Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 915
December 12, 1924 – Oscar Sather, of the Shields-Sather Lumber & Box Company, is figuring on plans for six cottages for rent or sale, which, if the plans materialize, will somewhat relieve the present famine in lack of houses. At the present time in Petersburg it is impossible to get either houses or apartments or any business location. The new business block being built by Andrew Wikan and John Hammer has the roof on and is nearing completion, and the entire space on both floors could have been rented a dozen times over, owing to demand. In fa...
Petersburg's student-run nonprofit movie theater, the Northern Nights Theater, has run out of reserves and will have to make some changes starting in January. The last few years have been very challenging and expensive for the organization. Sitting unused through the early stages of the pandemic led to major malfunctions with the movie projector, Theater Manager Cyndy Fry told the Pilot. "We basically had to buy the whole computer guts of the system, [and then] because of that change we had to...
Joey Chang says he was getting ready to depart the Hubbard state ferry after it docked in Kake on Saturday when suddenly the ship was no longer at the dock. "We are getting ready to get into the vehicle and we saw the opening of the ramp, and suddenly the whole ferry was moving away from the dock, and everybody got shocked and pretty much everyone froze up," he said. "The north wind was blowing so hard it pushed the ferry away from the dock." "And then I was looking at the rope, because the...
Earlier this month, the Petersburg Borough Assembly passed an ordinance updating the sales tax chapter of municipal code to clarify exemptions and rules for businesses, modernize definitions and organize information for better transparency - borough officials emphasized that the ordinance does not introduce new taxes or exemptions, nor does it change how sales tax is applied locally. The amendment highlights existing information about sales tax into clear new sections and adds definitions that w...
On a Thursday morning in Petersburg High School's room 206, algebra II students sit around the edge of the classroom, forming a big U. Their teacher, Megan Smith, asks them if it's possible to take the square root of a negative fraction. "Noooooooo" they chorus, "No solution!" Together they work through a series of problems. Then, even though class is only halfway over, she tells them to get started on their homework. She turns to four students who had been ignoring the lesson, curled over...
Growing up in Petersburg, Heather Conn remembers holding weekend school sessions inside a little schoolhouse her father built along the side of their home on Tango Street, with her brothers and kids from the neighborhood in attendance. Conn wanted to be a school teacher her whole life and had even considered aiming for superintendent at some point. She achieved a dream in 2019 when Conn became the school principal at Petersburg's Rae C. Stedman Elementary school, after years in special and...
Petersburg School District has secured a total of $973,816 in grant awards this fiscal year, so far. The special revenue includes four new grants, and more funding is "definitely" anticipated in addition to the almost million dollars already awarded to the district. The district faces ongoing challenges due to inadequate state funding, including budget cuts for this academic year. PSD has had to get creative with pursuing grants, an undertaking that requires "a lot of extra work on our staff..."...
WRANGELL – The borough wants a data center to plug into Wrangell. Better yet, it could even move into the unused formal hospital property. Data centers are large hosting sites for multiple servers that provide computing power and storage for cloud-based service providers. While at Southeast Conference, held in Ketchikan last month, borough representatives spoke with Sam Enoka, founder and CEO of Greensparc — a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in setting up modular, small-scale data centers for cloud computing. Enoka gre...
Proposition 2 failed in the regular municipal election last week by an official total of five votes. The Petersburg Borough Assembly certified the election results in a special meeting Oct. 4, when outstanding ballots were counted toward the final tally. Julie Spigelmyre won the contested Library Board seat with 567 votes total; incumbent Gina Esposito had 554 votes and was not reelected. Proposition 2 failed with 516 votes in favor, and 521 votes against it. Prop 2 would have increased the...
The Petersburg Pilot and KFSK teamed up to present a two hour long candidates forum on Thursday, September 12. All five candidates for Petersburg Borough Assembly were given one minute each to answer questions on topics ranging from EMS volunteer recruitment, to bears in the garbage, the future of tourism in Petersburg, and a whole lot more. Thomas Fine-Walsh Candidate Opening Statements: My name is Thomas Fine-Walsh. I was born and raised here in Petersburg, and I've had the honor of serving...
State health officials have recorded 234 cases this year of whooping cough — also known as pertussis — through Sept. 9, more than were reported over the past seven years combined. About three-quarters of this year’s cases came in the past three months. Of the statewide total, SEARHC reports 11 in Southeast from June through early September, Lyndsey Y. Schaefer, communications director for the health care provider, said in an emailed statement Sept. 12. Privacy rules prevent SEARHC from disclosing the communities with whooping cough cases...
Students in Petersburg outperformed their peers across the state when tested on core school subjects last spring. Statewide assessment data recently released to the public by Alaska's Department of Education and Early Development revealed most students in Alaska are not proficient in the core subjects of science, mathematics and English language arts. In Alaska, almost 32% of students met grade-level proficiency standards in both the English language arts and mathematics tests; and not quite 37%...
September 12, 1924 – Some fine loganberries have been raised on the Papke farm below Petersburg. It has been claimed by agents of the government experimental farm that this class of berries could not be successfully raised in Alaska, but yet Mr. Papke has proved the contrary so far as his place is concerned. He also has cherry trees, apple trees, raspberries, strawberries, and several varieties of vegetables. On his place also has been raised hemp with an excellent texture. In fact, his place is a veritable wonderland in the many different f...
There is a nationwide shortage of providers for behavioral health services, and Petersburg is no different. "We've definitely had times in Petersburg where we've had more providers, and there's still been people on a wait list. That's just the reality of it," said Ashley Kawashima, a behavioral health clinician at Petersburg Medical Center. Because there are wait lists, Kawashima said less preventative care is provided as providers, like herself, must triage based on severity: "We're really...
With repair of the GCI fiberoptic cable expected sometime in the next two weeks, Sitkans are using the Starlink at the library and “getting a crash course in Networking 101 today” from the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Sitka lost internet sometime around 11:30 a.m. last Thursday when an undersea cable broke. GCI provided a statement to the Sentinel today: “A subsea fiber break occurred August 29, impacting all GCI services in Sitka. Our teams have successfully restored basic mobile voice and text services using...
Local nonprofit Humanity in Progress is partnering with Petersburg School District to launch a pantry on campus - a new stepping stone toward improving access to basic needs for students in all grades. Food and hygiene products line the shelves of the new pantry, which is located inconspicuously inside the door to an office supply room by the middle school/high school office. The idea to start a pantry was brought into conversation at a school wellness meeting just before summer, as the...
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...
A bill aimed at attracting and keeping quality teachers in Alaska classrooms became law on Monday without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature. The law’s changes to current education policy are threefold: It eliminates a state limit on experience-based compensation for teachers, allows retired teachers to serve as long-term substitutes and provides financial incentives for current teachers to seek certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka and a former teacher, sponsored the bill, whi... Full story
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola received more than half of the votes in primary results released Tuesday night, well ahead of Republican challengers, businessman Nick Begich III and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. With 387 of 403 precincts reporting through 1 a.m. on Wednesday, the incumbent Peltola had received 50.4% of the votes counted. She was running well ahead of her 36.8% share of the vote in the 2022 primary, which was held the same day as the special election she won to fill the seat left vacant by the death of 49-year Congressman Don... Full story
The certified negotiated agreement between the Associated Teachers of Petersburg (ATP) and Petersburg School District is now official. The contract will serve for the next three years. The contract was ratified by ATP in summer, after the borough funded the district to the maximum allowable cap and the legislature's one-time funding survived the veto pen. With the conditions met, the school board approved the agreement at their meeting Aug. 13. "It's a relief to know that our negotiations have...
Petersburg students return to class this Tuesday, and students and families will experience some changes to Petersburg School District policies this academic year. The local school board reviews the student handbooks for Stedman Elementary School, Mitkof Middle School and Petersburg High School every year and makes updates as deemed necessary. Language in the Stedman handbook about dress code was added to include a "three-finger rule" for tank tops to advise the width of sleeves should be about...
Be it boating safety classes, courtesy vessel inspections, maritime observation missions or last-minute substituting for chefs on Coast Guard Cutters, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary provide support to Coast Guard units and promote boating safety in local communities. And now, the Auxiliary in Petersburg will stand up a local Flotilla after years operating as a detachment. The Coast Guard Auxiliary has about 20,000 volunteers nationwide - about 225 in Alaska, which is District 17 for...
Jill Lenhard moved to Ketchikan last August to take a teaching job at Ketchikan High School, but she – and her husband, music teacher Matt Lenhard – both got caught up in this year's teacher layoffs that impacted public school districts across the state. Fortunately for Petersburg, this meant the perfect candidate was unexpectedly available to fill a new teaching vacancy at Mitkof Middle School. Lenhard had spent over 20 years in Petersburg as a vital component of the school district's Eng...
So, you want to see bears at the Anan Wildlife Observatory. But maybe you couldn't get one of the limited number of permits, or you live out of town and can't make the trip, or maybe you are a little more afraid of them than you care to admit. But now, thanks to the U.S. Forest Service, explore.org and 14 Wrangell high school students in the T3 Program, anyone worldwide can view Anan's fish-crazed black and brown bears. Last week, after months of preparation, planning and prototyping, the two...
The window to file for candidacy in Petersburg's municipal election is now open. Folks in town who meet the qualifications for local office can add their name to the ballot by turning in required paperwork to the Borough Clerk's office before the window closes on Aug. 20. A total of 14 seats will be up for election this fall. Each position is for a three-year term. Among the local elected positions will be two seats on the Petersburg Borough Assembly, currently occupied by assembly members Bob...
