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Two weeks after rejecting it, the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday approved the sale of a borough parcel to Tidal Network for a wireless communication tower - with all four members who had blocked the deal switching to yes and the resolution passing unanimously. Resolution 2026-16 authorizes the sale of an approximately 0.23-acre borough-owned parcel to the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, doing business as Tidal Network. The resolution had failed 2-4 at the...
A zoning ordinance to regulate cell towers and other wireless facilities — a revised version of one that died on a tie vote two weeks ago — came back to the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday. Assembly Member Jeff Meucci reintroduced the ordinance and offered five amendments which the assembly accepted before the unanimously approving the ordinance’s first reading. Ordinance 2026-14 would amend Title 19 of the municipal code to set zoning and permitting standards for wireless communication facilities and other towers. The ordinance requi...
Petersburg voters will likely decide this fall whether the borough can borrow up to $3,315,000 to finish the Scow Bay standby generation project, after the assembly approved the that ordinance’s first reading on Monday. Ordinance 2026-13 would authorize electric-utility revenue bonds of not more than $3,315,000 for the Scow Bay standby generator, which Petersburg Municipal Power and Light says faces a budget shortfall driven by construction-cost increases since the project began. If it clears three readings, the borrowing question goes on t...
The Borough Assembly has given final approval this month to raising Petersburg’s marine passenger fee from $5 to $8 per passenger, with the increase set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Ordinance 2026-07, which amends Chapter 4.80 of the municipal code, passed unanimously on third reading at the assembly’s June 1 meeting. The fee is assessed once per cruise, on marine passenger vessels upon their first entry into any borough port, and has been collected since March 2018. Finance Director Jody Tow has estimated the increase will generate rou...
Petersburg’s electric utility rates will go up 4% on July 1 after the Borough Assembly approved the third reading of Ordinance 2026-08 at its June 1 meeting. The ordinance raises electric rates across all customer classes — residential, general service, large commercial, harbor and municipal — for fiscal year 2027. For a typical residential customer using 1,203 kilowatt-hours a month, the monthly bill rises from about $163 to about $170. The residential customer charge increases from $16.00 to $16.64, and the energy rate moves from 12.2 cents...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday awarded the wastewater outfall repair project to Rock-n-Road Construction of Petersburg in an amount not to exceed $222,000. The 6-0 vote followed a short explanation from Public Works Director Aaron Marohl, who was asked by Member Jeff Meucci to describe the project “for the folks at home.” Marohl said a February 2025 dive to locate the outfall found the line broken and separated at some unknown point. The borough reported the deficiency to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Alaska Dep...
The assembly gave final, unanimous approval Monday to Ordinance 2026-11, updating the borough’s sewer-utility service rates for FY2027 through FY2030. Built on the utility’s annual rate review, the ordinance cites rising operating costs, aging infrastructure and increasingly stringent EPA and state environmental requirements. It passed 6-0 on third reading after unanimous first and second readings. In his memo, Assistant Public Works Director Thomas Rummel wrote that critical components — lift stations, piping, pumps, controls and the marin...
For the better part of a year wireless communication infrastructure has been a topic of controversy and community engagement in Petersburg. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has been pursuing three tower locations in Petersburg through its broadband initiative, Tidal Network, as part of a federally funded broadband expansion effort - a project that has drawn sustained opposition from a contingent of residents raising concerns about radio frequency emissions, to...
An Arizona hunter was cited last month for unlawfully taking a brown bear on Kupreanof Island after mistaking it for a black bear, the second such mistaken-identity case involving a non-resident hunter in the area in roughly a year, according to Petersburg-based Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sgt. Cody Litster. William DeGrave, 38, of Vail, Arizona, was cited May 19 for taking a brown bear in Game Management Unit 3 without the proper tag, registration permit or guide while hunting black bear at Duncan...
A few weeks ago, Petersburg singer-songwriter Sarah C. Hanson Hofstetter released her sixth album, All the Bones, a 14-song collection of original work now available on Bandcamp. The song writing has been in development for over ten years, and the recordings took shape over roughly a year of recording sessions in Petersburg with local musician Matthew Wintersteen, followed by a spring break trip to Anchorage where engineer Kurt Reimann of Surreal Studios helped complete the record. Sarah has... Full story
The proposed ordinance that would have established the Petersburg Borough's first regulatory framework for wireless communication facilities failed its second reading Monday on a 3-3 tie vote, leaving the borough with no formal controls over cell tower siting just as Tidal Network continues to pursue construction of new towers in the community. Ordinance 2026-12, which had passed its first reading unanimously at the May 18 assembly meeting, would have created new language in the Petersburg...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 4-2 Monday to reject the sale of a small borough-owned parcel near the Haugen Drive fire hall to Tidal Network, the broadband arm of the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, in a vote that surprised some members and capped months of contentious negotiations over cell tower expansion in Petersburg. Assembly Members Bob Martin, Rob Schwartz, Jeff Meucci, and Scott Newman voted against the resolution that would have authorized the...
In January, Petersburg residents Rozanne Plew and Liz Bacom traveled to Seattle to attend a special sing-along screening of the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. The event was an annual fundraiser for maintaining Seattle's historic 5th Avenue Theater. The duo had a wonderful time and realized their hometown theater Wright Auditorium, which also needs some maintenance support, would be a great venue to replicate the sing-along fundraiser. "I just thought it would be reall...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously adopted the property tax millage rates for fiscal year 2027 at its May 18 regular meeting, slightly raising the rate for Service Area 1 property owners to 10.93 mills and introducing a new area-wide general purposes levy that for the first time charges all borough property owners for services the borough charter has always authorized charging borough-wide, but which Service Area 1 taxpayers have been covering since borough formation. For Service Area 1 residents the new rate of 10.93 mills - an...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly gave first-reading approval last Monday to an ordinance raising sewer utility rates by 20 percent for fiscal year 2027, the latest step in a multi-year effort to cover the costs of aging infrastructure and heightened state and federal environmental compliance requirements. Ordinance #2026-11, which passed 7-0 and will require two more readings before taking effect, would increase the base residential monthly service charge from $56.79 to $68.15 for a standard mete...
“Petersburg is straight-up beautiful,” said State Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, pausing to appreciate the labrador tea and the muskeg wildflowers while walking the Hungry Point trail after a community potluck last Saturday. After the close of the 34th session of the Alaska Legislature, Himschoot visited Petersburg – part of House District 2, which she has represented for the past two terms. On the walk she reflected with the Pilot on the legislative session – it’s highs, lows, and painful vetoes. Three major bills — two vetoed Himschoot identified...
After more than a year of mounting community pressure over the locations of wireless broadband towers in Petersburg, the Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to advance a comprehensive wireless communications zoning ordinance on its first reading, encouraging the public to submit written comments during the two weeks before a scheduled public hearing June 1. The ordinance - 17 pages of amended municipal code accompanied by a seven-page explanatory memo from Community Development Director...
Two years after Petersburg voters rejected a sales tax cap increase by an incredibly narrow margin, the Borough Assembly voted 6-1 Monday to send the question back to the ballot this October. The ordinance, approved on its first reading, would ask borough voters at the October 6 municipal election whether to raise the maximum taxable amount on a single purchase from $1,200 to $5,000. If approved, the maximum sales tax collectible on any single transaction would rise from $72 to $300. The borough’s sales tax rate would remain at 6 percent. T...
At the Petersburg Community Foundation annual award reception Saturday, Desi Burrell was named 2026 Volunteer of the Year. Representing PCF, Glorianne Wollen, said the board's decision was unanimous and easy, citing Burrell's lifetime of community service. "She sees things that need doing, then she does them," Wollen said. Wollen described how the previous Saturday, Burrell was spotted at Sandy Beach with a shovel and a five-gallon bucket, cleaning up after other people's dogs to prepare the...
The Petersburg Community Foundation distributed grants totaling nearly $50,000 to nine local organizations at its annual award reception Saturday, highlighting during the event that the local foundation's invested endowment has officially crossed $1 million for the first time. Board chair Glorianne Wollen opened the ceremony by tracing the milestone back to the foundation's founding in 2008 as an affiliate of the Alaska Community Foundation, when its initial fundraising goal was $50,000. "It is...
Caleb Morrow is a journalism and communications student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. This week he arrived in Petersburg to join the newsroom as the Pilot's summer reporting intern. Morrow's path to journalism started in fourth grade, when he picked "sports journalist" on career day. During high school, when COVID shut down in-person events, he joined his school's broadcasting club that put Morrow behind a microphone doing play-by-play for football games that fans...
The first reading of an ordinance that would raise Petersburg electric utility rates by 4% starting on July, 1, 2026 came before the Petersburg Borough Assembly at last week’s meeting. The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 7–0 to advance Ordinance 2026-08, which updates electric utility rates and charges for fiscal year 2027. The increase was identified through the borough’s Waterworth financial forecasting software, which Utility Director Karl Hagerman implemented last year in place of the previous rate study process. For a typical residential...
The 68th year of Little Norway Festival opens Thursday, May 14, for four days of parades, smørbrød, live music, competitive herring-tossing and all manner of communal revelry that could only happen in this town. The celebration runs through Sunday, May 17. "I love that everybody comes to town," said Kelli Slaven, who coordinates the festival schedule for the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. "I love seeing all the people downtown - the kids running, familiar faces and new ones. It just kind of mak...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved the first-reading of an ordinance increasing the borough’s marine passenger fee by $3 per passenger, from $5 to $8, effective January 1, 2027. The fee is assessed once per cruise on marine passenger vessels upon first entry into any borough port. The borough has collected the fee since March 2018, using it to offset costs tied to cruise traffic — including restroom cleaning, janitorial services, library operations during the tourist season, and bridge and trail maintenance. The ordinance cites substantia...
This year's Little Norway Festival is bursting with music. Local acts take the festival's downtown main stage across Friday and Saturday this year, spanning jazz, classic rock, Appalachian folk and everything between. Evening shows at Kito's Kave and the Harbor Bar keep the live music rocking and the dance floor bumping into the middle of the night. And the weekend closes with a classical music piano concert at the Lutheran Church. "I absolutely love it," said Robyn Cardenas, who curated the...
