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Petersburg residents are set to see the assessed value of their residential properties go up this year brought on by the current real estate market. According to a report from the Appraisal Company of Alaska, the majority of the increases to assessed residential property values in Petersburg will range from 10% to 20%. Assessors Mike Renfro and Martins Onskulis with the Appraisal Company of Alaska gave their report on the 2023 estimated tax assessments for the borough during Monday's Petersburg...
With the announcement earlier this week that the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery would go on two-hour notice at 8 a.m. Thursday, Fish and Game held a virtual meeting Tuesday for permit holders, processors, subsistence harvesters and others involved in the annual herring harvest. Effective Thursday morning, Fish and Game can open a location for purse seining on as little as two hours of advance notice. More than four dozen individuals attended Tuesday’s virtual meeting. Fish and Game area management biologist Aaron Dupuis led the Zoom v...
Petersburg High School graduate Izabelle Ith was announced as one of the eleven members of the Alaska High School Hall of Fame Class of 2023 earlier this month. The Hall of Fame honors individuals who exhibited integrity while achieving excellence in high school athletics and activities according to the Alaska School Activities Association. During her high school career, Ith was a leader on the track, in the pool, and in the classroom. Ith won four state track titles in the 100-meter hurdles...
March 23, 1923 – Adrift in the waters of the north Pacific Ocean for exactly one year, to the day, a bottle thrown overboard from the steamer Belgium Maru was picked up on the beach at Totem Bay this week by Roald Olsen and delivered to T.S. Elsemore, deputy in charge of the local Customs office. The bottle was thrown overboard by the Captain of the steamer on the 19th day of March 1922, and was found on the 19th day of March 1923 by Olsen. It contained a notice to the U.S. Hydrographic Office with the information that it was cast overboard at...
An interactive workshop focused on equipping community members with the skills to get involved in the Federal Subsistence Board process will be held this Saturday, March 25 at John Hanson Hall. The community workshop will be put on by Ashley Bolwerk, a subsistence fish biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, and Heather Bauscher with the Sitka Conservation Society. Bolwerk and Bauscher developed the workshop in order to help residents better understand the Federal Subsistence Board process and...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is short more than 100 new crew to safely and dependably put the Kennicott to sea. Without enough onboard workers, the state ferry system will start the summer schedule in six weeks with its second-largest operable ship tied up for lack of crew. Though management has said they could put the Kennicott into service if they can hire enough new employees, filling all the vacancies would represent more than a 20% gain in current ferry system crew numbers, setting a very high hurdle to untie the ship this summer. The...
The Alaska House Education Committee voted 5-2 Wednesday morning to raise the amount Alaska pays K-12 schools per student, a figure known as the base student allocation. The decision followed five hours of public testimony — almost entirely in favor of the idea — Tuesday night in the Capitol. Advocates for public schools say an increase is needed to compensate for inflation-driven increases in the cost to educate Alaska students. Two members of the House’s predominantly Republican coalition majority voted in favor of the increase, a sign that... Full story
Educational systems are vital infrastructure To the Editor: I appreciated Dave Ellis’ letter you printed a few issues ago. Dave’s letters have always caused me to pause and think. For what it’s worth, what I’m thinking about now is ongoing discussions about payouts from our Alaska Permanent Fund. When I arrived in Petersburg in the mid-1970s I had no “marketable” skills, but there was plenty of work as long as there was fish to process. After a few years crewing on seiners, I took advantage of a state loan program for secondary education which...
After years of legislative debate over the size of the Permanent Fund dividend, reasonable voices are starting to grow louder, maybe even hopefully strong enough to outvote the irresponsible catcalls for an unaffordable dividend. It’s a welcome change. A bill in the House would restore dividend sanity by setting the free-money check at a percentage of the annual draw of Permanent Fund earnings, producing about a $1,300 PFD this year and growing from there. That would be about equal to the average dividend of the past decade, before the e...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board named a new CEO during its meeting earlier this month while the need for additional generation remained a central talking point according to a report from Vice Mayor Bob Lynn and Utility Director Karl Hagerman. The SEAPA Board selected Robert Siedman as the agency's new CEO, pending contract negotiations. Siedman was appointed as acting CEO at the December board meeting and is set to replace former CEO Trey Acteson who retired from the role at the end of...
March 15 – An officer responded to a disturbance on Birch Street and determined it was non-criminal. There is an on-going investigation into a disturbance on South Nordic Drive. An officer spoke with a complainant about suspicious activity on Chief John Lott Street. An officer assisted a citizen on South Nordic Drive. March 16 – An officer assisted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on South Nordic Drive. An officer provided after hours lock-out assistance on Dolphin Street. An officer conducted a welfare check on Cornelius Road. Petersburg Polic...
March 10, 2023 Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy presided over a bail review hearing in State of Alaska v Ramona Short. The request was granted and the defendant was released on their own recognizance with all previously ordered conditions of release remaining in place. March 15, 2023 Superior Court Judge Katherine Lybrand presided over the trial call in State of Alaska v Dylan Barger. The trial call was continued until April 12 with trial week scheduled for April 24 and the associated warrant was quashed. In the arraignment on the charge...
Petersburg Lutheran Church invites the community of Petersburg to attend their first service on Sunday, March 26 at 10 a.m. There will be a coffee hour following worship to give everyone an opportunity to meet and welcome Pastors Deborah and Tim....
The Petersburg High School boys basketball team closed out its season at the ASAA State Championships last weekend in Anchorage, finishing fifth in the 2A tournament. "My first thought is that we 100% absolutely belonged there," Head Coach Rick Brock said. "I was real happy we went, glad just because they worked so hard and it's an honor and a privilege to go up there and I'm so happy we got the at-large bid and then played well up there." The Vikings earned their spot with a 58-55 win in the...
KAKE -The last time the Kake high school boys basketball team appeared in a state championship game was more than two decades ago. The team was competing in Division 2A and current head coach Anthony Ross, who went by Anthony Dolan at the time, was on the team that came up short in a 10-point loss to Angoon in the 2000 state title game. In its first trip back to big stage since the turn of the century, Kake ended a nearly four-decade title drought by blowing out the Aniak Halfbreeds 67-49 in...
Dozens of Alaskans testified in the state Capitol on Monday, urging lawmakers to advance a new anti-discrimination measure that would protect Alaskans from being denied housing or access to public accommodations because of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. House Bill 99, from Rep. Jennifer Armstrong, D-Anchorage, is being considered by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, which heard two hours of public testimony, almost entirely in support of the idea. Members of the committee have received more than 1,000 emails... Full story
After putting their dinner theater fundraiser on hold three years ago, the Clausen Museum is looking forward to hosting a song and dance production with a cast of twenty eight local thespians this Friday and Saturday at the Sons of Norway Hall. The Boardwalk, written by Sue Paulsen and Cathy Cronlund, will take diners back to the Roaring Twenties, when the streets of Petersburg were made of wood. "The show highlights the booming economic times that spurred the growth of Petersburg and drove...
Harper Tasche Jordan, 61, died at his home in Kent, Washington on March 6, 2023. Tasche Mark Daniel Jordan was born March 29, 1961 in Chehalis, Washington, to Paul and Frieda Jordan. Growing up in beautiful rural Petersburg influenced his lifelong passions for music and nature; he composed and recorded a soundtrack for the U.S. Forest Service at age 13, and learned to play all the instruments in his high school band's storage room. Harper graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree... Full story
