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Katie Holmlund didn't quite believe it at first. "When they called about this 40 Under 40 thing, I was like, that seems like a trick," she said with a laugh, recalling a piece of junk mail she'd received months earlier promising similar honors. "I'm like, this isn't real." But it was. Holmlund, Petersburg Medical Center's Youth Programs Development and Advocacy Coordinator, has been named to the Alaska Journal of Commerce's 2026 Top Forty Under 40, a statewide honor recognizing professionals und...
Subscribers can use the link below to access this week's PDF Edition, or use the E-Editions button on the homepage for all of our current and archived PDFs. Click here to view this week's PDF. Thanks for subscribing!... Full story
The Alaska Board of Game has approved a change expanding where archers can hunt on Petersburg's Mitkof Island. The change opens bow hunting in an area that has been closed to harvesting big game, except for wolves, since 1962. It eliminates a closed area south of town around the Petersburg road system, which served as a quarter-mile corridor for decades, and adds it to a larger management area. The Board approved the change with a 4–3 vote at a late January meeting in Wrangell. Board Member J... Full story
Two softly humming glass cabinets, brightly lit from within, cause students and grown-ups to pause and peer on their way through the Petersburg High School commons. They are hydroponic gardens, complete with lights for growing greens and flowers year-round. This provides Petersburg students not only with quality food, but a nice splash of greenery and light in the commons, and a brilliant hands-on learning opportunity. Hydroponic gardens have been a big goal for Alex Helms, Farm to School...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to hire an Anchorage engineering firm to revive a water treatment plant upgrade that stalled more than a decade ago — replacing a rusting open-top tank that has outlived its useful life. The assembly approved spending up to $200,600 to retain GV Jones & Associates Inc. for design and technical services on the clearwell tank replacement project. The clearwell is a storage tank in the water treatment system, holding fully treated water before it enters the distribution system and a...
Ryan Gilkey arrived in Petersburg via the ferry on Super Bowl Sunday with his two dogs and about 1,700 emergency calls worth of experience under his belt. The 35-year-old says he has spent years methodically working his way toward Alaska for a job like this. Gilkey is Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department's new EMS Coordinator, a full-time administrative and training position that serves as the department's primary point of contact for all things emergency medical services. "The job is an admin...
During his 20 years as a member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, Petersburg commercial fisherman John Jensen relied on a lifetime of experience harvesting salmon, crab and other shellfish as he voted on statewide fishery regulations. But he couldn’t always weigh in with his wisdom, and a Kodiak legislator is looking to change that this year. When the Board of Fisheries held its 2018 Southeast regulatory meeting in Sitka, Jensen had to sit on the sidelines for about a third of the meeting. He couldn’t participate in the board's deliberations on...
Boat owners in Wrangell now have some new rules to follow if they plan on keeping inactive vessels tied up in any of the harbors. At the Feb. 10 borough assembly meeting, members unanimously passed a new law designed to crack down on inactive boats taking up moorage space in the harbors. The provisions, which went into effect immediately, come after years of talks between Harbormaster Steve Miller, the port commission and borough leaders. No one from the public offered any comments about the ord...
At the ballfield on last Thursday's stupendously stormy day, a pack of elementary schoolers in Kinder Skog did their best with wet numb fingers to pick up trash and put it in plastic bags billowing in the wind. All spring, Kinder Skog will be raising money by collecting trash as they spend time outside at their regular spots around town. Each skoggy is asking for personal sponsors, which can be individuals or businesses, with a suggested donation of $20 per bag. "We are asking sponsors to sponso...
Young growth Sitka spruce from Mitkof Island, milled at Alaska Timber and Truss and shipped via the Alaska Marine Highway, now forms the timber-frame structure of an outdoor learning shelter at Pacific High School in Sitka. The impressive posts and beams of the pavilion showcase what Southeast Alaska's 50 to 60-year-old second-growth trees can produce. The structure will serve as an outdoor classroom for the alternative high school's garden-based education program. Andrew Thoms, executive...
American Cruise Line's long-discussed cruise ship dock project in Petersburg took another step forward last week when the borough assembly approved the first reading of an ordinance rezoning a 22,500-square-foot parcel at the end of Dock Street to accommodate ACL's proposed facility. The ordinance, which must pass two additional readings before final adoption, changes the parcel from un-zoned to Industrial with Marine Industrial Overlay. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended the...
After their acclaimed but ominous rendition of "Dracula" last fall, Petersburg High School's drama program is ready to brighten up the vibe with a Victorian-era romantic farce, "The Matchmaker," opening Feb. 19 at Wright Auditorium. The Thornton Wilder comedy - best known as the basis for the Broadway musical "Hello Dolly" - features a large ensemble cast navigating love, loss and the search for joy in 1880s New York. Director Elsa Wintersteen said she deliberately chose the play to give...
Petersburg Medical Center's Home Health department is settling into its new space in the former office of Public Health and is working to expand community awareness about the services available to local residents. The move brings Home Health nursing staff into closer proximity with PMC's clinical departments, emergency room, and therapy services. "It's so nice to be on campus and just be able to have conversations face to face," said Ruby Shumway, PMC's Home Health and Community Based Services...
Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins - former state legislator who represented Petersburg and much of Southeast for a decade - is running for governor, he said Tuesday. Kreiss-Tomkins, frequently known as "JKT," served in the Alaska House of Representatives between 2013 and 2023. He becomes the 16th candidate and third Democrat to enter this year's gubernatorial election. Incumbent Gov. Mike Dunleavy is term-limited and unable to run for a third term. In Alaska, the top four vote-getters, regardless of... Full story
Alaska’s state ferry system is at risk of a partial or total shutdown this summer due to the failure of the federal government to issue a key annual grant. “Currently right now, we have a shortfall in our budget,” said Dom Pannone, director of program administration and management for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, to members of the Senate Finance Committee during a Monday morning hearing. Money from the Federal Transit Administration’s rural ferry program pays for almost half of the Alaska Marine Highway... Full story
WRANGELL - With just four weeks left before the deadline, Wrangell borough is pressing ahead to complete its application for a $50 million federal grant to help pay for several projects to boost the town's economic future. "We all know we've been economically depressed" since the timber industry collapsed more than a generation ago, Kate Thomas, the borough's economic development director, told the assembly at a work session on Jan. 27. The federal grant, through the Economic Development...
Young performers and seasoned community talent will share the stage in Wright Auditorium on Monday night when Petersburg Live returns as a fundraiser to support high school art students traveling to Haines this spring for Art Fest and drama students heading to Scotland this summer for Fringe Fest. The two-hour variety show opens its doors at 6 p.m., with performances running from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door, with a bake sale offering homemade treats throughout the evening. “There will be a wide range of performance, t...
Petersburg is one big step closer to receiving $8 million in federal funding to engineer the disinfection upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant. The funding was included in a spending bill that passed the Senate on Jan. 15 and the House a week earlier, according to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office. The bill now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature. The $8 million will fund a disinfectant study, engineering work and plant design for the facility, which discharges into Frederick Sound. The total project was initially estimated to cos...
As Petersburg residents are all too aware, it was exceptionally rainy last year. 133.90 inches of precipitation fell in 2025, making it the fourth-rainiest year since records began in 1924. Last year's total fell just short of the all-time record of 136.88 inches set in 1991, according to data from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Juneau. The second-wettest year on record was 2015 with 135.98 inches, followed by 1987 with 134.32 inches. "Based on the data we have, Petersburg was...
The Wild Fish Conservancy’s use of the Equal Access to Justice Act is alarming the small-boat fishermen who fought the conservancy’s lawsuit that sought to close the Southeast Alaska Chinook troll fishery to preserve migratory Chinook as prey for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that feed in waters near Puget Sound. WFC, a membership-based nonprofit with offices in Duvall, Washington, filed that lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Washington in 2020. For months in 2023, a District Cou...
On January 9, heavy snow melt and rain saturated outdoor electrical panels at the Petersburg Aquatic Center, causing a failure of the main electrical breaker. Borough staff and local contractors quickly responded and restored electricity within three days, averting what could have been a costly, extended closure. "It was [around 4:14 p.m.] on Friday, and Julie texted me that the power on just the Aquatic Center had gone out," Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne said. Payne immediately...
Petersburg utility customers will see a small surcharge on their January bills to cover the cost of running diesel generators during December’s extreme cold snap, following a 6-1 vote by the Borough Assembly at its Jan. 20 meeting. The diesel generation adjustment charge of 0.32 cents per kilowatt will apply to all electricity used in December and is expected to recover about $24,000 in unbudgeted expenses for fuel, lubricating oil and overtime, according to Utility Director Karl Hagerman. “The extreme cold temperatures experienced in Dec...
Meeting in Wrangell’s Nolan Center over the weekend, the seven-member Alaska Board of Game heard testimony from Southeast Alaska hunters and trappers, and made decisions on proposed changes to state regulations that govern the harvest of deer, bears, mountain goats, birds and other animals in Southeast Alaska. On Monday, the seven-member board voted 5-2 to reject Proposal 23, which would have increased the bag limit for non-Alaska residents hunting deer in the greater Sitka-area Game Management Unit 4, which includes Baranof, Admiralty and C...
An ordinance introduced at Tuesday’s Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting proposes a 10 percent increase in harbor moorage and use fees. Petersburg Harbormaster Glo Wollen told the assembly the increase is needed to keep harbor revenues in line with rising expenses. Wollen said the harbor department has absorbed cost increases for four years since the last fee adjustment in April 2022. Rising utility rates, material costs and employee compensation are driving the need for additional revenue, she said. The largest expense in the harbor budget i...
