Sorted by date Results 3521 - 3545 of 5678
WRANGELL – Several Wrangell boat owners learned they had been burgled early Saturday morning. Wrangell Police Department received a call concerning Heritage Harbor, where it appeared three boats moored there had been entered, one forcibly. Owners were contacted, and they confirmed a number of items were missing, including dive gear and a firearm. “Sure enough, someone had liberated my possessions,” commented Steve Prysunka, owner of the boat Mollyann. “They stole such an interesting variety of things.” In addition to his dive gear, he found...
JUNEAU – A state court judge ruled Thursday that Gov. Bill Walker had the authority to reduce this year’s Alaska Permanent Fund dividend, siding with the state in the politically charged case. Superior Court Judge William Morse’s decision followed arguments presented by both sides in Anchorage on Thursday morning. Morse said he expected the issue ultimately to be decided by the Alaska Supreme Court. State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said he planned to appeal. The lawsuit, brought by the Anchorage Democrat and tw...
WRANGELL – A number of Petersburg and Wrangell residents have been receiving letters from the state, informing them their float houses anchored along the Stikine River need to be permitted or else move. Since the late 1970s, the placement of float houses and temporary cabins along the river have made it convenient for locals making use of the river basin, be it for subsistence fishing, hunting, trapping, work or recreational purposes. While a number are there on a seasonal basis, this year some 18 have been identified as being situated y...
ANCHORAGE – Nancy McGuire, the longtime publisher of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, said goodbye to her subscribers in an editorial published the day she died after battling cancer for years. She was 72. McGuire was publisher of the weekly Nome Nugget for 34 years in the western Alaska town of Nome. Her friend and former Nome mayor, John Handeland, said McGuire died early Thursday morning at a local long-term care facility. The Nugget was established in 1897, thriving in the rough-and-tumble Gold Rush town. In an editorial published in the new...
ANCHORAGE – Two moose were recently discovered frozen in battle and encased in ice near a remote village on Alaska’s unforgiving western coast. Brad Webster, a middle school social studies and science teacher in Unalakleet, captured images of the massive animals poking through the ice as they lay on their sides with antlers apparently locked together. He had taken a friend who recently moved to the village for a walk on Nov. 2 near a frozen slough at Covenant Bible Camp, where Webster volunteers as a camp steward. “That’s when we saw it,” he...
Motivational speaker Michael Patterson traveled to town last week to take part in the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the Petersburg Indian Association. Patterson spoke to middle school students at the Wright Auditorium on Thursday, and then he took part in an event later in the day at PIA. Patterson started living on the streets at a young age, before he was 10, and he's open about the fact he could die from COPD any day because he smoked cigarettes for decades. A lot of Patterson's...
WRANGELL – Latest samples of butter clams from Shoemaker Bay beaches show levels of saxitoxin have halved since this summer, when specimens were found to be a health hazard. The clams are still considered a health risk, albeit at a lower level. Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) staff have been collecting samples of mussels and other bivalves from the beach on a weekly basis, which then get tested at a Sitka lab for several different toxins. In August the program reported elevated level...
The high school gym was filled with locals of all ages last Friday as the school and its students honored Petersburg men and women who have served our country. Jim Engell told those in attendance a brief history of how the Veteran’s Day Assembly came about in the 1980s. “A lot of schools around the country take the day off, you can go to the malls and there’s big sales and all those things,” Engell said. “I love the fact that we actually have school, and here we are today honoring our veterans.” Some fifth graders carried flags during the...
The Petersburg Police Department is looking forward to moving into the newly renovated municipal building, but in the meantime the department is just looking to become fully staffed, according to Chief Kelly Swihart. “We are a little short staffed,” he says. “Right now we have 15 full-time equivalents assigned.” The department made budget cuts during the last budget cycle, under the direction of the borough manager, resulting in cross-training staff. The training focused on reducing gaps the department needed to cover, and having officers train...
WRANGELL – Primary construction work at Swan Lake wrapped up last week, leaving full capacity for its hydroelectric dam 15 feet higher than it was at the year's start. The $10,000,000 project was undertaken by Southeast Alaska Power Agency, a utility covering the communities of Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. Starting about two weeks behind schedule earlier in the summer, workers finished with time to spare with the barge platform used for the project's crane departing last week with gen...
The first ever Rasmuson Art Show will be held this weekend at the Clausen Memorial Museum according to director Kathi Riemer. The event will showcase the three newest pieces the museum purchased with funds from the Rasmuson Foundation and will include a reception on Friday night. The museum put out a call for artists to submit artworks before they applied for funding. The artwork must fit the Clausen Museum's collection policy, basically anything to do with Southeast Alaska, and be the creation...
Bill Neumann spent 20 years teaching shop in Petersburg and smoke houses built by his students can still be seen around town. Neumann's oldest students might be reaching retirement age, but they still remember him, even if he doesn't always remember them. "I'll go to the post office and some guy will come up and shake my hand and what I have to say is, 'The face is familiar but I can't put a name on it,'" he says. "But I love that, and I'm so thankful that I've stayed in Petersburg. So many...
WRANGELL - At its regular meeting last week, members of the Wrangell Port Commission decided against allowing casual traffic through the Marine Service Center yard. Effective immediately, access to the boatyard has been restricted with entry limited to one gate. The action follows several months of discussions, with the issue first coming to the attention of commissioners in June. “There’s a really big safety issue with people being able to come and go as they please,” explained commission chair Clay Hammer. Since its start a decade ago, Wrang...
A Chicago-based casting company is looking for Norwegian-Americans interested in learning more about their ancestry. Norway's popular reality TV show Alt for Norge or The Great Norway Adventure, is now accepting applications. "It's not a typical reality show that we'd think of, it's not mean spirited," says Joan O'Connor of O'Connor Casting Company. "It features people who really want to get in touch with their Norwegian ancestry." If chosen they'd be part of a 12-person cast and be flown to...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly held a public hearing regarding the issue of taking over three docks from state control on Monday. The assembly voted to draft a response to the state and asked for $1.2 million for the maintenance, raising the state’s original offer by $500,000, for the Kupreanof and Papke’s Landing docks. The letter respectfully declined the transfer of ownership for the Entrance Island dock. The original offer from the state included that property in addition to Kupreanof and Papke’s with a total of $730,000 for maint...
The Petersburg High School has a new club called Rotary Interact, and it held its first meeting last month with around 20 interested kids. The club is open to any student in the eighth grade or above and the goal is for students to improve their community through regular service work. PHS teacher Ginger Evens says the group will meet once a month and complete a project once a month also. The project could be service oriented like partnering with the Salvation Army for a winter coat drive for tee...
The National Ocean Science Bowl Team traveled to Sitka last weekend for a scrimmage, including trivia and presentations about whales, past, present and future. It was the 20th anniversary of Sitka's Whalefest and four students made the trip. "The presentations were quite interesting," said junior Joey Giesbrecht. "The skirmishes were interesting, even though they were first years." PHS competed against inexperienced Ketchikan and Sitka squads, and Petersburg won every match. Anders Christensen...
Over a thousand Petersburg voters made their voices heard regarding national and local politics in the 2016 election that wrapped up Tuesday night. Petersburg Borough voters supported the president-elect Donald Trump who will be the 45th President of the United States of America. The Republican candidate received over 575 votes, amounting to about 55 percent of local voters. Democrat Hillary Clinton earned just over 30 percent on Petersburg and Kupreanof ballots at almost 335 votes. Local...
The Community Advisory Board (CAB) of American Seafoods Company, one of the nation’s largest seafood harvesters and processors, is now accepting applications for its Alaska community grant program. The deadline to submit applications is Nov. 16, 2016. A total of $38,000 will be allocated by the American Seafoods CAB to community projects addressing issues such as hunger, housing, safety, education, research, natural resources and cultural activities. CAB evaluates each proposal based on the following criteria; the need in the community, p...
The borough assembly had over 20 people attend its Monday meeting this week. Many of the people in attendance were there to talk about the dock issue, and it seemed like the other half were there for the controversial proposal for the borough to sell Lot 10 in the 900 block of Sandy Beach Road. The borough would have to vacate a portion of a public easement to sell the land in question, 919 Sandy Beach Road. Vacation of the easement would mean adjacent property owner Kris Norosz would be unable...
The local airport is one of two locations collecting rainfall and other forecast information on Mitkof Island. The airport readings are unofficial, but figures for October look to be record setting with only 3.07 inches of precipitation, according to NOAA meteorologist Pete Boyd. “This October was an incredibly dry month due to the setup of high pressure systems that were mostly over the Yukon and western Canada,” he says. “Which kept us with the offshore flow, thus keeping the sunny weather throughout the entire timeframe.” The officia...
Over 20 people assembled at the SONS last Thursday evening for a presentation and Q&A with representatives of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office (TLO). The representatives stressed their desire for a land exchange to pass via federal legislation as it would allow the Trust to bypass logging on contentious land in Petersburg and Ketchikan. Residents who attended were more concerned about what would happen if the land exchange does not go through and the TLO moves forward with plans to log areas in close proximity to residences on Mitkof...
Petersburg is among the top 30 fishing ports in the United States according to the annual Fisheries of the US report for 2015 released this week by NOAA Fisheries. Petersburg is ranked 26 on the list with 69.6 million pounds of seafood delivered with a value of $39.3 million. Among Alaskan ports, Petersburg placed 11th. Last year, Petersburg ranked 24th on the list with a reported 64.7 million pounds of product bringing in $50.9 million. The ranking is determined by value of the seafood products. Topping the list for Alaska were: Port Pounds...
Fifteen PHS students qualified to participate in the SE Honor Music Festival in Haines last month. There were eight band members and seven choir members and music teacher Matt Lenhard says that is probably the most musicians Petersburg has ever sent to the festival. “It was a wonderful, wonderful festival,” he says. “We were really contributing to the quality of the festival, especially with the kids on first chair.” Lenhard says seeing four first chairs in the honor band was by far one of his best days with PHS. In the last 18 years, he’s on...
Fees for the state’s sport fishing, hunting and trapping licenses, and tags will increase at the start of the new year. The Department of Fish and Game made the announcement last week in a media release, citing approval of House Bill 137 by the Alaska State Legislature last session as cause for the changes. It notes the hike came with the approval of user groups, and marks the first time in 24 years that hunting license and tag fees have increased. Sport fishing licenses last increased a decade ago. “Alaska’s new prices are in line with other...
