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The Petersburg Borough Assembly narrowly rejected a resolution Monday that would have authorized police to dispatch approximately four black bears that Petersburg Police Chief James Kerr says his officers have identified through repeated unsuccessful attempts at non-lethal deterrence. The resolution failed by a single vote after Kerr presented evidence of what he described as "learned behavior" by specific bears. "We've tried paintballs, pepper balls," Kerr told the Pilot. "Pepper balls is like...
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The Alaska Legislature, meeting in special session, has overridden Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of more than $50 million in public school funding. The vote was 45-14. At least 45 of 60 legislators are needed to override an Alaska governor’s budget veto. The override eliminates a 5.6% year-over-year cut to public school funding, leaving districts with a small funding increase. Since July 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year, oil prices have significantly exceeded the state’s spring forecast, and if that trend continues, the state would have mo... Full story
The Alaska Legislature overrode Governor Mike Dunleavy’s veto of state education funding at a special session on Saturday. Earlier this year, lawmakers approved a $700 increase in the per-student funding formula known as the base student allocation (BSA). Using his line-item veto power, the governor reduced that increase by $200. The override undoes the governor’s veto. Both of Petersburg’s state lawmakers, Senator Bert Stedman (R-Sitka) and Representative Rebecca Himschoot (I-Sitka) voted in favor of the override. Petersburg Super...
August 7, 1925 – There was a time when trollers in Alaskan waters lived on a crust of bread and enjoyed few luxuries and far between, but now ‘all the comforts of home’ are available for the fleet, even unto a fresh milk diet. For instance the Dairy and Grocery of Petersburg ships some 90 gallons of fresh milk on every mail boat to Port Alexander. Whether trollers do better on a ‘milk diet’ than they formerly did on ‘sourdough goulash’ or whatever they could rake together quickly on a gasboat for a meal, is something for the scientists to...
We Deserve More Than Shrugs To the Editor: I’m writing because my patience has completely run out. For months, my garbage cans have been pillaged by bears while the troopers and Fish and Game do absolutely nothing – unless you count shrugging, handing out useless advice as ‘action’ and threats of fines. Frankly, I’m tired of watching my street turn into a dumpster buffet for wildlife while the powers that be don’t lift a finger. It’s bad enough that I have to spend my mornings cleaning up after oversized, uninvited guests. Worse, our kids have...
The state is taking money that was appropriated for one bad idea almost a generation ago and spending it on an equally wasteful idea. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Department of Transportation, which manages the Alaska Marine Highway System, has signed a $28.5 million contract to start work toward a new ferry terminal at Cascade Point, 40 long road miles north of downtown Juneau. The money is coming from a kitty left over from a long-ago appropriation to build a longer road between Juneau and Haines or Skagway. The billion-dollar road was never b...
July 30 - An officer responded to a report of a bear on Kiseno Street. The bear could not be located. An officer cleared trash from the street on Haugen Drive. An officer responded to a report of a bear on Kiseno Street. The bear could not be located. A subpoena was served on S Nordic Drive. Unsecured trash was drug onto property on Hungerford Hill Road. The responsible party was contacted to remove. An officer responded to a report of a bear walking through the area of 4th & Fram, but the bear had kept walking and couldn’t be located. July 3...
Teams: Team 1 (Julie Walker, Mamie Nilsen) Swim split: 08:06 Bike split: 44:00 Run final time: 1:15:10 Team 2 (Hakon Eddy, Arya Holmgrain, Savina Pawuk) Swim split: 06:16 Bike split: 42:53 Run final time: 1:12:03 Team 3 (Caitlyn Ware, Brenna McMahon, Alice Wegener) Swim split: 11:23 Bike split: 46:56 Run final time: 1:29:25 Team 4 (Scott May, Bridget Wittstock, Mary Clemens) Swim split: 07:02 Bike split: 42:11 Run final time: 1:18:56 Individual: Noah Pawuk Swim split: 06:51 Bike split: 34:03...
In a new administrative action, Gov. Mike Dunleavy is ordering “efficiency reviews” of state agencies and asking departments to use artificial intelligence software as part of an effort to identify budget cuts. The reviews will take place annually, according to Dunleavy’s new administrative order, published Monday, and would become part of the state’s annual budget process. The reviews will initially focus on “grants to non-State of Alaska entities” and “accounts payable,” according to a copy of the text available online. The reviews are int... Full story
The Clausen Museum is featuring a special exhibit, "Recollections of Point Agassiz: The Life and Times of Point Agassiz Settlers" during the month of August. "The Point Agassiz News" was a regular column that ran in the Petersburg Press during the 1920s and 1930s, when nine homesteading families were building houses and barns while farming the fertile meadows between Clear Creek and Brown Cove on Point Agassiz. The following examples illustrate how the column detailed the comings and goings and...
Larry Arthur Matheny was born on February 24, 1943, to Beauford (Bill) and Pauline (Polly) Matheny in Juneau, Alaska. After Larry graduated from Juneau Douglas High School he went on to study Art and Design in Colorado before returning to Juneau and enlisting in the Army National Guard. During his 6-year enlistment Larry was briefly married to his first wife and had his son Lon Wayne Matheny. In 1971 Larry met Shirley Birchell in Juneau, Alaska, and they married on June 2, 1972, and together... Full story
To better understand the hydrology of their neighboring island, Petersburg middle schoolers mapped Coho Creek on July 30. The trip to Kupreanof Island was part of the summertime Wonder Camp series facilitated by the Petersburg Public Library and Alaska Sea Grant, a marine science education organization. The camp provides opportunities for middle schoolers to learn more about the environment around them, with the help of experts. This trip's expert was Emil Tucker, a hydrologist for the U.S....
The opportunity is growing for home builders in Petersburg to use locally milled Tongass timber in their new building projects. The sawmill on Falls Creek Road - Alaska Timber and Truss, owned in partnership by Brett Martin and Mike Duman - is offering complete home and cabin kits using locally harvested timber. The operation produces solid wall and timber frame cabin kits and larger stick-built home packages. "The cabin kits are kind of more of a traditional size ... generally speaking, under...
After putting her two-year-old daughter, Sonora, to bed, Jenna Wilson-Ashby picks green beans in one of her two greenhouses on a recent evening in Petersburg. It's her eighth year tending this garden, and she understands the ups and downs involved with growing food in Southeast Alaska. This year has proven to be a challenging growing season thanks to the continuous rain and cool temperatures throughout May and June. "That's okay, we'll try again next year," she says, describing how only 40 of...
Perched quietly above Petersburg Dental on S Nordic Drive, Cherise and Jay Lister's two-suite Inn, The Nordic House, might be easy to overlook from the sidewalk; but as visitors ascend the stairs and step into their newly renovated Hjem Suite, the transformation is immediate. Soft northern light floods the space from large windows framing deep blue waterside views, transporting guests into a world entirely removed from the streetscape below. What started as a simple lighting upgrade turned into...
"The best architecture reflects someone's worldview." This idea was one of the first things to come to mind for Linda Millard when describing the home she designed for herself and her husband Sam Bergeron on a quiet, wooded lot along Sandy Beach Road. Tall trees rise around the house that the two-a practicing architect and contractor-designed and built themselves; its charred-wood exterior blends into the deep tones of the Tongass rainforest, while broad windows open out toward the water...
“You’re in heaven for slugs here,” Casey H. Richart, Ph.D. told a Holy Cross House packed with farmers, when the Southeast Alaska Farmers Summit was held in Petersburg back in 2023. “They’ll graze your bok choy, your lettuce,” Richard told the grimly silent farmers. He described slugs as vectors of plant diseases, and pathogens to humans including E. coli, Rat Lungworm, and other infections that can lead to meningitis. On top of that, said Richart, “Slugs are an aesthetic pest. Slug poop is even less attractive than slugs, then there’s the hole...
From the street, it's hard to guess what's tucked beneath the roofline of Zach Peeler and Maura Moyer's sleek, gray, two-door garage near Hungry Point. What began as a simple workshop design-a place for tools and a space to store Zach's jet boat-evolved with their relationship. As the couple grew closer, the project grew as well, expanding from a bachelor's workshop into the pair's first home together. "[The living space] was going to be a lot more modest, tiny, like almost [just a room] in the...
I've called the Petersburg area home for four years now, and I can tell you this is not an easy place to be a gardener. Incessant rain, lack of warmth and sun, sour peat soil and hungry wildlife all seem to make growing anything other than moss and ferns an uphill battle. Gardening demands a lot of effort, and seeing your precious plants get eaten up or slowly drowned after all the time and money you spent nurturing them is truly disheartening. Can a fruit tree really be called that if it never...
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