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Between state budget cuts, a mainline vessel engine breakdown, a halt to port calls in Prince Rupert, B.C., and COVID-19 travel restrictions, the Alaska Marine Highway System has struggled the past year to provide service to Wrangell and the rest of Southeast. Under the governor's proposed budget for the state fiscal year that starts July 1, the ferry system would have even less money to provide service. "Woefully inadequate," Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz, who also represents Wrangell, described...
January Jan. 2: Along with the lights, trees and carolers, the Salvation Army's red Christmas kettles are a common sight during the holiday season. Lt. Jon Tollerud, Wrangell's new corps officer, said the red kettles brought in $10,469. Jan. 9: The Nolan Center celebrated the new year Dec. 31 with a murder mystery party. As this new year marks a new decade, a return to the '20s, the party had a 1920s theme to it. With jazz music, themed costumes and masks, partygoers had the chance to return to...
Last Friday, Governor Dunleavy released his proposed budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year (FY22). The budget, which includes all departments and services but not the PFD, totals $3.81 billion in Unrestricted General Funds. It is slightly less than this past budget (FY21), which was approximately $3.83 billion. The primary difference is that FY21 included one-time COVID-19 funding in the Department of Health and Social Services that is not included in this upcoming year's budget. FY22 also has a smaller Education budget by $26.8 million because...
December 17 Jamie Roberts, with the Wrangell EOC, reported that there are currently no active cases of COVID-19 in the community. Statewide, Alaska’s case count is 41,859 as of yesterday. This is an increase of 3,151 from last week. Wrangell received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 16. According to SEARHC, following guidance from the Alaska Vaccine Advisory Council, vaccinations will be given to frontline health workers first, along with first responders, and l...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A lab in Alaska failed to report over 1,600 positive coronavirus tests to the state health department in the past month, according to a state official. Dr. Louisa Castrodale, an epidemiologist with the state, said Friday that Beechtree Labs did not report 1,636 positive test results out of 13,169 tests conducted, most of which were done in the last two weeks. Beechtree is a new commercial lab based out of Anchorage. The announcement is a sign that climbing daily case counts reported by the state reflect only a part o...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Legislative Council approved a measure that requires lawmakers, employees and reporters to be screened for the coronavirus when entering the Capitol and to wear masks or face coverings in the building and other legislative offices. The council also voted on Thursday to keep the Capitol building closed to the public until at least January, when the next Legislature convenes. Legislative staff and reporters will still be allowed into the building, KTOO Public Media reported. The council’s chair, Sen. Gary Ste...
A meeting between school officials and concerned community members was held in the WHS commons last Thursday evening, Oct. 22 about a then-recent announcement by the Alaska School Activities Association. The announcement, shared on the Wrangell Public Schools' Facebook page on Oct. 19, made it a requirement for high school athletes to wear face masks during competition. Previously, students were not expected to wear masks during activity. The only exception for this new announcement was for...
The Prysunka family, Dr. Lynn and Mayor Steve, met with KSTK and Wrangell Sentinel reporters on the afternoon of Oct. 20 to talk about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Wrangell has seen a total of 20 cases of the virus since the pandemic began. The most recent case was announced on Sept. 14. All of these cases have recovered, though, and Wrangell has not seen an active case in about a month. However, across the state and the country, cases continue to rise. The Alaska Department of Health and...
To the Editor: I am extremely concerned that the State has decided to cut ferry service over the winter months to the community of Wrangell. The Alaska Marine Highway has determined that Ketchikan and Petersburg will each have 10 stops while Wrangell will have just two. We will have one north bound vessel in November and one south bound vessel in January. How is this possible? We are literally right between Ketchikan and Petersburg. The explanation provided by the State is that timing the tides...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska reported six more deaths from the coronavirus — the highest number of deaths in a single day since the pandemic began, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services. The state also reported 128 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the most recent available data. The deaths include three men in their 60s, one man in his 50s and two men in their 70s. The state had previously reported a high of four deaths on Aug. 25. As of Friday, there were 4,424 active cases of the coronavirus in the sta...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, Sept. 21. Two major topics of discussion during this meeting were the high school swim team, and whether or not students could travel for activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several people spoke at the meeting, calling for the school district to fully fund the swim team, to add the coach's position to the schedule of extracurricular activities, as well as to remove the schedule of extracurricular activities from the negotiated agreement process. Jamie...
The M/V Matanuska arrived in Wrangell Sunday evening during its first voyage of the season out of Bellingham, but that same day a passenger onboard the M/V Kennicott, which left Bellingham on June 27, tested positive for COVID-19. The protocols that the Alaska Marine Highway System has in place to prevent the spread of the virus seem to have limited the infection to the one individual who only had one other close contact, according to a press release issued by the Alaska Department of...
The Wrangell School District held another SMART Start meeting last Wednesday, June 24, to continue discussing ways the district can safely reopen and operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education has come out with recommendations to determine what constitutes different risk levels for operation in Wrangell, according to the meeting's notes, so the group of school board members, district faculty and staff, and parents mostly concentrated their discussion around the possible...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening, June 23. While the adoption of the FY 2021 budget was the primary topic of discussion, and is covered in another article, there were several other important items covered in the meeting. One such item was the resignation of Assembly Member Mya DeLong. DeLong submitted her letter of resignation on June 8, but it was only formally accepted by the assembly in this meeting. According to her letter of resignation, DeLong has served as a member of...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s government has announced that child care providers will receive an additional $10.5 million from the state’s portion of federal coronavirus relief funds. State Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum said in a statement that the department and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the additional funding to businesses providing child care, The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. “We found that the funding available to this sector was not coming fast enough,” Crum said. Child care is...
On Wednesday, May 27, members of the Wrangell Unified Command met via videoconference to consolidate pandemic information and response from respective local organizations. Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) leadership commented on expansion of testing for select community organizations, while the City and Borough of Wrangell (CBW) Manager announced new cleaning supply stock and the potential purchase of an ambulance with CARES Act funding. Representatives from Emergency Medical Services (EMS),...
The Wrangell School Board met via web conference last Monday, May 18 and heard of several unethical and potentially illegal things happening in the district. Another person said the district had a hostile work environment. David Macri was one of the speakers that evening. Macri was the district's former secondary school principal, before his resignation and being put on administrative leave in March of this year. Macri spoke in the meeting to say that there were several problems in the school...
Wrangell's Unified Command participated in their weekly conference call on Wednesday, May 6, to provide organizational updates on COVID-19 developments and changes in respective protocols. The City and Borough of Wrangell (CBW) mayor and manager were joined by Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) leadership, as well as Tribal and Public Health representatives, to discuss Borough Assembly allocations, testing initiatives, and available community resources. Borough...
Happy Public Service Appreciation Week! Every year, PSA Week falls on the first full week of May, and its timing is uncanny this year. The past eight weeks have been a whirlwind for our public servants, and I cannot thank them enough. Information and mandates are rapidly changing, but our public servants have worked hard to keep our communities healthy. As Alaska reopens, we will do so as safely as possible, keeping the health and wellbeing of our neighbors, families, and friends as our highest priorities. Last week, Dr. Zink gave an update on...
At the beginning of April the Wrangell Sentinel reported on Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's organization-wide COVID-19 testing numbers, across all of their medical centers and clinics in Southeast Alaska. At the time, SEARHC representatives said that they could not provide community-specific numbers to the public. The test numbers in each individual community were so small, the reasoning went, that releasing those numbers could potentially identify who was being tested and violate...
Governor Mike Dunleavy signed the Fiscal Year 2021 budget into law on Monday, April 6, according to an April 7 press release from the governor's office. The budget, as enacted "maintains spending across various programs and components at a level consistent with FY 2020, and funds an incomplete Permanent Fund Dividend." In short, the approved budget has total revenues set at about $9.07 billion and expenses at about $10.03 billion. While adopting this budget, the governor also issued some line-it...
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Governor Mike Dunleavy, Department of Health and Social Services, and Department of Military and Veterans Affairs are launching a new joint COVID-19 website. This new website will be a one-stop-shop for Alaskans as they navigate the resources that the State of Alaska is offering during this unprecedented crisis. “This outbreak is an all hands on deck situation. Resources are available from every State of Alaska agency working to slow the spread of COVID-19, financially help Alaskans, assist b...
The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, according to several members of Wrangell's local government, has been doing a very good job of communicating with them during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Assembly Member David Powell said that communications between SEARHC, Mayor Steve Prysunka, and Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen have been taking place almost daily. Prysunka and Von Bargen are really on top of things, he said. Assembly Member Drew Larrabee added that, in his opinion,...
To the Editor: As a long-time Southeast resident, I continue to be amazed by the resiliency and determination of our close-knit communities. The preparation that is happening in advance of COVID-19 in our communities is strong. SEARHC continues to enact a comprehensive response plan. As SEARHC Chief Medical Officer, I maintain daily communication with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state authorities, including the Governor's office and the state emergency...
Last week, Alaska had its first case of the Coronavirus: a cargo pilot traveling through Anchorage. With the amount of travel that Alaskans have done over the last month, it is likely that there are more untested and unverified cases already here. There is certainly no need to panic, but let’s err on the side of caution. One thing you can do is stay informed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a website updated multiple times per day. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has a webpage dedicated to the virus in A...
