Author: kfskadmin

Commercial fishermen around the country would receive a tax credit to help cover high fuel prices under legislation introduced this week by Alaska’s senators. The bill would provide a temporary two-year tax break.

Residents and business owners from Kake and Petersburg Tuesday urged the state to build an electric power line to bring cheap hydro-electricity to the Kupreanof Island community. However, opinions were mixed on whether it’s a good idea to partner the power line project with a much more expensive state effort to build a road and ferry link between the two Southeast towns.

The U.S. Air Force and a private company have returned to the area for further investigation of a former mountaintop repeater site in Duncan Canal, on Kupreanof Island about eight miles west of Petersburg. Built in 1959, the “White Alice” station was part of a Cold War radio relay system that delivered long range radar information from a base at Clear, Alaska, near Fairbanks, to the North American Aerospace Command in Colorado Springs.
The former manned relay station was demolished and had its buildings removed in 1986. The land was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service in 1987. However fuel drums and abandoned vehicles were discovered at the site in 1999 nearer to the beach, and close to several hunting cabins. In 2000, the AirForce removed over 100 dumped fuel barrels from the site. However, there may be spilled oil and fuel remaining in the area, as well as some lead and p-c-bs in the surface soil. The air force has 39 sites its cleaning it’s monitoring or cleaning up around alaska…but the duncan canal site is the service branch’s only cleanup site in southeast.
Joe Viechnicki spoke with Air Force civilians Lori Roy, the project manager, and community relations coordinator Tommie Baker about the cleanup effort.

Officials with a state agency along with a regional economic development organization tonight are hoping to hear ideas on an electrical intertie between Kake and Petersburg. The session is one in a series of town hall meetings conducted around the state by the Alaska Energy Authority this year.

Members of Petersburg’s school board this summer will be sifting through ideas for changing the district’s policy on student athletes caught using drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The board last week heard from parents and community members on penalties for students in extra-curricular activities and will continue that discussion in August and September. At the board’s regular monthly meeting Tuesday, members set up a time frame for starting to make some changes.