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The state Transportation Department is asking for public comments on its plan to reduce the hazards along a stretch of Wrangell's Zimovia Highway frequently hit by rocks coming down from the hillside. A rockfall last August at 8-mile Zimovia Highway "drew our attention" to the stretch of roadway, state Transportation Department officials said last week. Talking with the department's Wrangell crew, they learned there had been 36 rockfalls between 2007 and 2019 along just a few miles of the...
Legislators started the session in January amid a shortage of revenues and debate whether the state could even afford a dividend this fall unless it exceeded its annual limited draw from the Permanent Fund. Significantly higher oil prices and more than $1 billion from this month's federal pandemic aid package may fix both problems, though only temporarily. The Alaska Department of Revenue told legislators last week that higher oil prices could produce an additional $790 million in revenues this...
Students at Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School will attend class remotely at least through Friday after a staff member at the secondary schools tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. Remote learning started the next day, as both schools closed. The shutdown has not affected classes at Evergreen Elementary School, the school district reported Monday. "This individual ... is asymptomatic and is now in isolation," the city announced Monday afternoon. It was Wrangell's second reported...
Separate decisions affecting an effort to recall Wrangell's mayor and the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team are similar, in that they disappointed some people, but they are not equal. The organizers of a recall effort against Mayor Stephen Prysunka made the wise decision not to fight over the legality of their recall petition, and instead to focus on the assembly seats at stake in the next municipal election. Rather than burn up time and money in litigation over the city's...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants to create a new state ferry system advisory board with one state official and 10 public members to replace an existing advisory panel, similar to a separate proposal from coastal lawmakers. The difference being that the legislative proposal would protect board members from dismissal by a governor, while under Dunleavy's bill the members would "serve at the pleasure" of the governor. The governor would appoint the entire board under Dunleavy's bill, while the Legislature...
Journalism schools teach reporters to quote accurately; to add "he said" or "she said" at the end of every statement; to fully report what people say at public events and in interviews. All of that would apply if people were always responsible and always truthful. Sadly, people are not always truthful or responsible - and it is getting worse (much worse) in politics. Far too many people spout whatever gets them attention; whatever aligns with their views and nothing else; whatever wins them supp...
After spending almost $1.1 million to keep the vessels out of service to save money and safely tied up the past several years, the state last week sold its two fast ferries - built at a combined cost of $68 million less than 20 years ago - for just over $5 million. Mediterranean-based catamaran operator Trasmapi had offered about $4.6 million for the Fairweather and Chenega. The company serves the Spanish island of Ibiza, about 70 miles off the coast. The state was able to negotiate the final...
Almost 100 Wrangell households have applied for financial aid to help pay their rent and/or utilities under a state-managed program funded with federal pandemic-relief dollars. The program closed to applications on March 5, with 97 submitted by Wrangell residents among almost 30,000 applications turned in from across the state. The applications from Wrangell represent about 10% of the community's total number of households, according to U.S. Census data. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. is...
A state Senate subcommittee had asked the Department of Transportation what it could do if it had more money to cover some of the gaps in the Alaska Marine Highway schedule. Part of the answer would be improved winter service to Wrangell - if the Legislature appropriates the money and the governor accepts it. An additional $4.5 million in state dollars - separate from passenger and vehicle revenues - could improve service for "those communities that were struggling this winter," Matt McLaren,...
Federal pandemic relief aid, one-time funding sources - some of doubtful legal authority - and other salves to ease the state budget pain in the fiscal year that starts July 1 only mask the underlying illness, the Legislature's chief financial analyst told senators. Filling the holes with ongoing state dollars in subsequent years - regardless of the size of the Permanent Fund dividend - could take about $250 million more than the governor proposes in his budget, Alexei Painter, director of the L...
Sure, the Sentinel's main job is to report the news. But we also want to serve as the community bulletin board. Think of the newspaper as a weekly posting, delivered for everyone to see - even better, you don't need to stand in the wind and rain to read the sheet. The problem is, our bulletin board has empty space, and that doesn't do anyone any good. We need your events to fill up the board. We could hand out hundreds of pushpins to stick event notices to the pages of the Sentinel each week....
A ship built especially for laying fiber optic cable on the ocean floor was in front of Wrangell this week, moving GCI's Seafast communications cable into a safer position away from underwater power lines and the risk of sediment avalanches. The 477-foot-long, 78-foot-wide Cable Innovator, built in a shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, in 1995, will relocate about 14 miles of cable from its old starting position near Cemetery Point in Wrangell. From there, it wrapped around and down the west side of...
It was an international effort that started on a long journey about 10,000 years ago through what is now a cave on the mainland, across Blake Channel from Wrangell Island. A bone chip smaller than a dime, found almost 25 years ago by a University of South Dakota researcher, was being held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North. It was examined again by scientists with the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, who published their study last month in the...
Though it's a little far afield from life in Wrangell, there is a life lesson in the controversy over President Joe Biden's choice to run the federal Office of Management and Budget. A lesson to keep your thumbs at your side, unless you're hitchhiking. The nominee, Neera Tanden, is in jeopardy of losing Senate confirmation because of tweets she sent while in a previous job as chief executive officer at the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress. The tweets were nasty, political...
The state is not going to fill its billion-dollar fiscal pothole with additional deep budget cuts, said two veteran legislative finance committee members. The hole is too deep, and years of cuts to the operating and capital budgets already have reduced state spending on public services to a 15-year low, on a per-capita basis adjusted for inflation, according to numbers assembled by one of the co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee. When dealing with the budget, legislators have had to...
Petersburg remained in its red high-risk level as of Tuesday after 85 COVID-19 cases were reported in the community over the past 13 days. As of Tuesday evening, 65 coronavirus cases were still active, according to the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The spike in cases started Feb. 18, with the high point of 37 infections reported Feb. 23-26. There were 11 news cases reported on Tuesday. Results from 212 coronavirus tests were pending as of Tuesday evening. The joint...
A self-organized group of Wrangell high school and middle school students decided someone had to step up and try to make life better in the schools, and it might as well be them. "We want students to be motivated and feel supported," said senior Jade Balansag, one of about 10 high school students in BASE - Building a Supportive Environment. "We really want to reach out to the community for support for the schools." The year-old group's mission is to improve the schools aesthetically, socially...
Alaska's motor fuel tax rate is the lowest in the nation; less than one-third the average of the other 49 states. The 8-cent-a-gallon tax has not budged since 1970. Lawmakers again this year will consider increasing the tax rate and, in a separate provision of the bill, helping to maintain the dwindling state account for spill prevention and response. The state Senate approved a motor fuel tax increase last year, boosting the rate to 16 cents a gallon, still far below the national average, but...
The 18 or so Wrangell middle school and high school students who belong to BASE - Building a Supportive Environment - are the role models I never paid attention to when I was their age long ago (1960s). They got together on their own because they saw their classmates dealing with stress, pressures, mental health issues, and even drab hallways, which senior Jade Balansag described as "boring corridors of nothingness." Senior Jacob Dow did his research and learned that surroundings can make a big...
The Fourth of July is a little more than four months away but it's not too soon to begin planning for the event and start recruiting royalty candidates to help with fundraising. "We're planning a normal Fourth, and will adjust as needed," said Stephanie Cook, executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, which has organized the community celebration for decades. "We're working out details now" for pandemic-related adjustments to the celebration, she said, such as hand-washing stations...
Independent travelers and passengers aboard small cruise ships are vital to Wrangell's tourism season, and they're exactly what the community is focusing on - regardless of Canada's decision to keep its waters closed to the larger cruise ships that come to Alaska. "We're moving forward with marketing to independent travelers ... it's huge for us," said Carol Rushmore, the borough's economic development director and head of the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau. "The fact that we don't rely...
Up to $200 million in federal funding is available to help Alaskans who are having trouble paying their rent due to a loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp., a state agency, is running the assistance program. The corporation is using Alaska's share of federal aid for renters, as allocated under December's congressional pandemic relief legislation. The application period opened Tuesday and will close at 11:59 p.m. March 5. More than 15,000 Alaskans had...
Maybe you did not like her vote to convict former President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. Maybe you wanted her to stick with most Republicans who cast their ballot to acquit because you believe the evidence was weak, or that Trump never intended to ignite a riot at the Capitol last month, or that Congress cannot impeach a former president. Maybe you think the senator, now in her 20th year, isn't conservative enough for your Republican tastes, and you believe she has grown too...
Testing for COVID-19 will continue at the Wrangell airport, and at other airports throughout Alaska, even though the state pandemic disaster declaration expired Sunday. However, the testing will be optional rather than mandatory, except in those communities with their own rules. The Alaska Legislature was unable to agree on a new disaster authorization for the governor, who declined to issue a declaration without legislative action. "As of now we will continue with airport screening and...
More than $6.5 billion in federal funding for pandemic relief has already been authorized for individuals, communities, school districts, businesses, health-safety programs, government agencies, the fishing industry and others in Alaska, with more probably headed this way. Legislators will likely want a say in how any new money coming to the state treasury will be used. The White House and Democrat-led Congress are pushing for additional federal assistance, as much as $1.9 trillion, including...