Sorted by date Results 2711 - 2735 of 5625
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Eleven years ago, Guy Holt was walking on Sandy Beach when something caught his eye. An intricately carved piece of wood lay on the beach, with large letters on it saying “TAKA: You saved my life. I will love you and miss you always.” It was clear to Holt that a great deal of time and effort went into this and he picked it up, hoping to find the person who made it. “Having no way to find the owner, I’ve just held onto it for the past 11 years,” Holt said, “and about twice a year, I’ll put it on Craigslist and hope that s...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska political leaders on Wednesday hailed as historic the passage of federal legislation that will allow for oil and gas drilling in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The state’s Republican congressional delegation sees it as a win decades in the making, one they say will provide a boost for this oil-reliant state. Environmental groups see it as a big mistake and say the fight isn’t over. The drilling provision was part of a larger package _ a major restructuring of U.S. tax policy _ that also repeals a...
The State Supreme Court this month dismissed appeals by Attorney Fred Triem to continue to represent Appellants in the case of Arlene Bell Hanson, et al. vs. Kake Tribal Corporation. In September the court allowed Triem to pursue its appeal, “on behalf of one or more individual class members, provided that the individual class members confirm in writing that they wish to pursue the appeals and that they wish to be represented on the appeals by Mr. Triem,” according to the court order. Triem submitted the name of Ms. Lillian Feldpausch from Sit...
A Petersburg man was indicted by a Juneau grand jury last week and charged with 12 counts related to the possession of child pornogrpahy, according to a press release from the Department of Law. Kanin Robert Grant, also known as Robert Carle, was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Alaska Bureau of Investigation's Technical Crimes Unit. He was indicted last Thursday. The investigation started in early June, when the bureau received a tip that claimed a Twitter account had uploaded an...
The Petersburg Mayor asked an assembly member on Monday about a questionnaire he had been giving community members recently, but he declined to share it, leading to an exchange that highlights the mounting tension between political executives on Mitkof Island. Assembly member Jeff Meucci said he created an issue-centric questionnaire for business owners and working community members alike in Petersburg. When Mayor Mark Jensen asked him to see it, Meucci said no. “Well, it’s none of his business,” said Meucci, commenting after the meeting on an...
A town hall on opioids was held in Petersburg last week, and state representatives continued a tour through Alaska communities in search of ideas and questions on the recently-declared drug disaster. "We're not here with an action plan. So often we do this, at the government level," started Andy Jones, director of the Office of Misuse and Addiction Prevention in Alaska, addressing about 50 people at the Sons of Norway Hall. "We create something and we come to you guys and say, 'here ya go, what...
A hydro power agency in Southeast Alaska proposed to cut a customer rebate last week after it increased by nearly $1 million in 2017, but the board shot it down while keeping the possibility of a future slash in play. Trey Acteson, CEO of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, or SEAPA -- which provides most of the power used by Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan -- gave two propositions to its board last Thursday: Give $2.7 million in rebate money back to the ratepayers, or cut it by 30 percent to save for future projects and debt. “I think i...
The borough assembly on Monday approved a trip to Washington, D.C., where two Petersburg representatives will advocate for its federal priorities. The trip puts the borough over its travel budget by nearly $5,000, a point of dispute members had before voting. The borough on Monday scheduled a trip to D.C. for the end of January 2018. The borough manager and mayor will spend about three days in meetings with lawmakers trying to advocate for federal money for Petersburg. Kurt Wohlhueter began his discussion -- and later repeated it -- on the...
A former Petersburg police officer was banned from working in the state of Alaska after sexual harassment allegations against him were presented to a state ethics council in early December. Kent Preston, who was with the Petersburg Police Department for nearly a year in 2015 and 2016, can no longer become certified as an officer in Alaska. The Alaska Police Standards Council made the decision after it heard Executive Director Bob Griffiths' sexual harassment case against Preston on December 5....
The remodel of the Petersburg Medical Center kitchen facility is nearing completion. Food service will resume in the new kitchen on Jan. 8. The hospital board approved the budget of up to $292,000 in March and made plans to use the Ocean Beauty bunkhouse kitchen to prepare meals during the remodel. Project supervisor Marty Sussort with Alaska Commercial Contractors in Juneau said the project entailed breaking up the kitchen floor to access waste lines that had plugged or failed. "We found the so...
Ndesamburo Kwayu is the retired headmaster of the Sokoine Secondary School in Tanzania. His wife Rose is a retired elementary school teacher. The couple visited Petersburg last week to provide a report on projects that the Petersburg Lutheran Church and the Petersburg Rotary Club have supported, and also to inform the community of the continuing needs of the school and neighboring town. The secondary school is comparable to a high school level program in the U.S. It has 650 students and a staff...
The assembly on Monday held discussion on a tax break for people over 65 in Petersburg, and possibly amending it to help the borough save thousands of dollars in revenue. In January 1980, a senior sales tax exemption was approved by the city council without a vote from the people. The city charter didn’t require it at the time, according to Jody Tow, the borough finance director. “It was described as kind of a reward for people who lived here and worked all their lives … this gave them a little money back,” Assembly member Nancy Strand said at...
The Petersburg Medical Center is in its early stages of hiring a new CEO while deciding whether to build a new hospital, two major decisions that will have to work congruently in the approaching months. In a hospital board meeting two weeks ago, a financial feasibility study was approved to examine the cost of building a new facility versus remodeling. Days later, the hospital board held a work session that was led by a CEO hiring committee. “Yeah, I think that’s a factor,” said Marlene Cushing, hospital board member and chairperson of the C...
The Petersburg Borough recently applied for a federal grant worth about $6.6 million to develop a boat haul out near town, and a man who does business there is retracting his support for the project after reading the application. John Murgas publicly endorsed the Borough’s application for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grant, before reading it. If Petersburg was selected, it would fund nearly all of the project costs around a plan to build a haul out and boat yard at the Scow Bay Turnaround. T...
The Petersburg School District updated its strategic plan for the next four years, with a focus on health, diversity in the classroom, future readiness and co-curricular activities. A Planning Team with 16 people, including school staff, board members, students, and other community members took two days in mid-November to finish the strategic plan that will run through 2021. “[We talked] about what a school district will look like for the next four years,” said Mara Lutomski, “what our high aspirations are even though we may not end up there...
Petersburg School's food service program gained about $3,300 in last year's fiscal year, a striking result that is mostly accredited to the nutrition director cutting costs and the district cracking down on unpaid bills. The Petersburg food service program, a department the school usually has to add about $25,000 into every year, actually saw its revenues outweigh its expenditures in fiscal year 2017, said Karen Quitslund, the district finance director. "This is not a money making venture,"...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An unprecedented heat wave has toppled weather records across Alaska. The Juneau Empire reports the National Weather Service thermometer Friday at Juneau International Airport hit 54 degrees, tying the highest temperature recorded in December there. General forecaster for the Weather Service in Juneau Devid Levin says the heat wave in Alaska is due to a big ridge of upper-level high pressure. With the jet stream moving to the north, warm air from the tropics has moved north, covering the state. Records kept by the W...
Hunters around Mitkof Island who shot a moose illegally this year have helped provide more than 1,400 pounds of meat - doubling last year -- to 10 service organizations and the school district in Petersburg. The five moose that were shot and then surrendered to state troopers this season were processed last week. Major Lonnie Upshaw with the Salvation Army, and Cody Litster, an Alaska Wildlife Trooper, recently were at the Petersburg Community Cold Storage with a small group, loading more than...
WRANGELL - A preseason forecast for next year's king salmon return to the Stikine River has come up worryingly short, boding ill for local fisheries. Released last week by Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the preseason terminal run size forecast for the Stikine River was at only 6,900 fish, less than half the lower threshold of the stock's escapement goal range. The Stikine EGR is between 14,000 and 28,000 Chinook salmon, and such a low forecast does not allow for an allowable catch under tre...
WRANGELL — The regional forest supervisor with the United States Forest Service issued a final decision on the Wrangell Island timber sale project on Monday. Addressing a number of objections to the project as it was proposed last year, the scope of the sale approved by the Tongass National Forest supervisor’s office in Ketchikan will be but a fraction of what it had been. Among five alternatives presented, it was Alternative 2 which the USFS opted for. Of the plans, it had the greatest amounts of acreage and timber deemed to be sus...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) — Kodiak’s seafood processors are facing staff shortages as older employees reach retirement age and a younger generation is showing little interest in joining the workforce. James Turner, plant manager at Ocean Beauty Seafoods, said that over the salmon season, they were roughly 100 employees short. The processor usually requires about 350-360 workers, but this summer they were down to roughly 230-240. Though this didn’t inhibit the amount of fish that Ocean Beauty processed, it did affect the ways in which the fish was p...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Every morning, Cathy Dobson walks into her kitchen to make breakfast. The moment she steps into the room, her slippers are covered in rollicking puppies. “I love it,” she said. From her home in the Mendenhall Valley, Dobson is one of the most reliable volunteers for Southeast Organization For Animals, a network that connects abandoned animals with new owners. This week, she has some special guests: A litter of 6-week-old puppies from Prince of Wales Island. Most of them are blind. One is both blind and deaf. For SOFA, as t...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – President Donald Trump’s efforts to make the United States “energy dominant’’with help from Alaska got off to modest results Wednesday. The Interior Department made its largest-ever lease offering within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska: 900 tracts covering 16,100 square miles (41,700 sq. kilometers), roughly the size of New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined. But oil companies submitted bids on just seven tracts covering 125 square miles (324 sq. kilometers). The bids totaled $1.16 million, to be split bet...
On Dec. 11, at about 10:40 p.m., Juneau based Alaska State Troopers received a report of an assault at a Church Street residence in Kake. The next day State Troopers responded to Kake and investigated. Aaron Lee Loges, 32, of Kake is alleged to have assaulted three separate family members, two of which were small children, recklessly endangered a third child, and damaged the property of another family member. Aaron was arrested on three counts of Assault 4-DV, Reckless Endangerment, and Criminal Mischief 5-DV. He was transported to Juneau and...
The furbearer trapping season is open in Petersburg and the Alaska Department Fish and Game is asking pet owners to control their animals to avoid legally set traps. “Leash laws, where applicable, should be followed,” said Richard Lowell, an area management biologist with the department, who issued a press release on Wednesday. “A person may not obstruct, hinder, or disturb a lawful trapping effort.” The department is asking hunters to use discretion when setting traps near trails, recreational or residential areas where there are people...
