Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
Kevin Gadsey, hired last month by the Wrangell Cooperative Association to work on domestic violence prevention, said the problem is more traumatic in smaller communities like Wrangell, where survivors often must leave town for support and treatment. Alaska has some of the highest domestic violence rates in the country, especially among Native communities. While more support and resources for survivors of domestic violence are needed, a key piece of the equation is prevention, Gadsey noted. The...
Alaska lawmakers fell one vote short Monday in an attempt to override the governor’s veto of a comprehensive school funding bill, which included a permanent increase in the state funding formula for K-12 education and which could have provided an additional $440,000 for the Wrangell school district. The additional funds would have covered about two-thirds of the deficit in the Wrangell district’s draft budget, reducing the amount of money it will need to pull out of reserves for the 2024-2025 school year. The vote in a joint session of the Hous...
The federal appropriations bill signed into law earlier this month includes a $2.5 million grant for Wrangell's new water treatment plant, which is under construction and scheduled for completion in June 2025. The latest federal grant, added to the budget bill by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, will reduce the amount of borrowed money the borough will need to repay, Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma confirmed Friday, March 15. President Joe Biden signed the appropriations bill on March 9, after the measure won approval by wide margins in the...
Ann Hilburn is leaving her job as elementary school principal in Wrangell at the end of the school year when she will move to Tok in Alaska’s Interior to serve as special education director. This was Hilburn’s second year as principal after serving a year as special education teacher at the high school and middle school. The new job with the Alaska Gateway School District in Tok “will provide the opportunity to combine what I enjoy most, serving in special education, with the administrative piece of my educational tenure,” she said in an emai...
March 20, 1924 A floating city with myriads of twinkling of lights! That is what a fleet of halibut vessels appear to be on a dark night to an observer on the deck of a ship as it approaches the halibut banks anywhere in Alaska waters from Frederick Sound as far north as Kodiak, says the Ketchikan Examiner. The halibut fishermen work tirelessly all night long gathering in the silvery hordes. There is little sleep for them during the long voyages sometimes of many weeks duration, unless overtaken by stormy weather. But the halibut boats return...
BOOK FAIR 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 21, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, March 22, at the Evergreen Elementary School gym. Open to the public. Call Kendra at 907-874-2321 for more information. BAHA’I NEW YEAR (Naw Ruz) 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the community center. Enjoy a potluck dinner, short program and social. Family oriented. Call 907-209-9117 for more information. STIKINE HOOPS INVITATIONAL, middle school-age girls basketball tournament Friday and Saturday, March 22-23, at the high school gym. Games start at 11 a.m. Friday a...
Clean water advocates believe a seafood consumption survey among Wrangell residents might help in their push for higher water quality standards. Together, the Wrangell Cooperative Association and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission will conduct a survey in Wrangell to determine the quantity and types of seafood community members consume. The goal of the survey is to update the region’s outdated fish consumption rate, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, WCA tribal administrator. The metric is used by the U.S. Environmental Pr...
The borough assembly unanimously agreed March 12 to move forward with the sale of six borough-owned lots behind the former hospital property. The six lots will be appraised and sold at market value to Wayne Johnson, a Georgia-based real estate developer. Johnson is planning to build a 48-unit, condo-style housing development with covered parking on the former hospital property and six adjacent lots. The sales of the former hospital property and six adjacent lots are conditional upon each other, as Johnson has said he needs all the parcels for...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy sank to a new low last week when he vetoed a bipartisan, long-needed comprehensive education funding package that had passed the House and Senate by a combined 56-3 vote. Yet he reached for new heights in explaining his low decision to deny school districts their first meaningful increase in state funding since 2017. More specifically, he boarded the Starship Enterprise, which is as much a stage prop as are his reasons for vetoing the bill. At a March 15 press conference to explain his veto, Dunleavy called the state’s p...
The Sentinel has never charged for listings in the community calendar, which has been displayed on Page 2 for years. Easy enough for print subscribers to open the paper and see what’s happening in town, whether public meetings, fundraisers, youth activities, multiple Parks and Recreation activities, movies and more. But it did not dawn on me until last week that anyone wanting to read the calendar online needed a subscription. My apologies for never thinking about that. It’s another reminder that my 72-year-old head still thinks of new...
On March 14, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed Senate Bill 140, which would have provided the largest increase in the base student allocation state funding formula for public schools since its inception. This legislation aimed to boost the base rate by $680 per student, about an 11% increase, a critical measure to uphold the state's constitutional duty to provide public education to all children in Alaska. Even though the BSA has only seen a 4.92% increase since 2012, while the consumer price index has risen more than 25%, indicating a 21% decrease in...
The borough assembly narrowed down the field of seven applicants for the borough manager job; a special meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, to interview the three finalists. The finalists include current interim borough manager and finance director Mason Villarma and two Lower 48 candidates with city manager experience: Jack Harper of Texas and Alan Lanning of Colorado. Lanning has served as city manager in Cordova and interim city manager in Bethel. The applicants were to be interviewed over Zoom in an executive session at the March...
Trident Seafoods has announced the sale of its Ketchikan processing facilities to Silver Bay Seafoods, and the sale of its Petersburg operation to E.C. Phillips & Son. Trident has not announced buyers for two other Alaska plants it has put on the market in Kodiak, the company’s largest operation in the state, and False Pass, in the Aleutian Islands. Seattle-based Trident is scaling back its Alaska operations amid weak seafood markets, low prices and changing consumer buying habits. The company has called it “a comprehensive, strategic res...
The weights and exercise areas at the swimming pool and community recreation facility have expanded, with more equipment stationed in the converted racquetball court. Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson said the facility has seen an increase in use of weight-lifting and cardio equipment like treadmills and stationary bikes over the past several years, so they wanted to expand to satisfy the demand and encourage people to keep coming back. "We've hustled our little tails off to make sure...
In addition to his duties as activities director, Mike Hoyt will now also serve as the new Indian Education Act director for the school district after the resignation of DaNika Smalley on Feb. 29. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that Hoyt started on March 11. Working in cultural education has been Hoyt’s focus since 2011. He worked as a teacher in Nome for five years, and before that worked at culture camps operated by Goldbelt and Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. “He’s got background in writing grants,” Burr said. “And he...
High school student Cody Eastaugh has worked part time for almost two years at the Bay Company, known as BayCo, which specializes in marine sales and service at its Front Street location. While trying to decide on his senior project, his boss Dave Powell came up with the idea that Eastaugh could assist him with volunteer efforts for two fundraisers and cleanup and repairs at the shooting range. "I thought, that's a terrific idea and I should do that," Eastaugh said. First, he helped Powell with...
Illegal dumping of trash, appliances and whatever else people don’t want to take to the waste transfer station has long been a problem in town. “It’s not just a Wrangell issue,” Police Chief Tom Radke said last week. Radke, who spent almost 26 years in law enforcement in Minnesota before taking the Wrangell job in 2020, said he has seen it many times before. But just because it’s commonplace doesn’t mean it’s legal — it’s not. Illegal dumping of garbage in Wrangell is subject to a $150 fine. “It’s one of those issues we’re trying to get ahead o...
South Anchorage high school teacher Logan Pitney said his colleagues are making exit strategies to flee their bad financial prospects in Alaska. He called Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s teacher retention bonus plan a “Band-Aid on an arterial bleed.” Juneau Superintendent Franks Hauser called the governor’s charter school policy change proposal a “statewide solution without a statewide problem.” They were among dozens of teachers and school administrators who rejected Dunleavy’s education policy proposals at recent legislative hearings in Juneau. There’s...
After three days of challenging games on the court, the Wrangell Wolves boys varsity basketball team's loss to the Unalakleet Wolfpack on the morning of Saturday, March 16, left them in sixth place at the state Division 2A championship in Anchorage. The Petersburg Vikings took the title for the first time since 2017. The Metlakatla Miss Chiefs won the girls tournament. Wrangell head coach Cody Angerman posted on Facebook after the game: "As disappointing as our last (tournament) game was, it...
The Wrangell Little League is preparing for a new season on the baseball diamond. But first, they need a few more volunteers. Little League player agent Kaelene Harrison said that while they’ve found almost all their head coaches, there are still a few open spots. “We just need to decide who’s coaching what,” she said last week. The season runs April 1 through June 15. In addition to coaches, the league was looking for volunteers to fill openings for assistant coaches, umpires and scorekeepers, as well as field maintenance and concess...
Alaska lawmakers on March 12 narrowly overturned an executive order from Gov. Mike Dunleavy that would have given him the sole authority to appoint members to the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board. The final vote was 33-26 to reject the governor’s move. Representatives and senators met in a joint session to consider overturning a dozen executive orders issued by the governor earlier this year that would have eliminated state advisory boards or consolidated their oversight within the executive branch. Lawmakers voted separately on each reso...
The federal government should pay Alaska more than $700 billion in compensation for the 2023 Environmental Protection Agency action that blocked development of the massive and controversial Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration claims in a lawsuit filed in a federal court. The lawsuit, filed March 14 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in the District of Columbia, is part of a flurry of legal actions by the state and the mine’s would-be developer that seek to revive the massive copper and gold project in a sal...
Monday, March 11 Agency assist: Pretrial. Complaint: Dog chasing cars. Tuesday, March 12 Traffic stop: Citation issued for expired registration, verbal warning for parking in a crosswalk. Agency assist: Protective services. Traffic hazard: Debris in roadway. Agency assist: Hoonah Police Department. Wednesday, March 13 Criminal histories. Agency assist: Fire Department. Thursday, March 14 Inmate booking: Assault, unlawful contact. Friday, March 15 Traffic stop: Citation issued for expired registration Traffic stop: Driver to sort out issue with...
While Alaska’s mariculture industry is small by global standards, production of farmed shellfish and seaweed in the state has increased substantially in recent years, according to a new status report released Feb. 23 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Applications for Alaska mariculture permits averaged about six a year from 2014 to 2018 but increased to about 14 a year from 2019 to 2023, said the State of Alaska Aquaculture report, issued by the NOAA Fisheries. Oysters have been a pillar of Alaska mariculture for many y...