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Alaskan natives, particularly the Alaska Natives Without Land, have every right to petition the federal government for additional lands, but it's imperative that history is accurately portrayed in the process. Those lobbying for additional land allocations say in writing, "It has been proven there's no apparent reason the communities of Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Haines and Tenakee Springs were left out," of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) that was passed 48 years ago. Ther...
We’re glad the borough assembly cut through drawn out discussions and approved the continuation of work on the Sandy Beach Park playground project. The park improvement proposal received plenty of publicity over the past two years, so the work should have come as no surprise to anyone paying even remote attention to the news. If the parks and recreation board had their way, the debate over the plans would have delayed the project for at least another summer. That would have been unacceptable. Rock-n-Road is volunteering their labor and had t...
Last week, the Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Group released a report it had been working on for several months throughout the pandemic. Even though this group has finished it’s task, I will continue to work to find ways to increase ferry service and reliability throughout Southeast Alaska and the rest of our state, at a level that is sustainable, functional, safe, and efficient. The Reshaping Group made several recommendations, many of which focused on the need for the ferry system and the ferry budget to focus on long-term service goals, r...
Opposed to the process To the Editor: Many residents of Kake, Kupreanof and the Petersburg Borough likely share the following concerns on the a long standing state edict currently aliased and marketed as a $40 million “Subsistence and Recreation” project. These concerns however, are best conveyed directly to Senator Stedman, but he has chosen so far to make himself unavailable to the general public. Many of us can understand, then, why the Senator might be unavailable. As co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which holds the purse str...
Thank you to the community To the Editor: The Muskeg Malerier Rosemalers would like to thank all who attended the 44th Annual Oktoberfest Art Share this past weekend. The shoppers, the many vendors, the Parks-n-Rec staff, the musicians, the EOC committee all helped to make it a successful and wonderful event for the community. This year may have been smaller than in years past, but the quality was definitely first rate. We saw many smiling eyes above colorful masks. We saw lots of food to go...
Students need your help To the Editor: Since I got into High School the one thing I look forward to every year is volleyball season. For some it might be E-sports, swimming, wrestling, basketball, and many others. At the beginning of the year I was so excited that we could finally go back to school, even though it was only 2 days a week in person. Volleyball season started and we were so excited to go so far this season. Since our team was underclassman we've been waiting for THIS season, in hop...
Time for tougher garbage requirements To the Editor: Every fall, it's the same story: bears wandering around town and getting into garbage. It's time for the borough to adopt tougher requirements to keep bears and garbage separate. Common sense and personal responsibility clearly aren't working. Ditto the existing wimpy ordinance on garbage cans. (You must make a "reasonable effort" to keep garbage cans inaccessible to animals. A reasonable effort includes securing a can with a bungee cord, no...
Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy. The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the United States leads the world in Covid-19...
Thank you To the Editor: Coach Eddy, the Viking runners and I want to express our thanks to the community for its support last week during the Region V Cross Country Championships. Parents, staff members, bus drivers, administrators, coaches, runners, and families from all over the region helped make this a great event in unusual times. Our Event Mastermind Jaime Cabral did an excellent job with logistics and making this meet happen and for that we are so grateful. As we raced at Green’s Camp to allow for easy access by jet boat, the event w...
“Don’t forget to sign-up for the National Newspaper Convention,” my wife and co-publisher said. “It’s being held in Jacksonville, Florida this year,” she added. If there was ever a year to leave Petersburg for a Florida destination, this was it. I anxiously clicked on the NNA website and discovered that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was being held virtually this year. “How in the world can you hold a newspaper convention on Zoom? This will be interesting,” I muttered to myself. I signed up for the convention, went to Viking...
The Aspen Daily News in Aspen, Colorado runs a statement every day on their front page Flag that states: “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.” It’s a bit brash for our taste, but the words apply to this newspaper when it comes to public record reporting that appears on our pages. Recently we’ve had three persons request that we remove police and court reports that pertain to cases they were involved in. They cite invasion of privacy concerns and correctly state that the information will jeopardize future hiring opportuniti...
Government money better spent To the Editor: ADF&G has crunched the numbers on the Red King Crab survey from this summer. Once again by hauling a few pots at the wrong time of year and a lot of extrapolation they came up way short of having a fishery. They do the survey every summer and rarely do we fish. Not sure what it costs for a large vessel and all the personnel that are crewing for the extra sea time pay, but it's significant. The only money made off Red Crab is by the personnel working...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly acted with both courage and compassion on Monday night when they passed Ordinance 2020-19 that updated the borough's civil emergency plan. The easy decision would have been to cave to the public comments opposing the revised ordinance, but the assembly and borough officials did an excellent job of explaining how the ordinance was drafted and that wording from three other community ordinances were used to compose the Petersburg document. There was no nefarious...
Here is some historical context for where we find ourselves, a small community responding to a global crisis and the issue of civil liberties. The Clausen Museum recently found and posted on Instagram a Petersburg newspaper clipping from November 1919, which read: "Notice: Until further orders no small boats will be allowed to leave town of Petersburg for any other town. Board of Health, by order of the Governor." In World War II civilians needed military permission to travel to and from...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Alaska has faced its share of monumental challenges. The testing of all incoming travelers, providing relief for devastated tourism businesses, creating a new unemployment program from scratch. Yet none compared to the challenge of protecting our critical seafood industry and the communities that rely on their economic production. We commend Alaska's seafood industry for successfully navigating the most difficult season Alaska has ever experienced. Captains,...
Borough staff presented appropriate justification for the borough assembly to approve an ordinance that will update and expand how officials respond to local emergencies at last Thursday's public forum on the topic. In a nutshell, Ordinance #2020-19 will transfer civil emergency provisions from the City of Petersburg code to Petersburg Borough code while adding language to help local officials respond to an emergency. Karl Hagerman explained, "...the responsibility to keep the population safe...
Voting information To the Editor: It is simple to get an absentee, or mail-in, ballot for the general election on 3 November. By email, go to absenteeballotapplication.alaska.gov. From there, click on "Apply Online With DMV Validation". Use your driver's license to establish your identity. Alternatively, you can contact the Division of Elections at 907-465-4611 or 1-866-952-8683 to request a paper application. The Division of Elections intends to mail the ballots to voters on October 9. If you...
We have no desire to critique the public radio station's work but last week we had several people ask what we thought of station intern Corinne Smith's story that aired on KFSK. The story highlighted seafood workers' summer employment experiences in Petersburg under the state's Covid-19 mandates. The piece fell far below the level of excellence usually attained by the station's news department. More work was needed to add balance to a story that could have highlighted the achievements of both... Full story
Ripple effect To the Editor: It is my hope that when you read my words that you resolve to do better things. We need to start fostering our own indigenous lands and people. This man made aquifer is failing underneath our feet. Recognize that if we don't do more the Black Lives Movement is a moot point. Indigenous people are never going to be able to start healing if we don't do more. As whites we fear loss because the veil of shame is a thing our forefathers gave to us, shame based guilt is a...
Over the past eighteen months, Alaska's ferry system faced unprecedented challenges: a reduced budget, a strike, unanticipated mechanical and structural issues with five aging ships, and a global pandemic. This spring, as the pandemic hit, AMHS had four of those ships scheduled to enter service, a workable budget in place, and expected sufficient revenue to provide reliable ferry service throughout the year. Due to the dramatic decline in revenue as commerce all but stopped, the financial impacts on AMHS have been severe. Because ticket sales...
A little clarification can go a long way, and we hope that the statement issued by U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy represents his true view of the Alaska Bypass Mail system in Alaska. DeJoy had raised alarms throughout Alaska with comments he made about the Bypass Mail program during an Aug. 21 hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee. Since 1972, the Alaska Bypass Mail program — created with the assistance of the late Sen. Ted Stevens — has authorized palletized shipments of consumer goods and groceries via air to rural Alask...
To the Editor: The Market wants to thank Petersburg for supporting our local vendors as we helped them sell online through the Salt and Soil Marketplace this summer. With support from the Alaska Farmers Market Association/USDA grant we’ve been able to support handmade, homegrown products in a unique way made possible only through teamwork. We're always wanting to hear from you at psg.market@gmail.com. Chelsea Tremblay and the Market Board...
AMHS work group update To the Editor: As the marine highway workgroup strides into August, I want to provide an update on what we have been doing, and where we are heading. Our meetings have been streamed live on Facebook, and recordings are available online at http://dot.alaska.gov/comm/amh-reshaping-workgroup/ if you wish to hear our specific discussions. In line with Governor Dunleavy’s Administrative Order No 313, we have reviewed the Northern Economic draft report of January 2020 as well as reports prepared for Southeast Conference. We h...
We’ve had phone calls from a handful of people about our use of the photo and page one coverage of last week’s fatal Mitkof Highway crash. It saddens us to have to report on such a tragedy that impacts the lives of so many in both Wrangell and Petersburg. We don’t take pleasure in covering such stories. It wasn’t covered to sell newspapers. We covered the story because it is our job to provide information about a tragic event that struck close to home. We placed it on page one because it was the most important story of the week. The acciden...
Some people afraid of facts, prefer conspiracies To the Editor: I would like to thank Karl, Phil, Liz, Jennifer, Erin, and all the borough and medical staff who are helping us through the worst pandemic since 1918. Karl, I know from my time on the council and assembly, is the most capable employee in our borough. He is honest, hard working, and always reliable. Phil is the best medical center administrator in the 27 years I have lived here. These people are using scientists, epidemiologists, med...
