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  • Online shopping accounts for 12% of total sales tax collections by the borough

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Nov 6, 2024

    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...

  • Summer ferry schedule unchanged from recent years; one ship a week

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Nov 6, 2024

    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...

  • Changes would improve presidential campaigns

    Larry Persily Publisher|Nov 6, 2024

    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...

  • Wi-Fi coming to state ferries; will start with Columbia next month

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Nov 6, 2024

    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 sets record for early voting turnout

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 30, 2024

    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...

  • Nation is at risk if we don't learn to live together

    Larry Persily Publisher|Oct 30, 2024

    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 will go to bid for wastewater outfall repair work

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 30, 2024

    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...

  • Wrangell students share in learning opportunity at Music Fest

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 30, 2024

    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...

  • Chili cook-off Nov. 9 a chance to bowl over the competition

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 30, 2024

    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...

  • You can't take it with you if you don't get a ticket

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 23, 2024

    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...

  • Improved voter access leans in favor of everyone

    Larry Persily Publisher|Oct 23, 2024

    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...

  • Oversupply mostly cleared out, but Alaska still needs Americans to eat more salmon

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 23, 2024

    Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) officials hear that processors have mostly cleared out their overflowing inventories of Alaska salmon from the 2022 and 2023 seasons, but the problem remains that Americans don’t buy enough seafood to sustain consistently profitable sales, particularly in years of strong salmon runs. And while last year’s problem was an oversupplied market, which pushed prices paid to fishermen to as low as 20 cents a pound for pink and chum salmon, this year’s harvest may come up short of a robust supply, Greg Smith...

  • State funds will help nonprofit distribute fish and freezers to food pantries

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 23, 2024

    A 30-year-old nonprofit received a five-year, $7.5 million state grant this year, which will enable the organization to do more to share seafood with Alaskans. SeaShare has grown from its 1994 beginnings as a small group of Alaska commercial fishermen who distributed bycatch to food banks into an organization that has shared seafood in 20 states this year, said Hannah Lindoff, the Juneau-based executive director. Though bycatch species still are a part of the organization’s volume, the percentage has declined over the years. Looking at the b...

  • Even teddy bears will get checked at annual wellness fair

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 16, 2024

    SEARHC has organized its annual wellness fair for Saturday morning, Oct. 19, and medical care will not be limited to just people. The Teddy Bear Clinic will be open for children to bring in their favorite plush animals. Health care professionals will guide kids to check out their own animals, using a stethoscope to listen to the heartbeat and breathing, a blood pressure cuff and thermometer. It’s an opportunity to get children familiar with checkup procedures and instruments, getting them to feel more comfortable for when they are the p...

  • Unaffordable promises are a dishonest way to campaign

    Larry Persily Publisher|Oct 16, 2024

    Supporters of Herbert Hoover’s 1928 campaign for president ran newspaper ads with the headline, “A Chicken for Every Pot.” An impractical campaign pledge, though maybe it helped: Hoover won the election. But he then presided over the start of the Great Depression in 1929, when many could afford neither a chicken nor a pot. Almost 100 years later, political campaigns are still promising a better life for voters, though the price tag has risen far above the cost of a chicken, or a pot, or even an entire new kitchen. In rare cases, the count...

  • Borough holds first 'Our Town, Our Future' session on Friday

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 16, 2024

    The coffee will be free and the borough wants the information and questions to flow just as freely at the first of its “Our Town, Our Future” informal community sessions. The listening-and-sharing session is set for 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at the Stikine Inn. The borough has carved out two hours for the meeting, but people don’t have to stay that long, explained Kate Thomas, the borough’s economic development director. The sessions will be held the third Friday of every month through March as part of the borough’s effort to provide more info...

  • Documentary tells story of Tahltans who protected sacred headwaters

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 16, 2024

    An award-winning documentary film about the yearslong struggle of the Tahltan First Nation to protect their sacred headwaters in British Columbia will be shown at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Nolan Center. The event is free. Several Tahltan elders from the region across the Coast Mountains from Southeast Alaska will be at the screening to answer questions and talk with audience members after the showing of “Klabona Keepers.” The movie, which was released in 2022, covers about 15 years of the Tahltans’ opposition to industrial devel...

  • State food safety inspections focus on high-risk areas in kitchens

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 16, 2024

    A state food safety and sanitation inspector visited Wrangell last week as part of the program’s ongoing efforts to conduct on-site inspections within its limited budget. The inspector was in town for a routine check on a seafood processor that ships some of its products overseas. The U.S. Department of Commerce contracts with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation food safety and sanitation program to conduct inspections of seafood operations, explained Kimberly Stryker, program manager. “We also did some retail food service work...

  • Nolan Center turned 20 years old - now it's time to party

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 9, 2024

    The Nolan Center isn’t old enough to drink but that will not stop its supporters from raising a champagne toast to celebrate the building’s 20th birthday. The party is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14. “It’s really a cultural hub for our community,” Nolan Center Director Jeanie Arnold said of the multi-purpose waterfront building that houses the Wrangell Museum and also serves as a movie theater, stages community theater productions, provides space for conferences and is home for multiple community events and dinners every year. Admission...

  • Annual survey shows Southeast businesses concerned about filling jobs

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 9, 2024

    The number of jobs in Southeast Alaska continued its post-pandemic recovery last year. Yet, employers remain worried about filling job vacancies amid declining — and aging — population numbers. “While jobs continue to grow in 2024, so do concerns about the lack of a sufficient workforce in the region,” according to the annual Southeast Alaska by the Numbers report. “Compared to 2010, when the population was nearly identically sized, the region now has 1,700 more jobs and 5,600 fewer workforce-aged residents,” said the report, prepared by...

  • Voters re-elect Gilbert as mayor; approve bond issue for Public Safety Building repairs

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 9, 2024

    Voters approved a $3 million bond issue for repairs to the water-damaged Public Safety Building by a 3-1 margin on Oct. 1. Residents re-elected Patty Gilbert as mayor over challenger David Powell; re-elected incumbent school board member Angela Allen and elected newcomer Dan Powers over incumbent board member Brittani Robbins; and re-elected Chris Buness to the port commission along with newcomer Eric Yancey over challengers Antonio Silva and Tony Guggenbickler. In a close 36-ballot margin, voters rejected a proposition to amend the municipal...

  • Southeast communities talk trash, looking to save money

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 9, 2024

    It doesn’t matter the value of what people toss in the trash, it’s all expensive to ship out of town to a landfill. The borough sends out about 60 to 65 40-foot-long containers filled with trash every year, at a cost budgeted for this year at $360,000. That’s up from $239,000 just three years ago. Wrangell is not alone in paying increasingly higher costs for hauling and dumping trash at an approved landfill in eastern Washington state. The trash travels by barge and then rail to the landfill. Petersburg has been hit with similar price incre...

  • Newspapers and Southeast towns share a problem

    Larry Persily Publisher|Oct 9, 2024

    Southeast Alaska communities and their local newspapers share a common problem: Not enough people, and the ones who are here are getting older. For the communities, an aging and declining population means not enough people to fill jobs. It means falling further behind in providing services that attract and retain new residents, making the situation worse. For newspapers, it means a declining population of readers as aging residents who grew up with their local paper die out. Younger generations are so unconcerned about the necessity of...

  • State will seek more compliance from Petroglyph Beach tour operators

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Oct 2, 2024

    It could be that only two commercial tour operators that brought customers to the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site this summer bothered to purchase the state permit required to provide tours. This was the first year the state directly asked operators to acquire the mandatory permit and collect the $6 fee. Though it had not been enforced in Wrangell, the law regarding commercial use of public property has applied to the Petroglyph Beach since it was designated a state historic site in 2000. Tour operators would be more open to buying the...

  • Country needs to fight invasive species of divisive politics

    Larry Persily Publisher|Oct 2, 2024

    Whichever side wins the national election Nov. 5 needs to think about why they did not get a larger share of the vote. Not that they ever really expected to win over the hearts, minds and ballots of 60% of voters. The honest reality is that most candidates would accept 51% as a clear victory in this divisive world. OK, maybe they’re prefer 52%. But they’ll happily declare a mandate on the thinnest of margins. Gloating is ugly. It makes sore losers out of disappointed losers. Even worse, many of those sore losers are increasingly embracing anger...

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