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Volunteers needed To the Editor: Petersburg Rod and Gun Club is looking for volunteers to help with free firearms safety and etiquette clinics for high school hunters. Discussion items will include firearm safety, their transportation, cleaning and more. Parents should know that their children and their friends are as prepared as possible when handling firearms and that the proper handling of hunting rifles and sidearms will be taken seriously at all times. Anyone interested in helping can call Jake at 907-518-4025. Additionally, ADF&G hunter...
If Pinocchio had been in the room, his nose might have grown long enough to equal several of the 115,000 sections of 40-foot steel pipe that would be needed to construct the mythical mirage of the Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline project that has mesmerized state leaders for decades. There were that many lies spewed in the Oval Office during President Donald Trump’s Sept. 30 announcement that South Korea would unconditionally invest $54 billion in the Alaska project. “Thanks to the agreements my administration has secured with the Republ...
Vote yes on increasing the sales tax cap To the Editor: I am writing to address Petersburg’s current sales tax cap and its impact on our community. As inflation continues to affect our daily lives and local businesses, it has become increasingly clear that the current sales tax cap no longer aligns with the economic realities we face. The sales tax cap, initially set to provide a stable revenue source and prevent excessive taxation, has NEVER been adjusted to keep pace with inflation. Since its implementation in 1959, the cap of $1,000 (...
Preserve our election transparency laws To the Editor: Many groups and individuals, including lots outside of Alaska, are paying for ads for and against Proposition 2. How do we know this? Because of our election transparency laws. These laws will end if proposition 2 passes. I think it is good to know who the big donors are, like Elon Musk. He has contributed $1,500,000 to the Yes on 2 campaign. I also like open primaries. I want to be able to vote for the people I think are the best candidates for Alaska, whichever party they belong to....
Thankfully, only one of the four candidates for governor in the Nov. 3 statewide general election needs a refresher course in math. The rest know that 2 plus 2 equals 4. But Republican Bernadette Wilson, running for her first elected public office, is proving to voters that numbers don’t need to add up when you want to win bad enough. Wilson, who garnered a mathematically unremarkable 10% of the votes in the August primary election, which was good enough to make the Final Four, is campaigning for governor on the promise of a bigger Permanent F...
We feel so fortunate To the Editor: Thank you, Petersburg, for joining us in celebrating our 70th wedding anniversary and Shannon’s 90th birthday. We feel so fortunate to be part of such a caring community. Our children and grandchildren were nurtured and educated here, and now the fourth generation of our family is growing up here in this encouraging environment. You welcomed us when we arrived in 1971, and you continue to be a blessing to us. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you...
THANK YOU!! To the Editor: To the friendly and talented employees and medics of the Joy Jansson Clinic and Petersburg Medical Center, My name is Bill Springston. I’m 94 years old, but if you met me, you’d swear I was only 92. My wife, Susan, is just a kid (80 years). We’ve been here since May of 2025. We were lured to Petersburg by our daughter Gina and her family (Paul, Sam, and Nate and a larger-than-life dog, Captain). My wife wanted us to consider moving to Petersburg to retire. I replied, “WHAT?” She wanted us to put our names on a wait...
The state treasury is flush with oil revenue. Not because of investment in new production in Alaska — though that certainly is underway — but because the U.S. war with Iran is driving up oil prices faster and higher than drivers can afford. The average for a gallon of diesel in the U.S. drove past $6 last week, speeding to a record high. The average price for gasoline was $4.31 a gallon on Sept. 13, up $1.13 from a year ago, according to AAA, the country’s largest motoring and leisure travel membership organization. Those prices are bad news fr...
To the Editor: Rita and I want to thank all those who attended and helped with our wedding on Saturday, August 29. It was truly a special day full of community, celebration, love, and friendship. Many of those who came to help us tie the marriage knot did so to support and recognize the right of those of the same gender to marry, which only became legal a mere 21 years ago. While we both are happy to exercise this long-awaited right, we also hope someday that the stigma of “gay marriage” will be recognized simply as “marriage.” A big ‘thank...
7th anniversary of 9/11 To the Editor: It's hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the 9/11 attack. It was a day I'll never forget and more than just ‘something on the news.’ I was living and working in the Washington, DC, area on 9/11, though I grew up in New Jersey, just a few miles from Manhattan. My parents knew I was flying that day, so when I realized what was happening I tried to call them repeatedly, hitting ‘redial’ for over an hour and a half. Obviously, the communications trunk lines in and out of the New York City area we...
The federal government last week finally, behind schedule and without any plausible reason for the delay, released money that will go toward running the Alaska Marine Highway System. The grant funds, originally authorized by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill during the Biden administration, were expected last year, but the Trump administration dillied and dallied and delayed its decision until this year, just because. The Aug. 21 announcement came with all the hoopla expected in an election year, with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is...
To the Editor: I walk my dogs a lot. I’m sure many have seen me walking my three huskies. I try to diversify our paths but I do often walk around the ball field, mostly in the early mornings. It’s quiet and lovely with the summer foliage. One morning, though, about a month ago, I was dismayed and incredibly disheartened to walk around the fields and find that a young, healthy tree had been pulled out of the ground, exposing all its roots. It was killed, though its leaves didn’t know it yet. I knew we hadn’t had weather significant enough...
Compared to federal spending, the average American is downright frugal. The federal debt is now at $40 trillion, doubled from 10 years ago. If you add up all the credit card debt, car and truck loans and home mortgages held by Americans, excluding commercial properties, you don’t even get to half of the $40 trillion the federal government owes lenders. It’s hard to think of Americans as thrifty when the average credit card debt is about $6,600 — but compared to the president and Congress, most anyone can look like a responsible spender. That...
To the Editor: My husband Toby is off fighting a wildfire in the Lower 48 – which, around here, is a standing invitation for the gremlins to show up. I’ve stopped blaming coincidence. A vehicle battery dies. Or two. The smoke detector thirty feet up, the one that needs the tall ladder, starts chirping. And my pup Jax saves his most creative accidents for when his dad is in another time zone. They all happen every. single. time. He leaves on a work trip. This time, the truck battery drained – check. Jax fell out of bed in the middle of the night...
In May 2024, when then-Congresswoman Mary Peltola introduced a Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act and Bottom Trawl Clarity Act, the bills drew immediate backlash. Peltola, a Democrat, received a letter signed by 53 trawl interests and nationwide fishery stakeholders urging her to withdraw the proposed legislation saying, “These new federal mandates and timelines are utterly unworkable.” Fast forward to 2026. In her current campaign to unseat 12-year incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, Peltola introduced a similar “Fighting for Alask...
To the Editor: I thank my grandfather for a phrase he used with my siblings and me decades ago, “Check your moral compass frequently.” I was five when I first heard it and had no idea what it meant. I do now. He taught me to stop from time to time and ask myself whether something feels right. I have known Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins since he was a kid. I have watched him grow and generously give his time to Sitka’s high school exchange students during their annual legislative visits. I respect him for running for governor. That is why I have been...
o the Editor: When Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins first announced his bid for governor, it was a breath of fresh air. He reminded me of the times when Alaskans joined together to make things happen, help each other thrive, and build strong resilient communities with purpose and promise. It’s time to restore that Alaska can-do spirit. JKT’s boundless energy, innovation, and enthusiasm for problem solving will revitalize Alaska. Over a decade of public service in the legislature, JKT built a reputation for integrity, humility, bipartisanship, and put...
“There oughta be a law” is a common expression when people are frustrated with the behavior of others, the rules of society, the actions of their elected officials. Well, Alaskans will have an opportunity in the statewide primary election Aug. 18 to approve a new law, limiting the dollar size of donation checks to political campaigns of candidates running for the state Legislature and governor’s office. This is the chance for voters to do something about taking the money out of politics, limiting big-donor influence and fighting infla...
To the Editor: After 2.5 months of writing for the Petersburg Pilot, I would like to take a second to say thank you. Thank you to all the kind people who took me on adventures, were welcoming, and showed a college student from Colorado what island life in Southeast Alaska is like. I learned so much from the great people I had the opportunity to work with and meet, and I feel lucky to have spent time in this amazing location. Petersburg showed me what a small, tight-knit community should look like. Community support, togetherness, and kindness...
To the Editor: I’ve often wondered how the legalized runaway engines of unregulated capitalism and legalized bribery — consuming everything and everyone at all costs — might stir concern among the locally elected representatives of Petersburg. On the one hand, the corporate titans win, by investing millions of dollars into legislative races. That fuels the turning and churning wheels of “progress” and social policy. All this occurring, on our national super highway to living hell. And on the other hand, might their roadkill and maimed “l...
To the Editor: The League of Women Voters of Alaska is a nonpartisan organization. We don’t support or oppose candidates or parties, but we do take positions on issues after reaching consensus based on careful and extensive study. We are supportive of Ballot Measure 1, which will be on Alaska’s primary election ballot, and restores campaign finance limits in Alaska. The initiative will allow individuals to compete more equitably for public office. It also closes the door on unlimited contributions from individuals and reduces the risk – and t...
To the Editor: What you don’t know can kill you. Thanks to this newspaper, I recently learned of a new, disturbing danger. Is it safe to pick the flowers, or eat the blueberries on Mitkof Island? Not anymore – if some reed canary grass happens to be uphill of your blueberry bush, then Forest service employees may have recently toxified those berries. In the name of “invasive” species they’ve decided to begin spraying highly carcinogenic herbicides on Mitkof Island! Using glyphosate based herbicides, and “milestone” (Aminopyralid...
Celebrating our country’s 250th birthday on July 3rd and 4th here in Petersburg was fun and exhausting. This town knows how to put on great community celebrations! I appreciated the folks, festivities, and fun, especially hanging out at the voting rights group’s booth, enjoying the volunteers there and the people passing by. I also appreciated the fact that some people were passing out pocket U.S. Constitutions. So I decided to take a deep dive into my pocket U.S. Constitution. What an amazing, enduring, evolving, 239 year old document! I not...
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone whose actions saved our son Tausani’s life. We are forever grateful to the swift actions of Trevor McKay, Mike Doyle, Brent Birchell and Mark Severson of the F/V Odin and neighboring boats for their quick mobilization in initiating rescue services and engaging the U.S. Coast Guard. So many things went right after he went overboard, starting with Tausani’s own actions underwater and the incredible skill and herculean effort taken by Trevor to retrieve him and never let go, for Mark bei...
Just as mosquitos, outdoor barbecues and sometimes even sunshine and warm skies return every summer in Alaska, and just as king salmon used to return in abundance and many Lower 48 relatives visit in too much abundance, Alaska experiences a special summer event in election years: The return of the dividend-promising political candidate. More persistent than swarms of malicious mosquitos and nasty no-see-ums, the PFD pledges are immune to citronella candles, aerosol sprays or mesh nets to cover your face. They spread on social media at a faster...
