Sorted by date Results 25 - 49 of 6019
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....
A long-delayed project to replace Petersburg's downtown streetlights is finally underway, with the first new poles installed last week and the rest expected to go up over the coming weeks, Utility Director Stephan Harbour told the assembly Monday. The borough is installing 13 new LED poles downtown and purchased two more as spares for accident replacements - 15 in all - at a cost of about $138,000. Two were already standing as of Monday, one in front of the federal building and one across the st...
Mitkof Island, like much of Alaska, is home to black and brown bears. Living in bear country, securing trash is a vital management procedure in the fall. This was seen last year, when, due to bears entering town and going through trash cans, several were killed by local law enforcement. Petersburg has time now to prepare for the fall season. Wildlife Biologist at Fish and Game Frank Robbins stresses that keeping trash secured is the most important thing for residents to manage the bears coming to town this year. “The solution is not p...
Tausani Ieremia, of Sitka, was setting the net aboard the Petersburg seiner Odin on the morning of Sunday, July 26, when the boat's own purse line snared his ankle and dragged him over the stern and into the water near Saint Joseph Island, west of Prince of Wales. In the minutes that followed, the 22-year-old fisherman was pulled under by the net, lost consciousness and stopped breathing. The Odin's crew pulled him back, revived him with CPR. He was helicoptered by the Coast Guard to Sitka then... Full story
A citizen initiative that would exempt Petersburg residents 70 and older from borough sales tax will go before voters Oct. 6. In the local election last fall, Petersburg voters chose to eliminate the senior sales tax exemption that applied to all qualified residents over 65 and replace it with an income-based senior sales tax exemption. Petersburg residents will now be asked to restore the sales tax exemption for all seniors, regardless of income, with the minimum age increased to 70 years old....
After nine months of public meetings and hours of public testimony, the Petersburg Borough Assembly adopted its wireless communication facilities ordinance last Monday. Ordinance 2026-14 passed its third and final reading. Mayor Bob Lynn and Assembly Members Jeff Meucci, Bob Martin and Scott Newman voted for it. Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor and Assembly Members Rob Schwartz and James Valentine were excused from the meeting. The ordinance creates a new chapter of borough code governing wireless communication facilities and other towers and...
Alaska Airlines will add four more converted Boeing 737-800 freighters to its fleet, raising to nine the number of all-cargo aircraft the company operates. The additional freighters will be dedicated to serving Alaska and Hawai'i, not any specific route, Tim Thompson, the company's director of public relations, said in an email July 22. Alaska operates a weekly cargo flight into Petersburg on Wednesdays, using a Boeing 737-700, which is slightly smaller than the 800 series but capable of...
Tidal Network’s application for a minor subdivision at 1200 Haugen Drive, near the Fire Hall, was halted at last week’s Petersburg Planning Commission meeting on July 14 when no commissioner seconded the motion to consider the application. Last month, the Petersburg Borough Assembly approved the sale of the land — a 10,036-square-foot lot carved out of a much larger borough-owned property next to the fire hall, where Tidal Network plans to build a communication tower. The contract was signe...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously Monday to authorize the borough manager to apply for and execute two state revolving fund loans, each of up to $150,000, to pay for a pair of wastewater studies the borough is required to complete under its federal discharge permit by Nov. 1. Both loans would come through the Alaska Clean Water Fund. The first would fund a wastewater disinfection study to evaluate disinfection alternatives, develop preliminary engineering recommendations and identify improvements needed to meet current and futur...
