Week of April 23, 2026
Week of April 23, 2026
Petersburg's Borough Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a highly anticipated lease agreement with American Cruise Lines, a small cruise ship company that frequently stops in Petersburg. It's increasing its summer visits to town, and wants to build a cruise ship dock for its small passenger ships in Petersburg. The Borough will lease part of its tidelands at the end of Dock Street next to the U.S. Coast Guard Dock to the company, which will build a mooring float and gangway there to support... Full story
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The Keet Yaakw is the first Alaska Native-designed canoe to be launched out of Petersburg, at least since Petersburg was incorporated as a town in 1910. Petersburg Indian Association Tribal Council Vice President ShaaL'aanee Brandon Ware described the feeling of bringing the new canoe towards shore at Sandy Beach, where it was unveiled to the public. "Coming into the bay, I knew we were seeing the same thing our people have seen since time immemorial... when it was a seasonal fish camp for...
The Friends of Petersburg Libraries marked their 25th anniversary Tuesday with a celebration at the Petersburg Public Library that doubled as a community tribute to two figures who have shaped the library and the town's cultural life for decades: revered Petersburg historian Don Nelson and retiring library staff member Chris Weiss, who served the library for nearly 40 years. The event drew community members, library staff, borough officials and representatives from the Clausen Museum to share...
The U.S. Forest Service is bringing its Tongass National Forest Plan revision process to Petersburg this week, with an in-person community workshop scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Thursday, April 23, in the Borough Assembly Chambers. The event is part of a series of workshops running across 19 Southeast Alaska communities through early May — a rare opportunity for the public to provide direct input before the agency completes a draft plan. Revision coordinator Erin Mathews described it as “a bonus” engagement round not typically built into the...
Dear Readers, it's a pleasure to announce that your local newspaper, the Petersburg Pilot has been named Alaska's Best Weekly Newspaper for 2025. The Pilot staff works hard to bring you a top notch local paper each week, and it is a much appreciated affirmation of the effort and all the community support that makes that effort possible. Whether you pick up a copy each week at one of the dozen business vendors around town, or are a subscriber, or are one of the local advertisers who, through...
Petersburg's new utility director, Steve Harbour took the podium at the March 16 borough assembly meeting to address what he recognized as a public information problem. "In the two years I've been at Power and Light, I've built up a lot of questions and heard a lot of misinformation," said Harbour, "Nobody's fault. I worked pretty close with Power and Light for years as an electrician, and I couldn't answer some of the stuff I'm going to talk about tonight." The 45-minute presentation that...
Petersburg police, fire and EMS personnel conducted a multi-agency active threat training exercise at Stedman Elementary School after school hours on Wednesday, April 15. The Petersburg Police Department issued a public service announcement ahead of the exercise alerting residents that emergency vehicles and personnel would be visible in and around the school and asking the public to avoid the immediate area. The drill was organized by Petersburg Police Sgt. Drew Ayriss and EMS Coordinator Ryan...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously last week to sell two borough-owned parcels to local developer Dave Ohmer for $61,800. Ohmer plans to build a duplex on each property, which are on Haugen Drive near the hospital WERC building. Ohmer has not signed the deeds yet, but he told KFSK he was happy the contract specifically outlined that the property would be used to build housing rentals. “I hope this is a bit of a template for them to do this with a lot more people around town, and try to get lots into private hands,” Ohmer... Full story
This past Saturday, Petersburg celebrated their 27th Beat the Odds race, a fundraiser that supports local cancer related programs such as cancer treatment level, equipment training and more for patients and families. So many families came out in support and either ran or walked their way, starting at Sandy Beach. "It continues to impact people all over town. Either a member of their family or themselves, or a good friend. People want to help," committee member Marlene Cushing said. The money...
In early April, Region V Music Fest took place in Ketchikan, bringing southeast Alaska music together in one spot for a few days. Petersburg, which brought 40 students to the music fest, had been working tirelessly on various forms of music for this event, full of different languages. "Our jazz band has been working on a few different tunes that are big band swing, a funk and a Latin piece," music teacher Chelsea Corrao said. "Choir, we did a lot of foreign language, we had a Spanish piece and...
The Mitkof Dance Troupe (MDT) brought the circus to town, with elephants, clowns, acrobats, feats of strength, magicians, fire dancers, lion tamers, and even circus animal cookies. 125 dancers from pre-K to graduating seniors performed to a packed auditorium Monday night and a line down the block on Tuesday. Signs of a successful program, despite the challenges that MDT faces to purchase the studio building. As for opening night, "It went really smooth," said Olivia Reid, MDT executive director...
1926 – There are no issues in the archive until May 19, 1926. Thank you for your patience. April 20, 1951 – One of the most disastrous fires to hit Petersburg in many years occurred early Wednesday when the interior of Ted Reynolds’ Harbor Bar and Liquor Store and of Winnie’s Cafe were gutted by fire. Heavy smoke damage was suffered by Helen’s Shop and there was slight smoke damage to the city office. The alarm was turned in at 5:25 a.m. by Mrs. J.L. MacKechnie who saw smoke drifting by her window in the Coliseum apartments,...
The musical call of sand hill cranes could be heard high above Petersburg all throughout the past week as the iconic birds migrate north to their nesting and breeding grounds in the wet tundras of Western...
A small herd of Sitka black-tailed deer strolls down main street in downtown Petersburg. Forage-stressed deer, low on body fat, grazing on ornamental shrubs in town has been an unfortunately common sight in recent months, as the prolonged winter snow on Mitkof Island restricted access to the local deer population's preferred winter sustenance of evergreen forbs and blueberry...
As of 2024 and according to Fox 10 Phoenix, the fastest growing high school sport in this country is girls wrestling. The number of participants surpassed 74,000 in 2024-25, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. This was a 15% increase with roughly 1,000 schools adding programs, a huge jump compared to only 11,498 girls a decade ago, according to NFHS. One of the biggest reasons for this recent growth is states sanctioning girls wrestling, allowing...
This past weekend, Petersburg's Cedar Helms, Conor Oppenheim and Maddie Dreisbach competed in the 2026 Senior Native Youth Olympic Games, in Anchorage. This meet saw Oppenheim set a new personal best for himself in the Two-Foot High Kick, kicking as high as 80 inches. "In your jump, there's kind of a space in front of your chest when you're standing up right and when you're trying to get your legs up, your chest crunches forward and it occupies that space and you don't want that because your...
Thank You from Petersburg Lutheran Church To the Editor: Petersburg Lutheran Church would like to thank our wonderful community for their generous support of our annual Basement, Bake, Soup, and Book Sale. Over 50 years ago, a group of women from our congregation came up with the idea for this event and it has grown beautifully over the years. Each year, many helping hands come together to organize, donate, and purchase the sale items. It’s a joyful way to recycle and reuse gently loved treasures and clothing while connecting with neighbors...
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