Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 845
Violation of Trust To the Editor: I am very shocked and disappointed at the callous manner in which the Administration and Legislature have let down Alaska's brightest and promising students. Performance scholarships were granted to 3270 merit based Alaskan youth at a cost of S10.8 million annually. Nearly 1 in 5 students seeking degrees had qualified for a scholarship. The other program, needs based education grants, or financial aid, were granted to 2,030 degree seeking students. More than 1...
KFSK radio in Petersburg has a scheduled spring and fall fundraiser, and often an impromptu solicitation each June when the state budget is announced. They've salvaged their state grant from the jaws of budget slashers for many years, but not this year. This week they've announced they intend to make up the $80,000 state grant (or 18% of their total budget of $450,000) that was cut by Governor Dunleavy. It's a mighty task. If they're successful this year, what about next? This year's cuts are...
Who benefits? To the Editor: How can it be that we are knee-deep in tourist effluent and Medicaid is being cut? Why isn't the State Treasury fat with income from the tourist industry? Southeast Alaska is being exploited by tour ships. We need to, A: set a limit on the number and size of tour ships allowed in state waters; B: issue permits with contractual obligations; C: get compensated for their use of the state resources, including monitoring costs. Is anyone in the state taking any action...
Hazel Wilcoxon, passed away Nov. 19, 2018 on her 80th birthday. Born in Petersburg, Alaska in 1938, Hazel was the oldest of the three daughters of John "Jack" and Vera O'Donnell. She graduated from Petersburg High School in 1957. She attended Linfield College and graduated from the University of Arizona. She worked in the education system as a teacher, reading specialist, and school psychologist in both Alaska and Washington. Hazel loved folk dancing and traveling. She is survived by her son... Full story
Secondhand smoke To the Editor: Since 1964, nearly 3 million nonsmokers have died from secondhand smoke. Most exposure to secondhand smoke happens in the home. In apartment buildings, if one person smokes, everyone smokes. What is the best way to eliminate the risk of secondhand smoke? Eliminate the smoke. As a housing manager/landlord, passing a smokefree policy could achieve this goal. As a concerned tenant, express your concerns to your housing manager/landlord, and encourage them to go...
The Alaska State Legislature adjourned last week, but before adjourning, the most significant accomplishment was the agreement to transfer $10.5 billion from the Earnings Reserve Account (ERA) to the Corpus of the Permanent Fund. For the majority of legislators, including Senator Stedman and myself, it is a top priority to protect and enhance opportunities for the Permanent Fund to grow so that there will continue to be PFDs for Alaskans well into the future. The Permanent Fund is comprised of the Corpus (also known as the Principal) and the...
To the Editor: I write hoping to encourage community members to participate in the annual 4th of July Parade. The Chamber of Commerce announced another great theme "Let Freedom Rock" and it would be wonderful to have the parade full of locally decorated neighborhood floats, kids riding their decorated bikes or pulling wagons, organizations promoting their mission all walking together in celebration. Parents please encourage your kids to participate. Some of my best childhood memories are the...
Borough unfairness To the Editor: I moved here 30 years ago and fell in love with this community. Everyone helped each other and the city government was run quite well and fair. But as time has gone by the government has gotten bigger and created a borough that costs us lots more than it's worth in my opinion. I understand that the people that got swallowed up by the borough needed to pay for some of the benefits like school and such, but in most cases they are paying taxes for little to no...
Petersburg’s Alaska Airline terminal is a busy place. Since 1998 departures from the facility have increased by 31 percent, from 34,376 to 49,521 in 2018. Even infrequent travelers take note of the crowded terminal on heavy travel days. Parking spaces expand along both sides of Haugen Drive and passengers and those transporting their guests move outside to escape the packed terminal. The trek between available parking spaces to the terminal grows longer. While Alaska Airlines has expanded terminals in Kodiak, Cordova, Yakutat and Kotzebue, f...
Outliers feel like second class citizens To the Editor: The Pilot must have misquoted the Honorable Councilmember Jeff Meucci. "I just don't think community members should be paying for roads that aren't part of the borough". I cannot think of a more divisive, condescending or astonishingly uninformed comment by a community official. Just extrapolating from that comment; all of us outside service area one are not community members even though we pay taxes to the borough? The roads outside...
This past May was not my first visit to Petersburg as a Senator, but it was my first time attending the Little Norway Festival. And what a weekend it was! Little Norway is giving "Big" Norway a run for its money. I felt right at home from the moment I got off the plane. The Vikings and Valkyries were quick to whisk me away in the Grog Van and get the festivities and fun underway. I was sure to grab a Dale sweater at Lee's before the parade to fit right in (and avoid a second visit to Viking jail...
Maybe the answer is fish. No, not the answer to what’s for dinner tonight. The answer to solving the increasingly acrimonious debate over the amount of this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend. Figuring out how to share the investment earnings of the Permanent Fund between community services, such as schools and the university system and state troopers, and with individual Alaskans through the fall dividend payment is a lot like sharing salmon between multiple competing interests. The commercial fishing industry, sportfishing ent...
Senator is wrong To the Editor: Last fall the USFS held public meetings on the repeal of the Roadless Rule. The consensus was overwhelming public support in favor of the Roadless Rule as it now stands, from Alaskans who live, work and play here. Since the last 10 years the Roadless Rule was formalized for Alaska, many local guiding tours and a new a line of smaller, more personal cruise ships now rely on Roadless Rule lands, besides the mega ships that bring over a million passengers a year to...
Ban on fireworks unenforceable To the Editor: I support allowing fireworks inside of Service Area 1. I believe that they are part of American tradition and should be allowed to be set off on/near the 4th of July as originally included in the first reading of the ordinance before it was amended. I think a ban on fireworks is unenforceable under the current staffing of our police force. Richard S. Burke Truth difficult to find To the Editor: Humans love to hunt. We hunt fish and game. We hunt for...
MDT recital thank you To the Editor: Thank you to the wonderful teachers, generous donors, gracious parents, dedicated volunteers, supportive businesses and community members, and most of all, the talented dancers, for participating in an entertaining and successful spring recital. The Mitkof Dance Troupe Board Scouts made a difference To the Editor: During the Blessing of the Fleet, from the posting of the colors to the Scout honor guard launching the floating memorial wreath, to the clean up when the last tables and chairs were cleared and...
Regarding ferry service To the Editor: Demand destruction is a phenomenon that is often referred to when oil prices rise high enough to harm the economy and reduce its ability to purchase fuel. I have another example of demand destruction; getting rid of ferry service to Alaskan communities because the State budget has been mismanaged, which will result in a self inflicted wound to the economy. These small towns have ferry docks, how much was spent to build these docking facilities? Should that...
Redirect $32 million to "legitimate" transportation need To the Editor: Only 15 seconds into my April 12, one minute public testimony for the state operating budget, my microphone was abruptly muted by finance committee co-chair Senator Stedman. His justification explained afterward was, "We are talking about the operating budget." If freeing up $32 million dollars to put toward genuine transportation needs is an invalid suggestion toward relieving our state's fiscal crisis, then Alaska resident...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is right. The Legislature and governor the past three years appropriated money for individual Permanent Fund dividends contrary to the 1982 formula in state statute. So what? They did it for good reason. They did their job. The Legislature voted to pass a responsible budget based on Alaska's fiscal reality, balancing the needs and wants of individuals vs. the needs and services of the entire state. Despite what the new governor promised voters last fall, communities do not...
Daily, it becomes increasingly clear Gov. Mike Dunleavy's staff is the gang that can't count, talk or think straight. Most everything the administration says is misleading, half-true or false, a perfect 10 on the truthlessness scale. They seemingly can't do simple math, read the Alaska Constitution or perform factual analysis of a smoke-and-mirrors budget plan. Fortunately, majorities in both houses of the Legislature are showing leadership lacking in the executive. If not so tragic, the...
So disgusted To the Editor: I am so disgusted with the arrogant attitude to "balance the budget in one year" going on. We have all worked for years together to make Alaska a better place for our families. Yes, we have all worked together and no one expected to not pay taxes. We have not worked for PF Dividend, other than to live in Alaska (believe me, that is abused too) I firmly believe we need to reintroduce Income Tax and have "Skin In The Game" as the saying goes. Many of us campaigned to...
In last week’s police report Jasmine Jones was shown as being arrested on March 14 at 4:01 p.m. on a charge of DUI. The arrest report provided to us by the Petersburg Police Department showed a March arrest date, a new booking number and new arrest number that differed from the arrest report given on Feb. 23. The Pilot printed the arrest information as a second arrest. When contacted by Jones this week this newspaper was accused of printing the second March arrest maliciously. We explained to Jones that the March incident was indeed a part o...
Many of the strongest and best memories from my childhood growing up in Juneau revolve around riding Alaska's ferries to swim meets to communities like Petersburg, Sitka, and Ketchikan. And later, as an adult, I have traveled across Southeast on ferries dozens of times for family trips, to deliver orthopedic clinics and surgery to remote communities, for hunting, and for basketball games. Those trips opened my eyes to the astounding beauty and breadth of our state, and they introduced me to...
Despite numerous meetings, public discussions and staff explanations the new development code and zoning map seem to have caught area residents and land owners by surprise. Dave Kensinger says it best, “People weren’t paying attention to this process,” which was two years in the making. Given the long-term ramifications of zoning, it’s important to get it right. It will be decades before any future large scale zoning proposals are taken under consideration, so it’s important that citizens understand exactly how their property is zoned and...
Get rid of the frills To the Editor: It’s nice that the people of town are willing to give more of their PFD to bail out the government's deficit. In the last 2 years, we’ve been deprived of over one-half of our PFD. Has that balanced the budget? No. The new Governor wants to do it in one clean sweep? Nope. It will take some years to rebalance the budget. What I want to see is the government itself to cut spending. Here’s a list; 1. All state employees take a 10% cut on gross income, 2. Stop limousine service, 3. 20% cut in per diem and expen...
