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Forest Service terminations To the Editor: 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees have lost their jobs across the nation. 10 of those FS employees live in Petersburg. These firings were not based on performance. That is a false agenda this administration is pushing to make you not care and look away. These terminations were inflicted on employees that were still in their probationary period, usually their first year of work. They are predominantly young, motivated people starting out their careers. This will not only leave a gap in the Forest...
As if years of political interference and, for many elected officials, disinterest weren’t enough to sink the Alaska Marine Highway System, rust and age could finish the job. Maybe the answer is some duct tape to keep the ships running just a little longer until they turn 65 years old and could qualify for Medicare. But that’s too long to wait — the marine highway needs urgent care. The ships are aging, which is a polite way of saying they are long past their prime and getting older and rustier. Salt water accelerates the process. The Matan...
Words are powerful To the Editor: My wife and I attended the Council meeting Tuesday regarding the proposed new dock that would be partially paid for by American Cruise Lines, which comes with a 60 year commitment to their priority and continued use. Taking money from large corporations always comes with strings attached, many of which aren’t fully realized until it is far too late. That being said though, I believe that all my feelings were more clearly expressed by all the other speakers. In fact, I am no more opposed than anyone else in t...
Bait and switch To the Editor: Remember back in high school when the teacher would want to talk about current events? In my day it was usually about what was going on in Vietnam. We were a captive audience so we had to pay attention, sort of. There was usually a test. If nothing else, maybe we learned to be interested in what went on in the world. I looked away for a while when I was kind of busy making a life. That happens to most of us. The last few years, and in particular the last couple weeks, I couldn’t look away and I have to say what I...
No matter what any crowd-pleasing elected official says, Alaska cannot afford a long-deserved increase in state funding for schools and a large Permanent Fund dividend. There just isn’t enough money in the state checkbook to do both this year — not unless Alaskans want to start paying an income tax or a state sales tax, which are both even less popular than a middle seat in the last row of a six-hour flight. More than 90% of the spendable dollars in the state budget comes from two sources: An annual draw on Permanent Fund investment ear...
The Pilot has been trying to ride out the storm of production cost increases over recent years without passing higher costs on to our newspaper customers, but we've stretched our ability to do so as far as possible. Beginning next week, the cost of a single edition of the newspaper goes from $1.50 per copy to $2.00. Well, actually $1.88, as the two dollars includes local sales tax. Our subscription rates will also have to bump up commensurately. A local subscription will be $82 for the year -...
Remembering Linda Herf of Kinder Komfort To the Editor: I would like to thank everyone who has come into Kinder Komfort since Linda Herff passed away in late November. You have shared your stories and memories and shown your support with your patronage. Kinder Komfort first opened in 1986, so there is a lot of history associated with the store. There are many second generation customers. Many of you told me how Linda always made you feel special. She loved to talk and engage with customers because she was genuinely interested in people. Linda...
New Year, new ideas To the Editor: It’s a new year, and it’s time for some new ideas. I’m an artist so I always have ideas. I love Petersburg – but sometimes I think there is a tendency to dwell in the past. Japanese buyers are no longer paying a premium for everything we catch. Maximizing fish production is not the golden ticket anymore. As a remote Alaskan community, we should be thinking hard about how we can offer value to the world. Official charts predict population decline here. It’s not hard to become a ghost town (hint: there’s a...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s transition report to the Trump administration accuses the Biden administration of carrying out a four-year assault on Alaska’s economy and that the Trump administration needs to repair the damage. Somehow in the equation for what constitutes creating economic opportunity and being pro-Alaska, the massive Willow project doesn’t count. Nor does the $10.1 billion in public investments in clean energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing. Nor does aiding Alaska’s visitor industry in a time of post-pandemic need. What about b...
It has been a very busy year filled with lots of successes. I hope all have had great and joy filled holidays, and I wish for you each a very happy and safe celebration as we welcome in the new year. Below is a brief summary of many of the accomplishments achieved in 2024 and a few things I am looking forward to working on in 2025. January started off with huge transitions after a record-breaking voter turnout and a resignation resulted in five, out of seven, new Council members being seated. The Council has been filled with seven citizens...
United we stand, divided we fall. To the Editor: I am moved as I watch the solemn funeral proceedings of former President Jimmy Carter in the magnificent rotunda of our nation’s Capital today, January 7, four years and one day removed from the disgraceful desecration of this historic place, the violence against law enforcement, and the attempts to physically harm lawmakers doing their Constitutionally mandated duty – to formalize the results of a free and fair election. Let us NEVER forget the heinousness of January 6, and let us stand str...
Certifying the election To the Editor: In a week, Congress will meet to certify the presidential election. I wonder if the disappointed candidate will gather a crowd near the White House and urge them with the words Trump used in 2021: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” and then watch as this angry mob of gullible goons assaults and ransacks the United States Capitol. That looked to me to be an attempt to end almost 250 consecutive years of peaceful transfers of power – a corners...
Late last year, when I went to sign up for my 2024 health insurance on the federal Obamacare marketplace, the options all seemed expensive — more expensive than what I paid in 2023. A perk of being an independent news publisher is that instead of just grousing about this to my family and friends, I also had a legitimate pretext to ask Alaska’s top insurance regulator: What’s going on? She responded 16 minutes later with exactly what I was looking for: a chart showing that, indeed, the plans offered by my insurer, Premera, rose an average of 16....
An advertiser-sponsored article in the Seattle Times gushed “Wild Alaska pollock’s fishing fleet is based right here in Seattle although all of the fish are caught in U.S. waters off of the coast of Alaska. This fishery benefits the economic growth of the entire region, including the North Pacific Fishing Fleet.” That includes 300 commercial fishing vessels of which 226 fish in Alaska. Many of the boats are huge catcher-processors — factory trawlers — that target pollock, cod, rockfish, flounders and other “groundfish” species. Alaska polloc...
How are Mystery Drones and UFOs Related? To the Editor: I am not writing to tell you that they both contain little green men. The general public does not have enough information to arrive at that conclusion. But this suggests one thing they have in common: official government releases on both of these topics (as of the time of writing) are big, fat nothing-burgers. Either that, or lies — cloaked in diverting half-truths, and smelling suspiciously of disinformation. The Great Holiday Mystery Drone Wave of 2024 is just the latest episode in the 8...
Alaska is a land of unmatched potential and opportunity. It always has been, and it always will be if we choose the right policies and priorities. This past week, I fulfilled my Constitutional and statutory duties to introduce a budget for the 2026 fiscal year that will begin next July 1. The budget follows the law by fully funding education and the Permanent Fund Dividend and provides funding to address the top priorities of my administration: public safety, energy and resource development, food security, and increased affordability for the...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has a choice for his final two years on the job: He can continue talking about how state law requires him to include an outrageously large Permanent Fund dividend in the budget — even though it would dig a deep budget hole which, thankfully, legislators will never approve — or he can help solve the problem. It looks like he is sticking with the irresponsible approach. He proposed a budget last week that is politically popular with his supporters but which he knows the state cannot afford without drawing down its rem...
To the Editor: The Alaska Board of Fish (BOF) will be meeting in January to determine the future management of your Blind Slough King Salmon fishery. Many of us were unsatisfied with what happened at Blind Slough in 2024 and now is the time to support the solution. Your Petersburg Advisory Committee in conjunction with ADFG and SSRAA generated proposal 159 which would modify the current plan and allow for equal access to freshwater and saltwater King Salmon fishing. In addition, proposal 163 would modify current regulations to have all King...
Sometimes, the best explanations are the simplest. Especially when it comes to economics. The complicated way to describe the consequences of Alaska losing population, particularly working-age residents, is to explain that fewer people have moved north than have moved out of the state in each of the past 12 years. That net outmigration is making it hard for employers to fill jobs, which means reduced hours of operation, longer waits for services and less money in the economy. The decline in working-age residents — ages 18 to 64 — is esp...
The Petersburg Pilot offers its congratulations and best wishes to our now-former news reporter, Olivia Rose, who has accepted a position at Petersburg’s much beloved public radio station KFSK. The Pilot has benefited greatly for the past year and a half from Olivia’s thorough and accurate reporting. Her good understanding of what community journalism is all about has been an entirely positive addition to our staff, and we are happy to know Petersburg will continue to benefit from her reporting talents. We’ve long known of Olivia’s backgro...
Tariffs harmed Alaska seafood and timber exports To the Editor: With this week’s call to impose tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico and China, it looks like we may find out pretty quickly how they work in making things more affordable here in Petersburg. Like Mexico paying for the wall, it’s simply not true that Americans won’t face some consequences. Trade wars are tricky and complicated and new tariffs at such high levels threaten to upend international trade, disrupt supply chains, and send prices soari...
Alaska voters have had to wait until November 20 to see the final results of the 2024 General Election. Now we know that the winner of the U.S. House race is Nick Begich and we know that ranked choice voting and open primaries survived the repeal effort. But because of how early voting gets tallied in Alaska we will never know exactly how the Petersburg precinct, or any individual precinct in the state actually voted. The Division of Election’s published results show that Petersburg cast 843 votes in the 2024 General Election, but that n...
Just asking questions To the Editor: Alaska representative Jamie Allard (R-Eagle River) asked via social media this week how many non-citizens voted in Alaska’s 2024 election, implying that thousands of “illegal” votes could sway our ballot measures. Simple answer to Allard’s question is, most likely, none. Non-citizen voting is illegal by state and federal law. Alaska’s Division of Elections and Department of Motor Vehicles rigorously enforce those laws by confirming citizenship before they process registrations. Provisional ballots are likewi...
America is Great Already! To the Editor: We don’t need a change of regime to make America great again. We are already great. No argument we could do better. Despite what you hear, this nation is not failing! On Monday, November 11th, the Veterans Parade showed us what really does make our country great. Unless you have served in the military, or have/had family who served, it might be difficult for you to understand the sacrifice made by our veterans. They sign a contract to serve and defend the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and...
The next two years may be Alaska’s last chance for productive, bipartisan legislative action. The state House and Senate have both organized in bipartisan coalitions, with Democrats, Republicans and independents pledging to work together on the big issues facing Alaska. Sadly, that across-the-political-aisle cooperation could end in two years. Alaska’s switch to open primaries and ranked-choice voting for the 2022 and 2024 elections encouraged candidates, particularly Republican candidates, to appeal to moderate and nonpartisan voters ins...
