Sorted by date Results 401 - 425 of 708
WRANGELL — At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Borough Assembly approved moving ahead with seeking a consultant on the hospital’s future, while members also learned city computers had been targeted by a hacking attack. A letter recommending hiring a consultant had been submitted to the city by the Wrangell Medical Center governing board last month. Currently the hospital is a municipal service, but recent cash flow troubles and sizable costs for a replacement facility have had administrators and elected officials alike considering other alter...
WRANGELL — A final decision on the Wrangell Island timber sale is expected out next week, wrapping up years of deliberation and planning. Citing objections to the economics and ecological impacts of its preferred plan, the United States Forest Service has indicated it will be reducing total harvest for the proposed sale on Wrangell Island to around 428 acres, or 5- to 7-million board feet (mmbf) of timber. These would be sold piecemeal over the course of several years. Of five alternatives put forward, Alternative 2 had proposed around 55....
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —Tourism leaders in Alaska are asking Congress to increase U.S. Forest Service recreation funding. Tourism leaders representing 49 businesses in Southeast Alaska wrote in an open letter last week that the U.S. Forest Service’s budget has shrunk by nearly half in a little more than a decade, hampering growth in southeast Alaska’s visitor industry. The U.S. Forest Service’s funding for recreation on the Tongass and Chugach national forests declined 46 percent from 2004-2014, the businesses said. That’s hurting businesse...
Ronnie Lee Duncan, 61, was born in Stockton, California on November 8, 1956 and grew up in a loving family. After school, he joined the United States Marine Corp. and after completing his time, received an honorable discharge from the service. Ronnie worked in trucking for a while. In the late 80s, he came to Alaska and worked on factory fishing boats. Ronnie moved to Petersburg in the early 90s where he continued working in the fishing industry until getting work with the U.S. Forest Service,...
Name: Richard Burke Age:38 Experience: Civil Engineer. US Navy Submarine Service Vet. 1998-2003. AAS in Civil Engineering Technology, Mount Hood Community College 2005, BS Forest Engineering, Oregon State University 2010. Lived in Petersburg for 7 years. 5 years in Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department. 2 years on Petersburg Borough Planning & Zoning with a very good attendance record. I wrote Proposition 6 on this ballot. Why do you seek public office? I love Petersburg, and I think I can make...
After years of filming, Jeff Mittelstadt was able to offer a private screening to about 140 people in Petersburg, the town which supported the making of his whirlwind documentary, "Staring Down Fate." Mittelstadt had an idea in 2011 to put together a series of short films on the red wolf conflict in North Carolina. He would make an interactive online documentary with graphics to illuminate the science and economics of the red wolf, while telling the stories of people on all sides of the issue....
Forest Service System Road 43501 on the Tonka road system is closed to motor vehicles at milepost 0.513 due to an unsafe bridge. The road will be reopened when the structure is replaced according to a USFS release dated Sept. 6. "Engineers doing routine maintenance checks discovered the log stringers are failing," said Petersburg District Ranger Dave Zimmerman. "The road currently has road closure signage and boulders placed across road." A star on the accompanying map shows the location of the...
WRANGELL - Improvements to the observatory at Anan Creek are complete, improving access and security for one of Wrangell's top visitor attractions. Managed by the Forest Service, Anan Wildlife Observatory is best known for its bear population, one of the few where brown and black bears can be observed feeding together nonconfrontationally. Along with LeConte Glacier and the Stikine River, the sites brought in half of Wrangell's total tourism earnings in 2014, or $2 million, according to a study...
On Aug. 19, Alaska State Troopers on Prince of Wales Island were notified of a motor vehicle collision which occurred in Coffman Cove near Luck Lake. Details revealed that 32 year old Robert Hull of Craig lost control of his vehicle, a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado pickup while traveling south on Forest Service Road 3030. The crash caused significant damage to Hull’s pickup as well as his 2016 Honda ATV which was in the bed of the truck. Investigation into the crash is continuing. On August 16, Prince of Wales based troopers were conducting an i...
Pete Martin Jr., 77 died on August 13, 2017 in Juneau. He was born to Pete Martin Sr. and Celia Martin in Kake, Alaska on August 12, 1940. Pete was the youngest of eight (8) brothers and had four (4) sisters. He had an affinity for hunting, fishing, and processing traditional native foods with his brothers and sisters. He graduated from Petersburg High School and was an avid basketball player and an outstanding member of the boxing team. In the military tradition of his brothers, Pete joined... Full story
WRANGELL, Alaska (AP) – State plans to store contaminated soil near a recreation area in the Alaska Panhandle could be stalled by the U.S. Forest Service. CoastAlaska News reports, state officials seek to move nearly 20,000 cubic yards (15,291 cubic meters) of lead-laced soil in a rock quarry south of Wrangell. Officials say they want the soil moved because it poses a threat to marine environment and have prepared it with phosphate-based product so the lead won't leach into soil or waterways. To move the soil, the state needs a road permit, w...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) – The U.S. Forest Service and an Alaska-based Native corporation announced the transfer of 12 square miles (31 square kilometers) of land from the Alaska Native corporation to the Admiralty Island National Monument. The land is part of the 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) Sitka-based Shee Atika Corp. logged between 1984 and 2002 after the Sitka urban corporation selected it as part of its land entitlement under the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act. Under an agreement between the Forest Service and Shee Atika s...
July 27, 1917 – Forest Service W. G. Wiegle of Ketchikan, was in town accompanied by W. H. Waugh, civil engineer, from Juneau to inspect the right-of-way of the proposed Petersburg-Scow Bay road. The road slated for completion this fall appears to have a hitch in the programme as Mr. Wiegle considers it improbable that the work will be resumed before next spring. He feels assured, however that the project will then be taken up and completed. It is presumed, though not so stated by Mr. Wiegle, that it is now planned for the forestry service t...
Asking for support To the Editor: Recently Mike Schwartz sent a letter regarding the potential loss of our family cabin since 1956 that is up Petersburg Creek. As most of you know my father, Ken Hammer passed away last fall and in addition to the heartache of dealing with his loss, this takes on another level of loss. As Mike stated in his letter, the Forest Service designed a permit plan that only allows one transfer within a family and when that member passes on, the Forest Service reserves the right to destroy the cabin. More precisely, the...
June 29, 1917 – After July 3, according to a law passed at the late session of the territorial legislature, a preliminary to marriage will be the securing of a marriage license. This is to be furnished to contracting parties by the U.S. commissioer of the district in which they reside. Both parties are required to be identified by the commissioner before issuance of license. If either party is under legal age, consent of parents or guardian must also be furnished to the commissioner. The license costs $2.50, and the commissioner collects $...
This Congressional legislation was enacted for the purpose of establishing an area within the Tongass National forest in Southeastern Alaska for the preservation and continuity of nature and wilderness. This action was honorable, noble, and vital and there was complete agreement among the people most associated with nature, as the U.S. Forest Service, hunters, fishers, nature lovers, and the general public that could enjoy it. At this time the Forest Service allowed the public use of these...
Exception to rule needed To the Editor: Jens, Jake, and Carrie Hammer recently lost their father, Kenny Hammer. They inherited a cabin up Petersburg Creek that the Forest Service is in the process of forcing the family to remove. In their effort to eliminate every cabin ever built on Forest Service land, the Forest Service designed a permit plan that only allows one transfer within a family. When a family member dies, the Forest Service reserves the right to destroy that cabin. Jim Hammer made the mistake of transferring the permit to his son,...
Mayor Cindi Lagoudakis spent her adolescent years in a city, gripped in its pace, from New York to Southern California she lived, without a hint of Petersburg in her future. Until one night in college at 23 she was walking home from studying, when she turned around to see two men running toward her in a frenzy, one holding a knife and the other yelling for her money. Lagoudakis was not aware of the abduction that was about to happen, but it would upend any trust she had for the hot, fast city....
Cindi Lagoudakis was the featured artist in Miele Gallery and Framing shop last week, as she displayed about 70 paintings that took a "couple years to finish," she said. Lagoudakis mingled with a group at the opening Friday evening, discussing her contrast with colors, different tactics she uses to draw and the inspiration behind it all: the forest. "I've worked for the Forest Service for 26 years," Lagoudakis said. "Clearly the natural world is something of interest to me." The mayor is a...
The airport might add more parking to accommodate increased demand for spaces and to anticipate potential restrictions on current long-term parking, said Richard Burke, who is a Planning and Zoning Committee representative. "It's more for the need for additional spaces," Burke said. "I've talked to a number of folks who almost missed their flights due to lack of parking." Burke went before the Petersburg Borough Tuesday and asked the assembly to lease property across the street from the...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A divided federal appeals court panel has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service “chose jobs over wolves” in approving a logging project in southeast Alaska but was within its authority to do so. The decision is in response to lawsuits by conservation groups that challenged the Big Thorne project on Prince of Wales Island and cited concerns about the impact on the Alexander Archipelago wolf. It upholds a lower court ruling. The majority opinion from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel states that the Forest Servi...
May 18, 1917 – Brigadier-General Black, chief of the engineers of the war department, through Secretary of War Baker, has transmitted a report on the Dry Straits project recommending an expenditure of $2,000,000 for a channel 200 feet wide and 26 feet deep with a protecting dike 31,100 feet long. The matter has been referred to the rivers and harbors committee of the house of representatives. May 22, 1942 – According to the Forest Service office, picnic parties at Sandy Beach this week-end will find running water turned on. Both beach and she...
The Federal Subsistence Board announced Monday that the Stikine River Chinook salmon subsistence fishery has been closed. Emergency Special Action Request FSA17-02 was approved, and delegation of authority given to the in-season manager to rescind the closure if an updated in-season abundance estimate is large enough to produce an allowable catch. Scheduled to run from May 15 to June 20, the subsistence fishery fell afoul of a low pre-season abundance forecast of the terminal area. The 2017 forecast is at 18,300 large Chinook salmon, measuring...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A recently approved U.S. Senate bill secures a long-awaited land trade. The $1.1 spending bill approved by the Senate on Thursday will permit a land trade between the U.S. Forest Service and the Alaska Mental Health Trust, the Ketchikan Daily News reports. The bill is heading to President Donald Trump’s desk for final signature. The land trade has been an ongoing effort by the Mental Health Trust Authority Board. The board uses land proceeds to fund the state’s mental health services. The entities began the land tradi...
