Author: Joe Viechnicki, KFSK

Petersburg’s borough assembly is back on track to pass a budget for the fiscal year that starts in July, after voting down the spending plan a week before. Assembly members this week voted down full funding for the museum and expanded hours at the public library but learned more about possible one-time payments for department heads.

The union representing the bulk of borough employees in Petersburg has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the municipality. That complaint has been lodged with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency and it prompted the borough assembly Monday to put off its vote on another contract offer.

A team of students from Petersburg High School Thursday finished up their latest calculations on the position of the LeConte Glacier near Petersburg. The annual survey has been recording the retreat of the ice mass since 1983. This year students witnessed massive ice blocks breaking off the face a documented a small retreat of the southernmost tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere.

Petersburg’s assembly on a split vote Monday decided not to send a letter to U.S. Forest Service officials with questions about Tongass timber sales.
The letter was drafted to forest supervisor Earl Stewart and asked for specific changes that have been made to the administration, monitoring and enforcement of contracts for timber sales.

A proposed budget for the Petersburg borough Monday failed to pass in its first reading before a short-handed Petersburg assembly. It’ll be back up for consideration in a special meeting on Monday. A big unknown for the spending plan is the cost of paying borough employees over the next few years.