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With the firing of Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Executive Director Angela Rodell at the corporation’s quarterly board meeting, a full explanation needs to be provided to the public. Why is it logical to fire the person in charge of the state’s $83 billion nest egg, particularly after the fund’s value grew by 29.73 percent over the past year under her leadership? During her six years on the job the fund grew from $51 billion to $83 billion. Rodell has pushed for careful, thoughtful management of the fund and has advocated for a conservative...
The October borough election brings clarity to both borough administrative staff and elected officials as they assess the needs for mandates and new policies during the ongoing pandemic including COVID testing, social distancing, masking and vaccination policies. The bold and brash campaign statement, “Nobody’s been listening,” in reference to elected officials was proven false by the electorate. Elected persons on the assembly, school board and hospital board clearly were listening to all sides of the COVID issue and wisely chose optio...
We encourage a NO VOTE on Proposition #2, which seeks to remove the Frederick Point East Subdivision from Borough Service Area 1. Changes to Service Area 1 boundaries proposed under the proposition are unnecessary and ill advised. In 2012 voters approved the creation of the Petersburg Borough boundaries. Terms for governing and taxing the borough were established, and the measure passed with 55% approval by the voters. Proponents argue few to no services are available to the Frederick Point East (FPE) property owners and consequently they pay t...
A new group of citizens are advocating in favor of SEARHC to provide for the future health care needs of Petersburg. After all, it worked in Wrangell after the community leadership grew weary of writing checks to keep their facility operating. Petersburg is however a different story. Petersburg Medical Center is financially self-sufficient and carries an investment account balance enabling them to get through occasional lean times. They have an attentive hospital board that is elected to seats...
We congratulate Joyce Cummings on her semi-retirement from her 35-year tenure at First Bank. We have observed first-hand Cummings commitment to her work and her fellow employees. Over the years she became an expert at mortgage loan production and has been repeatedly named as a top loan producer by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation in Southeast Alaska. For decades we have watched as she trained new employees and branch managers about all things Petersburg as it related to First Bank. She...
It's been almost a year since the Petersburg Borough was made aware of raw sewage being dumped from a home owned by Courtney Johnson at 410 Mitkof Highway. At Tuesday's assembly meeting, assembly member Jeff Meucci asked borough officials to give a report at the next meeting on the status of the order of abatement issued last summer. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said it looks like the borough will be forced to shut the water off to the home, making in uninhabitable. First, officials will...
The word is already out. Pilot reporter Brian Varela is leaving Petersburg this week. His 3-year Petersburg career is drawing to a close. He's moving up in the world and will write for the 45,000 circulation Ventura County Star, a DAILY newspaper in Camarillo, California, just a stone's throw from his hometown of Oxnard. As a matter of fact, his beat will be his hometown. When Brian arrived three years ago, we had some problems. Not with him, but the education he received from a university...
Despite the fact that there were specific reasons why the five landless communities of Haines, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg and Tenakee were not included in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, legislation is being crafted to grant each community 23,040 acres of land from the Tongass. Natives in these communities did not meet the requirements for inclusion under the legislation. In Petersburg's case, natives from surrounding villages came here to fish and hunt each summer and retu...
Tim and Polly Koeneman were looking for a fun performance car, in 2003 when they decided to steer away from "traditional investments," and purchased a 1967 Shelby American GT350 from Scott Steward, Secretary/Treasurer of Auto Purchasing Agency, Inc of Pasadena, California. Tim told the Pilot, "I have been following cars for a number of years and knew that Shelbys had kept their value well through the years since Shelby American quit producing the cars after the 1967 model year. "The 1967 model w...
A suggestion by Assembly member Taylor Norheim that term limits are needed for borough assembly seats is yet another solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Norheim says it will, "free things up for other people," to run. As long as former counselor Marc Martinsen continues to place his name on the borough ballot, it proves to us the term limit won't create more open or robust elections for the borough. Besides, assembly members themselves spoke against the proposal. Assembly member Tremblay...
Changes to Service Area 1 boundaries proposed under Ordinance 2021-08 are unnecessary and ill advised. The issue has nothing to do with services available to the Frederick Point East (FPE) property owners. They currently pay the lowest tax assessments for their properties. Millage rates don't have to be revised. Because they lack amenities available to other property in Service Area 1, the assessments reflect that fact. A waterfront 12,000 sq. ft. lot in the Frederick Point East subdivision is...
We're getting closer to achieving the required herd immunity levels needed to abate the spread of COVID -19 and the expanding variants as the virus mutates across the worlds' populations. According to the State of Alaska, Petersburg is second from the top (behind Skagway) in attaining the most vaccinations. Petersburg's rate stands at 72.94 percent as of Wednesday. Vaccine hesitancy is the major roadblock to the U.S. achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe...
The Supreme Court of the State of Alaska ruled last month that Superior Court Judge William Carey acted correctly in disqualifying Petersburg Attorney Fred Triem from representing the Estate of Helen A. Lingley and upheld his order dismissing the lawsuit filed by Triem against Alaska Airlines, Inc. and its supervisor Dan Kane. Triem filed the lawsuit for the wrongful termination of Lingley, from the company in December 2012 after the woman was terminated from her customer service position in...
It should be obvious by now that no amount of peer reviewed science or proven medical knowledge is going to change the minds of those who choose to ignore common sense guidelines to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Masking, social distancing and good hygiene have all been proven to flatten the curve of infections and hospitalizations here and across the country. The fact that Petersburg has moved from a handful of positive COVID-19 tests to 36 in the past week is because the basic...
Today (Feb. 11) will be a significant day for hundreds of Petersburg residents who head to the community gym for the second dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. Yet others received their first dose of the vaccine last week. Petersburg is taking yet another step towards a more normal life which we expect could bring an end to mandates, masks and the endless arguments being made in opposition to the health mandates that have clearly enabled Petersburg to minimize infections that have largely been...
We applaud the work of the entire Petersburg Medical Center staff and everyone that worked with them to get over 350 COVID vaccinations into the arms of residents last Thursday. The vaccination effort was a seamless, speedy and efficient undertaking that should be copied by any community providing mass vaccination clinics for their citizens. No doubt the process will become even more streamlined as additional vaccine doses are delivered and administered in the coming months. This is proof once...
Overall, Petersburg doesn't look like a town in distress. We've seen what happens in "down" years, and there is no resemblance. Charitable giving is generally up and local businesses appear to be doing well with only a few exceptions. As we mentioned last week, the city's distribution of $3.9 million in CARES funding was a part of it. (See breakout above) The biggest factor however appears to be from 539 local businesses and boats applying for and receiving over $15.08 million in SBA's Economic...
It's clear that the actions of Petersburg's Emergency Operations Center, the Petersburg Medical Center staff and the State Public Health Nurse have played a huge part in keeping the Covid-19 virus at bay on Mitkof Island. The actions of these officials have been questioned, marginalized, and outright rejected in some cases. Public health leaders are constantly attempting to balance the impact of their decisions against the health consequences of inaction. It has nothing to do with restricting...
I'm a newspaper addict. I can't help myself. I love reading newspapers, printed on newsprint, in color or in black and white. Smaller community newspapers, like the Petersburg Pilot are of more interest to me. On family vacations, I buy every newspaper I can find in convenience stores or gas stations. Sometimes co-publisher Anne drives while I take in the news from the towns we drive through. I have this theory that stories in every community newspaper are much the same, just with different...
A new 20-ft. x 40-ft. tent has been erected at the Petersburg airport to provide shelter for hospital employees providing COVID testing services for passengers arriving at the airport each day. Emergency operations center director Karl Hagerman said the new tent encompasses the same size footprint as the three tents and trailer that were in place this summer. "The tent survived the wind test this weekend," according to Hagerman. The airport experienced wind gusts up to 40 mph and sustained...
The Aspen Daily News in Aspen, Colorado runs a statement every day on their front page Flag that states: “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.” It’s a bit brash for our taste, but the words apply to this newspaper when it comes to public record reporting that appears on our pages. Recently we’ve had three persons request that we remove police and court reports that pertain to cases they were involved in. They cite invasion of privacy concerns and correctly state that the information will jeopardize future hiring opportuniti...
We’ve had phone calls from a handful of people about our use of the photo and page one coverage of last week’s fatal Mitkof Highway crash. It saddens us to have to report on such a tragedy that impacts the lives of so many in both Wrangell and Petersburg. We don’t take pleasure in covering such stories. It wasn’t covered to sell newspapers. We covered the story because it is our job to provide information about a tragic event that struck close to home. We placed it on page one because it was the most important story of the week. The acciden...
2,132 Alaskans are reported infected with the Covid-19 virus along with 487 non-residents as of July 21. Petersburg has had zero active cases of COVID-19 since Thursday, July 17 according to Borough Incident Commander Karl Hagerman. We count ourselves among the lucky simply because we live on this isolated island. If we counted on elected officials for a long overdue permanent emergency ordinance, we'd be disappointed. The borough assembly by a vote of 4-3 decided to delay the final passage of...
We love public comments. So do public officials, in both elected and administrative positions. It's a part of the public process and the resulting discussions are critical to maintaining the democratic process that holds communities together. At Wednesday's assembly meeting, some were critical of a proposed ordinance that amended the provisions of the Borough Code on civil emergencies. Some comments were civil in their presentation but one writer felt the need to threaten elected officials with...
The following editorial was posted to the newspaper website on Monday, July 13. My goodness. Doesn't anyone pay attention to the details? Short-term mandates proposed by the Petersburg Emergency Operations Center are necessary to prevent the spread of the Corona virus and resulting Covid-19 infections. Some mandates are voluntary. Some are short-term. Some are longer term. The borough assembly establishes termination dates for all legislation they enact. The EOC is granted its authority by the...
