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Former Alaska governor, former vice presidential candidate and former reality TV personality Sarah Palin added her well-publicized name to the list of four dozen candidates seeking to fill Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House, hoping to take over for Rep. Don Young, who died last month. “Public service is a calling,” Palin said in a statement on social media. Palin, a Republican, quit as governor of Alaska in 2009 after she and presidential running mate Arizona Sen. John McCain lost the 2008 election to Democrat Barack Obama and Joe Biden...
Betty White was a veteran of the armed forces. Ruby Bridges was the subject of a Normal Rockwell painting. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is 4-foot, 8-inches tall. Libby Riddles was the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. These are just some of the facts learned by Evergreen Elementary students during a March art project for Women's History Month about famous and not-so famous women who have left their mark in the world. The art project began last year, with 20 children from the...
When contractor Jesse West said, "we destroyed everything," it sounds pretty bad, out of context. But that's exactly what his Petersburg company Rainforest Contracting was hired to do - pull down the old Anan bear viewing deck and walkway and put up a new one for the U.S. Forest Service. "So far we've demo-ed everything that was up there," West, president of Rainforest Contracting, said March 29. "It's all stacked in piles and ready to get taken out of there." The concrete and wood and metal...
Just like migrating birds, the Stikine River Birding Festival is coming back to Wrangell. This year, instead of just one weekend, the festival is spreading its wings to three weekends in a row from April 22 to May 7 with a focus on education. "Instead of having one intensive weekend, hoping to capitalize on visitors, I think we recognized it was never really attracting a huge amount of tourists," said Corree Delabrue, district interpreter for the U.S. Forest Service Wrangell office. She also...
March 30, 1922 Probably the largest audience seen in Wrangell during the past year was the one that greeted Alaska Territorial Delegate to Congress Dan Sutherland at the Redmen’s Hall on Tuesday evening. In his opening remarks, Mr. Sutherland touched briefly upon the disarmament conference, which he considered one of the greatest events in world history. Mr. Sutherland began reading an editorial in an Alaska newspaper calling on him to explain why he disregarded the wishes of the people of Alaska and failed to support Judge Wickersham for t...
The state Board of Fisheries’ decision last month to move the Southeast commercial shrimp pot fishery from a fall start to spring means there will be no harvest this year. The Department of Fish and Game told the board that a spring harvest could help build up the region’s shrimp stocks, which are in decline, by taking fewer egg-laden shrimp than in the fall. Wrangell shrimpers, however, are questioning the wisdom of the switch, which they said could hurt marketing efforts and reduce the value of the catch — with no clear benefit to the resourc...
A shortage of pilots amid a labor dispute has forced Alaska Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights since last Friday. Pickets went up Friday at airports in Seattle and elsewhere on the airline’s West Coast route system. Alaska reported it canceled 9% of its service on Friday, about 120 flights, and 7% on Saturday, which affected about 12,000 travelers that day. Flight cancellations were down to 6% on Sunday and about 3% on Monday. “We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration we have caused because so many travel plans have been dis...
It’s been more than two years since “coronavirus” became a household word, and though case numbers have subsided from last summer’s surge and record highs this past winter, the disease is still in town. Wrangell recorded about 10% of its total pandemic infections in the last two weeks of March, the state reported last Friday. Of the 517 Wrangell cases recorded by the state in the past two years, 54 came in the last two weeks of the month. “It’s still here and it’s still making people sick,” Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer,...
Maybe Alaskans were tired of hearing the all-too-familiar refrains: Good candidates don’t run for public office anymore; it’s too expensive; ill-mannered social media posts go after their families and disrupt their lives; voters are too easily swayed by misleading attack ads; and no one wants to hear the truth about solving the country’s problems. So why bother running for office. Clearly, 51 candidates to fill the seat of the late Don Young, Alaska’s congressman for the past half-century, decided to ignore all the reasons not to run. Or mayb...
I’m not anti-Facebook. Well, maybe a little, but more agnostic than antagonistic. I see its purpose and its benefits to connect people, providing something akin to a community bulletin board, a soapbox for ideas, a scrapbook for the town. Just because I don’t maintain my own Facebook page doesn’t mean I am ignorant of its value. I don’t own a pickup, but I can see where a truck would be better for moving furniture than my 2006 VW Beetle — though not as cute. I don’t own an Apple Watch, but I certainly understand that some people like having a $...
Evergreen Elementary students surpassed their fundraising goal to help St. Frances Animal Shelter. Last Friday, fifth grade students presented representatives from the shelter with a check for $1,723, which exceeded their initial goal of $1,000. As part of a leadership program at the school, the students looked for a project that would help the community in some way. When they heard St. Frances has been trying to raise funds to buy or build a new location, they began brainstorming. The kids put fundraising jars around town and held two bake...
The borough is not looking to inhibit private development or evict business owners with its pending purchase of the former sawmill property at 6.5 Mile, no matter the rumors on Facebook, Mayor Steve Prysunka said. The property owner accepted the borough’s offer of about $2.5 million for the 39 acres, with closing on the sale expected June 1. More than 50 replies and comments were added to a Facebook posting last month, questioning whether the borough would kick Channel Construction off the property. The Juneau-based company periodically collect...
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional leaders on March 29 hailed the late Republican Rep. Don Young, the only congressman Alaska has known for nearly the last half-century, as a gruff but pragmatic lawmaker who got things done for his constituents. Young was the longest-serving Republican in the history of the House. He died on a flight to Alaska March 18. He was 88. Former colleagues honored him March 29 as he joined a select few chosen to lie in state at the Capitol. Attendance to the ceremony was l...
Pulling up the driveway just past Johnson's Building Supply at 2.5 Mile is turning the page to a chapter of Wrangell history - with a red barn at the top of the hill. Iver Pederson Nore stepped from the deck of a fishing vessel onto the Southeast Alaska shore in 1910, according to an Alaskan Dairies Historical Society's 1982 spring publication. Originally from Norway (and thus, the surname Nore), he would leave a mark on Wrangell by establishing a dairy farm in 1933. Purchasing used lumber and...
Senior James Shilts cares about his school so much that it became the focus of his senior project. Shilts and wrestling teammate Rowen Wiederspohn grappled with the idea of beautifying part of Wrangell High School to satisfy a graduation requirement. "I was at a wrestling meet in the afternoon (last fall). I was walking outside, and I noticed the benches and how bad they were looking," Shilts said. "The next day, I went and talked to (assistant principal Bob) Davis to see if it was a good...
It takes a lot of extra work to do what one Wrangell High School student has done to get a jump on her future. Junior Adriana Nelson will graduate with this year's senior class in May, having satisfied all the coursework to do so. But it wasn't easy. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only about 3% of high school students nationwide graduate early. "I had to take three extra classes," Nelson said last Thursday, while taking a quick break from class. "Then I have an...
A lightly used 32-foot-long police jet boat moored at Heritage Harbor may be sold to save money. The borough assembly at a work session March 22 went over its insurance expenses ahead of finalizing its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It discussed insurance costs for the old hospital, earthquake coverage, museum exhibits and about $6,000 a year the borough pays to insure the police boat. “I understand the business end of it,” Chief Tom Radke said March 29. “I hate to lose it. Right now, it’s still under discussion.” Radke said the boat...
The Alaska House went back to work on Monday after canceling floor sessions last week when several members refused to wear face masks amid an outbreak of COVID-19 among lawmakers and staff. At its worst last week, almost 10% of the 60 legislators and more than 300 staffers in the Capitol had tested positive for the coronavirus. House Speaker Louise Stutes said she canceled floor sessions due to an unwillingness by several Republican lawmakers to comply with temporary masking rules she had imposed. The speaker announced March 28 that masks...
The House Finance Committee has rejected the governor’s proposal to rely almost entirely on federal funds to operate the Alaska Marine Highway System next year, with the Senate Finance Committee moving in the same direction. The committees differ on the amounts but both want to see more state money in the budget for the ferries, using some federal infrastructure money to replace state dollars but not nearly as much as the governor. Total appropriations for the ferry operating budget next year would be the same under all three versions — gov...
Federal health officials are dropping the warning they have attached to cruising since the beginning of the pandemic, leaving it up to vacationers to decide whether they feel safe getting on a ship. Cruise-ship operators welcomed the announcement, which came as many people thought about summer vacation plans. An industry trade group said the move by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Wednesday validated measures that ship owners have taken, including requiring crew members and most passengers to be vaccinated against the...
For 41 years, a Wrangell High School student was chosen as Shop Student of the Year. The honor was put on hold for two years but has been revived. Shop teacher Winston Davies decided to start giving out the award again, picking Logan Ritchie, who graduated last year, as the recipient for the 2020-2021 school year, when larger shop projects couldn't be finished due to COVID-19 restrictions. "I'm just carrying on a tradition that was started back in the 1980s," Davies said. "There are 41 previous...
Alaska is one of 21 states with Republican attorneys general that sued March 29 to halt the federal government’s requirement that people wear masks on planes, trains, ferries and other public transportation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit, announced by Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody and filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida, contends that the mask mandate exceeds the authority of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mandate in its current form may be in effect only a few wee...
Monday, March 28 Agency assist: U.S. Forest Service. Found property. Intoxicated person. Disturbance. Tuesday, March 29 Suspicious circumstance. Citizen assist: Vehicle unlocked. Wednesday, March 30 Agency assist. Subpoena service. Bench warrant: Arrest for failure to report to jail. Citizen assist. Thursday, March 31 Sex-offender registartion. Civil issue. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for broken tail light and provisional license violation. Friday, April 1 Agency assist: Ambulance. Weapons report. Citizen assist. Motor vehicle accident:...
Tlingit and Haida is looking to have someone on staff to help with installations and customer service when it starts up its pilot broadband network in Wrangell this fall. The Central Council is advertising for a “digital literacy specialist” and installation technician in Wrangell, said Chris Cropley, network architect at Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on March 29. The wireless internet service in Wrangell will be the Central Council’s first in Southeast. The position is advertised at $29.59 to $37.75 per h...
HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for multiple positions in the 2022-2023 school year. All positions are open until filled. K-12 Special Education teacher: This is a full-time teaching position in Grades K-12 Special Education. The position requires an Alaska teaching certificate with appropriate endorsements in Special Education or documentation of enrollment in a program to achieve an appropriate endorsement. Secondary Language Arts Teacher: This is a full-time teaching position in Grades 6-12 English/Language...
