Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 31
Mitkof Island, like much of Alaska, is home to black and brown bears. Living in bear country, securing trash is a vital management procedure in the fall. This was seen last year, when, due to bears entering town and going through trash cans, several were killed by local law enforcement. Petersburg has time now to prepare for the fall season. Wildlife Biologist at Fish and Game Frank Robbins stresses that keeping trash secured is the most important thing for residents to manage the bears coming to town this year. “The solution is not p...
Jake and Bailey Quigley are an adventurous couple. Seasoned mountain bikers and former van lifers, they have a strong history with the outdoors. One of their travels brought them to Whistler, Canada, where the coastal views wowed them. They wondered if people traveled these waters. "[The trip] just kind of sparked a little bit of research online. We were in Whistler Village when I had found [Susan Marie Conrad's] book, and picked it up and read it right away, and that just clicked a switch that...
Thursday July 30, the cast of the high school play "Dracula" will head to Europe. They will first stop in London for a few days first and take a Shakespeare performance class at the historic Globe Theater. Then, they will perform their Dracula four times, Aug 7-11, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Fringe Fest is renowned as the world's largest performing arts festival. It runs from August 7-31 and sold 2.6 million tickets last year. The local cast will be Petersburg's first-ever...
Saturday morning, bike racers began peddling the 24 mile course in Petersburg's first annual "Trekkin' Through the Tongass" bike race. 10 total participants raced through the Forest Service roads, five solo riders and one team. Petersburg Parks and Rec, Emergency Medical Services, Forest Service personnel, and friends and family of the racers came together to make the event a morning well spent. "I just couldn't be happier as an organizer. And then I was really pleased," Scott Burt, who...
A seasonal exhibit on Alaska's history of canned salmon is on display now at the Clausen Memorial Museum. It showcases historical can labels and recipes that were used to market salmon to the Lower 48 states. "[The exhibit is] all about beautiful labels and the little recipe cards that came along with them, and how canned salmon as a product was marketed to the rest of the country that did not have salmon," Museum Director Sarah Pederson said. "In the 30's and 40's...they launched this great...
Bergen Kludt-Painter grew up in Petersburg, graduating high school in 2022. She went to college at the University of Idaho, where she just graduated with a degree in political science. Now she is back in town on a 10-week internship with Alaska Sea Grant. She brings her background to a program called "Sea Grant Community-Engaged Fellowship." Kludt-Painter works alongside Marine Advisory Program Agent Sunny Rice. "Bergen's job is to create a project over the course of the summer that matches both...
Lights, Camera, Action! On July 17 Petersburg's Kinder Skog nature program put on two theater performances. The elementary age group began with a Saturday Night Live-style skit show, then the audience followed the yellow brick road to the middle school-aged kids' performance of The Wizard of Oz. The plays were directed by theater extraordinaire Brad Younts, who has been putting the program on since 2023. Younts has a Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts, and 30 years of experience in the field....
Petersburg Parks and Rec will host an approximate 24-mile bike race on Saturday, July 25. The race will both begin and end at Blind Slough, at 9 a.m., with check-in beginning at 8 a.m. Racers can either register as a relay team (up to 5 members) and split the race up, or register individually and do the entire race solo. "There's some areas with significant elevation gain, but if you break it up on a team, it makes it more doable or palatable," said Scott Burt, a Parks and Rec employee who...
From July 28 through Aug. 25, candidacy forms will be available for Petersburg residents interested in running for elected office. Borough Assembly, Hospital Board, Planning Commission, Harbor and Ports Advisory Board, Library Advisory Board, Parks and Rec Advisory Board, and Public Safety Advisory Board all have seats up for election. July 22 the candidacy packets will be available at the borough clerk office. If running for assembly, school board, or hospital board a certain amount of signatures in support of running are needed. Early...
Rebecca Shatwell has been a teacher for three decades, teaching in Texas most recently. Now she brings her experience to Petersburg High School, where she will teach assigned math courses and has also been entrusted with two courses of her choice starting this fall. Those courses are Petersburg Maritime Math, and Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Ethics. "I just want learning to be something that [students] enjoy and that's truly beneficial, not just something that they're going to go...
Invasive European Green Crabs first showed up in Alaska on July 19, 2022, and have been slowly but surely advancing north, with Etolin Island just south of Wrangell being their northernmost sighting. Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program Agent Sunny Rice and her Community Engaged Fellowship intern Bergen Kludt-Painter checked traps kept on Mitkof Island on July 2, 2026 to see if any European Green Crabs had arrived. To their relief, there were no Green Crab in the traps at Woodpecker Cove....
From 2013-2023, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins represented Alaska's 35th district, including Petersburg, in the Alaska House of Representatives. Kreiss-Tomkins returned to Petersburg on July 5, this time as a candidate for governor. He held a meet and greet at Kito's Kave where he chatted with community members and delivered a speech. Kreiss-Tomkins grew up in Sitka. At the age of 13 he developed a passionate interest in politics. And by age 14, he launched a statewide grassroots campaign for then... Full story
The Petersburg Fire Department is hosting a free training that teaches everyday civilians how to react and be prepared for emergencies. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) three-day training sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be held at the fire station July 10-12, 2026. Alisha Sell, with Tlingit and Haida, is travelling from Juneau to teach the course. Aaron Hankins, Petersburg Emergency Services Director, will learn the course and hopes to then become an instructor and continue to reoffer the course in the comm...
Petersburg's Fourth of July weekend schedule has been released for an eventful three days in the town–the traditional two-day local holiday celebration on the 3rd and the 4th and with an additional third day celebration on Sunday, July 5th featuring a community potluck to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Parks and Rec facility supervisor Julie Anderson, Chamber of Commerce Director Kelli Slaven, and Robyn Cardenas took the lead on planning this year's celebrations. July 3 It all begins w...
Two high-quality interactive web cameras have recently been installed atop Five Finger Lighthouse – one of the world's most renowned humpback whale watching locations. The Five Finger Lighthouse Society (FFLS) installed a similar camera earlier this year at the lower boathouse level. Now, there are two more atop the lighthouse – one facing north, one south. The FFLS is a Petersburg-based non-profit organization. All summer, the lighthouse is maintained by volunteer keepers, who stay in the lig...
Summer has arrived, and, these days, summer in Petersburg means electric scooters all around town used for transportation, often by youth. The 17 Levy electric scooters that showed up in town in August of 2024 are locally owned by Stikine Services, run by Wes and Angie Davis. A few years ago, the Davises, when traveling to Nashville, noticed electric scooters around the town, and thought they would be a valuable addition to the Petersburg community. "Everyone we have talked to loves them, and...
Due to construction that began on May 18, the Aquatic side of the Parks and Recreation building will remain closed, without a set reopening date. The remainder of the building is still open – just without power. Contractors have been cutting concrete to access drain lines beneath the locker rooms. The process has been lengthy and has experienced some setbacks, but safety remains the priority. "I absolutely will not compromise for my safety, for the contractors, our staff, patrons, and the f...
On Monday, Petersburg's Dan Sullivan was deemed ineligible to run for the office of United States Senator by Alaska's Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher. "My determination in this matter is final. Although you have 30 days to appeal this decision." In a letter to Sullivan on Monday, Beecher stated that his filing for Senate "was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or...
On Friday, June 12, botanist Joni Johnson led a "Friends of Raven's Trail" invasive plant walk. She informed attendees what harmful invasive plants look like, as well as what they could do to stop their spread. "I'd like more people with more eyes and more willingness to help pull plants," Johnson said. "It's Whack-a-Mole, it's everywhere... more people that are willing to play Whack-a-Mole, the better we are at preventing the march of invasive plants up the hill." Johnson throughout the hike...
International Children's Day is commonly celebrated outside of the United States and is a cherished holiday in many places. Jose Meza, employee of the Petersburg Children's Center, has a clear vision of it becoming a large day of celebration in Petersburg, too. This past Friday, June 12, Meza began to bring his vision to reality – hosting a celebration for the kids at the children's center. "The kids loved it. It was a really nice, sunny day, we did a bunch of water games, water balloons," M...
After a 1.5-year, $12 million renovation, Forest Service staff returned on May 14 to the Federal Building located on the south end of downtown Petersburg. During the project, staff were temporarily relocated to a facility out the road, about 2.3 miles, at Scow Bay. The remodel makes their building more visitor-friendly, and the new location is more walkable and accessible to residents and visitors. "Kids come through before they go to school, they can come in after school before their parents... Full story
This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there will be informative outdoor community events in Petersburg. Saturday and Sunday’s events will be led by Vivian Mork, where she will lead groups to harvest wild vegetables and teach how to prepare them for eating. Saturday’s hike will begin at Sandy Beach Park, and Sunday’s will be carpooled starting at the library. Both days’ events begin at 10 A.M. Mork’s “Hike, Harvest, Heal” event is through the Rainforest Festival with support from Petersburg Mental Health Services. This year’s Rainforest Fest...
A three-day free course titled “Commercial Fishing Boot Camp” will be taught at John Hansen Sr. Hall June 15-17. The hands-on course is intended for high school students interested in the Commercial Fishing Industry, but is open to anyone high school age and up. Gabe Dunham and Sunny Rice are teaching the course, through Alaska Sea Grant. “We’ve heard about crew shortages up and down the West coast,” Rice said. “What the Alaska Sea Grant can do to help with that is to hopefully open the door for people who wouldn’t necessarily think about c...
Retired fifth-grade teacher Dan Sullivan, a longtime Petersburg resident, has launched a campaign for one of Alaska's two U.S. Senate seats. Who is he trying to replace? Dan Sullivan. Dan S. Sullivan(R) has served two consecutive terms in the U.S. Senate and is running for reelection. The fall election is viewed nationally as an important race, as Democrats try to regain control of the Senate. Mary Peltola(D) is competing against Sullivan for the seat, as are 15 other candidates. "We need a... Full story
Petersburg's own Tracy Welch was appointed as the second commissioner of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC). Welch was approved by the Alaska State Legislature by unanimous consent on May 14. She was appointed to the position by Governor Mike Dunleavy, taking the second of two seats. After being appointed by the governor, Welch was approved by three confirmation hearings to be officially accepted for the position. Welch grew up in Petersburg and commercially fished for over thirty...
