News


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 25 of 6844

  • Petersburg teachers state finalists for excellence

    Lizzie Thompson, Pilot writer|Jun 19, 2025

    Three teachers from the Petersburg School District are state finalists for awards in excellence – Hannah Smith and Alice Cumps, math and science teachers at the middle and high schools respectively, are two of the finalists for a Presidential Excellence Award, and Becky Martin, a third grade teacher, for the Alaska Teacher of the Year Award. The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the highest honor a K – 12 math or science teacher in the U.S. can...

  • Budget reconciliation bill would sell public lands to offset tax cuts

    Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News|Jun 19, 2025

    A U.S. Senate committee has proposed selling more than 3 million acres of public lands in Alaska and several other Western states to support new housing development. The idea has alarmed conservation groups and others in Alaska who fear portions of, say, the Chugach or Tongass national forests, and other treasured areas would be auctioned off to developers. The proposed language in the budget reconciliation bill was released last week by the Republican leader of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. The...

  • Borough voters to decide on low-income limit for senior sales tax exemption

    Olivia Rose, KFSK Radio|Jun 19, 2025

    In an effort to generate money for essential services, Petersburg voters will be asked this fall whether to impose income limits for the community's senior sales tax exemption. That's after the Petersburg Borough Assembly approved the proposal on Monday, June 16. The change would limit the decades-old exemption to only low-income seniors who qualify for the state's Senior Benefits Payment Program, with annual incomes below $34,213 for individuals or $46,253 for couples. Revenue from...

  • Parks and Rec two-week shutdown tackles gym floors, pool systems, and facility-wide upgrades

    Jun 19, 2025

    The Petersburg Parks and Recreation facility reopened Monday after completing its annual two-week maintenance shutdown, with Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne describing the closure as highly successful. "We did a lot of work that we've been wanting to get done for a long time," Payne said of the annual maintenance period that began in late May. The closure began with the facility's perennially complex project: coordinating the resurfacing of the gym floors. "Gym and racquetball...

  • An eagle crashes through a living room window in Petersburg

    Taylor Heckart, KFSK Radio|Jun 19, 2025

    Teri Toland was preparing breakfast one morning when she heard a loud crash. When she walked out of her kitchen, she found a full-grown eagle in her living room. The eagle had crashed through a nearby double-paned window, shattering the glass. Toland was used to seeing eagles fly around her house; she even enjoyed watching them race through the nearby trees, but they'd never come inside before. This eagle had also brought something extra: an orange rockfish that it left on the carpet alongside...

  • Petersburg School District enhances safety with summer construction

    Taylor Heckart, KFSK Radio|Jun 19, 2025

    Construction will be happening all summer long at the Petersburg School District. Two major projects are underway to increase safety at the schools, inside and out. The first project is a complete remodel of the high school office. The office has been entirely gutted, and will be rebuilt for visibility and safety. "The office area was such that the folks working in the office really didn't have a good, clear view of who was coming to the door," said Superintendent Robyn Taylor. In 2023, threats...

  • Scammers target planning commission applicants with fake invoices

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|Jun 19, 2025

    Scammers posing as Petersburg Borough Planning and Zoning Director Liz Cabrera sent official-looking emails soliciting payment of nearly $5,000 to at least two individuals with pending applications before the planning commission this month, prompting borough staff to change how they handle applicant information. The fraudulent emails, which included detailed invoices, were sophisticated enough to alarm local officials despite both targeted applicants recognizing the scam before losing money....

  • Limited number of Anan permits available for non-guided visitors

    Wrangell Sentinel Staff|Jun 19, 2025

    Visitors to the U.S. Forest Service Anan Wildlife Observatory are limited July 5 to Aug. 25, with 60 permits each day set aside for guided tours, while four other slots each day are designated for last-minute, independent visitors. "These permits are for people with their own means of transportation (without a hired service) and must be requested in person at the Wrangell Ranger District, up to one week in advance," the Forest Service reminded the public in an announcement on June 13....

  • The Full PDF of this week's Petersburg Pilot

    Jun 19, 2025

    Subscribers log in for access to this week's PDF .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Subscribers, click here for the Full PDF of this week's Petersburg Pilot...

  • Silver Bay CEO says OBI transition is 'fully up and running'

    Olivia Rose, KFSK Radio|Jun 12, 2025

    Silver Bay Seafoods President and CEO Cora Campbell returned to her Southeast Alaska hometown of Petersburg recently to meet with the fleet. Local fishermen, processing plant staff and community members who gathered for a Silver Bay social hour in Petersburg's Sons of Norway Hall directed their attention to Campbell at front of the room. "If you find a member of the Silver Bay Leadership team, there's a very good chance that that girl grew up in Petersburg," she said. Campbell's family has...

  • Local mill owner's airplane conversation with Juneau artist leads to community cedar bark harvest

    Orin Pierson|Jun 12, 2025

    What started as casual airplane conversation between strangers last fall blossomed into a community harvest this week that supplied Petersburg's traditional weavers with a year's supply of yellow cedar bark. Juneau-based Alaska Native artist Lily Hope was flying from Seattle to Juneau in November when she struck up a conversation with her seatmate, Brett Martin, co-owner of Alaska Timber and Truss, the Petersburg sawmill located on Falls Creek Road. Hope recalled, "He said, 'Oh, you use yellow...

  • Advisory board recommends ending Matanuska's career

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel writer|Jun 12, 2025

    The public advisory board for the Alaska Marine Highway System has recommended that the state call an end to the Matanuska's 53-year career in the fleet. The final decision whether to sell the unseaworthy ferry rests with the governor and his Department of Transportation commissioner. "There is currently no set timeline for action," said Sam Dapcevich, the department's spokesman. The 408-foot-long, 499-passenger ferry has been out of service since the fall of 2022, when it went into the...

  • Pair of alleged scammers arrested in Petersburg operation

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|Jun 12, 2025

    Two Indian nationals were arrested Monday in Petersburg in connection with an elaborate scam that defrauded a Petersburg resident of nearly $200,000, authorities said. Shubham Patel, 24, and Harshilkumar J. Patel, 22, both face charges of Scheme to Defraud and Theft in the First Degree, Class B felonies carrying penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and up to 10 years in prison. The arrests resulted from an investigation that began June 2 when a local resident reported being targeted by callers...

  • Aging infrastructure complicates hospital water system repair

    Orin Pierson|Jun 12, 2025

    Petersburg Medical Center (PMC) completed a complex water system repair project last week that highlights both the ingenuity of local maintenance crews and the mounting infrastructure challenges facing the community's critical access hospital. The project began February 5 when the six-inch sprinkler main suddenly developed a hole. "We threw a patch on it that we got from the city, and that actually stopped the leak," explained Wolf Brooks, PMC's Facilities Engineer. But this leak revealed a... Full story

  • Borough raises property tax rate to balance budget, begin repayment of school maintenance bond debt

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|Jun 5, 2025

    On Monday, Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved the resolution to set the property tax rate for the coming year, raising the millage rate from 10.0 to 10.8 mills. The new 0.8-mill increase means property owners in Service Area 1 will pay $10.80 per $1,000 of assessed property value, up from $10 last year. For a home assessed at $300,000, the annual increase would be $240. While an increase from last year, the new rate is still lower than the tax rate from the four preceding years:...

  • Dunleavy administration rushes "emergency regulation" to reduce local government contributions to school districts; state board postpones vote

    Jun 5, 2025

    Alaska is required by law to fund public education equitably across all school districts through its Base Student Allocation formula. Each student generates a set amount of state funding, with adjustments for factors like special needs, district size, and geographic isolation. The federal government also sends Alaska over $100 million annually in “impact aid” – money meant to compensate certain school districts for lost property tax revenue from federal and Alaska Native lands that cannot be ta...

  • Borough budget accounts for potential cruise dock project

    Olivia Rose, KFSK Radio|Jun 5, 2025

    Petersburg's borough assembly passed its overall budget for the next fiscal year on June 2. But the option to allocate a million dollars from the harbor reserves for a potential cruise dock project caused friction for the final vote. The Petersburg Borough's general fund was nearly $400,000 in the red for the last fiscal year, but that's not the case this time. The borough's next budget is in the black, despite state and federal funding reductions and inflationary costs in all departments....

  • Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen says he won't seek reelection this fall

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|Jun 5, 2025

    Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen announced during Monday's borough assembly meeting that he will not run for reelection in October, ending what will be an 18-year tenure as an elected official in Petersburg. "I thought it was time to announce that I don't intend to run for mayor in October," Jensen said during the meeting. "That's four months from now. That gives people that are interested in the mayor's position [time] to put their name in." Jensen was first elected to the Petersburg City Council...

  • May brought record-breaking rain to Petersburg

    Taylor Heckart, KFSK Radio|Jun 5, 2025

    Petersburg, Ketchikan, Haines, and Skagway all received record amounts of rainfall in May. Across the panhandle, many communities saw double or triple the amount of rainfall they normally get during the month. Most communities also experienced colder-than-average temperatures. National Weather Service Meteorologist Zoe Kaplan said that this kind of weather is unusual in spring. "This whole event is pretty anomalous, because these are totals that we would normally see in the fall. But I guess...

  • Historic ship bell rings for first time in 117 years at Nolan Center

    Jonathon Dawe, Wrangell Sentinel|Jun 5, 2025

    A bell recovered from a Southeast Alaska shipwreck that claimed 112 lives more than a century ago rang Thursday, May 29, for the first time in 117 years, signaling its future role in a Wrangell maritime tradition. Jeanie Arnold, director of the Nolan Center, struck the bell at the close of a community presentation, marking a significant moment for the artifact. If the bell can be restored in time, it will be used to ring out names at the community's annual blessing of the fleet in 2026. The...

  • Wrangell's Alder Top subdivision development costs climb to $4.1 million

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Jun 5, 2025

    WRANGELL — The Wrangell Borough Assembly has approved a $2.296 million contract to construct gravel streets and install buried utility lines at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision near Shoemaker Bay, almost $400,000 more than the engineers estimate of $1.9 million. The contract with Petersburg-based Rock-N-Road Construction, which was the only bidder on the job, will push total development costs for the 20 residential lots to about $4.1 million, more than double what the borough hopes to recover from the land sale. The bor...

  • Petersburg Assembly urges Alaska Delegation to push for cleanup of abandoned Canadian mine

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|Jun 5, 2025

    The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a letter to Alaska’s congressional delegation urging cleanup of an abandoned mine that has been polluting a major salmon river for nearly seven decades. The Tulsequah Chief mine in British Columbia has discharged toxic wastewater into the headwaters of the Taku River since its abandonment in 1957, according to the letter signed by Mayor Mark Jensen on behalf of the assembly. “The Taku is a crucial ecological and economic resource for Southeast Alaska, not to mention its importance to loc...

  • Petersburg's Quilts of Valor: Nearly 140 handmade quilts have been gifted to local veterans since 2016

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|May 29, 2025

    The tables were decorated with the red, white and blue bouquets, the eggs Benedict were perfect, the hollandaise sauce homemade, and the mimosas were flowing at Kito's Kave last Sunday, as members of American Legion Edward Locken Post 14 served a special thank you brunch to their 16 specials guests – the local quilters responsible for the Quilts of Valor program who have spent nearly a decade making quilts for Petersburg's veterans. Since 2016, these volunteers have created nearly 140 h...

  • Assembly advances ordinance to limit senior sales tax exemption to low-income residents

    Orin Pierson, Pilot writer|May 29, 2025

    The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance last week that would limit Petersburg's sales tax exemption for seniors to only those with low incomes. Currently, all Petersburg residents aged 65 and older who have lived in the borough for at least one year qualify for sales tax exemption, regardless of income. According to the borough, there are 477 senior exemption cards currently issued. In 2024, senior tax exemptions applied to more than $7.4 million...

  • Alaska newspapers launch public notices website

    May 29, 2025

    The Alaska News Coalition, an all-volunteer group of newspaper publishers and supporters formed to address the economic challenges of news publishing, has launched a new website as a one-stop clearinghouse of public notices from across Alaska. The website has dual benefits: It will provide added value — at no charge — for government agencies and private individuals required to post public notices, while improving and expanding access to the notices for people wanting to learn about government meetings and actions. The site is now live at www...

Page Down

Rendered 06/19/2025 14:08