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The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday overturned the Planning Commission's denial of a minor subdivision at 1200 Haugen Drive, moving the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska a step closer to buying the borough lot next to the fire hall where it plans a broadband tower. Sitting as the Board of Adjustment, the Assembly voted 6-0 to grant Tlingit & Haida's appeal and approve the subdivision, Assembly Member Scott Newman was excused from the meeting. Tidal Network, a t...
Alaska Timber and Truss has secured a $2.5 million financing package to modernize its sawmill on Falls Creek Road, connect it to Petersburg's hydroelectric grid and install an additional mill built to process young-growth timber. Co-owner Brett Martin said the goal is to have the expanded operation running well by the middle of next summer. "We're taking a gamble," Martin said. "We're obtaining a couple of loans to expand our mill, or essentially retool our mill to bring it up to modern...
Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor will ask the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday to begin work on a borough-wide moratorium to prevent data centers that would use on-site power generation. The proposal would leave room for a smaller, grid-connected project like the one Mazzella Alaska has proposed for the former Ocean Beauty plant. At their meeting on Sept. 21, the assembly deadlocked 3-3 on a Planning Commission recommendation that was broader in one way and narrower in another. The commission had asked the assembly to start a one-year...
Hunters had checked in 58 moose from the Petersburg-Wrangell area hunt as of Sept. 29, a pace that has the season tracking with, and slightly ahead of, last year's record harvest, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "Seems to be plenty of moose," said Frank Robbins, ADF&G area biologist. "Hunters are seeing moose, and the harvest is on par with last year." Last season's hunt, RM038, ended with 147 moose taken, including seven illegal bulls. Robbins said the harsh winter of...
A recommendation from the Petersburg Borough Planning Commission to place a one-year moratorium on data center development failed on a split vote at Monday’s Borough Assembly meeting. Assembly Members Scott Newman, Rob Schwartz and Jeff Meucci voted in favor of the moratorium; Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Member Bob Martin and Mayor Bob Lynn voted against. Member James Valentine was traveling and excused. Without a majority approval, the motion failed. The Planning Commission asked the assembly to initiate an ordinance establishing a t...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday amended and advanced Ordinance 2026-21, the adjustment to the borough’s annual budget for “known changes,” adding $150,000 to replace a failing sewer line on Gjoa Street before passing the package on a unanimous second reading. Monday’s amendment increases the Wastewater Fund by $150,000 to pay for the Gjoa Street Sewer Line Replacement Project. Asked by Member Bob Martin where the money would come from, Public Works Director Aaron Marohl said the borough plans to draw it from wastewater reserve...
Don and Karen Cornelius are a family of local artists, and this summer the Petersburg Public Library hosted back-to-back retrospectives for the two. Don Cornelius walked through the exhibition this week with the Pilot and reflected on decades of art – wildlife and landscape oil paintings from across Alaska, portraits of his children, a humorous and distinctive series of gnome paintings, and his two newest paintings completed this summer – all on display through the end of the month. Cor...
A controversial subdivision request will once again go in front of the Petersburg Borough Assembly acting as the Board of Adjustment in October. That's after Petersburg's Planning Commission rejected the request for a second time on Sept. 8. The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska's broadband company, Tidal Network, wants to build a tower on borough land near Petersburg's fire hall. The company has already constructed a tower at Mill Road and is in the process of...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Sept. 8 cleared the way for the sale of two more borough-owned lots to Skylark Park LLC, expanding the soon-to-be-developed housing subdivision off Skylark Way. The assembly voted unanimously to advance the application and exempt the sale from public auction, authorizing the borough manager to negotiate a direct sale at appraised value. Any final terms will return to the assembly for approval. The two parcels — Government Lots 26 and 27 in Section 33 — are each about 3.7 acres and are assessed at $82,400 and $...
Petersburg's Rainforest Festival added a new event last Saturday - a Bear Mini Fair - which drew Fish and Game wildlife education and outreach coordinator Abby McAllister from Juneau to talk with residents about living in bear country. In a follow-up interview, McAllister told the Pilot that her central message for Petersburg is that conflicts with bears are almost entirely avoidable. "All of the interactions that can be perceived as negative - whether it's a bear dumping trash out on the sidewa...
Last weekend, a nine-person team from Petersburg - all of them Medical Center employees or relatives of employees - ran the 175-kilometer Klondike Road Relay from Skagway, Alaska, into Whitehorse, Yukon. And did it dressed, more or less, as pickles. The team called itself "The Big Dills," and "oh my gosh, we had so much fun," said team captain Megan Litster. The Klondike Road Relay is an overnight, 175-kilometer (roughly 110-mile) race that is broken into 10 legs of varying length, from about... Full story
The S.H.A.R.E. Coalition will host its second annual Mocktails and Mingle from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the John Hanson Sr. Hall, a free, all-ages event built around sober socializing, games and community connection. The gathering is open to the entire community and organized with several community partners, said Ashley Kawashima, a member of the coalition. Food and snacks will be provided, along with a cookie-decorating station for dessert. "Everybody gets to decorate their own cookies," Kawashima said. Activities will include giant Jenga, an ove...
The Petersburg Borough and the union representing many of its employees are heading into mediation after months of salary negotiations over a new contract reached an impasse. The collective bargaining agreement between the Petersburg Borough and the Petersburg Municipal Employees Association expired on June 30, 2026. PMEA, in a recent communication to the assembly, said the two sides are preparing to enter mediation. Borough Clerk Becky Regula confirmed to the Pilot that negotiations had reached an impasse and both sides agreed to move to...
Until now there have been no uniform borough road standards beyond the old Petersburg city limits, but on Tuesday the Petersburg Borough adopted its first road-construction standards for public roads and subdivisions outside Service Area One. The Borough Assembly unanimously approved Resolution 2026-23 on Sept. 8. It adopts the 2026 Petersburg Borough Standard Specifications, replacing the City of Petersburg’s 2012 specifications, and for the first time sets minimum road standards for public road improvements and subdivisions outside Service A...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Sept. 8 formally accepted nearly $8.9 million in federal grant funding for a new small-vessel haul-out at Scow Bay, clearing another hurdle before the long-planned project goes out to bid hopefully by the end of this month. Assembly members voted unanimously to approve Resolution 2026-26, accepting an $8,880,791 BUILD grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. The resolution authorizes Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht to countersign and accept the grant agreement once the federal...
The Mitkof Mummers are back with another fall show in the works — and they are looking for townspeople to help fill out the cast of a fall comedy in which a giant egg walks into a police station insisting he was pushed. The community theater group gathered for a casting call and first read-through last week to launch their fall production: “Hard Boiled: A Nursery Crime,” a one-act children’s comedy by Tracey Wells, published by Pioneer Drama Service. As is tradition for the Mummers’ fall shows, it’s geared toward young audiences. The play is pu...
A retrospective of paintings, carvings and jewelry by Petersburg artist Karen Cornelius closed at the Petersburg Public Library on Tuesday, Sept. 1, and on its last day the artist walked through the exhibition with the Pilot, reflecting on her lifetime of art making. Cornelius kept returning to one idea: that she makes art to get people to look harder at the world around them. "I am so in love with colors and nature and the creation that we have," she said. She wants viewers to "look more...
The Rainforest Festival returns to Petersburg Sept. 10-13 for its 19th year, with a lineup organized around island biogeography — the study of how wildlife reaches, adapts to and lives on island systems like the ones that define Southeast Alaska. “We have this really unique system of islands that we live on in Southeast Alaska,” festival volunteer Sunny Rice said. She pointed to the Coast Range walling the region off from the rest of the continent, and to the rivers that thread the mainland to the islands — “big rivers … that serve as corridor...
Petersburg homeowners who are tribal citizens may be able to get help paying their mortgage, property taxes, home insurance or utility bills through a federal program that closes at the end of September — but completed applications are due Wednesday, Sept. 10. The Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority is working to fully spend the money remaining in its Homeowner Assistance Fund, a U.S. Treasury program THRHA has run across Southeast Alaska since 2023. Petersburg is one of 13 eligible communities, along with Angoon, Craig, Douglas, J...
Six candidates filed to run for three Borough Assembly seats before Tuesday's filing deadline. Incumbent Jeigh Stanton Gregor filed for reelection, while incumbent Rob Schwartz opted not to run again. Two of the three Assembly seats carry three-year terms, and four candidates are running for them: Stanton Gregor, Sarah Fine-Walsh, Donna Marsh and Tom Kowalske. The third seat is a one-year term and drew two candidates, appointed incumbent Scott Newman and Don Koenigs. Every other board on this...
Petersburg Medical Center is testing a different way to pay for a trip to the doctor: a flat monthly fee, no copays, and as many primary care visits as a patient needs. The hospital has gone live with a direct primary care plan - a subscription model CEO Phil Hofstetter described to the borough assembly this month as a way to make routine care more affordable and to reach residents who are uninsured, underinsured or carrying high deductibles. "It's a subscription-based primary care model, and...
Petersburg's Community Aquatic Center reopened its pools this week after being closed since mid-May for a sewer-line repair beneath the facility's concrete floors. However, while contractors finish up the job and reconcrete the locker room floors, swimmers will need to adjust to reduced capacity and altered access, announced Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. The leisure and wellness pool and the lap pool have reopened as of Tuesday morning on Aug. 18. The sauna and the second-floor...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, voted unanimously Monday night to grant in part an appeal by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and order the borough Planning Commission to take a formal vote on the tribe’s subdivision application at 1200 Haugen Drive. The CCTHITA, doing business as Tidal Network, had appealed the Planning Commission’s inaction at its July 14 meeting, when a motion by Commissioner Floyd to approve the minor subdivision died for lack of a second. Because no...
The remains of an infant girl who was taken from a Thomas Bay cave nearly a century ago are coming home to Petersburg next month for burial. Stephanie Aikins, who is coordinating the project for the Petersburg Indian Association, said the infant — known to those working on her return only as “Baby Girl” — will arrive on the morning jet Friday, Sept. 4. A welcoming ceremony of singers and dancers is planned on the tarmac as she is unloaded. “She will be back on her land for the first time in almost 100 years,” Aikins said. For Aikins, this repat...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly last Monday passed the second reading of an ordinance establishing a new Thomas Bay Service Area, building the legal and financial framework the borough says it will need as it prepares to sell off state-platted land it acquired three years ago. Ordinance 2026-17 creates the service area and adds a new chapter to borough code defining its boundaries, the services it may provide, and how those services could be paid for. But according to a memorandum from Community Development Director Liz Cabrera, adoption “does...
