The Petersburg Borough Assembly has a long agenda ahead of their regular meeting today at 12 p.m. They’re scheduled to look at two ordinances that would change parts of the Petersburg Municipal Code that dictate how they can sell or exchange Borough property.

At the start of today’s meeting, Petersburg’s Borough Assembly will hear reports from Petersburg Medical Center, the local Ranger District, and the Borough’s accounting firm, BDO Global. Petersburg Medical Center CEO Phil Hofstetter will report on the ongoing hospital replacement project. BDO Global representatives Bikky Shrestha and George Barker will present their plan for their upcoming audit of the Borough’s financial statements. And District Ranger Ray Born will give an update on Forest Service activities. 

The Assembly’s first item of new business is to consider updating Petersburg’s municipal code to account for several decades of inflation and higher real estate prices. Since 1990, the Borough caps the assessed value of Borough property to be sold or exchanged at $500,000. The new ordinance would increase that upper limit to $2 million.

Another new ordinance that will go before the assembly today would change a section of the Municipal Code to allow the borough to sell property for less than its assessed value if the buyer will develop the land in a way that benefits the public. Specifically, that development project has to construct new industrial, manufacturing, or commercial facilities. Or, it should build out at least 20 residential lots that would help relieve Petersburg’s affordable housing shortage.

The Assembly will also look at a resolution to declare their support for a state project to repair the local airport runway. According to the Alaska Department of Transportation, parts of the runway and blast pad are sinking, and some of the airport’s light fixtures are falling into disrepair. The department is requesting funding from the Airport Project Evaluation Board to replace some runway lights and flood light poles, and re-pave the runway.

Assembly members will also decide when they’ll have a work session with Petersburg’s School Board. The school district has requested a joint work session to discuss their funding requests for next year. 

The Assembly will also decide when they’ll schedule their own regular meeting, which was to take place on February 20th. The Borough expects that there won’t be enough assembly members present to reach a quorum, so they’ll have to set the meeting for another date — or cancel it entirely. 

KFSK will broadcast today’s assembly meeting live and post the recording in our Assembly Archives. Anyone can join the meeting in person, by phone, or on Zoom. There’s more information on KFSK’s community calendar.

Editor’s Note: The wording of this story has been changed to reflect the correct wording of the ordinance to increase the upper limit of the assessed value of Borough property that can be exchanged or sold.