Sorted by date Results 485 - 509 of 5678
During Monday's Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, Mayor Mark Jensen and Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht gave a report on the borough's trip to Washington D.C. last week. Jensen, Giesbrecht, and Assembly Members Thomas Fine-Walsh and Scott Newman visited the capital to meet with Petersburg's federal delegation, lobbyists, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other agencies about major local projects. "We had a pretty busy schedule. Overall, I felt, a good trip,"...
Former Petersburg Medical Center Board Member Kathi Riemer, who was last reelected in 2021, resigned from the hospital board last month. PMC Board President Jerod Cook wrote that he accepted Riemer's resignation on March 17. In his email notifying the borough, Cook expressed his gratitude for her contributions to the hospital and her service to the community. The borough is now seeking letters of interest from residents to fill the seat until the October 2023 municipal election. The Pilot...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that would adjust the FY23 budget in its first reading during its meeting on March 20. The sizable supplemental budget includes 12 changes that cover a range of items including harbor dredging, attorney fees, vehicles, and more. The ordinance looks to increase the South Harbor dredge project budget by $635,000. The FY23 budget for the project was initially $1.1 million so the addition will bring the borough's budgeted cont...
The Petersburg post of the American Legion held its first formal meeting on Tuesday in the Petersburg Public Library, which saw about 20 veterans gather to engage in official business and discuss what they want the future of the post to be. Petersburg's American Legion post is called the Edward Locken Post 14-named for the former mayor and owner of the Bank of Petersburg. The American Legion is a nonprofit veterans organization that has been a driving force for disability and education benefits...
The borough’s FY22 Audit Report was presented to the Petersburg Borough Assembly at its meeting on March 6. According to Bikki Shrestha, an engagement partner with BDO USA, LLP, the borough received an unmodified opinion on its financial statements, federal single audit, and state single audit. Shrestha provided a review of the audit and financials in which he commended borough management’s cooperation throughout the audit process. The audit found no significant deficiencies and no material wea...
Jane Smith spotted a different kind of bird at her feeder around New Year's, something she knew she'd never seen in Alaska. Her sister, Anne Smith, saw it again during the annual Great Backyard Bird Count in February and identified it as the white-winged dove. She took a picture with her iPad and posted it on the Alaska Rare Bird Alert Facebook page, but her post didn't draw much response, so she figured the bird wasn't too special. Weeks later, Jennifer Cross, director of the Alaska Raptor...
On September first Dr. Jennifer (Jen) Hyer will begin an eighteen month sabbatical from the Petersburg Medical Center to sail from San Diego to New Zealand with her family. When she and her husband, Chris Hyer, first started dating twenty-seven years ago, Chris gave Jen the book "Dove," about a boy who sailed around the world, and told her it was a dream of his. She was immediately on board and boats have been a constant in their lives ever since. Their first home together was a 30' Sundowner...
Petersburg residents are set to see the assessed value of their residential properties go up this year brought on by the current real estate market. According to a report from the Appraisal Company of Alaska, the majority of the increases to assessed residential property values in Petersburg will range from 10% to 20%. Assessors Mike Renfro and Martins Onskulis with the Appraisal Company of Alaska gave their report on the 2023 estimated tax assessments for the borough during Monday's Petersburg...
An interactive workshop focused on equipping community members with the skills to get involved in the Federal Subsistence Board process will be held this Saturday, March 25 at John Hanson Hall. The community workshop will be put on by Ashley Bolwerk, a subsistence fish biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, and Heather Bauscher with the Sitka Conservation Society. Bolwerk and Bauscher developed the workshop in order to help residents better understand the Federal Subsistence Board process and...
Petersburg Lutheran Church invites the community of Petersburg to attend their first service on Sunday, March 26 at 10 a.m. There will be a coffee hour following worship to give everyone an opportunity to meet and welcome Pastors Deborah and Tim....
After putting their dinner theater fundraiser on hold three years ago, the Clausen Museum is looking forward to hosting a song and dance production with a cast of twenty eight local thespians this Friday and Saturday at the Sons of Norway Hall. The Boardwalk, written by Sue Paulsen and Cathy Cronlund, will take diners back to the Roaring Twenties, when the streets of Petersburg were made of wood. "The show highlights the booming economic times that spurred the growth of Petersburg and drove...
Alaska school districts are scrambling to prepare for the new programs and policies outlined under the Alaska Reads Act that are set to go into effect next school year. The act has little funding attached to it and its implementation comes after three years of education interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which have left some questioning if districts will be able to meet all that it requires in the short time they have to prepare. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the act in June 2022 in an...
Mary Clemens and Bill Moulton have teamed up for the fourth time to share their love of country swing dance and the two-step by teaching a recent class at the Mitkof Dance Troupe's studio. Clemens explains, "Two-step is slow and swing is fast. It's different steps. Bill makes it look easy because he's a good lead. It really makes a difference if the guy knows how to get you to do what they want you to do." Moulton says, "There are five basic moves to learn, then you build on those to learn the...
Ketchikan artist and master basket weaver Kathryn Rousso is coming to the Petersburg Public Library to present a slide show, "A Sense of Place: Exploring Mexico to Colombia & the Plant Material Textiles Within," Thursday night, March 23, followed by a three-day basket weaving class. Several of her works are on display at the library through March 31. In her presentation Rousso will share her fascination with traditional textiles, some of the historical and cultural context through which woven...
The South Harbor dredge project has been suspended until this fall as the end of the environmental window approaches. An estimated 29,351 cubic yards of material have been dug out of the harbor-about half of what the project intends to remove. The last dumping of material in Frederick Sound was on Feb. 23. According to Harbormaster Glo Wollen, the project has seen hard digging, causing the project to take more time and energy than anticipated even with the equipment they have on hand. So far...
The Petersburg School District board held a discussion during its meeting on Tuesday covering where the district currently stands financially and its need for additional revenue to prevent a negative fund balance in FY24. During the discussion, Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter and PSD Director of Finance Karen Morrison gave a presentation detailing how funding has declined in recent years while costs have spiked. According to their presentation, the true value of Alaska's school funding has...
The Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department is welcoming a new batch of ETT certified volunteer responders who recently completed an ETT certification course and can now provide more assistance on calls and help respond better to emergencies. EMS Coordinator Josh Rathmann said the newly certified responders will be a huge help to the department as they continue bouncing back from a drop off in participation during the pandemic. The ETT course was developed for smaller communities that are not able...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved an ordinance in its first reading on Monday that would amend the charter to allow borough employees, including those at the school and the hospital, to serve on certain borough boards. The ordinance proposes allowing borough staff to serve on boards and commissions except for those that directly administer their employment. For instance, under the new ordinance a Petersburg Medical Center employee could run for the borough assembly or the school board...
Icicles bristled from the eaves outside the Elks Lodge on Saturday night, but the atmosphere in the ballroom was balmy, tropical, even. The walls sprouted jungle vines, leaves, and bright flowers, and the dancers sprouted bright feathers, leis, and sunglasses. Even the elk heads on the wall wore sunglasses. Over 200 people bore witness as bodies bounced to Latin rhythms, and whiffs of salt and lime and street tacos wafted. That was Hannah Flor's vision, "A transition from one world to another,...
The Petersburg Medical Center Board voted unanimously to pursue a final site plan for the new hospital facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View conceptual designs during its meeting last Thursday. The Knob Hill and Creek View concepts are both located at a site along Haugen Drive and behind the Elizabeth Peratrovich building. The decision to continue designing the new facility based on the Knob Hill and Creek View concepts was also unanimously recommended by the project's steering... Full story
COVID-19 cases have dropped at the Petersburg Medical Center's Long-Term Care facility after it faced its biggest outbreak of the pandemic last week. During the PMC Board meeting on Feb. 23, LTC Manager Helen Boggs reported that the facility had seen eight positive cases among residents as well as a few staff members. She also said residents had all been treated prophylactically with either Paxlovid or Remdesivir and were doing fairly well. On Wednesday, Boggs wrote that all of the COVID...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved comments for decisions on land selections that could be conveyed to the borough during its meeting on Feb. 21. The comments were for a modified final decision regarding conveyance of lands at Thomas Bay and a preliminary decision on 3,283 acres of municipal selections across the borough, both issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The Thomas Bay selections would see approximately 550 acres of state-owned land be conveyed to the borough....
Part of last week's cover story headline was changed for the online edition of the Pilot to correct an oversimplification. The first line "Trading Union sold" was changed to "Petersburg IGA replaces Trading Union grocery operation." This clarification was called for because, at the time of this correction, "Trading Union, Inc," the company which owns the buildings and formerly operated the grocery store on North Nordic Drive, is still owned by its current shareholders. The newly formed...
The Petersburg School District Board approved the calendar for the 2023-24 school year during its February meeting. Though some draft calendars that had been presented at a previous board meeting saw some significant shakeups in the schedule, the calendar that ultimately passed is generally similar to previous years. The school year will start on Aug. 29 and finish on May 30 and will have 172 student days. Some of the changes to next year's calendar include giving students Nov. 1 off instead of...
A car crashed off an embankment near 210 Mitkof Highway at around 5:50 p.m. on Monday, according to Assistant Fire Chief Dave Berg. The lone occupant in the vehicle, a woman in her 70s, was uninjured in the crash but was taken to the Petersburg Medical Center for observation. According to Berg, the woman lost control on a straight stretch of road while driving her SUV northbound on Mitkof Highway. The car went off the road onto a snow-covered embankment, which gradually sloped down about 15...
