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Time for tougher garbage requirements To the Editor: Every fall, it's the same story: bears wandering around town and getting into garbage. It's time for the borough to adopt tougher requirements to keep bears and garbage separate. Common sense and personal responsibility clearly aren't working. Ditto the existing wimpy ordinance on garbage cans. (You must make a "reasonable effort" to keep garbage cans inaccessible to animals. A reasonable effort includes securing a can with a bungee cord, no...
Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy. The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the United States leads the world in Covid-19...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has begun free asymptomatic testing of Petersburg residents and others throughout the region. Testing is offered from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. every Saturday and Sunday at the SEARHC parking lot at 202 Gjoa St. Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter said at the COVID-19 community update on Oct. 9 that SEARHC is sending their test samples to Sitka and is seeing a four day or less turnaround time on results. Residents will receive their results via...
Dr. Kayla Luhrs began working full time at Petersburg Medical Center as its fifth doctor in August. Luhrs had been working with PMC since 2018 as a locum physician, traveling back and forth between Juneau and Petersburg to fill in as needed. Then in March of this year, she came back to PMC, but decided to stay as the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect Alaska. "With the whole pandemic thing, we thought it would be easier if I just stayed instead of traveling," said Luhrs. She then signed a...
The Petersburg High School volleyball team went 3-0 against Wrangell in their first exhibition match of the season on Saturday, Oct. 10. "It was a great way to start off somewhat of a competition year as much as possible," said Head Coach Jaime Cabral. Typically at this point of the season, about one month in, the Vikings would have played about 15 matches, said Cabral, but the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented tournaments, skirmishes and travel from taking place. The Vikings had been playing...
The Petersburg High School swim team welcomed Wrangell High School to the Parks and Recreation's aquatic center on Saturday for both team's first in person swim meet of the season. It was just the two teams racing in person, but their times were compared to other high schools' times throughout the region. Head Coach Andy Carlisle said he doesn't know how well the Vikings did within the entire meet since he has yet to receive the times from the other schools. Just between the two teams, PHS came...
The Alaska School Activities Association announced on Tuesday the cancellation of all 2020 fall state championship events due to the increasing case counts of COVID-19 in Anchorage and around the state. Activities that are currently in season will still be able to finish their season and participate in their regional championships, but only if Regionals can be held before Nov. 22, according to an ASAA press release. At Petersburg High School, volleyball and swim and dive will be affected by the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and challenger Al Gross met in a debate focused on fisheries policy that ended up focusing on other issues including federal COVID-19 relief funding and Pebble Mine. The candidates for Sullivan’s seat in the U.S. Senate squared off Saturday in the 90-minute debate on Zoom, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, repeatedly characterized Gross as a threat who could hand Democrats control of the Senate. The debate was hosted by ComFish Alaska and the Kodiak Chamber of...
A plan that would have allowed in-person public participation at future assembly meetings failed in a 3-3 vote by the Borough Assembly at their meeting on Monday. Assembly members cited concerns over the possible spread of COVID-19 in the assembly chambers and the need to update the teleconference system as reasons for voting against the plan. Other assembly members felt it was time they returned to in-person meetings to give the public the chance to address them face-to-face. The plan to...
The Petersburg Medical Center staff member that tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday is thought to have contracted the virus locally, said Incident Commander Karl Hagerman at the COVID-19 community update on Friday, Oct. 2. The positive case of COVID-19 was detected during PMC's regular asymptomatic testing of its employees, said PMC Infection Prevention and Quality Manager Liz Bacom. The person immediately went into isolation and contract tracing has begun. "That gives us encouragement that...
“Don’t forget to sign-up for the National Newspaper Convention,” my wife and co-publisher said. “It’s being held in Jacksonville, Florida this year,” she added. If there was ever a year to leave Petersburg for a Florida destination, this was it. I anxiously clicked on the NNA website and discovered that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was being held virtually this year. “How in the world can you hold a newspaper convention on Zoom? This will be interesting,” I muttered to myself. I signed up for the convention, went to Viking...
The Borough Assembly extended its emergency non-congregate sheltering agreement with the Narrows Inn on Monday through the end of the year or until state health mandate #14 is rescinded. Non-congregate sheltering gives homeless populations, first responders and health care workers a safe place to quarantine while they're waiting for the results of a COVID-19 test or to isolate while they recover from the virus. "Hopefully we don't need it before the end of the year, but if we do, we'll be glad...
While one can still expect to wait in a long line at the Petersburg Post Office, residents won't have to wait upwards of an hour to retrieve a package now that customer service hours have increased to four hours a day Monday through Friday from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. Earlier this summer, a long time postal employee retired and another employee resigned. That left Postmaster Kim Aulbach and one other employee with the bulk of the day-to-day duties. Customer service hours were cut back to two hours a...
The weather information transmitter at Cape Fanshaw has been repaired after being out of service for over a year. Cape Fanshaw is located north of Petersburg, along a point of mainland approximately 12 nautical miles north of Farrugut Bay. As of Oct. 6, NOAA and Coast Guard personnel confirmed that the transmitter was now operational. Kip Wadlow, Coast Guard spokesperson, said that the transmitter fell under the domain of NOAA. He later clarified on Oct. 6 that they had a memorandum of...
BETHEL, Alaska (AP) —Alaska may have reached the limit of hospital space available for care of people infected with COVID-19, a health care company official said. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation recently had to keep a patient at its Bethel facility for an extra day because there were no available beds in Anchorage, KYUK-AM reported Wednesday. The corporation’s hospital in Bethel does not have an intensive care unit, which medical staff deemed necessary for the patient’s treatment, said Dr. Ellen Hodges, the corporation’s chief of staf...
Now that the 2020 pack of Alaska salmon has been caught and put up, stakeholders will get a better picture of how global prices may rise or fall. Nearly 75% of the value of Alaska’s salmon exports is driven by sales between July and October. And right now, lower supplies of wild Pacific salmon by the major producers are pushing up prices as the bulk of those sales are made. For sockeye salmon, global supplier and market tracker Tradex reports that frozen fillets are in high demand and supplies are hard to source for all sizes. With a catch t...
The Petersburg High School boys cross country team placed second in the Region V Division III Regional Championships held at Greens Camp last weekend. Uriah Lucas and Michael Durkin took first and second place in the boys race respectively. Head Coach Tom Thompson said Durkin set a new personal record at the meet with a time of 17:44.55 and managed to shave 40 seconds off his time. Although Lucas didn't set a personal record, he still ran a fast race, completing the course in 17:23.63. Thompson...
An employee at Petersburg Medical Center has tested positive for COVID-19 and was identified through the hospital's routine asymptomatic testing protocol, according to a joint press release from PMC and the Petersburg Borough. The employee has been notified and is in isolation. PMC has switched to a red risk level of operations as a result of the confirmed case of the virus, according to the joint release. All non-emergent care patient visits have been canceled and clinic appointments will be... Full story
Petersburg School District switched over to a low risk level of operations, or green level, on Monday. Rae C. Stedman Elementary School will be in session from 8 A.M. to 1:45 P.M. in person Monday through Friday, said Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter at the COVID-19 community update on Friday, Sept. 25. Teachers will stay with their classes throughout the day and limit interaction with other teachers and pods. Students will still get recesses, lunch and other breaks while in school. Mitkof...
This year's borough assembly candidates took the stage on Sept. 24 to answer questions ranging from the borough's COVID-19 response to the tourism industry in this year's candidate forum. The candidates answered questions from representatives of KFSK and the Petersburg Pilot. Marc Martinsen, Dave Kensinger and incumbents Jeff Meucci and Brandi Thynes were each asked the same questions and had two minutes to respond. The order of the candidates changed with each question that was asked. The forum...
A new 20-ft. x 40-ft. tent has been erected at the Petersburg airport to provide shelter for hospital employees providing COVID testing services for passengers arriving at the airport each day. Emergency operations center director Karl Hagerman said the new tent encompasses the same size footprint as the three tents and trailer that were in place this summer. "The tent survived the wind test this weekend," according to Hagerman. The airport experienced wind gusts up to 40 mph and sustained...
The Petersburg High School boys cross country team finished second in the Capital City Invitational, their last meet of the season. The meet was held virtually with the cross country team running out at Greens Camp in preparation for the regional meet this weekend, which will be held in the same location. Uriah Lucas took second place in the meet with a time of 17:19. Valon Weathers and Chase Lister came in 12th and 13th place with final times of 18:58 and 19:01 respectively. Rylan Smith...
Some surprising results are revealed in the first of a series of briefing papers showing how Alaska’s seafood industry has been affected by the pandemic from dock to dinner plates. The updates, compiled by the McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), show that so far the amount of seafood that has been harvested is in line with previous years. “While 2020 harvests have been significantly lower in some salmon fisheries…the declines are due to weak runs rather than reduced effort or other forces that might have some...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Native corporations are not eligible to receive a share of the $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding set aside for tribes, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday in overturning a lower-court decision. The three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit found an Alaska Native corporation cannot qualify as an Indian tribe under the federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act unless it has been “recognized as eligible for the special programs and...
The borough assembly approved Ordinance #2020-19, which amends borough code chapter 3.72 to provide for civil emergency provisions, in its third reading on Monday after postponing the final vote by two months. The emergency ordinance transfers civil emergency provisions from the City of Petersburg Code to Petersburg Borough Code while adding language to guide local officials through an emergency. The additional language caused a division in the community and led the Borough Assembly to delay...
