Sorted by date Results 926 - 950 of 1808
The borough assembly appointed Bob Lynn as Petersburg’s voting member on the Southeast Alaska Power Agency board of directors and Robert Larson as the alternate member for 2019 at an assembly meeting on Monday. This will be Lynn’s second year serving as Petersburg voting member on the SEAPA board. In his letter of interest, Lynn said he wanted to continue working on a long-term plan to replace the high-cost structural portions of a grid that has reached the end of its life span, a project that began during his first year on the board. He sta...
The borough assembly wisely voted against sending Mayor Jensen’s letter to Viking Cruise Lines asking them to refrain from bringing their ships here until Petersburg can determine what level of tourism it can handle. The letter suggested that Petersburg can only handle 250 visitors per day. In fact, Petersburg regularly handles much larger numbers throughout the summer in addition to summer cannery workers and visitors arriving on the airlines and ferries. Sales tax revenue from visitors is needed to replenish the borough coffers as more and m...
At a borough assembly meeting on Monday, Mayor Mark Jensen gave description of some of the information he heard at the Alaska Conference of Mayors (ACOFM) and the Alaska Municipal League annual conference in Anchorage from Nov.14 - 16. The Alaska Conference of Mayors (ACOFM) is the parent organization of the Alaska Municipal League (AML). Both organizations work together to establish a municipal consensus on state and federal issues that affect local governments in Alaska. At the ACOFM, Jensen was elected as the officer for municipalities with...
On Monday, a budget policy document will be presented to the borough assembly at their first meeting of the month for the 2020 fiscal year. The document is a general outline of the structure that the assembly wants borough department heads to create their budget around, according to borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht. It will be the first step towards creating next year’s budget and give a hint at what decisions the borough assembly is going to make to balancing the budget. “I hate to sound mysterious, but it’s kind of one of those thing...
At a board meeting last week, the Petersburg Medical Center board of directors approved $20,000 to work with DOWL, a project management firm, on the facility project. DOWL will be looking at space requirements and the possible location for a new or remodeled PMC facility. They will also build off existing work and progress that has been made towards the project to avoid repeating work that has already been done. “They can have a product to us in about six weeks to really kind of determine those kinds of aspects,” said PMC CEO Phil Hof...
The borough assembly held a second public hearing on Monday to allow the community to share feedback on Ordinance #2018-18, which will provide an updated development code for the borough. Two community members were present to give their opinions on the ordinance. Tor Benson expressed confusion with square feet requirements in certain parts of the code. In one instance, he said the code could be simplified to have a 800 sq. ft. accessory dwelling with the opportunity to build a primary dwelling later that is larger than 800 sq. ft. “A lot of t...
At the recommendation of Harbormaster Glo Wollen, the borough assembly awarded Tamico, Inc. a bid amount not to exceed $188,500 for the demolition and the reconstruction of the timber dock adjacent to the Harbor Office. The base bid is $187,500 and includes the demolition and reconstruction of the dock. Materials for the dock will be made up of recycled construction material furnished by the borough's harbor department and new material furnished by Tamico, Inc. An additive alternate of $1,000...
The borough assembly vote unanimously not to pass an ordinance that would clarify language in the Marine Passenger Fee at an assembly meeting on Monday. "At this point, I'd like to just kind of see it go away," said assembly member Jeff Meucci. "Right now we have a sales tax ordinance in place, we have the Marine Passenger Fee in place. The Marine Passenger Fee goes into effect in 2019. It just seems like at one time or another we just get caught up in the minute details of this ordinance that...
Context needed To the Editor: Context was missing from the article about the visitor industry information meeting (November 7). For example, we had approximately 9,000 cruise ship visitors this summer, down from a peak of 18,000 in 2006. And now there’s a marine passenger fee. At $5 each, that means an additional $45,000 for our community. Imagine if we had that in place when we had double the passengers we get today. Did you know we already have days where 400+ people are in town when multiple ships are here at the same time? Yes, it can g...
At the suggestion of Public Works director Chris Cotta, the borough assembly voted in favor of moving forward with a full replacement of the borough’s saolid waste baler. Several of the major working parts in the baler are deteriorating, including the belt conveyor, control system and wear surfaces on the rams, hopper and baler chamber, according to a statement given to the assembly by Cotta at a borough assembly meeting on Monday. He gave the assembly three options for moving forward with the aging baler: Replacing components as they fail; a...
The Petersburg Borough’s in-kind portion of a feasibility study to determine if the United States Army Corps of Engineers will dredge South Harbor and allow smoother egress increased by $50,000, and was approved by the assembly on Monday. “The money stays with us,” said harbormaster Glow Wollen at the assembly meeting on Monday. “We only use it if we spend it for this project. The borough’s in-kind contributions have increased to $100,000, from $50,000, which the borough has paid $32,349.11 of to date, according to a letter from Amber C....
The assembly needs to reconsider their vote to initiate a training session to disseminate information about state law regarding the open meetings act. It’s important that all assembly, board and commission members be aware of the requirements of the law as they carry out the duties of elected office. The $5,800 cost of the training proposed at the assembly meeting is a modest sum to pay if it prevents a lawsuit resulting from an open meetings violation. Furthermore, since it will be convened as a public meeting, citizens can learn more about t...
The borough assembly passed ordinance #2018-18, which will provide a new development code for the borough, in its second reading at an assembly meeting on Monday. “There’s nothing final about this in case we realize a piece of it doesn’t work,” said vice mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor. The updated code seeks to streamline and update the current code. There are some meetings that are required in the approval process that don’t need to be there, said community and economic director Liz Cabrera on Monday. Outdated zoning districts have weak standards...
The borough assembly received a letter on Oct. 29 from Petro 49, Inc.'s CFO Jason Werner expressing the company's desire to exchange land with the borough. "That's just a letter I thought we should all be aware of," said Mayor Mark Jensen at an assembly meeting on Monday where the letter was presented. According to the letter, Petro 49, Inc. owns borough land at 703 S. Nordic Dr. which includes a small warehouse and covered loading dock and office. Petro 49, Inc. leases borough land at 100 Dock...
Ocean Beauty Seafoods has put its Petersburg cannery and bunkhouse up for sale with an asking price of $3,390,000, according to a real estate agent with the Carlton Smith Company, which is a commercial real estate agency based in Juneau. The facility has been on the market for about 10 days, according to an agent. He declined to comment on whether or not any offers have been made. The Ocean Beauty Seafood properties include a production area, storage space, a machine shop and bunkhouse for a total of 65,678 square feet, according to the...
At a hospital board meeting on Oct. 24, board members motioned to approve Petersburg Medical Center’s strategic plan for the fiscal years 2019 through 2023. “I’d like to get the document approved, so we can operationalize some of the priorities,” said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter at the board meeting. The motion was later withdrawn after issues with the strategic plan’s clarity were brought up. One issue was that the strategic plan seemed to make the hospital separate from the borough. PMC CFO Doran Hammett said that the hospital is a component...
Don’t miss the Tues., Nov. 6 meeting in the Assembly Chambers to discuss the impacts of cruise ship passengers on our community at 5:30 p.m. Petersburg has welcomed summer visitors since the 1960s and before that hunters and sport fishermen made less frequent visits to the ‘burg. Even today, Petersburg attracts guests because we’re, “off the map,” and are able to maintain our small working-town atmosphere. Despite the laments of a few, Petersburg businesses have grown the visitor industry into a viable part of the local economy. We all benefit...
The borough assembly met with the Petersburg Medical Center board of directors to discuss the feasibility of a new facility or a remodel to the current facility last week. “I think it would be great if we could all agree that we need something new, different than what we have now,” said PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter. At the meeting the PMC board and staff spoke to assembly members about some of the challenges the current hospital is facing. The number one issue was being able to avoid an event that would cause the hospital to shut down. A shut dow...
Since the cost to ship recyclables is lower than the price to ship municipal solid waste, Public Works Director Chris Cotta recommended that the borough continue operating its recycling program during an assembly meeting on Monday evening. “Although the recycling markets continue to be unpredictable, the costs of our program have been reduced to the point where they can be accommodated within the current operating budget,” said Cotta. Although the value of recyclables has continued to remain low, mixed paper, which makes up 1/3 of Pet...
The borough assembly passed ordinance #2018-18, which will provide an updated development code for the borough, in its first reading on Monday. On Nov. 5, the ordinance will receive a second reading and the assembly will hold a public hearing to receive feedback. Another public hearing will be held by the assembly on Nov. 19. Community and economic development director Liz Cabrera encourages the public to submit their comments on the updated development code by the Dec. 3 assembly meeting; although, public comments will still be accepted...
A resolution to request the USDA’s inspector general conduct an audit of the Tonka and Big Thorne Integrated Resource timber contracts to determine if Petersburg is owed monies failed in a 2-4 vote by the borough assembly at a meeting on Monday. “This is just my attempt to make sure that specifically Petersburg has all the funds coming to them from these timber sales, and if not, let’s go to the next step and see how we’re going to find out,” said assembly member Jeff Meucci, who request the resolution be put on the agenda. The Washingto...
In the recent municipal election, Proposition 1 failed to pass, which would have replaced the senior sales tax exemption with a rebate for qualified senior citizens and bring an influx of money to the borough’s budget from having additional seniors paying sales tax. “We’ll just continue to give a tax exemption,” said assembly member Jeff Meucci. “We’ll have to sort out where we’re going to come up with the money that isn’t generated from that sales tax component. I think we’re going to have to look at all the departments and see if we can eithe...
The borough assembly held a special meeting on Friday to tally the final votes of the municipal election and certify the results. Both out-going assembly members Eric Castro and Nancy Strand, Mayor Mark Jensen and assembly member Jeff Meucci were present. One absentee ballot and one questioned ballot were added to the unofficial results released earlier in the week bringing the total amount of ballots cast to 1092. The two ballots weren’t enough to change any of the outcomes in the election. Bob Lynn received one additional vote for a...
In unofficial poll numbers, Bob Lynn and Taylor Norheim were elected to the borough assembly, with the Annual Sales Tax Rebate for Qualified senior citizens failing to pass. "With only two seats open and five people running, there are going to be winners and losers," said Bill Tremblay, one of five candidates running for the two assembly seats. "Good luck to the new Assembly." Lynn and Norheim beat Marc Martinsen, Bill Tremblay and incumbent Nancy Strand for the two seats on the assembly. The...
The borough assembly passed resolution #2018-12, which supports the Alaska salmon hatchery program and urges the Alaska Board of Fisheries to further its understanding of the importance of the program to all Alaskans. “As we know, salmon is the life blood of this community,” said Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor at an assembly meeting on Monday. “Making our stance clear in support of this salmon hatchery program seems like a straight no-brainer to me.” A motion was made to amend the resolution to acknowledge the Northern Southeast Regiona...
