Sorted by date Results 701 - 725 of 1007
Students need your help To the Editor: Since I got into High School the one thing I look forward to every year is volleyball season. For some it might be E-sports, swimming, wrestling, basketball, and many others. At the beginning of the year I was so excited that we could finally go back to school, even though it was only 2 days a week in person. Volleyball season started and we were so excited to go so far this season. Since our team was underclassman we've been waiting for THIS season, in hop...
Enrollment in the Petersburg School District was at 429 students as of last week, but Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said at a Petersburg School Board meeting on Oct. 13 that the district had originally budgeted for about 471 students this year. The lower than anticipated enrollment is a result of students opting for homeschool programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some students moving out of town, said Kludt-Painter. She said 39 students are currently enrolled in homeschool programs,...
Light-weight collapsible pots prevent whales from pirating pricey black cod from longline hooks and give a break to small boats. "Getting whaled" is so pervasive fishery managers allowed black cod (sablefish) fishermen to switch from baited lines to rigid pots in the Bering Sea in 2008 and in the Gulf of Alaska starting in 2017. (Interestingly, killer whales rob the hooks in the Bering Sea, while sperm whales are the culprits in the Gulf.) "The whale predation has just been so horrible," said...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Al Gross commands a fishing boat as a narrator describes him prospecting for gold and killing a grizzly bear in self-defense in an ad meant to underscore a central theme of Gross' U.S. Senate campaign as an independent: that he knows Alaska. “Out here,” he says as the boat rocks on the water, “if you can't think for yourself, you won't survive.” Gross, a doctor running with Democratic support, is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in a state that has long been a GOP stronghold, outraising Sullivan and putting Re...
Two cases of COVID-19 have been identified within the same household Tuesday evening, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. One of the two individuals was showing symptoms of the virus and called PMC's COVID-19 hotline, according to the press release. The individual that was asymptomatic has underlying health issues and was also tested for COVID-19 out of caution, according to the press release. Both individuals tested positive on Oct. 27... Full story
A positive case of COVID-19 was identified this morning in Mrs. Potrzuski's fifth grade classroom at Rae C. Stedman Elementary School, resulting in a district-wide school closure, according to a statement on Petersburg School District's Facebook page. Both the student and their parent tested positive for the virus, according to a joint-statement between the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The student recently traveled to Juneau on a non-school related trip and is symptomatic,... Full story
The Muskeg Maleriers are pressing forward with the 44th annual Oktoberfest on Oct. 24, though this year's event will look a little bit different because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents will still be able to browse from over 30 different vendors, but they will have to wear a face covering, said Sally Dwyer, secretary of the Muskeg Maleriers. Because the group is renting the space from the borough, they can require attendants to wear masks. Dwyer said face coverings are required to enter the...
Three cases of COVID-19 were confirmed within a single household Wednesday evening, according to a joint press release from the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The individuals were showing symptoms and have been told to isolate themselves. According to the release, one member of the family recently traveled in the state, and the positive test result is likely related to their travel. PMC reported on Wednesday morning that 4,460 test samples have been collected to be tested for...
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...
