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Homer is a fishing and tourism town of about 6,000 people at the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s more politically diverse than most cities in Alaska, with a strong liberal side, an equally strong conservative side, and some who just want to tend their gardens, smoke their fish, hope the Safeway is stocked and that they have regular air service to Anchorage. Unfortunately, Homer last week was dumped and lumped into the nationwide fight over freedom of the press, waged by conservatives who don’t like or trust or respect the news med...
On Friday, September 26, 2025, Petersburg was hit by a storm that carried high winds and several inches of rain. While this was a bad storm and caused a fair amount of damage, Petersburg has witnessed storms in the past that were more fierce and caused much more damage. Thankfully, as far as I know, nobody was hurt in this last storm. The storm I want to talk about is Petersburg’s political storm. When did our beautiful little town turn so dark and angry? I was driving around the Sandy Beach loop road on Thursday, September 25, and I saw a v...
Thank you Petersburg! I’ve appreciated your support as mayor, first when we were a City and now as a Borough. It’s been an honor to serve you these last 18 years. During that time we pursued and received over $100,000,000 for local improvements and service expansions through State and Federal funding. This allowed us to build some much-needed infrastructure and lay the foundation for more. Among these are the North Harbor, the Drive-Down Dock, Middle Harbor, the Fire Hall, Police Station and Administration Building, Library, Mountain View Man...
I appreciated Eric Rosvold’s LTE last week outlining all the reasons we must vote YES on Proposition 1. I too, a born and raised Petersburg resident working and raising my children in this wonderful community, realize the time has come to limit the senior sales tax exemption to those that truly need it. I took issue with the second letter in last week’s edition. Ms. Escola must have forgotten or is unaware that her suggestion of sunsetting the senior sales tax has already come before the voters as recently as 2014 and failed, as did lim...
In a recent KFSK interview, Donna Marsh, a candidate for reelection to the borough assembly, made the unprompted statement that neither she nor her husband had ever been a government employee. She said it smugly, as though it were a good thing. Ms. Marsh wears on her sleeve her contempt for government employees. These are the people who carry out the daily business of the government that she wants to continue leading. Antigovernment sentiment is misplaced when directed toward the people who don’t control what government does but merely e...
The senator is a hard worker who does her homework. She looks for compromises, albeit frustrating both sides of the political aisle who would prefer she not compromise on what they don’t like. She has been effective at winning support in Congress for a long list of Alaska projects and programs over her more than 22 years in the U.S. Senate. But no matter how much Sen. Lisa Murkowski has succeeded in the past, that list looks small when measured against the fights she is now waging in Washington, D.C. The senator is trying to convince her c...
To the Editor: I would be in favor of the ballot proposition to limit the current sales tax exemption to those who meet a qualification standard. Being a third-generation resident of Petersburg, with family members occupying both the 4th and 5th generation positions, I am committed to seeing Petersburg prosper. I remember discussions, now 40 years back, of trying to find ways to keep our senior citizens living in Petersburg as they aged. This exemption was one, and the exemption regarding personal property taxes another. It is time for these...
I’ve been thinking, maybe I am wrong — about a lot of things. I’ve certainly been wrong about many things in life, so perhaps I should broaden my outlook and accept that I don’t have to be so well informed about everything. Maybe knowing less would lead to a happier life. Maybe many people, myself included, would have fewer things to worry about the less we know. I always thought that having more information was a good thing. Knowing the data helped figure out whether there was a problem and how bad it was. Knowing the facts made for better...
To the Editor: I urge you to vote no on Proposition 1. A yes vote on Proposition 1 will eliminate the senior sales tax exemption for all but the lowest income seniors, currently 61 people. If approved, Proposition 1 will provide the borough with an additional $350,000 to $400,000 in revenue per year. This money will come out of the pockets of the town’s senior citizens who are currently exempt from the sales tax. They can expect to pay, on average, $70 more per month for life’s basic needs (this figure was presented in a recent borough dis...
To the Editor: The mayor is the outward-facing role for our community and Bob Lynn’s 34-years of government experience, from the local to the national level, is exactly what we need to work with the state, federal government and other outside organizations to maximize opportunities for Petersburg. Our community faces a variety of challenges: funding the much-needed new facility for the hospital and long-term care, affordable housing, fisheries issues, economic development and tourism – just to name a few. Bob Lynn has a proven track record of...
Heartfelt Appreciation for Your Courage and Dedication To the Editor: We are writing to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation for all the people that showed presence, courage, professionalism, and quick response during the recent active shooter lockdown at the Children’s Center. Your unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the children and each other was nothing short of extraordinary. In the face of an incredibly distressing situation, you remained calm and provided reassurance to the staff and children in our care. Y...
Our communities in this vast state are connected by the stories we share. Whether through the radio airwaves or the pages of a local newspaper, journalism helps us understand one another and navigate day-to-day life in Alaska. But journalism in all forms is under threat and it’s a threat we can’t afford to ignore. The Alaska News Coalition is a nonprofit formed by a volunteer board of current and former journalists to protect the economic sustainability of our state’s newsrooms and to support local news organizations with the financial, techn...
To the Editor: As I recall, about 60% of Petersburg residents voted for Trump and Begich in the last election. Thanks to those two and the GOP mega bill dozens, if not many more, local residents may lose access to their current healthcare benefits as a result of the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. Local Forest Service employees were laid off, then some re-hired. Similar chaos was widespread in other agencies. It was only due to timely intervention by Senator Murkowski that Federal Fishing Permits were issued as scheduled for the opening day of...
Why I decided to run for Mayor To the Editor: I have given a lot of thought about whether I should run for Mayor. I have asked my wife and many friends and acquaintances that question. It has not been an easy decision. I believe strongly in our community and have invested lots of time to help make it a community that will grow and prosper during these times of great change. I believe we will see a shift of costs from both the State and Federal governments to the local level. We will need to be more self-reliant on local issues like housing,...
In last week’s edition of the Pilot, the byline was missing from the guest editorial. That was a production error during the page layout. The writer of that opinion piece was Larry Persily. Thank you to the several people who were alarmed by the publication of an unsigned editorial. That was an unintentional omission and the Pilot apologizes for the production mistake. A few weeks earlier there was another opinion-signing error, this time it was an error of editorial judgment. A letter was signed by “Mitzi the Bear.” Thank you to the folks...
History Echoes To the Editor: August 23rd is observed in many European countries as a day of remembrance for one of the most cynical political actions in Western history and is recognized by many, including our Canadian neighbors, as Black Ribbon Day. This Saturday marks the 86th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Stalinist Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi Germany. A secret portion of this mutual non-aggression treaty was an agreement between the two powers to partition the independent countries that lay between them. The G...
Help Wanted: Unique opportunity to lead the largest state in the country, with more miles of coastline, taller mountains, more fish and game, more dreams and less reality than those other 49 pipsqueaks. Dynamic, convincing decision maker with strong personality needed to lead the second youngest state in the nation into the future, albeit without enough money to meet all its needs. It’s a fixer-upper job; the current employee has let a lot of things go bad, never learned to get along with co-workers, and hasn’t been working all that hard. Whi...
Drop The Charges To the Editor: I applaud and thank Mr. Hankins for his initiative and action in disposing of the bear on Rambler St. That particular bear was an ongoing problem and danger to our neighborhood. It was continually using our fence line as a path. Numerous calls and police response failed to deter it. State law must be changed to include the rights of a community to dispatch bears within their jurisdiction when found to have the real potential to cause harm. Our trampoline is within a couple of feet of that bear’s pathway. My k...
We Deserve More Than Shrugs To the Editor: I’m writing because my patience has completely run out. For months, my garbage cans have been pillaged by bears while the troopers and Fish and Game do absolutely nothing – unless you count shrugging, handing out useless advice as ‘action’ and threats of fines. Frankly, I’m tired of watching my street turn into a dumpster buffet for wildlife while the powers that be don’t lift a finger. It’s bad enough that I have to spend my mornings cleaning up after oversized, uninvited guests. Worse, our kids have...
The state is taking money that was appropriated for one bad idea almost a generation ago and spending it on an equally wasteful idea. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Department of Transportation, which manages the Alaska Marine Highway System, has signed a $28.5 million contract to start work toward a new ferry terminal at Cascade Point, 40 long road miles north of downtown Juneau. The money is coming from a kitty left over from a long-ago appropriation to build a longer road between Juneau and Haines or Skagway. The billion-dollar road was never b...
To the Editor: At the July 21, 2025, assembly meeting, I should have recused myself on the vote regarding the application by Mr. Ohmer to purchase property on Haugen. I didn’t. I should have and I was wrong. Prior to that meeting, I had studied the agenda and thoughtfully considered if this proposal in particular would be a conflict of interest for me. I determined it was not as it would not benefit me financially, substantially or otherwise, regardless of whether or not this proposal passed or not. What I failed to do in this situation was con...
Vice Mayor Donna Marsh violated the public's trust during Monday’s assembly meeting. When presiding over the assembly’s decision whether or not to sell two borough lots for development into duplexes for affordable rentals, Marsh did not disclose that the neighbors fervently opposing the land sale are her parents-in-law. Instead of disclosing the potential conflict of interest and recusing herself from the decision, she voted to block the land sale. I recognize the difficult decision the assembly members grappled with on Monday: Should the bor...
Among all the sections in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that will drive up the federal deficit, pour billions into defense and border security and cut federal spending on Medicaid is one item that shows Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was thinking ahead. The senator said she successfully negotiated to add a provision that delays until at least 2028 new federal penalties on Alaska for its shamefully high error rate in processing SNAP benefits (food stamps) for needy people. The penalties — if the state cannot solve its problems and reduce its e...
Support Public Media To the Editor: As I write this, the House of Representatives has passed H.R.4, a ‘rescission package’ that includes eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This would mean no federal support for radio stations like KFSK – 30% of the station’s budget. This drastic cut to our community station would not only devastate the institution, it would cause immense harm to a key piece of our emergency response. I hope you join me in calling on our Senators Murkowski, at 202-224-6665, and Sullivan, at 202-224...
Alaska’s Most Valuable Resource To the Editor: Politicians like to talk about Alaska’s vast and valuable resources, but they seem to forget that our most precious resource is our children. Children’s opportunities to grow, learn, and thrive are short-lived, and every single day matters. Year after year, we watch Governor Dunleavy veto funding for Alaska’s students. I keep thinking about the damage that’s happening to our children every minute that our Governor continues to kick this can down the road. Our children and our schools cannot af...
