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Retiring police chief reflects on 16 years in Petersburg

The need for better facilities and full staffing are a couple of the issues Petersburg Police Chief Dale stone is reflecting on as he nears his retirement at the end of the month.
Stone has overseen Petersburg’s eight to nine officers for sixteen years. Since December, he’s mainly been on leave taking care of family matters in northwest Montana.
Stone, who is 57, started his law enforcement career in Alaska where he was a state trooper for seven years. Then, he served with a small department in Montana before coming to Petersburg in the spring of 1994.
Stone says he has no new career plans at this point, though he doesn’t rule out future work in law enforcement or possibly returning to Alaska some day.
On Thursday, Stone spoke with KFSK’s Matt Lichtenstein, who asked why he decided to retire now.

Petersburg celebrates town centenial with big picture

Petersburg celebrated its Centennial anniversary Tuesday afternoon with a massive, group photo. The mayor declared a half-day holiday and local organizers estimate as many as 15 hundred people, roughly half the population, turned out to the ball fields for the panoramic picture. That included the school districts entire compliment of staff and students. The rainy weather cleared just in time and a city bucket truck lifted the photographer high above the field. She composed the shot with the help of two-way radios and a crowd-wrangler on the ground. Matt Lichtenstein gathered some of the sounds and voices from the brief but historic event

House candidate Stein visits Petersburg

Several candidates for office have been making the rounds through Southeast Alaska. Reber Stein is one of them. Stein is a Democrat from Sitka who is running for the State House seat now held by Wrangell Republican Peggy Wilson.
Stein credits Wilson for her accomplishments as a lawmaker, but he says he can offer new energy in the job and improve connections with other legislators to benefit the district. The ferry system is one of the issues he’s anxious to tackle.
Stein spent much of his youth in Sitka and has lived there for about 30 years. He works in technical support for the state’s largest employee union – the Alaska State Employees Association. He currently serves on the Sitka Borough Assembly.
He was in Petersburg last week and KFSK’s Matt Lichtenstein asked him about his decision to run for the District Two House seat.

Strand appointed to City Council

Petersburg has a new City Councilor. The Mayor and three Councilors Monday night appointed Nancy Strand to the vacant seat. Strand was born and raised in Petersburg. She previously served on the Council forty years ago. Since her retirement from construction work in 1995, Strand has volunteered for a variety of city and community posts. In recent years, she was on the local committee that drafted the charter for a proposed Petersburg borough. She also serves on the Clausen Memorial Museum board and is chair of the City’s Utility Board. She lost an election bid for council last fall.
Strand was one of two applicants for the seat formerly held by longtime councilor Ed Sarf, who passed away in March. The other applicant was Ben Johnson, the operations director for the Petersburg Indian Association and current chair of the City’s ad hoc, smoking ordinance committee .In a secret ballot, the council initially voted three to one in favor of Strand. However, with just a quorum of four members Monday night, the vote had to be unanimous to make the appointment. So they took a second vote and everyone voted for strand. Councilors Mark Jenson and John Havrilek were out of town. Strand will have to resign her seat on the utility board to take the council appointment. Her council term will expire this fall.

Labor dispute continues, more council news

The latest round in Petersburg’s municipal labor dispute came up at the City Council meeting Monday night. A group of city workers turned out to talk to the Mayor and Council again. This time, their concern focused on some of the City Managers statements to the press. Matt Lichtenstein has a look at that testimony and a wrap-up of some of the other news from this week’s City Council meeting