Sorted by date Results 3229 - 3253 of 3809
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a resolution Friday informing the Wrangell assembly of its acceptance of Southeast Alaska Power Agency’s offer to take over Tyee Hydroelectric Project operation costs. The resolution urges the Wrangell assembly to also accept the offer. SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson presented the offer that would also absorb existing Thomas Bay Power Authority employees along with their Public Employee Retirement System unfunded liabilities in excess of $750,000 should SEAPA ter...
Hammer & Wikan Grocery is expanding their produce, meat and freezer sections as its new freezer and refrigeration project is nearly complete. Hammer & Wikan CEO Larry Martin said his store is tripling its organic produce products. The produce section already has around 100 new items in stock. “Industry standards are moving towards natural and organic and gluten free,” Martin said. “We are trying to carry as much of that as possible.” The meat, dairy and frozen foods section is also expandi...
The new Petersburg Library grand opening celebration was packed with visitors last Saturday. Senator Burt Stedman and Rasmuson Foundation CEO Diane Kaplin spoke during the event. Among many remarks and thanks, Kaplin made a point to thank Borough Librarian Tara Alcock for her dedication to Petersburg’s library. “I really want to congratulate Tara. She has worked very, very hard on this,” Kaplin said.“You can tell when you walk into a library if it’s a great library. The second you walk in t...
Petersburg officials are improvising as the North Harbor’s dredge material is more fluid than they expected. Because copper levels were too high to dispose the spoils into the ocean, the original plan was to use the dredge material to cover the landfill’s scrap metal pile but Karl Hagerman, Public Works Director, stated in a report to the borough that when the project began September 12, “it was immediately evident that the material being delivered to the landfill was different than what the sanitation department was expecting.” The Army Co...
Thirty-seven moose have been checked in to Alaska Department of Fish and Game this season. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said nineteen moose were checked in during the first week, which is close to average for the last 10 years “Most of the harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season,” Lowell said. As of yesterday afternoon, 12 moose have been harvested from the Stikine, 12 from Kupreanof and six from Mitkof. Although 12 moose were taken from Kupreanof only six were taken from the Kak...
The Petersburg Borough is seeking legal advice as it considers drafting an ordinance requiring agencies, including the state of Alaska, using broad based spraying methods to deliver herbicides and pesticides to require the approval of the borough assembly. The state adopted regulations this past spring that would allow agencies to apply herbicides and pesticides on state property without obtaining a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation and without public review. Petersburg, Skagway and Haines have all written letters to the...
The Sales Tax Ordinance Review Committee will be reviewing exemptions outlined in the tax code during the next several months. The group also outlined its mission statement during the meeting. It states, “…to simplify the code and collection procedures, and to generate an equal or greater amount of revenue so the Borough does not have to decrease services or increase property taxes.” Anne Hurt, Finance Clerk for the Petersburg Borough, went through 26 exemptions and made suggestions as to which ones could stay and those that could be remov... Full story
Twenty-six moose have been checked in to Alaska Department of Fish and game this season. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said nineteen moose were checked in during the first week, which is close to average for the last 10 years “Most of the harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season,” Lowell said. As of yesterday afternoon, nine moose have been harvested from the Stikine, seven from Kupreanof and five from Mitkof. Although seven wer... Full story
September 27, 1913 – Better than 40,000 cases of salmon already put up and still the fish keeps coming. That is the situation in which the Pacific Coast & Norway Packing Company finds itself today. Although late in the season when the management got through with the work of putting up the traps, the location of each trap seems to have been favorable and are still fishing quite profitable. It is rumored that the company has ordered more cans and purpose keeping the cannery working as long as the traps keep up the supply. September 28, 1983 – Che...
A crew filmed Axe Men promotional videos at the Tonka Logging site on Kupreanof Island last week. Sean Moody, Assistant Production Supervisor for The Arsenal Film & Creative, said they lucked out during last week despite all the rainy days. “We got really lucky on the first shoot day, the bigger day, when we were out with all the machines. We even got a little bit of sun in the sky.” The film crew used a remote controlled helicopter camera to do some of the shooting. “We kind of shoot thing... Full story
The Petersburg School board prepared a resolution Wednesday to send to the Alaska Association of School Boards, or AASB, urging the state legislature to clarify a statute that makes school districts responsible for paying for physical examinations of incoming students. School districts across Alaska require incoming students to receive physical examinations and parents or caregivers are responsible for paying for the exams. But after several Petersburg parents questioned the requirement, the school board had its attorney, Allen Clendaniel,...
Blue skies and warm days enveloped Petersburg like seine nets to pink salmon this summer as the Southeast saw temperatures above and rainfall below average. According to National Weather Service Data, the temperature on August 1 reached 83 degrees tying the warmest day ever recorded in Petersburg and breaking August 22, 2004’s 82-degree record high. Summer temperatures remained consistently warm across the region. Petersburg saw daily average temperatures in June and August reach three degrees above normal. And through September 15, average d... Full story
The Petersburg Library opened its doors to the public for the first time Monday. The facility boasts several new features such as a self-checkout station, a teen room and the ability to borrow laptops and iPads. There are six stationary express computers library users can log onto for 30 minutes at a time. But Tara Alcock, Borough Librarian, said people generally need more time than that. “People can come check them out (laptops and ipads), have two full hours and can sit anywhere they want i... Full story
Acting Revenue Commissioner Angela Rodell announced Wednesday that the 2013 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) will be $900. 670,865 Alaskans applied for the 2013 dividend this year – a decrease of approximately 7,000 applications from 2012. The first dividends will be paid on October 3, when approximately 507,000 applicants will receive a direct deposit into their bank account, and 86,000 will be mailed a check. Paper checks will enter the U.S. mail system on October 3 from Juneau. More than $484 million will be directly deposited into Alaskans' b...
September 20, 1913 – The Indians of Skidgate, B.C. reported having seen a new kind of sea monster while out fishing recently. This monster struggled so violently in the encounter that it all but upset the canoe, but finally was cut in two. They reported to the Captain and the officers of the steamer Prince Albert that one of their fishing parties in a war canoe had met with a strange denizen of the deep on the fishing grounds. This creature, which appeared to be twenty feet long and from two to three feet in circumference, wrapped itself t...
Alaska’s salmon fishery harvest smashed records this season with everyone from fishermen to cannery workers feeling the tremors. Alaska’s Southeast regions pulled more than one third of the salmon stock from the waters this summer. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s website, roughly 103 million salmon were caught in Southeast waters compared to the 265 million salmon caught statewide according to the Alaska Journal of Commerce. The Southeast Alaska purse seine fishery closed for pink salmon September 8. ADFG final harve...
Aside from massive fish harvest, Petersburg canneries felt the added pressure of worker walkouts and no shows. This summer was the first time the companies couldn’t hire foreign student workers coming on J1 Visas after the federal government ended the program in an attempt to provide more jobs to American workers. Some estimates early in the season put no show rates between 15-20 percent. A local manager said working with a changed employee pool combined with peak production was a “double whammy.” “There were less workers in the pool and mor...
Pilot publisher Ron Loesch was awarded an Honorable Mention for Best Editorial, non‐daily division, circulation less than 3,000, by the National Newspaper Association. The award was announced this month at the NNA annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz. The editorial entitled, “The cost of lost opportunities,” was published in the October 18, 2012 edition. Judges' comments on the entry were: "Strong clear writing that presents voters with the information they need for an important vote." It was o...
Every school district in Alaska requires new or incoming students to receive physicals before starting school and most, if not all, don’t cover those costs. Most school districts in Alaska might be in violation of state statute. That’s if Petersburg School District’s attorney Allen Clendaniel’s interpretation of Alaska Statue 14.30.070 is correct. In part, it states, “The governing body of each school district shall provide for and require a physical examination of every child attending school in the district.” “If you look at the literal l...
Some initial concern over the Petersburg Road Improvement Plan turned out to be less of an issue than originally anticipated. The $4.1 million dollar project began in September of 2012. According to a project report written by Bryce Iverson, SECON Project Manager, “…2,800 cubic yards of concrete were placed, over 4,800 linear feet of curbs and gutter, 3,100 square yards of sidewalk, and nearly 10,000 square yards of concrete pavement.” The initial concrete pouring phase was put on hold because of early season freezing temperatures. Barry Morri...
Tommy Joseph, master woodcarver and Tlingit artist, gave a Technology, Education and Design talk in the borough assembly chambers last Thursday. Joseph talked about his experiences traveling the world learning about Tlingit battledress and how he incorporated that knowledge into pieces he crafted called “Rainforest Warriors” that are in display at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau. His work was inspired in 2004 while researching the battledress used during 1804’s Battle of Sitka that pitte...
