Sorted by date Results 1101 - 1125 of 1172
On Thursday, a cruise ship docked in Petersburg that sent several passengers to the ER. The first patient was tested positive for influenza. Petersburg Medical Center was waiting until the end of September or Oct. 1 to start immunizing staff members. "On Thursday, we decided to do it that afternoon," said director of nursing Jennifer Bryner at a Petersburg Medical Center board meeting on Wednesday. About 75 staff members were vaccinated on Thursday, and there are only a few left who needed to...
United States Postal Service officials estimate the Petersburg Post Office will reopen this Friday, Sept. 20. Officials had previously expected the post office to resume normal retail and PO box operations by this past weekend. The Petersburg Post Office has now been closed since late Thurs., Sept. 13 after a package leaked mercury inside the facility, according to a statement issued by the United States Postal Service. "Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily suspending operations...
Community and economic development director Liz Cabrera gave the borough assembly a presentation on the draft for a development code revision at an assembly meeting on Monday. “A lot of the boundaries that we currently have in our zoning, where residential areas are, where commercial areas are, industrial, those really do not change,” said Cabrera on Monday. “The fundamental changes are really going to be in the code.” The code changes will improve downtown zoning and strengthen downtown as a destination for residents and visitors, expand...
Last week at Southeast Conference, Petersburg’s nomination for the board of directors seat, assembly member Jeff Meucci, wasn’t elected to the seat. Petersburg’s nomination for the board of directors seat was a contentious issue in the borough assembly as both Mayor Mark Jensen and Meucci sought the nomination. “I think the assembly needs to address some of the issues regarding that controversy,” said Meucci at a borough assembly meeting on Monday. “Hopefully, we’ll do that when the mayor gets back.” Jensen is Petersburg’s representative to...
This Saturday, the Petersburg High School cross country team will be competing in Juneau at the Regional championships. “It’s just been a great group to work with all year and now we’ll see if the training has paid off,” said head coach Tommy Thompson. Only seven boys and seven girls who were selected for their times, eligibility and involvement in the program this season will be competing at Regionals this weekend, said Thompson. On the boys team, Tolin Eddy, Brennan Skeek, Chase Lister, Kole Sperl, Koren Sperl, Uriah Lucas and Julian Cumps w...
The Petersburg High School swim team had their second meet of the season in Sitka on Friday and Saturday. “Our fitness levels were good because the end of our races were good, but the speed wasn’t quite there. So we’re going to work on that,” said head coach Andy Carlisle. On Friday, in the boys 200 yard medley relay, Sean Spigelmyre, Chase Lockhart, Rylan Wallace and Peter Kowalski came in fourth place. Wallace, Caleb Pfundt, Spieglemyer and Kowalski came in third place in the boys 200 yard freestyle relay. Kowalski came in fourth in the boy...
In their first meet of the season, the Mitkof Middle School cross country team saw their girls team come in first place and boys team in second behind Schoenbar Middle School on Saturday. "Both teams did great," said Coach Joe Viechnicki. "I'm really proud of them. They did an awesome job." Seventh graders Kinley Lister and Bryana Ratliff were the top girls runners for Petersburg coming in at second and third place respectively. Lister set a new record for the Petersburg team at their home meet...
The Petersburg Post Office reopened today at 11 A.M. after closing its facility last week because of a mercury spill, according to a press release from the United States Postal Service. Environmental contractors and regulators have evaluated the facility after cleaning it and have deemed it safe to reopen. "The Postal Service apologizes for the inconvenience and appreciates its customers' patience," said the release.... Full story
Petersburg School District has received its scores for the Performance Evaluation For Alaska's Schools, which shows students have improved in English language arts and math in the two year period the test has been given. "It is one test, one time a year," said Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter at a school board meeting on Tuesday. "It provides a piece of information about a child, but it is a piece." The PEAKS assessment is given to students between 3rd and 9th grade. In the two years that it has been given to PSD students, they have had a...
The large amount of jellyfish that have been seen in the waters this summer in Southeast Alaska could be caused by warmer temperatures, according to research scientist Mary Beth Decker. Decker, who has worked with Alaska Fisheries Science Center in the Bering Sea, said the warmer temperatures could be causing the jellyfish to reproduce more rapidly or be increasing its prey. There typically is an increase in jellyfish in the summer months, but sometimes the number of jellyfish is greater than...
In October, the Petersburg School District will receive its first assessment from the Every Student Succeeds Act, according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter at a school board meeting on Tuesday. Signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015, ESSA seeks to provide all children with significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable and high-quality education and close achievement gaps, according to the act’s statement of purpose. The assessment focused on two groups in the 2017-2018 school year, kindergarten through 6th grade and 7th...
Petersburg Medical Center laid forth its high priority goals at a strategic planning board retreat on Friday. One priority was the construction of a new facility. “It’s really important to set goals and priorities,” said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter. “There’s long term goals and there’s short term goals.” At the meeting, Hofstetter, the hospital board and department heads began discussion on what early steps need to be taken to begin planning a new facility. Community input and the location of the new facility were two beginning steps that everyone...
As part of the Rainforest Festival, Megan McPhee, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, gave a lecture that explained causes of the shrinking size of salmon. In her presentation, McPhee gave historical trends of salmon sizes, explained some reasons why salmon are getting smaller over the years and consequences of smaller salmon. In 1981, W.E. Ricker noted that the average weight of pink salmon in British Columbia seine fisheries between 1951 and 1974 decreased by about one pound in that 23 year...
United States Postal Service officials now estimate the Petersburg Post Office will reopen on Friday, after a package leaked mercury inside of the facility last week, according to a statement issued by the USPS. Officials had previously expected the post office to resume normal retail and PO box operations by this past weekend. “The Postal Service apologizes for the inconvenience and appreciates its customers’ patience,” according to the statement. Petersburg residents can continue to pick... Full story
High school students in the certified nursing assistant program through Petersburg Medical Center began their training last week. CNAs work directly under a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse and provide the more hands on care to patients and residents, such as help them get up in the morning, brush their teeth, eat meals and do exercises. They also take measurements and monitor vital signs. Since CNAs spend so much time with patients and residents, they are able to identify when something is wrong with them and can alert the nurse. ...
Petersburg High School hosted a swim and dive meet on Friday and Saturday that saw the girls team finish in the top three in several of the relay events. "I was really happy with the girls relay," said Coach Andy Carlise. "We hadn't had girls relays that could compete for a long time." On Friday, the boys and girls team had a combined score of 443.5 and came in 5th place overall. The girls team came in 4th place with 291 points. The boys team came in 5th place with 152.5 points. The boys and...
On Aug. 20, around 3 A.M., 21-year-old David Churchill of Wrangell broke into Harbor Bar with the intention of burglary, according to authorities. He broke a window, entered the liquor store and attempted to steal bottles of liquor, said Police Chief Jim Kerr. A Good Samaritan who was a patron at the bar attempted to stop Churchill, but Churchill hit him over the head a few times with a bottle of alcohol, said Kerr. Churchill fled the scene, but was apprehended within minutes and arrested on charges of assault in the 2nd degree and 1st degree...
At the cross country meet in Metlakatla on Saturday, the Petersburg girls team came in 1st place with 31 points and the boys team came in 2nd with 32 points after Ketchikan. "We did really well," said assistant coach Debby Eddy. "We had a boy and a girl come in first place." The top three places in the girls 5k race were all claimed by the Petersburg team. Maia Cowan came in 1st place at 20:01, Kendra Coonrad came in 2nd place at 21:00 and Melanie Chase came in 3rd at 22:10. The Petersburg and K...
Petersburg won two department grand champion ribbons and 18 blue ribbons at the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines. Thirty-nine residents submitted art projects, crafts and photography with nearly every entry winning a ribbon. "That's the big thing," said Josef Quitslund, Petersburg's representative at the fair. "Sharing what people create." Mandy Kivisto and Marsha Fernandez both won department grand champion ribbons. Kivisto submitted a photo titled, 'Lilly pad,' which won her the...
At a borough assembly meeting on Tuesday, the assembly voted to fund member Jeff Meucci’s travel to Southeast Conference in Ketchikan later this month to advocate for a seat on the board of directors. The assembly is already sending Mayor Mark Jensen to SEC because he is Petersburg’s representative; however, Jensen has stated that he will not be voting for Meucci in the run for the board of directors. At the Aug. 20 assembly meeting, the assembly failed to approve funding for Meucci’s travel to SEC. Since the motion failed, the motion was r...
Three of the five commercially harvested salmon species are coming in below Department of Fish and Game forecasts, according to assistant area management biologist Kevin Clark. “Biologically, I think that we’re going to be alright in the long run because for the most part, we’ve been meeting goals or near meeting goals,” said Clark. “That is kind of our charge, the sustainability of the fishery. Not necessarily to make sure everybody makes money every year, but to make sure that there’s fish there for their children and grandchildr...
After the weather prevented Gov. Bill Walker from landing in Petersburg, Rep. David Guttenberg in his stead spoke about the importance of House Bill 240 at Petersburg Rexall Drug on Monday. The bill will address the rising costs of pharmaceutical drugs and bring transparency to the relationship between PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) and drug manufacturers, said Guttenberg. PBMs were originally established in the 1970s as a middle man between pharmacies and drug manufacturers to negotiate...
On Saturday, Petersburg Marine celebrated the opening of its new boat ramp in Scow Bay with a barbecue and a demonstration of its self propelled hydraulic trailer. In Scow Bay, there is a public use boat ramp, but it can be difficult to launch and bring in a boat when winds are blowing Southwest, said John Murgas, owner of Petersburg Marine. The new ramp takes advantage of a bank of dirt that extends into the water, which has been in place for over 38 years. In the area where the ramp has been b...
In the month of July, Petersburg Medical Center continued to offer a high level of quality of care. There were zero patients, the same amount as June, diagnosed with a catheter associated urinary tract infection, according to a quality report presented to PMC’s board members on Thursday. A urinary tract infection resulting from a catheter is one of the most common types of health care associated infections. Again, zero patients, in both June and July, had stage 3 or higher pressure ulcers, or bed sores. Also, hand hygiene scored a 98 percent in...
Students started their first day back to school on Monday at the Petersburg School District. "It's been busy but it's been great," said Mitkof Middle School and Petersburg High School principal Rick Dormer. "It really is great having the kids back in the building." The middle school was treated to an introductory assembly on Monday, which welcomed them back and introduced new students and staff. A similar assembly was held on Wednesday that introduced the high school athletic department and...
