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MVFS misconception To the Editor: I want to address a small point in Glo Wollen’s letter this last issue. Thanking Glo for her fine support of Proposition 1, which I agree, she referred to a popular misconception as she described our quality of life in Petersburg. Many citizens use the term “Meals on Wheels” when they refer to Petersburg’s Senior dining program. The Mt. View Food Service is not an affiliate of Meals on Wheels. We are an organization in Petersburg which is dedicated to a senior group dining experience. If eligible consume...
Fair Share To the Editor: 574 seniors have been given tax free cards, 89 of them get some form of assistance. That leaves almost 500 seniors that don’t really need a hand out. I don’t understand why people that have huge homes, million dollar homes, multiple homes feel they deserve not to be taxed just because they are 65 or more. To me that is the same is saying since I’m 65 or older I don’t have any pride in my community and I shouldn’t have to pay my fair share. Show you still do have pride and support your community. Pay your fair shar...
SB 134 becomes law To the Editor: SB 134 becomes law this week. This law will allow a victim of rape crimes the right to petition the courts from allowing the perpetrator the ability to seek custody of a child conceived illegally. The legislature enacted this law in response to a situation that originated here in Petersburg almost nine years ago. Nearly all states and the Federal Government now have laws that prohibit or limit the rights of sex offenders from being awarded custody against the wishes of the victimized parent. Two months ago in...
Clarification To the Editor: Thank you to the Petersburg Pilot for the coverage of the 1st annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Walk/Run. I would like to clarify that while my granddaughter Amalia was correctly identified as Alaska Native, I am not. I am however a proud member of the Seetka Kwann Dance group, founded in 1990 and led by Jeanette Ness. Many thanks to SEARHC, WAVE, PIA and Petersburg Parks and Rec for coordinating this event and to all who participated. Karin McCullough Senior exemption thorny issue To the Editor: The...
Vote yes To the Editor: Push is coming to shove at the borough budget due to declining revenues. Management is having to make budget cuts. Property taxes and sales taxes are the largest two sources of revenue that pay for schools, police, fire protection, library and museum, even part of Mt. View Manor food service and KFSK. Now we have almost 600 senior sales tax exemption cards in our population of just 3,000. Sales tax revenue is consequently less. This October’s ballot proposition changes the sales tax program to give sales tax rebates t...
Public responsibility To the Editor: I wish and hope that people would be responsible but I have not found that to generally be the case. I am promoting the banning of plastic bags or at least charging people a $.25 tax for each because I know people sometimes need to be incentivized/ encouraged to be responsible. My family comes from PA/ Cleveland. Both my grandfathers, coal miners, were dead before they were 50 thanks to clean coal. Living in Cleveland I got to watch our local river catch on fire, thanks to the personal responsibility of...
Personal responsibility is the solution To the Editor: It’s not about the bag. I was dismayed to hear that Petersburg is following in the steps of too many other cities by considering a prohibition on the use of the common plastic grocery bag and will instead “encourage” the use of reusable shopping bags (typically made of plastic). Let’s think about it with a few examples. Plastic grocery bags are pure genius as they indeed can be used over and over (think recycling). How about keeping feet dry in wet boots? On commercial fishing boats,...
Senior Benefits To the Editor: Remember the old Alaska Longevity Bonus Program of 1972? It ran into trouble with fairness due to residency requirements. Seniors who had lived here a long time got $250 per month. It has morphed into the Alaska Senior Benefits Program now based on need for low or moderate income Alaskans. Eligibility is based on income not on assets. When the sales tax refund takes effect seniors who qualify for this program will also qualify for the sales tax refund checks from...
Senior sales tax debate To the Editor: My question is what about all of those seniors who live on their SS and maybe a small retirement and do not receive any type of assistance? For those who are recently retired it may not be a hardship now but in 10 years it certainly may be when the prices continue to climb when you are on a fixed income. Hopefully I will still be able to pay for my home and essentials, but wonder what the quality of my life here will be like. Will I still want to stay with limited income and services being cut? I do not...
Keep senior sales tax exemption To the Editor: The wonderful thing about our community tradition of extending a senior tax exemption is that any senior who does not want to use it can choose not to. I will be voting against the Tax Rebate for Qualified Senior Citizens on October 2nd, an ordinance to repeal the senior tax exemption. Using a tax exemption should not be equated with not having pride, not doing your share and not carrying your own weight. Imagine facilities like our Clinic, the...
Hunting and fishing our way of life To the Editor: In regards to the letter from Lynn Escola. People keep moving here and expect everything to change to their way, but if we did then we would end up being in the cesspool like California. This is our state and our world, if you came to join our world then you must have loved it and the reason you loved it is because we are who we are and that is because of the way we were raised. We are not people who will change for you or anyone else, unless there is a good reason to do so. Hunting and...
This newspaper is blessed to have the opportunity to publish dozens of wildlife photos each year. For balance, some animals are featured alive, and some are dead. This is Alaska, right? Many Petersburg families rarely shop the meat counters at local grocery stores. They live largely subsistence lifestyles and consume salmon, black cod, halibut, crab, clams, bear, moose, venison, ducks and sometimes elk. Before you eat it, you have to kill it. We especially appreciate the generosity of many hunters and fishers who share their take with their...
Dead bear pornogrphy To the Editor: The Pilot needs to stop running photos of bear kills. Recent issues of the Pilot have included photos of local hunters gloating over their bear kills. These photos are distasteful and of questionable newsworthiness. Not everyone in town wants to see the photographic evidence of someone else’s bloodlust. Even in Alaska, values are changing. The photos of the two Kerr children and their kills are particularly disturbing. Kaleb and Nathan Kerr are apparently the young children of our new police chief, James Kerr...
In response to my annual performance appraisal, I would like to offer some commentary. First, thank you to the Assembly, the Department Heads and the Community for your ongoing faith in my ability to help the Petersburg Borough. Your support is what makes this all work. While I agree with my appraisal for the most part, I do feel some changes to the process and some commentary by me is appropriate. The current process does not allow me to see individual input from specific Assembly members. This means I only see the average scores, and...
Look for people who will listen To the Editor: I certainly agree with Merrily Jones and her letter a couple of weeks ago but I don’t think she was forceful enough. I am writing this letter reluctantly, since I or my family, along with many other “seniors”are not looking for a “thank you” but are trying to say “thank you” to the community with our attempts to help when and where we can. I have spoken to and visited with a few seniors and they do contribute, but do not want recognition so won’t allow me to print any names or contributions,...
Thank You To the Editor: Thank you to my harbor heroes and EMTs for getting me back on dry land. You know who you are. Carroll Nilsen...
I’ve helped pay To the Editor: This is in response to last week’s article on a proposed revision (read that repeal) of the senior tax exemption plan. I found the arguments given for the proposal a bit specious. The current plan is burdensome to the local merchants, I agree. To the borough staff? No. They’re paid for it, it’s part of their job, and according to the borough finance office, the borough will recoup more than enough to make up for that cost by the burden placed on senior residents who are paying for it (which is still less than th...
Freedom is not free To the Editor: Memorial Day is another holiday to have cookouts and play. We may even put out the flag of our country. I do hope we take time to reflect about the sacrifice both men and women have given to the freedom and security of our country. Let us also not forget the sacrifice of family and friends whose loss of loved ones they have had to endure. We have a lot to be thankful for and I hope we do not take what we have for granted. Freedom is not free. Steve Murphy Wrangell, Alaska Successful shrimp dinner To the...
Seek truth To the Editor: In 2014 a nationwide study was published by 2 social scientists. They determined Alaska to be the most corrupt state in the union on the basis of convictions of public officials per capita. The corruption was all about money, in some cases, surprisingly small amounts achieved political results. So one can easily imagine the effect that 7 figure amounts have on public policy. Also, in 2014, Sen. Lisa Murkowski was recorded on NPR holding a chair over her head while screaming “I am the chairrr…maaan!” She had every...
Little time to waste To the Editor: One of our most familiar adages has now been updated. It now reads, “There is nothing certain in life except death, taxes, and Global Climate Change.” It is interesting that a little town, one of several dozen along Alaska’s coastline, founded on the ocean’s bounty and dependent on the ocean ecosystem for its prosperity, makes nary a peep in defense of healthy ocean conditions. Neither does it ask or press our Federal Representatives for any positive policies or actions that even begin to mitigate the det...
Sea otter creating imbalance To the Editor: The reintroduction of the sea otter has created an imbalance of human resources and sea life. A much larger impact is looming: Before the sea otters reintroduction to Southeast Alaska’s Archipelago, fishermen fished all types of fish and crustaceans but find themselves now regulated nearly out of business while the reintroduced sea otters continue to ravage the shallow bottoms of all estuaries of Southeast. I can assure that within the next ten years, without proper regulation and control of this pred...
We are ecstatic that the U.S. Coast Guard will operate another cutter out of Petersburg after the Anacapa is taken out of service. True, it’s a smaller vessel than the Anacapa, with a smaller crew, but we’ll take it. The Coast Guard’s Petersburg operations make a huge impact on our economy. The payroll alone is significant. Then start adding in lease payments to the borough for the mooring facilities, housing for families, supplies and goods — often purchased locally, fuel purchases and all manner of repairs and the sum starts to become...
I’ll keep this brief since a reporter shouldn’t be near an op-ed page. I wrote a few stories for the Pilot over an 11-month period and now I’m leaving, back to my home state, Michigan, where I will be editor of a newspaper. My departure is not because I don’t like the Pilot or the town. This newspaper is full of people with character and grit and love. Petersburg is lucky to have it. I’d like to stay, but this opportunity presented itself. Thank you to those who read the newspaper. You fight the good fight just by glancing at it. Also, to...
Great emergency services team To the Editor: Years ago I was a member of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department. I remember some big fires downtown where everyone in the department was on the fireline for days. Here the community jumped out to help move hoses when asked and then stepped back from the scene until their help was asked for again. (The new police chief from down south was shocked that there was no need for crowd control.) I remember stopping at the fire hall during those events to change out of my soaked bunker gear into...
To your good health To the Editor: April 14th is the Petersburg Health Fair. The medical technologists performed testing on close to 600 people this year. Thank you to the laboratory personnel who more than quadrupled their workload over the past month. Thank you to the many hospital and volunteer hands involved as well, from scheduling lab tests, managing payment records, reviewing results, calling people back about abnormal results and handling all the paperwork that is inevitably created. Without everyone’s dedication and hard work, this e...
