Author: kfskadmin

GCI contractors are slated to begin work this month on the overland infrastructure Petersburg needs to link-up with a new fiber-optic communications cable. A ship will begin laying GCI’s cable this summer along 750 miles of seabed between Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Sitka, Angoon and Juneau. The 30-million dollar link will be the second cable into Juneau but the first such connection of its kind for Petersburg and the other communities. The smaller towns currently rely on mountaintop microwave repeater sites for data transmission. According to the company, the cable will allow for more reliable and substantially faster internet speeds as well as digital television and phone service. As part of the project in Petersburg, GCI has moved its local headquarters up to the Hammer and Wikan center. Matt Lichtenstein asked local GCI technician Perry Allen and for an update on the fiber-optic project.

The future of a well-used boat launch facility just outside Petersburg could depend on whether a group of its users, the city, or some other entity wants to take over management. A crowd of area residents filled the council chambers for a public meeting about Papke’s landing Thursday afternoon. The Alaska Mental Health Trust, which owns the Papke’s parking lot, is backing-off on efforts to charge people who park their cars and trailers there…..for now. However, in the long run, trust officials say they still need a plan to make money from the facility….and they are encouraging Papke’s users to get involved.

Alaska Mental Health Trust Officials say they will soon submit a formal proposal for a land swap with the Forest Service in Southeast Alaska.The TLO wants to exchange 20 thousand acres of its property in communities around the region for mainly 2nd growth timber lands of similar value on Prince of Wales Island. Trust land managers have been discussing the idea with the forest service and communities for the past year. Trust officials say they have revised their plan to address concerns raised by Prince of Wales residents.

A Washington DC company hopes to go with a shorter and simpler federal licensing process to study tidal power generation at two sites in southeast Alaska. The company is looking at tidal energy potential in the Wrangell narrows near Petersburg and in icy strait near Gustavus but is abandoning plans a third site, in Gastineau channel near Juneau.

Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office Director Harry Noah travelled to Washington DC last month to meet with Forest Service leadership and Alaska’s Congressional Delegation. Noah was there to generate support for his agency’s proposed land exchange with the forest service…an exchange that would include land the trust had initially considered logging on the steep hillsides along Mitkof highway. During his visit to Petersburg last week, Matt Lichtenstein asked Noah about the discussions in DC and plans for the Mitkof highway trust lands.