Sorted by date Results 4775 - 4799 of 5673
The Thomas Bay Power Authority has become an outright embarrassment for the founding communities of Wrangell and Petersburg. From name-calling on the streets of Wrangell in September of last year, to this week's closure of the office after Manager Mick Nicholls and Administrative Clerk Rhonda Christian were placed on paid leave and asked to leave the office. Interestingly, both incidents were related to disagreements between the TBPA office employee duties and their right to be involved with decision making by the commissioners. When SEAPA CEO...
Foul play is suspected as the cause of two vehicle fires that occurred last Monday evening. Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD) firefighters responded to a call Monday around 10:30 p.m. about two fires on Twin Creek Road. PVFD spokesperson David Berg said responders first came upon a container van that was fully engulfed in flames. About one quarter mile down the road, firefighters found another vehicle completely destroyed by fire. “The late model SUV vehicle was almost out and the fire had completely burned everything in it,” Ber...
Former Petersburg Community School District Maintenance Director Tye Petersen, 46, plead guilty last week to Distribution, Receipt and Possession of Child Pornography—three counts that carry up to a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each count. Petersen was arrested last October after federal investigators and local police conducted a search warrant of his home and electronic devices. Investigators found email attachments as well as CDs containing images and videos of young children e...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) board of directors voted 5-0 June 26 to terminate the Operations and Maintenance contract for the Tyee Lake hydroelectric facility. Tyee Lake is presently operated by a joint creation of the Petersburg and Wrangell assemblies— the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The future of the Authority has been in question since the Petersburg assembly voted to withhold a portion of its operating costs known as the Non-Net Billable in October 2013. Borough assemblies in Wrangell and Petersburg passed December r...
Salvation Army Lieutenants Caleb Fankhauser and Christin Fankhauser are transferring to a post in Homer and their replacements are due to arrive July 2. John Birks, 30, and Mysti Birks, 32, just graduated from a 22-month Salvation Army training program in Los Angeles and will serve their first post, similar to the Fankhausers, in Petersburg. "We both kind of have the same thought with just being able to go to a community and do the best we can to serve that community," John Birks said. "We have...
United Way of Southeast Alaska is now accepting Community Impact Grant applications. Up to $15,000 in Community Impact funds will be awarded to applicants that successfully demonstrate community needs that pertain to health, education, or income stability. The criteria used in the past will guide the selection process: collaboration, matching funds, and having a clearly stated, focused, and achievable goal with measurable outcomes. Funds may not exceed $2,500 for any individual award. Funds can be used to pay salaries, purchase materials, or...
Four past and present Petersburg artists will have their work on display in the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council’s Main Street Gallery from July 4-25. Artists Joe Viechnicki, Susan Christensen, Pia Reilly and John McCabe are all transplants to Petersburg but have lived here for decades. Their work explores themes common to island living and the Pacific Northwest including community, isolation, solitude, beauty, strength and loneliness. Christensen recently returned to Seattle after living in Petersburg for many years. She currently p...
In the last edition of the Petersburg Pilot it was stated that ApolloMT offers medevac insurance for $125 a month. The insurance plan is offered at a rate of $125 per year. It was also stated in a story regarding hospital-borough relationships that the Fairbanks North Star Borough owns its hospital building. The borough doesn’t own the building. As was stated in the story, borough residents do donate money in fundraising campaigns....
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A few processing plants are finding themselves shorthanded as salmon catches increase around the state, but an item in pending U.S. Senate legislation could make it easier to fill vacant positions next summer. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich supported language in the 2015 State and Foreign Operations spending bill that would enable Alaska's seafood processing industry to once again hire foreign students for temporary positions through a work travel program. The J-1 visa program grants temporary visas to foreign s...
The Thomas Bay Power Authority (TBPA) Commission placed General Manager Michael Nicholls and Administrative Clerk Rhonda Christian on paid leave last Friday after a reported lack of communication from the TBPA office. TBPA, the organization responsible for operation and maintenance of the Tyee Hydroelectric Plant that provides power to Petersburg and Wrangell, is undergoing negotiations to transfer its operations to Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA). Commission members haven’t received financial information and haven’t approved a bud...
Hammer and Wrangell Clerk Kim Lane, accompanied by Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey arrived at the TBPA office headquarters about 3 p.m., when a Wrangell Sentinel reporter was interviewing Nicholls. The interview was the first notification of the imposition of administrative leave, Nicholls and Christian said. Nicholls disputed claims by the Thomas Bay Power Commission that there had been a lack of communication between commissioners and staff prior to the June 6 special meeting. "At that time, both Robert (Larson) and James (Stough) said...
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT) released a draft Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP) for public review. The plan includes the construction of a road from Kake to Petersburg and a Wrangell Narrows ferry. According to the plan, the road is meant to be a low-volume road intended to provide local traffic between the two communities. “A road connection to Petersburg would allow access to many of the needed goods and services and could be accomplished with a day trip at significantly reduced cost,” the... Full story
Issues of funding assistance continue to crop up between the Petersburg Borough Assembly and Petersburg Medical Center, and an ambiguous relationship between the two bodies isn’t clarifying the matter. Last week, PMC CEO Liz Woodyard requested, on behalf of the hospital board, the assembly pay for repairs on a leaking exhaust stack in the borough-owned hospital facility—a request the assembly denied. Woodyard said PMC is struggling to keep up with repairs as the borough-owned building ages, and the dilemma of not being able to afford the rep... Full story
More than 100 Petersburg youngsters are spending part of their summer break reading books and competing for prizes in the Petersburg Public Library summer reading program. Kids can read a book and then head to the library to test their comprehension of the themes, characters and plot of the story. Each book is worth a certain amount of points, and the kids receive tickets for each point they earn. The tickets are then used to enter in random drawings for prizes. There are more than 60 prizes ava... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved $137,538 in repairs to the failing parks and recreation HVAC system. Parks and Recreation Director Donnie Hayes said the repairs would help his department save money in the long run through energy savings. The pneumatic controls of the more than 25 year-old system are leaking, and many of the springs and actuators that assist the system's air pump have lost tension, causing too much heat to escape the system. “That compressor pumps air to an actuator and tells that actuator 'you need to o...
The Thomas Bay Power Commission will hold a meeting in the Petersburg Borough Assembly Chambers Friday, June 27 at 10 a.m. The commission will elect new officers after previous TBPA President James Stough resigned his position last week. Commission member David Galla also resigned. The commission will also discuss the transfer of TBPA Operations and Maintenance to Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) and work on providing all the necessary documents for the transfer to the Wrangell Borough Manager. The commission will also discuss the fiscal...
WRANGELL - An emergency slide on an Alaska Airlines jet plane deployed accidentally Saturday, delaying a north-bound flight for several hours at Wrangell Airport, according to a spokesperson for the company. Airlines staff were opening the hatch for off-loading when the plane's emergency slide deployed. Pictures, widely circulated on Facebook, show the slide deployed perpendicular to the ground. No one was injured in the mishap and passengers were able to disembark, said spokesperson Nancy...
Local land surveyor Rick Braun recently began using newer GPS technology and has interesting insights into its application and the land it measures. Braun used to use the Trimble system—a system that required the use of at least five U.S. satellites out of the 31 that are in space. “It works okay, but you need a really good look at the sky,” Braun said. “That system is only accurate to within 1 to 3 meters.” The new GPS system Braun is using, the Javad system, utilizes both U.S. and Russian satellites that send signals to a rover and a base st...
wrangell — Patients in local hospitals could face new limitations on how physical therapy can be paid for in Southeast Alaska hospitals. Annual caps for the amount of physical therapy have, in past years, been restricted only to hospitals that did not receive the critical care designation from the federal government. However, for the first time this year, Medicare will apply reimbursement caps – the limit is $1,920 – to physical therapy patients receiving physical therapy even at critical access facilities, like the Petersburg and Wrang...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A strong earthquake near Alaska's Aleutian Islands triggered a tsunami warning Monday, but only small waves measuring several inches hit coastal communities. The National Tsunami Warning Center canceled all tsunami warnings late Monday afternoon, about four hours after the earthquake struck. The magnitude-7.9 earthquake was centered about 13 miles southeast of Little Sitkin Island, or about 1,400 miles southwest of Anchorage. There were no reports of damage, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of H...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Acting courteous, even when arresting someone, has paid dividends for the Alaska State Troopers. KTVA reports a 49-year-old Anchorage man wanted on several felony warrants decided to turn himself in to troopers Friday after watching an episode of the reality show “Alaska State Troopers” on the National Geographic Channel. Brian John Fahey approached two troopers in the parking lot of the Anchorage headquarters late Friday afternoon. According to troopers, Fahey said he believed they “were more professional and courteo...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska authorities say they have shot and killed a black bear that lumbered through the front door of a home in the state's capital while people were inside. Juneau police say in statement Saturday that the residents were on the first floor, the same level where officers spotted the bear in the two-story home in the city's downtown. Police say the bear appeared briefly in a doorway, and an officer fired a shotgun twice at the animal. It ran behind the home and was later found dead. Investigators determined the animal came in thr...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a letter to the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities and a union representing ferry service employees to settle a labor contract dispute in a timely manor so as to not disrupt ferry service by the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS), which has already decreased in Petersburg during the past several years. “We, of the Petersburg Borough, encourage a timely and equitable settlement of this dispute,” the letters states. “In addition, we continue to suggest to AMHS, and their...
Alaska’s largest air medevac provider Guardian Flight bought ApolloMT, the state’s largest membership program. Guardian Flight transports urgent and non-urgent patients from rural healthcare facilities to tertiary care facilities across Alaska. In a press release, Guardian Flight stated current ApolloMT policyholders’ accounts will not change or be disrupted. “Moving forward, customers can purchase the new program, AppolloMT by Guardian Flight, and receive the same peace of mind knowing that their remaining balances will be forgiven if transpo...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted against a funding request from the Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board. The board requested $21,900 to repair a leaking exhaust stack in the building. PMC CEO Liz Woodyard made the request to the assembly on behalf of the hospital board and the conversation soon turned to the relationship between PMC and the borough—a discussion that hasn’t resolved since last summer. “We are an essential service to the community just like the police, fire and schools,” Woodyard said. “Many local communities in Alaska... Full story
