Author: kfskadmin

Gubernatorial primary candidate Bob Poe spent a couple days in Petersburg last week. The Anchorage Democrat has never run for office before, but he has a long history of work in Alaska’s public and private sectors. In state government, Poe has served with four Alaska administrations including Governors Sheffield, Cowper, Hickle and Knowles. He’s been director of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the Alaska Energy Authority, and Alaska’s International Trade Office. Poe also worked as Commissioner of Administration and was a Deputy Commissioner of Transportation. In business, Poe was a Senior Vice President with ASCG, an engineering subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.
During his visit to Petersburg, Poe spoke with Matt Lichtenstein about a variety of topics – including energy development, Alaska seafood marketing, education and, of course, his decision to run for governor.

Petersburg’s Visitor Center is gearing up for another summer season. The center typically handles around five thousand inquiries each year. It’s co-managed by the Petersburg chamber of commerce and the US Forest Service. The desk is staffed by paid employees, but this year, they are hoping to encourage volunteers with local knowledge to help in the effort. Along with the information counter, the walls are covered with local photographs and the shelves are well stocked with maps, posters and other information on the area. Matt Lichtenstein recently stopped by the visitors center and found out it’s not just there for visitors.

The commercial dungeness crab fleet will no longer be able to drop their pots during the summertime in one area of southern Southeast. The state’s Board of Fish this month reversed a 2009 decision that opened the summer fishery in portions of district two around southern Prince of Wales Island.

Some of Alaska’s small-boat fishermen may have to carry an onboard observer in the near future. The federal government is restructuring its fishery observer program to better monitor bycatch on larger vessels but the proposed rules would also include boats under 60 feet for the first time. Fishermen in Southeast are concerned about the cost as well as the practicalities of hosting an observer on vessels that are often short on space as it is.

The Friends of Petersburg’s Libraries are marking the centennial of the city of Petersburg with a program called Read Across Petersburg, encouraging everyone to read, or re-read the book “The Cheechakoes.” The collection of stories was published in 1964 by local author Wayne Short. Born in 1926, in Arizona, Short came to Alaska in 1946 after serving in Pacific in the U.S. Navy and seeing action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The author says he thought about writing while he was in the war and got his start writing short stories for men's magazines before his agent convinced him to write a book about some of his experiences in Alaska. One story that helped kick-start his writing career was of an exciting bear encounter with his brother Duke, near Murder Cove on southern Admiralty Island. Short sat down recently with Friends of the Library’s Sue Paulsen and KFSK's Joe Viechnicki and told about the bear encounter and his first forays into writing.