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American Cruise Line's long-discussed cruise ship dock project in Petersburg took another step forward last week when the borough assembly approved the first reading of an ordinance rezoning a 22,500-square-foot parcel at the end of Dock Street to accommodate ACL's proposed facility. The ordinance, which must pass two additional readings before final adoption, changes the parcel from un-zoned to Industrial with Marine Industrial Overlay. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended the...
A comment period is open until Feb. 13 as part of a program review that could change the way subsistence hunting and fishing is managed on federal lands in Alaska. On May 5, 2025, Safari Club International filed a petition with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) asking for significant changes to the Federal Subsistence Management Program — including the removal of all six public members from the Federal Subsistence Board, changes to how members of the Regional Advisory Councils are selected, and elimination of the board’s authority to ta... Full story
Though the state will have two ferries that could operate next summer on the popular route between Bellingham, Washington, and Alaska, it will park the Kennicott at the dock in Ketchikan, keeping it out of service for the fourth summer in a row due to a persistent crew shortage. The Alaska Marine Highway System has suffered from chronic crew vacancies ever since it tried to resume full service in 2022 after deep cuts to its schedule — and staffing — in 2021-2022 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down travel. Crew layoffs, resignations and ret...
January 2025 The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to transfer seven parcels of borough-owned land in the Airport Addition Subdivision to Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) in exchange for the developing road and utilities for 11 residential lots. The snowpack at the Raven's Ridge snow survey site at 1,650 ft elevation measured zero inches. One of only two years on record without snowpack in January. Rock-N-Road Construction was awarded the contract for the borough's Pump Station...
Every morning, Alaska’s court system publishes an updated list of new civil lawsuits filed across the state during the past week. And every morning, that list is dominated by debt collection cases, newly filed by credit card companies, debt collection firms or businesses seeking repayment. On Tuesday, of the 115 listed cases, 84 were for debt collections. In the first nine months of 2022, the court system saw 1,869 debt collection cases filed. Every year since then, the number has risen. Through the first nine months of this year, there were 3,... Full story
As Alaska’s population of working-age adults shrinks, according to economists, other demographic groups have become bigger segments of the labor force: seniors and teenagers. Residents who are 65 and older made up 6.2% of the Alaska worker population in 2023 after steadily increasing over two decades, according to an analysis by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. In 2003, that age group made up just 1.8% of all working Alaskans, according to the data. For teenagers, the two-decade trend has been different. In 2003, t... Full story
With the start of fall comes respiratory illness season, which means it’s also the time of year when medical providers recommend getting your vaccinations. Multiple vaccines are currently available in Petersburg. Free flu shots are available to anyone six months and older at the Petersburg Medical Center and Petersburg Public Health. Regular and high-dose shots are available. On KFSK’s call-in show PMC Live, Petersburg Public Health Nurse Erin Michael said a recent flu vaccine clinic gave out close to 150 flu shots in a day. “And that doesn...
It will be a homecoming when the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood hold their Grand Camp Oct. 1-4 in Wrangell. Wrangell’s history with the ANS goes back to the beginning. The organization was founded by Wrangell women in 1915, following on the formation of the ANB in Sitka in 1912. The 2025 Grand Camp will be held at the Nolan Center. This is the organizations’ first in-person gathering in six years, due to COVID-19 social distancing shutdowns and its aftereffects. While there have been meetings via Zoom, there is a rea...
Petersburg Medical Center will lose nearly $1 million in expected federal tax credits after the federal reconciliation bill retroactively eliminated a one-third portion of the delayed COVID-era employee assistance funding the hospital was eligible to receive. The hospital had applied for around $3 million through the Employee Retention Tax Credit program but will now receive only two-thirds of that amount due to passage of “the one big, beautiful bill,” Chief Financial Officer Jason McCormick told the hospital board Thursday. The leg...
Rikki McKay is the new executive of Petersburg non-profit Working Against Violence for Everyone. Since its inception in 1982, WAVE has worked to provide compassionate advocacy, empower survivors and prevent violence within our communities. Like many non-profits the pandemic was hard on WAVE. Since Executive Director Everett Bennett left their position in May 2024, keeping the doors open has been a challenge. "With the transition between Everett leaving and then hiring someone and losing them,...
This past weekend, the Mitkof middle school and Petersburg high school had an opportunity to come together for an intersquad track and field meet. Historically, Petersburg's track program has lagged behind when it comes to track facility and equipment. From a gravel oval space for running to a rigid, old boardwalk connecting with a rough sandpit for long jumpers, the conditions have not been ideal. But some improvements have been made in recent years. "We brought in some new rock two years ago...
The Petersburg School District presented its draft budget for the 2026 fiscal year at Tuesday's school board meeting, April 15, revealing a major budget deficit and the strategic use of the fund balance to maintain educational services amid uncertain state funding. PSD Finance Director Shannon Baird presented a draft budget projecting total revenue of $9,876,947 against expenditures of $11,426,685, creating a deficit of approximately $1.5 million. This shortfall would be covered by spending...
Passenger and vehicle traffic aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System moved slightly higher in 2024 from 2023, but still is less than half its peak from the early 1990s. The state ferries carried just over 185,000 passengers and about 65,000 vehicles last year on its routes stretching from Southeast to Prince William Sound and into several Gulf of Alaska coastal communities. That’s down from more than 400,000 passengers and 110,000 vehicles 1990-1992. And it’s down from more than 325,000 passengers as recently as the early 2010s. Marine Dir...
While many economic indicators in Alaska draw concern, outdoor recreation stands as a bright spot, generating $3.1 billion in economic output in 2023. That's according to Mariyam Medovaya, who is coming to Petersburg next week to discuss the growing potential of adventure tourism as the guest speaker at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet on Feb. 15. "Outdoor recreation is kind of an underappreciated giant of American economy," says Medovaya, noting that Alaska ranked first among...
Facing steep growth in demand, constant turnover and employee retirements, Alaska’s health care industry has a staggering need for new workers, a new report says. “To meet those variables, we have to find over 9,400 new health care workers every single year,” Jared Kosin, executive director of the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association, said on Monday. Kosin, who presented the information to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, characterized the workforce situation as a good news-bad news story. “I’m like, ‘Hey, we have these opportuniti... Full story
January 2024 A prized Mental Health Trust lot by Blind River Rapids, a popular recreation site for sport fishing, was sold at auction to a USCG family. Toler and Jessie Alexander are eager to return to Petersburg after retiring from the Coast Guard in a few years. The borough listed its top priority capital projects, and the Petersburg Medical Center replacement was first and second on the list – for the main hospital construction and the main hospital interior build out. Petersburg Indian A...
Late last year, when I went to sign up for my 2024 health insurance on the federal Obamacare marketplace, the options all seemed expensive — more expensive than what I paid in 2023. A perk of being an independent news publisher is that instead of just grousing about this to my family and friends, I also had a legitimate pretext to ask Alaska’s top insurance regulator: What’s going on? She responded 16 minutes later with exactly what I was looking for: a chart showing that, indeed, the plans offered by my insurer, Premera, rose an average of 16....
WRANGELL - It was 1869 and smoke filled the winter air. Cannon balls ripped through Tlingit homes while U.S. Army shells shrieked across the sky. The same type of artillery used against the Confederates just four years prior was now turned on the Tlingit people of Wrangell, in their homeland which they called Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw. One hundred and fifty-five years later, the U.S. Army is apologizing. The apology is scheduled to take place in Wrangell on Jan. 11, 2025. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Army...
Two major Alaskan seafood processors have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging wage violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBI Seafoods and Ocean Beauty Seafoods were ordered to pay a total of $2.1 million as part of a settlement approved last week by Judge Marsha J. Pechman in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The case, brought by former employees Marija and Dusan Paunovic on behalf of processing facility workers, accused the companies of delaying wage payments and underpaying workers during...
Federal prosecutors are recommending that an Alaska fisher serve six months in prison, pay a $25,000 fine and be banned from commercial fishing for a year after lying about fishing catches and trying to kill an endangered sperm whale. Dugan Paul Daniels pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor earlier this year, and prosecutors released their sentencing recommendation on Tuesday. According to court documents, Daniels became infuriated in March 2020 when a whale began taking fish from his longline fishing gear and damaging equipment. This kind...
A variety of market forces combined with fishery collapses occurring in a rapidly changing environment caused Alaska’s seafood industry to lose $1.8 billion from 2022 to 2023, a new federal report said. The array of economic and environmental challenges has devastated one of Alaska’s main industries, said the report, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the losses extend beyond economics, casting doubt on prospects for the future, the report said. “For many Alaskans the decline of their seafood industry affec... Full story
Alaskans will vote Nov. 5 on a ballot measure that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027 and require that workers get paid for up to seven sick days a year. To backers who collected signatures to put the question before voters, Ballot Measure 1 is about fairness for workers and overall state economic vitality. But opponents in business groups warn that the measure, if passed, would bring dire consequences. To Sarah Oates, CHARR’s president, the consequences of Ballot Measure 1 would be bad. “This is going to kill small... Full story
Alaska had the biggest decline in average life expectancy of all U.S. states in 2021, a year when health outcomes were heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent national report. Alaska’s life expectancy in 2021 was 74.5 years, down from the average of 76.6 years in 2020, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, U.S. life expectancy declined by 0.6 years in that time, mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in drug overdose deaths and other unintentional i...
State health officials have recorded 234 cases this year of whooping cough — also known as pertussis — through Sept. 9, more than were reported over the past seven years combined. About three-quarters of this year’s cases came in the past three months. Of the statewide total, SEARHC reports 11 in Southeast from June through early September, Lyndsey Y. Schaefer, communications director for the health care provider, said in an emailed statement Sept. 12. Privacy rules prevent SEARHC from disclosing the communities with whooping cough cases...
Federal disaster aid is on the way for some commercial fishing permit-holders in Haines and throughout the state, though many may be too wrapped up in the current season to apply for it right away. Applications for crew and subsistence users are currently available online. Unique applications for permit-holders and processors from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission were mailed out on June 26 and are due August 24. The commission says those who have not received a hardcopy...
