to date. Sunday’s high was 78, beating the 1999 record of 75. Those temperatures were recorded at the airport, Jun...
WRANGELL, Alaska (AP) – State plans to store contaminated soil near a recreation area in the Alaska Panhandle could be stalled by the U.S. Forest Service. CoastAlaska News reports, state officials seek to move nearly 20,000 cubic yards (15,291 cubic meters) of lead-laced soil in a rock quarry south of Wrangell. Officials say they want the soil moved because it poses a threat to marine environment and have prepared it with phosphate-based product so the lead won't leach into soil or waterways. To move the soil, the state needs a road permit, w...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska state capital's electric utility is set to change hands late next year, but some in the city are looking for a way to keep it under local control. Avista, which is the parent company for Juneau's power company, Alaska Light Electric & Power, is in the process of being bought by Canadian energy company Hydro One. The sale is expected to close in late 2018, the Juneau Empire reported. The two heads of Juneau Hydropower — President and CEO Keith Comstock and Managing Director Duff Mitchell — have expressed inter...
At the age of 23, Harvey Gilliland left his job at Western Union Telegraph Company in Seattle to take a job at the White Alice Communications System (WACS) in Duncan Canal, just 9-miles from Petersburg. The site was 2.25 miles from the beach, according to Gilliland, and sat on a mountain at a 2,460 ft. elevation. The steep terrain between the site and beach required a 6.25-mile road with 5 major switchbacks, Gilliland noted. Following two weeks of indoctrinization in Anchorage, "another guy and...
The history of the code name White Alice is lost to history. Those devising the code name may have selected it as an acronym or just a name with no special meaning. One claim has Alice an acronym for Alaska Integrated Communications Enterprise. Air Force regulations required two words in a code name. A second word White, represented the long Alaskan winter. Alice White would work, but a silent screen star already had that name and person's names could not be used. Transposing the two words...
After the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb on August 24, 1949 the United States nuclear monopoly came to an end. Enemy bombers flying over the Arctic Circle from air bases above the Arctic Circle could reach the American heartland in a few hours. Early warning radar stations in Alaska and Canada could provide advance warning of a Soviet bomber attack, but the radars would only be effective with efficient and reliable communications to military control centers. The first Alaska radar network comm...
Last week The Pilot reported that Karl Hagerman is the director of the Community Development department. That is incorrect. Liz Cabrera is the director of Community Development....
The Petersburg Public Health Center has been outfitted with kits to help soften the blow of prescription drug and heroin overdoses long enough to get a person into treatment, said nurse Erin Michael. The health center is offering free overdose kits to anyone in Petersburg. In the kit is a nasal spray with naloxone, brand-name Narcan, which reverses respiratory depression that occurs while someone is overdosing on opioids. “This is a good thing for Petersburg,” Michael said. “Ultimately, it can save lives and buy someone time before they can g...
Turnover rate is a figure often monitored by employers in different ways, interpreted differently by one manager to the next and calculated using unique formulas. But there will always be a singular constant – money. The cost to replace an employee can be in the thousands. And turnover rate is often unforgiving, as it usually accounts for any person separating from his or her job. Borough governments in southeast Alaska often approach turnover differently, if they approach it at all. The H...
The Pilot calculated annual turnover rate for each Petersburg Borough department by using employee documents from 2013 to 2016. Here’s how it was done. The turnover rates presented reflect full-time staff only, and Mindy Swihart, the Borough Deputy Clerk, confirmed the data. After the data was calculated, every department head, along with the Borough manager and human resources officials, were asked to comment and confirm the turnover rates. To compute annual turnover rate, the number of full-time employees who left a department for any r...
National Geographic has a new cruise ship and it stopped in Petersburg on Monday, where the Chamber of Commerce gifted the captain with an inaugural plaque to commemorate the ship's first visit to the city. "On behalf of the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce," David Byrne said to Captain Andrew Cook. "We would just like to welcome you and your crew and your guests to the city of Petersburg." Marc Cappelletti, the director of expedition development on the ship, ushered representatives from the...
Why do a story on Petersburg Borough employee turnover? We were asked this question many times in the days leading up to the publication of this week’s story by reporter Ben Muir. Employee turnover is costly, for both private businesses and government. Replacing an employee requires: • Training time • Possible damage to equipment and property by inexperienced employees • Productivity losses • Lower teamwork output • Additional cost of overtime for remaining employees until vacancy filled Often managers don’t think about employee retention, be...
Hunters are reminded the Unit 4 general season deer hunt begins August 1. The bag limit is restricted to bucks only through September 14. Beginning September 15 either sex may be taken. During the bucks only portion of the season, evidence of sex must remain naturally attached to the meat, or antlers must remain naturally attached to the entire carcass. Hunters must have a valid hunting license and deer harvest tickets in possession while hunting. Harvest tickets must be validated in sequential order and unused tickets must be carried while...
