Author: kfskadmin

The Petersburg School District may ask for voter support this October to redo the walls and windows at the Rae C. Stedman Elementary School. The renovation work may cost just under a million dollars and would aim to cut down on heat loss in the building. Petersburg’s school board discussed the project at their regular meeting Tuesday.

There’s a new mural in the works for the outside wall of the high school gym in Petersburg. The theme for the 10 foot by 40 foot mural is “The Diversity of Petersburg”. Students are working on the design and local volunteers are invited to help them paint the artwork on eight to ten aluminum panels. The prep work gets underway march 30th. Organizers are looking for prepping and painting volunteers as well as contributions, materials and loner equipment. Anyone interested in volunteering for the project, sponsoring one of the panels, or contributing in other ways can contact the high school at 772-3861. Project organizers are asking to borrow tarps, sawhorses, and orbital sanders. To find out more, Matt Lichtenstein spoke with community engagement advocate Peggy Floro and Ashley Duross, who teaches art at the Middle and High Schools.

Petersburg area residents focused on Native corporation logging practices, potential impacts to salmon streams and the need to complete land entitlement selections during two and a half hours of passionate testimony about the Sealaska lands bill last week. Around 50 people packed Petersburg’s city council chambers Friday giving testimony on the controversial legislation.

Petersburg’s proposed anti-smoking ordinance is on hold for a couple of months. City Councilors and the Mayor agreed this week that the broadly-worded measure needed some changes. They voted to postpone it’s second reading and they plan to appoint a committee that will come up with amendments. The council decision followed public testimony, mainly from several opponents of the measure.

While Ocean Beauty Seafoods has announced plans to shutter its Petersburg salmon canning plant in 2010, the community’s two other large processing companies expect to remain open but with scaled back operations. Low forecasts for pink and chum salmon will likely mean fewer out-of-town processing workers at the plants that are running. A slow season will also impact the bottom line for municipal utilities and the public cold storage.