Author: Joe Viechnicki, KFSK

Kakayers and stand-up paddle boarders will be braving the Wrangell Narrows Saturday, July 21 to raise money for Petersburg Medical Center. It’s the fifth annual Paddle Battle in the Narrows, a fund raiser for the medical center foundation. Each year, money from the event goes toward different needs at the local hospital. This year it will help pay for training.

The Alaska Army National Guard is transferring armories in rural communities to various different organizations including municipalities around the state. Here in Petersburg, the armory on Haugen Drive was transferred to the Division of Public Safety in May of this year.

It looks like the driver of a Petersburg borough van that crashed on July 4th, 2016 will not be going on trial for murder and manslaughter charges this summer. Attorneys in the case have reached an agreement on a jail sentence for the fatal wreck.

Operators of fish hatcheries in Southeast Alaska are a little puzzled with early returns of chum salmon this summer. The numbers of four-year-old dog salmon are not living up to expectations, while younger and older fish are making up a bigger portion of this season’s catches.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to offer trees for commercial firewood sales on Mitkof Island. Personal use firewood cutting is already allowed. But commercial sale of that wood is something that local residents have sought on Mitkof.