Sorted by date Results 3988 - 4012 of 5553
About 15 Petersburg and Kupreanof residents attended a meeting last Thursday night to hear about and voice their opinions on recent developments on the Kake Access road project. Meeting attendees listened to presentations by ADOT's Andy Hughes, Seth English-Young from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) and two consultants working on the project who explained developments with the project's purpose and need statement and a screening process developed to evaluate 21 transportation... Full story
Sue Erickson of Petersburg-Wrangell Insurance gave an overview of the Borough’s liability insurance coverage at Thursday’s regular Assembly meeting. The Borough’s insurance has been provided by Alaska Public Entities Insurance for over a decade. There’s a $240,000 premium for its liability coverage, 11 percent of which goes to cover workers’ compensation. The premium has only increased $11,000 in the past six years, which Erickson characterized as “fantastic” and attributed to both claims handling and safety efforts by the Borough. Eric... Full story
Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil-the largest city in the Americas with a population of almost 12 million-Carolina Macluf is settling into life in small town Alaska as this year's in-bound Rotary exchange student. Macluf chose Petersburg as the location for her one-year exchange because she wanted to practice English and see somewhere different. "I just think I want a different place," she said, adding that several other out-bound exchange students from her area chose to study in one of...
Three concerned Petersburg and Kupreanof residents spoke out against a resolution being considered as part of last Thursday’s Borough Assembly agenda. Though three Assembly members—Mayor Mark Jensen, Bob Lynn, Nancy Strand—voted in fav or of the resolution, four votes were needed for it to pass. The resolution would have called for the governor to petition for an appeal of the Ninth Circuit court’s late July ruling which overturned the Tongass National Forest’s exemption to the Roadless Rule. The Wrangell Borough and Ketchikan Gateway B...
For its September regular board meeting, Southeast Alaska Power Authority (SEAPA) board members met in Petersburg earlier this week. The board heard updates concerning the company's ongoing efforts to catalog hydro sites in Southeast. This summer, a consultant flight crew moved personnel and equipment to remote areas, including lakes that have never had bathymetric studies conducted on them. The process reveals underwater topography while recording the depth of the lakes. Falls Lake and Scenery Lake were both mapped and recorded. Similar survey...
The abundance of outdoor opportunities in Southeast creates a haven for those willing to explore the almost unlimited potentials. Often times that exploration can lead to personal growth and finding new hobbies that quickly become passions. For Bev Siercks, picking wild berries means wine making, and relaxing amongst the trees and assorted berry patches. Growing up in North Dakota, Siercks occasionally picked berries, but since moving to Petersburg it's become a lifestyle. Especially this year,...
The Borough Assembly voted unanimously to approve new columbarium fees and increases to other cemetery fees as part of an ordinance passed on its first reading last Thursday. The ordinance includes language changes to reflect Borough incorporation and to establish fees to place an urn in one of the 320 burials niches of a new columbarium erected at the cemetery last month. The new proposed fee for urn placement is $175, with an additional $75 charge for placements occurring on weekends or holidays. The proposed fee for burials—opening and c...
Icicle Seafoods owner Paine & Partners announced Sept. 4 that the sale of the company to buyers Dominion Catchers, LLC and Convergence Holdings, Inc. has been cancelled. The sale was anticipated to close in August and was announced in late June. Company representatives declined to comment further on the reasons for the cancellation. Some online industry sources have speculated that a provision in the American Fisheries Act which requires U.S. citizens to have 75 percent ownership and control of commercial fishing vessels 100 feet or greater in... Full story
The Petersburg School Board held its first meeting of the 2015 school year. At the meeting, the board unanimously approved spending $18,510 for the much needed addition of an exhaust hood in the cafeteria kitchen. “We have received a health code violation because we do not have an exhaust hood over our stove and steam kettle,” said Daniel Tate, maintenance/facilities director. “The school never was designed with a cafeteria, it was essentially put into a multipurpose room.” Tate believes the cafeteria was originally called a gymnasium on the... Full story
In a special meeting on July 7, board members of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) met to discuss two items. The board voted to award a bid not to exceed $396,080 for the Swan Lake Powerhouse Roof Membrane Project to the Sitka-based company CBC Construction. The company was one of four that submitted bids, which ranged from $336,569 to $566,258. Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent Joe Nelson was the sole dissenting vote. He said he had reservations about the large spread of bid amounts and the design of the roof. “I think we s... Full story
Petersburg Medical Center (PMC) recently added digital mammography to its list of services offered. The new machine is two years old, but the capability of its technology is proving less harmful and possibly life changing for patients. "We're exposing the patient to at least half of the radiation they were being exposed to before," says Liz Bacom, PMC Laboratory/Imaging Director. The superior image quality of the Phillips MicroDose uses revolutionary photon counting detector technology. Bacom...
An ordinance changing the language and fee structure of cemetery services will go before the Assembly at today’s regular meeting. The changes are both to reflect Borough incorporation and to establish fees to place an urn in one of the 320 burial niches of a new columbarium erected at the cemetery last month. The new proposed fee for urn placement is $175, with an additional $75 charge for placements occurring on weekends or holidays. The proposed fee for burials—opening and closing a grave—would be raised from $650 for an adult and $300 for a...
Petersburg police have been investigating a local commercial psilocybin—hallucinogenic mushroom—grow operation. So far one of three suspects, 19-year-old Anthony Curtiss, has been arrested and indicted on charges related to the case. Curtiss was arrested on Aug. 28 on three felony charges. The first charge, Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the 1st Degree/Division IIA, relates to alleged delivery of the psilocybin to a minor who is at least three years younger than Curtiss. The minor in this case is an unnamed 15 year old. A fel...
The United States Postal Office (USPS) considers transient individuals to be anyone living in a moveable structure. Therefore, according to USPS policy, residents in Petersburg living in motor homes or boats are considered transient, no matter how long they have lived in the Borough, even if the structure has not moved in a decade. In Petersburg, USPS offers one free P.O. Box per physical address or delivery point. For instance, if multiple generations of a family reside in one home, that home is only allowed one free registered P.O. Box. If... Full story
ANCHORAGE (AP) — There may finally be a buyer for a multimillion dollar ferry that's never seen service. The Alaska Journal of Commerce reports Matanuska-Susitna borough officials approved the $1.75M sale of the ferry Susitna to the Philippine Red Cross. The $78 million ferry was a prototype catamaran-style landing craft built for the U.S. Navy, and it was donated to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. But it has sat docked hundreds of miles away in Ketchikan for years because it has no place to dock in Anchorage. The 195-foot ferry was intended t...
KENAI (AP) — An Alaska Medicaid program that funds care for adults with developmental disabilities is looking to cut the number of people it enrolls each year by 75 percent. The Peninsula Clarion reports that currently 200 people are taken off a waiting list to be enrolled in Medicaid's Intellectual and Developmental Disability waiver annually. Administrators now want that number to drop to 50. Officials say they would not be abandoning those waiting to join the program. In addition to the annual 50-person increase, wait-listed people would a...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A Wasilla newspaper has filed a complaint with the Department of Public Safety after an Alaska State Trooper pulled over a reporter and seized his camera memory card. The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman says the trooper's actions violated constitutional protections of freedom of the press and against unlawful search and seizure, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. The Department of Public Safety is investigating. According to the complaint, Frontiersman reporter Brian O'Connor went to cover a reported shooting in Willow on W...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Federal scientists may have found a link between the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and a decline of herring and pink salmon populations in Prince William Sound. In a study published Tuesday in the online journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that embryonic salmon and herring exposed to even very low levels of crude oil can develop heart defects. Herring and pink salmon juveniles that were exposed to crude oil as embryos grew slower and swam slower, making them v...
Visitors to the Blind River Rapids Trail, just south of Petersburg, can now take advantage of a new covered shelter and picnic area that recently finished construction. The addition to the trail was originally proposed in 2010, says Brad Hunter, recreation and wilderness staff officer on the Petersburg Ranger District. Hunter says getting approval for the project and finalizing the design of the structure took time. And the process included landscape architecture and engineering to create a...
In last week’s issue of the Pilot, it was stated Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors voted to update the telephone system in the Joy Janssen Clinic, but the telephone system for the entire hospital will be replaced. The Pilot regrets the error.... Full story
The 8th Annual Rainforest Festival kicks off next week and those attending the festival are going to be offered diverse opportunities, including watching an impactful documentary about a basket weaver, a field trip to listen for bats and wine-making with local ingredients followed by wine tasting. Things get started on Labor Day with the 2nd Annual Rainforest Run Half Marathon. Participants will be faced with the task of completing the 13.1 mile long course. Organizers are hoping to increase... Full story
Former PFI worker Mark Diega, 50, of Chula Vista, Calif., pled guilty to an amended, misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on Aug. 28 at a proceeding before Superior Court Judge William Carey. He was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail and one year of probation. He is also banned from the PFI property and may not possess a firearm while in Petersburg, should he return. Diega initially faced a felony charge of Terroristic Threatening for an Aug. 8 incident where the former PFI worker attempted... Full story
Heavy rains last Friday and Saturday, August 28 and 29, broke precipitation records for those respective days, according to National Weather Service data. Residents braved a rainy Friday which saw 2.61 inches fall. Downpours on Saturday, however, brought that day's rain total to 3.55 inches. Those measurements are taken at the airport. Local resident Doug Welde also records rain measurements from his downtown home where he recorded just over 5 inches of rain on Saturday. The total rainfall for... Full story
Construction on a new tub and shower room in the Long Term Care unit at Petersburg Medical Center will begin this month. “We’ve had our contractor and architect look at the project,” said Director of Nursing Jennifer Bryner. “We’re ordering the tile and hoping to get started in the next week or so.” The LTC unit is in the oldest wing of the hospital building and has seen wear and tear from years of daily use by residents. The project was bumped to the top of PMC’s capital projects list after the Division of Health Care Services, part of the A...
Hammer and Wikan is in the process of replacing Larry Martin as general manager after 17 years of service. The transition began in mid-July and will continue through May, allowing Martin to attend trade shows and share his years of experience with new general manager, John Mason. "John's going to do a great job for us," Martin says. "I am really looking forward to it. He is fitting in extremely well." Martin says thoughts about leaving the company started to develop a couple years ago, but he...
