Author: kfskadmin

Alaska’s Commissioner of Fish and Game spoke to a home-town crowd at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet Saturday night. Commissioner Cora Campbell told the group that the department wants to hear from Alaskans and focus on the resources that are most important to them. Campbell was joined by Commerce Commissioner Susan bell, who spoke about some of her department’s economic development efforts.

Petersburg sales tax was down roughly five percent for the 2010 calendar year. Recent months have shown some improvement according to finance director Jody Tow, but she still expects it will be another tough budget year. For the past few years, costs have exceeded revenues in the City’s tax-supported general fund. That fund includes the departments and services that can’t pay for themselves – like public works, police and fire, parks and recreation and education. Education costs are a particular concern since forest receipt payments under the federal Secure Rural Schools Act are set to expire next year. That program provided roughly a million dollars for the City to spend on local schools.
The City’s draft budget for 2012 won’t be ready until early April, so it will be a while yet before the City Council has to decide whether tax increases or spending cuts will be needed to make ends meet.
Right now, department heads are working on their individual budget requests. Last week, Matt Lichtenstein stopped by the City Finance Office to speak with Jody Tow about the budget outlook

The Irish-American quintet Solas performs traditional and contemporary Celtic music in Petersburg this weekend. The Petersburg arts council is bringing the critically-acclaimed acoustic musicians to town for a concert in the Wright auditorium Saturday night at seven. Matt Lichtenstein had the opportunity to chat with violinist and vocalist Winifred Horan, one of the groups founding members.

A team of five Petersburg High School students took 4th place overall and third place in the quiz at the statewide Tsunami Bowl in Seward last weekend. Petersburg’s Aquateen Hunger Force only lost one quiz competition and that was to Absolute Vorticity, the Juneau team that eventually took first place. In all, 20 teams from 14 schools competed at the annual academic event, which challenges the student’s ocean science knowledge and research skills. The Petersburg students focused their Tsunami Bowl research paper and presentation on invasive tunicates. Those are small siphon feeders that can be inadvertently transplanted from one region to another where they compete with native marine species for food. Matt Lichtenstein spoke with members of the Aquateen Hunger Force about their performance in the Tsunami Bowl:

Cascade Creek LLC has released portions of its draft hydropower license application for public review. The private company wants to build a new plant at a remote lake in Southeast Alaska’s Thomas Bay. Over the past several years, the proposal has drawn opposition from nearby Petersburg and concerns from State and Federal resource managers. As Cascade Creek works on its licensing documents, it’s also asking the federal government for a new preliminary permit. That would give the company another three years with exclusive rights to file a license application. Matt Lichtenstein has this update on the process: