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Though the call for adventure never ceases, even the crew of the Endeavour needs to take time to rest and take stock of the year's expeditions. Captain Bill Urschel, his wife Patsy, and their dog Bella live aboard the ship in North Harbor and are wintering in Petersburg for their second year in a row. The Endeavour, named for the ship Captain James Cook commanded on his first voyage of discovery, is a 72-foot U.S. Army T-Boat built in 1954 that has seen many names and many places over her...
The Petersburg School District updated its testing protocols Friday, Nov. 26 to allow students identified as close contacts at the school to continue attending in-person classes, according to an announcement from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Changes were made to the COVID-19 guidelines after a firmware update from the CUE molecular test manufacturer caused performance irregularities. According to the announcement, the district will be suspend the use of CUE tests and introduce new...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 10 additional cases of COVID-19 Tuesday for a total of 68 active cases. According to the Petersburg COVID-19 Dashboard, there have been seven healthcare worker infections and PMC inpatient utilization is at 50%. The PMC staffing level is currently labeled as inadequate and the hospital's medevac capability is limited. The Petersburg School District, which is not currently in session because of Thanksgiving, reported 21 cases among staff and students in the...
Petersburg's annual Parade of Light and Christmas tree lighting ceremony will take place on Friday. The parade portion of the event was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic according to Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Administrator Mindy Lopez, but it returns this year and will feature beloved characters spreading holiday cheer. The parade will start at 5:30 p.m. near Trading Union and will head south along Nordic Drive towards the municipal building. 15 minutes before the parade,...
After a delayed opening due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, local artist and teacher Ashley Lohr's show "Wander" opened Saturday at the Clausen Museum. The show is Lohr's 13th solo exhibit at the museum and features a diverse array of enamel jewelry, paintings, and digital artwork. With more time due to the pandemic, she had the opportunity to try different things with her art and take on new styles. "The title is wander because I kind of let myself wander in different mediums this year," Lohr...
The Borough Assembly held a special meeting shortly before its regular meeting November 17 to consider Resolution #2021-16, authorizing the sole source purchase of two replacement boilers for the aquatic center. The boilers, which were installed in 2006 and are used to heat the air and water in the center, are nearing the end of their service life according to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht as fuses are blowing out and the boilers are having problems keeping temperature. Giesbrecht said they...
The Petersburg School District updated its testing protocols Friday, Nov. 26 to allow students identified as close contacts at the school to continue attending in person classes according to an announcement from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Changes were made to the COVID-19 guidelines after a firmware update from the CUE molecular test manufacturer caused performance irregularities. According to the announcement, the district will be suspending CUE tests and introducing new quarantine...
The Borough Assembly passed Ordinance #2021-20 during Wednesday's meeting which amended the previous emergency masking ordinance brought about by the increase of COVID-19 cases in Petersburg. The language of the new ordinance was heavily changed during its discussion so that it would not require businesses to deny admittance to offenders of the ordinance and would not introduce a fine structure for violators. The new ordinance only added a requirement for masking in communal spaces such as...
Stedman Elementary School and Mitkof Middle school transitioned to remote learning this week due to the rise in COVID-19 cases according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. The elementary school started online instruction on Tuesday while the middle school moved online on Thursday. Kludt-Painter wrote in her announcement that the district is experiencing multiple staffing issues as Petersburg continues to see high community spread. Contact tracing efforts within the district are also being...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 21 additional cases of COVID-19 Wednesday for a total of 84 active cases. 19 cases were cleared by Public Health and 65 new cases have been reported in the past week. Currently Petersburg Borough has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 in the United States of America, with an averaged daily rate of 262 new infections per 100,000. This is according to the New York Times hot spots map, which displays a county-by-county average of new reported cases over...
On the mask mandate To The Editor: I wanted to take a minute to share my thoughts on the proposed emergency mask mandate. I believe at this point, two years into this pandemic, that we are doing more harm than good by trying to universally mandate the public’s actions. I believe that no one intentionally is trying to infect others with Covid and beyond that we are all capable of making decisions to protect ourselves and our families if we are feeling vulnerable. Taking away personal choice, and creating situations that promote division and d...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly’s attempt to abate a public health crisis in Petersburg Wednesday night went nowhere. Creating an ordinance to bring the rule of law into play failed. With no enforcement there will be little change. Possibly, but unlikely, the discussion carried out at Wednesday night’s meeting could change some minds, but it’s doubtful. Given the comments voiced by a majority of the speakers Wednesday night, no amount of peer reviewed science or proven medical knowledge is going to change the minds of those who choose to ignor...
COVID-19 cases continue to rise, impacting the Petersburg Medical Center's staff and operations as the hospital approaches its breaking point. As cases go up, work effort and stress levels among hospital staff increase as they battle the virus. "...this spike ... is impacting practically every component of the community, and there's one, two, and three degrees of separation with each other, so it affects our staff, daycare, kids," PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said. When a staff member is affected by...
The Clausen Museum is displaying the profiles of six Alaska Natives to mark November as Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Clausen Museum Director Cindi Lagoudakis said the profiles she chose to write were of people who had some connection to Southeast Alaska and may not be well known. "We tell a lot of stories about Amy Hallingstad and Elizabeth Peratrovich, and not to take away from their importance in Alaska Native Heritage and history, but there are other people that have...
The Petersburg Indian Association has started a new program to help tribal households whose subsistence harvests have been impacted by COVID-19. According to Tribal Administrator Tracy Welch, the subsistence impact program was made possible through funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which she said was a follow up to the Cares Act passed by the federal government in 2020. Through the act, Congress designated $30 million for federally recognized tribes in coastal or Great...
The Petersburg High School Volleyball team has not had it easy this season, but the students are still persevering and preparing for their biggest tournament of the season so far. The team had to cancel its home and away matches last week against Wrangell High School after COVID-19 cases continued to rise in both communities according to Head Coach Jaime Cabral. “With Wrangell’s cases popping up and our cases still pretty high, we didn’t want to risk regions that is coming up this week,” Cabral said. Earlier in the season the North Seeding...
The Petersburg High School volleyball team traveled to Haines last weekend to compete in the Alaska School Activities Association Region V Tournament. Before arriving in Haines, the tournament was put in jeopardy after the ferry M/V LeConte experienced icing conditions in Lynn Canal, forcing the vessel to return to Juneau and delaying the arrival of the five teams on board. Head Coach Jaime Cabral said contingency plans were made if the tournament had to be moved to Juneau, but after some larger items were taken off the ferry, it was able to co...
Construction has finished on the Kake Access Road project and the road and boat launch opened to the public October 29 according to Garrett Paul, project manager with the Department of Transportation. The project improved between 20 to 25 miles of existing roads and added six miles of new roads. It spans a total distance of 42 miles from Kake to the new boat launch. The total cost of the project was $40 million, consisting of $34 million for the construction contract and $6 million for project...
The Borough Assembly approved an emergency ordinance Friday which requires that masks must be worn inside all public indoor spaces. Petersburg saw a dramatic increase in cases in the week leading up to the meeting. The Petersburg Medical Center reported 15 new cases November 1, one of the highest recorded in a single day, and Friday saw the total number of active cases stand at 63. Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor called for the special assembly meeting to consider the emergency ordinance and...
Businesses in Petersburg are feeling the impacts of global supply chain challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The manufacturing of some goods is slowing down and shipments are being delayed or canceled altogether, leading to shortages and stores guessing when to order more products. “It comes down to two main things: the labor shortage and the lack of resources,” Hammer & Wikan General Manager Jim Floyd said. While the company could previously rely on 80 to 90 percent of orders com...
The Petersburg Medical Center reported 21 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total active cases to 79, the most Petersburg has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. 64 new positives were reported in the past week. Community spread is escalating rapidly according to PMC which is asking people to follow mitigation recommendations. PMC remains in red status and though they will attempt to keep all appointments, they warned that they may experience limitations or rescheduling...
What’s wrong with this picture? To the Editor: Monday Petersburg had 67 Covid cases. Its winter population is probably around 2,500. Clallam County, WA had 37 new cases. Its population is 77,331. What’s wrong with this picture? John Hoag Compassionate care at our hospital To the Editor: My mother-in-law woke me at 1:30 AM. Or, maybe 2:30 as it was the end of daylight savings time. She was having terrible pain. I scooped up all her medications, walked her carefully down the icy ramp to the car and drove her to the emergency room. We were met...
Six students from the Petersburg High School wrestling team traveled to Anchorage last weekend to compete in the Anchorage Christian Schools tournament. The tournament is the biggest in the state for 3A and smaller schools with upwards of 30 teams according to Head Coach James Valentine. The meet allowed the team to have its first glimpse of its northern competition and offered both all-boys and all-girls tournaments. “We don’t see them very often, so it’s a good indicator of what state may look like in the future,” Valentine said. While the mo...
The Petersburg High School volleyball team’s North Seeding Tournament was canceled last weekend due to the high number of active COVID-19 cases in Petersburg according to Activities Director Jaime Cabral. PHS was set to host the tournament and welcome Double-A schools, and some Single-A schools who opted up a division, from across Southeast Alaska to Petersburg. According to Cabral, the schools did not want to risk exposure and jeopardize their seasons due to the high level of community spread. He wrote that it was not an easy decision to m...
Stedman Elementary School will transition to remote learning for the rest of the week due to the impact of COVID-19 according to an announcement Monday from Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter. Kludt-Painter wrote that the elementary school is experiencing multiple staffing issues as Petersburg continues to see high community spread. Contact tracing efforts within the school district are also being impacted by the high number of cases and close contacts both inside and outside of the schools.... Full story
