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The Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs hosted a ceremony Tuesday in the Petersburg High School gym to welcome home and remember Vietnam veterans. The event marked Vietnam Veterans Day which falls on March 29 and was originally scheduled for 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Forrest E. Powell III with the DMVA opened the ceremony and introduced Chamber of Commerce President Jim Floyd who welcomed attendees. Floyd spoke on the history of Petersburg and of the...
To some people springtime means the start of outdoor projects, tending to the garden, or doing some overdue house cleaning, but to one group of Petersburg High School students it can only mean one thing-time for baseball. The team has been hard at work for the past month preparing for the upcoming season, not on fresh-cut green grass or turf but on the gravel field they call home. Jim Engell is returning for his 15th year as the head coach of the Vikings and is joined by Ethan Bryner, a former...
WASHINGTON - Alaska Rep. Don Young, the longest-serving Republican in U.S. House history, will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 29, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday. Young, 88, a blunt-speaking politician known for his brusque style, died last Friday. He was first elected to the U.S. House in 1973 He was reelected in 2020 to serve his 25th term and was running this year for another term. A special election will be held this summer to fill the seat. Pelosi's office...
Keep the Ocean Rangers program: Together we can have a voice To the Editor: Whether you are a commercial fisherman or just an Alaskan who enjoys recreating in Southeast Alaska’s waters fishing for salmon, halibut, crab, shrimp, digging for clams or collecting seaweed, you should be deeply concerned about SB 180 which will eliminate the Ocean Ranger program that was put into law by voters in 2006. In mid-summer of 2019 Governor Dunleavy vetoed funding for the Ocean Ranger program just after Carnival Corporation was fined $20 million for i...
Alaska Airlines will start sending a Boeing 737-800 southbound to Petersburg this summer, helping more people travel during one of the busiest times of the year according to Scott Habberstad, Alaska Airlines' director of sales and community marketing in the state. Habberstad was the guest speaker at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Banquet last Saturday night where he discussed how Alaska Airlines navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic, development in Petersburg, and the airline's growth goal...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly hosted a work session Wednesday evening to discuss child care needs in the community and ways the borough could be involved in helping find sustainable solutions for providers and families. Child care challenges have been discussed recently at the assembly level, a Community Café hosted by the SHARE Coalition, an ARPA work session, and other public meetings with issues including child care staff recruitment and retention, availability and costs for families, and...
Hammer & Wikan and the Petersburg Pilot were both awarded Business of the Year at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce banquet Saturday night. Hammer & Wikan received the 2021 Business of the Year award which they were due to receive at last year's banquet before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will Ware, the vice president of the chamber, recounted the history of Hammer & Wikan from its beginnings as the Petersburg Dairy Company in 1921 to the opening of the new grocery store...
After a packed schedule which took the Vikings to some of the toughest courts across the state, the Petersburg High School boys basketball team ended its season with a sixth-place finish at the Alaska School Activities Association 2A State Tournament in Anchorage last weekend. Though they did not fly home with a championship trophy, Head Coach Rick Brock said he was proud of his team's performance this season and the grit they showed in their final tournament of the year. The trip to state was n...
Vakker Sted, the income-based apartment building across the street from the Petersburg Medical Center, is finishing up construction and is expected to begin welcoming tenants on April 1 according to Glenn Gellert of Swell, LLC. The 15-unit building's opening date has been pushed back a few times because of the COVID-19 pandemic and winter weather but its completion appears to be in sight. "It's all just kind of coming together here. Everything is on schedule for this final push," Gellert said....
St. Patty's Day used to be the perfect excuse for Nicole McMurren to get "bombed," almost as if her Irish heritage was a license to tie one on. She'd have a "bump" before the parade, then after it was over, and singing at Longterm Care had concluded, it was time to head for Harbor Bar and into the night's festivities. But this year, McMurren will be celebrating the leprechaun-loving holiday the same as she's done for the last decade-without beer or whisky. "For me, a really good choice was just...
Lori Roberts celebrated her last day of work at OBI Seafoods on December 10 after a 42 year career which saw her work in pretty much every spot in the plant. Roberts began with what was then Petersburg Fisheries in 1974 after being talked into coming up to Petersburg by a few friends. She attended Highline Community College in Washington and worked at the plant during the summers until she eventually decided to stick around. "I was downstairs for 16 years," Roberts said. "I did herring, I did...
Applications are now being accepted for a federally funded financial assistance program for Alaska homeowners. Applications will be accepted through April 4 by the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., which is administering the $50 million program to help homeowners hurt by income loss the past two years due to the pandemic. The aid can go toward eligible homeowners' monthly mortgage payments, and may also be applied to current and past-due property taxes, insurance premiums and utility bills. To...
The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved a move to optional masking in all buildings during its board meeting Tuesday night as case counts decrease and vaccinations and tests become more accessible. The new protocols will be implemented when staff and students return from spring break on March 21 and while masking will be optional, all other mitigation strategies including quarantine and testing protocols will remain in place. The Petersburg School District has required universal...
While most high schools may take a field trip to the local museum or zoo, a select group of Petersburg High School students get to go somewhere a little bit cooler-LeConte Glacier. Each year, students set out to survey the glacier and record how it has moved over time. They're taking what they have learned in the classroom and are applying it in the field. The survey began in 1983 with high school teacher Paul Bowen's surveying class as an opportunity for the top students to get real world... Full story
An ordinance which would increase rates at Petersburg's municipal harbors was unanimously approved by the Petersburg Borough Assembly in its second reading during Monday's meeting. Ordinance #2022-03, which also passed unanimously in its first reading, would be the first rate increase since 2018 and would increase harbor moorage fees by around 5% among other changes. The ordinance also has the support of the Harbor and Ports Advisory Board and Harbormaster Glo Wollen who said the increase is...
First a trade war, then a battle against an infectious virus and now a real war are all affecting Alaska seafood exports. Shipments to China fell from as high as 30% of Alaska’s total seafood export value in the 2010s to 20% in 2020. “The U.S.-China trade war has displaced $500 million of Alaska seafood,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, told legislators last week. And though people bought more seafood to prepare at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, sales to restaurants and food services fell by 70...
Laboratory Manager Violet Shimek announced during last week's Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board meeting that the hospital will be bringing back its Community Health and Safety Fair this spring. The fair, which is usually held every two years, was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the theme of this year's event is "Getting Back on Track." The fair's in-person event is scheduled for June and an exact date will be released by the hospital soon. Leading up to the in-person...
The state of child care availability in Petersburg remains a central concern for the community. During Tuesday's regular borough assembly meeting Assembly member Jeff Meucci remarked that "child care in Petersburg is the cornerstone to economic development in town. Without dependable child care in Petersburg, we can't get back to normal." But he added that understanding the fluid state of child care is challenging. As the conversation continues locally about how to meaningfully support this...
The Mountain View Manor Assisted Living Facility is reporting one active case of COVID-19 as of Wednesday according to Mountain View Manor administrator Shelyn Bell. Since February 10, 14 cases have been identified at the manor, two of which were in the past week, and there has been one fatality where COVID-19 may have been a contributing factor. Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht briefed the Petersburg Borough Assembly on the state of the outbreak during Tuesday night’s assembly meeting According to Giesbrecht, all staff are wearing full PPE i...
Alaska's state housing agency has distributed more than $243 million in financial aid the past year to help renters hurt economically by the pandemic and will soon embark on a $50 million federally funded program to help homeowners, too. The aid can go toward eligible homeowners' monthly mortgage payments, and may also be applied to current and past-due property taxes, insurance premiums and utility bills, the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. announced Friday. Preregistration for Alaska Housing...
Our patrons often expect us to focus mainly on the past, but what about history that is evolving now? Museums around the world have been capturing items and experiences of the last couple years to be able to share and teach future generations about the COVID crisis. Here, we’ve collected face masks, airport social distancing signs, photos of the graduation parade and hospital testing stations, the box of the first vaccinations received locally, Zoom screen shots, flyers, newspapers and even a m...
A COVID-19 outbreak at the Mountain View Manor Assisted Living Facility has resulted in at least 12 positive cases as of Wednesday afternoon according to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. Of the 12 cases, four are unvaccinated and eight are vaccinated according to Mountain View Manor administrator Shelyn Bell. There has also been one fatality where COVID-19 may have been a contributing factor. The large outbreak, which has affected both residents and staff, has prompted testing and other...
State ferry management said they are working to be more responsive to community and passenger concerns, including reconsidering the use of "dynamic pricing," where fares increase as ships fill up on popular sailings. No one likes dynamic pricing, Katherine Keith, the Transportation Department's change management director, told legislators last week. The pricing structure is similar to airlines, hotels and rental cars, where bookings on popular routes and travel days can cost significantly more,...
Come fly your flags with me Americans To the Editor: I’ve recently found myself in many interesting conversations with my six year old about patriotism and what that means. Last week as we watched the big trucks and American flags stream past our house, I was reminded that no matter which side of the Covid aisle you stand on, so to speak, we are all united in one way: patriotism. My son and I started discussing the idea, “what does patriotism mean to me?” We explored many ideals and shared meaningful conversation on the topic, and I invit...
A local doctor initially spoke to Paul Bowen about a new program aimed at allowing older community members to maintain their independence and continue living at home. Bowen was hesitant at first, but once the topic came to the attention of his daughters, who were already aware of CAPABLE, they immediately began encouraging their father to give it a try. He did and now he has no plans of leaving his home. "I'm glad I had a chance to do it and I'm glad I stayed with it," Bowen says. "It's been a... Full story
