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The public advisory board for the Alaska Marine Highway System has recommended that the state call an end to the Matanuska's 53-year career in the fleet. The final decision whether to sell the unseaworthy ferry rests with the governor and his Department of Transportation commissioner. "There is currently no set timeline for action," said Sam Dapcevich, the department's spokesman. The 408-foot-long, 499-passenger ferry has been out of service since the fall of 2022, when it went into the...
No surprise, but the state ferry Matanuska, once the stalwart of the fleet, needs more than 120,000 pounds of new steel to replace extensive sections of rust on the ship. Launched in 1963, the Mat has endured decades of saltwater and seas. But no more—it is tied to the dock in Ketchikan, serving as floating housing for ferry workers. It has been held out of service since late 2022. The citizens advisory board that watches over the Alaska Marine Highway System has recommended the state “make all due effort” to officially remove the ship from...
A month after the Dunleavy administration put the Juneau Access Road back on the political map, the Alaska State Senate has clawed back $37 million in funds set aside in years past for the project as lawmakers try to scrap together enough funds to pass a balanced budget by next month. The Juneau Access funds are being redirected to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as part of the annual capital budget unanimously passed Tuesday by the Senate. Nearly all of the $2.9 billion budget consists of federal funds for...
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, encouraged members of the Alaska Legislature – and the public – to work together to get things done, despite major uncertainties caused by the Trump administration, as well as its cuts to budgets, personnel and programs. “I’ll tell you I accept the challenge. I want you to know that I’m going to do everything in my power to make the best of this,” Murkowski said, of her role in advocating for Alaska’s priorities in Congress. “We are engaging every day to try to identify where we are seeing challenges pres... Full story
March 13, 1925 – Talking to fish buyers and others the outlook for the halibut trade is none too flattering this year, although no man can tell what might happen before the season ends. One thing is certain, the closed season did not seem to boost prices, as was expected. It is claimed the cold storage plants were loaded up with fish. Some even claim that the Japanese helped to stock up the cold storage plants, but we can hardly believe that can be true. Word comes that more strict rules have been made in Seattle in grading, in weights and for...
March 6, 1925 – The Alaska salmon pack aggregated 5,285,210 cases for the past year. Southeastern Alaska led in the number of cases packed with 2,783,742 cases, which is more than the total output for the year. Central Alaska’s pack was 1,604,418 and Western Alaska 897,650. The Alaska pack was larger than for all of the rest of the world. March 3, 1950 – The increase in travel volume to Alaska in 1949 was greater than that to 47 of the states and was exceeded on the domestic travel scene only by travel to Puerto Rico, according to a surve...
Essential Air Service To the Editor: On Wednesday, February 19, I asked Senator Lisa Murkowski during a live and recorded town hall meeting if Essential Air Service would be protected from DOGE cuts. She stated she is “very worried about Essential Air Service.” Essential Air Service is a U.S. Department of Transportation program serving 65 rural communities in Alaska along with over 100 communities in the Lower 48, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The program was put into place to guarantee that communities that were served by certificated air car...
Passenger and vehicle traffic aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System moved slightly higher in 2024 from 2023, but still is less than half its peak from the early 1990s. The state ferries carried just over 185,000 passengers and about 65,000 vehicles last year on its routes stretching from Southeast to Prince William Sound and into several Gulf of Alaska coastal communities. That’s down from more than 400,000 passengers and 110,000 vehicles 1990-1992. And it’s down from more than 325,000 passengers as recently as the early 2010s. Marine Dir...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to cancel plans to replace the controllable-pitch propellers aboard the state ferry Columbia next year, opting to keep the 52-year-old ship in service until a replacement vessel is built. The propulsion system project was estimated in 2022 to cost as much as $20 million. The Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, serves the ferry system’s longest and most heavily traveled route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. It had been scheduled to head into a shipyard for much of next y...
As if years of political interference and, for many elected officials, disinterest weren’t enough to sink the Alaska Marine Highway System, rust and age could finish the job. Maybe the answer is some duct tape to keep the ships running just a little longer until they turn 65 years old and could qualify for Medicare. But that’s too long to wait — the marine highway needs urgent care. The ships are aging, which is a polite way of saying they are long past their prime and getting older and rustier. Salt water accelerates the process. The Matan...
January 16, 1925 – The bachelors are going to entertain the people of Petersburg at the Sons of Norway Hall on Saturday, January 17th. There will be entertainment, a big dinner and dancing. Everyone is cordially invited to attend. The bachelors are to be hosts and wish everyone to know that there will be no admittance or other charges. January 13, 1950 – With memories of last winter’s dry spell still fresh in their minds, citizens of Petersburg are watching the city’s water supply dwindle away to almost nothing this week. With her inadequ...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s transition report to the Trump administration accuses the Biden administration of carrying out a four-year assault on Alaska’s economy and that the Trump administration needs to repair the damage. Somehow in the equation for what constitutes creating economic opportunity and being pro-Alaska, the massive Willow project doesn’t count. Nor does the $10.1 billion in public investments in clean energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing. Nor does aiding Alaska’s visitor industry in a time of post-pandemic need. What about b...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has added Wi-Fi service for passengers aboard the state ferry Columbia - with other ships in the fleet to follow. The service, which initially will be free on the Columbia, started last month when the ship came out of a yearlong layup to take over the weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska when the Kennicott was pulled for its own yearlong layup for new generators. It's the first Alaska Marine Highway vessel "to provide free Wi-Fi access...
January 2024 A prized Mental Health Trust lot by Blind River Rapids, a popular recreation site for sport fishing, was sold at auction to a USCG family. Toler and Jessie Alexander are eager to return to Petersburg after retiring from the Coast Guard in a few years. The borough listed its top priority capital projects, and the Petersburg Medical Center replacement was first and second on the list – for the main hospital construction and the main hospital interior build out. Petersburg Indian A...
The five men lost in the sinking of a commercial fishing boat near Hoonah early Sunday had just delivered a load in Juneau and were making a last run before the fishing season ended. The Sitka-based Wind Walker was transiting out to North Pacific fishing grounds when the boat capsized about 25 miles southwest of Juneau, according to several fishing industry representatives. The National Weather Service had forecast gale-force winds in the area, as well as freezing spray and snow. The Coast...
Joey Chang says he was getting ready to depart the Hubbard state ferry after it docked in Kake on Saturday when suddenly the ship was no longer at the dock. "We are getting ready to get into the vehicle and we saw the opening of the ramp, and suddenly the whole ferry was moving away from the dock, and everybody got shocked and pretty much everyone froze up," he said. "The north wind was blowing so hard it pushed the ferry away from the dock." "And then I was looking at the rope, because the...
The proposed summer 2025 Alaska Marine Highway System schedule shows the same level of service to Petersburg as in the past several years: one ship serving the mainline route, with one stop northbound and one southbound each week. The Columbia will stop in Petersburg northbound on Sundays, on its run from Bellingham, Washington, through Southeast, then turn around in Skagway and stop on its southbound route on Wednesdays. It’s the same schedule as the Kennicott is running this year. The state ferry system is scheduled to pull the Kennicott out...
While planning and hoping for as much as $2 billion to replace its shrinking fleet of older ships over the next 20 years, the Alaska Marine Highway System also is looking at smaller things it can do to improve service in the near term. That will include Wi-Fi service on the ships; possibly more offerings or expanded bars; maybe even putting gift shops on the vessels. Federal money will pay for installing Wi-Fi. Increased bar service and possible gift shops will depend on whether the state ferry system can cover the costs, said Sam Dapcevich,...
In early August an ad-hoc meeting was held in Ketchikan by a group consisting of knowledgeable residents who had followed the Alaska Marine Highway Service (AMHS) since its inception in the early 1960s. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how to revise the system. We addressed AMHS maintenance: when vessels are taken out of service, why can’t they be promptly repaired? They could then be made ready for service. We discussed using money made available to AMHS through the Infrastructure Legislation to restructure the system. Finally, we d...
September 2, 1949 – Convicted on three out of six counts brought against him by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Frank Richardson, 72, was sentenced Wednesday by U. S. Commissioner Dale H. Hirt to thirty days in federal jail and fined a total of $750.* Richardson was apprehended on August 19 in Blind Slough by FWS Enforcement Agent L. J. Dugger. On that occasion the 45-year resident of West Petersburg was charged with fishing above the markers, using more than one net, using a gillnet, and fishing without a license or boat registration. On...
Rebecca Louise Norris Weisenburger was born on February 6, 1955, in Vallejo, California. Her father, Robert Edwin Norris, was a pastor and her mother, Ann Norris was a proud homemaker and an active member of their church. Becky joined her brother Mark and sister Debie. Soon after, their brother Dave was born. When she was four, the family moved to San Diego for a short while before settling in Salinas, California, where they were surrounded by lettuce farms and looked forward to regular trips to...
King Salmon: Beginning Monday, August 26, retention of king salmon is prohibited in all Southeast Alaska salt waters. King salmon may not be retained or possessed; any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed. These regulations will be in effect through Monday, September 30, 2024. Advisory Announcements with additional details and specific maps are available on our website. Coho Salmon: Coho are being caught in the saltwater as well as the streams. The run should continue to build from here into Septemb...
August 22, 1924 – Sealed bids are wanted at the office of the Second Assistant Postmaster General until 4 p.m., September 12, for a new mail route to be established from Petersburg once a month for Mountain Point Cannery, Green Rocks, Fair Island, Grief Island, Castle Island, Olympic Mine, Lung Island Level, Rays, Raeburn, Strait, Sumner, Conclusion, and Behrs Islands, to Monte Carlo, returning by the route, equal to 70 miles. This is the route to accommodate fox farmers for which the Petersburg Commercial Club has been working for the past s...
Petersburg this year will go without state ferry service for almost three weeks in late November and early December under the fall and winter schedule released Aug. 2. The service gap will occur between the time the Alaska Marine Highway System pulls the Kennicott out of service for major work and until it can transfer crew from the Kennicott to the Columbia, and outfit the Columbia, said Sam Dapcevich, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. The Columbia has been out service for repairs since last November. Other than the three-week...
July 18, 1924 – Two men, one masked, held up Ole Jackson aboard the gasboat Jiggs shortly after midnight in Auke Bay at Pelton Cove, and made their escape with $500 ($9,186.40 today) which Jackson had in a sack to purchase fish. Ole Jackson, who is a buyer for H.R. Thompson, of Juneau, left on the Jiggs from City Dock the same evening, going over the bar to Pelton Cove where he anchored for the night. About seven o’clock, Jackson turned in to make an early start in the morning for Hoonah and adjacent places to buy fish from trollers. Som...
