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PETERSBURG – The Petersburg Borough assembly and hospital board met last week to discuss proposed changes to the Petersburg Medical Center’s charter code as well as a recent memorandum written by the borough’s attorney regarding the relationship between PMC and the borough. The memo details the attorney’s opinion on various questions assembly members posed about hospital policy. Assembly and PMC board members spent much of the time discussing the question of whether or not PMC employees are borough employees—a contentious issue many of the PM...
PETERSBURG — The Hawai’i Police Department announced yesterday that a body found January 2 in Kalapana is that of missing Petersburg man Boaz Johnson. A Hawai’i police media release states police determined Johnson ended his own life after he strangled his girlfriend, Brittany-Jane Royal, whose body was discovered last May by fishermen in line along waters off the coast of Kalapana. “A composition book was found near Johnson’s body,” the media release states. “In three handwritten pages, the writer—who identified himself as Boaz Johnson—confes...
PETERSBURG – The Petersburg Borough Sanitation Department has set Feb. 4 to be the start date of the new comingled voluntary recycling program. Residents who want to participate must call Public Works at 772-4430 to sign up. Once that’s done, sanitation staff will drop off blue bags, free of charge, at residences and businesses during the week of Jan. 20. Current residents who already practice curbside recycling will be automatically transferred into the new program. After the initial rollout of the recycling program, free bags will be availab...
PETERSBURG – Matt Lichtenstein, recent KFSK news director and now full-time troller fisherman, just earned $5000 in crowd funding after the Petersburg Economic Development Council (PEDC) implemented a new program earlier this month. PEDC partnered with the international non-profit Kiva Zip to offer a micro-financing option for local entrepreneurs and small businesses. “In our case, PEDC acts as a trustee for Kiva Zip so we’re kind of their on the ground person and we endorse a borrower,” said Liz Cabrera, PEDC director. Lichtenstein announced h...
Petersburg Power and Light Superintendent and Southeast Alaska Power Agency board member Joe Nelson made a motion to suspend the Petersburg-Kake Intertie Project last week. Nelson made the motion after SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson reported to the board about future funding challenges associated with the project. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the City of Ketchikan and the City of Saxman all listed the Swan Lake Reservoir at the top of their capital project lists. Governor Sean Parnell’s fiscal year 2015 capital project list doesn’t include the pro...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously voted to go ahead with negotiations with Wrangell, Ketchikan and the Southeast Alaska Power Agency to provide a conversion plan for the transfer of operations and maintenance of the Tyee Hyrdo Facility from the Thomas Bay Power Authority to SEAPA. The vote comes after the Wrangell Assembly drafted a resolution earlier this month that, in part, accepts SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson’s August 19 offer to take over operations at TBPA. As part of the conversion plan and Acteson’s offer, the resolution states tha...
Superior Court Judge Trevor Stephens sentenced William Boon, 25, of Wrangell, to 18 months unsuspended prison time for two counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance on Nov. 18. Officials originally charged Boon with eight counts of varying degrees of misconduct involving a controlled substance, ranging from second to fifth. Under a plea deal agreement reached with the district attorney’s office, Boon plead guilty to two counts in exchange for the dismissal of the others, and the modification of one count from second t...
PETERSBURG – The commercial sea cucumber fishery is wrapping up with a total of 1.4 million pounds harvested as of last Thursday. Scott Walker, Ketchikan Area Management Biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the fishery started out with around 195 commercial divers when it opened in early October. “The bulk of the fishery is over,” Walker said. “The week before last was the last big push we had with around 113 divers. This week we’re down to 25 divers, maybe 30.” According to Alaska Fisheries Entry Commission d...
PETERSBURG – Kevin Colson, Wildlife Biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, gave a presentation in the public library conference room Tuesday night about moose populations and their long journey to Southeast Alaska. To help tell the story, Colson for the past year and a half has worked with Petersburg high school teacher Joni Johnson and her science students as they collect and catalogue moose DNA samples. Before moose made their way to Southeast, a very recent occurrence that didn’t happen until the early 1900s, they lived in the bo...
PETERSBURG – Federal authorities arrested 45 year-old Tye Leif Petersen, Petersburg District School’s recent Maintenance Director, on charges of Distribution of and Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography Involving a Prepubescent Minor or Child Under 12 Years of Age. The charges come after a joint investigation between the Petersburg Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to an FBI affidavit, last July an investigator searched a Yahoo! E-mail account labeled “Tennessee John Doe” and fou...
The Subsistence Division of Alaska Department of Fish and Game is looking to interview local residents about their experiences on the Stikine River as it attempts to better understand Chinook salmon declines. The Chinook Salmon Research Initiative, a state-funded research project aimed at better understanding statewide salmon stocks, is funding the local project. In 2001, fishermen harvested more than 70,000 Chinooks from the Stikine. By 2009, those numbers dipped below 20,000 harvested fish. Rosalie Grant, Subsistence Research Specialist for...
PETERSBURG – Petersburg recently found out that it has won Yachting Magazine’s ‘2013 Best Towns’ competition. Dan Harding, Associate Editor for Yachting Magazine, wrote in an article, “Joining the ranks of Oxford, Maryland and Beaufort, North Carolina, the Alaskan fishing village has reminded us that the appeal of a destination is not always measured in amenities and attractions, and that natural beauty and character are what make a place truly special.” And the same sea lion plaguing boaters this year might be the same animal Harding inc...
PETERSBURG – This year’s moose hunt is the third highest harvest on record with a total of 85 animals taken from the region. The highest record was in 2009 with 108 moose being harvested and the second was in 2011 with 88 moose taken. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the majority of moose are taken during the first two weeks of the hunt, which was the case this year as well. Forty-six moose were taken during the first half of the hunt while 39 were taken during the second. “We’re killing more moo...
Thirty-seven moose have been checked in to Alaska Department of Fish and game this season. Rich Lowell, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said nineteen moose were checked in during the first week, which is close to average for the last 10 years “Most of the harvest occurs within the first two weeks of the season,” Lowell said. As of yesterday afternoon, 12 moose have been harvested from the Stikine, 12 from Kupreanof and six from Mitkof. Although 12 moose were taken from Kupreanof only six were taken from the Kak...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved a resolution Friday informing the Wrangell assembly of its acceptance of Southeast Alaska Power Agency’s offer to take over Tyee Hydroelectric Project operation costs. The resolution urges the Wrangell assembly to also accept the offer. SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson presented the offer that would also absorb existing Thomas Bay Power Authority employees along with their Public Employee Retirement System unfunded liabilities in excess of $750,000 should SEAPA terminate the current Tyee contract. The Petersburg a...
PETERSBURG – This summer’s warmer than average temperatures could carry over into the winter if current climate trends continue. Two main factors affect winter weather in Southeast Alaska—the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO, and the El Nino/La Nina Oscillations or ENSO. Each factor has two phases—positive and negative and both affect sea surface water temperatures. The positive PDO phase happens when increased storm activity in the north Pacific blows warmer water into the Gulf of Alaska and raises the average sea surface tempera...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly will likely travel to Wrangell September 10 to discuss with its assembly the viability of Thomas Bay Power Authority. According to a memo sent out by Wrangell Interim Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch, the two municipalities created TBPA to jointly maintain and operate the Tyee Hydroelectric power plant. Southeast Alaska Power Agency, SEAPA, owns the facility and pays for its operations and maintenance. There’s an additional expense associated with the TBPA budget that the two boroughs traditionally split. It’s cal...
PETERSBURG – Petersburg School District Superintendent Dr. Rob Thomason was awarded a Superintendent of the Year Award last week. Bruce Johnson, Executive Director for the Association of Alaskan Superintendents, presented the award to Thomason during a welcome back school board meeting. “It is my great honor to announce that your superintendent, Dr. Rob Thomason, is Alaska’s 2014 Superintendent of the year,” Johnson said to an applauding crowd. Johnson said a selection committee sought nominations from across the state. Nominations could b...
PETERSBURG – After the warm weather that contributed to the death of more than 1000 King Salmon in Blind Slough earlier this summer, Crystal Lake Hatchery hasn’t incubated as many eggs as it would have liked. Kevin Chase, Crystal Lake Hatchery Manager, said it finished its third and final round of egg takes from its King Salmon return yesterday morning. “Our goal is a million and a half eggs,” Chase said. “Now we’re at 600,000 to 700,000.” Crystal Lake will receive eggs from other hatcheries, i...
PETERSBURG — Borough Assembly and Petersburg Medical Center hospital board members discussed the financial state of the hospital and funding assistance for capital projects from the borough last Thursday morning. The discussion was also directed at how the public will perceive a potential tax levy to help fund a hospital that has remained financially independent of the city, now the borough, throughout its existence. “The public has a healthy skepticism on the borough’s spending habits,” assembly member John Hoag said. Hoag referenced high co...
The Wrangell assembly approved a resolution requesting grant funding with the hopes of getting more water to a system that is often tapped. Jeff Jabusch, Interim Borough Manager, said there’s plenty of water but it’s not getting treated fast enough to meet the demand of the community. “By the end of the day, often times they’re getting down to where there’s just a few feet left in each one of them,” Jabusch said. “If we were to run out or if there were a major fire or if the canneries wanted to expand or any of those things we would have so...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly approved a controversial $100,000 reimbursement during its August 27 meeting after services had been rendered. The reimbursement goes to Alaska Island Community Services to offset expenses incurred after it relocated its clinic to a new building site. Wrangell’s previous borough manager Timothy Rooney negotiated with AICS in 2009 to relocate its clinic, for the sake of convenience, next to where the Wrangell Medical Center would build its new facility—the Alpine site. In an e-mail sent to the assembly in 2011, Roon...
PETERSBURG — An entangled humpback whale continues to remain snared in a gill net despite a two day effort last weekend to free the animal. Don Holmes with the Marine Mammal Center in Petersburg received a call Friday morning about the snared whale in Frederick Sound. He and other volunteers were granted permission from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association to assess the situation. “We found that the whale was completely wrapped on the flukes with the lead line draping across of the back...
PETERSBURG – The Petersburg Borough continues to deal with an aggressive sea lion that’s been bothering people in the harbors all summer. Mayor Mark Jensen wrote a letter August 9 in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service’s lack of assistance in the matter. “We find it unfortunate that the National Marine Fisheries Service is unwilling to take any active role in removing this threat to our children, citizens, economic base and our quality of life,” Jensen wrote in the letter. Ha...
PETERSBURG – The Petersbug Borough Assembly approved a sales tax-free day scheduled for Saturday, October 5. Assembly member Susan Flint said sales tax revenues are ahead of budget this year and the time period would be good for residents. “October is a month where it’s pretty much residents living in Petersburg, or shopping in Petersburg,” Flint said. “I think it would be a better time to have it than when it was in May when we’re full of visitors.” The Chamber of Commerce Retail Committee proposed a sales tax-free day last May but the assembl...