Sorted by date Results 701 - 725 of 793
February 24, 1914 – The Bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Hon. McKellar, which provides that fish kept in cold storage for more than two months cannot be shipped in interstate commerce is so worded that it would cover frozen and preserved as well as fresh fish. If this cold storage bill should go in its original form, it would be a great calamity to two of the largest industries on the North Pacific Coast-- that of mild-cured and frozen salmon. These products are packed in the main for export to Europe and unless a r...
The Petersburg School District brought home major accolades from Anchorage last weekend after it swept student, teacher and administrator awards at the Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE)-an organization dedicated to promoting access to technology and connectivity to information resources. Petersburg Senior PK Bunyi won Alaska Technology Student of the Year. Teacher and Technology Coordinator Jon Kludt-Painter won Alaska Technology Support Teacher of the Year and PSD... Full story
Stedman Elementary school students are participating in a statewide program aimed at increasing physical activity. The Healthy Futures Challenge encourages students to engage in 30 minutes of physical activity three times a week for four consecutive weeks outside of gym classes. The three-month contest is part of a larger program called the Healthy Living Grant or the Obesity Control and Prevention Grant from Alaska Department of Health and Human Services—a $600,000 grant program that provides funding in installments for four years. A...
Petersburg School District Superintendent Robert Thomason released additional information regarding former school Maintenance Director Tye Petersen’s possession of non-pornographic images of local children. Petersen was arrested last fall and local police and the FBI searched school facilities for signs he had taken images of students. At that time, no evidence of access points had been found. But since then, the FBI has confirmed images of local and visiting students among photos confiscated from Petersen. “Some photos were of visiting stu...
Investigators discovered images of Petersburg children in connection with the pending criminal case against Tye Leif Petersen, former Petersburg School District maintenance director, who was arrested last fall for multiple charges related to possession and distribution of child pornography. Petersburg Police Chief Kelly Swihart said he couldn’t comment on the matter but said investigators have not found any pornographic images of local children. In written release, FBI Special Agent Matthew Judy states, “The FBI has not discovered any chi...
The Petersburg District School Board voted unanimously Tuesday evening to allow students participating in the Alaska Tsunami Ocean Science Bowl to earn half a credit. The Ocean Science Bowl is a regional competition for high schools in Alaska where teams of students study topics related to oceans and present research papers, give oral presentations and participate in a timed quiz competition. Middle and High School Principal Rick Dormer said Petersburg students dedicate a significant amount of time to the project. “The kids are putting in t...
A local man charged with several counts of possessing and distributing child pornography will see his trial pushed back after a district court judge granted a motion by his attorney last December to declare the case complex. According to U.S. Code, a pretrial or trial can be delayed if a case is “so unusual or so complex, due to the number of defendants, the nature of the prosecution, or the existence of novel questions of fact or law, that it is unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings…” But at a January 28 trial...
Long-time Alaskan Roderick G. Bain, 91, died at home in Anchorage on Feb.5, 2014. He was born May 13, 1922, in Portland, Ore. to Roderick M. and Sophie Bain. He was raised in Long Beach, Wash. He was in his freshman year at the University of Washington in Seattle when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, and he enlisted the following summer at Fort Lewis, Wash. He volunteered for the 101st Airborne Division, and trained for two years with Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment before... Full story
Ketchikan Gateway Borough officials are again requesting Petersburg’s, along with more than 30 other municipal government’s, assistance with its lawsuit against the state of Alaska. Ketchikan is moving forward with its lawsuit over the ‘mandatory local contribution’ component of the state’s education funding formula that requires municipal districts to provide revenue back into its schools. Regional Educational Attendance Areas—education areas in the Unorganized Borough—aren’t required to make such payments. In a letter from Ketchikan Mayor...
The Petersburg Rotary Club is sponsoring sophomore Kyla Willis' trip to Chile where she will spend her next school year as an exchange student. Willis, Sven Heinrichs, the Rotary exchange student in Petersburg from Dortmund, Germany, as well as other students in Alaska from around the world attended the Rotary District 5010's Winter Orientation in Anchorage earlier this month. Local Rotary Club member Dave Berg said students meet with their peers from Alaska and abroad to help determine where...
Decreased enrollment numbers in Petersburg schools is playing a big role in how district staff prepare next year’s budget. Student enrollment has steadily dropped for more than a decade. During the 2004-2005 school year enrollment was up to 630 students. Next year though, the district’s numbers are approaching a low enough number—424 students—that would change its classification in a state funding equation called the ‘foundation formula’. According to state guidelines, school districts receive funding based on enrollment and the student cou...
Too often elected officials are turning their administrative hiring duties over to corporate head-hunter organizations which advertise and screen candidates to fill positions for city managers, hospital administrators, police chiefs and school superintendents. We applaud the Petersburg school board for breaking the mold, by conducting the hiring process in-house. Their current superintendent Rob Thomason will write and publish the advertisements, screen resumes, post the hiring timeline, schedule telephone and in-person interviews and then...
Petersburg School District Superintendent Dr. Rob Thomason announced his retirement last week. Thomason began working for the PSD in 2009. Jean Ellis, school board president, said he was instrumental in changing the district for the better. "I've been trying to talk him out of leaving," Ellis joked."When he became the superintendent he was the sixth one in eight years. People were becoming dispirited with superintendent turnover." Ellis credited his people skills and positive attitude as main...
Thank you Petersburg Letter to the Editor: The Petersburg School District would like to thank our community for supporting the 10th Annual Little Norway Invitational Basketball Tournament that took place in December. The tournament is a high school basketball invitational tournament in memory of Jerry Dahl, Sr. The committee, composed of the family of Jerry Dahl, Sr., Rick and Dino Brock, Jaime Cabral and Rick Dormer, has worked to bring teams from varying areas to town for three days of competition at the beginning of the HS basketball...
January Petersburg residents contributed a record amount to the Salvation Army Christmas program last year-$15,618.17-more than $9,700 than the year before. Jan. 4, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck 58 miles west of Craig and 203 miles south of Juneau prompting a tsunami warning across Southeast. Petersburg Police Chief Jim Agner and Sergeant Heidi Agner announced their intentions to retire. Officer Ben King joined the Petersburg Police Department. The Petersburg Borough Assembly members were... Full story
December 20, 1913 – The town council of Fairbanks recently passed an ordinance prohibiting a one-year old moose from walking on the sidewalks. The moose which was captured when a mere calf by an Indian was purchased by P. Buchholz who was in the habit of leading it around town. In entering stores the moose had broken some planks which caused the complaint. The animal is quite tame and at the stores is fed apples, which he particularly relishes, trying to walk through show windows where apples were exhibited. He likes vegetables and candies, b...
The announcement at Monday’s borough meeting that construction of a new sawmill could begin as early as this spring, was good news. The employment of 35 to 50 employees will bring new people and new dollars to Petersburg. With the departure of Petersburg’s largest sawmill in 1987, which relocated to Haines, Petersburg lost over a million dollar annual payroll. Salmon and crab harvests were so substantial; the town’s economy barely felt the loss of the timber income. Both Stikine River Forest Products owner John Glenn and Forest Service Range...
Petersburg district school enrollment numbers have decreased by 44 percent since 1997—almost double that of Wrangell and Sitka. It’s a number that Petersburg Superintendent Rob Thomason has been concerned about for some time. “It’s been a concern in the back of my mind ever since I’ve been here,” Thomason said. “The whole staff knows we’re always looking at the idea that this year does not preclude what it will look like next year. We always have to rethink that.” The district has seen about a two percent decrease in student enrollment each y...
Long time Petersburg resident and former school district employee Tye Leif Petersen, 45, plead not guilty during an arraignment held in U.S. District Court on three charges involving child pornography. Petersen was arrested late October after federal investigators and local police conducted a search warrant of his home and electronic devices. Investigators found email attachments as well as CDs containing images and videos of young children engaged in sexually explicit behaviors. According to an FBI affidavit, last July an investigator...
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...
Petersburg Mental Health Services will take the reins on running a second Pedometer Challenge this spring after Petersburg Indian Association found out it couldn’t secure grant funding for the program. Interest in last year’s challenge sparked and Mark Banda, PIA Tobacco Prevention Specialist saw participation double from what was expected. “What started out at about 150 assumed participants turned into 200 very quickly and that followed up and turned into over 300,” Banda said. Banda gave pedometers to participants who were able to track h...
Petersburg High School Choir students Frances Abbott and Stephanie Pfundt attended the National Association of Music Educator's All National Honors Choir in Nashville, Tenn. The girls auditioned for the honors choir last spring and were notified of their acceptance in July. Pfundt received the good news in an email from her music teacher Matthew Lenhard. "I was fishing on my dad's boat," Pfundt said. "It was nine o'clock at night and I was up in the wheelhouse and I started screaming. All the... Full story
Petersburg School District kids will likely eat new and fresher foods at school if the district receives funding from the state to remodel the school’s kitchen. Carlee Wells, Director of Child Nutrition for PSD, said she’s been pushing to renovate the kitchen since she started the job in 2011. Wells and head cook Carol Larson prepare breakfast and lunch for around 200 hungry students and employees every day. The kitchen, located in the elementary school, shares its space with the cafeteria and...
Petersburg School District students and staff hosted a Veteran's Day Assembly in the Wright Auditorium Monday morning. Elementary and middle school students sang songs and played instruments for more than 15 Petersburg veterans and other assembly attendees. After the music those attending the event thanked and shook the hands of the veterans, one of whom served during WW2. Petersburg high school and middle school students attended and watched a video presentation detailing the lives and...
Federal authorities arrested 45 year-old Tye Leif Petersen, Petersburg District School's recent Maintenance Director, on charges of Distribution of and Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography Involving a Prepubescent Minor or Child Under 12 Years of Age. The charges come after a joint investigation between the Petersburg Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to an FBI affidavit, last July an investigator searched a Yahoo! E-mail account... Full story
