Sorted by date Results 1351 - 1375 of 1616
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht presented the following report to the Assembly on Monday night. Joe Nelson and power and light staff are working on incorporating a thorough capital project plan into the electric rate study to better outline the needs of our electric system. Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs officials are drafting a letter to the Alaska Department of Transportation in an effort to partner with Alaska Marine Highway to curb illegal controlled substances being transported on state ferries. Postal interdiction efforts...
It’s traditional during the Christmas season to decorate a downtown with lights – for Kodiak and other coastal communities “downtown” means the boat harbor. This month, alongside the local businesses on shore, Kodiak’s floating storefronts will be showcased in the downtown lighting festivities – meaning the 650 or so fishing businesses that each support one or several Kodiak families. Think of it as a mall in a marina! The revamped Harbor Lights Festival is an old theme with a new twist, said Toby Sullivan, director of the Kodiak Maritime Mu...
Petersburg borough manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following during its November 25 meeting: Work continues on the new electric system for the North Harbor. Peak usage on the Southeast Alaska Power Agency system is significant with the cold weather. Wrangell now has a system peak equal to Petersburg’s. Chief Swihart will attend the Executive Development Conference December 3-6 in Anchorage. The seminar will include various trainings as well as meetings for Alaska Police Standards Council, Alaska Association of Chiefs of Police. Jenna D...
November 7 A caller spoke with officers concerning an individual’s welfare. Police issued Karsten W. Olsen a speeding citation. A caller reported an individual backing up into their parked vehicle. November 8 A caller reported a young male in a city flowerbed. Police arrested Roderick Vasquez, 21, on charges of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the 6th degree. A caller reported possible fraud on his credit card associated with online charges. An officer responded to report of a physical altercation. Police arrested Palmer T...
The Petersburg Planning Commission unanimously approved to send a request to the borough assembly to update the current comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan is a guide to how to develop the community and land within the municipality including things such as utilities, recreation and housing. The plan was last updated in 2001 and updating it is essential to the requirements of borough formation. “We’re giving an overview of the whole process that’s going to take a very long and involved time,” commission chair Susan Thomason said. Officia...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 6-1 to retain the library advisory board. Advisory boards currently meet to discuss potential issues or programs with borough department heads and then bring those recommendations to the assembly as issues arise. The assembly has been systematically reviewing advisory boards during the past several months and has let several dissolve. Some criticisms of the boards are that there are often not enough members present to form a quorum or, depending on the board, that there isn’t enough turnover to keep i...
More than ten business leaders in the Petersburg tourism industry met Monday to discuss how the season fared this year and what could be done better in the future. Although the general consensus was that last summer was a success, there are some kinks to work out. Sally Dwyer, Chamber of Commerce director, said one of the complaints she heard from tourists was the lack of public phones in town. “There are no public phones in town,” Dwyer said. “We were letting them use our cell phones.” Public phones were taken down due to vandalism and lac...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted to retain the Parks and Recreation and Public Safety advisory boards Monday but the function of the boards might change after the assembly learned it isn’t using them as the ordinance is written. Advisory boards currently meet to discuss potential issues or programs with borough department heads without direction from the assembly. They then bring recommendations to the assembly as issues arise. But the assembly has been systematically reviewing advisory boards during the past several months and will let s...
The Bering Sea crab fleet was ready to head to the fishing grounds over the weekend after the government shutdown and unissued licenses stalled the Oct. 15 start of the crab season. Skippers of the 80 boats estimated the extra time tied up in Dutch Harbor cost them each $1,000 per day. Meanwhile, the situation was even worse for small boat crabbers at Kodiak and the Westward region who learned there would not even be a Tanner fishery come January. “It is not unexpected,” said Mark Stichert, a shellfish biologist at ADF&G in Kodiak. “We...
At its latest advisory board review hearing, the borough assembly voted to retain the Harbor advisory board as an elected body. The board review hearings come after several assembly members questioned the efficiency and viability of advisory boards and committees. Steve Giesbrecht, Borough Manager, said in an earlier interview many board members remain in place for several years and if and when they do leave it’s sometimes difficult to find replacements. “Good government involves a lot of input from its citizens,” Giesbrecht said. “If you hav...
October 9 A caller reported a vehicle in a ditch. An officer was notified that a bear had gotten into the caller’s trash on Kings Row. A caller reported an individual driving without a license. Mark S Roberts, 55, was issued a citation for No Proof of Insurance. Ian M Fitts, 16, was issued a citation for No Proof of Insurance. October 10 A caller reported two abandoned vehicles. Police were notified of a possible attempted burglary on North Nordic Drive. Police determined the suspicion was unfounded. Anthony Curtiss, 18, issued a citation f...
The dredge material coming from areas near Icicle and Ocean Beauty Seafoods is dryer and more in line with what the borough was expecting. The material, originally meant for use as scrap metal capping at the landfill, was too slurry for the application forcing borough officials to create a rock berm to contain the watery dredge spoils. Karl Hagerman, Public Works Director, said the new material is holding up well on slopes. “Both materials are helping the situation at the landfill and are m...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Alaska’s multimillion-dollar red king crab season opened Tuesday, but most of the participating boats remained at dock because federal managers who are supposed to set individual fishing quotas are among workers still furloughed in the government’s partial shutdown. Only boats representing a tiny fraction of the total harvest will be heading out into the Bering Sea. For that community development program, quotas are assigned by the state, with only seven vessels signed up to fish as of Tuesday. Crabbers in the much large...
HONOLULU (AP) — Humpback whales have begun arriving in Hawaii waters for mating season. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Monday that two whales were spotted Oct. 4 off Maui and two more were sighted last week. The first whales were reported by crew from a sailing charter and from a Pacific Whale Foundation vessel. Melissa Glennon, spokeswoman for Kai Kanani Sailing Charters, said one of the Oct. 4 sightings was of a young whale. She said crew members and passengers saw a couple of spouts from the mammal before it did a fluke-up dive, s...
This fall’s Humpy 500 saw five carts zip down PFI hill Saturday afternoon. Kids teamed up to build and design their go-karts as well as costumes that matched their theme. The Torpedo Shark, driven by Annie Christensen, and its team took first place for Best Design and third in the costume category. Noah, driven by Chase Lister, and its team took second place in the Costumes category and third place in the race with a time of 21.10 seconds. The Fat Squid, driven by Lisa Murph, and its team t... Full story
The Pacific Pile dredge crew, based out of Seattle, finished dredging the North Harbor and have moved to the area in front of Ocean Beauty where they will spend the next couple weeks. A crew of three men operate the dredge barge named ‘The Web’. Mike Eldridge, operator, typically runs the excavator. He watches a screen that displays water depth and tracks how far down he needs to keep digging. As Eldridge closes the bucket and digs out dredge material a splotch of yellow appears like a spo... Full story
The Borough Manager reported to the assembly last Monday that Mountain View Manor received a 100 percent score on the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation inspection and there continues to be a waiting list at both Elderly Housing and Assisted Living. He congratulated Scott Newman who has taken over as the PMP&L Line Foreman. An annual street light survey is underway. Citizens are asked to report any streetlights that are not working. The borough is working on a draft RFP for the Borough Comprehensive Plan, Economic Development and Harbor...
Kodiak’s waterfront is bedecked with hundreds of “7 by’s” as boats stack their pots and gear up for the big crab fisheries in the Bering Sea. The Bristol Bay red king crab season is set to open on October 15, with a harvest of 8.6 million pounds, similar to last year. A reopened Tanner crab fishery will produce a three million pound catch; the numbers for Bering Sea snow crab, Alaska’s largest crab fishery, will be out next week. The fisheries are set to open on schedule, said Heather Fitch, regional manager for ADF&G at Dutch Harbor. However,...
Petersburg officials are improvising as the North Harbor’s dredge material is more fluid than they expected. Because copper levels were too high to dispose the spoils into the ocean, the original plan was to use the dredge material to cover the landfill’s scrap metal pile but Karl Hagerman, Public Works Director, stated in a report to the borough that when the project began September 12, “it was immediately evident that the material being delivered to the landfill was different than what the sanitation department was expecting.” The Army Co...
