Sorted by date Results 3674 - 3698 of 5625
SEWARD, Alaska (AP) – A mountain goat in Alaska jumped into the ocean to get away from crowds snapping its picture, and the animal drowned when it couldn’t get back to land because of the crush of people on shore. Alaska State Troopers say it’s imperative to give animals adequate space. That didn’t happen Saturday in downtown Seward, and troopers say in an online post that it “resulted in a wild animal dying for no cause.’’ It comes amid a series of incidents of people getting too close to wildlife, including tourists in Yellowstone N...
The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry MV Columbia will remain docked in Petersburg due to a mechanical issue with the vessel’s starboard engine, according to a news release. The vessel is currently docked at the Petersburg Ferry Terminal, and the delay will take a minimum of approximately 36 hours. A technician for the engine manufacturer is being flown in from Houston, Texas to diagnose the problem and assist with repairs. The technician should be in Petersburg tomorrow afternoon (Thursday), according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department o...
WRANGELL – With the supply of treated water dangerously low, the Borough Assembly officially declared the city to be in a state of disaster Tuesday evening. The decision was reached during a special session in which officials met with departmental staff and representatives of Wrangell’s two fish processing plants, Trident Seafoods and Sea Level Seafoods. With the processing season already underway and production ramping up, the two together are consuming about half of the community’s water. Alarm bells were raised by Public Works when it repor...
Petitioners desiring a vote on whether or not the borough should prohibit the cultivation and sale of recreational marijuana met their deadline last week and gathered enough signatures to put the question to a vote. Over 430 names have been verified after being turned into the borough last Friday, which is well over the required 104 signatures petitioners needed. The issue will appear on a fall ballot, but now comes the task of waiting to see whether it’s during the regular election or a special election. The petition missed the deadline for t... Full story
The office at the Petersburg Trial Court will no longer operate on Friday afternoons due to cutbacks the Alaska Court System is imposing to help save money during tight financial times. As of July 1, Magistrate Judge Desiree Burrell and her staff will be closing the office at noon, but she says the changes shouldn’t have a great impact on the community. With difficult financial times on the horizon the court system began experimenting with different ways to lower operating costs to allow employees to keep their jobs including furlough t...
In last week's Pilot it was stated Centennial Park would be getting benches, a totem pole and a covered shelter. However, those improvements will be added to the library grounds, not the park itself....
A celebration for the opening of Centennial Park, the latest addition to town and the Petersburg Public Library, took place last weekend with around 100 people showing up for the event. Locals gathered on the Birch Street boardwalk were treated to Janet Holten singing "Alaska's Flag," and a few words from Sue Paulsen before Polly Lee took center stage. Lee gave a brief history of the property, and spoke of the importance it held to her and her late husband, Eldor. The couple donated the land... Full story
Hundreds of Petersburg residents turned out Monday night to take part in a candlelight vigil for the victims in a one-vehicle crash earlier in the day. The vigil began downtown and made its way to the ballfields, where paper lanterns were released, and the firework show concluded shortly after. Molly Parks, 18, and Marie Giesbrecht, 19, passed away as a result of the crash. Two others in the crash were taken to the local hospital. Petersburg Police Department received notice of a car over the... Full story
Construction efforts on the municipal building are right on schedule with the demolition process going smooth so far, according to Karl Hagerman, Public Works director. "Actually, it's going along fairly well," he said. "The contractor is continuing to do demolition, but at the same time they are starting to put in new items." The job is a joint venture between two contractors, and they have already completed some underground plumbing and installation of interior concrete slabs. The phased const...
The entangled humpback whale being tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Marine Mammal Stranding Network lost its tracking gear two week’s ago, leaving biologists with no way of keeping tabs on it. Members of the Stranding Network also have no idea what the status of entanglement currently is. On the day researchers lost tracking ability, the entangled marine mammal was sighted and a crew was preparing for another attempt to remove the gear. However, t...
Petersburg Borough voters may get their chance to have a say on whether or not commercial cultivation and retail sale of recreational marijuana is allowed later this year. Last Wednesday, an initiative petition was filed with the borough, saying the community should have a local vote to determine the fate of the marijuana industry in Petersburg, according to a resolution received by borough clerk Debra Thompson. The initiative and referendum application, sent to the borough on June 22, asked, “Should Petersburg Borough prohibit the c... Full story
Two females are deceased after an early morning one-vehicle crash, and a community vigil will be held tonight before the fireworks. Two others in the crash were taken to the local hospital, but their names have not been released. Fourth of July organizers canceled day-time events after it was discovered Molly Parks, 18, and Marie Giesbrecht, 19, had passed away as a result of the crash. Petersburg Police Department received notice of a car over the guard rail and in a ditch near the South Harbor parking lot around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. The... Full story
Navigating the Wrangell Narrows can be tricky, if not treacherous, depending on the vessel size and time of year. On June 14, Britta Adams of Ketchikan became the first known individual to swim the body of water from south to north. "I just knew that I had a tide, and I had six hours," she says. "My goal was to get from Marker 1 to Marker 42, the end of Pinball Alley, and everything beyond that was just a bonus." The water was 48 degrees when Adams jumped in at 4:45 a.m., and 15 minutes later... Full story
The Petersburg Lutheran Church pastor Mike Schwarte and his family are leaving town this week to pursue a new life in Alabama. He was assigned to Petersburg's Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in 1999 and later was employed with the Petersburg Police Department and worked as a commercial pilot for Pacific Wing. Most recently he's pastored the Petersburg Lutheran Church for over 7 years. Schwarte's wife Ying was accepted into a highly competitive Ph.D. program at the Auburn University...
Petersburg is hosting the largest gathering of Nordhavn yachts ever seen in an Alaska harbor. The Nordhavn Northwest Rendezvous will take place July 8-10, and the event is attracting yacht owners from as far away as Australia, according to rendezvous organizer Douglas Cochrane. "When we first dreamed it up we were hoping we might get six or eight boats together," he says. "And right now, I think the count is 33 and almost 100 people." Last fall, Cochrane decided to set a rendezvous in the...
On January 18, Southeast Cities Against Drugs Task Force (SEACAD) arrested 28-year-old Marvin Jackson on charges of possession of heroin with the intent to distribute. Jackson was detained at the Petersburg’s James A. Johnson per a search warrant. After a search of his belongings it was discovered that he transported approximately 19.69 grams of heroin from the Seattle area to Petersburg. The search also produced multiple unused hypodermic syringes. During the investigation, local SEACAD and FBI Task Force investigators discovered that Jackson...
Generally Fourth of July events happen on July 3 and 4, but this year, with the Fourth falling on a Monday the committee was looking for options to extend the weekend fun. This year, there will be events held on Saturday through Monday, with an entire new slate of activities scheduled to take place on Sunday, according to Petersburg Chamber of Commerce manager Mara Lutomski. "If we didn't have any events on Sunday the momentum would have been lost," she said. "But the Lighthouse church, Nathan...
The Planning and Zoning Commission held nine public hearings at its meeting last week, with one concerning a conditional use permit to operate a home occupation involving firearms. At the meeting last week, Marcus Hom, who resides at 1309 Gjoa Street, sought approval for a conditional use permit to operate an internet-based gun sale business. The arguments against allowing the permit were similar to those made last December, when Gjoa Street resident Gregg Townsend applied for a similar permit to operate a gun repair business. Townsend’s p...
The Petersburg Medical Center board heard of steps being taken to set guidelines for allowing service animals and therapeutic animals in the facility. The policy is awaiting policy committee approval, and PMC chief nursing officer Jennifer Bryner spoke with the board about why the policy would be helpful. “The therapy animal is just exploding across the nation, you are seeing dogs, mostly dogs, everywhere,” she said. “They are on the plane with people, not in a carrier, and they are not true service dogs. So I think we will be seeing more...
The recent addition of two bird cages filled with feathered friends for Petersburg Medical Center's Long Term Care (LTC) residents is all about combating loneliness, helplessness and boredom. The positive impact of the birds is noticeable, according to Susan Ohmer, executive director of Petersburg Mental Health Services. Ohmer started the process of bringing birds into LTC about three months ago, after getting the green light from PMC Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Bryner. Ohmer immediately... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly continued to hear public opinion on amendments to the Smoke Free Air Act ordinance at its meeting Monday. The discussion was the second reading and ended with the assembly removing any wording that would have permitted licensed marijuana retail stores to allow on-site marijuana smoking. “It sounds like the town has spoken, that they would prefer not to have smoking in a retail establishment and I feel that sounds like a solid plan,” said assembly member Eric Castro. Castro said he wanted to separate the com... Full story
WRANGELL — Alaska’s state ferry system is embarking on a journey to make itself more financially viable over the next 25 years, as a process to refocus and possibly restructure, spearheaded by Southeast Conference. Representing the region’s economic interests, the SEC was first started 58 years ago in order to support establishment of what would become the Alaska Marine Highway System. Appropriately enough then, the organization will help to steer that regional transportation network into the future, after a memorandum of understanding to th... Full story
The bail has been raised for a man involved in the latest drug bust in Petersburg. On June 6, police searched 214 North Nordic Drive Apt #5 and found Sovanmony “Mony” Mao, 43, hiding in a closet after the Petersburg Court issued a warrant. “In the closet where Mao was hiding, a knife was found, multiple baggies, a scale and more packaged suspected methamphetamine,” a criminal complaint states. “The total weight of methamphetamine recovered was approximately 60.00 grams. Officers recovered approximately 45 baggies of methamphetamine along with l...
Back in November, Marissa Nilsen interviewed for the privilege of studying abroad as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. A couple weeks later, she was told she made the cut. In January, Nilsen, 16, found out she will spend her junior year in Belgium. She is excited to say the least, even though she did not have an input to where she would be going. "I could not choose, I didn't really have a say in where I was going," she says. "Which is fine by me because anywhere would be amazing."...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Nearly 400 scientists have signed a letter urging President Obama to eliminate the possibility of Arctic offshore drilling in the near future by taking the Arctic Ocean out of the next federal offshore lease sale plan. The scientists include Jane Lubchenco, Obama's former administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, now a researcher and teacher at Oregon State University. “I've witnessed some of the unprecedented changes underway in the Arctic” Lubchenco said in a prepared statement. “Cons...
