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WRANGELL – The city is currently working on ways to reduce the number of autos, boats and other items abandoned or else improperly stored around the island. Chief Doug McCloskey with the Wrangell Police Department explained there currently are many derelict vehicles on the city’s radar, about a dozen in all. In municipal code, junk vehicles by definition are those which are stripped, wrecked or otherwise inoperable due to mechanical failure. Currently it is against the law for a junk vehicle to remain in public view on any property, public or...
Petersburg Borough clerk Debbie Thompson gave the following Borough Manager’s Report during the assembly meeting on Oct. 18. Representatives of the Rasmuson Foundation and Alaska Community Foundation were able to visit the Children’s Center last week and tour the new classrooms. Next week Sandy Dixson will be attending the Fall Preparedness Conference and Local Emergency Planning Committee Association meeting in Anchorage. Attendance is Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHS&EM) grant requirements. Dixson and Fire Chi...
The borough"s blue cart recycling program began at the beginning of the year and seems to be running smoothly, according to Public Works Director Karl Hagerman. "Overall the community has really accepted the new system," he says. "Customer satisfaction, I think, is pretty good and we"ve received very little negative feedback over the program." After the start of the program, Public Works distributed a handful of smaller 64-gallon blue carts to low volume households who requested them. The... Full story
Ruth W. Sandvik, 100, Petersburg resident for 75 years, died on July 29, 2016 at Seattle"s Kline Galland home in the comfort of her family. Ruth fractured her hip in Petersburg, then was medevaced to Swedish Hospital in Seattle. After a successful operation she suffered a stroke and didn"t ever recover. Ruth was born in Portland, Oregon to Hermann and Vesta Wetterborg on February 8, 1916. Her parents preceded her in death as well as her sister, Betty. She and Betty attended Portland schools... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to send a letter urging an alternative route to logging Alaska Mental Health Trust (AMHT) lands south of town at its Tuesday meeting. The land in question is on steep hillside located above Mitkof Highway, and the borough would rather see land exchanged than logging. Last month, the AMHT board announced plans to go forward with timber sales of lands near Petersburg from Scow Bay to south of Twin Creek, if a land exchange is not approved by Congress on Jan. 15. There is also AMHT land near Ketchikan. The...
Petersburg Borough manager Stephen Giesbrecht gave the following manager’s report to the assembly on Sept. 6: We continue to have wait lists for Elderly Housing and Assisted Living facilities. Medicaid provider certification renewal has been submitted for the Manor. Municipal Building project continues to move forward. Initial installation on jail cells has been completed, and the block wall for the detention area is mostly done as well. Officer Kent Preston resigned, effective 8/28/16, due to a family medical issue. Kent was active in o...
WRANGELL – A pilot study currently underway seems to be bearing good news for Wrangells water worries. In mid-July the city declared a state of emergency as its water treatment plant struggled to meet local demand. An appeal to residents and local seafood processors to limit water usage followed, allowing Public Works time to replenish its reserve tanks. By August 18 City Hall declared the crisis over, but still encouraged people to conserve water. The problem was primarily with the plants w...
tWRANGELL – The City of Wrangell is applying to the United States Forest Service to give a historic boat a new home. The M/V Chugach was one of 11 ranger boats operating in the state during the first half of the 20th century. Built at the Lake Union Dry Dock and Machine Works in Seattle in 1925, the vessel was assigned to Cordova for work in the Tongass and Chugach national forests. It remains the last of its kind in the USFS fleet, continuing service until last year. The boat was restationed in Petersburg in 1953, it served from there more t...
Wheels are already in motion to provide two measures of relief for Alaska’s pink salmon industry, which is reeling from the lowest harvest since the late 1970s. Representative Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak) began the process last week to have the Walker Administration declare the pink salmon season a disaster, which would allow access to federal relief funds. Pinks are Alaska’s highest volume salmon fishery and hundreds of fishermen depend on the fish to boost their overall catches and paychecks. So far the statewide harvest has reached just 36 mil...
WRANGELL – Last week the City and Borough of Wrangell announced emergency measures no longer needed to be taken to conserve its treated water supply. The announcement came on August 18, nearly a month after a state of disaster was declared by Mayor David Jack. The decision had been prompted by Public Works warning it could not treat water quickly enough to meet demand, due to problems with its 17-year-old plants filtration system. The Assembly and city officials had met with local seafood processors – which together make up around half of ove...
Alaska is one of a handful of U.S. states to launch a go-to website aimed at keeping ocean acidification in the public eye. The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, a collaboration of state and federal scientists, agencies, tribes, conservation, fishing and aquaculture groups, went live last month. Its goal is to provide a forum for researchers to share their findings, and to connect with coastal residents concerned about future impacts on their communities. Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide (CO2)...
The school board met in the high school library Tuesday night, after taking July off. The board also took a tour of summer improvements with director of maintenance Dan Tate before the meeting. Tate showed off and talked about the school’s new carpet, changes to a few classrooms and projects still in the works. School board members were excited about the improvements done over the summer, especially the new LED lighting installed in the school’s shop. The tour ended at the elementary school with Tate talking about the new rock garden and caf... Full story
WRANGELL – A sewer main broke early Monday morning, necessitating a temporary shutdown of nearby pump stations and causing an overflow of untreated water into Inner Harbor. The main line connecting town to the sewage treatment plant ruptured near the Sea Level Seafoods processing facility at 1204 Zimovia Highway. City crews responded to the scene, shutting down pump stations near the Public Works Department building and City Park in order to repair the break. Eighty-five percent of Wrangell households are connected to the municipal sewage s...
Marty Susort is the onsite construction administrator on the municipal building renovation. He's the borough's "eyes and ears," according to Public Works director Karl Hagerman. He's at the site to observe the contractor and sub-contractors and step in if any issues arise. "Marty can act as a liaison to the architect or just point to the right page in the plans and specification book for the contractor," Hagerman wrote in an email to the Pilot. "This type of inspection is common for...
Public Works director Karl Hagerman updated the assembly about the ongoing municipal building renovation project at its meeting Monday. Phase 1 of the project began earlier this spring, and the main focus so far has been demolition. “A lot of demo had to happen in the building,” Hagerman said. “Floor slabs came out. Interior and exterior demo has been going pretty much the whole time. They are almost completed with everything they needed to take out, and they’ve started putting things back in.” Hagerman said contractors have completed some unde...
Who knows more about local salmon and their habitats than Alaska fishermen? That’s the impetus behind a new information-gathering project spawned by United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) that aims to provide useful and timely news about the health of the state’s salmon runs. The Salmon Habitat Information Program (SHIP) launched last week with an online survey to provide commercial fishermen with a way to share their local intelligence. “We are asking people what issues they are most concerned about in their region,” said SHIP manager Lindsey...
The city manager presented the following report to the Assembly at Monday’s meeting. The 30 percent design documents for the Emergency Stand-by Generator (350 kw) replacement have been received from the vendor. At Crystal Lake, we intend to replace the old “bubbler” lake level indicator system with a new electronic transducer, and add a new air temperature sensor – weather permitting. When complete, we will no longer have to maintain the nitrogen gas system at the lake, and the readings will be much more reliable and accurate. Spillman Records...
WRANGEL – Though a crisis in the local water supply has subsided, Wrangell remains in a state of conservation through most of the rest of summer. The City and Borough Assembly formally declared a state of disaster in a special meeting held July 19, after ready water reserves had fallen to a fraction of capacity. Problems with the water treatment plant’s filtration process meant supply could not keep up with demand, and early last week local seafood processors and the wider public were asked to reduce consumption. Efficiencies undertaken by bot...
WRANGELL – With the supply of treated water dangerously low, the Borough Assembly officially declared the city to be in a state of disaster Tuesday evening. The decision was reached during a special session in which officials met with departmental staff and representatives of Wrangell’s two fish processing plants, Trident Seafoods and Sea Level Seafoods. With the processing season already underway and production ramping up, the two together are consuming about half of the community’s water. Alarm bells were raised by Public Works when it repor...
Construction efforts on the municipal building are right on schedule with the demolition process going smooth so far, according to Karl Hagerman, Public Works director. "Actually, it's going along fairly well," he said. "The contractor is continuing to do demolition, but at the same time they are starting to put in new items." The job is a joint venture between two contractors, and they have already completed some underground plumbing and installation of interior concrete slabs. The phased const...
People driving by the first gravel pit out of town on Frederick Drive are accustomed to seeing small, scattered signs of graffiti. However, the freshly painted markings found by the Petersburg Police Department (PPD) last Friday while on patrol were completely unacceptable. The gravel pit is three to four miles down the twisting dirt road, and offers privacy and quiet scenery. The area is popular for bonfires. People stopping by the location can see a slightly faded "Jimi" on one side of the... Full story
Abatement has begun on the building project. New curb in front of the building has been poured, and Power & Light got the underground conduit put in place prior to the concrete pour. An attempted suicide in the jail was prevented by staff on April 30. Overall statistics in the Police Department are trending slightly higher this year. Total cases FY 16 through Feb were 3235 – total FY 15 through Feb were 2848. Arrests FY16 through Feb were 48 - Arrests FY 15 through Feb were 26. Jail days are down, however, for the same periods, 343 versus 407.5...
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht reported the following during the May 2 Assembly meeting: Un-cruise insurance has paid all but $7,652 of the Middle Harbor repair. Staff has invoiced the remaining balance. Officer Dodson and Dispatcher Huettl resigned on April 18, 2016. A search is underway to fill the positions with one FT dispatcher and one three quarter time dispatcher. This will reduce police coverage and personnel costs slightly. Abatement on the municipal building began May 2. Chief Swihart was appointed to the Alaska Police St...
A local restaurant owner will be expanding her business and plans to open The 420, potentially Petersburg's first retail marijuana business. Susan Burrell has owned and operated the Fisherman's Net Café and Gift Shop on North Nordic Drive since 2013. Within the past year, she began selling pipes and other marijuana smoking products, but said she hadn't planned until recently to open up a retail store. "I had no intention of being a retail store because I figured the competition was going to be...
