Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 139
On Monday the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution opposing a proposal coming before the Board of Fish two months from now which seeks to reduce the production of hatchery chum and hatchery pink salmon in Southeast Alaska by 25 percent. Max Worhatch, a Petersburg commercial salmon fisherman, addressed the assembly at the start of Monday’s meeting “to voice the commercial fishing industry’s support of a resolution to oppose the Board of Fish Proposal 156.” “Hatchery production has long been an important element of the vi...
Petersburg's student-run nonprofit movie theater, the Northern Nights Theater, has run out of reserves and will have to make some changes starting in January. The last few years have been very challenging and expensive for the organization. Sitting unused through the early stages of the pandemic led to major malfunctions with the movie projector, Theater Manager Cyndy Fry told the Pilot. "We basically had to buy the whole computer guts of the system, [and then] because of that change we had to...
Mitkof Highway was closed to through traffic for around eight hours on Sunday, Dec. 1, after a power pole snapped under the weight of snow and ice on the line – leaving power lines on the ground crossing the highway. The pole failure occurred around 2:30 p.m. just past 9-mile and caused an 11 hour 10 minute power outage for the entire circuit from the Scow Bay substation out to Blind Slough. Winds reached 35 mph with sideways rain as the crew from Petersburg Municipal Power and Light worked i...
The Petersburg Pilot offers its congratulations and best wishes to our now-former news reporter, Olivia Rose, who has accepted a position at Petersburg’s much beloved public radio station KFSK. The Pilot has benefited greatly for the past year and a half from Olivia’s thorough and accurate reporting. Her good understanding of what community journalism is all about has been an entirely positive addition to our staff, and we are happy to know Petersburg will continue to benefit from her reporting talents. We’ve long known of Olivia’s backgro...
During the 1940s and 1950s, Petersburg's ski hill was the place to be on a winter's day, and the new exhibit at Clausen Memorial Museum opening on Sunday, Dec. 8 shows why. "The ski hill was a really big part of Petersburg between the years of 1939 and 1959," Clausen Museum curator Anne Lee told the Pilot. "It was up where the rock quarry is now, behind the airport ... they had a ski jump, and ski competitions, the ski hill, cross country races, downhill events, and they eventually had a tow...
Chris Herren, a former NBA player and renowned addiction recovery speaker is flying in on Wednesday, Dec. 5 to speak with Mitkof Middle School and Petersburg High School students and share his eye-opening journey from success to addiction to recovery. Once a high school basketball star recruited to play in college and then two seasons in the NBA, Herren's promising career was derailed by addiction. His story has been documented in the memoir, "Basketball Junkie" and in "Unguarded," an...
The members of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department elected Dan Bird this month to replace Jim Stolpe as fire chief. Stolpe served two three-year terms as chief, and he intends to continue his volunteering career with PVFD for as long as he is able - though he plans to let his EMT certification expire in the coming year and will slow down a little when it comes to rushing into burning buildings. "After 45 years of doing it, I figure it's time for that younger generation to pick that ball up...
Alaska voters have had to wait until November 20 to see the final results of the 2024 General Election. Now we know that the winner of the U.S. House race is Nick Begich and we know that ranked choice voting and open primaries survived the repeal effort. But because of how early voting gets tallied in Alaska we will never know exactly how the Petersburg precinct, or any individual precinct in the state actually voted. The Division of Election’s published results show that Petersburg cast 843 votes in the 2024 General Election, but that n...
A fisherman, who also happens to be a member of the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, was checking on his boat in Petersburg's South Harbor Wednesday evening, Nov. 13, when he smelled smoke. He investigated and saw flames through a gally window of the FV Carol B — a tender docked a few stalls away from his own boat. He called it in, and the fire department along with harbor crews mounted a fast response. No one was aboard the Carol B and no one was injured in the fire or the response, confir...
It is time for the Petersburg community to seriously consider the future of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) branch of Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD). Volunteer numbers have reached a crisis level. EMS response capability is in jeopardy and burnout is becoming inevitable. It's tempting to imagine that when you or a loved one experience a medical emergency in Petersburg and you dial 911 a paramedic is ready and waiting to be dispatched. Just like in the movies, they'll sprint...
After nearly two years of litigation, the public records-related lawsuit filed by Don Koenigs against the Petersburg Borough has reached its conclusion. On June 21, 2024 the Superior Court for the State of Alaska ordered the borough to release around 200 pages of records related to the complaint made by Petersburg's chief of police against two borough assembly members. In March 2022, Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr filed a complaint with the borough's HR director which included a five-page time...
If it passes its final reading at the next Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, a ballot proposition this fall will ask borough voters to authorize $19.3 million in new debt for the Water and Wastewater utilities. The loans would come from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation revolving loan fund, which provides municipal water utilities with loans for capital projects at 1.5% interest, 20-year repayment. The authorization of the debt would sunset after five years, meaning the util...
An ordinance was introduced at Monday's Assembly meeting to adjust the FY25 budget for known changes. The top item was for Harbor Department disposal of derelict vessels, increasing the budgeted amount from $10 thousand to $250 thousand dollars. The budget increase is described as necessary to take care of removing two large derelict boats currently in the harbor. The budget request coincided with another ordinance introduced on Monday which would amend Petersburg Municipal Code to add a...
Petersburg pays some of the lowest electricity rates in Alaska - 12 cents per residential kilowatt hour compared to the average in Alaska of 24.36 cents - thanks to the abundant renewable energy produced at the Swan Lake and Tyee Lake hydroelectric projects run by the Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA). SEAPA hydro continuously powers the communities of Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan, except once each year when SEAPA schedules a ten-day shutdown at each project to work through a flurry...
Representatives of Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) and the Hutli committee and members of the Séet Ká Kwáan Dancers welcomed the public to witness the unveiling of the story totem pole at Sandy Beach Park on July 5. The totem pole was created by Tlingit carver Fred Fulmer Sr., Saat-Kaa, of Everett, WA - commissioned by PIA for the Hutli project. "Hutli is a Tlingit work roughly translated to Thunderbird and the thundering sound of the wings," Brenda Louise told the sizeable crowd on hand for...
The question of whether to approve a multi-million dollar bond for "critical major maintenance and safety capital improvements" at the school may come before voters this fall. Petersburg Borough Assembly heard an ordinance introducing the proposed bond at their meeting on July 1; a public hearing about the bond proposal ordinance will take place during its next reading. The bond amount initially described in the ordinance included $4.5 million dollars to cover the borough's share of the state...
Ordinance 2024-11 — to place before voters an amendment to the borough charter to remove the requirement of voter ratification for future changes to sales tax exemptions — failed in its final reading at the July 1 assembly meeting. Borough Finance Director Jody Tow explained during the prior assembly meeting that, if passed, this change would be helpful during times of unknown state revenues to free up the assembly to act more flexibly and quickly to resolve budgetary issues. Petersburg is the...
A power outage affected downtown Petersburg on Wed., July 10 from around 10:30 a.m. until around noon. The outage was caused by a transformer failing in its vault located in the sidewalk on Excel Street near the Hammer & Wikan Hardware store, Petersburg Utility Director Karl Hagerman told the Pilot. Smoke was observed coming out of the sidewalk vault after the transformer's failure, causing some concern to bystanders. The power went out when the transformer fault tripped the breaker for the...
Petersburg utility customers are being asked to check what material the water service lines connecting to their homes or buildings are made of. This is part of a nationwide service line inventory required because of an EPA rules revision earlier this year. A survey was mailed out along with June's utility bills; it provides illustrated instructions on how to inspect your water service line, what to look for, and how to report the results. Taking part in the service line inventory is a...
Coast Guard Sector Southeast received a call Tuesday morning, shortly before 10:00 a.m., that the Petersburg-based seiner the Pamela Rae was taking on water in Anita Bay, located on Etolin Island near Wrangell. The call came from the F/V Confidence, relaying a call from their sister fishing vessel Barbara which was on the scene and providing samaritan support, U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Matt Naylor told the Pilot. The Pamela Rae was taking on water fast and was rolling over. They had...
A ballot proposition on this October municipal ballot will put the question to Petersburg voters whether to increase the amount of sales tax that can be collected on a single purchase from $72.00 to $300.00. At their regular meeting on June 17 the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously passed Ordinance 24-10 in its third and final reading to propose the municipal code amendment for this sales tax exemption change to borough voters. Currently in the borough, sales tax liability for any single...
In January, the Wild Fish Conservancy — the same Washington-based conservation group that unsuccessfully sued to shut down last year’s SE Alaska troll fishery for king salmon — filed a petition with the federal government to list Alaskan Chinook salmon as a threatened or endangered species and designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. This action obligated the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct a 90-day evaluation of the petition. And despite finding that the petition “contained numerous factual errors, omissio...
Fish and Game issued an emergency order last week reducing the harvest opportunity for king salmon in the Wrangell Narrows terminal harvest area. Effective June 15, the possession limit has changed from four king salmon per day - two 28 inches or longer and two less than 28 inches in length - to one king salmon of any size per day. And nonresident annual limits will now apply in this area. Blind Slough freshwater king salmon fishing remains closed for the summer; as does commercial harvest of...
This month, twelve athletes from the Devil's Thumb Shooters - Petersburg's youth marksmanship program - flew north to compete in the Alaska Youth Education in Shooting Sports (YESS) State Tournament in Chugiak. They joined competitors from 18 teams across the state, and the tournament results speak to the caliber of Petersburg's shooting athletes - with first, second, and third place finishes across several disciplines and divisions. One tournament highlight for the Petersburg team was the...
Petersburg School Board unanimously passed the district's FY25 budget at their regular meeting on Tuesday. This year, more of the budget is going to instruction and less to operations and maintenance, summarized PSD Finance Director Shannon Baird. The budget estimates 450 students will be enrolled in the school district in the 2024/2025 school year. That number is around 19 students fewer than the school year which has just ended. Because the base student allocation has remained flat for yet...
