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Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will scale back its operations in an economically challenging global market and wants to sell several of its facilities in Alaska, including processing plants in Petersburg and Ketchikan, but the company plans to keep its Wrangell operation. "Wrangell is a highly efficient plant that makes products that feed our value-added salmon operations," Alexis Telfer, vice president for global communications at Trident, reported in an email Dec. 12. "Petersburg is a...
The cost of clearing landslide debris, digging up the roadbed to install three large culverts to carry runoff from the mountainside, building up a new base and shoulders, and then paving the rebuilt section of Zimovia Highway with concrete will exceed $1.2 million. It could be another couple weeks before the work is finished and the highway restored to two-lane traffic, said a state official. Fortunately, the Alaska Department of Transportation had enough sections of 36-inch-diameter culvert on...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed state budget for legislative consideration starting in January includes $5 million to strengthen the century-old earthen dams that contain Wrangell’s water reservoirs. The state grant would pay to “reinforce both these dams with buttresses,” likely concrete, Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma said Dec. 15. The governor released his version of the budget on Dec. 14. Lawmakers will reconvene in Juneau on Jan. 16, with the state spending plan likely to dominate the 121-day session. Villarma and other borough...
Senior wrestler Keegan Hanson's near-perfect season culminated in triumph, as he earned the title of state champion over the weekend. Hanson defeated all four competitors in his 152-pound weight class - expanding his season's record to 30 wins and only one loss - to earn first place at the Division II state championship tournament held at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15-16. The Wrangell Wolves earned 71.5 points overall, putting them in 12th place among...
Ollivander Green, 2, works his artistry to build a house out of graham crackers and icing, as his father, Salvation Army Capt. Chase Green, is ready to help. Ollivander was enjoying his creative talents as part of The Salvation Army's holiday party for toddlers on Thursday, Dec. 14....
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is starting his sixth year as the state’s top elected leader. Sadly, he’s not providing much fiscal leadership, other than beating the drums for his perpetual political bandwagon that trumpets the Permanent Fund dividend at the front of the parade, with public schools playing second fiddle. It’s off-key and off-base. The governor unveiled his proposed state budget last week, setting out a spending plan for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and which legislators will start working through when they reconvene in Junea...
Even though Trident Seafoods reopened its Wrangell plant this summer after a three-year closure, many in town were nervous about the long-term prospects. Salmon prices were miserably low due to an oversupplied market from last year and foreign competition. Worrying is part of human nature. But the half-century-old, family-owned seafood processor had some good news for Wrangell last week: Trident’s plan to operate the plant is “solid” for next year. And even though the company is looking to sell its facilities in Ketchikan and Petersburg as it...
I attended the Dec. 12 borough assembly meeting where members approved an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units on lots that already have a house. The stated purpose is to increase housing and rental units. I asked several questions about utilities for the rental units. The assembly members did not answer my questions. This is why I am asking these questions in this letter: Will the landlords receive a utility bill? Will the utility bill contain all of the utilities that are on my bill? This is not stated in the ordinance, but I believe...
By the time this paper hits the stores, I’ll be on a plane to my family home in Salt Lake City for the holidays. But unlike last year, I won’t be coming back to Wrangell in January. Instead, I’ll be making a leap from the oldest continuously published newspaper in Alaska to the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States — Harper’s Magazine, in New York City. According to Marilynne Robinson, one of my favorite authors, “a character or a place is inexhaustible and will always reward further attention.” For the past year and...
Dec. 20, 1923 O.D. Leet, who has been in correspondence with members of the Wrangell Commercial Club for several months, arrived here a few days ago. He was present at the Commercial Club luncheon last Monday and laid his proposition before that organization. He announced that after investigating the local situation, he was convinced that there is a good opportunity here for a cold storage, and that he was willing to put in a plant if local people would go in with him on the proposition. He estimated that it would require $30,000 to put in a...
After a yearlong effort spanning two economic development directors, accessory dwelling units are now permissible under borough municipal code. At its Dec. 12 meeting, the assembly unanimously approved a code change that will allow self-contained, smaller apartments or rentals to be built on the same piece of property as a single-family home. The goal, wrote Economic Development Director Kate Thomas, is to “expand industry, bolster our economy and ensure that interested persons and residents can build their lives here.” Wrangell’s housi...
After decades of helping people remember birthdays and anniversaries, the printed community calendar may be going the way of phone books. There will be no Wrangell Birthday Calendar in 2024. The chamber of commerce decided to drop the project from its work list. The last Wrangell phone book was printed in 2020. The chamber had used the calendar as a fundraiser to provide an annual scholarship to a graduating high school senior. Last year’s scholarship was $1,500. “It was discussed and we’re somewhat short-handed over the last few years...
For years, St. Frances Animal Rescue has connected the community's cats and dogs with warm, loving homes. But after its cat shelter on private property closed in 2020, the nonprofit has been searching for a new location. After three years of collaboration between St. Frances and the borough, the assembly approved a 21-year lease Dec. 12 on an industrial lot near the junction of Bennett Street and Ishiyama Drive. The nonprofit requested - and was awarded - the borough's longest available lease...
With a deep reduction in oil revenues expected, Alaska is on track for an almost $1 billion budget hole in the coming year that will have to be filled with money from savings, according to a spending plan presented Dec. 14 by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The governor described his budget for the year beginning next July 1 as “status quo” in most categories. “There’s no cuts in this budget,” he said during a news conference in Juneau. There are a few targeted areas with increases, however, including more staff to help process a backlog of food stamp ben...
A U.S. Senate committee last week advanced legislation to create Native corporations in Wrangell, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Haines — if it can win Senate and House approval in the next 12 months. The five “landless Natives” communities were left out of the 1971 Alaska Native Lands Claims Settlement Act, which created regional, urban and village corporations across the state. Legislation to grant lands to the five communities has been introduced to Congress multiple times over the decades, but this year is the first time any landl...
’Twas the week before Christmas and in the inky black night, Wrangell’s houses all shone with twinkly lights. But whose halls are the best-decked? It’s deadline time to register for the annual home decorating contest sponsored by the chamber of commerce. ’Twas the week before Christmas and it’s deadline time to register for the annual home decorating contest sponsored by the chamber of commerce. Judging is set for Thursday, Dec. 21. The winners will be announced the next day. Residents who want to enter the contest need to call the chamber a...
The borough has gone out to the public for a second time to survey their opinions on how to sell the first 20 lots of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision, in advance of a decision by the Economic Development Board at its meeting set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, at City Hall. The board is scheduled to make a recommendation to the assembly for how the lots should be sold, with the assembly expected to take up the issue in January. According to the Economic Development Department’s proposed schedule, the borough would hol...
The school district has pulled money from reserves and other accounts to cover a $46,000 accumulated deficit in the account that pays for students to travel to state competition. Covering this school year’s state travel expenses and future years is still unresolved. As students already have traveled to several state competitions this school year, including volleyball, cross country and wrestling, the account for 2023-2024 is back in a deficit until a consistent funding stream is determined. The school board voted Nov. 20 to take money from r...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said education is among his top priorities in the coming fiscal year but did not include an increase to the state’s per-student funding formula, known as the base student allocation, in his proposed budget. The budget includes about $1.11 billion to fund the formula that distributes money to school districts statewide, down almost 3% from this year due to declining enrollment. Dunleavy has proposed spending almost twice as much on next year’s Permanent Fund dividend. Lawmakers this past spring approved a one-time appropriatio...
Alaskans could pay significantly more next year for mailing packages to, from and within the state with two price increases planned by the U.S. Postal Service. In an effort to reduce its projected $160 billion loss over the next 10 years, the Postal Service announced it is planning a 5.7% average nationwide price hike in 2024 for some shipping options. Customers using USPS Ground Advantage for shipping within Alaska would see a 9.2% average increase. The price increases are set to take effect Jan. 21, but some Alaska mailing rates from Outside...
SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. government said Dec. 14 it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to offset the loss of hydropower, transportation and other benefits provided by four controversial dams on the Snake River, should Congress ever agree to breach them. President Joe Biden’s administration stopped short of calling for the removal of the dams to save the fish, but Northwest tribes and conservationists who have long sou...
Barbara Lee Patrick passed away on Dec. 4, 2023, at the age of 88 in Monroe, Washington. Barbara graduated from Wrangell High School in 1954. She married Russell Theodore Patrick on Nov. 3, 1956, at the University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. She attended Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, for a year and a half and then attended business college in Seattle. She and Russell made their first home together in Madras, Oregon. They moved back to Wrangell in the late 1950s, where she worked...
Monday, Dec. 11 Theft. Noise complaint. Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding in school zone. Traffic stop. Traffic stop: Citation issued for driving while license revoked. Theft. Domestic violence order service. Subpoena service. Welfare check. Tuesday, Dec. 12 Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Agency assist: Line crew. Traffic stop. Wednesday, Dec. 13 Agency assist: Ambulance requested. Thursday, Dec. 14 Reports of gunshots. Domestic dispute. Friday, Dec. 15 Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding and failure to provide...
TACOMA, Wash. — The 13 largest U.S. tire manufacturers are facing a lawsuit from a pair of California commercial fishing organizations that could force the companies to stop using a chemical added to almost every tire because it kills migrating salmon. Also found in footwear, synthetic turf and playground equipment, the rubber preservative 6PPD has been used in tires for 60 years. As tires wear, tiny particles of rubber are left behind on roads and parking lots, breaking down into a byproduct, 6PPD-quinone, that is deadly to salmon, s...
The collapse of Western Alaska salmon runs has been among the most consequential climate change impacts in the rapidly warming Arctic over the past two years, according to an annual report assembled by a federal agency. The 2023 Arctic Report Card, released Dec. 12 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, includes a special chapter on Alaska salmon among its updates to sea ice, air temperature and permafrost conditions in a region of the world that is warming up to four times as fast as the global average. Western Alaska salmon...