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The Lady Vikings looked for improvement on offense and defense heading into the 3rd annual PSG Varsity Tournament. Unfortunately in the Lady Vikings' first game against the Skagway Lady Panthers, the Vikings were down 11-1 at the end of the first, and then 24-3 heading into halftime. "We just weren't ready to play. I was pretty blunt with the kids at halftime of that game – it just looked like we didn't have a whole lot of interest being on the court," head coach Matt Pawuk said. "That's been k...
Rural schools, mostly in Southeast Alaska, are facing a major funding shortfall this year after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to reauthorize a bill aimed at funding communities alongside national forests and lands. The bipartisan Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act was first passed in 2000, and enacted to assist communities impacted by the declining timber industry. It provided funds for schools, as well as for roads, emergency services and wildfire prevention. The award varies each year depending on federal lan...
It has been a very busy year filled with lots of successes. I hope all have had great and joy filled holidays, and I wish for you each a very happy and safe celebration as we welcome in the new year. Below is a brief summary of many of the accomplishments achieved in 2024 and a few things I am looking forward to working on in 2025. January started off with huge transitions after a record-breaking voter turnout and a resignation resulted in five, out of seven, new Council members being seated. The Council has been filled with seven citizens...
WRANGELL — The mayor convened the public workshop, inviting Washington state-based entrepreneur Dale Borgford to lay out for borough officials his plans to build biomass boilers that would burn trash from around Southeast to heat large commercial greenhouses at the site of the former 6-Mile mill. He also wants to build a plant capable of filling large plastic bottles with 40,000 gallons a day of clean water from a creek at the north end of the property, or from rainwater if the creek flow is insufficient. And his list includes a plant to turn f...
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...
The Petersburg School District plans to restore several cut positions and provide a one-time staff bonus, thanks to higher-than-expected state funding and enrollment numbers for the 2024-25 school year. The district received around $1.1 million more in state funding than initially budgeted for, with $849,000 coming from the one-time increase of $680 per student above the base student allocation (BSA) surviving the governor's veto this year. The remainder stems from enrollment reaching 456.8 stud...
Petersburg's high school drama program is heading to Scotland. The group has been accepted to perform in August 2026 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe -the world's largest performing arts festival. For PHS drama teacher Elsa Wintersteen, it's a dream come true – both for herself and her students. While she's never been to the Fringe Festival, she witnessed its impact through a high school friend who performed there years ago. "When she came back, I mean, all the pictures she had to show me, a...
December 26, 1924 – Petersburg is to celebrate the completion of the Hydro Electric project. A committee of which Harold Dawes is the chairman was named at the Commercial Club meeting Monday evening to arrange details. Secretary C. Clausen was instructed to write Governor Bone and invite him to attend or send a representative, if unable to attend, or at least to “officially switch on the juice at Juneau.” The Governor will be apprised later of the exact date and hour the new plant at Blind Slough will be hooked up to the town of Peter...
The Petersburg High School had its yearly winter music concert on Tuesday, Dec. 17, in front of an energetic audience to help end 2024 and ring in the new year. The show highlighted all the hard work students and music director Chelsea Corrao have put into the music program. "We went into it saying we did the hard work, now it's time to make the art happen and I feel like that's exactly what we did," Corrao said. "The kids are feeling pretty confident and proud with themselves and that's all we...
Petersburg high school wrestling seniors Angus Olsen and Kaden Duke played their final high school wrestling matches at the ASAA DII Championships. While neither of them reached their ultimate goal of winning state in their respective weight classes, both wrestlers left it all out on the mat. "Both of them unfortunately did fall short but I am unbelievably proud of them for the four years that I've had with them and the amount of growth and the time and effort they put in and it's been great...
After starting the season with a loss, 51-39 against the Sitka Wolves, on Friday, Dec. 20, the Petersburg High School boys varsity team rebounded with a 43-36 win – improving to 1-1 in front of their home crowd. The Wolves scored 51 points the night earlier. This time, the Vikings made it a goal to not let the Wolves get comfortable. "Last night I felt [the Wolves] were in control from the beginning and we were always fighting from behind. We talked about defensively establishing ourselves a...
After winning back-to-back regional titles, the Petersburg High School cheer squad enters the 2024-25 season aiming to do it again and bring home another regional title. This season comes with some change as former assistant and now head coach Becky Turland will be leading the squad in 24-25. The cheer squad has already hit the ground running. "I'm pretty familiar with most of the kids and the ones that showed up [to preseason] were returning cheerleaders but we did have a couple of new ones...
The modern Christmas card industry began in 1915 when a small printing company in Kansas, the Hall Brothers Company, published its first holiday greeting card. When the company changed its name to Hallmark in 1925 a new format was adopted, becoming the standard – four by six inches, folded in the middle, and with an accompanying envelope. This Christmas greeting card, made in the U.S.A., features a fashionable woman carrying a wreath and a gift as she walks a small dog. It was discovered in the...
Coming off a season in which they won their first 2A state title since 2017, the Petersburg High School Boys Basketball team will be looking to make another deep postseason run in 2024-25. Despite winning a championship, the Vikings don't plan to rest on their laurels anytime soon. "Play hard, smart, together and get better every day, those are our vocal points," head coach Rick Brock said. "One of the good things about playing in our league is that you have to get better every week because the...
Petersburg wrestling seniors Angus Olsen and Kaden Duke qualified for the state championships in Anchorage. For Olsen and Duke, this was their final region tournament and final chance to qualify for state in their high school wrestling careers. "At the start of their matches I said this: Get to the legs. Get in on the legs, get your takedown, wrestle," Valentine said. "I tried to keep it simple ... it's as simple as get to the legs." Olsen took second in the 285-pound weight class. "I really...
In June of 1947, after graduating from Stillwater High School in Minnesota, Roxane Lillian Swenson boarded a westbound train in Saint Paul with the ultimate destination of Petersburg, Alaska. Her aunt, Lillian L. Swanson had surprised Roxy with a graduation present of two suitcases and a ticket to Alaska. She arrived in Petersburg on the SS Alaska and that was the start of a glorious lifelong adventure. Roxy worked summers in her aunt's store, The Lillian Shop, and studied in the winters at the... Full story
U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer Joey Boggs is back home in Petersburg this week after escorting the now-famous 80-foot Sitka spruce - known as "The People's Tree" - from Zarembo Island to the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. On Zarembo, Petersburg's Rock-N-Road Construction - Sig Burrell and his crew including Jimmy Martinsen, Clayton Martinsen, Ethan File and Tore Lenz - were the ones who harvested the tree. It was the peak of their summer construction season, and...
This is the final week of operations for Papa Bear's Pizza - downtown Petersburg's iconic pizza shop which has been family operated for the past twenty-two years. The business and the building have been purchased by Tom Westoff, owner and operator of Coastal Cold Storage - a custom seafood processor and popular breakfast and lunch restaurant which moved out of their former location on main street this fall. Coastal's restaurant is reshaping itself into Coastal Bear, with Peter Brantuas set to...
Petersburg's student-run nonprofit movie theater, the Northern Nights Theater, has run out of reserves and will have to make some changes starting in January. The last few years have been very challenging and expensive for the organization. Sitting unused through the early stages of the pandemic led to major malfunctions with the movie projector, Theater Manager Cyndy Fry told the Pilot. "We basically had to buy the whole computer guts of the system, [and then] because of that change we had to...
November 26 – An officer spoke with a complainant regarding a civil issue. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of a vandalized door to a school outbuilding near the track. An officer responded to a disturbance on South 2nd Street and determined it was a civil issue. PPD received multiple reports of fraudulent texts from an individual claiming to be a minister needing Apple gift cards purchased for them to give to cancer patients in the hospital, alleging they were too busy to get the cards themself, but would repay the money a...
Scott was a lifelong resident of Petersburg AK. He loved the small town life and was very proud to call Petersburg his home. A commercial fisherman from the time he was a young man in high school until he passed. Scott graduated from Petersburg High School in 1976. Scott enjoyed traveling in the winter. Hawaii, Mexico and Las Vegas were favorites. A January trip to Las Vegas to play in the annual "Moose International Texas Holdem Tournament" became an annual favorite. Upward of a thousand card p... Full story
Carolyn Verna Hansen, 86, passed away unexpectedly at home in Seattle on October 30, 2024. A devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Carolyn's family was her most prized treasure. She was married to her husband, Norman, for 65 years until his passing in January 2024. Carolyn was born in Petersburg, Alaska on November 30, 1937 to Henry and Verda (Garner) Grindrod, along with her twin sister Marolyn. Carolyn often described her childhood and teenage years as cold and snowy...
Chris Herren, a former NBA player and renowned addiction recovery speaker is flying in on Wednesday, Dec. 5 to speak with Mitkof Middle School and Petersburg High School students and share his eye-opening journey from success to addiction to recovery. Once a high school basketball star recruited to play in college and then two seasons in the NBA, Herren's promising career was derailed by addiction. His story has been documented in the memoir, "Basketball Junkie" and in "Unguarded," an...
PHS Volleyball season ended at the Region V Championships this past weekend in Craig. The Vikings were the number four seed and played Craig in their first match. The Vikings won three out of four sets against Craig on Thursday, Nov. 21. "We came out and played exceptionally well," head coach Jaime Cabral said. With the win, the Vikings matched up against the number one seed Wrangell Wolves, losing in three sets. "In games two and three, our passing and first contact were not there, we just...
