Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 718
October 3, 1924 – A shed is being built over the Petersburg Marine Ways thus to afford shelter for all boats during any weather while they are repaired. The firm has a whole winter’s work ahead. It recently received a telegram from Juneau saying a government boat was to be sent down for repairs, and the whole fleet of the Petersburg Packing Company is to be overhauled during the coming winter. The Petersburg Marine Ways is able to handle any boat work. It has one of the best equipped plants in Alaska, and the men in charge are expert in any...
October 3, 1924 – Some of the largest and the most vicious brown bear in Alaska are found on Admiralty Island. It was one of these ferocious denizens of this wilderness with which Mrs. Flora Tate, of the Tate & Thomas Boarding House, came face to face while on a recent hunting trip on that island. Mrs. Tate, with but a few yards separating her from the bear, brought her gun into position, but her mother begged her not to shoot and so, bruin still lives to roam his native forests and mountains along with many others of his kind which keep p...
WRANGELL — Though it was important to pinpoint the exact location and extent of damage to the community’s wastewater outfall pipeline into Zimovia Strait, officials also discovered that the 12-inch plastic pipe and the seabed around it have become home to hundreds of sea cucumbers. “Over the years and years, wildlife has figured it out,” Tom Wetor, the borough’s Public Works director, said Sept. 26. Sea cucumbers, a bottom-dwelling invertebrate, proliferate around the nutrient-rich waters near the diffuser end of the outfall line, he said. “I...
Your vote matters To the Editor: As you may remember, I won a seat on the Borough Assembly last October by 1 vote… the very last vote to be counted from absentee ballots. Nearly a year later I am still grateful and humbled by that outcome. After the election, people shared stories of: driving through the Yukon to mail their ballots, voting via email from Europe, voting from college, and even a few stories of nearly forgetting to vote after dinner on election day. To be Captain Obvious, if any of those folks did not vote, the outcome of the e...
September 18 – An officer responded to a report of a bear accessing a property on Scow Bay Loop Road. An officer responded to a report of suspicious activity on North Harbor Way and determined it was unfounded. A deer was struck by a vehicle on Mitkof Highway and its meat was salvaged. An officer responded to a welfare check request on South 3rd Street but the individual of concern had left the area. The Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of lost property. PPD received a report of theft on South Nordic Drive. PPD notified P...
In response to low bike helmet use in the community and close-call accidents involving children, an up-and-coming incentive project is bringing more helmets to the streets of Petersburg. In the works since spring, the Helmets Are Sweet project is a joint effort through Petersburg's SHARE Coalition to encourage the use of helmets by promoting and providing access to high-quality helmets, educating the community on proper wear, and rewarding individuals for wearing appropriate helmets. The goal...
Three young humpback whales were found dead off the west coast of Prince of Wales Island in just two weeks at the end of August. One subadult female was found on Aug. 22 in waters south of El Capitan, while a subadult female and a young male were found in waters near Craig on Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, respectively. On Aug. 30, longtime Craig resident whale-watcher Kathy Peavey heard about one of the whales, the subadult female that was found dead in Squam Bay north of Craig, from Michelle Dutro, an Alaska State Sea Grant fellow who helps monitor...
WRANGELL — The borough hopes to learn this week the exact location and condition of the kinked blockage in the treatment plant outfall pipeline that has forced a temporary solution — discharging the wastewater on the beach near City Park. “It’s essentially been bent in half,” Public Works Director Tom Wetor said of the 12-inch-diameter plastic pipe, which was hooked Aug. 30 by a boat anchor and damaged as the anchor line was being pulled up. Repairs could take a couple of months, he said Sept. 6. It just depends on how much work is needed. T...
While the black bears on Mitkof Island usually eat their fill of natural resources like blueberries and salmon before it's time to hibernate, unsecured garbage cans in Petersburg tempt the animals with a buffet of easy eats. Black bears have made their trek to town, breaking into a number of garbage bins and stashing litter over the past several weeks. Local authorities on the situation stress that abiding by borough law and properly securing garbage is essential to deterring bears from town....
A shout out to those that support a local paper To the Editor: I would like to give a shout out to Orin Pierson and his staff for the weekly printing of the Petersburg Pilot. Also to the community of Petersburg and all who support the local newspaper. The people of Petersburg are fortunate to have a weekly newspaper. I would like to point out a few items (seriously, quite a few items) I found in last week’s newspaper. A shout out to the sale of Tides Inn, A victory article for the Trollers, who is in lead of the Alaska House primary, yesterday...
Clear skies on Monday morning showed the extent of Sunday afternoon's landslide that swept 1,100 feet down the steep, wooded hillside above a Ketchikan neighborhood, taking out a portion of the Rainbird Trail and pouring across the Third Avenue Bypass before damaging several homes in the Second Avenue area just west of Whitecliff Avenue. The landslide resulted in the death of one person, Sean Griffin, a City of Ketchikan Public Works senior maintenance technician who was on the Third Avenue...
Disposing of large derelict vessels abandoned in Petersburg's harbors comes at a cost - one that the borough is taking steps to mitigate. In August, the Petersburg Borough Assembly amended municipal code and approved a significant budget adjustment to address the issue of derelict vessels in local harbors. The assembly authorized the transfer of $240,000 from the harbor department reserves to a derelict boat disposal budget item, bringing the total amount allocated to $250,000 to fund the...
August 21 – The Petersburg Police Department received a report of a bear accessing unsecured garbage on Skylark Way. A citation will be issued. Officers responded to a disturbance on North Nordic Drive. PPD received a report of a bear accessing unsecured garbage at an unoccupied residence on Skylark Way. A citation will be issued to a resident of Skylark Way for failure to secure a refuse container. PPD received a post-event report of shoplifting. An officer responded to a report of a strong odor on North Nordic Drive. An officer responded t...
In a strategic move to support management of critical services for the community, Petersburg Borough has made structural revisions to its utility departments, reorganizing responsibilities and reverting to a former leadership model. This change was made as Utility Director Karl Hagerman -who has overseen the borough's power, water, and sewer departments since 2018- plans to retire in 2026. In the past, the Public Works Director managed the water, sewer, roads, sanitation and motor pool...
Fish and deer carcasses, propane bottles, and glass, all of these nonrecyclable items have shown up in the Petersburg Borough Sanitation Department's comingled recycling bins. Commingled means customers' recyclable materials don't need to be sorted into plastic, aluminum, paper, etc. However, the recycling must be clean and free of food and debris. Glass is not recyclable in Petersburg. But there are glass drop-off locations for the public at the baler and at Public Works. "At 303 South 2nd Stre...
To modernize an old expression, Alaskans are fiddling while the Permanent Fund burns. Not literally, of course. The Permanent Fund’s stocks and bonds, real estate deeds, lease agreements and investment contracts are all safely stored. But the fiddling part, that’s true. And because it’s a state election year, we can expect a lot of candidates to turn up the volume on their fiddles. No matter how off-key the music, no one ever loses an election by playing happy tunes about big Permanent Fund dividends. No one wins an election talking about...
August 7 – A driver on North Nordic Drive was issued a warning for an inoperable headlight and expired insurance. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of bear activity in the Skylark Way area. PPD received a report of vehicles and boats blocking two fire hydrants at two locations on Unimak Street and they were relocated at the direction of an officer. A deer that was struck and killed by a vehicle on Mitkof Highway was not salvageable. Palmer Thomassen was remanded for allegedly violating conditions of release. An officer r...
Forty-three people spent the night in Juneau's emergency shelter at Floyd Dryden Middle School on Monday night as a record-high flood from the Mendenhall Glacier inundated homes. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the total number of people who evacuated their homes is likely several times that; shelters are usually a last resort for people who cannot stay with family, friends or in a hotel. "You can imagine how hard it would be to wake up with water in your house, not expecting there to be... Full story
A cyanide spill at a major gold mine in the Yukon Territory — high in the Yukon River watershed — has sparked widespread concern in Canada. But Alaska salmon advocates say the mishap isn’t just a problem for Yukoners: The spill happened upstream of a tributary of the Yukon River. The Yukon is Alaska’s biggest transboundary waterway, and residents along its shores who have depended on salmon for generations are already suffering amid crashes of multiple species. Officials on both sides of the border say it’s too early to know the full impact of...
10 volunteers pulled on their rubber boots and rain jackets last Friday to search Petersburg's beaches for suspicious crab carapaces in observation of European Green Crab Awareness Day. After breaking into four groups, the volunteers combed the waterfronts of the Wilson Creek camp area, Crescent Beach, Greens Camp, and Woodpecker Cove; they found 33 carapaces in total, none of which were green crab. "I think it went well. I think it's good we didn't find any green crab," said organizer and...
The St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church applied for two conditional use permits during the Petersburg Borough Planning Commission's regular meeting on Tuesday. Spearheaded by Juneau architect Rich Conneen - who attended the meeting remotely - both permits were approved by the Planning Commission, giving the church approval to construct a church in the same single-family residential lot it previously occupied, as well as allowing use of the parking lot at 306 N 3rd St. for required off-street...
Alaska's freshly signed capital budget includes state funding for a program meant to encourage land development. It's a single line: Statewide Housing Development, $4 million. But according to Republican Senator Bert Stedman of Sitka, that money could help shake loose some land for much-needed housing. He said there's a lot of land around the state, but it's not getting developed. "The economics don't work, due to the cost of the infrastructure, mainly the roads and the utilities," he said. "So...
WRANGELL — The borough has been awarded a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant to rebuild most of the downtown harbor floats, install new pilings and improve parking. The federal money, which requires no match from the borough, will fund most of the estimated $28 million project that will include an overhaul of the Inner Harbor, Reliance and Standard Oil floats, new fire suppression systems, pilings and relocated parking. The borough will likely get the remaining $3 million for the project t...
A ballot proposition on this October municipal ballot will put the question to Petersburg voters whether to increase the amount of sales tax that can be collected on a single purchase from $72.00 to $300.00. At their regular meeting on June 17 the Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously passed Ordinance 24-10 in its third and final reading to propose the municipal code amendment for this sales tax exemption change to borough voters. Currently in the borough, sales tax liability for any single...
In the past week, four informational signs were installed on a newly constructed plaza at Sandy Beach Park - bringing to life the first phase of the Hutli Project. The Hutli Project -a collaboration between the Petersburg Indian Association and an advisory committee including members from PIA, the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, Petersburg Parks & Recreation, the US Forest Service, and others- aims to tell the story of Petersburg's Indigenous population through the further development of...
