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Paddlewheel cruise ship cuts short 2008 season

It will be a shortened 2008 cruise season for one of the more unusual ships that visits Southeast Alaska.
The 360-foot Empress of the North paddlewheel cruise ship is cancelling seven Southeast Alaska sailings in August and September. Majestic America Line, the company that owns the Empress, is also cancelling Columbia and Snake River sailings on the Empress as well as Mississippi River sailings on another of its ships, the American Queen.
The parent company of Majestic America plans to sell the cruise line and says it will not be planning cruises for 2009. Vanessa Bloy, a spokesperson for Majestic America, says several credible parties have expressed interest in acquiring some or all of company’s assets.
The final trip for the Empress will be an August 2 sailing. The company says it’s cancelling the trips because of soft advanced bookings. Bloy would not elaborate or say how many passengers would be affected.
The ship has 112 staterooms and space for 223 passengers. It offers week-long cruises and visits numerous Southeast towns, including Skagway, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell and Juneau. The Empress features a 42-foot stern paddlewheel and a bow ramp for loading passengers and supplies off of a riverbank.
Majestic America says it is contacting guests who have booked cruises and offering half-price sailings on an earlier cruise or a full refund. People with fall sailings on the Empress on the Columbia and Snake Rivers will be rebooked on two of the company’s other ships, the Columbia Queen and Queen of the West.
The Empress of the North was built in 2003. It has had several mishaps in its five years of existence. The shallow draft vessel hit a rock in Icy Strait and missed part of the cruise season undergoing repairs in 2007. It also ran aground in the Columbia River in 2006.

Parents ask for changes in student athlete alcohol and drug policy

Local parents this week asked the Petersburg School Board to make changes to the district’s policy for students athletes caught using drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The board held a public hearing Tuesday on a new statewide set of rules for minimum punishments and educational requirements for students in extracurricular activities. Board members said they would wait until the fall before they considered any major changes to Petersburg’s policy.

Councilors brace for loss of nearly $1 million in federal funding

Members of Petersburg’s city council are bracing for the possible loss of a million dollars in annual federal funding. Congress has failed to renew or extend the Secure Rural Schools Act, which provides money for schools and road improvements in counties and communities near national forest land. The city’s Washington D.C. lobbyist this week told local officials not to expect the funding this year.

Low-speed electric cars come to Petersburg

Some of the first all-electric, low-speed vehicles in the state are turning heads as they quietly pass by on the streets of Petersburg. Local residents have already brought quiet and efficient gas-and-electric hybrid technology to Mitkof Island, but resident Gerry Herbrandson this spring shipped eight low-speed “Miles” electric cars to town. He has been driving around in the third low-speed electric vehicle licensed in the state and Herbrandson plans to sell the other seven mini-vans. Joe Viechnicki went with Herbrandson for a test ride around the streets of Petersburg

Library supporters will wait on bond vote

Supporters of an effort to build a new library in Petersburg will be seeking money from the state next year and not from local voters in the fall. That’s after a survey commissioned by the library showed lukewarm support for funding the project with a local tax increase.