Articles from the September 21, 2023 edition


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  • Planning Commission recommends rezoning Skylark parcel

    Olivia Rose|Sep 21, 2023

    During a regular meeting on Sept. 12, the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a recommendation to change the zoning of Government Lot 14, which is owned by Skylark Park LLC. The property is currently zoned as public use. However, owner Ambre Burrell proposed a rezoning to single-family mobile home, citing the intention to subdivide the 5-acre parcel into lots for placement of manufactured homes. The proposal asks to make this amendment because the property area is "mis zoned."...

  • School District confident in student safety after threat

    Olivia Rose|Sep 21, 2023

    The Petersburg School District said they are confident in the safety of students and staff at school, following a credible threat made by a student last Thursday. The school responded to the threat with an investigation in cooperation with law enforcement. The Petersburg Police Department told the Pilot there is no present danger to the school. “We evaluated the threat and … we don’t see it as a threat to the students or to the public,” said PPD Chief Jim Kerr. Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter told the Pilot that the situation began when a...

  • Fall migration

    Sep 21, 2023

  • Yesterday's News News from 25-50-75-100 years ago

    Sep 21, 2023

    September 21, 1923 – Earl N. Ohmer this week received a sea sled which was designed and built for him by S.V.B. Miller of Seattle and Gregory Hildebrand of the Fair Island fox ranch. The boat is twenty feet long, equipped with a 60-horsepower Scripps engine and at present makes about twenty miles an hour. Ohmer has been tuning up the engine during the past few days and says he expects to get considerably better speed out of the boat. September 24, 1948 – Heavy winds were given as the reason for damage caused to the boat Wave last Sunday at Gri...

  • To the Editor

    Sep 21, 2023

    Do we really need a new hospital? To the Editor: When I first heard about the hospital project, like many of you, I had a lot of questions. Do we really need a new hospital? The clinic, which is the part I mainly visit, looks great. And, how in the world would we pay for an $85 million facility? Phil Hostetter and the hospital board informed me on both questions. First, they started with a study of the current hospital. The original hospital, where Long Term Care is located, dates to the 1950s and is failing rapidly due to poor plumbing and...

  • Police report

    Sep 21, 2023

    September 13 – Petersburg Police Department received a report of a dog barking on Excel Street. The owner brought it inside. A report of theft was filed. September 14 – An officer conducted a welfare check on Skylark Way. An officer responded to a report of a suspicious incident on North Nordic Drive. PPD received a report of property lost on Sing Lee Alley. A search warrant was executed. PPD received a report of suspicious activity on Haugen Drive. September 15 – An officer responding to the report of a bear getting into trash on Lumber Stree...

  • Rainforest mushrooms

    Sep 21, 2023

    After sharing a presentation about Southeast's species of mushrooms on Thursday night at the public library, members of the community had the opportunity to find fungi out in the wild during Gregovich's mushroom walks on Friday and Saturday. Pictured above, he answers a participant's question after the group had sorted through the table of mushrooms they collected during the event's 30-minute free-for-all 'shroom hunt at Sandy Beach....

  • "Psychiatrists don't grow on trees" PMC receives grant for new behavioral health model

    Olivia Rose|Sep 21, 2023

    The Petersburg Medical Center is introducing a new program for psychiatric care under the behavioral health department, with the support of a $300 thousand federal grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). The Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) is a one-year grant that HRSA awarded PMC to “address immediate needs in rural areas through improving access, capacity and sustainability of prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorder,” according to the language of the grant. PMC is...

  • PHS cross country ramps up towards regionals

    Liam Demko|Sep 21, 2023

    With two dominant performances under their belt in Klawock and Wrangell, Petersburg High School's cross country team is training harder and harder as they get closer to regionals. They faced tough competition at their third meet in Sitka last weekend and met the challenge head on. "[It was the] biggest race in Southeast. About 260 kids racing, around 160 boys, 100 girls," said head coach Casey Gates. "It's [all] wearing on the kids-as to be expected-but they're enduring it." Despite the...

  • PHS swim continues to train hard and race harder

    Liam Demko|Sep 21, 2023

    Petersburg High School’s swim team of two is quickly accelerating towards the back half of their season with another strong performance in Juneau last weekend. After an above and beyond first meet in Sitka, the duo of Logan Tow and Brooklyn Whitethorn are training harder and harder each week with the goal of a successful regionals, and possibly state. “I'm pretty excited. I think they both might qualify for the state meet,” said head coach Andy Carlisle. Tow and Whitethorn both had standout showings across the course of last weekend’s two-day...

  • Hungarian exchange student enjoys Petersburg

    Jake Clemens|Sep 21, 2023

    Petersburg's new Rotary Youth Exchange student from Hungary, Sara Eszik, says she's "really happy to be in Alaska." She had requested the U.S./Canada, followed by Finland and Taiwan. "I feel like I got kind of a two-for-one between the U.S. and Finland, getting to come to Alaska," Eszik muses. "I don't feel homesick at all," declares Eszik, explaining that there are four stages to the experience of a typical exchange student. In the first stage, everything feels good and exciting, with little...

  • Fall Dungeness opens Oct. 1 with 1.3 million pounds expected

    Olivia Rose|Sep 21, 2023

    The numbers are in from the summer season of the Southeast Alaska commercial Dungeness crab fishery which closed in mid-August. Over the two months that the season was open, 2.58 million pounds of Dungeness crab was harvested in Registration Area A, with 148 permit holders reporting landings. Joseph Stratman of the Department of Fish and Game says the department estimates another 1.3 million pounds will be harvested once the fall season opens Oct. 1. The Department of Fish and Game does not conduct surveys for Dungeness crab stock, instead the...

  • In new challenges to Tongass 'Roadless Rule,' pro-logging arguments have disappeared

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Sep 21, 2023

    The state of Alaska, a coalition of business groups and a pair of electric-power organizations have opened a new round in the generation-long fight over environmental protections in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. On Sept. 8, the state and two other groups of plaintiffs filed three separate federal lawsuits to challenge a Biden administration rule restricting new roads in parts of the forest, which is home to some of America’s last stands of old-growth trees. Each lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to ove...

  • Library Board Candidates Questionnaire

    Sep 21, 2023

    Mary Ellen Anderson Why have you chosen to run for Library Board at this time? I love being on the library board and serving my community. I'm very well suited as the former elementary school librarian at Stedman-a position I held for 19 years. I started early in the library world, numbering and checking out my dad's classic Dickens collection to neighborhood friends when I was about 10. Oddly enough, there were only a couple takers. I then worked for the library in high school, and as an adult...

  • Public Safety Advisory Candidates Questionnaire

    Sep 21, 2023

    Stan Hjort Why have you chosen to run for Public Safety Board at this time? I have chosen to run for the Public Safety Board again because I am familiar with safety issues having been an engineer officer on AMH. What personal and professional experience do you bring to this role? As an engineer on AMH, I was supervisor of a crew of up to 6 employees. What do you define as the role of the Public Safety Advisory Board in Petersburg? The role of the Safety Board is to stay in touch with citizens co...

  • Artifact Archive

    Sep 21, 2023

    Shipwrights of the past, as part of their apprenticeships, built a tool chest for the storage of their tools. Petersburg Shipwrights founder Fred Paulsen carried this toolbox from The Gloucester Marine Railways in Massachusetts to Petersburg, Alaska. Shipwright boxes were typically painted drab colors and had rope handles so as not to draw attention to their costly contents. Outfitted with wooden shelves and drawers, they protected and organized the tools of the trade – caulking mallets, a...

  • Commercial golden king crab fishermen hopeful for management changes following record-breaking season

    Chris Basinger|Sep 21, 2023

    Golden king crabs appear to have returned to Frederick Sound en masse after years of low commercial harvests, but it remains to be seen how much crab will be up for grabs for fishermen next season. The commercial golden king crab fishery in Southeast, which typically opens in mid-February, is regulated by an annual recommended harvest strategy developed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Under the harvest strategy, the department establishes a guideline harvest level (GHL) and a...

  • Study: Alaska is failing to keep most Alaska-born residents

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Sep 21, 2023

    More than half of Alaskans born within the state have moved away, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A state’s ability to retain native-born residents is an indicator of its economic health and attractiveness, and Alaska ranked near the bottom of the analysis conducted by University of North Florida professor Madeline Zavodny and two experts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Using data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey, they found Alaska retained 48....