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WRANGEL - Wrangell will share a tire cutter with other Southeast communities, intending to cut down on the thousands of tires stacked at the dump by making it easier to ship out the smaller pieces. The borough assembly last Tuesday approved a resolution to share the equipment with the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority. The mobile unit can separate tires from rims and then, using a powerful cutting arm, chop up the rubber into smaller, more easily transportable chunks. The tires stacked at the landfill are too bulky to efficiently and...
Hurricane force winds with gusts up to 70 mph dropped trees into power lines, bringing out borough line crews, public works employees and emergency services personnel on Friday night. According to a report from Utility Director Karl Hagerman it started with a tree in the line at 919 Sandy Beach Road across the street from the Bible Church. The crew was able to clear it without damage to the power or telecom lines. Many other trees at this location came down but they did not reach the road. The decision was made to close the road to traffic...
Silent majority must stand up To the Editor: We of the silent majority must stand up and make our voices heard. The only way Covid-19 or its variants will ever be behind us is if the vast majority of us are vaccinated. People say “I probably won’t get very sick.” That may be true for you and your family but you might kill your neighbor. Christians are commanded to love their neighbor as themselves. This isn’t just a suggestion, it is a commandment. You may be worried that the shot will make you sick. I had my first shot in January and my third...
September 22 — Officer assisted EMS near N. Nordic Dr. A black bear was reported near S. 4th St. and 4.5 St. ADF&G and AST were notified. A canine near Charles W. St. was impounded and returned to the owner. Property was found near Fram St. A bike was found near S. Sing Lee Alley. Roderick Vasquez, 29, was arrested on charges of Escape in the 3rd Degree and Violating Conditions of Release. September 23 — A bear in garbage was reported near S. 2nd St. ADF&G and AST were notified. Ramona Short and Danny Rusk were arrested near 4th St. for violati...
Hurricane force winds with gusts up to 70 mph dropped trees into power lines, bringing out borough line crews, public works employees and emergency services personnel on Friday night. According to a report from Utility Director Karl Hagerman it started with a tree in the line at 919 Sandy Beach Road across the street from the Bible Church. The crew was able to clear it without damage to the power or telecom lines. Many other trees at this location came down but they did not reach the road. The... Full story
Construction is progressing on the new motor pool shop and is set to be completed by the November 30 deadline despite schedule delays according to Public Works Director Chris Cotta. The new building, which is replacing the facility that suffered a fire in August of 2019, has had its framing put up for rooms such as the crew quarters, and builders are now working on electrical and plumbing for the building. Cotta said the delays are because of issues contractors are having with supply of...
Ordinance #2021-14 which would suspend baler fees for waste delivered to the baler facility failed in its first and only reading during Tuesday's assembly meeting. The emergency ordinance aimed to combat the increase of bear activity in town by providing residents an opportunity to dispose of their garbage at no charge from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. instead of letting it accumulate in trash cans. If adopted, the ordinance would have stopped fees for a period of 60 days unless sooner repealed. In...
The Petersburg Public Works Department is encouraging people to prevent tempting bears to town by securing their trash cans. Petersburg Area Biologist Frank Robbins said the reason bears come to town is because during the end of summer and beginning of fall, bears begin to seek out easy sources of food such as garbage to store up weight in preparation for hibernation. Last fall , Petersburg had more trouble with bears close to town because of a general berry failure and fewer fish. With less...
The Petersburg Borough released its updated website Monday, designed for easier access and a modern look. The website now greets users with a selection of accessible tabs including community information, borough departments, and other services. The clean style and colorful images contrast with the outdated design of the old website. Borough Librarian Tara Alcock was tasked with creating the new website after she saw the need for an update while she acted as the public information officer for...
Breakthrough COVID-19 cases found in Alaska April 30 Between Feb. 1 and March 31, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services identified 152 positive cases of COVID-19 among people in the state who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a report from DHSS. About 74 percent of the vaccine breakthrough cases, or 112 individuals, were among people who had received the Pfizer vaccine, according to the report. Thirty-eight percent of the breakthrough cases had received the Moderna... Full story
Ray Wesebaum became the new building official and code enforcement officer in May for the Petersburg Borough. "It's just something different, just a new experience," Wesebaum said. Wesebaum has been in construction for most of his life and though his new role does not entail working outdoors around trucks and ditches all day, he said it has been a pretty easy transition. "Just a lot of paperwork now," Wesebaum said. "I did pass my first certification for the residential inspector, but I've...
Tongass Botanicals & Soils has started a composting program to reduce the amount of waste in Petersburg that is being shipped to landfills. Carrie Martinsen, who runs the composting operation, began a bucket pickup in June to collect food scraps and other biodegradable waste from the community. "The more I got into it I was like oh this sounds like a really good plan and then talking with the city here they're like we've been wanting somebody to do this for a really long time," Martinsen said....
July 21 — Officers secured an open building on Hungerford Rd. Public Works responded to a fallen tree blocking the road at N. 1st St. and N. Nordic Dr. An attempted telephone scam was reported claiming that the individual had won the lottery and sought personal information and money to deliver the winnings. A credit card was found and returned to the owner. A warning for improper display of headlights was issued on S. Nordic Dr. July 22 — A warning for failure to stop at a stop sign was issued on S. Nordic Dr. Suspicious activity was obs...
The Clausen Memorial Museum is a Rasmuson Art Acquisition Fund Grant recipient to purchase David Beebe’s acrylic panel mount of “LeConte Ice Fall.” The image depicts gull feeding in close proximity to ice fall from the glacier; and presents an opportunity for the museum to talk about the importance of glacier ice to the local climate, as well as to the development and growth of the community. Six museums statewide were included in this current round of awards. The Clausen Memorial Museum has a number of art works in its collection that have...
July 1, 1921 Active work on the Petersburg Scow Bay road was started this week by a force of men under the direction of John Lanterman for the Bureau of Public Roads. Four horses arrived from the south on the scow early this week and the work of surfacing the roadbed at once started. The horses were brought from Seattle to Hyder by steamer and then transferred to a scow and brought to Ketchikan and from there to Petersburg. It is expected by those in charge of the work that the road will be completely surfaced and opened for traffic this fall....
Alaskans who are engaged in or interested in mariculture are invited to become founding members in a new group that will advance the growing industry across the state. The newly formed Alaska Mariculture Alliance (AMA) is a private non-profit successor to a five-year task force formed in 2016 by Governor Walker and re-authorized in 2018 by Governor Dunleavy. The task force will sunset on June 30. “One of the priority recommendations was to create a long term entity that would coordinate and support development of a robust and sustainable m...
The Borough Assembly made five more amendments to the Petersburg Borough's fiscal year 2022 operating budget at their meeting on Monday before passing it in its third reading. The General Fund's revenues and expenditures equal $9,741,364 and is an overall increase of .39 percent from the 2021 fiscal year adopted budget. The recent amendments to the budget addressed a one time bonus to Emergency Operations Center staff, upgrades to two borough marine facilities, a funding source for the maintenan...
The Borough Assembly and Petersburg Medical Center Board of Directors held a work session on May 5 to discuss the next steps in the hospital's goal of building a new facility. Following the completion of a master plan document, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter said the project would move forward in phases as the hospital works to secure funding in the form of grants. The immediate next steps include conducting a geotechnical study, selecting a location to build the hospital and creating a shovel-ready...
We're getting closer to achieving the required herd immunity levels needed to abate the spread of COVID -19 and the expanding variants as the virus mutates across the worlds' populations. According to the State of Alaska, Petersburg is second from the top (behind Skagway) in attaining the most vaccinations. Petersburg's rate stands at 72.94 percent as of Wednesday. Vaccine hesitancy is the major roadblock to the U.S. achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe...
Thank you for caring about Petersburg To the Editor: I know there is not a single citizen in Petersburg that has not walked by and admired one of our beautiful flower boxes or gardens created by Petersburg Borough Groundskeeper, Jesse O’Connor. Jesse’s 25 year long commitment to serve our community began in 1996 when he was hired as an assistant groundskeeper during the summer season. As that season ended, he moved over to help our sanitation department, both as a laborer and a supervisor. In 2001 he went back to the Public Works Dep...
A Public Works crew replaced planks in the Sing Lee Alley Bridge over Hammer Slough on Wednesday....
The Borough Assembly approved an ordinance in its first reading on Monday that would make adjustments to the borough's fiscal year 2021 budget for known changes. If ordinance #2021-05 passes in three readings, it would transfer funds to the Property Development Fund and allocate money for a new E991 system, the Motor Pool Shop, and a wastewater project on Ira II St. Earlier this year, Finance Director Jody Tow identified a surplus in the borough's General Fund and suggested the assembly...
The Borough Assembly approved the purchase of a $54,952.47 mobile vehicle lift for the Motor Pool Department at their meeting on Monday. The four-column, mobile vehicle lift system will be purchased with funds from the Public Works Department, Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department and Petersburg Municipal Power & Light motor pool balances, according to Public Work Director Chris Cotta. In the 2021 fiscal year budget, the borough had allocated $54,000 for a vehicle lift. Cotta said the additional...
Alaska’s salmon harvest for 2021 is projected to be a big one, with total catches producing a haul that could be 61% higher than last year, due mostly to an expected surge of pinks. Fishery managers are predicting a statewide catch topping 190 million fish compared to 118.3 million in 2020. The breakdown by species includes 46.6 million sockeye salmon (203,000 increase), 3.8 million cohos (1.4 million higher), 15.3 million chums (6.7 million more), 296,000 Chinook (up by 4,000) and 124.2 million pink salmon (a 63.5 million increase). In its r...
