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The Salvation Army successfully distributed 90 food boxes for families in need during Thanksgiving last month. The number grew slightly from last year's total of 72 distributed turkey dinners. Last year for Christmas, the organization helped just under 80 families with food boxes. But the local Salvation Army already has 97 families signed up this year, according to Lieutenant Mysti Birks. "What it really comes down to is that everybody needs help at some point in their life," she says. "Just...
On Nov. 17, at 5:47 p.m., Alaska State Troopers received a report of a motor vehicle collision in Petersburg. Investigation revealed Tommy Marsh, age 41, of Petersburg was northbound at Mile 11.6 Mitkof Highway when he lost control of his vehicle, a 1992 Ford F150, entered the ditch, and rolled the vehicle. Seatbelts were worn. No citations were issued. No injuries were reported....
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) applauds the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its decision to require all public housing agencies to go smoke-free within 18 months. The new rule includes not only residential units and common areas, but also a 25-foot non-smoking perimeter around the buildings to protect doorways, windows, and outdoor patios. The implementation of this rule will protect two million Americans, across the country, from exposure to secondhand smoke in their homes. “Few tobacco c...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed a rezoning ordinance in its second reading Monday night. The ordinance is designed to rezone 919 Sandy Beach Road from public use to single-family residential in preparation to auction off the property early next year. The change in zoning will hopefully make the property more attractive for purchase. Funds from the auction process would go toward the municipal building renovation project. Assembly member Cindi Lagoudakis opposed the zoning change. “I looked again at this parcel. At the time that this w...
The Petersburg School District held an assembly for older students Monday morning and showed a documentary designed to educate kids about the dangers of opiate and heroin use. The video called “Chasing the Dragon” was shown to students in seventh through twelfth grades, and a positive discussion was held afterward. “It went great,” School Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter says. “We felt like we were able to prepare for it, which is what we were concerned about when they came through in September.” The documentary was shown to the public in Sep...
A public corporation is being proposed to manage Alaska Marine Highway ferry operations, according to a ferry governance study released by the Southeast Conference. Such a proposal would create a more businesslike approach to running the system and the inclusion of private sector expertise, leadership and accountability. Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group, produced the draft report with Juneau-based research firm McDowell Group. It was presented at a meeting of the Marine Transportation Advisory Committee. The project team recommended the f...
For more than 50 years, AMHS has served a critical infrastructure need for Alaska residents, communities, industries, and public services. • In 2014, AMHS carried 319,000 passengers, 108,000 vehicles, and nearly 4,000 container vans. • The ferry system plays an integral role in Alaska’s visitor industry, carrying more than 100,000 non-resident passengers annually. Anchorage continues to be the top Alaska destination for visitors traveling on the ferry. • AMHS accounted for 1,700 Alaska jobs and $104 million in Alaska wages and benefits in 2014...
KETCHIKAN – Proposed timber sales on Deer Mountain and in Petersburg are on hold as officials consider public comments against the issue. The Alaska Mental Health Trust board will take up the topic in January, reported the Ketchikan Daily News. Every comment on the plan was negative as zof Wednesday. Officials say the delay will give the trust time to consider the public’s input. The board decided in August to move forward with the sales if a federal land exchange bill failed in Congress by Jan. 15. “What we had intended to do was initiate our...
KETCHIKAN – The U.S. Navy is planning to more than double the number of training events conducted in the West Behm Canal north of Ketchikan. In an agreement signed Oct. 31, the Navy announced it will increase the number of testing events involving vessels at the Southeast Alaska Acoustic Measurement Facility will increase from about 28 in a year to 60, The Ketchikan Daily News reported. The Navy will also conduct new activities in Behm Canal, including cold-water training, “countermeasures’’ testing and electromagnetic measurement. The Navy es...
WRANGELL – Several Wrangell boat owners learned they had been burgled early Saturday morning. Wrangell Police Department received a call concerning Heritage Harbor, where it appeared three boats moored there had been entered, one forcibly. Owners were contacted, and they confirmed a number of items were missing, including dive gear and a firearm. “Sure enough, someone had liberated my possessions,” commented Steve Prysunka, owner of the boat Mollyann. “They stole such an interesting variety of things.” In addition to his dive gear, he found...
JUNEAU – A state court judge ruled Thursday that Gov. Bill Walker had the authority to reduce this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, siding with the state in the politically charged case. Superior Court Judge William Morse’s decision followed arguments presented by both sides in Anchorage on Thursday morning. Morse said he expected the issue ultimately to be decided by the Alaska Supreme Court. State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said he planned to appeal. The lawsuit, brought by the Anchorage Democrat and tw...
WRANGELL – A number of Petersburg and Wrangell residents have been receiving letters from the state, informing them their float houses anchored along the Stikine River need to be permitted or else move. Since the late 1970s, the placement of float houses and temporary cabins along the river have made it convenient for locals making use of the river basin, be it for subsistence fishing, hunting, trapping, work or recreational purposes. While a number are there on a seasonal basis, this year some 18 have been identified as being situated y...
ANCHORAGE – Nancy McGuire, the longtime publisher of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, said goodbye to her subscribers in an editorial published the day she died after battling cancer for years. She was 72. McGuire was publisher of the weekly Nome Nugget for 34 years in the western Alaska town of Nome. Her friend and former Nome mayor, John Handeland, said McGuire died early Thursday morning at a local long-term care facility. The Nugget was established in 1897, thriving in the rough-and-tumble Gold Rush town. In an editorial published in the new...
ANCHORAGE – Two moose were recently discovered frozen in battle and encased in ice near a remote village on Alaska’s unforgiving western coast. Brad Webster, a middle school social studies and science teacher in Unalakleet, captured images of the massive animals poking through the ice as they lay on their sides with antlers apparently locked together. He had taken a friend who recently moved to the village for a walk on Nov. 2 near a frozen slough at Covenant Bible Camp, where Webster volunteers as a camp steward. “That’s when we saw it,” he...
Motivational speaker Michael Patterson traveled to town last week to take part in the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the Petersburg Indian Association. Patterson spoke to middle school students at the Wright Auditorium on Thursday, and then he took part in an event later in the day at PIA. Patterson started living on the streets at a young age, before he was 10, and he's open about the fact he could die from COPD any day because he smoked cigarettes for decades. A lot of Patterson's...
WRANGELL – Latest samples of butter clams from Shoemaker Bay beaches show levels of saxitoxin have halved since this summer, when specimens were found to be a health hazard. The clams are still considered a health risk, albeit at a lower level. Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) staff have been collecting samples of mussels and other bivalves from the beach on a weekly basis, which then get tested at a Sitka lab for several different toxins. In August the program reported elevated level...
The high school gym was filled with locals of all ages last Friday as the school and its students honored Petersburg men and women who have served our country. Jim Engell told those in attendance a brief history of how the Veteran’s Day Assembly came about in the 1980s. “A lot of schools around the country take the day off, you can go to the malls and there’s big sales and all those things,” Engell said. “I love the fact that we actually have school, and here we are today honoring our veterans.” Some fifth graders carried flags during the...
The Petersburg Police Department is looking forward to moving into the newly renovated municipal building, but in the meantime the department is just looking to become fully staffed, according to Chief Kelly Swihart. “We are a little short staffed,” he says. “Right now we have 15 full-time equivalents assigned.” The department made budget cuts during the last budget cycle, under the direction of the borough manager, resulting in cross-training staff. The training focused on reducing gaps the department needed to cover, and having officers train...
WRANGELL – Primary construction work at Swan Lake wrapped up last week, leaving full capacity for its hydroelectric dam 15 feet higher than it was at the year's start. The $10,000,000 project was undertaken by Southeast Alaska Power Agency, a utility covering the communities of Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. Starting about two weeks behind schedule earlier in the summer, workers finished with time to spare with the barge platform used for the project's crane departing last week with gen...
The first ever Rasmuson Art Show will be held this weekend at the Clausen Memorial Museum according to director Kathi Riemer. The event will showcase the three newest pieces the museum purchased with funds from the Rasmuson Foundation and will include a reception on Friday night. The museum put out a call for artists to submit artworks before they applied for funding. The artwork must fit the Clausen Museum's collection policy, basically anything to do with Southeast Alaska, and be the creation...
Bill Neumann spent 20 years teaching shop in Petersburg and smoke houses built by his students can still be seen around town. Neumann's oldest students might be reaching retirement age, but they still remember him, even if he doesn't always remember them. "I'll go to the post office and some guy will come up and shake my hand and what I have to say is, 'The face is familiar but I can't put a name on it,'" he says. "But I love that, and I'm so thankful that I've stayed in Petersburg. So many...
WRANGELL - At its regular meeting last week, members of the Wrangell Port Commission decided against allowing casual traffic through the Marine Service Center yard. Effective immediately, access to the boatyard has been restricted with entry limited to one gate. The action follows several months of discussions, with the issue first coming to the attention of commissioners in June. “There’s a really big safety issue with people being able to come and go as they please,” explained commission chair Clay Hammer. Since its start a decade ago, Wrang...
A Chicago-based casting company is looking for Norwegian-Americans interested in learning more about their ancestry. Norway's popular reality TV show Alt for Norge or The Great Norway Adventure, is now accepting applications. "It's not a typical reality show that we'd think of, it's not mean spirited," says Joan O'Connor of O'Connor Casting Company. "It features people who really want to get in touch with their Norwegian ancestry." If chosen they'd be part of a 12-person cast and be flown to...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held a public hearing regarding the issue of taking over three docks from state control on Monday. The assembly voted to draft a response to the state and asked for $1.2 million for the maintenance, raising the state’s original offer by $500,000, for the Kupreanof and Papke’s Landing docks. The letter respectfully declined the transfer of ownership for the Entrance Island dock. The original offer from the state included that property in addition to Kupreanof and Papke’s with a total of $730,000 for maint...
The Petersburg High School has a new club called Rotary Interact, and it held its first meeting last month with around 20 interested kids. The club is open to any student in the eighth grade or above and the goal is for students to improve their community through regular service work. PHS teacher Ginger Evens says the group will meet once a month and complete a project once a month also. The project could be service oriented like partnering with the Salvation Army for a winter coat drive for tee...
