Sorted by date Results 3282 - 3306 of 5625
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Monday the bag, possession and retention regulations for this year’s nonpelagic rockfish sport season. For all Southeast waters, Alaska residents have no size limit, with a bag and possession limit of one nonpelagic rockfish. Nonresidents enjoy the same, with the additional limitation of one yelloweye rockfish per year. This must be recorded in ink on the back of an angler’s sport fishing license or harvest record card at the time of harvest. All nonpelagic rockfish that are caught must be...
WRANGELL - After four decades of public service, Wrangell will bid farewell this month to its longtime finance director and recent borough manager, Jeff Jabusch. "It's going to be kind of strange, every morning getting up and not driving into this parking lot after forty years. My car will probably just come here automatically after that length," he said. Jabusch and his high school sweetheart Kay married in 1975, and after graduating from the University of Seattle, he returned to Wrangell in 19...
A bill that would rearrange how earnings from the Permanent Fund were used passed the Senate last week, with a version set next to be read by the House Finance Committee. The “Permanent Fund Protection Act” (SB 26) would arrange the Fund’s Earnings Reserve Account – from which the state’s annual dividends are paid out – so that the amount of money drawn from the earnings would be tied to a percent of market value, or POMV, approach. The bill would set up how the ERA would be tapped, and would set the POMV limit at a 5.25-percent withdraw ra...
HELSINKI (AP) – A global happiness report has made Norway's foreign minister, well, happy. Norway jumped to top spot in the World Happiness Report despite the plummeting price of oil a key part of its economy but researchers said it's the “human things” that matter, such as a feeling of community which is strong in the Scandinavian country of 5 million. Reacting to the news Monday, Foreign Minister Borge Brende tweeted: “A good start on a Monday mrn: Norway the world's happiest country in a new report that calls on nations to build social...
NOAA’s National Weather Service, the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Alaska Broadcasters Association plan to conduct a test of the tsunami warning communications system on Wed., March 29 at approximately 10:15 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time in coastal areas of southern Alaska. This test will be conducted for portions of coastal communities in Southeast Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, the Aleutians and Pribilofs. People in Anchorage may see or hear that a tsunami warning has been issued for the Kenai P...
The Port and Harbor Advisory Board recommended against changing the zoning on waterfront parcels along Nordic Drive at its Friday meeting. The zoning change request is now before the Planning and Zoning Commission. The owners of five lots at 806, 804, 710, 712 and 708 Nordic Drive are making the request and told the commission in a letter dated Jan. 27 that Commercial 1 Zoning would be more appropriate to potential development of the lots. Water access to these lots is restricted due to...
While not a line item on the harbor advisory board agenda, sea lion activity in the harbors was a board discussion item at the March 10 meeting. "There are not a lot of issues in the winter until the bait herring shows up," Harbormaster Glo Wollen told the board. Harbor policy continues not to allow fish scraps to be dumped into the harbors, she added. Wollen referenced a story out of Sand Point at the Peter Pan Seafoods dock where a Petersburg person aboard the F/V Cape St. Elias was attacked b...
JUNEAU (AP) – Authorities escorted out the tenants of a century-old Juneau hotel and took the property’s manager into custody after identifying several public health and safety hazards. Bergmann Hotel was condemned after the owners failed to address fire and building code violations, city spokeswoman Lisa Phu said. Owners Kathleen and James Barrett had until last month to correct the violations, but city officials say recent inspections found few corrections and several more violations, the Juneau Empire reported Friday. The Salvation Army hel...
JUNEAU – The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) is selling the M/V Taku through a sealed bid sale. The minimum bid price is $1.5 million and interested bidders must have a bid bond of $5,000. The complete bid package is available on the state's Online Public Notice website. ADOT&PF is selling the vessel "As Is/Where Is" to the highest bidder. The sale process involved getting Federal Highway Administration approval since federal funding was used to maintain the v...
The small claims case of Feb. 28 involved Dean Roundtree and Ken Olsen of K.O. Construction. A decision is pending....
Colette Peters, 26, has been named Fleet Manager/Quality Assurance Manager at the Petersburg Trident Plant. She fills the position vacated by Nick Ohmer who is now managing the Trident Plant in Wrangell. Peters grew up in Ketchikan and is a 2009 graduate of Ketchikan High School. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a degree in Political Economics. She has worked for Trident in Seattle for 3-1/2 years monitoring environmental compliance at all Trident Plants. She visited each...
SITKA (AP) – On a cool spring day, Sitka veterinarian Burgess Bauder went down to the harbor and stripped down to his long underwear, socks and Crocs - all in the name of charity. With little more than a quilt covering his body, Bauder became a model in the Ocean Wave Quilt Guild’s “Alaska’s Undercover Men” 2018 calendar. “I make a fool of myself many times,” Bauder said. “Why not do it for something good?” Proceeds from the calendars will fund the guild’s projects that benefit cancer survivors, senior citizens and victims of violence. The Ocea...
SITKA (AP) – A national group has honored a group of Sitka High School basketball players who last year helped pull residents from a burning building in Anchorage. The National Federation of State High School Associations announced Monday that the boys basketball team will receive the “National High School Spirit of Sport Award” for the western region, The Sitka Sentinel reported. “The basketball team members employed the skills of teamwork and quick thinking that they had developed through many years of participation and sprang into action,...
WRANGELL – For visitors this summer to Anan Wildlife Observatory, trips to the restroom will become a bit less hectic. Up to the present, the oft-visited outdoor attraction's outhouse is sited apart from the main observation area – and its protective barriers – making run-ins with Anan's bears en route to the toilet an occasional risk. At least a few people have had to wait out a passing bear from inside, which can be unpleasant in addition to an unnerving experience. The Forest Service (USFS...
The Trust Land Office will hold a series of public informational meetings in Southeast communities to discuss the proposed land exchange between the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (Trust) and the United States Forest Service (USFS). The transaction would be a value for value land exchange of approximately 20,000 acres of USFS land for 18,000 acres of Trust land, the result of extensive negotiations between the Trust and the USFS and years of work with interested parties in Southeast Alaska. Informational meetings are scheduled starting...
JUNEAU (AP) – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says a proposed $1.3 billion cut to the Coast Guard's budget conflicts with President Donald Trump's goal of strengthening border security and rebuilding the armed services. The Alaska Republican outlined her concerns in a letter to Trump, released Monday. She says the cuts proposed by the Office of Management and Budget would have “far-reaching implications on national security” and force the Coast Guard to halt a program in which it replaces older ships with state-of-the-art vessels built in U.S. shipy...
Two fire trucks and the ambulance responded to a trailer fire at #11 Lumber Street shortly after 6 a.m. Monday morning. The property was in the process of being condemned by the Borough Building Department. Dave Berg, Fire Dept. spokesperson said someone may have been living in the structure that had a wood stove, but no power hook-up. Two fire extinguishers had been emptied at the scene, according to Berg. The fire marshal will investigate the origin of the fire, but Berg said it may be...
The Petersburg Borough is responding to accusations that it made an illegal search of Karen Ellingstad's Wrangell Avenue home on Jan. 9 and 13, 2014 to seek and retrieve asbestos samples prior to the scheduled demolition that had been upheld by the Superior Court. Furthermore, Ellingstad states that entry to her home by Public Works Director Karl Hagerman violated her right to privacy and required a search warrant based on the Fourth Amendment and Art. 1, Sec. 14 of the Alaska Constitution....
At this week’s Assembly meeting, Community Development director Liz Cabrera presented to the Petersburg Borough Assembly an outline for how to update the borough’s zoning code that hasn’t been brought up to speed since 1986. Cabrera said many parts of the code are contradictory due to small updates in some sections but not in others, that the processes used are cumbersome and slow and that the zoning is restrictive. “A lot of the definitions in the code are nonexistent, blurry, unclear, really difficult to interpret and apply consistently, real...
With the arrival of Carl Tate, 24, the police department is back up to a full contingent of officers. Tate arrived here last month from Fort Bragg, South Carolina, where he served four years with the U.S. Army working in communications. He is currently completing field training with the department and will attend the police academy in August of this year. When not working, Tate says he enjoys spending time with his family. He is married to a local woman, Hailey Lund, who relocated here with her...
Borough-wide trash collection should go more quickly, with the arrival of a 2017 side-loading vehicle, according to Public Works Director Karl Hagerman. The Borough’s oldest trash collection vehicle has been out of service since the start of the year. The 2006 vehicle “has had one problem after another,” so the sanitation department has gotten by with two trucks, collecting both recycle totes as well as trash, according to Hagerman. Hagerman explained that crews often had to pull trash from large totes by hand, since the rear-loading truck...
WRANGELL – Residents of Wrangell concerned about the state’s evolving budget proposals joined those from Cordova, Nome and other rural communities in testifying on House Bill 57 over the weekend. Proposed by the House Finance Committee as part of a package of budget cuts, HB 57 proposes cutting state payments to municipalities for school construction debt. Homer Rep. vPaul Seaton (R-District 31) co-chaired the proceedings on March 4, seeking input ahead of an amendment process scheduled for Tuesday. Wrangell is among the communities that would...
The bill giving the green light to an exchange of thousands of acres of land between the Alaska Mental Health Trust and the U.S. Forest Service was introduced in Juneau this week. Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, filed House Bill 155 on Monday. It authorizes the trust to go ahead with an exchange of more than 17,000 acres of trust land for 20,000 acres of rural Forest Service timber land. In the process, the exchange would eliminate the possibility of logging on trust-owned land on Deer Mountain and above the Mitkof Highway in Petersburg. Those...
ANCHORAGE (AP) – Two people were rescued Friday after their small plane made an emergency landing near an Alaska island. The Coast Guard credits local authorities and others from the nearby community of Metlakatla for quickly responding to the scene in Smuggler Cove off Annette Island. The Coast Guard also helped in the response. Petty Officer Lauren Steenson says the people rescued were taken to the Metlakatla clinic for treatment of minor injuries. Officials say that because of icing on the BE18 Beechcraft plane, the pilot had missed the a...
The final chapter of Petersburg Medical Center's strategic plan is likely the most daunting. The first goal of the plan states: "Fix or replace the facility to create a safe environment for patients, staff and community." Decisions need to be made to remodel the current facility at an estimated cost of $16 million or to replace the facility for an estimated $33 million. Both options require outside funding sources. In May 2016 Joann Lott of Jensen Yorba Lott Architects told the PMC board:...
