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The Petersburg High School music team stunned the crowd during Spring Music Fest this past weekend in Juneau. The music team was determined to perform at their best, from jazz bands to solo ensembles. In 2024, Petersburg’s concert band did not receive any “superiors,” the highest marks from the judges. They changed that this past weekend. “We were just focused, we were like ‘Let’s just try to get one,’ but our concert band got three and that’s a reflection on the amount of work they [seniors] put into it and the amount of care,” music di...
A constitutional convention along with candid discussions of difficult federal and state issues that have surfaced in recent months are scheduled during the three-day 90th annual Tribal Assembly by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska starting Wednesday. More than 120 delegates from 21 communities in Alaska, Washington and California are scheduled to gather at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall where they will also consider resolutions and elect some tribal positions. It will be the first constitutional convention by Tli...
A month after the Dunleavy administration put the Juneau Access Road back on the political map, the Alaska State Senate has clawed back $37 million in funds set aside in years past for the project as lawmakers try to scrap together enough funds to pass a balanced budget by next month. The Juneau Access funds are being redirected to the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities as part of the annual capital budget unanimously passed Tuesday by the Senate. Nearly all of the $2.9 billion budget consists of federal funds for...
Petersburg Indian Association Council President Carol Martinez portions out frozen Sitka herring eggs on branches into gallon bags for Petersburg's tribal citizens. A fisherman volunteer collected and provided these eggs for free distribution by PIA. Herring roe on branches is not something that can be bought or sold, so PIA appreciates those volunteers who help to gather the subsistence foods. In recent years, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Tribes purchased herring roe on kelp - which...
A middle-aged man was rescued from frigid waters near Petersburg on the night of April 7. Franz Schonberg was walking his dog near the ferry terminal after sunset when he heard someone yelling in the Wrangell Narrows, between Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands. Schonberg, a local volunteer firefighter, launched his skiff and went to investigate, searching the dark, fast-moving waters for the person calling out for help. Around the same time, local resident Dr. James Pizzadili was walking along the...
A Canadian environmental nonprofit group, long critical of the Red Chris Mine in the northern watershed of the Stikine River, has released a new report that cites increasing underground seepage of contaminants from the mine’s tailings pond. The report comes as British Columbia regulators are considering the mine operator’s application to expand ore recovery by changing to underground tunneling instead of open-pit surface mining. The gold and copper mine started operations in 2015 and sits about 50 miles east of the Stikine River community of...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has once again rejected a proposal to establish a police K9 unit, voting against the request by a 5-1 margin despite grassroots advocacy efforts and significant financial pledges. The proposal, which returned for reconsideration at Monday's assembly meeting after being initially rejected in February, failed to gain approval even with new funding commitments from the Petersburg Indian Association (PIA) and local businesses. Perspectives on the drug dog proposal...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously passed the first reading of Ordinance #2025-04 on April 7, moving forward the plans to establish a Marine Industrial Overlay (MIO) zone to preserve waterfront areas for maritime uses. The ordinance would create special zoning restrictions to ensure specific tidelands in the Port Dock and Scow Bay areas remain dedicated to commercial fishing and maritime operations. "Harbor board and staff has been working hard on this for over a year," Harbor Master...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to approve a resolution calling on state lawmakers to increase education funding and create a sustainable formula for Alaska's schools. Resolution #2025-07, which passed 6-0, urges the Alaska Legislature to "significantly increase the Base Student Allocation" and develop a long-term bipartisan solution for education funding beginning in fiscal year 2026. Assembly members cited the strain on local resources - the borough currently provides...
While the total number of cruise ship visits to Petersburg will decline this summer, local tourism experts say the quality of port calls should actually increase. "I think after looking at the schedule, the numbers of port calls are down, however, the quality of port calls are high," said James Valentine, co-owner of Viking Travel. Petersburg will welcome 87 cruise ship visits in 2025, down from 104 the previous year. However, Valentine notes that many of last year's visits came at times when to...
Southeast Alaska fishermen discovered Tuesday that harvest limits for Chinook salmon in 2025 will be almost 40 percent less than last year’s. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced an overall allocation of 130,800 treaty Chinook salmon — fish that didn’t originate in Alaska hatcheries — for all gear groups targeting Chinook in waters off Southeast Alaska and Yakutat in 2025. In recent years, Southeast Alaska’s all-gear allocation has ranged between a high of 355,600 treaty kings in 2016 down to 130,000 in 2018, Fish and Game reco...
The American Legion provided the first home for the Petersburg Public Library in 1931. Initially, it was a modest shelf of books donated by the community, managed by the American Legion Auxiliary in the Legion's building. This humble beginning eventually grew into the institution we know today. The collection was so small at first that some people even took out membership cards in the names of newborns to borrow more books. As time passed, the Alaska Territorial government and the City of...
WRANGELL - Without a real plan, Olivia Strano found herself in the right place at the right time. When she walked away from her work as a yacht stewardess and onto a Wrangell dock last summer, she felt she had found her home. "I've been searching for my place for 10 years, and Wrangell is everything I've been looking for," she said. While she was working a variety of jobs to make ends meet, she asked locals what was something that Wrangell needed but didn't have. Music, music venues and more...
The bell jingles as the door to Kinder Komfort opens, and a customer slips in with a hopeful smile. "Did you find it?" he asks Jenny Cisney, who lights up behind the counter. "I did!" she cheers, retrieving a copy of Code Names, a board game the customer had hoped to special order but couldn't quite remember the name of days earlier. Jenny had put together the clues and figured out the name, found the game and even had her visiting mother bring it from Washington with her luggage rather than... Full story
The Petersburg School District and its support personnel union reached a tentative three-year contract agreement in less than a day of negotiations, school officials announced Tuesday. The agreement includes a $2.50 per hour wage increase across the board in the first year, followed by 1.5% increases in each of the following two years, according to Finance Director Shannon Baird. Support staff will also receive a $500 matching contribution to a 403(b) retirement plan. This matches a similar...
Alaskans have until 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 31, to file for this year’s Permanent Fund dividend, whether they file online or mail a paper application to the PFD office. But if they mail the application, it absolutely positively must be postmarked by March 31. Anything dropped in the mail after that date will be rejected. Last year’s dividend was $1,702, though this year’s amount — which will be set by legislators during the budget-writing process this spring — likely will be at least several hundred dollars less. The state is facing a combine...
Total property values in Petersburg Borough increased by more than $30.7 million in the latest assessment cycle, representing roughly 4% growth from last year, with borough-wide assessments reaching $795.5 million, according to a recent report from the borough's assessors. The annual assessment, required by state law, indicates that "the overall market continues to grow despite the high cost of living and rising interest rates," wrote assessors Mike Renfro and Martins Onskulis of the Appraisal...
WRANGELL — Confronted with an engineering report that cited “concern for potential failure of the ramp,” Wrangell borough on Thursday evening, March 13, notified freight haulers that the municipally owned barge ramp downtown was closed, immediately. The borough made arrangements for the weekly freight barge to use the old sawmill dock at the Marine Service Center as a temporary unloading and loading site, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said Friday, March 14. “This should have happened some time ago,” he said of shutting down the 47-year-o...
A rustic Forest Service recreation cabin tucked away on Kupreanof Island will soon get a much-needed sanitation upgrade, according to U.S. Forest Service officials. The Tower's Arm Cabin, one of the Petersburg Ranger District's most remote sites, will have its dilapidated outhouse replaced during a three-day project in spring 2025, the agency announced this month. According to the decision memo, the cabin's existing outhouse is "dilapidated and unsanitary." The new outhouse will feature a...
Musician Seán Dagher will bring his interactive sea shanty performance to Petersburg next week, inviting locals to join in the maritime musical tradition that has experienced a surge of recent popularity. The performance will be "pretty participatory," Dagher told the Pilot it will be fun and easy to take part. "The shanties are like call and response songs, so I'll sing the call part, and people sing the responses," Dagher explained. Dagher's performance, being presented by the Petersburg... Full story
Members of the Alaska Legislature said this week that they’re likely to use the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve to fix a roughly $173 million budget deficit for the 12 months that end June 30. Lawmakers are confronting another, larger deficit as they craft the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, but it remains possible that some tax increases — on oil, business income and online sales — could offset the need to spend from savings for that year. When it comes to the current fiscal year, things are more certain. Passing new tax... Full story
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to impose a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks. Trump, who campaigned on bringing down consumer costs, said during an Oval Office signing event the additional tax on foreign goods would spur U.S. production. Asked if, like other tariffs Trump’s threatened, trade partners could do anything to avoid the fee on cars and trucks, Trump answered no. This tariff will remain in place until he leaves office, he said, and was meant to protect the U.S. industry. “I think our aut... Full story
The Alaska House of Representatives is asking the Trump administration and Canadian government to step back from a brewing trade war. In a 33-4 vote Monday, the House approved a resolution saying that state lawmakers oppose “restrictive trade measures or tolls that would harm the unique relationship between Canada and Alaska or negatively affect our integrated economies.” If approved by the Alaska Senate, the resolution would be sent to national officials in both the United States and Canada. Monday’s vote comes amid continued threats by the T... Full story
