Sorted by date Results 1076 - 1100 of 6836
During Monday evening's Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay gave a report on the progress of the Early Childhood Education Task Force. The task force, which was established in April and is chaired by Tremblay, is composed of 14 members broken up into three subgroups-Access and Brainstorming, Staff and Administrative Support, and Policy and Details. According to Tremblay's report, the Access and Brainstorming group has identified and discussed barriers for...
If you have been putting off making room in your freezer, now may be the time to do so. The RM038 moose hunting season opened last Thursday and will last until Oct. 15. The hunt encompasses Units 1B, 3, and a portion of 1C located south of Point Hobart. Areas include Kuiu, Kupreanof, Mitkof, and Wrangell Islands, the Stikine River, and Farragut Bay among others. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, a legal moose is defined as a bull moose with a spike or forked antler, or a...
Cindi Lagoudakis What is your age? 68 What experience do you have? I have served as Assembly Member and as Mayor, and am a current member of the Hospital Board. Why do you seek public office? I see being involved as a responsibility, and one that I enjoy. Do you support the construction of a new Petersburg Medical Center building? Yes, for multiple reasons. Having seen some of the building issues firsthand, I do support construction of a new hospital building. The staff have been making a good...
Sarah Pawuk Holmgrain What is your age? 51 What experience do you have? I have served on the school board since I was appointed and then elected in 2009. Why do you seek public office? I still have the time and energy to put into volunteering on this Board. How would you like to see the budget managed through the challenges the school district currently faces? Actually, I think the budget has been managed quit well for over a decade with fewer and fewer resources and funds. We have had...
Casey Knight What is your age? 36 What experience do you have? Three years on Harbor Board Why do you seek public office? To help maintain an affordable working waterfront in Petersburg What are your thoughts on the proposed improvements to the Papke's Landing Marine Facility? The State isn't going to do improve Papke's, so the Borough has to. But we must decide whether the Borough is in a position to take on the extra responsibilities involved in taking over the relevant land from ADOT and ADNR...
The Petersburg School Board unanimously approved a motion to reinstate funding for activities, curriculum, and professional development during Tuesday’s meeting. The action looks to increase funding by about $100,000 combined according to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter which would get funding for those items closer to the amount that the district spent on them last year. The board passed a conservative budget that saw reductions in multiple areas during its June meeting, seeking to account for a number of unknowns at that time. Those i...
The Petersburg Borough has offered Aaron Hankins the position of Fire/EMS/SAR Director according to Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. Hankins, a Petersburg resident, has volunteered with the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department since 2016 and has earned ETT, EMT-1, and EMS LT certifications. He beat out a field of six candidates who interviewed for the position, which has been vacant since former director Sandy Dixson retired at the end of June. Though Hankins has accepted the borough's offer,...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska residents will receive $3,284 as part of a combined payout that includes the annual dividend from the state’s oil-wealth fund and a special energy relief payment. The amount was announced during a livestream broadcast on Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Facebook page Thursday. Prior estimates indicated the combined payout would be around $3,200. There is a yearly application process and residency requirements to qualify for a dividend. Dividends traditionally have been paid using earnings from the Alaska Permanent Fund. Lawma...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved the second version of the conceptual plans for improvements to the Papke's Landing Marine Facility after a 5-1 vote during last week's meeting. The new conceptual plans are a revision of the plans released in March and increase the total project cost from $6.41 million to $9.22 million. The revision was crafted by Alan Murph from Harai & Associates with input from Assembly Members Dave Kensinger and Bob Lynn who took comments and suggestions submitted by...
Jeigh Stanton Gregor What is your age? 45 What experience do you have? I have 20 years of leadership experience. I was responsible for keeping groups of kids and adults safe year-round in the Montana wilderness. My leadership skills were also used to help strengthen program leadership teams. Currently, I've been on the assembly for 8.5 years, and we've addressed many issues during this time. Two recent issues come to mind that I'd like to highlight: I made an amendment to make community gym...
Bob Lynn What is your age? 76 What experience do you have? I've had 8 year's experience on the Petersburg Assembly. I have been fortunate to serve as Petersburg Assembly Board representative to Southeast Alaska Power Authority (SEAPA.) In that role I have served as Board Chair and voting member to replace submarine cable serving Petersburg. I have also served 6 years as the Assembly representative to the Hospital Board. Having been an EMT years ago has provided me much needed background to serve...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted on two resolutions seeking to allocate funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act during last week's meeting. Resolution #2022-12, allocating up to $27,000 for a digital fingerprint scanning system, was approved in a 5-1 vote with Assembly Member Thomas Fine-Walsh opposed. Resolution #2022-13, seeking to spend $62,641.50 of the funds on Axon vehicle camera systems for the Petersburg Police Department, failed in a 1-5 vote with only Mayor Mark Jensen...
Three years after adopting a pricing plan that adds a surcharge for passenger, vehicle and stateroom fares on popular sailings, the Alaska Marine Highway System has decided to suspend the program for its fall/winter schedule. The ferry system's "dynamic pricing" added 5% to 50% to ticket prices, depending on the percentage of a ship's capacity already booked - similar to airlines raising prices as flights fill up. The Alaska Department of Transportation announced the decision last Friday to...
New housing opportunities may be on the horizon following the Petersburg Borough Assembly's approval of Ordinance #2022-12 in its first reading Tuesday. The new ordinance, which received a 6-0 vote with Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor excused, is designed to allow tiny houses, detached accessory dwellings, and multiple buildings on a single lot-all within Service Area 1. Assembly Member Thomas Fine-Walsh, who brought the ordinance forward, summarized its three parts and said he believed the...
When Arsen Tatizian arrived in Petersburg earlier this year he did not think he would be staying in Alaska beyond the end of his contract with OBI-much less with his wife and his daughter at his side. The Ukrainian first stepped foot in Little Norway on February 6. It was his second year working for OBI, though he spent his first summer at their plants near Wood River and Larsen Bay. He was only here for two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. While he continued with work, his mind was on the... Full story
The Mitkof Mummers will be holding a casting call on Tuesday as they mount a return to the stage after over two years without a show. In most years the Mummers would hold a fall show and a spring show during Mayfest, but they have been unable to do so since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though there were some ideas of what could be done during the pandemic including radio plays, it was just too hard to put together, said Irene Littleton, the Mummer's director. But now that they are able...
Tom Laurent's EMS career began in the mid-70s when he was 16 and joined the Juneau Ski Patrol. He came from a ski-bum family and fit right in at the Eaglecrest Ski Area where his job was to take "people that injured themselves off the hill." Since then, he has spent a total of 46 years involved with EMS and 32 of those were dedicated to volunteering in Petersburg. Unfortunately, during that span volunteerism itself has been falling off, not just locally, but across the entire United States and...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously to pass Ordinance #2022-11 in its third and final reading during Tuesday’s meeting, allowing for increases to the purchasing authorization limits of borough officials. The ordinance now gives the borough manager the authority to set the spending limits for individual department heads. It also increases the borough manager’s purchasing authorization limit, allowing the borough manager to authorize purchases costing more than a department head’s limit but less than $75,000. Previously depar...
A complaint filed Tuesday to the Alaska Public Offices Commission accuses Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who is running for reelection, of engaging in a “scheme to subsidize and coordinate” the activities between his official campaign and an independent expenditure group working on his reelection, and scheming “to improperly subsidize his campaign with public resources.” The complaint asserts that Dunleavy’s campaign spent a “laughable” sum on staffing while key positions were filled on a “volunteer” basis by people paid tens of thousands of d...
A statewide coalition of fisheries and economic development organizations, led by the Southeast Conference, has won a $49 million federal grant to help build up Alaska’s mariculture industry. “This is a moon shot,” Robert Venables, executive director of the Southeast Conference, said of the challenges ahead and the potential rewards of growing the industry to raise and harvest shellfish and seaweed in larger commercial quantities. “It’s a big deal,” said Wrangell’s Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development F...
The Alaska Division of Elections on Friday certified the state’s Aug. 16 special general election for U.S. House, confirming Democrat Mary Peltola as the winner. Peltola will be sworn in as Alaska’s lone U.S. representative later this month after defeating Republican candidates Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III. Though elections officials are still compiling statistics from the vote, political advisers, pollers and independent observers say there are five early lessons from Alaska’s first ranked choice election: Ranked choice voting mostly worke...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is extending until Dec. 2 the timeline to decide whether to proceed with proposed restrictions that would block plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The agency, in a recent notice, said this would “help ensure full consideration of the extensive administrative record, including all public comments.” The public comment period ended Tuesday. EPA rules call for a decision on next steps within 30 days after public hearings though not before the end of a co...
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) — Alaska U.S. House candidate Sarah Palin called on fellow Republican Nick Begich to drop out of the race Monday, holding a news conference in the same place where on a holiday weekend more than a decade ago she announced plans to resign as Alaska’s governor. “He keeps calling me a quitter,” she told reporters, adding later: “And now he wants me, the one who is clearly the only true conservative in this race who can win, he wants me to quit! Now that’s the real joke. Sorry, Nick. I never retreat, I reload.” Monday was th...
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Thursday signed off on the approval from the agency’s independent vaccine advisers that recommended an updated coronavirus vaccine booster this fall. The CDC recommended boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for those who are 12 years old and older and from Moderna for those who are 18 and older. These are known as “bivalent” vaccines because they are formulated to protect against the original coronavirus strain as well as the omicron variant, which is highly contagious. “Updated COVID-19...
WRANGELL — Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free, 13-part fall lecture series covering a wide range of topics, including clan crests, lost Alaskans, historical trauma in Alaska Native peoples and whether the state should call a constitutional convention. The lectures will be held at noon Thursdays starting this week — with several additional sessions on Tuesdays — running through the end of the October. While the lectures will be in person at the Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau, the sessions will be livestreamed and p...
