Sorted by date Results 2436 - 2460 of 5587
WRANGELL — At a public presentation at the Nolan Center on Monday, staff with the Department of Environmental Conservation and its contractors updated Wrangell on the status of a proposed monofill site on the island. A designated monofill to house around 18,500 cubic yards of contaminated earth from the former Byford junkyard is planned to be sited at a state-owned rock pit. Accessible by Forest Service roads along Pats Creek, the project’s nearness to the popular fishing stream has been a point of contention for some residents. Wrangell Coo...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday approved a key piece of a plan to address the state’s persistent budget deficit — and one of the last unresolved pieces of the extended legislative session. The bill, which advanced from a conference committee earlier in the day, calls for limited withdrawals from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings. Money taken out would help pay for state government costs and be used to pay the annual checks residents receive from the oil-wealth fund. The bill does not say how the money would be divid...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) — Part of a bill introduced in the Alaska Legislative session would increase the price municipalities pay for their license plates. The bill, sponsored by a House committee, would remove an exemption for municipalities that currently has them paying $10 per vehicle. That price would increase to the standard rate of $100 per vehicle, the Peninsula Clarion reported Sunday. The bill includes a number of other adjustments for the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, including a $5 fee for driver knowledge tests, repealing p...
The remodel of the Petersburg Municipal Power and Light building is complete and on Wednesday employees and Billikin Transfer were moving furniture and equipment into the building. The sweeping remodel of the building was completed on schedule. Rainforest Contracting Inc. executed the remodel contract. Karl Hagerman, the utility director, said Wednesday that he hopes the move will be completed by the end of the week. He added that the utility remains open for business during the move. The...
Alaska Humanities Forum's (AHF) second cohort of Alaska Salmon Fellows convened in Petersburg at the Holy Cross House for 5-days beginning with a reception at the Sons of Norway Hall last Friday. According to Fellow Kris Norosz, this was the first time the cohort of 16-fellows had met in person. The Alaska Salmon Fellows work to facilitate conversations about salmon issues and identify innovative opportunities to strengthen the resource for future generations. A contingent of about 28 people,...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A veteran Alaska state trooper was charged with attempted sexual abuse of a minor. Investigators said Trooper Vance Peronto met a 16-year-old girl on a traffic stop, contacted her through social media and arranged to meet her Sunday at a hotel in Anchorage, where he was arrested. Online court documents Monday did not list Peronto’s attorney. The Alaska Department of Public Safety announced the arrest Monday. “This case and investigation have been handled in the same manner as any other, and we are informing the publi...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Dept. responded to a single vehicle rollover accident in the 800 block of Sandy Beach Road at about 4:40 a.m. Friday. The vehicle was headed toward Sandy Beach Park and apparently flipped and rolled in such a way that the car was headed in the opposite direction. A roadside fire hydrant was struck and broken off during the incident. Fire Dept. spokesman Dave Berg said the driver was ejected through the driver side window, landed in the upper edge of the ditch and...
The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game has mapped 32 nautical miles of herring spawn through April 27, including 1.0 nmi of active spawn in Salisbury Sound. Spawn deposition surveys were conducted on April 7-11 and on April 24-25. Final results from this year's stock assessment will not be available until November 2018. However, some general information can be derived from the data collected to date. Nearly all spawning this year occurred along shorelines of Kruzof Island, Hayward Strait, and the...
Sig Mathisen, skipper of the F/V Marathon, was among the seven top winners of the 2018 annual tag recovery incentive drawing for sablefish tag returns. He received a $250 prize. Other winners were: Duane Torgeson, Sitka, $1,000; Dennis Beam, Oregon, $500; Jim Hubbard, Seward, $500 and receiving $250 each were Dwight Riederer, Washington, Ian Rabb, Douglas, and Thomas Nelsen, Ketchikan. All persons who return an ADF&G sablefish tag receive a tag reward (T-shirt or fishermen’s knife). Tag returns with valid recovery information (fisherman’s nam...
The Federal Subsistence Board announced on Monday it will be closing its Chinook salmon subsistence fishery in the Stikine River this year due to low expected returns. Under the authority delegated him by the board, Ranger Bob Dalrymple of Wrangell's Forest Service district made the decision to close down the fishery. Preseason forecasts made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game informed the decision, with 6,900 king salmon greater than 28 inches in length expected to return. Management...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced this week that the lingcod sport fishing seasons, bag and possession limits, annual limits, and size limits have been established for the Northern Southeast Area (see attached map). In this area the following regulations apply: Northern Southeast Area Season: May 16 – November 30. Limits: o Residents – 1 daily, 2 in possession, no size limit. o Nonresidents – 1 daily, 1 in possession, size limit: 30 inches or greater in length and less than 35 in...
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Alaska District will be available to discuss and answer questions about the regulatory program at an informational open house in Petersburg on Tuesday, May 22, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Petersburg Municipal Building Assembly Chambers, 12 S. Nordic Drive. Representatives from the Corps’ Regulatory Division will be available to answer permitting questions regarding requirements for placing fill and structures in waters of the United States and provide assistance with p...
WRANGELL — The city is inching toward a planned purge of the island’s abandoned vehicles and assorted clutter. The unsightly problem has been a longstanding issue in public parking spaces such as at Shoemaker Bay Harbor, with unroadworthy vehicles left there to the elements. But under municipal code junk vehicles on private property are also not allowed, and the rule extends to other collections on display deemed to be a “nuisance” by authorities. This means disused vehicles like cars and boats, rusting piles of scrap or broken equipme...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A ballot initiative that aims to strengthen a state law that protects salmon habitat has made its way before the Alaska Supreme Court. The court heard arguments Thursday on whether the initiative dubbed Yes for Salmon can appear on the November ballot, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. State attorney Joanne Grace argued that the ballot initiative would ban large development projects like mines, which cannot avoid disturbing salmon habitat. By the initiative enacting such a ban, the state claimed the L...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Legislature has passed a resolution urging the federal government to reconsider its listing of marijuana as a controlled substance. The resolution also asks the federal government to respect the state’s authority to regulate the use, production and distribution of marijuana in Alaska. The House voted 37-0 Monday to accept changes made by the Senate. The Senate passed the resolution unanimously earlier in April. Alaska voters in 2014 approved legalizing recreational use of marijuana by those 21 and older. Mar...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) —Alaska’s SeaLife Center is getting its third shot at raising thousands of octopus hatchlings, hoping at least one of the translucent mollusks will grow into its 50-pound (23-kilogram), color-changing form. Such a task has been completed just once before — by the Seattle Aquarium in the 1980s, the Peninsula Clarion reported . The aquarium won an award in 1982 for successfully raising the giant pacific octopus. The SeaLife Center had hatchlings twice before, in 2005 and 2013. This time, the center’s octopus named Gilligan, nam...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has unveiled a draft plan to deal with an increase in visitors at Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier. The Forest Service last week released the plan calling for a new 7,000-square-foot (650-square-meter) visitor facility, a boat and dock system to ferry visitors across Mendenhall Lake, new trails and a mobile visitor center near the glacier, the Juneau Empire reported . The Forest Service has yet to release the full plan, but said the objectives are to decrease crowding, enhance opportunities for locals, a...
The essence of Theresa and Dan Vick's new house is its inside diversity, between her culture with Native figurines, a totem pole, and his, with an electric guitar shaped like an assault rifle, and Norwegian memorabilia. The almost 30-year-old family pole dominates the living room of the Vicks' new 1,100-square-foot home. Carved into red cedar is a king crab and halibut, with a worm hanging from its mouth. "It hasn't been retouched," she said. "And we've had it since 1989." Mrs. Vick said the...
Petersburg is set to receive an 87-foot Marine Protector Class coastal patrol vessel that will serve the Inside Passage with search and rescue patrols, fisheries enforcement, drug smuggling interception and other missions. The vessel will be home ported in Petersburg after the 110-ft. Anacapa is removed from service in 2021. Mayor Mark Jensen told the Pilot Wednesday, "It's a done deal." This was discussed in D.C. this winter when he made a personal visit with the Alaska Congressional...
The Borough Assembly deliberated over the first draft of the fiscal year 2019 budget presented Friday afternoon by Finance Director Jody Tow. Tow told the assembly the property tax mill rate decreases this year from 11.6 mills to 11.38 mills. The millage rate is the amount per $1,000 used to calculate taxes on property. Absent voter approved levies for the school, aquatic center, assisted living and library debt, the mill rate is below the required cap (10 mills) at 9.2 mills. Tow said the mill...
Michael P. Heiser, attorney for the Hanson Class, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Kake Tribal Corporation, is seeking a court order forcing Attorney Fred Triem to render a full accounting of the Hanson Class funds being held in his trust account. In the early 1990s, Triem represented the "Hanson Class" of shareholders who were plaintiffs, bringing suit against Kake Tribal Corporation. The court awarded judgment to the plaintiffs in the amount of $2.7 million, plus costs, attorney fees and...
The Borough’s Enterprise Funds are all solvent and to keep it that way, some rate increases will go into effect this fiscal year. Enterprise operations are carried out by the harbor, water, wastewater, sanitation, elderly housing and assisted living departments, which largely pay their own way from revenue they generate from people using their services. Finance Director Jody Tow noted that the Assisted Living fund is being subsidized by the General Fund for both Bond Debt ($179,606) and Operating Fund transfer ($150,000) this year. That a...
Automated External Defibrillators will be added and old units replaced as a part of the 2018/19 Borough budget. The line item will cost $30,200 for 16 units and 5 training devises used to train EMS providers and lifeguards. The defibrillators cost $1,700 each and are placed in Borough vehicles and public buildings. According to a budget proposal the units will be placed in two ambulances, the PVFD administration vehicle, four in public access buildings, the pool, gym, the PMP&L offices and line truck, in four police patrol vehicles and in the...
The Petersburg Pilot and Wrangell Sentinel each received two awards from the Alaska Press Club for work completed in 2017. Pilot publisher Ron Loesch received two awards. Second place was for a story about local attorney Fred Triem representing his client for months following her demise. The story was published Sept. 7. Judges noted in part: “A grim tale from which the reader reaps great benefit. A fascinating case well worth the front page for complexity and original subject matter…” Placing third was an editorial appearing in the July 6 edi...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A Sitka bear sanctuary is getting ready to unveil its new black bear enclosure when it opens for the tourist season. Fortress of the Bear Manager Claire Turner said during a presentation at the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that the new enclosure will add about 10 times the space of its previous habitat, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. It expects to open by early May, Turner said. Les and Evy Kinnear opened the fortress in 2002. At the time, they only worked with brown bears. They later added a separate 4...
