Author: kfskadmin

Petersburg’s school district has a new superintendent for next year. The school board last week hired a 59-year-old man from Oregon, the former superintendent in Nenana.

Alaska’s senators are hoping to provide grant money for Southeast Alaska timber companies for upgrading equipment or transitioning to other industries. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich introduced legislation last week that could provide up to 40 million dollars for established companies to retool.

Petersburg’s City Council capped off Monday night’s meeting by voting down a motion that was not included in their published notice or council packet for the meeting. Councilor Melinda Hofstad sought to end use of the city attorney for what she called a private lawsuit between city councilor Bob Nilsen, the city manager and the harbormaster.

The only public testimony at last week’s hearing on a draft school budget focused on Petersburg Mental Health Service’s contracted counseling hours in the schools. The district may reduce a counseling contract for next year, which could impact staffing numbers at the agency. School administrators are still fine tuning next year’s spending plan and hoping federal stimulus money will shrink a planned $400,000 deficit.

A planned million dollar expansion of the Joy Jansen Clinic at the Petersburg Medical Center probably won’t be happening this year. Hospital officials say some of the grant money they were hoping for is not available. Meanwhile, the medical center has started some remodeling work to increase space for physical therapy.