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Petersburg celebrated its second annual Amy Hallingstad Day on June 28, honoring the life and legacy of the late Alaska Native rights activist. She was known for helping to desegregate schools in Alaska, as well as advocating for better healthcare for Alaska Native people and equal pay for female cannery workers. Amy Hallingstad was a prominent advocate for tribal sovereignty. She helped incorporate Petersburg Indian Association as a federally recognized tribe in 1949. Last year, over 50 years... Full story
Kito's Kave Bar and Liquor Store – one of Petersburg's two downtown bars and a well-known late-night spot – now has new owners. Jake Dougher and his brother-in-law, Anders Rosvold, took over the bar last week after the liquor license transfer was officially finalized. "We were just wanting to do something more local, more hands-on, just be a little bit more involved," Dougher said. Dougher moved to Petersburg about a year ago with his wife, a Petersburg local, Bergen Rosvold. Both have been wor...
From 2013-2023, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins represented Alaska's 35th district, including Petersburg, in the Alaska House of Representatives. Kreiss-Tomkins returned to Petersburg on July 5, this time as a candidate for governor. He held a meet and greet at Kito's Kave where he chatted with community members and delivered a speech. Kreiss-Tomkins grew up in Sitka. At the age of 13 he developed a passionate interest in politics. And by age 14, he launched a statewide grassroots campaign for then...
The Petersburg School District approved the budget for the next fiscal year on June 30. Due to higher projected student counts, one-time state funding and one-time energy relief funding, the district anticipates receiving roughly $900,000 in additional revenue to spend. Much of that money comes from the Alaska Legislature's approval of up to $115 million in one-time funding for districts. But, that funding is contingent on oil prices staying high. The state Department of Revenue has until the... Full story
Petersburg Borough Assembly advanced its wireless communication facilities ordinance through a second reading Monday, adopting 10 more amendments that drew sharp criticism from residents — and some misgivings from assembly members themselves — even as the assembly voted 5-0 to keep the process moving. Ordinance 2026-14A would amend Title 19 of the municipal code to regulate cell towers and other transmitters, requiring them to be reviewed as conditional uses with public notice and Planning Commission approval while remaining consistent wit...
Petersburg Municipal Power and Light will not add a diesel surcharge to customers’ bills this year to recover the cost of running the borough’s generators during the annual Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) maintenance shutdown, Utility Director Steve Harbour told the Borough Assembly on Monday. Each summer, SEAPA takes its transmission system offline for maintenance, and Petersburg must power the community entirely from its own generation. Roughly 75% of the borough’s electricity normally comes from SEAPA, with the remaining quarter gener...
The Borough Assembly voted 5-0 Monday to send a letter to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities asking the state to add pedestrian routes to its winter snow-removal work in Petersburg. The letter, prepared by Mayor Bob Lynn, focuses on non-motorized corridors that the borough says become unusable and unsafe when snow and ice go uncleared. It singles out the sidewalks and pedestrian routes along Haugen Drive leading to the Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport and Sandy Beach Park, and the Libby Strait bike path, which the...
The Petersburg Fire Department is hosting a free training that teaches everyday civilians how to react and be prepared for emergencies. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) three-day training sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be held at the fire station July 10-12, 2026. Alisha Sell, with Tlingit and Haida, is travelling from Juneau to teach the course. Aaron Hankins, Petersburg Emergency Services Director, will learn the course and hopes to then become an instructor and continue to reoffer the course in the comm...
Abbey Jackson Ferree, from Petersburg now living in Fairbanks, swam solo across the English Channel on June 21, crossing from England to France - around 40 miles in 14 hours and 23 minutes. The swim is Abbey's second leg of the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, following her completion last August of the 28.5-mile 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan Island. A third event - the Catalina Channel, off Southern California, which she has a window to attempt in September - would complete the set, a...
Petersburg's Fourth of July weekend schedule has been released for an eventful three days in the town–the traditional two-day local holiday celebration on the 3rd and the 4th and with an additional third day celebration on Sunday, July 5th featuring a community potluck to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Parks and Rec facility supervisor Julie Anderson, Chamber of Commerce Director Kelli Slaven, and Robyn Cardenas took the lead on planning this year's celebrations. July 3 It all begins w...
Two high-quality interactive web cameras have recently been installed atop Five Finger Lighthouse – one of the world's most renowned humpback whale watching locations. The Five Finger Lighthouse Society (FFLS) installed a similar camera earlier this year at the lower boathouse level. Now, there are two more atop the lighthouse – one facing north, one south. The FFLS is a Petersburg-based non-profit organization. All summer, the lighthouse is maintained by volunteer keepers, who stay in the lig...
Petersburg burned notably less diesel than usual during this month’s annual Southeast Alaska Power Agency maintenance shutdown, as mild weather, low industrial demand and customer conservation combined to ease the borough’s reliance on its backup generators even as fuel prices spiked, the borough’s utility directors said. With SEAPA’s hydroelectric feed offline, Petersburg Municipal Power and Light ran on diesel generation and the Blind Slough hydro plant. Outgoing Utility Director Karl Hagerman said the utility budgets for 10 days of diesel ru...
The Petersburg Indian Association is celebrating the second annual Amy Hallingstad Day this week with a full slate of events, anchored by a four-day Tlingit culture class and culminating Sunday in an outdoor gathering to honor Amy Hallingstad. The week opened Tuesday evening with Elder's Night, a community dinner at which PIA welcomed Sitka elder George Bennett Sr. and his wife, Mary. Bennett's "Tlingit 101" class began Wednesday and runs through Saturday at John Hanson Sr. Hall, with Amy Hallin...
Petersburg voters will decide this fall whether to raise the town's sales tax cap. Petersburg's sales tax is 6%. Currently, sales and services are only taxed on the first $1,200, which means tax on a single purchase is capped at $72 max. Now, the Borough wants to raise that cap to $300 by changing the taxable amount to $5,000. Borough officials say Petersburg has the lowest cap among major towns in Southeast Alaska. The cap has been adjusted only once since it was established nearly 70 years ago...
Summer has arrived, and, these days, summer in Petersburg means electric scooters all around town used for transportation, often by youth. The 17 Levy electric scooters that showed up in town in August of 2024 are locally owned by Stikine Services, run by Wes and Angie Davis. A few years ago, the Davises, when traveling to Nashville, noticed electric scooters around the town, and thought they would be a valuable addition to the Petersburg community. "Everyone we have talked to loves them, and...
Karl Hagerman will retire June 30 as Petersburg's utility director, closing a 33-year career with the borough that carried him from an entry-level water and wastewater worker to the head of two municipal departments - and, during the gaps between managers, to several stints as interim city manager. "This is the last full week, two days next week, and then we'll be done after 33 years and seven or eight odd months," Hagerman told the Pilot. Born and raised in Petersburg, Hagerman started with...
On Monday, Petersburg's Dan Sullivan was deemed ineligible to run for the office of United States Senator by Alaska's Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher. "My determination in this matter is final. Although you have 30 days to appeal this decision." In a letter to Sullivan on Monday, Beecher stated that his filing for Senate "was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or...
Two weeks after rejecting it, the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday approved the sale of a borough parcel to Tidal Network for a wireless communication tower - with all four members who had blocked the deal switching to yes and the resolution passing unanimously. Resolution 2026-16 authorizes the sale of an approximately 0.23-acre borough-owned parcel to the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, doing business as Tidal Network. The resolution had failed 2-4 at the...
On Friday, June 12, botanist Joni Johnson led a "Friends of Raven's Trail" invasive plant walk. She informed attendees what harmful invasive plants look like, as well as what they could do to stop their spread. "I'd like more people with more eyes and more willingness to help pull plants," Johnson said. "It's Whack-a-Mole, it's everywhere... more people that are willing to play Whack-a-Mole, the better we are at preventing the march of invasive plants up the hill." Johnson throughout the hike...
International Children's Day is commonly celebrated outside of the United States and is a cherished holiday in many places. Jose Meza, employee of the Petersburg Children's Center, has a clear vision of it becoming a large day of celebration in Petersburg, too. This past Friday, June 12, Meza began to bring his vision to reality – hosting a celebration for the kids at the children's center. "The kids loved it. It was a really nice, sunny day, we did a bunch of water games, water balloons," M...
A zoning ordinance to regulate cell towers and other wireless facilities — a revised version of one that died on a tie vote two weeks ago — came back to the Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday. Assembly Member Jeff Meucci reintroduced the ordinance and offered five amendments which the assembly accepted before the unanimously approving the ordinance’s first reading. Ordinance 2026-14 would amend Title 19 of the municipal code to set zoning and permitting standards for wireless communication facilities and other towers. The ordinance requi...
Petersburg voters will likely decide this fall whether the borough can borrow up to $3,315,000 to finish the Scow Bay standby generation project, after the assembly approved the that ordinance’s first reading on Monday. Ordinance 2026-13 would authorize electric-utility revenue bonds of not more than $3,315,000 for the Scow Bay standby generator, which Petersburg Municipal Power and Light says faces a budget shortfall driven by construction-cost increases since the project began. If it clears three readings, the borrowing question goes on t...
The Borough Assembly has given final approval this month to raising Petersburg’s marine passenger fee from $5 to $8 per passenger, with the increase set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Ordinance 2026-07, which amends Chapter 4.80 of the municipal code, passed unanimously on third reading at the assembly’s June 1 meeting. The fee is assessed once per cruise, on marine passenger vessels upon their first entry into any borough port, and has been collected since March 2018. Finance Director Jody Tow has estimated the increase will generate rou...
Petersburg’s electric utility rates will go up 4% on July 1 after the Borough Assembly approved the third reading of Ordinance 2026-08 at its June 1 meeting. The ordinance raises electric rates across all customer classes — residential, general service, large commercial, harbor and municipal — for fiscal year 2027. For a typical residential customer using 1,203 kilowatt-hours a month, the monthly bill rises from about $163 to about $170. The residential customer charge increases from $16.00 to $16.64, and the energy rate moves from 12.2 cents...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly on Monday awarded the wastewater outfall repair project to Rock-n-Road Construction of Petersburg in an amount not to exceed $222,000. The 6-0 vote followed a short explanation from Public Works Director Aaron Marohl, who was asked by Member Jeff Meucci to describe the project “for the folks at home.” Marohl said a February 2025 dive to locate the outfall found the line broken and separated at some unknown point. The borough reported the deficiency to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Alaska Dep...
