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The preliminary results of the Petersburg 2024 Municipal Election are in. When the voting window closed Tuesday evening, 1,051 voters had cast their ballot. There are outstanding ballots that will be counted when the election results are certified this Friday. Those votes could potentially change the outcome for Proposition 2 and one contested Library Board seat. Among the five candidates who ran for the two three-year terms on the borough assembly, incumbent Bob Lynn received the most votes...
The EMS branch of Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department is trying out a new response system that no longer holds EMS responders to a fixed schedule. Emergency Services Director Aaron Hankins told the Pilot that it was difficult to get volunteers to commit and sign up for consistent 12-hour shifts; he said there was conversation about changing the shift schedule to more than two shifts in a day, but there was not a consensus among the group to agree on a change. Ultimately, Hankins said EMS...
Voters in Alaska's capital city have rejected a resident-written ballot proposition that would have banned large cruise ships on Saturdays and the Fourth of July.Tuesday was municipal election day for most of Alaska's cities and boroughs, and in preliminary results in Juneau, about 60% of participating voters sided against the "ship-free Saturdays" initiative. Some ballots have yet to be counted but are not expected to change the result. Elsewhere across the state, municipal elections saw... Full story
Wikan Enterprises, Inc. is still on the market. Owners John and Sheri Wikan plan to retire on Oct. 18, John's 75th birthday. The Wikans are looking for a successor to continue their diesel marine engine parts and repair shop that has operated out of Petersburg for over three decades. "Our intention and goal with the sale is to find somebody that can continue the business so that our fishermen have service. That's what we want," Sheri told the Pilot. "But with that being said, if we can't find so... Full story
Petersburg's public safety advisory board wants the state of Alaska to initiate a safety standard for motorized rental boats. At a meeting in mid September, board members said lodges near town let tourists use skiffs without making sure they know what they're doing. Vice Chair Mark Tucillo said he doesn't want people to die because they don't know how to operate a boat. "I think it's the right thing to do," he said. "To say 'You should have training before you get in a watercraft and go off on...
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...
Opponents of the planned Donlin Gold mine in Western Alaska won a key victory on Monday when a federal judge ruled that regulators who granted a permit needed to build the project failed to properly consider the risks of a catastrophic release of mine waste. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason agreed with tribal government plaintiffs that argued the environmental study that led to federal permitting for the Donlin mine illegally omitted analysis of the impacts of a major tailings dam failure. “I think it’s a major victory for the tri...
An array of businesses, fishing companies and investors are objecting to a pending proposal to sell the assets of a struggling Alaska seafood company to Rodger May — one of the original investors in the company before it entered a bankruptcy-like process called receivership. The financial firm that’s overseeing Peter Pan Seafood’s receivership proposed last week to sell the company’s three processing plants and an array of other assets to May, an entrepreneur and fish trader who narrowly outbid another processing company, Silver Bay Seafood...
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This year's Permanent Fund dividend, plus a one-time energy rebate bonus, will be a combined $1,702 per recipient, the Alaska Department of Revenue announced Thursday. The amount is slightly higher than previous estimates from the spring, in part because the number of recipients is lower than expected. The payments will be direct-deposited into Alaskans' bank accounts starting Oct. 3. Paper checks, for those Alaskans who requested them, will be mailed later in October. This year's combined... Full story
Cedar Social Club, the adult day service program at PMC, soft-launched nearly a year ago. And thanks to new funding avenues from the state, the program continues to grow. The State Health Department has awarded PMC's Home Health Department an Adult Day Services grant to support staffing and participant scholarships for Cedar Social Club. Home Health is also newly state certified to provide support for participants who are under a Medicaid waiver. "It's exciting, because I feel like we're...
Facing unavoidable costs for water and wastewater upgrades, borough authorities stress the need for voters to pass Proposition 4 in the municipal election next week. Passing Prop 4 will authorize the borough to borrow up to $19.3 million from the state to fund 12 water and wastewater projects slated for the next six years in Petersburg. The loans would not be borrowed all at once. On a project-by-project basis, each would need to be approved by the assembly before the borough could pursue the... Full story
Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, a blue heron got too close to a power source near South Harbor last Friday morning - causing a power outage in the darkest hours of the night. The encounter with the power lines around 1:20 a.m. cost the waterfowl its life and part of Petersburg its power until PMPL crew brought the lights back on by 3:00 a.m. "Unfortunately, in the middle of the night ... a large blue heron made contact with our primary power in the area of South Harbor and ... put the...
Alaska had the biggest decline in average life expectancy of all U.S. states in 2021, a year when health outcomes were heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent national report. Alaska’s life expectancy in 2021 was 74.5 years, down from the average of 76.6 years in 2020, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, U.S. life expectancy declined by 0.6 years in that time, mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in drug overdose deaths and other unintentional i...
Wrangell is trading in the stormy skies of Seattle and heading east, hoping for favorable tourism trade winds in Chicago. For the first time in two decades the borough will not send any representatives to the Seattle Boat Show. Instead, the Economic Development Department has elected to attend the Travel and Adventure Show in Chicago. The two-day event kicks off on Feb. 1 of next year. Economic Development Director Kate Thomas said she expects an audience as large as 19,000 travel enthusiasts and an additional 2,000 to 3,000 attendees who work...
Petersburg's moose season opened last week. The one-month window runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. Those hunting on Mitkof, neighboring islands and the mainland are permitted to harvest one bull this fall. There are no regulation changes from last hunting season, and Frank Robbins, Petersburg-Wrangell area biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said he has not seen any notable changes to the health of the central Southeast herd. Last year's Petersburg-Wrangell area harvest was...
This summer, the Petersburg Landslide Warning Committee established three new weather stations to monitor weather conditions on the hillsides of Mitkof Highway —the area near residences where the potential for landslides is historically most likely. After a presentation by the Sitka Sound Science Center (SSSC) in January, the group formed to develop a community-based landslide warning system inspired by a model used in Sitka. The goal of the project is to have multiple weather stations collectin...
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...
Officials with the U.S. Postal Service intercepted a threatening envelope sent to the Alaska Division of Elections on Tuesday, one of a number of similar packages sent to elections officials in other states, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announced. Dahlstrom, who oversees elections work in the state, said in a written statement that the Postal Service notified the division that it had been targeted and that postal inspectors had seized a suspicious envelope and its contents for further investigation. Further details about the Alaska-bound envelope... Full story
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%...
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary officially stands up the Petersburg Flotilla on the sunny afternoon of Sept. 11, 2024. At the drive down dock, the USCG Cutters Pike and Elderberry tied up bow to bow, with active duty Coast Guard crew standing on each side to set the stage for the Auxiliary Flotilla ceremony....
A warm aroma of cooked food and the scent of cedar embers sifted through Sandy Beach during the first ever Rainforest Survival series, hosted by Petersburg Parks and Recreation on Saturday Sept. 7. The two-day event focused on helping teach kids about survival skills. The class on Friday consisted of emergency bag preparation and knot tying lessons. On Saturday, lessons featured shelter building, flare signaling for rescue and fire building. "For the most part, I think it went beautifully,"...
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...
