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WRANGELL - It's not uncommon for high school students to learn a second language. It's a bit rarer for them to take what they've learned and teach it to others. That's exactly what sophomore Mia Wiederspohn has been doing the past two years with the Lingít language and by extension the culture. As a freshman, Wiederspohn, 15, began learning Lingít from Virginia Oliver, who teaches the language at the high school and elementary school. Oliver took an applied learning approach to the lessons s...
Following a successful bid opening, the South Harbor dredge project is gearing up toward an October start date according to Harbormaster Glo Wollen. South Harbor, which was completed by the state in 1984, has faced problems with the bottom of the harbor rising and boats going dry in stalls during certain stages of the tide, making them unusable. Wollen said that since it was completed "we've had issues of the glacial rebound occurring and also with earthquakes and different things we've noticed...
The Petersburg School District has made a contract offer to a new secondary school principal which was approved by the school board during Tuesday's meeting. According to Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter, the district's hiring committee interviewed several candidates for the position in a shorter "streamlined" hiring process and has offered the position to Ambler Moss for the upcoming school year. Kludt-Painter said Moss brings with him over 25 years of experience in education and reported tha...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted in a close 4-3 vote in favor of the borough's proposed FY23 budget in its first reading during the assembly's May 2 meeting. Before the meeting, the assembly held a work session where Finance Director Jody Tow gave a presentation reviewing the budget and department heads spoke on upcoming expenditures. Tow reported that "costs have increased dramatically" throughout the borough, impacting the upcoming year's budget. New contracts with the Petersburg...
WRANGELL - Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will not open its Wrangell processing plant this summer, the third year in a row the operation has been closed. As in the past two years, the company cited weak chum salmon returns for its decision not to run the plant. Company officials did not return calls to the Sentinel last Friday or Monday. News of the plant closure was presented in Wrangell Borough Manager Jeff Good's report for Tuesday's assembly meeting: "They have notified us that they do not...
Petersburg Pilot reporter Chris Basinger won a second-place award for Best Public Safety Reporting of 2021 in the Alaska Press Club awards which were announced last month. His former boss Ron Loesch won a third-place award for Best Editorial or Commentary. Basinger's story "Perfect Storm," appeared in the December 23 edition and reported a record snowfall, power outage and broken water main that took place on a single day in Petersburg. An editorial written by Ron Loesch that appeared in the...
As part of the Working Against Violence for Everyone (WAVE) anniversary celebration at the end of last month there was an anonymous art show at the Clausen Museum. This allowed artists to remain unknown, if they preferred, and gave survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence the opportunity to share powerful personal details, if they wanted, alongside their work. At the encouragement of a WAVE staff member, Karin Bagley submitted three pieces: A Step In The Right Direction, Eye Will...
WRANGELL — Anyone who wants to get a pizza midweek at the Marine Bar or a steak or burger at the Elks Lodge knows that worker shortages have forced employers to reduce their days and cut back on offerings. “This worker shortage is real, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor, told legislators last month. “For nine years in a row, more people have left the state than have come here,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. The population has been stable as births have outpaced de...
WRANGELL — A pair of mobile towers on wheels that were anticipated to arrive this month in Wrangell for a pilot broadband network have been delayed until around September. Chris Cropley, network architect at Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, said delivery is 16 to 18 weeks out. One of the components for the towers got “kicked out” of the global supply chain, Cropley said May 4. The delayed order which Cropley placed in early February for the two mobile cell towers on wheels come from Pierson Wireless in Omaha, Ne...
Unless the Legislature acts, Alaska nonprofits will have to stop selling raffle tickets online June 30. The state has allowed online sales by registered nonprofits since early summer 2020, as the pandemic shut down or made difficult group events and in-person ticket sales. Temporary legislation allowing charitable groups to sell and draw winning tickets online expires in less than two months, though a bill under consideration would make the provision permanent. The legislation “will modernize Alaska’s charitable gaming program,” Deb Moore, exec...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted to write a letter opposing proposed legislation that would transfer federal land to new urban corporations formed by five Alaska Native communities in Southeast under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act during Monday's meeting. The decision came after Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested a hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act. The bill aims...
Two Sandy Beach Road properties owned by the Petersburg Borough were sold in a public outcry auction at the start of Monday's assembly meeting. Inside the packed assembly chambers, 700 and 1015 Sandy Beach Road were sold in two separate auctions for a combined $407,500, which was $162,000 more than the combined assessed value of the properties. The auction for the 84,942-square-foot property at 700 Sandy Beach was held first. It had an assessed value of $76,900 and the minimum bid to start the...
Ballots for the special primary election were mailed to Alaska voters starting on April 27, beginning the process to fill the late Rep. Don Young's seat for the remainder of the current term. The top four vote getters in the special primary, regardless of their political party affiliations, will move on to the special general election in August which will be the first statewide election that will used ranked choice voting since it was approved by voters in 2020. Jason Grenn, the executive...
Petersburg Medical Center staff are continuing to adjust to the new electronic medical record implemented by Cerner last December and are now seeing some of the advantages the new system has to offer. Kirsten Testoni, the home health manager, said nurses are able to use the system on their tablets when they go out to see patients, allowing for easier access to information. "It's happening in real time as opposed to having to come back, log into the computer, and that kind of thing," Testoni... Full story
When Kate Thompson was small, her father Harold made a perch in the wheelhouse of the St. Lazaria, so she could be atop the console, see out the window and keep him company as he steered. But once she was big enough, she put down her toy radio and began working on boats herself. During the recent Sitka sac roe herring fishery, Thompson, now 15, worked as a deckhand on the St. Lazaria. It was technically her seventeenth season doing herring, if you count the one she spent aboard the St. Lazeria w... Full story
A husband and wife have come back to spend their summer taking care of the Five Finger Lighthouse. John and Pat Jans maintain a "home base" or "nest" high in the mountains of Colorado, but Southeast also takes up special space in their hearts. "We've been here before, so it actually feels like a homecoming," Pat says. "It's really wonderful to be back home. It's very dear to us." When they were the lighthouse keepers in 2017, one of the first things John did upon arrival was figure out how much...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska lawmakers are considering a request by Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration that the state take over part of a federal environmental permitting program, though some members of the Senate's budget-writing committee have expressed concerns with the potential costs. Administration officials have said the idea behind the proposal is to speed the construction of roads, bridges, mines and drilling projects, the Anchorage Daily News reported. While the state would have to follow federal standards, critics of the proposal sa...
A couple days leading up to the event, Cindy Rodgers began saying, with a hint of concern, "It looks like it may rain Saturday." And she was right, rain it did, but no matter what the weather was doing, Rodgers was going to walk the Circle of Life. Rodgers, 75 and celebrating a birthday soon, moved to Petersburg a decade ago to be closer to her brother, Jim, and sister-in-law, Pia Reilly. Rodgers does tai chi, likes to drink red wine-but only if she has someone to drink with-and she loves...
Petersburg High School and Mitkof Middle School Principal Rick Dormer announced that he will be leaving at the end of the school year to become the principal at Ketchikan High School after 13 years in Petersburg. Dormer said that he has been looking at other opportunities for a couple of years and that now feels like the right time for a change as the district comes out of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, believing that a leadership change would be healthy for the district. "It's n...
Two Petersburg residents have pleaded guilty to providing false information with the intent of implicating another in an offense after accusing a Petersburg Police Department officer of sexual misconduct in 2020. Julie Ruhle and James Vick claimed that Officer Louis Waechter touched Ruhle, who was under arrest on charges of driving under the influence, inappropriately as she climbed into the back seat of a police car on Sept. 28, 2020. According to the court complaint, body cam footage of the... Full story
Global supply chain shortages and delays have extended past grocery stores, car dealers and electronics to the Alaska Marine Highway System. The state ferry Kennicott was delayed coming out of winter overhaul. Instead of returning to service last week, as had been scheduled, the ship left Ketchikan on Tuesday for a two-week trip to Juneau, Yakutat and then into the Gulf of Alaska before sailing into Bellingham, Washington, to fully start its summer runs. The Kennicott's scheduled return to servi...
The Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs Task Force (SEACAD) conducted an operation during the week of April 17 which saw an estimated $177,400 worth of illegal narcotics seized in Petersburg according to Petersburg Police Chief James Kerr. The narcotics seized by SEACAD include crack cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and others. The SEACAD Task Force is a collaboration between the police departments in Southeast, the Alaska State Troopers, and federal law enforcement agencies which...
Alaskans for Better Elections will hold a presentation on Alaska’s new ranked choice voting system in the Petersburg Borough Assembly chambers on Thursday at 6 p.m. and via Zoom as the special election to fill the late Rep. Don Young’s seat approaches. Jason Grenn, the executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, will discuss how the system works as well as the differences between the primary and general elections. Grenn will also host a public Q&A at Salty Pantry from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Friday to answer additional que...
A petition filed in the Alaska Supreme Court last month seeking the return of a superior court judgeship to Wrangell and Petersburg was denied by the court last week. The petition argued that the Alaska Legislature created the superior court judgeship to serve the communities of Wrangell, Petersburg, and Kake but that it was improperly moved to Ketchikan after it was labeled as a position in the Ketchikan superior court by the Alaska Judicial Council. The application named attorney Fred Triem...
