Sorted by date Results 626 - 650 of 717
The borough assembly has rezoned several lots adjacent to Wrangell’s solid waste transfer site, allowing installation of a cell phone tower on the city-owned land if the developer can obtain a conditional-use permit for such use of the property. A public hearing and further consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission is required for a conditional-use permit. The assembly, in two unanimous votes May 25, approved rezoning the seven parcels to open space / public zoning, and allowing communication facilities, including cell towers, as a c...
Wrangell has several multimillion-dollar problems: Replacing the water reservoir dams and repairing the piping; rebuilding the water-damaged public safety building; and reusing or demolishing the old hospital building. Even with the highest sales tax rate in the state, even if tourist spending fully recovers next year and the economy grows, there wouldn't be enough sales tax receipts coming in to cover the costs of even one of the projects, let alone all three essential community needs. Sure,...
The borough again this summer will use federal funds to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing for Sea Level Seafoods employees. The borough assembly voted 4-3 at its May 25 meeting to appropriate up to $70,000 in federal funds to pay for testing this year. Testing last year cost the borough about $22,000. “Administration is requesting an amount more than triple last year’s expenditure because it is our understanding Sea Level would like to institute a far more robust testing regime than last year,” Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen briefed the assem...
For the third year in a row, the borough will provide $1.3 million in funding for Wrangell schools, the largest spending category in the municipal budget. About $700,000 of the local contribution to next year’s school district budget will come from Wrangell’s general fund revenues of sales and property taxes, with about $600,000 in federal financial assistance directed to Wrangell under a U.S. Forest Service nationwide program of payments to rural communities. The borough assembly approved the $1.3 million appropriation without opposition May...
Setting the amount of this year's Permanent Fund dividend - and deciding on how to pay the cost - continues to hold up agreement on a state spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The Legislature has been in special session since May 20. The joint House-Senate conference committee that was appointed to settle budget differences has met only a few times, briefly reviewing non-controversial items, with a meeting expected sometime Wednesday. Most legislators have left Juneau to...
Concerned with increasing cost estimates to repair and renovate the water-damaged 34-year-old public safety building, the borough assembly wants to explore a new option to see if it would be less expensive: Permanently move as many tenants as possible into the old hospital instead. “I’ve been driving this,” Mayor Steve Prysunka told the borough assembly at a workshop Tuesday evening. He said the borough needs to figure out what it would cost to remodel the hospital into space for the police and fire departments, state courts, jail, feder...
Alaska legislators are in the second week of a special session to finish work on the state budget for the fiscal year that starts in just five weeks, while also deciding the amount of this year's Permanent Fund dividend. Lawmakers have held few committee meetings and many have left Juneau, as private discussions involving House and Senate leaders, their colleagues and the governor's office generally dominate such negotiations. The Legislature adjourned its regular session after 121 days on May...
Zoom is a thing of the past for Wrangell borough assembly meetings. The next meeting June 8 will be in person, no more freeze frames, no more digital hassles. The assembly voted unanimously Tuesday evening to repeal the resolution directing online meetings during the pandemic. “Conducting meetings with the Zoom stuff is exhausting,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said. Borough Clerk Kim Lane recommended the assembly approve the return to in-person meetings. “Since we are trying to move forward and climb out of this pandemic,” she said, it would be approp...
Congressional action exempting large cruise ships from having to stop in Canada on their summer voyages to Alaska will provide a boost to heavily tourism-dependent Southeast communities. Although Wrangell was never on the itineraries of the largest ships, it’s possible the town may see some additional visitors with the change in U.S. law. Without the temporary exemption from a century-old U.S. maritime law, the foreign-registered ships would have been required to stop in Canada, which has not been possible since the country shut down its p...
It had been about a dozen years since Wrangell High School wrestlers came home with two state title winners, and this year juniors Ryan Rooney and Liana Carney both took first place in their weight divisions at the state tournament in Anchorage last weekend. Rooney wrestled in the 160 weight class; Carney in the 135 weight class. It was her second state title; she took first in 2019. Wrangell racked up the highest score among all Southeast schools at the state meet last Friday and Saturday,...
I know things change and I too sit around with friends and bemoan how it used to be, how we miss the old days, how much better things were then. Good thing I went online to complain to friends instead of writing a letter. Who knows when it would have arrived. Though the U.S. Postal Service motto says "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night" will delay the mail, that has not protected it from politics, poor management at the top and lack of congressional action. I admit that impatience...
Following new federal guidelines, the Wrangell borough has decided that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer required to wear face masks in borough facilities, programs and activities. Individual businesses can set their own policy. The borough issued the change in guidelines on May 18. As of last week, almost 60% of Wrangell residents age 16 and older had received at least one dose of a vaccine. “It’s the honor system,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said last Friday of the mask-free policy that applies only to vacci...
The weeks of cleaning up after others and asking pet owners to pick up what their dogs leave behind looks to have made a difference at Volunteer Park. Volunteer picker-upper Joan Sargent was at the park last Friday and said, “It’s so much better. … Right now I’m feeling pretty positive.” Sargent, who serves on the Parks and Recreation advisory board, estimates she collected more than 100 pounds of dog waste at the park this spring. “It was solid. You couldn’t walk across the entry area without tiptoeing.” She had written the borough assembl...
Not a single legislator voted against the bill to reconfigure the public advisory board for the Alaska Marine Highway System, taking away from governors the power to appoint half the members. The Senate president and House speaker would each appoint two of the nine board members, with the governor naming the other five to the panel that would advise the Department of Transportation on operations and long-term planning for the ferry system. The final decision on the change in state law rests with the governor, who will have until next month to...
Wrangell is one of four Southeast communities selected for a joint U.S. Forest Service and University of Alaska Southeast project to learn more about how the pandemic has affected the tourism industry in the region and what it means for the economy longer term. The other communities selected for the survey and report are Skagway, Hoonah and Angoon. “Each one is very unique,” said Robert Venables, executive director of the Southeast Conference, which is helping to publicize the online survey. “Take a look at Skagway, the biggest small port...
It didn’t work a year ago, but the borough and Wrangell’s state House member are trying again to restore the Alaska Office of Children’s Services caseworker position in the community. Same as last year, the borough is offering to cover half the expenses if the state will pay its half. The community has been without a caseworker for more than a decade due to state cutbacks. Bringing back a caseworker “is absolutely crucial,” said Bob Davis, lead teacher and assistant principal for the high school and middle school. “We’re seeing a huge uptick i...
I know Wrangell people have opinions and viewpoints and all sorts of interesting thoughts in their heads. I hear them in the stores, see them on Facebook and listen when people talk with me on the street. But I don’t read them in the Sentinel. I feel like the Maytag repairman in the TV commercials — lonely because no one calls. We can fill that missing piece in the newspaper. I say “we” because while I am eager to print your letters to the editor, you need to write them. I’ll provide the newspaper space free of charge for letters. All you n...
The Wrangell Museum has two projects underway, both dealing with wood. One is a new sign, being carved from a 20-foot-long yellow cedar log. The other is the ongoing effort to preserve and display the 96-year-old retired U.S. Forest Service wooden boat, the Chugach Ranger. Wrangell carver Denny Leak started last month stripping the bark off the log and is cutting his way into the design, which will spell out MUSEUM in large block letters vertically, with an eagle and a raven carved out at the...
The Mt. Dewey Trail extension project could go to construction next year, including a new trailhead parking area on Bennett Street, just north of U.S. Forest Service offices. The borough assembly May 11 unanimously approved a $69,542 contract with PND Engineers for scoping work to prepare the project for final design, to be followed by construction. Almost 91% of the cost of the scoping contract will be covered by federal funds, with the borough paying the rest. "It's nice to have something in...
One option for the former Wrangell hospital building would be to use it as temporary quarters when the public safety building undergoes major renovations. There is no date set for the renovations, which have been estimated at more than $13 million, but the 34-year-old public safety building needs significant work, particularly to repair water damage, rot and structural components, and staff and equipment would need to move out during construction. The borough owns the hospital and land, and since 2018 had leased the building to SouthEast...
As of last week, almost half of the 99 Wrangell applications for financial help with rent and utilities had been approved or were pending a final decision, according to the state agency running the federally funded program. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. received about 30,000 applications for assistance from across the state for $200 million in federal pandemic relief funds available under Alaska’s state and municipal allocation. The program closed to applications March 5, and AHFC staff and its contractor have been working to verify i...
A COVID-19 outbreak at a high school wrestling tournament in Ketchikan last month is linked to 23 infections in five communities across Southeast Alaska, including one case in Wrangell, according to health officials. Ketchikan High School hosted the regional wrestling tournament, an annual event that attracted athletes from eight other schools on April 24. In addition to cases in Ketchikan, wrestlers from Wrangell, Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, Craig and Klawock also tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home, according to Kacie Paxton,...
Consistency is a good thing, whether it’s parents applying rules to their children or elected officials following the law. Inconsistency can mean children misbehave because they know they will sometimes get away with it. And inconsistency can allow elected officials to do what will politically please their constituents most of the time rather than what is right all of the time. Such as those elected officials who clamor and pound the campaign trail, demanding that the Legislature “follow the law” and appropriate money for the Permanent Fund...
Legislation to increase Alaska’s state motor fuel tax rate for the first time since 1970 is in a calendar crunch. It was still in the House Finance Committee as of Tuesday, with lawmakers facing a May 19 adjournment deadline. The measure would double the state tax of 8 cents to 16 cents a gallon, with the intent — but not a legally binding requirement — that the money go toward highway maintenance. The Alaska Constitution prohibits dedicated funds. The tax hike is overdue, said the bill’s sponsor, Anchorage Rep. Andy Josephson, who noted t...
The state Senate is considering House legislation that would restructure the 18-year-old ferry system advisory board, taking away the governor’s authority to appoint all of the members. House Bill 63 passed that body unanimously May 5, moving next to the Senate. The governor, however, does not believe a key provision of the legislation is legal. He had proposed his own restructuring bill that did not relinquish appointment authority for members to the board. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s bill also would continue the provision in law that a governor can...