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State Transportation Department officials recently told legislators the ferry system needed to quickly hire at least 166 new crew in order to meet minimum staffing levels for this summer’s schedule starting in May. “Staffing goals for the summer season will not be met at current recruitment rates,” the department reported in its presentation to the House Transportation Committee on Feb. 15. Insufficient staffing could result in scaling back ferry service plans. About 350 new hires would be even better, covering vacancies due to sick leave...
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,...
Beckett Buchan Thain is Petersburg's First baby of 2022. He was born on February 2nd, 2022 at 9:30 pm at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria, Oregon to Petersburg residents Lauren and Tyler Thain, joining big sister Libby Jo. He weighed 8 lbs 8 oz. and was 20.5 inches long....
Unless the Alaska Marine Highway System can recruit enough workers by March 1 to restaff the unused Columbia, officials said the largest vessel in the fleet would remain tied to the dock for a third summer in a row. "Management is doing everything we can" to recruit and staff up, Katherine Keith, the ferry system's newly hired change management director, told legislators last week. As of the first week of January, the state ferry system was short more than 350 workers - about half of the...
The U.S. grows less than one-100th of 1% of the world’s $6 billion seaweed market, but Alaska has the goods to grow into a major contributor. A new report assesses the pros and cons of six communities as locations for seaweed processing facilities to assist companies interested in operating in Alaska. It was compiled by McKinley Research Group for the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, which has played a central role in keeping Alaska seaweed in the resource development spotlight. The six study communities were evaluated based on three c...
Though they say the level of funding for the state ferry system in Gov. Mike Dunleavy's budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is adequate, coastal legislators don't like that the governor wants to use one-time federal money to pay the bills, eliminating almost 95% of state funding. Their fear is that when the federal dollars from last year's $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending plan run out, so too will adequate ferry service. "Those federal dollars were meant to augment state money, no...
Wow, there is a lot of fishing going on across Alaska! Salmon is the heart of Alaska’s seafood industry but winter is when the fishing action really begins. Hundreds of boats are out on the water on the first day of each new year, beginning a predictable rhythm for the seafood industry as millions of pounds of fish begin to cross the docks around the clock at Alaska’s working waterfronts. Here’s a sampler: Starting January 1 boats drop pots and baited lines for cod, rockfish and other whitefish in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Alask...
I was nineteen when I first rode the M/V Columbia up to Petersburg, back in 2003, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I parked myself on the ferry's starboard side and watched the landscape grow wilder the further north we sailed. The scenery was more spectacular than anything I had ever seen: Mountains plunged into the sea and mist ribboned through forested shores. As we passed through the Wrangell Narrows the trees seemed close enough to reach out and touch. A passenger near me... Full story
January The assembly approved of a COVID-19 dashboard which tracked cases in the community. Local businesses received a total of $15.08 million in aid in the first round of COVID-19 aid released through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. PMC vaccinated approximately 350 residents aged 65 or older at a vaccine drive in the community gym. PMC was given permission by the borough to apply for a second PPP loan totaling $1.8 million. PMC applied and received a loan of...
December 30, 1921 The corner of the heating plant at the Petersburg Hospital caught fire last Friday night about 10 o’clock, the flames being caused by sparks from the furnace. Dr. A.B. Jones was in the building attending a patient and noticed the flames. He ran out and extinguished them with buckets of water without assistance. Practically no damage was done. Another fire last Friday evening in the house occupied by Charles Birdsell and family caused considerable excitement. The alarm was rung at 5 o’clock and by the time the department arrive...
Pacific halibut stock appears to be on an upswing and could result in increased catches for most regions in 2022. At the interim meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission last week, scientists gave an overview of the summer setline survey that targets nearly 2,000 stations over three months. The Pacific resource is modeled as a single stock extending from northern California to the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, including all inside waters through British Columbia and Alaska. The survey showed that coastwide combined numbers...
There has been a concentrated effort the past few years to develop a long-term solution to the many problems of our ferry system. The effort has been led by the Alaska Department of Transportation. The department has hired several consulting firms over the years including the Spaulding Group, McDowell Group, Northern Economics and the governor’s “reshaping work group,” at a cost to the state of several hundred thousand dollars. These reports have done a good job identifying problems, yet very few of their proposed solutions have been acted...
Conspiracy Theory To the Editor: Let’s pretend that a country decided to find a way to cripple its foes physically and financially without using nuclear weapons that cost billions to produce, deliver and destroy infrastructure for generations, making it unusable to all. Instead, they create germs that cause a disease that will sicken and kill millions and best of all cost almost nothing to develop and spread and does not harm any infrastructure. They also develop and promote a media campaign that says the disease is harmless and any vaccines a...
The Borough Assembly discussed a resolution during their October 19 meeting which seeks to protect transboundary salmon rivers between Alaska and British Columbia. Resolution #2021-11 asks for a permanent ban on tailings dams and a temporary pause in activities relating to Canadian mines along the border. The resolution references the United States-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which support the need to maintain the...
The Borough Assembly walked through each of the six maps being considered by the Alaska Redistricting Board during Tuesday's meeting and discussed each map's affects on Petersburg. The districts are redrawn every decade based off data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each of the 40 districts must be socioeconomically integrated, reasonably compact, contiguous, and have an approximately equal number of people. This year that number is 18,335 per district. Members from the Alaska...
Former and current secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, who was instrumental in reimposing the 2001 roadless rule on the Tongass National Forest in 2011 and is planning to reimpose it again before Nov. 1, has announced “a new Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy “to help support a diverse economy, enhance community resilience, and conserve natural resources.” This is to be “a collaborative process to invest approximately $25 million in financial and technical resources in sustainable opportunities for economi...
Optimism is the word that best sums up the attitude among most Alaska salmon fishermen after a good season, according to people in the business of buying and selling permits and boats. Most fishermen in major regions ended up with good catches and dock prices were up from recent years. That’s pushed up permit prices, including at the bellwether fishery at Bristol Bay where drift net permits have topped $200,000. “The highest has been $210,000. But it’s a pretty tight market,” said Maddie Lightsey, a broker at Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer....
Mayor Mark Jensen proclaimed October 2021 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month during Monday's meeting. He also declared October 21, 2021 as Wear Purple Thursday and encouraged members of the community to participate in activities organized by Working Against Violence for Everyone (WAVE) and other national organizations. According to the declaration, one in four women and one in seven men will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes and anyone can become a victim of domestic violence. Do...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A Canadian mining company has been looking for precious metals on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska. Millrock Resources, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based company, several years ago applied to the U.S. Forest Service for drilling permits to renew exploration on claims that once made up the historic Apex and El Nido gold mines. However, the exploration never happened. CEO Gregory Beischer said the company wasn’t able to secure financing. The mines produced precious metals in the early 20th Century. Some exp...
WRANGELL - It's one thing to experience Alaska's waterways from a ferry, cruise ship or even a fishing boat, but what about a Jet Ski, sitting atop a couple hundred horsepower of a thousand-pound jet pump with handlebars? One company is doing just that, guiding tours via personal watercraft, from Seattle to Juneau with stops in Wrangell and other Southeast communities. Dangerous Waters Adventures was founded in 2018 by Steven Moll, offering thrill seekers a chance to experience the Alaska and...
The marine work is done and all that remains are the final shoreside connections and testing, and a new undersea power cable between Woronkofski and Vank islands will be ready to carry electricity. The cable repair barge that pulled up the broken line and laid down 3.5 miles of new cable has left, with the onshore work expected to take until about mid-August, Trey Acteson, chief executive officer of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, said July 29. At its deepest, the crossing is about 700 feet,...
Alaskan interest in growing kelp continues to outpace that of shellfish, based on applications filed during the annual window that runs from January through April. The number of 2021applicants dropped to just seven, reversing a steady upward trend that reached 16 last year, likely due to a "wait and see" approach stemming from the pandemic. "We had people whose personal situations changed because of COVID. They became homeschooling parents, things like that, where they can no longer dedicate...
On July 1, Southeast Alaska Power Agency will begin an eight day process of removing a damaged submarine cable and replacing it with a new triple conductor cable between Woronofski and Vank islands. Site preparation is expected to begin on June 1, with the removal of the faulty cable taking place one month later on July 1, said SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson at a Borough Assembly meeting on May 17. Crews will then begin laying about 3.5 miles of new cable. The manufacturing and the installation of the...
Aaliyah Margarette Leigh Domingo Felizardo Who are your parents? Shiela and Allan Felizardo Number of years in Petersburg schools? 4 If you received High School awards or honors, what were they? Don't remember What are your plans following graduation? I plan on taking a year off and start nursing school in 2023 What is your favorite book? Don't have one What is your favorite movie? 10 things I hate about you What is your favorite music genre? Country Senior Quote? "People said senior year would...
When Lydia Martin got her admission letter from Columbia University, she didn't open it right away. She had just been turned down by two other universities and couldn't take anymore disappointment. Then the following day during first period, she decided to read the university's response which told her she got in. "It was really surprising," said Martin, who will be entering the Ivy League university in New York as an earth science major. "I had been holding out a bit of hope to get in obviously....
