Sorted by date Results 1939 - 1963 of 5569
At the end of their meeting on Monday, the borough assembly briefly discussed Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget for Alaska’s 2020 fiscal year and how it would affect the borough. Dunleavy’s proposed budget would solve Alaska’s $1.6 billion deficit by having expenditures equal to the amount of the state’s revenue. As a result, state departments and programs face budget reductions. “It sounds like this governor is interested in one thing only, which is a balanced budget with no new sources of income what so ever,” said borough manager Steph...
After Gov. Mike Dunleavy released his proposed budget earlier this month that looks to solve a $1.6 billion deficit through cuts in statewide funding, the Petersburg School District’s base student allocation would be reduced by $1,050 per student, according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. On Tuesday, the Petersburg School District is going to host a community conversation in the Wright auditorium at 6 P.M. to discuss the district’s budget. Currently, the school district receives $5,930 in funding from Alaska for each of the dis...
Author and lecturer Frederick Lane spoke at the Wright Auditorium on Thursday evening to discussion cybersafety and the impact mobile devices are having on children. Approximately 92 percent of teens use a cell phone with at least 75 percent of teens using a smart phone, according to Lane. In 1995, children ages five through sixteen spent three hours in front of a screen per day. By 2015, that number doubled to 6.5 hours per day, with some studies estimating as high as nine hours per day. The am...
Ketchikan — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the following closures for eulachon smelt (Thaleichthys pacificus) for the 2019 season. These closures are in effect beginning 12:01 a.m., Monday, February 25, 2019: District 1: will be closed to commercial, personal use, and subsistence eulachon smelt fishing in all waters. This includes all Revillagigedo Island and mainland drainages. District 7: will be closed to commercial, personal use, and subsistence eulachon smelt fishing in all waters. District 8: will be closed to c...
The borough assembly on Monday passed Ordinance #2019-01 in its first reading, which would assign designated borough assembly seats. Should the ordinance pass, borough election ballots would no longer allow voters to choose which candidates they want to fill the open assembly seats, but instead, the candidates would choose a specific seat to run for. “It’s a really good form of democracy,” said vice mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor. “If I was choosing to run for Senate, I’d either ran against Sen. Sullivan or Sen. Murkowski... It’s more in line with...
As a result of its planning for the future work session, the borough assembly approved a list of issues on Monday for borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht to pursue. The work session addressed 132 suggestions for economic growth submitted during three public meetings conducted by Giesbrecht in January 2018. During the work session, Giesbrecht took note of the topics the assembly was most interested in pursuing and presented the list to the assembly, who agreed with the list. “None of what you’re voting on tonight will change anything,” said...
Carson Paul, of Rocky's Marine, received his certification for Yamaha Master Technician on Feb. 8 after completing six one-week courses, in addition to his years of practical experience. Less than 20 percent of individuals who take the master technician test receive a passing score. Paul follows Logan Durst as the second Yamaha Master Technician at Rocky's Marine....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The airport that bears the name of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens now has a statue of the Alaska Republican. A 631-pound (286-kilogram) bronze statue was unveiled Saturday at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. It shows Stevens, who served in the Senate for 40 years, with a welcoming disposition, seated on a bench. The Ted Stevens Foundation oversaw the privately funded project. Executive director Karina Waller hopes the statue’s high-traffic location will capture attention and educate people about Stevens, the...
The Petersburg Community Foundation, an Affiliate of The Alaska Community Foundation, is opening their 2019 grant cycle on March 1, 2019. Up to $30,000 will be available for granting with individual awards up to $10,000. The Petersburg Community Foundation seeks applications from qualified, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organizations (or equivalents, such as Tribal entities, schools, and faith-based organizations) that support charitable organizations and programs in the Petersburg area. Grants may support a broad range of community needs, including...
Ben Zarlengo broke a United States Coast Guard Academy record in the weight throw by a meter on Feb. 16 while competing in a meet at Springfield College in Massachusetts. The previous record for the 35-pound weight throw was 17.7 meters, and Zarlengo beat that record at 18.71 meters, coming in first place in the meet. "I showed up every day and worked hard I suppose," said Zarlengo. "It's a lot of hours. It's such a technical event. The smallest thing could ruin your throw. It's trying to get...
Phil Hofstetter, CEO of the Petersburg Medical Center, spoke about the future of the hospital as this year’s keynote speaker at the chamber of commerce banquet. Over the years, the hospital has been remodeled and received facelifts, and Hofstetter said the hospital is due for another update because of its aging infrastructure. Before arriving in Petersburg, Hofstetter was an administrator at the Norton Sound Health Corporation in Nome where he assisted with the process of bringing a new hospital building to the community. “This building, it...
A $100 counterfeit bill was turned over to authorities on Feb. 10 after it was found discarded on the ground. In July 2018, six counterfeit bills were given to the Petersburg Police Department in a one month time span. Since then, counterfeit bills have continued to be found within Petersburg. “We’re not seeing them being passed around the same businesses,” said Captain Randal Holmgrain of the Petersburg Police Department. “A number of the bills that have been found since last year have been found discarded. Some have been passed at busines...
Sen. Bert Stedman addressed Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proposed budget for Alaska's 2020 fiscal year at the annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce banquet on Saturday. Dunleavy released his proposed budget on Feb. 13. Determined to not raise taxes and to distribute a $3,000 permanent dividend check to every Alaskan, Dunleavy's proposed budget will solve Alaska's $1.6 billion deficit by having expenditures equal to the amount of the state's revenue. As a result, state departments and programs face...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — The state has signed a $2.1 million contract with ALCAN Timber Inc. for a timber sale on state and federal forest land in southeast Alaska. The timber sale includes about 481 acres (195 hectares) within the Southeast State Forest and Tongass National Forest on the northwest end of Gravina Island, the Ketchikan Daily News reported Saturday. State Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige signed the three-year contract Wednesday. The Vallenar Bay sale involves about 16 million board feet (38,000 cubic m...
After being accepted into the FBI National Academy in April 2018, Capt. Randal Holmgrain of the Petersburg Police Department said he will be entering the 10-week program in October of this year. During the professional education course at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia, Holmgrain will be learning skills that he’ll be able to bring back to Petersburg, such as new methods of investigations and management. Holmgrain will receive a course catalog in the coming weeks for the program that will give him a better idea of the c...
The Petersburg Fire Department responded to an apartment on Sing Lee Alley that was filled with smoke after a tenant left food cooking on the stove unattended. The call was placed shortly after 12:00 A.M. on Saturday morning. Residents of the apartment building first became aware of a fire when smoke began filling the upstairs apartments. First responders began taking action immediately upon arriving on the scene. It was determined that the smoke was coming from a pan that was left cooking on...
SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says one of the nation’s biggest seafood companies has agreed to spend up to $23 million to fix serious air pollution issues with its vessels and land-based facilities. Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will also pay a $900,000 fine for Clean Air Act violations under a settlement agreement filed Tuesday in federal court in Alaska. The company uses ozone-depleting coolants in its refrigerators. While the law requires any leaks to be fixed within 30 days, the government said Trident all...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency held a teleconference last week, on Feb. 15, to discuss the ongoing power issues in the region. The SEAPA Board of Directors is made up of community members from the three cities: Two directors from Ketchikan, one from Petersburg, one from Wrangell, and a fifth seat that alternates between the cities (which belongs to Ketchikan this year.) The lights are usually kept on in the cities of Wrangell and Petersburg via hydropower from Tyee Lake. However, sometimes power from the lake is sold to Ketchikan, when the...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – Ketchikan’s power utility is asking customers to throttle back their electrical usage. Freezing temperatures and low water levels in lakes, the source of hydropower for Ketchikan Public Utilities’ electric division, has maxed out power production, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. A 30-megawatt demand is putting stress on the system during peak hours. The utility is also juggling repairs, sending power to northern communities and dealing with Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation permit limitations, said...
Next week Kelly Bakos will be screening her award-winning documentary film, A HERD OF ORPHANS, which looks at the lives of young elephants who were abandoned when adult elephants in their herds fell victim to poachers in the African ivory trade. The 90-minute documentary has been shown in film festivals across the world, including Estonia, Finland, Malaysia and China. Bakos has attended several of the festivals and won four Awards of Excellence from The Accolade Global Film Competition. A HERD...
The borough assembly held a work session on Feb. 6 where public works director Chris Cotta gave a brief overview of the solid waste and recycling programs and answered questions from assembly and community members. In 2014, the borough started a commingled recycling program using blue bags. The Petersburg Indian Association and later Ruger’s Trucking picked up the bags and delivered them to the baling facility. It was costing the borough $90,000 a year for the Ruger’s Trucking contract, in addition to the $20,000 annual cost of the blue bag...
Guardian Flight’s search effort for its crew and aircraft that were due in Kake on Jan. 29 has detected an underwater beacon ping from the cockpit voice recorder, or black box. Randy Lyman, Guardian Flight senior vice president of operations, said in a prepared statement on Tuesday that the ping will allow search crews to narrow down the location of the aircraft through triangulation. A Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle will be used to visually spot the aircraft once the location of the a...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Preliminary numbers released by the state indicate the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska fell between 2017 and 2018. Andy Jones, director of the state Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention, told a Senate committee Thursday that this suggests steps being taken to address opioid abuse are working. “Something's working,” Jones said, adding later: “It is exciting news to see this trend.” But Jones said there is more work to do. The preliminary data showed there were 100 opioid-related overdose...
Petersburg Medical Center held its second Community Cafe last week where CEO Phil Hofstetter gave a presentation on the hospital’s use of telehealth and its potential. Hofstetter was joined by Dr. John Kokesh, an ENT surgeon based in Anchorage, via video conference to share his experience with the innovative way of providing healthcare from a distance. At the beginning of his presentation, Hofstetter asked the audience three questions to keep in mind while he was speaking about telehealth: What kind of health care access do you want to see i...
Petersburg experienced its 10th warmest year and fifth warmest summer on record in 2018, according to Tom Ainsworth, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service forecast office in Juneau. In Petersburg last year, the average temperature was 43.3 degrees Fahrenheit, with the average high at 49.5 and the average low at 43.3. Snowfall in Petersburg was 77.7 feet, only one foot above normal, according to Ainsworth. With the top ten warmest years on record, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010 and...
