The Alaska Department of Transportation plans to spray herbicides on Prince of Wales Island. It will be the first time the DOT has applied herbicides in southeast Alaska since the state eliminated public review requirements in 2013. This has some community members and environmental groups worried about chemicals leaching into nearby habitat.
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Voters will have a choice for borough assembly in Petersburg this October. Former city councilor Marc Martinsen has filed paperwork to run for a three-year term on the assembly. He’ll be challenging two incumbents, Cindi Lagoudakis and Bob Lynn seeking to keep their seats.
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This school year is the last for Petersburg High School athletics in the state’s 3A conference. The Alaska School Activities Association has four classifications for Alaska high schools, 1-A through 4-A depending on student enrollment numbers. Petersburg has been a 3A school but has dropped below the 150 student minimum and will be a 2A school next year.
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The state of Alaska is requesting to be involved with Canadian approval of a proposed copper and gold mine across the border in British Columbia. State commissioners of three departments submitted comments on Seabridge Gold’s Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell or KSM mine this month. That open pit mine is planned in the Unuk and Nass river watersheds across the border from Ketchikan. Alaska’s congressional delegation, fishing industry and tribal groups have asked for a more detailed review of that project following a tailings dam failure at a different mine in British Columbia this month.
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The operations of a hydro electric power plant in central Southeast Alaska changed hands quietly this month. Six employees at the Tyee Lake hydro electric plant on the mainland near Wrangell worked for the Thomas Bay Power Authority until August 15th. The following day they were six new employees of the Ketchikan based Southeast Alaska Power Agency.
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