Sorted by date Results 3076 - 3100 of 5587
Alaska Sen. Bert Stedman said in an interview Tuesday that his office has started dialogue with Gov. Bill Walker’s office to schedule a trip to Petersburg, during which the governor would sign Senate Bill 28, a landmark proposal that increases the city’s land entitlement to 14,666 acres. “I would be very surprised if it didn’t work into his schedule,” Stedman said. “He enjoys Petersburg and likes the community. I think it would be very well received.” Senate Bill 28 has not been transmitted to the governor, and his deputy spokesman, Jo...
Former Borough Mayor Mark Jensen said he was not aware of the Borough Manager’s decision to move Karl Hagerman into the Electric Superintendent’s position until a May 2 email from Steve Giesbrecht announced the personnel changes. The email began: “Please join me in congratulating several of our peers.” Next Giesbrecht wrote that both Public Works Superintendent Karl Hagerman and Asst. Public Works Superintendent Chris Cotta had accepted the positions of Utilities Director and Public Works Director, respectively. The email stated, “Both Karl and...
As of press-time this week Borough Clerk Debbie Thompson has received four letters of interest for the Assembly seat left vacant after Cindi Lagoudakis assumed the mayorship following the resignation of Mark Jensen on May 18. Jeff Meucci, John Hoag, Paul Anderson and John Havrilek have all expressed interest in the position. All have served on the city council and Meucci served as mayor. The Assembly’s appointment next week will serve until the October Borough election....
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The state of Alaska expects a reprieve from the federal government as it prepares to comply with national proof-of-identity standards. The Legislature last month approved allowing the state to issue licenses compliant with the federal REAL ID law. State law previously barred agencies from spending money to help implement the law, which some legislators saw as overreaching. Alaska had gotten extensions to comply with the federal law, the most recent of which expired Tuesday. Alaska is seeking an additional extension to a...
In last week’s marijuana growers story, the name of the retail store is “The 420,” not 420. The retail store owner is not presently a grower, but has applied for a marijuana cultivation permit. Gary Morgan, the current on-island grower sells his product for $3,200/lb. not $1,300....
National holidays often pose a reminder to many that being thankful should be constant, not reserved for a few days. So for Father's Day Sunday, The Pilot scoured the Petersburg phonebook in search of people willing to share how they make their dad proud. Here is this year's Father's Day 'every day' edition, as told by five Petersburg sons and daughters. "Well, I have one story that I think will apply to making my dad proud," said Don Nelson, recalling a time he was 12. Nelson, now 86, remembers...
The Harry Kito Bridge on Mitkof Highway attracted a modest crowd of pedestrians on Saturday who appeared befuddled at the sight of a mangled truck sitting next to Falls Creek with no one inside. The white Chevrolet resting there had left a trail of flattened grass behind it that came from the north, indicating the truck veered off the road while travelling south on Mitkof Highway. The Petersburg Police Department weekly report calls the nature of the incident, "assisted other agency." In this...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A report by the U.S. Coast Guard shows that fatal recreational-boating accidents in Alaska have doubled over the last year. There were 14 fatal boating wrecks that killed 19 people in Alaska in 2016, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. That’s seven more boating accidents and 12 more fatalities than reported in the state in 2015. Four of the fatal 2016 accidents took place in southeast Alaska, the Alaska Public Information Office said. The number of recreational-boating accidents has increased nationwide over the pas...
A panel of marine mammal specialists fielded questions last week on how fishermen should interact and deter endangered species like whales and sea lions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau gave a presentation that included law review under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and different strategies to take when around humpback whales, sperm whales and steller sea lions. The underscored theme of the presentation was to stress that laws created under the MMPA are not to...
The United States Coast Guard change of command ceremony was Thursday at Sandy Beach Park where 26-year-old Lt. Rachel Kent took over the Petersburg-based USCG Cutter ANACAPA. On a damp Thursday morning, Kent, who previously was aboard the USCGC MIDGETT in Seattle, relieved Lt. Cmdr. Pete Vermeer, who was at the helm for two years. Vermeer's accolades include two Coast Guard Commendation medals, the Coast Guard Achievement medal, the Commandant's Letter of Commendation and numerous service,...
Students and faculty from the Petersburg Borough District were surveyed on the quality of school life, and the results were presented during a School Board meeting Tuesday evening. Jenni Lefing, who is the school climate coordinator with the Association of Alaska School Boards, presented results from the 2017 climate and connectedness survey. The survey is intended to measure character in schools, peer and respect climate, and whether students think adults care for them, among other qualities, Lefing said. “These are all things we know are i...
WRANGELL – An updated schedule for next month's Independence Day festivities was put out this week by Wrangell's Chamber of Commerce. The big change in this year's lineup will be the return of boat racing, after a dry spell of nearly three decades. Heading up the organization of that effort were Penny Allen and Clay Hammer, who with Jay Einert and John Waddington figured out what needed to be done to get the event back into the water. Routes have been plotted out, rules drawn up and insurance s...
Petersburg High School students used trigonometry to pinpoint the terminus location of the LeConte Glacier last month during the 34th annual survey. The survey found that the glacier moved about 200 feet back from its average position for the last 10 years, which is not a significant change, said Victor Troutman, who oversees the survey. Seven students trained weekly over their lunch break for a year before they could participate in the survey, which is a data-gathering expedition that started...
The Chilkat Valley News has a new owner, as Tom Morphet passed the torch to reporter Kyle Clayton last week. Morphet has owned the CVN for five years. Before buying the paper, he worked at it 22 years as a reporter, editor and manager. Morphet’s ownership of the newspaper became contentious in August when he began campaigning for a seat on the Haines Borough Assembly. Morphet hired interim editors and started advertising and publicizing the newspaper’s sale. “Obviously, being elected to office made me a motivated seller,” Morphet said. “In ter...
Finance Director Jody Tow is confident education and general taxes in Petersburg will not go above the mill rate cap of 10 in the coming years. In the last decade, the mill rate has fluctuated between 8.5 and 9, but has never reached 10 like it did in 2007, according to Borough documents. In the 2018 fiscal year budget, the education and general tax rate increased slightly to 9 due to the Borough being conservative, Tow said. "We want to stretch out the balance of the secure rural school funds f...
Alexis Francisco, Hana Newman, Helen Martin, Tanya Spears, Madisyn Parker and Julia Evens passed the State of Alaska Certified Nursing Assistant certification examination on June 2, according to program coordinator Angela Menish. Testing included both written and practical skills. All six have completed CNA classes that have been provided since September and include a minimum of 60 classroom hours and 80 supervised skills and clinical experience hours. The students learned basic skills to...
JUNEAU, Alaska – The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) announced Wednesday that due to ongoing repairs the M/V Columbia will require additional time at Vigor Shipyard in Portland, Oregon. This delay will impact some passengers. Affected passengers are being notified by AMHS staff now. The M/V Malaspina is currently running in the Columbia’s place, and will continue until the Columbia is back in service on July 26. The Malaspina is a smaller vessel, therefore some passengers will not get the cabins they reserved and some vehicle res...
WRANGELL – The city’s annual switch-over to diesel power is scheduled to begin next week, lasting just under two weeks. Electrical superintendent Clay Hammer explained the temporary transition is to allow Southeast Alaska Power Agency – a utility providing hydroelectric power to the communities of Wrangell, Ketchikan and Petersburg – to undertake maintenance projects on its infrastructure. While those lines are down, it falls on municipalities to generate their own power during the interim, with Wrangell and Petersburg firing up its diesel...
Over a year ago, Topi Karikorpi made a list of four countries he would perhaps like to spend a year in. Foreign exchange program officials decided the rest for him --- Country: United States; State: Alaska; City: Petersburg. Karikorpi came to Petersburg in August 2016 as part of the Rotary Club's foreign exchange program. He is from a town in south Finland populated with 1,100 people, so he was relieved to find out Petersburg was going to be his temporary home. "I hoped to go to a small place,"...
The Petersburg Assembly unanimously approved its budget last week for the upcoming year that starts July 1 and runs through June 2018. Over three meetings and three readings of the proposed budget, the Assembly grappled with a change worth about $160,000. A vote to delete a fourth lineman position from the Power & Light budget ultimately passed unanimously on the third reading. "[The Assembly] went back and forth on this," said Petersburg Borough Manager Stephen Giesbrecht. "I can't speak for...
The Petersburg Borough is a signature away from increasing its state land grant from 1,400 acres to more than 14,600, as legislation was passed on the last day of session in May, said Liz Cabrera, who is the Petersburg community development director. "This is a really big deal for Petersburg," Cabrera said. "If the bill didn't get passed on that day, we would have to wait until next January to take it up again. It was kind of on the 11th hour." The bill passed through the House and Senate...
As your Borough Manager, my job is a combination of providing advice along with implementing the policies of your elected officials. This necessitates me taking criticism, including from those very people your elected officials (the Assembly) are trying to help. I am not whining, just stating a fact. Today I find myself involved in a debate that clearly I started when I made a proposal to save money in some of the community's utility departments (water, sewer, electric). The savings, about $110,...
The two marijuana growers in Petersburg are apparently not in competition, as one wants to grow for her own retail shop and the other plans to export his product to Ketchikan. Susan Burrell has been licensed to sell weed in Petersburg for months. But now she is in the process of becoming licensed to harvest it as well, despite a grower already being on the island. The move is to dodge high Alaska weed costs, Burrell said. Further, she couldn't make a sufficient deal with the current weed grower...
The Petersburg municipal building project is slated to be done mid June and is currently $700,000 under its $10 million projected cost, said Petersburg Borough Manager Stephen Giesbrecht. The project, which has cost $9.3 million so far, is a week behind its scheduled finish of June 1, but Giesbrecht said that was expected and agreed upon. "In a sense, it's done," Giesbrecht said. "We're probably only talking $30,000 to $40,000 more. It's really tiny, but I don't want to misrepresent." The city...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Research by a Juneau scientist has helped uncover a new species of flying squirrel. Allison Bidlack and her six-person team released their findings about what they dubbed the Humboldt’s flying squirrel in the May 30 issue of the Journal of Mammalogy, according to a news release from the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center. The group determined the existence of the third species using satellite data and DNA samples that Bidlack took 20 years ago while working on her master’s degree at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Bidla...
