Author: kfskadmin

The acting chief of police in Petersburg has taken on the job on a permanent basis. Jim Agner has signed a five year contract to head up the Petersburg Police Department. He has done that job on an interim basis since former chief Dale Stone stepped down at the end of last year. Agner has been with the Petersburg department since April of 1994, and has worked in law enforcement since 1987. City manager Scott Hahn announced the hiring at last night’s city council meeting and Agner answered questions about the new job following the meeting.

A newly formed committee of Petersburg residents will be meeting throughout the summer to try and find ways to improve the financial future of the assisted living wing at the city's Mountain View Manor elderly housing building. The committee will investigate whether formation of a non-profit organization might cut costs and open up more opportunity for revenue. They’ll also look into whether selling all or part of the Manor facility is an option, along with raising rents, or an increase in property taxes, among other ideas.

Scientists in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest are trying to find ways to save an economically and ecologically valuable tree—the Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Some of the latest experiments are focusing on whether cedars can be transplanted further north, along with a search for the hardier genetic strains of the tree.

Author and kayak guide Kurt Hoelting tonight will talk about his year-long experiment to go without use of a car, and the walking and kayaking trips he took during that time around his home on Whidbey Island. Hoelting first came to Southeast Alaska to fish during college in 1969. He has worked as a commercial fisherman, and nowadays offers kayak tours during the summer out of Keene Channel south of Petersburg. In April he published his first book called “The Circumference of Home” about the year he went car-less. Joe Viechnicki spoke with Hoelting about his experience.

For the second year in a row, a ferry terminal on the southern end of Mitkof Island, 25 miles south of Petersburg, remains unused by the state, or an independent ferry authority that operates in Southeast. A marine highway official says the next generation of state ferries will not be able to dock at South Mitkof and the Inter-Island Ferry Authority says it needs an operating subsidy to restart service to that terminal.