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Another view from my window To the Editor: On October 19, 2025, I watched carpenters work their hearts out placing the last few pieces of plywood and the entire waterproof barrier on the roof of the new Catholic Church. It’s steep. It’s raining. It’s slippery. The barrier rolls are heavy. It’s dangerous! Heavy rain was expected the next day! What happened? The team finished. They beat the heavy rain. Impressive work by Jessy West’s crew! Three cheers! Marj Oines...
Expressing our beliefs in a peaceful manner To the Editor: I participated in the No Kings Rally on Saturday, October 18th. There were over 140 participants peacefully assembled. The First Amendment guarantees our right to do so. I am a realist and understand not everyone agrees with me. I do have an expectation for our community members to refrain from using aggression to challenge anyone’s constitutional right. We can agree to disagree, however verbal attacks and aggressive behavior will not get us anywhere. Bottom line, we need to feel s...
Why we rallied To the Editor: As one of the organizers of the “No Kings” rally in Petersburg, I want to share some of the reasons why your friends and neighbors took time out of their lives to gather as part of the largest single day of peaceful protest in American history. When I spoke at the rally, I told the story of one of the more than 15 people known to have died in ICE detention. Do you know someone who’s had a DUI? Do they deserve to die? Ismael Ayala-Uribe, who was 4 when he came to the United States and 39 when he died, was in a cel...
Helping out neighbors to the north To the Editor: If anyone is interested in financially helping our neighbors and friends who were victims of Typhoon Halong in Western Alaska, here’s some information. The Alaska Community Foundation has a relief fund set up named: WESTERN ALASKA DISASTER 2025 RELIEF FUND. Also you can see and hear great audio and visual coverage at KYUK Bethel Public Radio. Once again the Alaska public radio network keeps us informed of happenings throughout our state. Thank you to all who gave and continue to give to KFSK P...
5G cell tower construction To the Editor: A week ago I awoke to the shocking news that Tlingit and Haida corporation is placing what will be a 5G cell tower 200 feet from my house on the Flower Farm property on Rory Road here in Petersburg, Alaska. I learned about radiation long ago, and am still in a state of fight or flight. Tlingit and Haida have a $50 million contract to put up 5G cell towers wherever they can buy a place to put one or get permission to erect one. I called Chris Cropley, Tlingit and Haida’s man in charge of placing $50 m...
No Kings is a Love-America day To the Editor: This Saturday, Alaska Day, millions across this nation are gathering for peaceful protests against the Trump administration’s authoritarian takeover of our government. Last Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson described this coming Saturday’s No Kings rally as the “Hate-America” rally that would draw the “antifa people.” They are so worried that We the People will speak truth and show power through peace. Antifa is short for Anti-Fascism. It is not an organization or terrorist group. Antifa is about refus...
The federal government shutdown, driven by politics and personalities and posturing, is starting to cause a real mess. Particularly for travelers, where a shortage of air traffic controllers has led to delays and cancellations at several airports around the country. Maybe the bickering blame game will subside long enough this week to restore whatever order is salvageable in Washington, D.C., but it depends on congressional Democrats and Republicans and President Donald Trump putting the public ahead of their own elections grandstanding. Until t...
Homer is a fishing and tourism town of about 6,000 people at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s more politically diverse than most cities in Alaska, with a strong liberal side, an equally strong conservative side, and some who just want to tend their gardens, smoke their fish, hope the Safeway is stocked and that they have regular air service to Anchorage. Unfortunately, Homer last week was dumped and lumped into the nationwide fight over freedom of the press, waged by conservatives who don’t like or trust or respect the news med...
On Friday, September 26, 2025, Petersburg was hit by a storm that carried high winds and several inches of rain. While this was a bad storm and caused a fair amount of damage, Petersburg has witnessed storms in the past that were more fierce and caused much more damage. Thankfully, as far as I know, nobody was hurt in this last storm. The storm I want to talk about is Petersburg’s political storm. When did our beautiful little town turn so dark and angry? I was driving around the Sandy Beach loop road on Thursday, September 25, and I saw a v...
Thank you Petersburg! I’ve appreciated your support as mayor, first when we were a City and now as a Borough. It’s been an honor to serve you these last 18 years. During that time we pursued and received over $100,000,000 for local improvements and service expansions through State and Federal funding. This allowed us to build some much-needed infrastructure and lay the foundation for more. Among these are the North Harbor, the Drive-Down Dock, Middle Harbor, the Fire Hall, Police Station and Administration Building, Library, Mountain View Man...
I appreciated Eric Rosvold’s LTE last week outlining all the reasons we must vote YES on Proposition 1. I too, a born and raised Petersburg resident working and raising my children in this wonderful community, realize the time has come to limit the senior sales tax exemption to those that truly need it. I took issue with the second letter in last week’s edition. Ms. Escola must have forgotten or is unaware that her suggestion of sunsetting the senior sales tax has already come before the voters as recently as 2014 and failed, as did lim...
In a recent KFSK interview, Donna Marsh, a candidate for reelection to the borough assembly, made the unprompted statement that neither she nor her husband had ever been a government employee. She said it smugly, as though it were a good thing. Ms. Marsh wears on her sleeve her contempt for government employees. These are the people who carry out the daily business of the government that she wants to continue leading. Antigovernment sentiment is misplaced when directed toward the people who don’t control what government does but merely e...
The senator is a hard worker who does her homework. She looks for compromises, albeit frustrating both sides of the political aisle who would prefer she not compromise on what they don’t like. She has been effective at winning support in Congress for a long list of Alaska projects and programs over her more than 22 years in the U.S. Senate. But no matter how much Sen. Lisa Murkowski has succeeded in the past, that list looks small when measured against the fights she is now waging in Washington, D.C. The senator is trying to convince her c...
To the Editor: I would be in favor of the ballot proposition to limit the current sales tax exemption to those who meet a qualification standard. Being a third-generation resident of Petersburg, with family members occupying both the 4th and 5th generation positions, I am committed to seeing Petersburg prosper. I remember discussions, now 40 years back, of trying to find ways to keep our senior citizens living in Petersburg as they aged. This exemption was one, and the exemption regarding personal property taxes another. It is time for these...
I’ve been thinking, maybe I am wrong — about a lot of things. I’ve certainly been wrong about many things in life, so perhaps I should broaden my outlook and accept that I don’t have to be so well informed about everything. Maybe knowing less would lead to a happier life. Maybe many people, myself included, would have fewer things to worry about the less we know. I always thought that having more information was a good thing. Knowing the data helped figure out whether there was a problem and how bad it was. Knowing the facts made for better...
To the Editor: I urge you to vote no on Proposition 1. A yes vote on Proposition 1 will eliminate the senior sales tax exemption for all but the lowest income seniors, currently 61 people. If approved, Proposition 1 will provide the borough with an additional $350,000 to $400,000 in revenue per year. This money will come out of the pockets of the town’s senior citizens who are currently exempt from the sales tax. They can expect to pay, on average, $70 more per month for life’s basic needs (this figure was presented in a recent borough dis...
To the Editor: The mayor is the outward-facing role for our community and Bob Lynn’s 34-years of government experience, from the local to the national level, is exactly what we need to work with the state, federal government and other outside organizations to maximize opportunities for Petersburg. Our community faces a variety of challenges: funding the much-needed new facility for the hospital and long-term care, affordable housing, fisheries issues, economic development and tourism – just to name a few. Bob Lynn has a proven track record of...
Heartfelt Appreciation for Your Courage and Dedication To the Editor: We are writing to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for all the people that showed presence, courage, professionalism, and quick response during the recent active shooter lockdown at the Children’s Center. Your unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the children and each other was nothing short of extraordinary. In the face of an incredibly distressing situation, you remained calm and provided reassurance to the staff and children in our care. Y...
Our communities in this vast state are connected by the stories we share. Whether through the radio airwaves or the pages of a local newspaper, journalism helps us understand one another and navigate day-to-day life in Alaska. But journalism in all forms is under threat and it’s a threat we can’t afford to ignore. The Alaska News Coalition is a nonprofit formed by a volunteer board of current and former journalists to protect the economic sustainability of our state’s newsrooms and to support local news organizations with the financial, techn...
To the Editor: As I recall, about 60% of Petersburg residents voted for Trump and Begich in the last election. Thanks to those two and the GOP mega bill dozens, if not many more, local residents may lose access to their current healthcare benefits as a result of the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. Local Forest Service employees were laid off, then some re-hired. Similar chaos was widespread in other agencies. It was only due to timely intervention by Senator Murkowski that Federal Fishing Permits were issued as scheduled for the opening day of...
Why I decided to run for Mayor To the Editor: I have given a lot of thought about whether I should run for Mayor. I have asked my wife and many friends and acquaintances that question. It has not been an easy decision. I believe strongly in our community and have invested lots of time to help make it a community that will grow and prosper during these times of great change. I believe we will see a shift of costs from both the State and Federal governments to the local level. We will need to be more self-reliant on local issues like housing,...
In last week’s edition of the Pilot, the byline was missing from the guest editorial. That was a production error during the page layout. The writer of that opinion piece was Larry Persily. Thank you to the several people who were alarmed by the publication of an unsigned editorial. That was an unintentional omission and the Pilot apologizes for the production mistake. A few weeks earlier there was another opinion-signing error, this time it was an error of editorial judgment. A letter was signed by “Mitzi the Bear.” Thank you to the folks...
History Echoes To the Editor: August 23rd is observed in many European countries as a day of remembrance for one of the most cynical political actions in Western history and is recognized by many, including our Canadian neighbors, as Black Ribbon Day. This Saturday marks the 86th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Stalinist Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi Germany. A secret portion of this mutual non-aggression treaty was an agreement between the two powers to partition the independent countries that lay between them. The G...
Help Wanted: Unique opportunity to lead the largest state in the country, with more miles of coastline, taller mountains, more fish and game, more dreams and less reality than those other 49 pipsqueaks. Dynamic, convincing decision maker with strong personality needed to lead the second youngest state in the nation into the future, albeit without enough money to meet all its needs. It’s a fixer-upper job; the current employee has let a lot of things go bad, never learned to get along with co-workers, and hasn’t been working all that hard. Whi...
Drop The Charges To the Editor: I applaud and thank Mr. Hankins for his initiative and action in disposing of the bear on Rambler St. That particular bear was an ongoing problem and danger to our neighborhood. It was continually using our fence line as a path. Numerous calls and police response failed to deter it. State law must be changed to include the rights of a community to dispatch bears within their jurisdiction when found to have the real potential to cause harm. Our trampoline is within a couple of feet of that bear’s pathway. My k...
