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During Monday's Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, Mayor Mark Jensen and Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave a report on the borough's trip to Washington D.C. last week. Jensen, Giesbrecht, and Assembly Members Thomas Fine-Walsh and Scott Newman visited the capital to meet with Petersburg's federal delegation, lobbyists, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other agencies about major local projects. "We had a pretty busy schedule. Overall, I felt, a good trip,"...
Former Petersburg Medical Center Board Member Kathi Riemer, who was last reelected in 2021, resigned from the hospital board last month. PMC Board President Jerod Cook wrote that he accepted Riemer's resignation on March 17. In his email notifying the borough, Cook expressed his gratitude for her contributions to the hospital and her service to the community. The borough is now seeking letters of interest from residents to fill the seat until the October 2023 municipal election. The Pilot...
If one member of a family is ill, the family is ill The the Editor: I submit the following letter, meant to be a holiday letter to friends and family. The following is an offering meant to enlighten our community regarding the trainwreck that is this dastardly disease of dementia that can hit an average family like ours. Her mind was clear and strong once, though some may have been uncertain when I was chosen, but she knew her way to love, and maybe I was in or maybe on her way. Sitting next to her in a 1962 college speech class was the...
On September first Dr. Jennifer (Jen) Hyer will begin an eighteen month sabbatical from the Petersburg Medical Center to sail from San Diego to New Zealand with her family. When she and her husband, Chris Hyer, first started dating twenty-seven years ago, Chris gave Jen the book "Dove," about a boy who sailed around the world, and told her it was a dream of his. She was immediately on board and boats have been a constant in their lives ever since. Their first home together was a 30' Sundowner...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved an ordinance in its first reading on Monday that would amend the charter to allow borough employees, including those at the school and the hospital, to serve on certain borough boards. The ordinance proposes allowing borough staff to serve on boards and commissions except for those that directly administer their employment. For instance, under the new ordinance a Petersburg Medical Center employee could run for the borough assembly or the school board...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board voted unanimously to pursue a final site plan for the new hospital facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View conceptual designs during its meeting last Thursday. The Knob Hill and Creek View concepts are both located at a site along Haugen Drive and behind the Elizabeth Peratrovich building. The decision to continue designing the new facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View concepts was also unanimously recommended by the project's steering... Full story
A car crashed off an embankment near 210 Mitkof Highway at around 5:50 p.m. on Monday, according to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg. The lone occupant in the vehicle, a woman in her 70s, was uninjured in the crash but was taken to the Petersburg Medical Center for observation. According to Berg, the woman lost control on a straight stretch of road while driving her SUV northbound on Mitkof Highway. The car went off the road onto a snow-covered embankment, which gradually sloped down about 15...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board held a work session with the Petersburg Borough Assembly last Friday where three proposed concepts for the location and design of a new hospital building were discussed. Members from the hospital board and the assembly along with borough and PMC staff heard from Bettisworth North architects who detailed the three site plans. The Excel Site, the Knob Hill Site, and the Creek View Site have some major differences but all feature a two-story hospital with...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly prioritized its top three projects to seek federal funding for during its Feb. 6 meeting. After two rounds of voting, the assembly approved ranking the new Petersburg Medical Center project as its top priority followed by the Scow Bay standby diesel generation project and the Scow Bay haul out and wash down pad. The assembly voted 5-2 in favor of putting the new PMC facility at the top of the list with Mayor Mark Jensen and Assembly Member Donna Marsh opposed....
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Southeast commercial Chinook troll fishery during Monday's meeting. The resolution of support comes in the wake of a judge's recommendation to suspend the fishery as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), a Washington-based nonprofit conservation organization. Western District of Washington Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson's report and recommendation concluded that the National Marine...
Colleen Nicholson was born on November 7, 1928 in Idaho Falls, ID, the eldest child of George “Bud” and Alice Mortensen. Her father was a cook and butcher by trade who ran restaurants in western Montana. Her brother Buddy (Jim Mortensen) and sister Ruthie (Rhoden) rounded out the family. The restaurant business was especially tough during the Great Depression, so the family moved often, living in Sheridan, Dillon, and Butte, MT. With the onset of World War II, her father heard of an opp... Full story
Tasha Lee Prus, age 57, passed to her eternal life peacefully surrounded by loving family on January 9, 2023, after a long illness. Tasha was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 3, 1965. As a member of a military family that moved many times, her childhood sparked her love of travel. After college she worked on a fish processing barge in Alaska. When it stopped on Mitkof Island, she fell in love with the small fishing village of Petersburg. She made her vision of living there come true when sh... Full story
During its Jan. 3 meeting, the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance in its first reading that would tie the service rates for self-pay residents at Mountain View Manor Assisted Living to the maximum service rates allowed for the facility under Medicaid. Medicaid raises per day services rates for Medicaid Residential Supported Living annually, but those increases have not been adopted by the borough. That is because the service rates charged for Medicaid RSL cannot...
Mike A. Davis, a resident of Sitka, died December 31, 2022 at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. He was 70. Mike was born January 19, 1952 in Grants Pass, Oregon to Ronald E. Davis and Lillian E. Shotridge. The family moved to Anchorage in 1964, then to Juneau in 1966 where Mike graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School in 1971. He attended a computer programming school in Lake Oswego, Oregon. After graduating he returned to Juneau to work for the State of Alaska. Later he moved to Petersburg, where... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved an ordinance in its first reading during Monday's meeting that would rezone a lot located at 10 N. 12th Street for commercial use. The rezoning was requested by the Petersburg Indian Association, which filed an application to purchase the 0.31-acre lot from the borough in September 2022. PIA has stated that it is only interested in the lot, which is currently zoned as an open space, if it is rezoned for commercial use so that it matches an...
January Petersburg experienced record snowfall on New Year's Day with 17.5 inches of new snow on the day, bringing the total snow depth to 40 inches according to the National Weather Service. The Petersburg Borough Assembly passed a resolution requesting a discussion with the U.S. Postal Service about providing additional services in Petersburg following continued issues with staffing, irregular hours, and long lines. All-purpose vehicles became legal to drive on roads in Alaska, including in...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved an Education Incentive Program, which looks to support child care professionals and improve retention in the field, during Monday's meeting. The assembly voted 6-1 in favor of the trial program with Assembly Member Donna Marsh opposed. The Education Incentive Program will award bonuses ranging from $2,000 per year to $5,000 per year to child care educators and is structured in three tiers based on their level of education. The hope is to encourage local...
During its meeting on Dec. 13, the Petersburg School District Board voted unanimously to amend the district's COVID-19 mitigation policy, changing when students and staff can return to school following a positive test. The new policy states that students and staff who test positive can now come back to school on a date determined by the Petersburg Medical Center, possibly allowing them to return earlier than what the previous guidance allowed. If students and staff who test positive do not obtai...
December 8, 1922 – A Ford passenger car arrived in town on the mail boat from Juneau this week for Ole Scarbro and will be used in a general jitney service. This is the first strictly passenger car to arrive in town and its first trip down the street occasioned considerable interest. December 12, 1947 – The custom of Christmas ships for Alaska will be revived this year after a 10-year lapse. With a Santa Claus to distribute candy, fruit and nuts to children and sprays of holly to their mothers, a show will be put on at each port, officials sai...
Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter gave a report on the finalized PMC Strategic Plan for FY24-28 during November's hospital board meeting. The plan had previously been presented at a hospital board work session on Nov. 10 following input from PMC's manager retreat in October. The new strategic plan retains the same five priority goals as the previous five-year plan but features refinements to semantics, language, and content according to Hofstetter's report. The top five priorities in... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly is expected to take a look at adopting a trial program to support local child care providers in Petersburg at its next meeting. The Education Incentive Program, modeled after the Hiring, Educating, and Retaining Teaching Staff (HEARTS) Program implemented in Juneau, aims to increase retention, encourage child care professionals to continue their educations, and improve quality of care. The program would award tiered bonuses every six months to child care educators...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously passed an ordinance adjusting the borough's FY23 budget in its third and final reading during its meeting on Nov. 7. No amendments to Ordinance #2022-15 were made during its final reading. The supplemental budget lists 18 revisions to the budget including accepting $123,158 in state legislative grants for lighting projects at the ballfield and the ice skate pond, rebuilding the EMD-16 Generator and the Caterpillar 398 Generator, and increasing the...
October 26 – An officer spoke with an individual about illegal parking at the airport. An officer conducted a welfare check on South Nordic Drive. A driver on Mitkof Highway was issued warnings for excessive speed and expired tags. October 27 – An officer responded to a report of a bear attempting to access garbage, but was unable to locate the bear. An officer responded to a report of a possible fight on South Nordic Drive and determined there was no criminal activity. A driver at the corner of 4th and Excel Streets was issued a warning for...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board will hold a work session on Nov. 10 to discuss the hospital's strategic plan for the next five years. Recommendations for the plan were formulated at a managers retreat on Oct. 19 and PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said he would present his notes from the retreat at the upcoming work session. The recommended focuses for the plan include community engagement, financial stability, staffing, and patient healthcare among others. During the PMC Board meeting last...
