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At its Nov. 12 meeting, the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved its list of capital project requests for the 2015-16 fiscal year. Assembled by city staff and Assembly members, the annual list prioritizes projects in order of importance and gets circulated in Juneau and Washington D.C. by the borough's lobbyists, also serving as a target for finding funding opportunities. Topping the list are pool facility improvements, which could be as high as $1.5 million. Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch...
The definitions of Alaska's political landscape are soon to be settled following the 2014 midterm elections on Nov. 4. As the last votes are counted, concessions have begun coming in. Since Election Day, Alaska's Division of Elections officials in 441 precincts across the state have been tallying around 48,000 absentee, early and questioned votes in the hope of determining the winners of the Nov. 4 general election. In Southeast, it was a particularly close race for the State House seat for...
The high and middle school halls and commons at Wrangell were crawling Friday and Saturday as around 80 teens ran through lines, practiced their best voices and otherwise prepared themselves before performing at the regional drama, debate and forensics (DDF) meet. "It ran a lot more smoothly than I was expecting," said Sydney Reed, Wrangell's new DDF coach. Though a longtime participant in the program, it was her first time as a host. "I was a lot more worried about it than I probably should...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. November 19, 1914: On the last steamer from the south comes the news that Canadian authorities are in fear of a German attack on the cities along the coast and have mined a section of the well-beaten path of the steamships plying the inside passage to Alaska. The section closed is known as Broughton Straits and means that vessels coming up the inside passage will have to bear off to starboard from Ella Point and pass to the north of Malcolm Island instead of to the south and take what is known as...
On page one of last week’s issue of the Sentinel, part of the quotation highlighted in the Ports Commission story was misattributed. “You don’t get a parking spot with the stall,” was said by John Yeager, not Greg Meissner. We apologize for the mistake....
Monday, November 10 Traffic Stop: Citation issued to Eric Crayne, 23, for operating an unregistered vehicle and no proof of insurance. Deer Complaint. Tuesday, November 11 Agency Assist – DOT. Traffic Hazard. Parking Complaint. Agency Assist. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for faulty equipment. Wednesday, November 12 Theft reported. Deer Complaint: Unable to locate the deer. Burning Complaint. Citizen Assist. MVA: Person slid off road into ditch due to slick conditions. Petition To Revoke Probation. Thursday, November 13 Citation issued to C...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) board members met in Petersburg Nov. 13-14 to discuss the results of their annual audit and other business. Independent auditing company BDO performed this year’s audit, which followed both generally acceptable auditing standards as well as government auditing standards, required because SEAPA received some $5.99 million in state grants of which $1.11 million counted as state expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 2014. BDO’s Assurance Director Joy Merriner was present via teleconference for the...
Americans celebrate Thanksgiving once a year, remembering those poor pilgrims who were just happy to be alive. So we, Americans, take it many steps farther, but how many remember the pilgrims when they sit down to eat? My wise son, a freshman in college, on the subject of coming home for Thanksgiving said he didn’t think so, “isn’t it just a meal?” And it is just a meal, a meal that we have somehow made into a very stressful holiday. It seems we are now celebrating the meal, how much and how well it is presented and we forget the Thanksg...
The Oakland Museum of California recently returned a lost artifact to Tlingit Haida Central Council, a ceremonial clan hat belonging to the Khaach.ádi clan of Wrangell. The Xhixhch'i S'aaxhw, or Frog Hat, is nearly 200 years old, verlaid with copper and abalone shell, and decorated with ermine skins and woven rings. In a Council news release the hat is said to be a sacred object used in clan ceremonies and is the joint property of the Khaach.ádi. It is uncertain when it will return to Wrangell f...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries has released its annual report of commercial fish landings in 2013. The report outlines the top 50 ports by pounds of fish landed and value of fish landed. Nine of the top 20 major U.S. ports by millions of pounds of fish landed were in Alaskan communities, with Dutch Harbor ranking as the largest U.S. port with some 753 million fish landed in 2013 worth $197 million. Three Southeast towns ranked in the top 20 for 2013 including Ketchikan, ranked 12th with 144 million pounds...
Wrangell's Lady Wolves high school volleyball team gave a great performance and won four out of five games in Craig last weekend at the Southern Seeing Tournament. "It went really well," said the Wolves' coach, Jessica Whitaker. Despite some serving errors that persisted on Friday, the team held on to win two of its three matches. Against Metlakatla and Haines, the Wolves swept the opposition in three games apiece. "Saturday, everything seemed to click," Whitaker said. Her team again swept the n...
Though lacking in numbers, Wrangell’s wrestlers did well at the Bill Weiss Invitational in Ketchikan Friday and Saturday. The team took third overall, coming in one point behind Craig and Ketchikan. Among small schools, the Wolves finished ahead of the pack. “It’s usually the first time we get to compete with 4A,” said the team’s coach, Jeffery Rooney. This year Alaska School Activities Association has schools in the region compete together, which has pit 1A-3A teams against larger 4A schools in regular competition. “It wasn’t as grandiose as...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – Two recently-acquired 45-foot boats will serve as the new “primary assets’’ for the U.S. Coast Guard's Station Ketchikan. The boats will be used for missions ranging from law and fisheries enforcement to recreational boat safety and search and rescue, according to Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate Kevinn M. Smith, the officer in charge of the small boat station. The new “Response Boat Mediums’’ which cost about $2 million each and were built by Seattle's Kvichak Marine Industries are replacing two 47-foot motor lifeboa...
WASHINGTON – A new report from Headwaters Economics, a Bozeman, Mont.-based research firm, finds that the United States Forest Service is continuing to invest at a disproportionate rate into a flagging timber industry in southeast Alaska, while neglecting more sustainable and growing industries like recreation, tourism and fishing. The Headwaters report, entitled “The Tongass National Forest and the Transition Framework: A New Path Forward,” examines several years of U.S. Forest Service budget and staffing numbers for the Tongass Natio...
WASHINGTON (AP) – A key polar bear population fell nearly by half in the past decade, a new U.S.-Canada study found, with scientists seeing a dramatic increase in young cubs starving and dying. Researchers chiefly blame shrinking sea ice from global warming. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Environment Canada captured, tagged and released polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea from 2001 to 2010. The bear population shrank to about 900 in 2010, down from about 1,600 in 2004. That area is one of two main U.S. polar bear r...
A news release from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) released Nov. 13 outlines an estimated 2015 pink salmon harvest of 58 million fish. “ An actual harvest of 58 million pink salmon would be well above the recent 10-year average of 41 million pink salmon and a harvest of that magnitude would be in the top ten harvests since 1960,” according to the release. The release states that the annual forecast was produce in two steps, “ 1) a forecast of the trend in the harvest, and 2) the forecast trend adjusted using 2014 juvenile pink...
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Friday it will be delaying the implementation of its upcoming unaccompanied minor policy for Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) services. The new policy would no longer allow children under the age of 18 to travel unaccompanied on the ferry system. Currently, travelers aged 12 to 15 can show a note from their parents or legal guardians allowing them to travel alone, and no restrictions are in place for those aged 16 and older. Exemptions to the new policy include...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A longtime Juneau service agency is in debt and struggling to remain open amid staff resignations and layoffs. The nonprofit Southeast Alaska Guidance Association is also in the process of moving from its main shop and office. Acting board chairman Matt Smith said members are fighting to keep the agency running, but he doesn't know if it will be operating after this year. George McGuan, who joined the board in March, said members told him the association was $250,000 in debt. “I was blown away. I was like, OK, we're a non...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Juneau Police Department has unveiled a new substation at the University of Alaska Southeast. JPD debuted the new space a converted storage room near the Egan Library to the public Thursday afternoon during “Coffee with a Cop.“ The room may be a little spartan (there's only one computer and desk, and the walls are mostly bare), but UAS officials expressed excitement at having a visible police presence on campus. Officers won't be staffing the substation, but they can go there instead of doing work at JPD headq...
Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission twice lacked a quorum at its scheduled evening meeting Nov. 13 and midday Monday rescheduling. Due to scheduling difficulties, Commission chair Terri Henson and Economic Development Coordinator Carol Rushmore were alone in the City Hall chambers at the Thursday night meeting. All seven commissioners were then notified of a rescheduling to Monday, but only Henson, Dorothy Hunt-Sweat and Don McConachie were able to attend. “Sorry everybody,” Henson said, as some residents had shown up to Monday’s meeting...