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A slightly smaller senior class of 30 students will be graduating Petersburg High School on Tuesday at the commencement ceremony in the High School gym at 7 p.m. According to Principal Rick Dormer, the average senior class size is approximately 35 students. Last year’s senior class had 45 graduates, one of the largest in Petersburg School District history. Despite their low numbers, the 2019 graduating class has made a name for themselves as one of the more independent classes. Dormer said that instead of the seniors acting like one cohesive b...
Don Spigelmyre was overcome with panic as the ocean's current pulled him out and water filled his mouth. He managed to yell for help, and his son sprang into action. Sean Spigelmyre swam out to his father, grabbed his arm and began side stroking back to shore. "I wouldn't be here today," said Don Spigelmyre. "There is no way." On Friday, Sean was awarded the Boy Scout's Honor Medal for the heroic rescue of his father in January of 2017 in Kauai, Hawaii. Sean has been with the Boy Scouts since...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed an ordinance adopting the borough's fiscal year 2020 operating budget after making several amendments to it at an assembly meeting last week. The proposed budget was first presented to the assembly in mid-April. Expenditures in the general fund total $9,567,149 for the 2020 budget, but it is balanced out by $9,571,545 in revenues. The total amount of excess of revenues over expenditures is $4,396. The current 2019 fiscal year budget has a total of...
The Petersburg Medical Center held its third Community Cafe on Thursday in the assembly chambers to discuss changes in funding for healthcare at the state level. Each Community Cafe typically follows a theme, with the first Cafe revolving around trends affecting healthcare in rural Alaska and the second forum demonstrating PMC's telehealth capabilities. Jeanie Monk, with the Alaska State Hospital & Nursing Home Association, gave an overview of how Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proposed 2020 fiscal year b...
The borough assembly passed an online sales tax ordinance that adds language to the current tax code in its third reading at an assembly meeting last week. The borough's current tax code does not mention internet sales tax, nor does it forbid it. Ordinance #2019-02 will broaden the language in the current sales tax code to include internet venders not located in Petersburg or Alaska. Some online vendors, such as Amazon, have voluntarily been collecting and remitting online sales taxes on...
The Petersburg High School eSsports team competed in the state competition on Thursday and came in first place. Seven schools throughout the state have been competing against each other in League of Legends for the entire spring season. League of Legends is a video game where two teams of five players spawn onto a map and must destroy the other teams' base. The games are hosted and coordinated through PlayVs, which is a high school eSsports league. This spring season was PHS' first year...
Erin Kandoll, of Twisted Ginger Designs, unveiled her Mayfest and Game of Thrones inspired collection of handmade earrings and necklaces last night at FireLight Gallery & Framing. The collection featured approximately 100 pairs of sterling silver earrings and 60 necklaces that had a bit of copper sprinkled in from her fall show. Kandoll has been working on the jewelry since last month. Some earrings form a Nordic rune or symbol, while the sword and shield collection flaunts a sword on one ear...
Bruno Henrique Caetano is about half way through his yearlong student exchange program in Petersburg, and he said that he has made plenty of new friends and new memories. Caetano, 16, first arrived in Petersburg from Unaí, Brazil in January of this year as part of theyouth exchange program through the Petersburg Rotary Club. Each year, the Alaska District Rotary Club sends about 25 students to 20 different countries, while receiving 25 students, according to coordinator Dave Berg. There is a lon...
Assembly member Taylor Norheim requested a discussion item on Monday's borough assembly agenda that looked at privatizing the Petersburg Public Library. The wording of the discussion item was amended by Norheim at the start of the meeting to read as, "discussion of possible alternative funding for the public library." Norheim said that the wording of the discussion item was confusing to the public and changed the language to more accurately reflect his meaning. Although he clarified the wording...
The borough assembly amended and passed an ordinance in its first reading that would allow police officers to issue fines to individuals lighting off fireworks in service area one. If ordinance #2019-04 were to pass in all three readings, then residents could face a fine of up to $500 for lighting fireworks in service area one. The ordinance originally included language that allowed fireworks to be lit legally in service area one during three dates out of the year, July 4 and 5 and December 31,...
The bid for a new baler was awarded to Recycle Systems by the borough assembly at an assembly meeting on Monday for an amount not to exceed $535,327. The bid came in under the $600,000 that was allocated for a new borough baler by the assembly. All the bids that were placed came under the allocated $600,000, but public works director Chris Cotta recommended the bid be awarded to Recycle Systems. "The proposal offered by Recycle Systems was found to be outstanding in every regard, as well as...
The Petersburg Medical Center board of directors attempted to pass a resolution at their board meeting last month granting authority to specific board members to work with one of the hospital's financial institutions, but the motion was tabled until this month's meeting. The resolution would have allowed the president, vice president and treasurer of the board to perform such actions with Hilltop Securities as opening a brokerage account and transferring and purchasing stocks and bonds. The...
Petersburg Medical Center Controller Rocio Tejera delivered her first financial report to the board of directors on April 25 explaining the hospital's financial standing during the month of March and the fiscal year-to-date. PMC's gross operating revenue was just about on target for March, but the net operating revenue was $1,362,274, which was five percent over the $1,292,686 target for the month. Both the gross and operating revenues from the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2018...
Four students in a nursing program through University of Alaska Anchorage graduated with an associate's degree in applied science in nursing and received their nursing pins in a pinning ceremony on Thursday at the Elk's Lodge. Valaree Nilsen, Audrey Morton, Adam Axmaker and Carolyn Kvernvik had completed most of the two year program at the Petersburg Medical Center. The four graduates are the first to go through the program in Petersburg. Nichole Mattingly and Rosa Niemi led the program as UAA...
The Public Safety Advisory Board supported filling the vacant EMS coordinator position and replacing two fire engines at their meeting last Friday. While the EMS coordinator position does exist, it has not been funded or filled in about six to eight years, according to Fire Marshal Ryan Welde. The position has an annual salary of $96,147. The EMT coordinator duties, include responding to calls and splitting the day-to-day duties with Welde and fire/EMS director Sandy Dixson. Additionally, an...
The Petersburg High School varsity baseball team played against the Sitka Wolves last week during the third week of the season, but the Vikings lost all three games. The Vikings arrived in Sitka on May 1 and immediately played the Wolves in the first game of the week. The first inning saw the Vikings jump ahead with two runs, but the Wolves fought back with three runs of their own. Sitka went on to make three more runs in the second quarter, putting Petersburg down 2-6 at the start of the third...
Eleven Petersburg High School athletes gave up the opportunity to attend prom over the weekend to compete in the third track and field meet of the season in Juneau, leaving one more meet before the regional competition. Every school from the region was present at the meet at Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau last week, except for Thorne Bay. According to Head Coach Tyler Thain, nearly every student from Petersburg set a new personal record. "Everyone is improving, which is really cool to...
A special meeting was held on April 17 by the borough assembly to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2020 Petersburg Borough budget before it goes before the assembly for its first reading on May 6. Finance director Jody Tow presented a slideshow detailing the general and enterprise funds for the proposed budget. Expenditures in the general fund total $9,567,149 for the 2020 budget, but it's balanced out by $9,571,545 in revenues. The total amount of excess of revenues over expenditures is...
The Visitor Industry Working Group will continue their discussions on economic growth in Petersburg through tourism in September it was announced at their meeting on Monday. The group of 20 members was pulled together by the Petersburg Economic Development Council and Liz Cabrera, borough community and economic development director, to locate potential ideas for economic growth in Petersburg, while maintaining a balance between Petersburg's quality of life and tourism economy. Members are...
At their monthly meeting on Thursday, the board of directors for the Petersburg Medical Center discussed the idea of holding their meetings in the borough assembly chambers to better receive the community. "It's more to do with community engagement," said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter. "It just seems like a more centralized location." Hospital board meetings are currently held in the Dorothy Ingle Conference Room in PMC on the fourth Thursday of every month. If the monthly board meetings were to be...
On Monday, the Southeast Alaska Power Agency board of directors postponed a reimbursement plan that would repay Petersburg and Wrangell for their additional power costs over the past few months, but agreed to distribute the funds by June 30. According to Bob Lynn, Petersburg’s representative on the SEAPA board, there was a motion to approve the reimbursement at Monday’s meeting, but the board was uncertain about how to report the reduction in SEAPA’s revenue for tax purposes. Lynn said SEAPA wan...
Car horns could be heard among the cheering of the fans as the Petersburg High School varsity baseball team played Juneau-Douglas High School at home over the weekend, but the encouragement from the stands and the parking lot was not enough to help the varsity team secure a win. The Vikings gave JDHS an early lead during Friday's game. Petersburg was down 1-5 by the end of the first inning. JDHS went on to make run after run through the sixth inning. Although the Vikings struggled throughout...
The Petersburg Ragnarök Rollers traveled out of Alaska for the first time to Bellingham, Washington over the weekend to battle the Bellingham Roller Betties, but they narrowly lost after tying the game in the final ten minutes. "The last few minutes were pretty exciting," said Coach Rebecca Anderson. "I was overall very proud of our players." Twelve of the team's 19 players traveled to Bellingham for their third game of the season. The Bellingham Roller Betties are a part of the Women's Flat Tra...
The borough assembly approved a second follow-up letter at last week's assembly meeting regarding a letter sent to Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen in November requesting information about a possible review of the Tonka and Big Thorne Integrated Resource timber contracts. "It feels like we've been stonewalled for the last six months on that," said vice mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor at a borough assembly meeting on April 15. "Frankly, I want to put this issue to bed." The letter is the third...
At a school board meeting last week, Petersburg School District Director of Activities Jaime Cabral said that a recent research project revealed that school districts within Southeast Alaska spent $1.9 million in one year traveling with Alaska Airlines. The figure only takes into account the amount of money the region spends on travel for activities, like basketball games at other schools or regional and state competitions. Cabral said that Alaska Airlines is looking at possible solutions to...
