Sorted by date Results 1465 - 1489 of 1830
A project to improve storage capacity at Southeast Alaska Power Agency’s (SEAPA) Swan Lake hydropower facility continues along with efforts to finance it with up to $11.36 million in bond sales. Over the past month, SEAPA’s executive director Trey Acteson and general counsel presented updates on the planned expansion of the facility located northeast of Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island. Each of SEAPA’s three member utilities—Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan— heard presentations on the expansion and the associated bonds. The project w...
WRANGELL — Wrangell residents and other Alaskans from around the state were given more opportunity to voice concerns over impending cuts to state programming during a public hearing held Monday evening for the draft of next year’s budget being considered by the Senate Finance Committee. Six Wrangellites came to their local Legislative Information Office to provide testimony via telephone, along with residents of Petersburg and Ketchikan. “I am speaking in opposition to the cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System,” borough manager Jeff Jabusch...
Laura Nan Johnston, 82, died on January 19, 2015. Born to Wendell and June Abell on February 26, 1932, in Chama, N.M., Laura's mother taught for The Bureau of Indian Affairs moving them to Sitka, Alaska, where she lived through high school. She attended Oregon State University (OSU) as a Delta Zeta and with a major in science she became a medical technician. There she met Norman Dale Johnston whose major was fisheries biology, and they both graduated in 1955. They were married in 1956, and by... Full story
The Petersburg School District is looking at a potential enrollment increase next year, “exciting” news for a district that had been seeing a fairly steady decline until the last year or two, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said. After speaking with preschools and health clinics, the district is looking at an estimated 44 kindergartners next year. It currently has 27 and is graduating 30 seniors this year. Mitkof Middle School will actually see a smaller group, with 29 sixth graders going over. It’ll provide “different opportunities for sch... Full story
March 27, 1915 – At an adjourned meeting of the council held Tuesday evening, Councilmen Johnson and Brennan reported on the matter of a road to Scow Bay, they having appeared before the legislative committee on appropriations in Juneau last week for the purpose of urging that this improvement be incorporated in a proposed measure to use a portion of the funds derived from the forest reserve for the building of roads in this division. If it is found that this money may be used for road purposes, the committee assured Messrs. Johnson and Brennan... Full story
It's a great opportunity to work with scientists and see what peers from other parts of the state are doing: four students from Petersburg High School are heading to the Alaska Statewide High School Science Symposium this weekend. The "fabulous four," as their AP (Advanced Placement) biology teacher Joni Johnson referred to them, have each completed their own experiments and made presentations based upon them. They presented their hypothesis and findings to an audience at the Petersburg Public L...
One People Canoe Society (OPCS) will be hosting their first-ever Petersburg paddle making workshop this weekend. Veteran paddle makers Jim Zeller and Doug Chilton will lead participants through the three-day workshop using equipment in the Petersburg High School shop classroom. “We promote healthy activities using canoes and canoeing activities,” said OPCS organizer Alicia Armstrong, adding that the workshops teach teamwork as well as the technical skills of paddle making. “The paddles are actually used for being out in the water and on a can...
It may be called the 10,000 Steps Challenge, but the real goal, Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg said, is for community members to take as many steps as they can during a day. Petersburg’s third challenge began Monday, March 23, and ends Sunday, May 3. Sponsored by the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, Petersburg Mental Health Services and the Petersburg School District, the challenge not only offers a chance at better health but a go at prizes provided by major sponsors, such as Piston and Rudder and the Trading Union, and through d...
While established Alaska ferries fight for funding, a small startup is about to launch from northern Prince of Wales Island. The North End Ferry Authority based in Coffman Cove has created the Rainforest Islands Ferry, a three stop service that revives a canceled route of the Inter-Island Ferry Authority. Operating four days a week beginning June 14, the Rainforest Islands Ferry will travel from Coffman Cove to Wrangell and Petersburg via the South Mitkof terminal. The ferry authority is overhauling a landing craft, to be named the R...
Former borough worker and Motor Pool Advisory Committee member Ray Pederson, age 71, has been described as a "great guy" who will be missed by many. "He was just a one of a kind, larger than life type of person," his daughter, Camie Rae Pederson said. A memorial service will be held for Ray on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the high school gym with a celebration of life following in the upstairs of the Elks Lodge. Ray was found unresponsive in the sauna at the Community Center on March 11 shortly before... Full story
After nearly 14 years on the school board (with a 20 year break in-between), President Jean Ellis has resigned. Ellis said her term was originally supposed to be up in 2014, but that she “drew the long straw” when Petersburg became a borough. Her term extended to 2016. There’s always something going on in the school district, she added, pointing to issues like the funding ones Petersburg is facing now. Ellis noted that it was just time to step down. “It’s a great community,” she added. She’ll be...
Michael George Patterson's tribe calls him Ghost Walker because he was given five years to live when diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). His chances of a lung transplant are shrinking. Time with his family is slipping away. When visitors came to his school and discouraged smoking years ago, he didn't think it was any of their business, that he'd smoke if he wanted and die when old. "I was just like you," he told middle and high school students in Petersburg on Thursday,...
Ravenna Nilsen passed away in the early morning of August 2nd, 2014 in her home where she had lived, loved and raised a family for 27 years. She was born on January 18th, 1956 to Gwendolyn H. Peacock and William D. Huckins in Anacortes, Washington, where she played as a young child with her three siblings Debbie, Becky and Dugan. With her spiral red locks, big smirk, bossy assertive attitude and demeanor that seemed to demand an embrace, her family nicknamed her "Mama Doll." Ravenna Nilsen's... Full story
The Petersburg High School cheerleaders came away from last week's Region V tourney as the 3A champs after being judged on their performance during game time as well as in a cheer showcase. The 16-member squad was on the sidelines cheering for all six games played by the Vikings and Lady Vikings at last week's tournament in Ketchikan. They were judged throughout Wednesday's girl's game versus Mt. Edgecumbe on all aspects of cheerleading. "Before the game they get judged on their sideline...
March 6, 1915 – The Alaska school-land bill was passed by congress, and has been signed by the president. The measure provides that moneys derived from the sale of lands in the grant, which is comprised of sections 16 and 33 in all of Alaska, shall be used toward the support of territorial schools. In the Tanana valley, section 16 is added to the grant. Four sections near Fairbanks are granted for college purposes. March 8, 1940 – At Monday's City Council meeting a letter from Superintendent George V. Beck wrote that the School Board had gon...
James Merlyn Adams, 82, died in Victorville, Calif. on February 6, 2015. He was born in Agate, Wash. on Nov. 4, 1932. Jim and his wife Dot moved from Centralia, Wash. to Petersburg, Alaska in 1968 with four daughters and twins on the way. Jim worked for Ray Olson and Reid Brothers and Dot worked at PFI and Sandy's Restaurant. Their children graduated from Petersburg High School. They were members of The Moose Lodge where he was famous for his Tom and Jerry's every New Year's Eve. They had many... Full story
Carol Dyer Johnson, 73, died January 23, 2015 at Petersburg Medical Center/LTC. She was born November 14, 1941 in Haverhill, Mass. She graduated from Haverhill High School in 1958 and attended The University of Massachusetts for three years. In her youth, she was very athletic; swimming for the University synchronized swim team. She loved everything from fashion, art, music, or dance. In early 1960, she was diagnosed with manic depression/bi-polar disease and was challenged with its symptoms... Full story
The Petersburg High School shop class recently finished making 19 new log books for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) cabins in the area using the computer numerical controlled (CNC) router put into service at the school in the fall of 2013. The shop class, lead by teacher Nick Popp, has been using the CNC router to produce signage for the Petersburg Borough and other organizations around town. The partnership between the USFS and the school began the idea for such collaborations, and also helped...
Petersburg High School sophomore Brandy Mulbury will be traveling to Washington D.C. this summer to participate in the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC). The NSLC invites a select group of high schoolers from across the U.S. and around the world to participate in summer programs that develop leadership skills and allow students to further explore their interests while giving them an experience of college life. Mulbury will stay on the campus of American University as a participant of...
Activities Director Jaime Cabral gave a report to the board on how school districts around the state handle drug testing for students involved in sports and other activities. Around Southeast, Sitka, Juneau-Douglas, Thunder Mountain and Ketchikan High Schools all have a random drug testing programs in place for students participating in activities sanctioned by the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA). Cabral said during his tenure in Sitka about five percent of students who were actively participating in activities were randomly...
Two teams represented Petersburg at the 19th annual Tsunami Bowl competition Feb. 6-8 in Seward, both placing in the top ten. The regional competition, comprised of three rounds, determines which Alaskan team will go on to the National Ocean Science Bowl competition. Team Eider Do or Don’t—comprised of Summer Morton, Kyle Hagerman, Tucker Hagerman and Chauncy Sandhofer—took first place in the projects portion of the competition for the presentation of their research on how decreasing Arctic sea ice affects the Spectacled Eider, a seabi...
February 13, 1915 – The sundry civil bill, as reported to congress, carries with it an item of $289,000 for construction for Alaska coast survey service, and appropriation for two wire-drag outfits; $2,000,000 for the Alaska railroad; $29,000 for Alaska fisheries; $65,000 for Juneau's public building; $100,000 for investigating mineral resources of the territory; $75,000 for care of the insane; native education, $200,000; for suppression of liquor traffic with natives, $15,000; game protection, $20,000. The Wickersham bill providing for a...
After being named the U.S. Chocolate Master, Dan Forgey, a 1996 Petersburg High School graduate, will represent the U.S. in the 2015 World Chocolate Masters Competition in Paris this October. The contest includes the top 20 chocolatiers from around the world. Forgey won the national title last fall, after ten years of honing his skills in regional chocolate competitions. To earn the U.S. title, Forgey was assessed on a portfolio of his work, including past showpieces, as well as samples of...
