Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Petersburg BoroughClear

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

0:38

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

1:09

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

0:25

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

0:38

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

0:23

Stanton Gregor

“The resolution passes unanimously on a 6-0 mark.”

Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026

0:19

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

0:17

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

0:34

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

0:23

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

0:33

Stanton Gregor

“Resolution 2026-14 passes unanimously, 6 to 0, in its first reading.”

Petersburg Borough: 6.15.2026 Assembly Meeting · Jun 19, 2026

0:32

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

0:17

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

0:04

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

0:34

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

0:25

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

0:45

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

0:43

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

0:29

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

1:18

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

0:38

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

0:30

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

1:04

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

0:39

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

0:12

Speaker A

“Yeah, ball of worms itself.”

Petersburg Borough: Harbor Advisory Board Meeting · Jun 11, 2026

0:52

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

0:45

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