Sorted by date Results 1001 - 1025 of 1172
District ranger Dave Zimmerman has taken a position at the forest service regional offices in Juneau working in forest management after serving two and half years in Petersburg. While the United States Forest Serves goes through a competitive hiring process for a new district ranger, Ted Sandhofer is acting district ranger in Petersburg, according to forest service affairs and partnerships officer Paul Robbins, Jr. Zimmerman is the region ten forest product group leader in Juneau, which is a lateral move within the forest service. The position...
In Metlakatla, the boys varsity basketball team played two conference games on Friday and Saturday, followed by a regular season game in Ketchikan on Monday. The varsity team lost both games in Metlakatla 48-53 and 33-42. The junior varsity team also played in Metlakatla , and although they lost their game on Friday 17-30, they won on Saturday 15-10. Petersburg varsity team’s two losses will affect their seeding position in the regional tournament in March since both games were conference games and directly affect regional seeding positions. F...
On Dec. 11, the Petersburg school board renewed Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter's contract for another three years beginning July 1, 2019 and ending June 30, 2020. "I think she has provided some really great leadership as she has grown into this role," said school board president Mara Lutomski. The 260-day contract includes 40 days off. During fiscal year 2020, or the first year of the contract, Kludt-Painter will be paid $130,000. Her salary increases to $135,000 in the second year and...
The Salvation Army will be distributing approximately 65 Christmas food boxes to families and individuals that signed up to receive one on Friday from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M. Each box will have enough food for a Christmas dinner and include a turkey. In November, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts went door-to-door collecting non-perishable food items that were used in Thanksgiving food boxes and this year’s Christmas food boxes. Hammer & Wikan Grocery Store and Petersburg-Wrangell Insurance held their third annual food drive to help fill the Christmas food...
At the wrestling state tournament in Anchorage over the weekend, Petersburg's Ruby Massin won the girls state championship in the 125-pound weight class, which marks the first state championship in wrestling for Petersburg in eight years and the first won in the girls tournament. Massin won all four of her matches by pin. The first three matches were won within the first round. In the final match, she was losing 0-9 to Wasilla's Kristina Gerasimyuk by the end of the first round. She was able to...
Mayor Mark Jensen proclaimed borough employees will receive a half day holiday on Christmas Eve. “It’s been a tradition to give the employees a half day off on Christmas Eve,” said Jensen at an assembly meeting on Nov. 19 when he made the proclamation. During the first half of the day, borough employees continue work like every other day. It costs the borough approximately $10,000 to continue paying borough employees through the second half of the day that they take off. Although there is no borough wide Christmas party, individual depar...
The theme for the women's invitational art show at the Clausen Memorial Museum on Friday was "Shift", which offers the 13 women artists the opportunity to interpret the theme in their own way. "I think it's just a nice way to support women artists and highlight what they're doing in their individual practice and how they're growing," said Cindi Lagoudakis, one of the event's organizers. Though the event has been hosted irregularly for over ten years, Lagoudakis said she wants to host the event...
The Petersburg High School girls wrestling team came in third place and the boys team came in fifth place for the Division II schools at the regional tournament in Juneau this past weekend, with four wrestlers placing first in their weight classes. "We wrestled really well," said Head Coach Daniel Van Swearingen. "The kids wrestled tough." Jolyn Toyomura placed first in the 119 weight class scoring the team 20 points. She had been injured most of the season and was cleared last week to go to...
Last night, the Sons of Norway hosted their 44th annual pickled herring and smoked seafood contest. About 175 guests turned out to sample the 24 dishes submitted into the pickled herring, pickled seafood, smoked salmon, smoked seafood and people's choice appetizer categories. Contestents dropped off their dishes at 5:30 P.M. and judging began at 6:30 P.M. The doors opened to the public at 7 P.M. Sig Mathisen won the smoked seafood category with his smoked eel. Kurt Kvernvik won the pickled...
The Mitkof Island Dance Troupe performed The Nutcracker last Friday, Saturday and Sunday to a full house at the middle school auditorium. There were a total of 180 dancers in this year's performance, up from December 2016 when The Nutcracker was last performed. This performance included new music and new parts that haven't been included in any performance of The Nutcracker anywhere in the world. "We're really starting to make it our own program," said Kathleen Boggs, a teacher and a...
At a Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Task Force meeting on Nov. 28, members from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game gave a detailed run down of the pink salmon seine harvest from the 2018 season showing a below average year for the Petersburg-Wrangell, Sitka and Ketchikan areas. The Petersburg-Wrangell purse seine areas include Districts 5, 6, 7 and 9. The 2018 harvest shows pink salmon coming in below the average annual harvest consistently throughout the four Districts. Between Kuiu Island...
On Monday, the borough assembly voted against sending a letter drafted by Mayor Mark Jensen to Viking Cruise Lines stating that Petersburg isn't ready for larger cruise ships to come to town. In the letter, Jensen said the town isn't ready to handle more than 250 tourists from ships in any given day, and he is concerned with an increase in traffic flow during the busy, summer months on Nordic Dr. He also writes that he is worried that larger cruise ships could lead to Petersburg becoming a touri...
Although Friday's earthquake in Anchorage was too far away to be felt on Mitkof Island, Petersburg resident John Havrilek and members of the Petersburg Indian Association were in Anchorage when the ground began to shake at about 8:30 A.M. "The shaking was so severe I could barely stand," said Havrilek. He was in Anchorage to visit his daughter Courtney who was hosting an after school conference for troubled youth at the Sheraton Hotel. He was in his room on Friday morning when the earthquake...
In a 4-3 vote, the borough assembly gave permission to the borough manager to begin land exchange negotiations with Petro 49, Inc. At 703 S. Nordic Dr., Petro 49, Inc. owns borough land that includes a small warehouse and covered loading dock and office. Petro 49, Inc. leases borough land at 100 Dock St. and 902 S. Nordic Dr. that includes a warehouse and gas station that is being subleased. Petro 49, Inc. wants to trade their owned land for the borough's land that they lease. "I've been...
On Monday, the borough assembly approved to postpone discussing and voting on the 2020 fiscal year capital projects list and budget policies until the Dec. 17 assembly meeting. Mayor Mark Jensen cited a busy agenda and a desire to have a separate meeting to discuss and vote on the budget. “There is no real urgent deadline for this,” said Jensen. “It would be nice to get it done before the end of December.” The submitted capital project document listed a combined total of over 50 capital project needs in the Harbor Department, Parks and Recreat...
The borough assembly appointed Bob Lynn as Petersburg’s voting member on the Southeast Alaska Power Agency board of directors and Robert Larson as the alternate member for 2019 at an assembly meeting on Monday. This will be Lynn’s second year serving as Petersburg voting member on the SEAPA board. In his letter of interest, Lynn said he wanted to continue working on a long-term plan to replace the high-cost structural portions of a grid that has reached the end of its life span, a project that began during his first year on the board. He sta...
On Friday, a camper parked at the 3.8 mile mark of Mitkof Highway was impounded after Wayne Collins, who was in possession of the camper, ignored several warnings from officers to move it. Multiple officers had seen him throwing garbage on the ground surrounding the camper, which he refused to clean up. Collins, 58, was cited for littering over five pounds under title 46, according to Officer Louis Waechter who was the responding officer along with Police Chief Jim Kerr. Collins didn't show up...
At a borough assembly meeting on Monday, Mayor Mark Jensen gave description of some of the information he heard at the Alaska Conference of Mayors (ACOFM) and the Alaska Municipal League annual conference in Anchorage from Nov.14 - 16. The Alaska Conference of Mayors (ACOFM) is the parent organization of the Alaska Municipal League (AML). Both organizations work together to establish a municipal consensus on state and federal issues that affect local governments in Alaska. At the ACOFM, Jensen was elected as the officer for municipalities with...
A joint Regional Planning Team (RPT) meeting was held on Thursday between the Northern Southeast Regional Planning Team (NSERPT) and the Southern Southeast Regional Planning Team (SSERPT) to discuss and vote on items regarding fisheries and salmon eggs in Southeast Alaska. “I want to give you a perspective on how unique and successful this enterprise is,” said an RPT representative at the meeting. One vote that hits close to Petersburg was the approval of Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, Inc.’s (NSRAA) permit alter...
The United States Forest Service will be reconstructing two miles of the Raven trail and decommissioning the last mile that leads to the Raven's Roost Cabin. A new Raven's Roost Cabin will be built at the end of the third mile of the trail, just before the decommissioned fourth mile. It will be a brand new design. The second and third mile of the current Raven trail will be reconstructed to address steep, muddy and slippery locations on the trail, according to a decision memo released by the...
The Salvation Army Thrift Store has been receiving donations after hours, but individuals have been taking the donations thinking they are free. “There’s people out here that think because it’s donated outside that it’s free stuff and they can go through it,” said Salvation Army Major Loni Upshaw. After the thrift store has closed for the evenings, people will leave donations outside the building to be processed the next day by staff. However, Upshaw said there are video recordings of people ba...
On Monday, a budget policy document will be presented to the borough assembly at their first meeting of the month for the 2020 fiscal year. The document is a general outline of the structure that the assembly wants borough department heads to create their budget around, according to borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht. It will be the first step towards creating next year’s budget and give a hint at what decisions the borough assembly is going to make to balancing the budget. “I hate to sound mysterious, but it’s kind of one of those thing...
Petersburg Medical Center approved $11,660 to Rock-N-Road Construction, Inc. at a board meeting last week to demolish an abandoned house on hospital property to free up more room for parking. "We're asking to clear the lot, to remove that house," said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter. "It's an abandoned building. It's a liability. It's an eye sore. I feel likes it's in the best interest of PMC to clear that lot. Also, we can have parking lot space if we clear that, which is a big need as the winter...
At a board meeting last week, the Petersburg Medical Center board of directors approved $20,000 to work with DOWL, a project management firm, on the facility project. DOWL will be looking at space requirements and the possible location for a new or remodeled PMC facility. They will also build off existing work and progress that has been made towards the project to avoid repeating work that has already been done. “They can have a product to us in about six weeks to really kind of determine those kinds of aspects,” said PMC CEO Phil Hof...
On Friday, the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Petersburg Ragnarök Rollers hosted the annual Brew and Stew Festival at the Sons of Norway. The festival, which has been an annual event for over 14 years, featured 21 different submissions by contestants who made soups, chilis, beers, wines and cordials. Participants in the festival sampled each submission and voted for their favorite in several categories: four categories for stew and three categories for brew. Each stew had a variety of to...
