Author: kfskadmin

There’s some welcome news for Southeast Alaska commercial crabbers this week. The red and blue king crab fishery will open this November, for the first time in six years.

A key federal funding program for local schools in the Tongass and other national forests could once again be linked to logging levels, as it was prior to 2001. The US house is considering a draft bill that would substantially change the funding source for the Secure Rural Schools program, which has come under more scrutiny as congress looks to cut spending.

A former lumber mill owner from Washington State says he’s again considering building a new plant in Wrangell or Petersburg. John Glenn has ties to Petersburg and he’s proposed building a mill here in the past. His latest plan includes a facility that would manufacture construction-grade lumber and employ 40 to 50 people using a combination of old growth and second growth timber. Glenn presented the idea to Petersburg’s Finance Committee and several members of the public Friday.

Early next month, Petersburg voters will decide whether to allow the city to bond for up to one-and-a-half million dollars to help pay for a new library. The local amount works out to roughly 22 percent of the project’s estimated cost. The city and local library advocates have secured the rest of the funding mainly through a combination of state and foundation grants as well as local donations of money and land. Some of that funding is contingent on Petersburg passing the bond. On Friday, Matt Lichtenstein asked City Finance Director Jody Tow and City Librarian Tara Alcock for more detail on the funding and estimated costs of the new building.

New works of art in fabric, paint, sculpture and photography go on display today at the Clausen Memorial Museum for “One-by-One” A Women's Invitational Art show. It’s been an annual event for more than a decade in Petersburg. Matt Lichtenstein stopped by to visit with one of this year’s participants, Susan Christiansen, as she helped put the works on display.