Author: Joe Viechnicki, KFSK

Cruise ship companies stopping in Petersburg in 2019 will have to collect sales tax on their passengers’ tickets and pay a five dollar a head fee for passengers. Petersburg’s borough assembly Monday night voted down an ordinance that would have clarified that companies paying the new passenger fee would not have to pay sales tax on cruise tickets as well.

2019 could be another down year for pink salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and scientists with NOAA Fisheries Auke Bay Lab are forecasting a commercial harvest of 18 million fish, which would fall in the weak category for catches over the past six decades.

Petersburg Medical Center Thursday started up the first in a series of community forums on essential services at the community owned hospital. Administrators are hoping to engage local residents in a discussion about what’s needed in a new facility.

The U.S. Forest Service has started up a series of meetings about managing conflicts between hunters, tour operators and other land users in parts of the Tongass National Forest.
The meetings aim to minimize crowding during spring and fall hunting seasons on Admiralty Island, as well as national forest land around Hoonah, Juneau and Sitka. They’re the result of a collaboration between hunting guides and small cruise ship companies and are an offshoot of a 2017 Forest Service decision on land use called the Shoreline Two Outfitter Guide Project.