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The borough will transition to a cart-based, in-house recycling program. The assembly passed an ordinance 5-2 at Monday's meeting that budgets for the switch. Sixteen residents spoke on the issue-the vast majority of who were in favor of keeping the current system-as part of an extended comment period before the vote. Many speaking against the changes to the blue bag program cited their satisfaction with the current collection system. "I think Ruger and PIA (recycling contractors) did a good... Full story
Share your opinions on recycling To the Editor: If you are a participant of the blue bag recycling program, then please be aware of the changes being presented. The borough assembly is very close to deciding whether or not to take over the program and turn it into a cart-based system. We signed up for the present program because it is not only a worthy program, but it is designed to be very convenient. The borough assembly proposes a system that is inconvenient and, in my opinion, will be a costly mistake. This program needs to appeal to those...
Petersburg Indian Association started their week off without a tribal administrator on staff. Bobbi Scherrer was hired into the position this January and left at her own hand after creating an operational budget and seeing the funds weren’t there for fiscal year 2015 for the organization to employ an administrator. “I’m very sad to be leaving. It’s not what I thought would happen and certainly not this soon,” Scherrer said. “I knew we weren’t out of the woods yet, but I was hoping when I put together the operational budget to find a little... Full story
Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) announced the departure of Tribal Administrator Bobbi Scherrer in a press release yesterday. Scherrer’s position and two part-time positions will be eliminated from PIA due to a budget deficit. “My first act as Tribal Administrator was to formalize an operating budget for PIA,” Scherrer said in the release. “The 2015 finalized budget identified a deficit that required serious cuts.” Scherrer has been serving as the tribal administrator for about one month. In a February interview, she told the Pilot she... Full story
Bobbi Scherrer began her work as the Petersburg Indian Association's (PIA) tribal administrator late last month. Scherrer is returning home to Petersburg after working for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) in Juneau for the last three years. Her background is in healthcare where she's worked for 16 years managing revenue cycles for hospitals. In addition to her financial background, Scherrer said she also has experience in human resources. She said the transition from SEARHC... Full story
A new phytoplankton monitoring program being done by Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) will help alert recreational and subsistence shellfishers to harmful algal blooms in the area more quickly. "There are types of phytoplankton that, in the spring or summertime or when the water starts to warm up, they start to come out of hibernation. And in some cases so much so that they form a bloom," said PIA Tribal Resource Director Marco Banda who heads the monitoring program and administers the...
Elections for five positions on the Petersburg Indian Association’s (PIA) Tribal Council will be held Monday at the ANB/ANS hall from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eligible tribal members who are interested in declaring their candidacy or nominating a candidate must do so by 3:30 p.m. today at the PIA offices. “This time we have three 1-year terms, we also have one 2-year term and every year the board chair’s open so there’s a one year board person chair open,” said Tribal Resource Director Marco Banda. Banda said that so far five individuals have decl... Full story
January More than 600 Petersburg residents signed up for the borough's recycling program. The Petersburg Land Selection Committee requested the borough pursue legislative action regarding the State's calculation of land entitlement for the Petersburg Borough after the committee's determination that the State's selection of land was inadequate. The Petersburg School Board approved a $2.3 million exterior wall renovation project for the Rae C. Stedman Elementary School. Petersburg School District... Full story
Borough Assembly members moved speedily through the agenda at Monday’s regular meeting, approving a resolution to dedicate $950,730 of Property Development fund money to the Municipal Building renovation project. At the last meeting, Assembly members approved moving the monies – which are the surplus from the 2014 fiscal year’s General Fund – into the Property Development fund, so the Borough can have more financial options for funding local projects in anticipation of receiving fewer State funds this year. The renovation is the top priority on...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave the following report to the Assembly at Monday’s regular meeting: Power and Light is proposing the addition of a new capital project to add a high voltage switch immediately upstream of PFI. This will improve reliability and aid in power restoration after an outage. The project would include replacement of the overhead primary metering installation which is very close to school property. The Harbor Security/Fire Vessel electrical upgrade was successful bid out to Bear Electric Inc., which came in as the app...
Petersburg Indian Association recapped nearly a decade of work on roads and trails across Mitkof Island at the Nov. 3 assembly meeting, with Transportation Director Susan Harai presenting a video detailing the tribe’s works. Since 2006, PIA has received more than $10.2 million for the tribal transportation program, working along a master guideline scoped 20 years ahead and more specifically revised for the next five in a Tribal Transportation Improvement Plan. Money is granted through federal transportation allocations divided amongst the t...
Borough Manager Steve Geisbrecht presented the following report to the assembly at Monday’s regular meeting: Medicaid recertification for the Mountain View Manor is approved. We’re good for two more years. Final touches are being put on the ten recently installed windows at Elderly Housing. Liz Cabrera met with Bob Weinstein from Senator Begich’s office on federal issues of interest and arranged for a tour of the Police Department. There was some progress on the dismantling of the Ellingstad/Triem house at 1011 Wrangell Avenue. The roof and a...
City Creek trail will be getting a significant facelift over the building season of 2015, and perhaps on into the next few years, in an effort to make the increasingly popular coastal rainforest sojourn more accessible to residents and visitors of all ages and fitness ― at least on the first leg. The project, funded by a $60,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forest Service grant the borough accepted at its last assembly meeting, won't actually go very far in terms of miles. All told, the p... Full story
Petersburg Public Library just finished the grant phase of a project to digitally preserve local Tlingit and borough history, according to Taralee Alcock, Library Director. The grant, obtained from the Institute for Museum and Library services and administered by the Alaska State Library, was for $16,940, which gave the library a "foot in the door'' to begin adding the wealth of local history available to a much greater electronic catalogue than is available at home. "We added 200 photographs...
Petersburg Indian Association’s first-ever e-waste program sent 15,000 pounds – a full 40-foot shipping container – of electronics to Seattle to be recycled. The program ran June 30 to Aug. 30 and offered locals free disposal of unwanted electronics in an effort to keep harmful elements found in electronics, like lead and mercury, from contaminating the environment. PIA Tribal Resource Director Jason Wilson said community members brought home electronics like televisions, boat electronics like radios and sonar equipment, and office equip...
WRANGELL — There's finally a place to put discardable gill nets in Wrangell, perhaps at last solving a problem that has been hassling the island. In a recent survey, Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian General Assistance Program (WCA-IGAP) found that illegal dumping was residents' number-one environmental concern. Among the items being abandoned, old gill nets were a particularly troublesome issue. “It has been a problem in the past,” said Ruby McMurren, project supervisor at Wrangell Public Works. “Nets were being dumped everywh...
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following during Monday’s assembly meeting: The borough has seen increased littering and other activity in the Frederick Point area. We have assigned officers to extra patrol efforts in the area. Borough staff will meet with architects July 24 to discuss final design concepts for the police and municipal building renovation. Officer Williams is back from maternity leave. She and the baby are doing well and staff is happy to have her back. Assessor Mike Renfro arrived Friday and will be in town f...
Petersburg Indian Association is accepting E-waste through August 30 in an effort to prevent harmful elements that exist in electronics, such lead and mercury, from entering the environment. "This is our first E-waste program through the Indian General Assistance Program, the environmental program here at PIA," said Jason Wilson, PIA tribal resource director. "If you can plug it in we'll take it." Electronic waste can be deposited in the yellow totes outside at the baler facility until the...
Four past and present Petersburg artists will have their work on display in the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council’s Main Street Gallery from July 4-25. Artists Joe Viechnicki, Susan Christensen, Pia Reilly and John McCabe are all transplants to Petersburg but have lived here for decades. Their work explores themes common to island living and the Pacific Northwest including community, isolation, solitude, beauty, strength and loneliness. Christensen recently returned to Seattle after living in Petersburg for many years. She currently p...
Forty-five Petersburg High School seniors graduated Tuesday evening in the high school gym in front of a packed house. PHS Principal Rick Dormer gave the welcome speech and offered a piece of advice to a graduating class he described as quiet performers. "As you go forward class of 2014 I would encourage you to continue the tradition of accomplishing a lot, while speaking a little. My father-in-law often reminds me that the good lord gave us all two ears and one mouth and that conversations... Full story
Sales Tax Ordinance Committee Member Sue Flint is scheduled to speak before the assembly May 19 where she will again recommend a tax on tobacco. At the tail end of last winter, the committee first recommended the tax to the borough assembly. The recommendation came, in part, after Petersburg Medical Center CEO Elizabeth Woodyard requested that such a tax be implemented and that the revenues go towards PMC capital projects. PMC Lab and Imaging Manager Liz Bacom also spoke on behalf of a tobacco tax and reported 153 smoking related diagnoses at... Full story
The Petersburg Borough recycling program has saved the borough $8,500 in solid waste disposal costs since the program began in February but the program still needs to see an increase in customers to pay for itself. In order for the recycling program to break even, 40 percent of Petersburg solid waste customers need to be recycling. Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said, although recycling rates fluctuate widely from week to week, the diversion rate is averaging around 27 percent when... Full story
Thank you Petersburg Indian Association To the Editor: Without the foresight and initiative to begin a voluntary curbside recycling program many years ago, many things would not have happened in Petersburg. Many different tribal members would not have had jobs over the years, faithfully picking up recycling from environmentally aware volunteer recyclers on a weekly basis. As the Borough introduces and welcomes Wes and Angie Davis, owners of Ruger’s Trucking, as our new recycling collection contractor I want to recognize and thank PIA, and t...
