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Leaders of Petersburg's Native community were on hand as the specially crafted box transporting the baby Tlingit girl's remains was unloaded from the Alaska Airlines jet and a procession followed it off the tarmac at Petersburg's James A. Johnson Airport on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. Petersburg's Séet Ká Kwáan Dancers sang during the welcome ceremony. Dozens of community members gathered at the airport to bear witness to the historic return of the repatriated remains. Stephanie Aikins of Pe...
Until now there have been no uniform borough road standards beyond the old Petersburg city limits, but on Tuesday the Petersburg Borough adopted its first road-construction standards for public roads and subdivisions outside Service Area One. The Borough Assembly unanimously approved Resolution 2026-23 on Sept. 8. It adopts the 2026 Petersburg Borough Standard Specifications, replacing the City of Petersburg’s 2012 specifications, and for the first time sets minimum road standards for public road improvements and subdivisions outside Service A...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Sept. 8 formally accepted nearly $8.9 million in federal grant funding for a new small-vessel haul-out at Scow Bay, clearing another hurdle before the long-planned project goes out to bid hopefully by the end of this month. Assembly members voted unanimously to approve Resolution 2026-26, accepting an $8,880,791 BUILD grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. The resolution authorizes Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht to countersign and accept the grant agreement once the federal...
The Mitkof Mummers are back with another fall show in the works — and they are looking for townspeople to help fill out the cast of a fall comedy in which a giant egg walks into a police station insisting he was pushed. The community theater group gathered for a casting call and first read-through last week to launch their fall production: “Hard Boiled: A Nursery Crime,” a one-act children’s comedy by Tracey Wells, published by Pioneer Drama Service. As is tradition for the Mummers’ fall shows, it’s geared toward young audiences. The play is pu...
September 2 – There was a post-event report of a bear attempting to access garbage on Skylark Way. An officer was unable to substantiate a reported dangerous driver at South Nordic Drive and Dock Street. An officer responded to a report of an aggressive dog on Birch Street and spoke with its owner. An older, orange colored mountain bike was reported stolen from the North Harbor. An officer provided a courtesy transport. A complainant reported sewage backing up from the main lines into their residence. Water Wastewater (WWW) was notified and r...
Delays at Petersburg's only post office have been a common occurrence in recent weeks. The post office had been limiting its front desk operations to four and a half hours per day. Petersburg has no mail delivery service, so at times the wait for packages stretched through the building and out the door. Now, those hours are nearly back to normal. The post office is now open 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., with a lunch break from 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. In an email, U.S. Postal Service spokesperson James Box... Full story
A retrospective of paintings, carvings and jewelry by Petersburg artist Karen Cornelius closed at the Petersburg Public Library on Tuesday, Sept. 1, and on its last day the artist walked through the exhibition with the Pilot, reflecting on her lifetime of art making. Cornelius kept returning to one idea: that she makes art to get people to look harder at the world around them. "I am so in love with colors and nature and the creation that we have," she said. She wants viewers to "look more...
On 10-year-old Carmela Ford's first day of work selling the local newspaper, she left the Pilot with 25 hot-off-the-press newspapers, walked across the street to Lee's clothing, entered the store with her bag of papers and the sight of her thrilled Heidi Lee. Lee, who was a newspaper girl in 1969, said, "I loved seeing Carmella come into the store with her newspaper bag and her bright smile asking, 'want to buy a paper?' I remember the courage it took to do that when I was ten." In fact,...
The Rainforest Festival returns to Petersburg Sept. 10-13 for its 19th year, with a lineup organized around island biogeography — the study of how wildlife reaches, adapts to and lives on island systems like the ones that define Southeast Alaska. “We have this really unique system of islands that we live on in Southeast Alaska,” festival volunteer Sunny Rice said. She pointed to the Coast Range walling the region off from the rest of the continent, and to the rivers that thread the mainland to the islands — “big rivers … that serve as corridor...
Petersburg homeowners who are tribal citizens may be able to get help paying their mortgage, property taxes, home insurance or utility bills through a federal program that closes at the end of September — but completed applications are due Wednesday, Sept. 10. The Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority is working to fully spend the money remaining in its Homeowner Assistance Fund, a U.S. Treasury program THRHA has run across Southeast Alaska since 2023. Petersburg is one of 13 eligible communities, along with Angoon, Craig, Douglas, J...
Six candidates filed to run for three Borough Assembly seats before Tuesday's filing deadline. Incumbent Jeigh Stanton Gregor filed for reelection, while incumbent Rob Schwartz opted not to run again. Two of the three Assembly seats carry three-year terms, and four candidates are running for them: Stanton Gregor, Sarah Fine-Walsh, Donna Marsh and Tom Kowalske. The third seat is a one-year term and drew two candidates, appointed incumbent Scott Newman and Don Koenigs. Every other board on this...
Petersburg Medical Center is testing a different way to pay for a trip to the doctor: a flat monthly fee, no copays, and as many primary care visits as a patient needs. The hospital has gone live with a direct primary care plan - a subscription model CEO Phil Hofstetter described to the borough assembly this month as a way to make routine care more affordable and to reach residents who are uninsured, underinsured or carrying high deductibles. "It's a subscription-based primary care model, and...
For the third year in a row, free breakfast and lunch will be available to all Petersburg School District students. Superintendent Robyn Taylor said free meals take financial burdens off families, and she sees educational and behavioral benefits that come with making sure students are fed. "It's not uncommon to see disruptive behavior or inattention, and when you're working with that student or that family, to really find out that they're struggling," she said, "A lot of the lack of ability to... Full story
Petersburg's Community Aquatic Center reopened its pools this week after being closed since mid-May for a sewer-line repair beneath the facility's concrete floors. However, while contractors finish up the job and reconcrete the locker room floors, swimmers will need to adjust to reduced capacity and altered access, announced Parks and Recreation Director Stephanie Payne. The leisure and wellness pool and the lap pool have reopened as of Tuesday morning on Aug. 18. The sauna and the second-floor...
A Petersburg man is pleading not guilty to two felony drug charges after police said they found methamphetamine and fentanyl in his car. According to police reports, Alaska Wildlife Trooper Cody Litster conducted a traffic stop on 32-year-old Cory Drew Wilson on August 5. After smelling alcohol, Litster asked Wilson to step out of the car, and a small ziploc fell onto the ground. Local police officers also responded and said the contents in the bag tested positive for 5.5 grams of meth. Police said Wilson told them he had two guns behind his... Full story
The votes are adding up for Alaska’s primary election, which happened Aug. 18. Poll workers say Petersburg had strong voter participation in this year’s primary. In the Petersburg-Kupreanof precinct, 555 voters cast ballots in-person on Tuesday by the time the polls closed. That turnout was higher than the previous primary held in 2024, which officially saw 393 ballots from Petersburg. Not including early or absentee ballots, the unofficial local primary results from votes cast on Tuesday are as follows: For U.S. Senate, Petersburg voters fav... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, voted unanimously Monday night to grant in part an appeal by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and order the borough Planning Commission to take a formal vote on the tribe’s subdivision application at 1200 Haugen Drive. The CCTHITA, doing business as Tidal Network, had appealed the Planning Commission’s inaction at its July 14 meeting, when a motion by Commissioner Floyd to approve the minor subdivision died for lack of a second. Because no...
Construction on a new set of breakwaters at Banana Point wrapped up on Aug. 7. Petersburg Public Works Director Aaron Marohl said the project will improve safety at the boat launch, which is about 25 miles south of town. "This will create a safer boat ramp for both the water taxis and our sporting teams that go back and forth between here and Wrangell," he said. Banana Point is an important transportation hub between Petersburg and other communities. The boat launch was originally built by the s...
The remains of an infant girl who was taken from a Thomas Bay cave nearly a century ago are coming home to Petersburg next month for burial. Stephanie Aikins, who is coordinating the project for the Petersburg Indian Association, said the infant — known to those working on her return only as “Baby Girl” — will arrive on the morning jet Friday, Sept. 4. A welcoming ceremony of singers and dancers is planned on the tarmac as she is unloaded. “She will be back on her land for the first time in almost 100 years,” Aikins said. For Aikins, this repat...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly last Monday passed the second reading of an ordinance establishing a new Thomas Bay Service Area, building the legal and financial framework the borough says it will need as it prepares to sell off state-platted land it acquired three years ago. Ordinance 2026-17 creates the service area and adds a new chapter to borough code defining its boundaries, the services it may provide, and how those services could be paid for. But according to a memorandum from Community Development Director Liz Cabrera, adoption “does...
For a third straight summer, Katie Holmlund - the youth program coordinator behind Petersburg Medical Center's Kinder Skog outdoor program - led a group of local teenagers on a sea-kayak expedition down the south end of Mitkof Island, roughly 50 kilometers over 10 days in collaboration with the guiding outfit Onward and Upward. Eight students and five instructors launched from Banana Point, worked their way out to Woewodski Island, and backtracked home. By the last few days, the adults were most...
Petersburg's St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church caught fire and burned to the ground in July 2023. It was a devastating blow to Petersburg's Catholic community, which spent three years without their own church. Father Thomas Jose was in his first year in Petersburg when the church burned down. He said other faith communities propped the church up in its darkest days - like Petersburg's First Presbyterian Church, where St. Catherine of Siena held mass as they sorted out the construction of a... Full story
Shannon Baird, finance director for the Petersburg School District, has been named a recipient of ASBO International's 2026 Emerging Leaders Scholarship Award, an honor that comes with a $2,000 travel reimbursement grant and free registration to the national organization's annual conference this fall. Baird said she was one of 17 recipients selected nationwide this year. The award recognizes newer professionals in school business and accounting, and winners take part in their own reception and...
Independent U.S. House candidate Bill Hill brought his campaign to Petersburg last week, fielding questions at a Q&A session hosted at the Harbor Bar and later sitting down with the Petersburg Pilot to make his case for unseating first-term Republican Rep. Nick Begich III. Hill, a lifelong Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and retired school superintendent from Naknek, is running as an independent in a race he now frames as effectively two-way, after Democrat Matt Schultz ended his campaign and...
Petersburg's Medical Center recently had their biggest Pedal/Paddle Battle event yet with officially $25,135 raised a new all time high for the 12th annual event. This year's event saw over $2500 raised by champion sponsors, over $1000 raised by partner sponsors, over $500 raised by supporter sponsors and $18500 raised by corporate sponsors. "We have been successful in getting more corporate sponsors for the event each year," Community Wellness and Public Relations Manager Julie Walker said....
