Sorted by date Results 3398 - 3422 of 5678
SITKA – March 30th is officially recognized in Alaska as Seward’s Day. On this date in 1867, Russia and the United States signed the Treaty of Cession agreeing to the sale of vast Alaskan lands. That same year, on October 18, now known as Alaska Day, the official transfer ceremony took place in Sitka, or New Archangel, which had been the capital of Russian America since 1808. The Russian Flag was lowered, the American Flag was raised, and Alaska became a US Territory. Today, historic sites from Alaska Native culture and from Russian occ...
Petersburg Police Department searched a residence at #12 Towne Trailer Park and recovered 6 one-quart mason jars of marijuana, more than one ounce of methamphetamine, two handguns and cash. The warrant was served on Feb. 3. One of the handguns was reported stolen locally last year. The methamphetamine represents about 160 typical dosage units with a street value of about $8,000, according to a department press release. Several people, all of whom have been identified, occupied the residence. PPD has been in contact with the prosecutor’s o...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed a request made by the Petersburg School District and Petersburg Medical Center to pay a lower power rate last month. The request comes after meetings between PSD, PMC and borough administrators on how to maintain services without increasing fees or taxes. "The school, the hospital and the borough have been getting together in these meetings to try to figure out ways that we can continue to function in the way the community wants without having to cut...
The Alaska Marijuana Control Board approved the license for Petersburg's first marijuana cultivation operator, Southeast Moog Droog, on Tuesday. Operated by Gary Morgan, the growing facility will be in a 500 square-foot Quonset hut style building near his home in the Papke's Landing subdivision. Morgan participated at the Juneau hearing via teleconference. His license was approved easily with little fanfare. Morgan said the building has passed the state's inspection and is very secure. The...
Entering its third full week of the session, Alaska’s Legislature continues to look at a variety of spending cuts and revenue options. On February 2, the Senate Finance Committee heard SB 21, a proposal of Sen. Bert Stedman to restructure how Permanent Fund earnings are appropriated. Currently the $56B in the fund are constitutionally protected, but the bill proposes further limiting the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the principal to 4.5 percent of market value, based on a rolling five-year average. That rate falls within the f...
JUNEAU (AP) – The Alaska Senate, amid public outcry about crime in the state, is eyeing changes to sweeping criminal justice legislation passed last year. North Pole Republican Sen. John Coghill, who sponsored the new law, said several areas have emerged as needing to be re-examined, including penalties for petty thefts. Legislation is expected to be introduced soon. The law, based on recommendations from a criminal justice commission, sought changes to a system that has experienced high rates of repeat offenders. The commission, in a recent re...
WRANGELL – Wrangell’s Port Commission gave its go-ahead to a tidelands purchase proposed by the Stikine Inn’s owners. Bill Goodale, who jointly manages the dockside hotel with his wife, Cheryl Goodale, appeared at the February 2 meeting to explain his proposal. He wishes to purchase from the city 25,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the hotel’s current property line, with the intent of expanding and adding to the building. “We’re hoping for 30 rooms, plus retail space on the lowe...
JUNEAU, (AP) _ The head of the board that regulates marijuana in Alaska said he expects officials will have to address again at some point the issue of pot users consuming marijuana products in authorized stores after regulators rejected doing so last week. But Peter Mlynarik, chairman of Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board, said Monday he did not know when the board might take up the matter again. Mlynarik sided with two other board members last Thursday in rejecting rules by a 3-2 vote for allowing people to buy marijuana in Alaska’s aut...
WRANGELL – A new trooper has been selected to take the vacant Wrangell assignment, Alaska Wildlife Troopers confirmed this week. “We’ve had that position filled,” said AWT Captain Steve Hall. In October the Wrangell post was vacated with the resignation of Trooper Fred Burk. Burk had been stationed in the area about a year, following a push by locals and their legislative representation to retain the position, which had been under threat of reduction due to budget cutbacks. No trooper had been stationed in Wrangell through the spring and sum...
JUNEAU, (AP) – A contractor has completed the first half-mile of a rough road that will provide additional access to the back side of Juneau’s Douglas Island. The municipality of Juneau and a contractor broke ground last month on a 2.5-mile pioneer road that will extend the North Douglas Highway, the Juneau Empire reported. The city is working with construction company Enco Alaska Inc. on the West Douglas Pioneer Road and expects to complete the road in June. The road initially will not be open to cars or even all-terrain vehicles. It will be...
PETERSBURG (AP) – A small community on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska has become the state’s newest city. Whale Pass was incorporated as a city following a final count by the state’s division of elections that determined a majority of residents approved the action, KFSK-FM reported Tuesday. Of the 46 ballots, nearly 75 percent voted to give Whale Pass second city status. Residents also voted this winter to form a city government and have elected seven people to serve on the city council. The new government has the power to levy...
JUNEAU (AP) – Twice a week, seven Juneau residents with Parkinson’s disease go through a transformation. “Once they go through this door, they are no longer Parkinson’s patients _ they’re fighters,” trainer Kirk Burke said. Inside the upstairs workout room at Pavitt Health and Fitness Center, Luann McVey, whose husband Richard Steele has Parkinson’s disease, led the group of seven participants in yoga to warm them up for “Rock Steady Boxing.” These “fighters” don’t jump into a ring to square off against another flesh and blood opponent. Ins...
In the January 19, 2017 edition of the Pilot, Brandon Estes’ age in his obituary was printed as 24, he was 23....
Repairs to one of Southeast’s primary public ferries will take longer than anticipated. Alaska Marine Highway System reported the M/V Matanuska may not return to service until February 20, 10 days later than initially expected. Taken offline on January 3, the ship is currently in Ketchikan for its annual maintenance overhaul. “During that process they found some steel that needs to be replaced before it can return,” explained Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesperson Meadow Bailey. The delay has affected scheduling for s...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly discussed but took no action on possible amendments to the borough charter during its Feb. 6 meeting including changing the planning and zoning commission into an appointed body instead of elected and making the ability to change sales tax rates and exemptions an assembly decision rather than by the voters. According to the assembly agenda discussion item “Borough staff and the assembly have run into the Petersburg Borough Charter provisions that have made business difficult at times and may need to be a...
The Petersburg Medical Center has to remedy a housing crunch this year, as they will be evicted from three of the six apartments they rent from Petersburg Mental Health's seven unit apartment building on Fram Street. Evictions would happen now through June. The PMC provides housing for locums and short-term employees and pays up to $1,100 per month for each of the 6 units they currently occupy. CEO Liz Woodyard told the hospital board last Thursday that the hospital likes to have housing within...
Petersburg Power and Light could be asked to subsidize electric rates to Borough general fund users, the hospital, cold storage and schools. In a joint meeting with the schools and hospital, Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht asked the finance department to run numbers showing the potential savings if a Municipal Rate were set at $9/mo. plus 6.9-cents per kwh. Savings to each entity would be $233,179 each year and the borough electric utility would subsidize the savings through their revenue stream. Manager Giesbrecht wrote: “Important to r...
JUNEAU (AP) – Alaska Gov. Bill Walker says he understands the need to keep this country safe. But he says it also is important to protect the rights and liberties of those coming to Alaska. Walker tells The Associated Press that there’s a balance to be struck. But he adds it may be too soon to say if President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees strikes that balance. He says Alaska’s attorney general’s office is looking at how the order affects Alaska. Trump’s order temporarily suspends immigration from seven countries a...
WRANGELL – A Wrangell resident was among the travelers detained following a selective travel ban issued by the White House last week. Sylvia Ettefagh was returning from a 10-day vacation in Costa Rica with her husband, John, and friends the Stroms on Saturday. The group was at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on its way to connecting with an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. At customs, Ettefagh attempted to enter the Global Entry section of the Trusted Traveler program. The expedited screening is offered by US Customs and Border Pro...
As the Alaska State Legislature continues with the new session, members in both the House and Senate have put forward ideas to fix the state’s ongoing budget woes. Sitka Sen. Burt Stedman (R-District R) submitted his own contribution to that discussion, filing Senate Bill 21 on January 18. “It’s a percent of market value bill for the permanent fund which would have a five-year average market value payout of four percent. Of that four percent, a minimum of half of it or two and a quarter percent would have to go to dividends,” he explain...
Anchorage, AK – The Municipality of Anchorage, which sued PND Engineers, Inc. in 2013 over the failed Port of Anchorage Intermodal Expansion project and sought more than $100 million in damages, has settled with PND for $750,000. PND was the designer of record on the project, which was halted before completion of the construction. “We are happy to settle this meritless suit against us for less than the cost of going to trial, and move on with the business of engineering,” said Jim Campbell, PND President. PND’s Open Cell Sheet Pile™ design wa...
Though last year’s season may have hurt, Alaska fishermen may take some comfort in a disaster declaration made by the Department of Commerce last month. Then-Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker determined it and eight other commercial fisheries along the West Coast to have been failures, in a January 18 announcement. Low pink salmon runs across the Gulf of Alaska led to a significant drop in 2016 harvest numbers. This declaration provides Congress with a basis to appropriate disaster relief funding for economic assistance to affected c...
The Borough Power and Light Dept. has a fund balance of $7.5 million dollars. That's a lot of money by any standard, but remember, $3 million of that is required to remain in reserve, as mandated by the Borough's fiscal policy. It equals 6-month's operating cost for the utility. In 1985 when Petersburg and Wrangell went onto hydropower supplied by the Tyee Lake facility, rates were lowered, but set high enough to enable the utility to build reserves to move their downtown plant out the road....
ANCHORAGE (AP) – A volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands has erupted again, sending a cloud of ash and ice particles 30,000 feet in the air. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says the cloud was seen by satellite shortly after Bogoslof (BOH-gohs-lawf) Volcano erupted Thursday. Volcanic ash above 20,000 feet is a threat to airliners flying between Asia and North America. The Aviation Color Code was lowered from red to orange late Thursday evening after the ash cloud dissipated. The volcano 850 miles southwest of Anchorage has erupted more than 25...
JUNEAU (AP) – Alaska has never violated its constitutional spending cap, but many Republican lawmakers consider the limit too loose and want it tightened to limit future government growth. Under the existing cap, which excludes certain types of spending, this year’s budget could not exceed $10.1 billion. Current spending falls well below that. So far, House and Senate Republicans have proposed three constitutional measures aimed at restricting spending growth. These come as lawmakers, faced with a gaping deficit, are expected to debate dee...
