Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
Rep. Dan Ortiz, the Ketchikan independent who has represented southern Southeast communities since January 2015, including Wrangell, has decided to withdraw as a candidate for reelection, citing health and family considerations. Ortiz had filed in July as a candidate for reelection to House District 1, representing Ketchikan, Saxman, Metlakatla, Wrangell, Hyder, Coffman Cove and Whale Pass. However, a “more definitive” health concern caused him to reconsider, he told the Ketchikan Daily News on May 28. “It’s been within the last week that I...
The 649-foot Seabourn Odyssey dropped anchor just off Klawock on May 6, marking a new era of cruise ship tourism on Prince of Wales Island. About 3,700 people could visit Klawock and Craig this summer by way of three different cruise ships making a total of six stops. The Seabourn Cruise Lines ship was the first to ever visit the Port of Klawock and brought about 300 passengers to Prince of Wales near the end of a 43-day, one-way voyage from Hong Kong to Vancouver, British Columbia, that included stops in Korea and Japan, as well as Alaska...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported April 25 that commercial fishermen caught a total of 66.6 million salmon in Southeast Alaska during 2023, including wild runs and hatchery-produced fish. For this year, the department is predicting much lower numbers for Southeast, with much weaker pink salmon returns. Fish and Game last week issued its prediction that Southeast fishermen across all commercial gear groups would catch a total of 38.7 million salmon this summer, including 169,000 chinook, 929,000 sockeye, 1.5 million coho, 16...
Robb Arnold has withdrawn his candidacy to represent Ketchikan, Wrangell and Metlakatla in the state House. Arnold wrote in a statement to the Ketchikan Daily News on Thursday, Feb. 1, that he had ended his campaign. Under state law, Arnold could not continue in his job as a chief purser for the Alaska Marine Highway System and run for state office for the same time. It appears he was unaware of the law when he announced for the Legislature in December to challenge incumbent Rep. Dan Ortiz in District 1. Alaska statute says that, with some...
Just like many other Alaska communities, the service provider in Ketchikan is dropping cable TV and moving to streaming. The Ketchikan Public Utilities Telecommunications Division has announced it will stop offering cable television services in September 2024. The city-owned utility said the changing landscape of how people view their video entertainment was a big factor in the decision, with streaming services largely taking over while cable TV subscriptions have declined. The decision not only was made in response to the drop in cable TV...
The primary election for the Alaska House of Representatives is more than nine months away and already five-term incumbent Rep. Dan Ortiz has at least two challengers for the District 1 seat that represents Ketchikan, Wrangell and Metlakatla. Robb Arnold, a chief purser aboard the state ferries who ran unsuccessfully for the Ketchikan city council and Ketchikan school board last year, has filed for the state House. Arnold is running as a Republican, as is fellow Republican Jeremy Bynum, who serves on the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released its forecast of the number of king salmon that could return to the Unuk, Taku and Chilkat Rivers in the summer of 2024. The department did not release a forecast number for the Stikine River, citing insufficient data. “However, the terminal run is expected to be well below the escapement goal range of 14,000 to 28,000,” it said. Stikine River king salmon returns fell below the lower bound of escapement goals each year from 1975-1979, as well as 1983, 1984 and 2009, and each year from 201...
The 50-year-old state ferry Columbia has been pulled from service, with the Alaska Marine Highway System reporting repairs is expected to take a week. The problem is in the steering system, Sam Dapcevich, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation, told the Ketchikan Daily News on Friday, Oct. 27. “It’s going to require a fairly extensive repair that’s going to take place down in Bellingham, (Washington),” Dapcevich said. The Columbia left Southeast Alaska on its regular southbound sailing Monday, Oct. 30, heading from Ketchik...
For the next week, Alaskans have a chance to register their opinions on the future of the state ferry system through an online survey that will be used to help create a long-range plan. The survey responses will be used over the next year to craft the “2045 Long-Range Plan” for the Alaska Marine Highway System, intended to establish its goals for service levels and operations beyond the more reactive, short-term decisions that have guided the system in recent years. AMHS General Manager Craig Tornga opened an Oct. 24 public meeting by des...
The Hubbard pulled away from the dock at the Ketchikan Shipyard on May 18, headed for its first passenger sailing — more than four years after it was built at a cost of about $60 million. Carrying a crew of 24 — with newly installed sleeping quarters for crew — the Hubbard headed to Juneau, where it was scheduled to start work Tuesday, running six days a week between the Capital City and the Lynn Canal communities of Haines and Skagway. The Hubbard is not scheduled to visit Wrangell this summer. With the Matanuska out of service for repai...
The parent company of Vigor Industrial — whose subsidiary Vigor Alaska operates the state-owned Ketchikan Shipyard — is being sold to an affiliate of international private equity firm Lone Star Funds. Financial terms of the deal involving the sale of the parent company, Titan Acquisition Holdings, were not disclosed in an announcement published last Friday by the Carlyle Group private investment firm. Titan was formed in 2019 by Carlyle and the private equity firm Stellex Capital Management, bringing together the Portland-based Vigor Industrial...
State and federal fishery managers are forecasting a commercial harvest of about 19 million pink salmon in 2023 in Southeast Alaska, which would be a “significant drop” from the parent-year harvest of 48.5 million pinks in 2021, according to last week’s announcement from the federal NOAA Fisheries and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. A 19-million fish harvest would be at the high end of the “weak” range (11 million to 19 million fish), according to the announcement, which added that a harvest of that size would be only about 39% of the avera...
A shipment of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $488,000 was seized by law enforcement in a case that resulted in the arrest of a Ketchikan man on felony drug charges. “It's a lot as far as quantity,” Ketchikan Police Lt. Andy Berntson said about the amount of drugs during an Aug. 31 press conference about the case. “It's a lot anywhere, but (in) Ketchikan, it’s very significant.” Larry P. Mardsen, 40, was taken into custody by Ketchikan Police Department officers on Aug. 29 and charged with one count eac...
After two years of construction, the new $3.1 million Metlakatla Veterans Cemetery officially opened on July 25. A pair of seven-foot-tall totem poles carved by David Boxely were dedicated to the cemetery at the event. Both totem poles represent traditional Tsimshian warriors. The Fourth Generation Dancers, a Metlakatla dancing group, performed a warrior’s song during the totem pole unveiling ceremony. “It’s so important to recognize our Native American, Native Alaskans who have served our nation and the families that have sacrificed,” U.S. Un...
Alaska state ferry service between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, British Columbia, resumed on Monday afternoon. The last state ferry voyage to the Canadian port city was in late fall 2019. The Matanuska made a quick round trip Monday and is scheduled for another voyage on Friday. “(The) Matanuska made a test sailing to Prince Rupert about a week ago and all went to plan,” state Transportation Department spokesperson Sam Dapcevich wrote in a Friday email. This summer’s service is limited, with two round trips scheduled the third week of July,...
The state’s COVID-19 public health emergency order put in place 15 months ago will be rescinded on July 1, announced Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum. “The COVID situation has mellowed out to where our systems are in place, our hospitals know how to deal with this, our health care providers have tools they need, because a lot of the treatments are actually commercially available or they’re able to order themselves directly,” Crum said at a press conference on June 6. “And so, because of that, I am going to...
On a sunny afternoon, Ketchikan International Airport got a surprise visit from some unusual guests. At about noon on June 7, five U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornets touched down at the airport for about two hours to refuel on their way north to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. Lt. Cmdr. Brandon Hempler, one of the Hornet pilots, spoke with the Daily News by phone after the jets touched down at Eielson, where they will participate in RED FLAG-Alaska, a joint training exercise that takes place over the course of about 10 days. They’ll remain a...
Ketchikan saw an upswing in reported COVID-19 cases in May, with 341 infections recorded during the past 30 days as of May 25. In addition, the number of active cases involving the Ketchikan Pioneer Home stood at 21 on May 25. The cases involved 18 residents and three staff members at the facility, according to state Health Department spokesperson Clinton Bennett. The home is at “red-alert” status, indicating that at least one resident has tested positive in a ”neighborhood” or a floor. All of its floors had been affected by COVID, accordi...
By the narrowest of margins, 21-19, the House on the last night of the legislative session passed a bill implementing a statewide approach to how school districts intervene when students have difficulty reading. The session’s original reading legislation had been blocked in the House, opposed by several rural lawmakers and Democrats, but the Senate merged it into another education bill on the next-to-the-last day of session, forcing the House to accept or reject the entire package. The reading intervention bill was a priority of Gov. Mike D...
The Feb. 9 edition of the Ketchikan Daily News contains a Wrangell Sentinel story about the potential return of Alaska state ferries to Prince Rupert, British Columbia — as soon as May 1. The story details the issues that officials on both sides of the border are working on to bring back ferry service between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan. We wish them great success. The 90-mile, six-hour ferry connection is Ketchikan’s true gateway to the North America road system. It’s much more affordable than ferry service to Bellingham, Washington, or barge...
The Alaska Department of Transportation on Jan. 14 announced it had awarded a $15 million contract to Vigor’s Ketchikan shipyard for installation of living quarters aboard the state ferry Hubbard, which will enable the ship to carry a change of crew for longer runs. The 280-foot-long Hubbard and its sister ship Tazlina were built at state specifications at a cost of about $60 million each at the Ketchikan shipyard and launched a few years ago, but have seen limited service due to the ferry system’s tight budget, lack of crew quarters and oth...
Citing COVID-19 concerns and weather-related transportation worries, the state has postponed the 12-day Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting that was scheduled to have started Tuesday at the civic center in Ketchikan. The meeting to consider more than 150 proposed changes to state management regulations for finfish and shellfish in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat already had been postponed from January 2021 because of COVID-19 issues. Last Friday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that the 2022 meeting would proceed in Ketchikan with...
The first known case of the Omicron variant in Alaska was reported on Monday, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. The variant case was identified in an Anchorage resident. “The case was identified today through genomic sequencing performed at the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory from a person who recently tested positive in Anchorage following international travel in November,” the statement read. “Alaska now joins at least 30 other states and more than 60 countries that have already identified the varia...
A new state advisory board intended to provide more public input over operations and investment decisions for the Alaska Marine Highway System is starting to gather up its members, with five of the nine positions filled. None of the board members named so far are from southern Southeast Alaska. The Legislature this year approved the new panel’s composition and advisory responsibilities to replace a board structure under an 18-year-old law that had been criticized as ineffective and often ignored by state officials. House Speaker Louise S...
The Ketchikan city council has decided to use the community’s $2 million gift from Norwegian Cruise Line to help cover lost revenue in the town’s ailing port fund. The city finance director reported to the council that port revenues fell by more than 99% when cruise ships stopped calling in 2020 — from more than $10 million in 2019 to roughly $82,000 in 2020. And it wasn’t much better this year: Revenue is expected to come in at about $1.35 million, as a limited number of ships operated in the shortened visitor season. Without an immediate cash...
