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The Petersburg Community Foundation gave $14,000 in grants to nine local nonprofit organizations during the 2017 Mayfest weekend, said Holli Flint, who is the program manager. Specific dollar amounts given to each organization is not disclosed, as the community foundation does not want to take away from the funding sources that contributed, Flint said. "A lot of projects are not entirely made possible through the Petersburg Community Foundation," Flint said. "Each project is really interesting....
The Petersburg Borough Assembly advanced 5-1 the fiscal year 2018 budget in its second reading with several failed budget amendments that would have kept property taxes from rising and given power and light around $775,000 to help purchase property on Birch Street to build a parking lot. Assembly member Kurt Wohlhueter proposed the latter amendment in order to help power and light replace aging infrastructure. Power and Light superintendent Joe Nelson said purchasing the property is something his department could do in the upcoming year in...
WRANGELL – The school district has begun advertising for a new principal at Evergreen Elementary School, after its board accepted the resignation of current principal Deidre Jenson on Monday. Once the school year ends, Jenson said she will be heading north this summer with her husband, Joel. “We’re heading to Deering, Alaska,” she explained. There, Jenson will be a principal and special education instructor for the Northwest Arctic School District. Two of the Jensons’ children have already graduated, while arrangements are being made for a thi...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Hundreds of Alaska residents and students gathered in Fairbanks on Sunday to show support for schools facing heavy budget cuts. The rally happened two days after hundreds of high school and middle school students in the Fairbanks area left school early in protest of proposed cuts to music, arts, sports and other activities, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. “The youth of Fairbanks have sent us an S.O.S message – save our schools – loud and clear,” said Montean Jackson, Fairbanks North Star Borough School Di...
WRANGELL – A relatively recent resident to Wrangell took a novel view of the place, in February self-publishing a fictional adventure set here. K.E. Hoover’s book West of North follows character Josh Campbell, a man who has come to Wrangell looking for a new start at life. He makes some new friendships – and new enemies – in the process, learning to live in the Alaskan wilderness. “It’s a thriller in addition to an adventure story,” Hoover explained. One of the characters is loosely based on his own father, Jack Hoover, a resident of W...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted to approve in its final reading an ordinance that provides an eight cent power rate for the school buildings despite continued pleas from Petersburg Medical Center staff to give the hospital the rate as well. The break-even power rate applies to the aquatic boiler room, the aquatic center, the high school, middle school and elementary school. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted in its second reading to approve an ordinance that provides an 8 cent power rate for the school buildings. The break-even power rate applies to the aquatic boiler room, the aquatic center, the high school, middle school and elementary school. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. During its last meeting, member Jeigh Stanton Gregor suggested the assembly appro...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed a request made by the Petersburg School District and Petersburg Medical Center to pay a lower power rate but ultimately voted to only provide it to school buildings, instead of all municipal buildings including the hospital. The request comes after meetings between the Petersburg School District, Petersburg Medical Center and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. “The school, the hospital and the borough have been getting together in these meetings to try t...
At this week’s Assembly meeting, Community Development director Liz Cabrera presented to the Petersburg Borough Assembly an outline for how to update the borough’s zoning code that hasn’t been brought up to speed since 1986. Cabrera said many parts of the code are contradictory due to small updates in some sections but not in others, that the processes used are cumbersome and slow and that the zoning is restrictive. “A lot of the definitions in the code are nonexistent, blurry, unclear, really difficult to interpret and apply consistently, real...
WRANGELL – Residents of Wrangell concerned about the state’s evolving budget proposals joined those from Cordova, Nome and other rural communities in testifying on House Bill 57 over the weekend. Proposed by the House Finance Committee as part of a package of budget cuts, HB 57 proposes cutting state payments to municipalities for school construction debt. Homer Rep. vPaul Seaton (R-District 31) co-chaired the proceedings on March 4, seeking input ahead of an amendment process scheduled for Tuesday. Wrangell is among the communities that would...
Oversight and communication by the Chief Financial Officer are a key component of PMC's strategic plan to achieve a break-even operation. The CFO is charged to balance quarterly spending with revenue and reimbursement in each department and control unnecessary waste at PMC. Doran Hammet, CFO, regularly communicates PMC's financial position to employees, physicians, management and the board. He does this at monthly meetings of the hospital board. He assures that pricing is competitive and he...
KENAI (AP) – With several marijuana businesses up and running on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska, industry estimates show the businesses could contribute $5.3 million annually to the local economy. Eight marijuana businesses have opened on the peninsula since last summer and nine more are planned. Of those businesses, two are retail stores and the rest are cultivators, The Peninsula Clarion reported. Dollynda Phelps of cultivation company Peace Frog Botanicals presented a survey of current licensees to the Kenai Chamber of C...
Feb. 8 — Mavis R. Worthington, 66 was cited for expired registration. Police responded to a motor vehicle accident in the 400 block of S. Nordic Drive. Police responded to Petersburg High School for a minor in need of supervision. A theft was reported in the Middle Harbor. Feb. 9 — Police received a call reporting intimidation in the Towne Trailer Court. A disturbance call was reported at Parks and Rec. Feb. 10 — A sex offender registered. Transportation was provided to Unimak St. A disturbance was reported at the Narrows Inn. Police respo...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed a request made by the Petersburg School District and Petersburg Medical Center to pay a lower power rate last month. The request comes after meetings between PSD, PMC and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. "The school, the hospital and the borough have been getting together in these meetings to try to figure out ways that we can continue to function in the way the community wants without having to cut...
Petersburg Power and Light could be asked to subsidize electric rates to Borough general fund users, the hospital, cold storage and schools. In a joint meeting with the schools and hospital, Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht asked the finance department to run numbers showing the potential savings if a Municipal Rate were set at $9/mo. plus 6.9-cents per kwh. Savings to each entity would be $233,179 each year and the borough electric utility would subsidize the savings through their revenue stream. Manager Giesbrecht wrote: “Important to r...
The Petersburg school board met Tuesday night to discuss the loss of federal secure rural school funding due to the program seemingly ending in 2017. Board president Sarah Holmgrain said the program has not been funded on a federal level beyond this year, and the school district stands to take a significant hit for the change. In 2015, Congress re-authorized the funding through the current year; however, the discussion going forward for Petersburg will be how the district learns to live without. The school receives about $600,000 from secure...
January Public Works rolled out the borough's highly anticipated blue cart recycling program. The borough received $820,117.61 from the annual raw fish tax. Dave Zimmerman was hired as the new Tongass National Forest Petersburg District Ranger. The assembly continued discussing the reallocation of the Kake access road funding. Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins took part in a budget crisis presentation at Sons of Norway Hall. The visit was the first of many by representatives throughout the...
WRANGELL – Alaska's two senators jointly welcomed a new addition to their Southeast team. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan issued statements December 22 congratulating Chere Klein to serve at the South Southeast delegation representative office in her home town of Ketchikan. "The district office is kind of the eyes and ears of the senators when they're back in D.C.," Klein explained of the post. "Our main business is doing casework, and that's helping constituents around the district w...
The school board ended the 2016 year with a brief meeting about transitioning to a paperless board and an update about the changes to the high school dress code. Board president Sarah Holmgrain said she was excited about the move to have board members utilizing district-issued devices rather than relying on paper. “The hope is that it’s less work and time, as well as effort for Irene, because it is a lot to Xerox and copy everything,” Holmgrain said. “And also, just using less paper. It’s as expensive as ever.” She also reminded anyone that the...
It may be math teacher Joyce Metsa's first year in Petersburg, but she's already found a way to make a positive impact on a handful of students by establishing a middle school Robotics Club. Metsa is teaming up with Cyndy Fry and the two are bringing competitive robotics to youngsters in town. The club traveled to Juneau last weekend with five students to compete in their first ever FIRST LEGO League event. The team got a late start on the season, and the club ended up coming in 17th out of 26 t...
KETCHIKAN – A review of the Ketchikan High School’s activities program has found no federal Title IX violations, but the school will still likely change how it operates district activities. The district undertook the review after parents complained that girls’ sports were receiving fewer opportunities than boys’ activities, The Ketchikan Daily News reported. “I’m happy to know that we’re not in violation of any Title IX issues, obviously because it’s a legality situation there I’m really glad to know that we’re at least not violating the law i...
The Wright Auditorium recently received a few upgrades as part of an ongoing effort to improve the facility so many community members use. Dave Berg, Compass Theater board member, said the improvements to the stage's rigging were taken to increase safety. The rigger, who traveled here from the Pacific Northwest to assist with replacing the rigging and inspect the theater, told Berg it was good to see Wright Auditorium gets so much use. "It was time to get the facility inspected by someone who...
The Petersburg School District held an assembly for older students Monday morning and showed a documentary designed to educate kids about the dangers of opiate and heroin use. The video called “Chasing the Dragon” was shown to students in seventh through twelfth grades, and a positive discussion was held afterward. “It went great,” School Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter says. “We felt like we were able to prepare for it, which is what we were concerned about when they came through in September.” The documentary was shown to the public in Sep...
ANCHORAGE – Two moose were recently discovered frozen in battle and encased in ice near a remote village on Alaska’s unforgiving western coast. Brad Webster, a middle school social studies and science teacher in Unalakleet, captured images of the massive animals poking through the ice as they lay on their sides with antlers apparently locked together. He had taken a friend who recently moved to the village for a walk on Nov. 2 near a frozen slough at Covenant Bible Camp, where Webster volunteers as a camp steward. “That’s when we saw it,” he...
FAIRBANKS – Students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are questioning how school officials have responded to reports of sexual assault. They voiced their concerns Sunday at a forum hosted by interim Chancellor Dana Thomas, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Students criticized university policies that allow those accused of sexual assault to return to campus before the case is closed. They also said the university has been lagging in its effort to fill open positions in the Title IX office, which is responsible for investigating s...
