Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 839
The director of the state agency that manages the food stamp program for tens of thousands of Alaskans says the staff is again overwhelmed with work, delaying benefits for thousands of households by months. That’s months without the food assistance they need and that most are entitled to receive — all because the state has failed at its job for more than a year. That’s months relying on friends, family, food banks, or just going without adequate nutrition. It’s not because they did anything wrong. It’s that the state failed to maintain...
Please let all the children have a Christmas To the Editor: I’m writing this letter because The Salvation Army cut-off age is 13 years old for Christmas presents. I can’t believe they have it that way – there are a lot of families struggling that have 14 to 18 year-olds who I think deserve a Christmas too. This isn’t fair and the Salvation Army never did this before. This isn’t right. I’m asking the Salvation Army to rethink this decision. Please let all the children have a Christmas. Sincerely, Tonia Grant...
Clear-cut logging To the Editor: I thank Mike Schwartz for his thoughtful letter to the Editor regarding the Landless Native bill in last week’s Pilot. The point regarding the traditional Native philosophy of Native stewardship of the land was both beautiful and sad at the same time. Beautiful to read how the timeless principle of reverential respect for Mother Earth guided the stewardship decisions of the Native peoples on the lands of S.E.Alaska since time immemorial. Sad to think how that beautiful philosophy from the past played out in t...
To Whom It May Concern To the Editor: I am 82 years old now. My great-grandchildren are seventh generation of family residents growing up in Petersburg. Kay and I were adopted and given Tlingit names by elder Pete Marten, Senior, fifty years ago, into a Tlingit society that has been scientifically and indisputably proven to exist in S.E. Alaska for over 10,000 years and literally hundreds of generations. Thirty years ago, Spencer Israelson, who spent his youth at Point Agassiz, took me to the mainland and showed me many petroglyphs that he and...
Clear Answers to our Petersburg Medical Center, Part 1 To the Editor: Like many in Petersburg, I didn’t understand specifically why we needed a new facility and how it would be paid for. I addressed the facility problems in the previous two letters. Apparently the decision to build a new facility was made over twelve years ago. Our CEO, Phil Hofstetter, was hired almost six years ago to rebuild by the hospital board. The 2015 architectural report (8 years old) cites $43 million to repair the systems. This is not possible with patients there a...
Thank you To the Editor: Thank you to Hammer & Wikan for re-establishing the footpath from the grocery store to the post office. Right now, the path is better than it ever was. Good job!, Sam Bunge Change the ferry LeConte’s name To the Editor: Do you believe in equality? Do you believe in human rights? Please sign the petition in the link below asking the Alaska Marine Highway System to change the name of the ferry LeConte. Joseph Leconte was a slave owning Georgian who believed in racial superiority and never once stepped foot in the state of...
Local support makes VSC auction a huge success To the Editor: Viking Swim Club would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our wonderful community for their overwhelming support of the Viking Swim Club Auction. The success of this event would not have been possible without the incredible generosity and dedication of our friends and neighbors. First and foremost, we want to thank the many donors who contributed items, services, and experiences to our auction. Their willingness to give back to the community is truly inspiring. The local and...
Unconscionable. Indefensible. There are many words to describe the disrespect for the public and disregard for honest government by the actions of the governor’s office to block publication of a factual report on teacher salaries in Alaska. Even for the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, this is a low point in putting politics ahead of good government. And that’s saying a lot for an administration that has been criticized by the court for firing state employees who refused to pledge political loyalty to the governor. State government should...
What is wrong with the PMC buildings? To the Editor: Part 2 continued from last week. My understanding of the 2015, 50-page architectural report. I imagine some of these problems have been resolved in the past 8 years. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Mike Boggs and his team PMC is still operational and structurally sound. We are blessed to have all the PMC employees/staff who keep our hospital/clinic going. In fact, our LTC just received a statewide award for excellence. The biggest issue for staff and patients seems to be SPACE. There is no...
Alaska officials who say the stars are aligned for the long-dreamt, long-on-the-odds multibillion-dollar North Slope natural gas project are confusing shiny stars with black holes. Like the black hole the state already has poured close to a billion dollars into over the past two decades, thinking that international markets would like expensive Alaska gas better than lower-risk, less costly gas from anywhere else. But unlike black holes, where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing escapes, the Alaska gas line dream continues to survive...
What is wrong with the PMC buildings? To the Editor: After reviewing the 50-page 2015 architectural report and visiting with the current Petersburg Medical Center employees, I am sharing my understanding of this issue in two letters. The hospital consists of three separate constructions: the long-term care, built in 1959 is cement. The acute care building in 1983-84 is steel and wood. The clinic consists of 5 modular sections. They are wood and connected in 1994. The architectural design is amazing with the available space. Renovations include...
Jews in Israel and Palestinians in Gaza are embroiled in the deadliest fighting in decades, prompted by an organized assault by Hamas soldiers who murdered innocent people in Israel on Oct. 7, while also taking hostages. Israel has followed the Hamas raid with deadly retaliatory attacks on Gaza — military targets but also more innocent civilians caught in the war. I am losing hope for a lasting peace in the Middle East, even though I was always told it was possible and always wanted that to be true. I am Jewish — culturally, not rel...
Thanks Jeff! To the Editor: With the election over, I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Jeff Meucci for his many years of service to the community. I’ve known Jeff a long time, but really got to know him through his excellent marine biology tours on the Kestrel that he gave to my 5th grade class for many years. As a mayor and assembly member, I can think of no one who worked harder to understand complex problems and look at all sides of issues. He was relentless when asking questions – some found this off putting, but as a cit...
Negative stereotype To the Editor: In the spirit of free enterprise, Sig and Ambre Burrell are trying to address the demand for affordable housing in our community by developing a manufactured home neighborhood on their privately-owned land. Some people argue that Petersburg should not give up this beautiful open space; they also complain about ugliness and lack of cleanliness in mobile home parks and of prevalent crime in these neighborhoods. One individual believes that people who live in trailer homes neglect their pets and are outsiders,...
Do we really need a new hospital? To the Editor: When I first heard about the hospital project, like many of you, I had a lot of questions. Do we really need a new hospital? The clinic, which is the part I mainly visit, looks great. And, how in the world would we pay for an $85 million facility? Phil Hostetter and the hospital board informed me on both questions. First, they started with a study of the current hospital. The original hospital, where Long Term Care is located, dates to the 1950s and is failing rapidly due to poor plumbing and...
The night before my team and I were scheduled to fly from Juneau to Haines on Seaplanes with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, I did something I’ve never done before when traveling in Southeast. I wished for rain and wind. I secretly hoped our flights would be grounded so the secretary would get a real taste of transportation in our state, where we often have to pivot to Plans B and C to get where we’re going. As luck and weather would have it, my prayers were quickly answered when we got the updated forecast at 4:30 a.m...
When I was much younger, hallucinations were an affliction of college students who figured drug-assisted education was the answer to life — or at least worth a try. Not me (honest). I found it more entertaining to stay sober and watch everyone else act stupid, and then tell them the stories the next day and at reunions for years to come. I had figured that self-inflicted hallucinations were in the past, an unhealthy phase of life, much like eating four hot dogs, with fries, in one sitting. It was my favorite weekend meal with high school f...
In the middle school where I teach, it’s now commonplace to have two or three classes report to the gym each day where they play basketball, read books, or do nothing, because there is no substitute to cover for absent teachers. How can our schools improve outcomes like grades, test scores, and mental health if they can’t afford adequate staffing? The Legislature has a constitutional obligation to maintain a system of public schools. This year, the legislature approved a one-time $175 million increase in school funding. Our schools need a rel...
Thanks for the ice To the Editor: Not that I am a spokesperson, but on behalf of the sports and subsistence fishing fleet I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Coastal Cold Storage and Trident Seafoods for generously providing ice to the town to keep our bounty iced and as fresh as possible and keep our food and beverages cold. I would also like to thank the workers that come from far and wide for their hard work that keeps our industries and businesses running. As long as I’m getting mushy, I would also like to express my a...
Employers everywhere are finding it hard to recruit and retain employees. But it sure seems that the state of Alaska, under the disengaged leadership of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, is sinking to new lows of high vacancies. The empty desks and undone work are degrading public services and hurting Alaskans. The administration’s reactions have been to express concern, provide excuses, talk about doing better and, in some offices, shuffle around available personnel to plug the biggest holes. And the governor proclaimed May 10 as State Employee A...
A Man for All Seasons To the Editor: Mr. Paul Bowen was a man for all seasons: the fishing season, the election season, the basketball season, the hunting season, the climbing season, and along with all of these, the high school year. We knew him as our physical science and biology teacher in the 1960s at Petersburg High. His irrepressible optimism and powerful zest for the task at hand made us engage with the subject with uncommon attention. I remember going on a spring field trip to the beach that featured a surprise snowstorm. He led the...
Oil and water don’t mix. We learned that in high school. And we learned it again when water got into a heating fuel line. In Alaska, oil and salmon don’t mix either, unless the oil is brushed on the grill before cooking a fillet. However, oil and salmon are in the same boat — economically speaking in Alaska. They both respond to supply and demand. When global oil supplies can’t keep up with demand, the price of a barrel of crude climbs higher. A shortage — or even a fear, a hint or speculation of shortage — drives up prices for the commodity....
Early in the season, one of my deckhands started the joke, “Pay to Bay,” dreaming of people paying money to fish on a drift boat in Bristol Bay, like people pay to climb Mt. Everest. That joke came around to bite us. We had a breakdown during the peak of the run, then the day we got fishing again Trident posted the 50-cents/lb base price (before quality incentives amounting to another 30 cents or more). The processor we sell to, Silver Bay, seemed sure to follow Trident’s lead. I sent my deckhands home with checks for $5,000 each—not much fo... Full story
Let’s think long-term about the Petersburg emergency services To the Editor: Let’s think long-term about the Petersburg emergency services. Structure fires grow larger before PVFD can assemble enough trained firefighters to deal with the danger. Likewise, frequently the ambulance must wait to respond until a full crew of EMTs can assemble to answer the patient’s distress. These delays are absolutely not the fault of our volunteer fire and EMS department. The trained volunteers who do respond must work the emergencies short-staffed. Peter...
This week the Pilot bids a bittersweet farewell to our top-notch full-time news reporter Chris Basinger. We wish him well as he leaves on Sunday’s ferry, headed for his old Texas stomping grounds. Sometimes uprooting to Alaska, leaving one’s community of friends and family on the far side of the continent, just ain’t meant to last. We get it. We hope he thinks fondly of us when he isn’t too busy savoring a bucket of chick-fil-a with his dad and brother, cheering for their favorite teams in person finally, rather than on facetime too many ti...
