Sorted by date Results 3032 - 3056 of 5678
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department responded to a vehicle fire at 503 Ira II St. at 2:40 a.m. on August 18. Fire personnel cut the hood off the vehicle to gain access to the fire, which started under the vehicle, not inside it. Dave Berg with the PVFD said the fire is suspicious in nature and is under investigation. According to the police, the vehicle is owned by Randal K. Long who is currently in jail awaiting trial on Federal Drug Charges....
WRANGELL - Wrangell emergency responders took part in a search for a missing canoer on the Stikine River earlier this month. Fire Chief Tim Buness reported a call had been received for assistance at around 5 p.m. on August 3. "We had a couple of canoers canoing by the Great Glacier," he said, on the Canadian side of the river about 10 miles from the border. The craft had turned over in the fast-moving water at around 3 p.m., spilling two men into the river. "One of the guys made it up to the...
District Governor Harry Kieling visited the Petersburg Rotary Club this week and commended the club for its work in the community and at the international level. "You are doing a great job with Youth Exchange and all the civic projects that make your community better," Kieling told the club at its Wednesday luncheon meeting. The Petersburg Club sends local students to the Rotary Youth Leadership program, hosts inbound and outbound students, provides high school student scholarships and...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Hundreds of Pacific walruses came ashore to a barrier island on Alaska’s northwest coast, the earliest appearance of the animals in a phenomenon tied to climate warming and diminished Arctic Ocean sea ice. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that several hundred walruses were spotted during the first week of August near the village of Point Lay on the Chukchi Sea. Last week, the number had grown to 2,000, said spokeswoman Andrea Medeiros in an email response to questions. It’s the earliest date for t...
WRANGELL - Project heads for a contaminated site reclamation met with townspeople Monday evening to address concerns with a proposed monofill. The monofill – a landfill meant for only one substance, in this case treated, lead-contaminated soil – would be the second phase of the Byford junkyard cleanup, an operation which was undertaken last year by Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Environmental Protection Agency and various contractors. In use as a private landfill and junkyard s...
WRANGELL — One of Wrangell’s two seafood processors has drawn down production early for the season due to lower than expected returns this summer. Updated twice daily, on Tuesday the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Blue Sheet reported just over 143 million salmon have been harvested statewide, though numbers were not available for the Bristol Bay, Kuskokwim and Aleutian Islands districts. Seventy-four percent of these are pink salmon, with over 106 million already reported in. Coming off of last year’s season – declared a “disaster...
A Petersburg woman who owns a retail marijuana shop appears to be in the early stages of expanding her operation into a growing facility as well. Susan J. Burrell, owner of The 420, a cannabis shop located behind The Fisherman's Net Cafe, has officially applied for three marijuana licenses, according to the Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office. The applications focus on growing marijuana near or above her shops on North Nordic Drive. Burrell is applying for a Standard Marijuana Cultivation...
WRANGELL - A Wrangellite had a unique opportunity to take part in some Alaskan history this year, while revisiting her own family history in the process. Johanna Joseph and her sister, Ann Conatser a Walla Walla resident, were invited by the Ounalashka Corporation to attend an event in Unalaska commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Dutch Harbor. The town had been the birthplace of their mother, Theadosia Stepitan Nauska, known as Fanny to friends and family. The battle itself was...
WRANGELL – Public Works changed its summertime water management conservation level back to normal last week, ending a month of minor restrictions. Up until last Friday, users of Wrangell’s water utility have been advised to use less water starting in mid-July, when the city entered the first of a three-stage response status. Better water management has been a key issue with the city this year, with an emergency response plan formally adopted in April. Last summer demand outpaced the water treatment plant’s ability to supply, prompting the b...
Women, 29 years old and under, with limited or no access to health care can get exams and reproductive health services on a sliding scale at the Petersburg Public Health Center’s Women’s Health Clinic August 28-30. The clinic will offer exams and reproductive health services, as well as STD testing. All services will be provided by a nurse practitioner with Public Health Nursing, the Alaska Division of Public Health. Appointments are required. No one will be refused service if unable to pay. Screenings for chlamydia and gonorrhea, as well as...
State representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins will be here Fri. August 25, holding public office hours from 9-10 am at the Salty Pantry and 10-11 am at Java Hus. No appointment necessary, just stop on by. If you have any questions or can’t make it to office hours, email rep.jonathan.kreiss-tomkins@akleg.gov or call the Representative’s office at 747-4665....
Grace Wolf unveiled paintings full of colorful starfish, sea urchins, jellyfish and more at Miele Gallery & Framing last Friday evening. "I always thought I couldn't be a real artist," Wolf said. "And, well, now I am." Her depictions of sea creatures and kayaks include the same seven colors in every painting, she said. It often takes Wolf 18 hours of painting before she can ensure it is finished and bright enough. "I paint in rainbows, I know," she said. "But everything in here goes...
Cindi Lagoudakis, the interim mayor of Petersburg, has decided to run for the permanent seat in October, retracing strong indications that she wouldn't. "A number of people had asked me to reconsider," Lagoudakis said. "And after giving it some hard thought, in the end I decided to run." Debbie Thompson, the Borough clerk, confirmed last week that Lagoudakis filed for candidacy. Before becoming interim mayor, Lagoudakis spent time on the Assembly, where her experience was rewarding, she said....
A Petersburg man was released from custody on $50,000 bond last week while facing 6 charges of murder, manslaughter and assault. William Christopher Allen is on house arrest and awaiting a murder trial that is scheduled for November 13, but will likely be pushed to next year. He paid $25,000 in cash bond last week and will have to pay another $25,000 if he violates the conditions of release. Allen is charged with two second-degree murder counts, two manslaughter counts, one count of assault and one count of unsworn falsification in the second d...
Karl Hagerman, the Petersburg Power & Light interim supervisor, recently outlined about a dozen city projects in a 30-minute update to the Assembly. "The Utility has a very large reserve," Hagerman said. "So the Assembly wanted to know what projects could be accomplished with those savings." This also comes after the Assembly requested an overview of those projects before moving forward with finding the permanent replacement to head the department. Now that Hagerman gave that report, he said it...
The Borough Assembly in its meeting last week approved a bid award to upgrade radios, renewed a lease with a fuel company and adopted two city ordinances. The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department will be upgraded with new radio operations for ambulances, fire trucks and other vehicles, according to a letter of recommendation from Sgt. Randal Holmgrain. ProComm Alaska, a Motorola certified company, will be installing the radios for nearly $45,000. The Assembly approved a new five-year lease with Petro 49, the fuel company land near South Nordic...
The deadline to submit applications for candidacy in the October election is next week, and there has been an unusually low amount of submissions so far, said Debra Thompson, the Borough clerk. “It’s going to get better,” Thompson said. “I promise it will.” There are 23 elected positions this year and only eight people have filed for candidacy, Thompson said, with the deadline approaching on Tuesday, August 22. “Yeah, that’s no good,” Thompson said. “I sure hope something changes. We have way too many open seats.” The mayoral seat will b...
The country is preparing for an astronomical moment that hasn’t happened in 99 years, and southeast Alaska will witness about 60 percent of it. For the first time since 1918, a total solar eclipse will cut through the United States on Mon., August 21. A 70-mile wide totality line will move through the country, starting at Oregon and ending in South Carolina. People within that line will see the moon pass between the sun and earth completely, causing a brief period of daytime darkness, said Rick Braun, a land surveyor and Petersburg resident w...
Two separate police reports from the Petersburg Pilot made news in the Ketchikan Daily News Weekend Edition column, Southeast Log on Aug. 12-13. The log is a compilation of news taken from newspapers published in Southeast Alaska and in Canada. Under the heading, “Uh, gee, thanks for calling!” the columnist noted, “Police received a report of suspicious activity, but the location was not disclosed.” Another headlined: “Seriously?” stated, “Police conducted traffic stops on the Drive Down Dock.” Traffic stops were made at several locatio...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly and Hospital Board will hold a joint work session to discuss the Borough/Hospital relationship, the Hospital’s ideas for a potential new building, and financial health and planning at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 23 in the Assembly Chambers of the Municipal Building. The work session is open to the public and the public is invited to attend, but no public testimony will be taken....
WRANGELL – Fifty women from Petersburg and Wrangell played in a golf outing on Saturday to raise money for cancer patients in southeast Alaska at the 2017 Rally for Cancer Care. The outing, sponsored by the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation, generated more than $3,200 to help pay for travel costs that cancer patients have. The Muskeg Meadows Golf Course hosted 34 players from Petersburg and 16 from Wrangell. Others came just to donate, participate in the silent auction and eat breakfast and l...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Dispatch News has announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is in the process of transitioning to new ownership. KTVA reports the newspaper’s potential buyers might pay as much as $1 million for the paper. Those buyers included four siblings — Ryan Binkley, Wade Binkley, James Binkley and Kai Binkley Sims — as well as Alaska Media LLC, publisher of the Arctic Sounder, The Bristol Bay Times and the Dutch Harbor Fisherman. A statement from Dispatch News publisher Alice Rogoff called the decisio...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska mayor is having second thoughts about a voter-imposed ceiling on how much money the borough government can collect from year to year. Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Karl Kassel said budgeting for the future based on a mathematical formula is flawed. No formula can take into account all of the unforeseen circumstances that impact local government, he said. Kassel’s comments come as the tax cap marks 30 years in effect, the Fairbanks Daily News reported. Signatures are being collected to put the tax-cap que...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Luck Dunbar was napping during a routine flight when he heard a loud noise, woke up and realized the commuter plane was dropping. Dunbar was one of five people aboard the plane Monday morning when it was heading from Skagway to Juneau, Haines radio station KHNS reported. An engine failure prompted pilot Joshua Poirier to make an emergency landing in the ocean. “(Poirier) pointed over by Coghlan Island and he said, ‘I think we’re going to lay her down over here,”‘ Dunbar said. As the plane dropped, Dunbar said he was thin...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A teacher shortage across the nation has added to Alaska’s ongoing problem of educators fleeing the state, leaving school districts scrambling for teachers with just a few weeks until classes start, school officials said. Numbers from August 4 show 155 teaching positions and 90 special education positions are open across the state, according to Alaska Teacher Placement. About half of Alaska’s school districts are still looking for teachers to hire for this school year, KTOO-FM reported. Lower Kuskokwim School Distr...
