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It took three rounds of bidding but the borough is on its way to installing a new, 300-foot-long float system at Meyers Chuck. The assembly last month awarded a $445,000 contract to Bellingham Marine Industries for the Washington state contractor to construct the 10-foot-wide wooden-decked floats, gangway and connection to the existing seaplane float in Meyers Chuck. The work includes building and shipping everything to Wrangell, where the 50-foot-long sections will be stored at the Marine Service Center until a separate contract is issued...
A large contingent from Wrangell will be in the crowd as the switch is flipped to light up The Capitol Christmas Tree on Tuesday, Dec. 3, including tribal members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association who will bless the 80-foot-tall spruce. The lighting ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. Alaska time and will be available for online viewing, including on the YouTube channel of the Speaker of the U.S. House at https://bit.ly/3V5EDQg. The tree, with a trunk almost 22 inches wide, arrived in the nation’s capital on Friday, Nov. 22, after a long j...
I like flying. I like looking down at the Earth and trying to identify what I see. I like having breakfast in one state and dinner in another. I like resetting my watch as if I am traveling in time, which I am. And I enjoy imagining stories about people on the plane. It’s as if I am writing a novel, only no one will review and criticize my work. The key point being I imagine what I like. I don’t really want to know their long stories, so I generally don’t talk to people on planes. Of course, it doesn’t always work. I was flying back to Alaska...
The sale of 20 borough-owned residential lots at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision near Shoemaker Harbor is on track for summer 2025. The sale — half of the lots by auction and half by lottery — had been planned for this past summer, but site work pushed that back to the fall and then a nationwide shortage of electrical transformers delayed it even further. However, the borough assembly at its Nov. 18 meeting approved a contract with a South Dakota-based company for a dozen electrical transformers for the subdivision. The b...
It's been 10 years since the community saw the map of a proposed new access route to the Mount Dewey Trail and its viewing platform for a scenic look at the town and harbor below. The wait ended with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new trailhead parking lot on Thursday, Nov. 14. "It's heavily used already," Amber Al-Haddad, the borough's capital projects director, said a few hours before the official opening. The trail runs from Bennett Street, starting at the new parking area on the road to th...
GCI is pulling the plug on its cable TV and streaming services, just as its customers have been cutting the cable cord for years. The company announced Nov. 11 that it will shut down its TV services by mid-2025; it did not provide a more specific date. “Over the past few years, we have … seen our customers increasingly choose online video streaming as their preferred way to watch their favorite programming. In light of these factors, we will sunset our TV offerings by mid-2025,” the prepared statement said. GCI has been in the cable TV busi...
The ballot measure to repeal open primary elections and ranked-choice voting in general elections saw its lead narrow last week and then disappear on Monday, with a final vote count scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 20. As of Monday afternoon, the repeal effort was behind by 192 votes out of more than 332,000 ballots cast on the measure. State elections officials estimated there were about 5,000 ballots still to count this week, an assortment of early votes and mail-in absentee ballots. The repeal initiative led by more than 4,100 votes after the...
Most people are not wealthy, or even close to it, though many enjoy reading about and watching and following the lives of the rich and famous. Maybe it’s envy, maybe it’s enjoying hanging on the drama, laughing at the comedy and gawking at the lavish spending. Or maybe it’s just the dumb things rich people do with their lives, the way they behave and the things that show how out of touch they are with the real world. Of course, I have a couple of examples. First, it’s the opposite of conspicuous consumption, which is when rich people buy exp...
The Wrangell advisory committee to the state boards of fisheries and game will meet Tuesday to begin its consideration of multiple proposed changes in state regulations for salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska. The committee also will hold elections to fill several seats on the 15-member panel. The public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, at the Nolan Center. Though the public may attend the meeting by Zoom, in-person attendance is required to nominate people to serve on the committee and to vote in the election. The meeting is...
The apparent winner of last week’s election to represent Wrangell, Ketchikan and Metlakatla in the state House, Republican Jeremy Bynum, said he has not yet decided whether he will join the bipartisan coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans that is likely to govern the House next year. Though a couple of House races around the state are still too close to call and may not be decided until the final vote tallies on Nov. 20, the coalition, which was announced on Nov. 6, expects at least 22 members of the 40 House districts. The m...
The deadline is approaching to sign up for federally subsidized health insurance in 2025 through the Affordable Care Act, now in its 15th year. SEARHC — just as it has done for the past decade — is offering free assistance for Southeast Alaska residents who need help navigating the online marketplace to choose the best coverage for themselves and family members. And even though tribal members receive free health care services at SEARHC through Indian Health Service funding, they can benefit from the additional coverage provided by an ins...
The next two years may be Alaska’s last chance for productive, bipartisan legislative action. The state House and Senate have both organized in bipartisan coalitions, with Democrats, Republicans and independents pledging to work together on the big issues facing Alaska. Sadly, that across-the-political-aisle cooperation could end in two years. Alaska’s switch to open primaries and ranked-choice voting for the 2022 and 2024 elections encouraged candidates, particularly Republican candidates, to appeal to moderate and nonpartisan voters ins...
Alaska has joined a growing number of states that are considering cellphone restrictions in schools. The Alaska Board of Education has directed the state’s education department to create a policy to limit the use of cellphones in schools during class hours. Currently, there is no statewide cellphone policy in Alaska, and any restrictions must be set at the district or school level. Several already do that, including Wrangell middle and high schools. “The Stikine Middle School is cellphone, earbud free,” said Greg Clark, who serves as princ...
Republican Nick Begich will have to wait until the final vote count on Nov. 20 but he looks likely to defeat incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in the race for Alaska’s lone seat in the U.S. House. As of the latest tally on Tuesday, Nov. 12, Begich has 142,023 votes, or 49.11%, to Peltola’s 132,473, 45.81%, with the two fringe candidates collecting 14,070 votes. It takes 50% plus one to win the election. The Alaska Division of Elections reported on Tuesday that there were more than 32,000 mail-in absentee and in-person early-voting bal...
A 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision on sales taxes and a 2020 statewide initiative started by the Alaska Municipal League are benefitting Wrangell’s public treasury. The borough in the past fiscal year collected about $440,000 in sales taxes from purchases made online, by phone or mail and delivered to Wrangell households and businesses. That is up about 10% from the prior year and up substantially from $180,000 in revenues in 2021, the first year of the program. Before the court ruling, states and municipalities were blocked from collecting s...
The proposed summer 2025 Alaska Marine Highway System schedule shows the same level of service to Wrangell as in the past several years: one ship serving the mainline route, with one stop northbound and one southbound each week. The Columbia will stop in Wrangell northbound on Sundays, on its run from Bellingham, Washington, through Southeast, then turn around in Skagway and stop on its southbound route on Wednesdays. It’s the same schedule as the Kennicott is running this year. The state ferry system is scheduled to pull the Kennicott out o...
I’m on the five-year plan for colonoscopies. The doc keeps finding small polyps that he cuts out and so he tells me to keep coming back to avoid a worse fate. As uncomfortable as it is, at least the prep work for that is brief and painless compared to the excruciatingly long and upsetting presidential elections which come every four years. Something is wrong with politics when I dread elections more than colonoscopies. Yes, the voting is over, though it will take several more days or weeks or court decisions to know the final outcomes of the p...
While planning and hoping for as much as $2 billion to replace its shrinking fleet of older ships over the next 20 years, the Alaska Marine Highway System also is looking at smaller things it can do to improve service in the near term. That will include Wi-Fi service on the ships; possibly more offerings or expanded bars; maybe even putting gift shops on the vessels. Federal money will pay for installing Wi-Fi. Increased bar service and possible gift shops will depend on whether the state ferry system can cover the costs, said Sam Dapcevich,...
Wrangell voters have walked into City Hall in record numbers to cast early ballots for the Nov. 5 statewide election. As of the end of the day Friday, Oct. 25, 147 people had cast ballots, said Sara Whittlesey-Merritt, who manages voting in town for the state Division of Elections. “It’s been a record for Wrangell,” said Whittlesey-Merritt, who has been working elections in the community for 30 years. The early voting numbers equal more than 20% of the town’s total turnout in the statewide elections of both 2020 and 2022. Wrangell is not alo...
It’s not only the fault of the people who post insults on social media, who embrace the politically inspired lies and accept the politically driven threats of violence as a necessary means to the end they favor. Nor is it only the fault of people on the other side of the political world who lecture but don’t listen, who can’t understand why so many Americans are drawn to the ever-expanding lies and ever-cruder insults yet sit by all too quietly, waiting for the turmoil to pass. It’s like the entire nation is living through a Florida hurricane,...
Borough officials hope to go out for bids as soon as this week for repairs to the sewage treatment plant deepwater outfall line which was damaged by a boat anchor in September. State and federal environmental officials “seem agreeable” to the borough’s plan to cut out the short, damaged section of 12-inch-diameter plastic pipe, then reconnect the undamaged pieces to restore flow, said Tom Wetor, Public Works director. Until the line is repaired, the borough will continue with its temporary solution of dumping treated water from the sewag...
There can be a lot of numbers in music. This is the 50th year of the Southeast Honor Music Festival and Tasha Morse's 17th year as Wrangell music teacher. More than 110 students from around Southeast spent 19 hours in full rehearsals at Music Fest. Three Wrangell students were selected for the event held Oct. 20-22 in Petersburg. All had to audition to win a spot, Morse explained. There is no judging at the annual fall event. "This one is just making music for music's sake," she said. Wrangell's...
The spring chili cook-off went so well, The Salvation Army decided to stack up the bowls and spoons and get ready to do it again Nov. 9. There will be prizes for the best chili. And while the event is a fundraiser for the community food pantry, it also is an opportunity for people to get together and socialize, said Salvation Army Capt. Chase Green. “There was a lot of excitement” at the April cook-off, which drew 18 entries, he said. “People asked, ‘When are you going to do it again?’” He hopes for 25 chili entries this time. The event is set...
Tickets are on sale for “You Can’t Take It With You,” the fall community theater production at the Nolan Center. The comedy is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1-2. A volunteer cast of about 15 people, with an additional 10 people working on the set, staging, sound and lighting, are practicing their lines, building the set and getting ready for the show, said Hailey Reeves, co-director. “It’s definitely a group effort,” she said last week, with full dress rehearsals planned for next week. In a first for the Nolan Center, tic...
Making it easier for Alaskans to cast their ballots shouldn’t be about how they vote, which way they lean politically or how much they favor one party over another. Admittedly, elections are partisan. Sadly, increasingly so. Candidates, their fat-funded political action committees and political parties have turned the nation’s elections into an endless stream of negative attack ads that prey on the public’s fear of anything that will get them to the polls. It’s bad enough that partisanship has taken over election campaigns. But those same ug...
