Petersburg’s Borough Assembly is in for a long meeting tonight, with eight new items of business on the agenda.
As KFSK’s Shelby Herbert reports, the Assembly will look at signing letters of support for fisheries across the state, in the face of years of hardship.
Petersburg’s Borough Assembly will consider sending a letter to the State of Alaska requesting a disaster declaration for four Southeast Alaska fisheries.
Mayor Mark Jensen drafted the letter. It requests declarations for the Northern Southeast herring spawn on kelp fishery, the Southeast herring gillnet fishery, and the Southeast red king and golden king crab fisheries. The herring gillnet and red king crab fisheries haven’t been open in years. Most spawn on kelp fisheries remain closed, except for the one near Craig in Southern Southeast. The region’s golden king crab fishery opens every February with very limited harvest goals.
The draft letter claims the local fishing fleet is buckling from low salmon returns and prices from processors. It says it has, quote: “(…) stretched our commercial fishing fleet to the breaking point with many boat owners unable to pay their crews their full share at the end of the salmon fishing season in 2023.” The letter also laments state decisions to close certain fisheries for years on end — or, allow them to open at a very low catch level — due to low stocks.
The state has issued similar disaster declarations for 14 Alaska fisheries over the last five years, the letter says. If approved, the Borough will send the signed disaster declaration request to Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
But the Assembly isn’t just looking to the state to solve the Alaska seafood industry’s economic woes — they’ll also consider signing onto a resolution to ask the federal government for more help and consideration.
The Pacific Seafood Processors Association and the United Fishermen of Alaska are compiling a list of suggestions to the federal government to help improve the global competitiveness and resilience of the Alaska commercial seafood industry. If the Assembly signs the resolution, the Borough will send it off to the governor, and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, as well as U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
Currently, Petersburg is not a member of United Fishermen of Alaska and Mayor Jensen is asking the Assembly to consider joining the group. The organization’s mission statement is to promote and protect the common interest of Alaska’s commercial fishing industry. And, it supports initiatives to promote quality standards, develop new fisheries, and increase efforts to market Alaska seafood.
Annual membership will cost the Borough $350. If the Assembly votes in favor of the resolution, Petersburg will join UFA’s long list of Community Supporting Members across the Alaskan coast, which includes the Aleutians East Borough, the City of Cordova, the City of Hoonah, the City of Seward, and the Kodiak Island Borough.
Also at the meeting, the Assembly will hear Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr’s annual report on his department. His report will touch on the training his personnel have received, as well as general trends in calls for police assistance over the last year.
The department’s data shows a significant decrease in calls for help since 2018. Some types of calls have picked up — more people are calling to report “suspicious circumstances.” However, most other types have fallen off. Theft and domestic violence calls have nearly halved since 2018. And police were getting called out to do about four times as many welfare checks six years ago as they were last year. The number of calls to report trespassing, car accidents, and sexual assault is also significantly down from previous years.
The Assembly will also consider sending an assembly member to Juneau with the CEO of the Petersburg Medical Center, Phil Hofstetter, to discuss the state of the new hospital project with Senator Bert Stedman. Stedman represents the Southeast district that includes Petersburg. The Assembly will also consider sending Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht to an Alaska Municipal League conference in February, which could present an opportunity for him to meet with state agencies about Borough projects.
The Borough Assembly meeting will take place at 6 p.m. tonight in the Assembly Chambers of the municipal building. KFSK will broadcast that meeting live and post the recording in our Borough Assembly Archive.
