Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Phil Hofstetter
“And I also, I did put a little indicator in there as a discussion for the board just based off of Cindy's report. And that we put it on the agenda as old business to maybe just, you know, formally acknowledge that housing is an important workforce constraint and we should really evaluate some potential solutions and maybe just, you know, put on the record at least at some point that we should be looking either in town for potential housing, you know, with no financial commitment obviously for today, but with, well, you know, looking at specific projects, either that is, that could either be looking at grants for housing and that we have partnerships with the borough to develop housing of our own using the upper lot, or that, or looking at housing that's in town, existing housing to obtain and purchase as part of PMC.”Petersburg Borough: Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board Meeting July 2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Phil Hofstetter
“You know, we do a really good job with our workforce locally and we recruit, but if you actually look at how many people outside of Petersburg come and live, it's low, it's a lot lower, and it's really hard to recruit route, and when people get here, housing is always an issue. So I just wanted to put it out there as something to consider, and I did have a legal review completed that we are allowed to, you know, obtain property or housing and follow this line as it supports our workforce initiative going forward.”Petersburg Borough: Petersburg Medical Center Hospital Board Meeting July 2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Mary Evans
“I'm of the opinion that we need appropriate limits and safeguards in place before, not after, this project is greenlit and a precedent is established.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Mary Evans
“The borough's FAQ about the data center states that the 2025 Marine Industrial Overlay does not apply to this parcel because it's privately owned. But the Marine Industrial Overlay ordinance itself does not appear to state that the overlay applies only to borough-owned property.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Liz Cabrera
“you could just add a provision saying data centers are prohibited in all districts from this date to this date.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Becky Knight
“Planning Commission, we the Planning Commission have received nothing.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Mary Evans
“The proposed facility could ultimately consume the 2 megawatts of electricity continuously, 24 hours a day, 365.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Liz Cabrera
“It's kind of like why, why we are bringing up the data center ordinance is so there is some guidelines for what is allowed and what is not allowed as far as data centers. That's the whole reason to discuss it now, because if there's nothing in place, then if somebody wants to put one on industrial property, there's nothing to stop them.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Mary Evans
“I'm asking the Planning Commission to pause this process and allow time for meaningful due diligence and community discussion before Petersburg establishes a precedent that may be very difficult to reverse.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Liz Cabrera
“We've never done moratorium per se that I remember.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Liz Cabrera
“This suggests it's prohibiting, not banning, and one year from the effective date.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Becky Knight
“my first request is number one, that you authorize a moratorium on all such centers until at least our community can develop policies on them.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 8.11.2026 · Aug 11, 2026
Tom Kowalski
“Our group— we're formalized now and it's called Alaska for Safe Tech. And we're also connecting with other organizations to help our efforts.”Petersburg Borough: 7.6.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jul 7, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“My take is, if we have to do 15 amendments, we should have not brought it forward until it was done. It's not a good ordinance, not a good piece of legislation. So I wanted to be very clear on the record. I think this process is and has been deeply flawed in how we got there.”Petersburg Borough: 7.6.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jul 7, 2026
Tom Kowalski
“I believe that hospitals where patients are hard to move and also living, assisted living facilities, the fire hall, places like that, very important infrastructure should be protected even more than just the average structure, building, or whatever.”Petersburg Borough: 7.6.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jul 7, 2026
Tom Kowalski
“These setback requirements are very important here in Petersburg, and one of those rationales being that there's safety issues, including ice buildup. We had a lot of ice this year, and that's something that needs to be considered with setbacks.”Petersburg Borough: 7.6.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jul 7, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“On the first reading we had 5 amendments, and now here we have 10+ again because there's subsets A, B, and C. I think this is a very rushed ordinance that due to all these amendments can appear that it lacks transparency. I don't think that is the intent of this, but I think it feels that way. During my time on the assembly, I've never seen 15 amendments on an ordinance.”Petersburg Borough: 7.6.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jul 7, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“I'm going to be voting yes tonight. It's first reading. I generally do when I get to before the public hearing, but I imagine we'll be hearing from some of the telecommunication companies on this amended version to see how that feels for them.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“The resolution passes unanimously on a 6-0 mark.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“Ordinance 2026-14, an ordinance amending Title 19 Zoning of the Petersburg Municipal Code to regulate wireless communication facilities and other towers and transmitters. This will be the first reading.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“I do support this amendment. As those who are listening at the last meeting when we discussed this ordinance, that was my primary reason of voting no. I didn't feel like going through a full amendment process during that meeting. My time— my thinking at the time was to either have Planning and Zoning looking at— look at it, or legal counsel. So, um, uh, I feel like this is an important amendment for the very specific reasons Member Newman mentioned.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“Resolution 2026-14 passes unanimously, 6 to 0, in its first reading.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Stanton Gregor
“just as a point of clarification for you, Ms. Ummer, the land sale failed on a 2-4 basis, just, just as a detail, just so you know.”Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026
Speaker A
“according to the ISO report, um, the ISO people, um, they say that if we lose the drill ground, our total aggregate ISO score drops from 61.1 to, just a hair over 60, which would be enough to bump us from a Class 4 to a Class 5 community.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“I've heard there may be a plan on how to pay for it, but I'm not familiar with the details, so I'm not prepared to speak on it at this point.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“as volunteers, they are never like 100% ready, always able to respond. So we usually get a fraction of that. Um, I don't have like a running count off right here in front of me of actually who's responding, but I mean, a good rule of thumb would be a third of that amount to, you know, at best a half at any one time. So if you cut those numbers in half, it would be 14 members of the fire department, for fire, about 16 to 18 members in EMS.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker B
“Having the ability to hang equipment on those towers, increase the range of public safety radio equipment, um, it's in the borough's best interest, I believe, because we would save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to construct towers or other avenues”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“They are currently working on the adaptation of a new service area that is Thomas Bay. Um, in that there's a proposal to include fire, EMS, and police services to that area, specifically the Thomas Bay area.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“as the population increases, we are looking at larger subdivisions out towards Papke's and things like that, and I do think it is in the borough's best interest to look at going to an area-wide model.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker B
“we're down another dispatcher, so we have 3 openings in dispatch, 2 openings on the patrol side for a police officer. Hopefully the union can work something out with the borough and increase some wages and get some longevity steps worked in so we can better fill and serve— fill the positions and serve the community.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“The training tower is a little bit more of a problem to move. If you take it apart, it's likely not to go back together. The hope is to be able to separate the little one-story attachment to it, the— what we call the burn room, from the tower itself and be able to either brace or secure the tower itself so that we can pick it up and lay it down on a large oversized trailer and move it.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“I got a list of questions on May 27th from the borough manager. If you'd like, I can read them to you, or you can just see them. I can pass this around, whatever you guys want to do. But they have some questions they'd like answered about both the 14th Street site and the site right next to the current Station 1.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“I've been told there may be a working plan, but I have not been included in that conversation, so I cannot speak to how it is being funded.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“I believe that is something the mayor and the borough manager is working on.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“officially it is the end of the year, so December 31st. Um, they have a notice to other leaseholders in the area that they are to stop operations by the end of September. And so I'm hoping to get that stuff out of there before the snow flies”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“if ISO is correct, that would be an approximately increase in 10% across the board for those who do have insurance.”Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board · Jun 12, 2026
Speaker A
“Yeah, ball of worms itself.”Petersburg Borough: Harbor Advisory Board Meeting · Jun 11, 2026
Speaker A
“Recent word came to the borough that the application for conveying approximately 8.8 acres of DNR tidelands at Papke's Landing is ready to transfer. The borough is just waiting a formal letter to transfer of DOT's dock ownership to the borough before conveyance occurs.”Petersburg Borough: Harbor Advisory Board Meeting · Jun 11, 2026
Speaker C
“it seems like that's kind of happening, and we might have to have a discussion or something about what, what the Harbor Department's going to do when presumably we're in their hands, in our lap. Yeah, we're going to have to think about, uh, well, if we have to monitor it, then, you know, that'll be extra cost. We'll have to have another employee, we'll have to have more equipment, snow blowers or power washers, I'm not sure, but at least snow blowers and another vehicle.”Petersburg Borough: Harbor Advisory Board Meeting · Jun 11, 2026
Speaker B
“I have a question, a comment that I solicited from residents in Scow Bay. My, um, my husband's parents live right in Scow Bay, right across from the bay, and so I asked them what their opinion is on the Scow Bay portions of the proposed overlay. Um, which would be the rock pit areas that we suggested. And, um, I, I, they are opposed to including it in the overlay.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Jim
“consideration of an application from Suzanne Webb for conditional use permit for a home occupation at 500 Unimac Street”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Speaker B
“I move to recommend to the Borough Assembly to approve a special use permit for 10,000 square feet of the Lake Street right-of-way for access to 1205 Lake Street, subject to conditions of approval”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Speaker B
“the main one that was important to them was there's a creek that they used to drink well water from. They don't anymore, but it's a good drinking water creek that gets muddied up with construction. Um, and so they are hoping to preserve that as much as possible and not include the rock pits in the overlay.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Jim
“could we bring that over from the, uh, um, what we're requiring for, uh, in the cell tower code to some degree. I mean, some things would be limited, but we want to make sure they're putting it on a big enough parcel that it's not an issue, right? We could bring over the— what is it, 110% or something? 110% Of the height of the tower, unless there's a breakpoint, right?”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Jim
“I like the idea of including that. That's my favorite part of the ordinance, I think, is the 110%. It just makes a lot of sense, and it seems to be a pretty repeated criticism that people in the community have of proposed designs is a short setback.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Speaker B
“I think there was— yeah, I don't have it in front of me either, but I'm remembering that there was like, um, maintenance and keeping it within FCC standards for emissions. It's kind of basic language, which is basically making sure they follow whatever the FCC standards are.”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Jim
“Recommendation to the borough assembly regarding an application from Skylark Park to purchase borough property described as Government Lot 26, Section 33, Township 58 South, Range 79 East, and Government Lot 27”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026
Speaker B
“the conditions of approval is, is that only what's listed on page 10? Home occupation permitted is a massage therapy business”Petersburg Borough: Planning Commission Meeting 6.9.2026 · Jun 9, 2026