Author: kfskadmin

Petersburg’s school board approved amended handbooks for local middle and high school students Tuesday. District officials made changes to rules for extra-curriculars, absences and added new procedures for responding to death threats.

Petersburg’s city council is the first of three Southeast Alaska communities to give its formal approval for the split-up of the Four Dam Pool Power Agency. The agency now owns four hydro-electric power plants serving communities in the panhandle and south-central Alaska. The plan is for the pool’s Southeast towns to form a new regional organization and take over the two plants that provide them with electricity.

Hunters in the Petersburg, Wrangell and Kake area may have a better chance at finding a legal moose next year. The state board of game last week liberalized the strict antler configuration rules. As part of that decision, the state will also discontinue a program that allowed a limited number of hunters to shoot any bull.

Today is the 33rd Great Amercian Smokeout, a national effort to encourage smokers to quit for a day. The American Cancer Society estimates that almost half of the 45 million people nationwide who smoke have attempted to quit at least once this year. Here in Petersburg, staff with the Petersburg Indian Association and volunteers with the Americorps program have put together a one-day display to mark the occasion. Six hundred pairs of shoes line the bike path along Haugen Drive representing the people who die each day in the U.S. from smoking. Joe Viechnicki spoke with the association's Brandi Christensen and Ben Johnson about the display.

The District Two absentee vote count is now over and incumbent Peggy Wilson is the clear winner of a fifth term as the state representative for Petersburg, Wrangell, Sitka and several smaller towns. The Wrangell Republican was roughly 900 votes ahead of Democratic challenger Lily Herwald of Sitka after election day. However last week, the Division of Elections said it still had over two-thousand absentee ballots left to count in that race.
The state finished counting those absentee ballots Tuesday (11/18) according to elections director Gail Fenumiai. The state’s unofficial results show Wilson’s lead increased to nearly 11 hundred votes. Overall, Wilson received about 57 percent to Herwald’s 42 percent. Including the absentee count, the district had a turnout of nearly 64 percent. The results are not considered official until they are certified by the division of elections. That’s expected to happen early next month. (NOTE: THERE IS NO AUDIO FOR THIS STORY)