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A state and federally designated economic development organization for Southeast Alaska has received $1 million in two grants to build up mariculture in the region, with half the money to go toward applying for an even larger grant and the other half going to design a processing facility on Prince of Wales Island. A $500,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration will be used “to build an application to allow us to compete for $50 million,” Robert Venables, executive director of Southeast Conference, said last Friday. The $50...
Unless the Alaska Marine Highway System can recruit enough workers by March 1 to restaff the unused Columbia, officials said the largest vessel in the fleet would remain tied to the dock for a third summer in a row. “Management is doing everything we can” to recruit and staff up, Katherine Keith, the ferry system’s newly hired change management director, told legislators last week. As of the first week of January, the state ferry system was short more than 350 workers — about half of the staffing level necessary — to operate the full summer sc...
The temporary, pop-up mobile towers have been ordered for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska's pilot project that will provide wireless internet service in Wrangell, but it will be later in the year before the system goes live. Chris Cropley is a network architect at Central Council, which is setting up the federally funded broadband service named Tidal Network. He's been there since last April. His job is a mix of disciplines - part technical, part...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium is providing free COVID-19 at-home test kits on a first come, first served basis. A Feb. 7 post on SEARHC's Facebook page said it is providing two boxes per household, but the Wrangell Medical Center pharmacy, where the test kits are being handed out, is not tracking who is asking or how many times. "We're just asking people to be respectful so there's more for the community," Carly Allen, hospital administrator, said last Thursday. After a...
Feb. 16, 1922 The recommendation of the Board of Engineers to Congress for an appropriation of $50,000 for a breakwater for the protection of Wrangell harbor is as welcome as it was unexpected. Just a short time ago the board had publicly announced its intention of reporting unfavorably on the project. Then, following a survey made under the direction of Col. James G. Steese, District Engineer of the Alaska Rivers and Harbor District, the board recommended that the project be approved and Congress asked to make the necessary appropriation....
The school district has a plan to help close next year’s budget gap: It will use federal funds from last year’s American Rescue Plan Act to cover the salaries of new elementary school and middle/high school principals rather than continue the practice of paying for a lead teacher/assistant principal out of general budget funds. At a school board meeting last Wednesday, Tammy Stromberg, the district’s business manager, went through the first draft of the 2022-2023 budget, explaining how switching the funding for the principals — and elimina...
State ferry management said they are working to be more responsive to community and passenger concerns, including reconsidering the use of “dynamic pricing,” where fares increase as ships fill up on popular sailings. No one likes dynamic pricing, Katherine Keith, the Transportation Department’s change management director, told legislators last week. The pricing structure is similar to airlines, hotels and rental cars, where bookings on popular routes and travel days can cost significantly more, especially as availability tightens closer to th...
Three photos won top honors for depicting values like friendship and goals in a themed photography contest held by the Wrangell middle and high schools. Little interest was shown in the contest when it was first announced last fall, said assistant principal Bob Davis, with only four photos entered. After extending the deadline, 50 photos were entered by 20 students. Eighth grader Ben Houser won first place with a photo of his brother in Death Valley, California; senior Jamie Early won second...
Grant writing skills can be almost as useful to learn in school these days as reading and writing, and certainly are invaluable for the arithmetic of classroom and community programs. Funding is available from multiple foundations, government agencies and private businesses for those who can write an effective grant application. They need to tell their story, tell how the grant will make life better in their community, and tell it with conviction. The competition for grants can be intense, which is why it’s impressive to see Wrangell high schoo...
The fire department and SEARHC are helping residents to stay healthy — or at least know when they are not healthy and should stay home for the protection of others in the community. Both are handing out free at-home COVID-19 test kits, as long as supplies last. Not only are the tests free, but they are easy to use and can do a lot to keep the Omicron variant of the coronavirus where it should be: Behind us, not looming large ahead of us. After Wrangell — along with the rest of the state and the country — took ill in record numbers in Janua...
If at first you don’t succeed, it’s not always better that you try, try again. But try, try again is what we do well in Alaska. Well, not so successfully, but we are consistent in trying the patience of common sense and fiscal restraint. For Alaskans, that could apply to the long-proposed, longingly dreamy North Slope natural gas pipeline project — a $39 billion quest in search of customers, partners, investors and lenders. Other than that, it has all the free political support it needs. The state has poured about $1.5 billion into vario...
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 board and members of St. Frances Animal Rescue would like to thank the many generous members of the Wrangell community for their support. Your donations have helped us sustain the efforts of the rescue to take in stray and surrendered kitties, provide quality care and try to find adoptive homes for cats and dogs. In addition, it has been significant in helping us work toward the goal of relocating the shelter. It was a busy 2021 with cats continuing to be surrendered, trapped and adopted. We took in 11 adult cats and six kittens. Four...
It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to support the activities of an organization such as Hospice of Wrangell. Our members sincerely appreciate the community's involvement and support. We want to recognize some folks who have provided special help this past year. We are awarding “Hospice Hearts” for 2021 to: Suellen Bahleda ,Jim Bailey, Michael Bania, Cyni Crary, Bonnie Demerjian, Tyler Eagle, Duke Mitchell, Adrianna Nelson, Loretta Rice, Sarah Scambler, and the members of the Stikine Stitchers. These Wrangellites hav...
I would like to concur with Alice Rooney about the high quality of the Wrangell Sentinel. You are doing a fine job. Glad to have you back, Larry. I cannot leave out our fine reporter at KSTK, Sage Smiley. She is among the best radio reporters that we have had. She does her research and comes up with news stories that are enlightening. I hope that all of you stick around. Paula Rak...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association wants to move the Chief Shakes Island footbridge to allow better access for buses coming to the popular site and possibly setting aside an area for selling Native crafts. The plan would be to move the bridge access point to create more room at the harbor parking lot, along with rebuilding the decade-old wooden walkway to the island. “They envision the new access to not only clean up the former harbor parking lot but create an in/out access for buses and a place to potentially sell Native goods,” Carol Rus...
A trash masher installed inside the garage at the borough's garbage transfer station has had some teething issues. The baler, which the borough started up in late October, began having problems after one of its sensors got smacked. After troubleshooting over the phone didn't work, the public works department added Wi-Fi to the machine to try and get the manufacturer to gain access to its computerized controls, Jeff Good, borough manager, said in a report to the borough assembly Feb. 8. "AP&T was...
To say senior Liana Carney has a full plate is an understatement. Along with finishing her school sports career and keeping her grades up to remain the valedictorian, Carney also needs to put the finishing touches on her senior project. She tackled the brunt of her project before her final high school year even started, helping organize and put on the Bearfest 2021 Marathon last August. "I work for Alaska Vistas and they kind of run the whole Bearfest thing," Carney said. "The whole week of...
Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is Feb. 16, honoring Native rights activist Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich of the Tlingit Nation who championed equal rights and whose testimony paved the way for the Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act passed by the territorial Legislature in 1945. In Wrangell, Tlingit storyteller and language expert Virginia Oliver is teaching schoolchildren at Evergreen Elementary, Stikine Middle and Wrangell High School about Peratrovich, who was born in Petersburg in 1911, and lived part of her life in Angoon. “Alaska Native children...
Five people attended a meeting for the Wrangell community garden last Wednesday, three in person and two via phone, along with project leaders Valerie Massie and Kim Wickman. The meeting was held to begin selecting committee members and discuss an action plan. According to Massie, the Wrangell Cooperative Association IGAP coordinator, Grace Wintermyer volunteered to be the primary treasurer and Sage Smiley volunteered for the secretary position. “We also reviewed a draft garden bed subscription template,” Massie said. Changes to the subscriptio...
Closed schools and mitigation protocols have complicated recruitment for the U.S. Coast Guard over the two years of the pandemic, officers said. “We are definitely, in comparison to pre-COVID numbers, we are not doing as well,” said Cmdr. Andrea Smith, executive officer of nationwide Coast Guard Recruiting Command. “Meeting a Coastie is still the best recruiting tool for us, and that is increasingly difficult because of the pandemic,” Smith said in a phone interview. The problem is exacerbated in Alaska, said Chief Petty Officer Colin Rankin,...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The hotel that has served for nearly three decades as the Anchorage-based headquarters for the world’s most famous sled dog race will end its association with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race next year. The Lakefront Anchorage Hotel will still be race headquarters for this year’s race and then step away, hotel manager John Bruce and Iditarod Trail Committee Chief Operations Officer Chas St. George told the Anchorage Daily News. The hotel’s owners, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, announced the change in a statement Feb. 9, a da...
The state is accusing the owners of an Anchorage souvenir-making business of consumer fraud, saying in documents filed with Anchorage Superior Court that their “Made in Alaska” products are actually made in the Philippines. Robert Merry, Josephine Merry, Mary Uy and Mark Uy, owners of B. Merry Studio, are facing a civil lawsuit from the state, which is seeking restitution, $25,000 per violation of the state’s consumer protection law, attorney fees, punitive damages, and an order that they stop using the “Made in Alaska” label. B. Merry Stu...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District said it is investigating allegations of racist behavior during a high school basketball game, where some students dressed in Western attire, such as cowboy hats, as their boys basketball team played at home against Metlakatla. Latonya Galles, whose son plays for the Metlakatla Chiefs, told Anchorage television station KTUU the way fans of the Ketchikan High School Kings were dressed was inappropriate. “It was just really, really bad, and racism was definitely present,” said Galle...
The families are on a streak. Evi Fennimore hasn’t missed a game all season, and the Nevada high school basketball team where two of her grandchildren play hasn’t lost a game so far all season. Jake Penney, a senior, and Nate Penney, a junior, are on the starting five at Spanish Springs High School in Sparks, Nevada, where they live with their parents Kyle Penney and Katie Fennimore Penney. Their mom is the daughter of Evi and the late Ron Fennimore, of Wrangell. Kyle Penney is the team coach. The Spanish Springs high school squad is the No....
