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Petersburg District Ranger Carey Case announced at the Nov. 3 Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting that the Thomas Bay timber stewardship contract has been awarded. The Petersburg Pilot has confirmed that Alaska Timber and Truss, owned in partnership by Brett Martin and Mike Duman, was awarded the contract. The stewardship project represents a significant milestone for the local sawmill and the broader second-growth timber industry in Southeast Alaska. The contract encompasses 4.6 million board feet of timber spread across approximately 140 acre...
Around three years ago Petersburg's 100-year-old American Legion post, the Edward Locken Post 14, had dwindled to three members – Paul Anderson, Butch Anderson, and Stan Hjort. Paul Anderson carried a tremendous amount of the responsibility for the veteran community in Petersburg. When he died in Jan. 2023, a new generation of local veterans stepped up to carry the mantle. Petersburg resident Garrett Kravitz was just retiring from his career in the Navy. He, along with Tony and Tracy Vinson, l...
When SNAP benefits failed to arrive this month, Petersburg residents responded with an outpouring of coordinated support across multiple organizations and businesses. Jim Floyd CEO of Hammer & Wikan organized donation efforts, offering discounts to customers who contributed food and making monetary donations to support the purchase of perishables. Rocky's Marine also contributed cash toward the food drive. "This is about understanding there's a need and figuring out how we can meet it," Floyd...
A derelict, unmanned vessel is no longer drifting in the waters of the Wrangell Narrows. The Petersburg Borough's harbor department monitored the Valkyrie, a 34-foot fiberglass troller, for months as it drifted around a bay south of town. But Harbormaster Glorianne Wollen said it came too close for comfort in the town's Middle Harbor on Monday morning, after traveling a few miles overnight. "At that point, we decided we better address it," Wollen said. "It's just going to continue to be a... Full story
Scott Newman has returned to his seat at the dais as the seventh member of the Petersburg Borough Assembly. When voters in the October municipal election chose Bob Lynn as Petersburg's new mayor, the move opened up his seat on the borough assembly. Bob Martin and Jeff Meucci were sworn in last month as newly-elected assembly members. Their seats were previously filled by Newman and Donna Marsh. Marsh ran for reelection to the assembly this fall as the sole incumbent in the race for the two... Full story
Petersburg is feeling the impact of the federal government shutdown leaving families without their November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. But local organizations are responding quickly to ramp up food distribution efforts. "It's already hitting our community hard," said Veronica Ware, the Johnson O'Malley and Social Services Director at the Petersburg Indian Association. "I've already had calls from citizens in tears because they don't have any food and they don't have any...
Twelve Petersburg High School musicians traveled to Wrangell last week to participate in the Southeast Alaska Honor Music Festival. The students spent three intensive days rehearsing and performing alongside the region's top young musicians under the direction of guest conductors from Oregon and Southern California. The festival, held October 26-29, brings together students selected through a competitive audition process. Students record their auditions locally, which are then evaluated by...
When 16-year-old Jakob Preisler signed up for his international exchange program, he didn't expect to come to Alaska. "It was a really big surprise," Jakob said. "I choose USA, and then after a few weeks, I got the information: you go to Alaska." Since the early 1990s, Petersburg's Rotary Club has participated in international exchange programs. Each year, a student from Petersburg spends time in another country, and the community welcomes an international student for the school year. This... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted 6-0 last week to sell seven parcels of borough-owned land to Skylark Park LLC at half their appraised value. The reduced price reflects the project's public benefit purpose: creating at least 20 new residential lots in a community facing a dire housing shortage. The assembly authorized the sale of the lots for $55,500 - 50% of their $111,000 appraised value and well below their $188,300 assessed value. The sale includes Lots 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 in Block A of...
Two men arrested for scamming a Petersburg resident this summer have pleaded guilty to federal theft charges. One man has been released from jail and the other man awaits a sentencing hearing scheduled for November. On June 9, the FBI and Petersburg police arrested Shubaum Patel, 24, and Harshilkumar Patel, who was 22 at the time, as suspects connected to an elaborate phone scam that defrauded an elderly resident of over $100,000. The victim, who has asked not to be named, told investigators... Full story
After years of planning and development, Petersburg's Scow Bay Boat Haulout project is nearly ready for construction. PND Engineer Dick Somerville presented a progress report on the 65% design completion at a joint work session with harbor board, assembly and economic development officials on Wednesday morning. Somerville highlighted that all the necessary funding has been secured for the $15.07 million project, the permitting is in progress, and as long as the federal government eventually...
The final piece of funding is in place for replacement of the deteriorating breakwater system at Banana Point, with construction expected to begin next spring. The Petersburg Borough Assembly accepted a $78,000 contribution last week from the Petersburg Indian Association to close a gap between the project's existing budget and the lowest construction bid. The borough has issued a notice to award to bidders and plans to present a contract for assembly authorization at its next meeting,...
Jaime Cabral, Petersburg High School and Mitkof Middle School Assistant Principal and Activities Director, was named the 2026 Assistant Principal of the Year by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals (AASSP) at a ceremony in Anchorage last weekend. The recognition came while Cabral was already in Anchorage, in the middle of coaching his volleyball team at a tournament. Cabral's wife Heidi picked him up between games, drove him across town to accept the award, and rushed him back...
Though the federal government shutdown jeopardizes the program that subsidizes scheduled air service to more than 170 cities nationwide - including Wrangell and Petersburg - Alaska Airlines has said it will continue uninterrupted service to its contract communities in the state. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which manages the almost 50-year-old Essential Air Service program, had notified participating carriers that funding would run out on Oct. 12. But the department later sent out a...
Petersburg's municipal election received the highest number of ballots this year in over a decade. A total of 1,280 ballots were cast and canvassed, including one outstanding ballot. It was the highest turnout since Petersburg voted to become a borough in December 2012, which saw just over a hundred more ballots than this year. There were a couple of contested races for local office this year, namely for mayor and for Petersburg's Borough Assembly. It was Bob Martin's first time running for an a...
The engine of a small plane failed on Oct. 7 near Petersburg with two occupants on board. The pilot emergency landed on a remote road on northern Kupreanof Island. But the plane - a Cessna 172 wheeled general aircraft, with small tires - hit a rock when landing and flipped over in the muskeg; both occupants were able to get out and walk away uninjured. That's according to two people from Petersburg's volunteer fire department, the pilot from Petersburg who picked them up from Kupreanof, and...
Construction is underway on an open-sided equipment storage shed adjacent to the Petersburg harbormaster's office, a project designed to protect the harbor's maintenance equipment from winter weather. The steel structure, being built on an existing timber dock at the intersection of Excel Street and Harbor Way, features a 10-foot interior clearance that slopes to 13 feet. The roof-only design, with open sides, will shelter harbor equipment including a telehandler, four-wheelers for snowplowing,...
This Saturday, the Petersburg Public Library is hosting the opening reception for TalisWoman, this year’s iteration of Petersburg’s long-running Women’s Art Show. While the library regularly features art displays and maintains a permanent art collection, hosting a curated exhibition complete with an opening reception is a rare occasion. The last time the library hosted a curated art show was the touring exhibition “Decolonizing Alaska” back in 2018, which spanned the library and the Clausen M...
"I wanted to do something different, challenge myself as a director and challenge the students," says Elsa Wintersteen, director of Petersburg High School's drama program. "Doing something scary... that can actually evoke feelings of discomfort in people is a really hard thing to do." For this fall's production of Dracula, that challenge includes scaring the hometown audience, then, next summer, taking their show on the road to the largest theater festival in the world - Edinburgh Scotland's Fri...
Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Abby Posner will perform in Petersburg on Saturday, Oct. 18 and will lead a morning workshop on music theory and songwriting. Posner, who won the 28th Annual USA Songwriting Contest in 2023, is making a special stop in Petersburg during a weeklong Alaska tour centered around Parlor in the Round, an Anchorage-based songwriter showcase. Though Petersburg is not hosting the full Parlor event this year, the Petersburg Arts Council made special...
Bob Lynn decisively won Petersburg's mayoral race in the October 7 municipal election, defeating fellow assembly member Scott Newman 807 to 443 votes, while Proposition 1 - limiting the senior sales tax exemption to only low-income seniors - squeaked by with a nine-vote margin. The unofficial results showed strong voter participation, with a record-breaking number of early and absentee ballots cast before election day (647) and the highest local voter turnout (1279) since the borough formation...
During Monday's meeting, the Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a $768,330 design-build contract, for the Scow Bay standby diesel generator project, marking the next step forward on a voter-approved bond-supported capital project that has been in development for more than four years. The contract, awarded to Dawson Construction LLC of Juneau, covers engineering design, heavy equipment moving tasks and project commissioning for the new generator facility. "It is important to note that the...
Petersburg’s borough assembly is taking up U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan’s offer to talk about H.R. 1, also called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). H.R. 1 is a wide-ranging spending and tax bill that was signed into law in July. The bill includes much of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, including changes to Medicaid, tax cuts, and phasing out clean energy tax incentives. In Alaska, the bill directs more oil and gas leases in Southcentral’s Cook Inlet, and offers tax cuts for whaling captains. Many impacts of the bill in Alaska...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly heard from Tidal Network representatives during Monday's assembly meeting, as the organization's proposed communication tower has raised some concerns in the community. On September 2, the assembly voted unanimously to proceed with direct negotiations for the sale of a small piece of borough-owned land, 10,040 square feet of adjacent to the fire hall, to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska for its broadband enterprise, Tidal...
In the main bay of the former Wikan Enterprises building, Mike Corl fabricates a new fuel tank for a customer's Bayliner. On the other side of the wall, in what will soon be a retail space and front office, 19-month-old Charlotte hums happily on a rug, playing with a plastic T-rex. Her mother Ashley keeps an eye on her from her big desk where she is working on the launch of Corls Customs LLC. This is what family business looks like for the Corls, who purchased the Dock Street property last...
