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Former and current secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, who was instrumental in reimposing the 2001 roadless rule on the Tongass National Forest in 2011 and is planning to reimpose it again before Nov. 1, has announced a new Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy “to help support a diverse economy, enhance community resilience, and conserve natural resources.” This is to be “a collaborative process to invest approximately $25 million in financial and technical resources in sustainable opportunities for econo...
Monday’s state ferry to Petersburg and Juneau was the last northbound sailing scheduled for Wrangell until Dec. 10. With the Matanuska pulled out of service for winter maintenance, the Alaska Marine Highway System will operate at a reduced schedule until the ship returns in December. That means a loss of weekly northbound and southbound stops in Wrangell. The Kennicott is covering Southeast in place of the Matanuska, but the Kennicott also will serve Cordova and Whittier in Prince William Sound, resulting in less time — and fewer port cal...
There is no precise count but it looks like federal pandemic aid distributed or allocated over the past 18 months to Wrangell residents, businesses, the borough, school district, tribe and nonprofits totals close to $30 million. That's about equal to all the income earned by every household in town in half a year, according to U.S. Census numbers. It's almost three times the annual budget of the borough and school board combined. Most of the money came as grants or simply as federal aid to keep...
Design plans have been finalized to add crew quarters to the state ferry Hubbard, which hasn’t been in service since it was built a few years ago because its intended routes would go beyond limits for employee working hours. The Alaska Marine Highway System is getting ready to seek bids for the project. “We’re hoping to be in a shipyard somewhere ... by the first of November. That’s our goal,” John Falvey, general manager of the marine highway, said Aug. 23. “We don’t know where. Could be here (the Ketchikan shipyard), could be the Lower 48.” T...
The two unused Alaska fast ferries — which the state sold earlier this year as surplus — have been delivered to the Spanish Island of Ibiza, according to the Diario de Ibiza news website. Diario de Ibiza on Aug. 30 posted several photographs of the former ferries Chenega and Fairweather aboard a heavy-lift ship that left Ketchikan on July 4 and made its way to and through the Panama Canal before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and into the Mediterranean Sea. “The two ships arrived this morning on the island, specifically to the Calo des Moro area,...
The Alaska Marine Highway System fall/winter schedule is online and open for reservations, but don’t look for too many sailings into Wrangell in October and November. A state ferry will pull into town just six times over the two months. But it will be more service than the community received last year. The Kennicott will make two northbound and two southbound stops in Wrangell in October, and just two southbound stops — nothing northbound — during November. The Matanuska, which usually calls on Wrangell once a week in each direction, will...
The state ferry system hopes to resume service next summer to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after a two-year absence due to a customs-clearance issue between the U.S. and Canada. “We are now working at very high levels to try to get back there,” said John Falvey, general manager of the Alaska Marine Highway System. “Rupert is an important port for us.” It’s also a historic port. The Alaska Marine Highway System went into business in 1963, sailing between Prince Rupert and Southeast, before extending its run to Seattle in 1967 and maintaini...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has put out its summer 2022 draft schedule for public comment, with two potentially big changes from this year: The possible return to service of the Columbia, the largest ship in the fleet, and the possible return to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after a two-year absence from the port. If the Columbia returns, it would give the state ferry system two sailings a week out of Bellingham, Washington, to Southeast Alaska ports. With the Columbia, Wrangell could get two northbound and two southbound ferry calls a...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is not alone in trying to manage with a crew shortage, nor is it a new problem. But the fear of COVID-19 is making it worse. “We’ve had a slow progression of loss of crew over the years,” John Falvey, the system’s general manager, said in an interview last week. “COVID has not helped us.” Fear of catching the coronavirus is an issue for recruiting new stewards who work in the galley and dining area, clean the cabins and public areas, he said. “There tends to be a concern now (of COVID) when you look at custo...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been advertising statewide since June in a concerted effort to recruit new crewmembers for the vessels, though help did not arrive in time when the LeConte had to cancel its northbound sailing out of Juneau on Aug. 11 due to a crew shortage. The cancelation “stems from a system-wide crew shortage,” Sam Dapcevich, public information officer for the ferry system, told the Chilkat Valley News in Haines. The one-day cancellation disrupted travel plans for 84 people who were traveling to Haines or Skagway, accord...
The 2,700-page, trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate on Tuesday could provide tens of millions of dollars, maybe more, to help the ailing Alaska Marine Highway System. How to use the money - assuming Congress approves the final package later this year, which is far from certain - would be decided by the governor and Alaska legislators next year. "We can't allow it to be a total replacement of the state's responsibilities," Robert Venables, executive director of the Sou...
Some of the key players in legislative efforts to reach a compromise on a long-term fiscal plan for the state — in addition to settling on an amount for this fall’s Permanent Fund dividend — say growing regional, political and economic differences, plus a large number of first-term legislators, make the effort harder. “To find a common ground means people have to give up something,” said Anchorage Sen. Natasha von Imhof. That compromise of spending versus revenues versus dividends has to add up to a solution that balances the checkbook...
Wrangell would see one northbound ferry every other week during October and November, and one southbound ferry the other weeks in October and November under the draft winter schedule released by the Alaska Marine Highway System. That’s down significantly from the current summer schedule of one northbound and one southbound stop each week. “At what point do we just say, ‘We don’t have a ferry system anymore,’” Mayor Steve Prysunka said. “We just get these schedules that are horrendous in the fall.” The community received one northbound ferry in...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy used his veto power to thwart a legislative effort to boost the state ferry system budget. The governor cut almost $8.5 million from an overall appropriation of $190.7 million intended to cover the next 18 months of Alaska Marine Highway System operations. The veto scales back the budget closer to last year’s level on a 12-month basis and frustrates legislative attempts to restore some of the service cuts under the governor’s administration. This is the third budget Dunleavy has signed since he took office in December 201...
The heavy-lift vessel Red Zed I resurfaces with the former Alaska Marine Highway System fast ferries Chenega and Fairweather on its back last Friday in Tongass Narrows in front of Ketchikan. The Amak Towing vessels Ethan B. and Jennie B. moved the 235-foot-long ferries from their moorings in Ward Cove and into the narrows, where the Red Zed I has been anchored since April 2. The 712-foot-long lift vessel submerged, allowing the ferries to climb aboard for the long voyage to their new home in...
Legislature finishes budget, but more to do The Alaska House of Representative was able to come together Monday for a final-passage vote of the state budget, averting a looming government shutdown. The budget totals $4.5 billion in state unrestricted general funds, which is very similar to previous year budgets, continuing the six-year trend of flat spending. The budget forward funds the Alaska Marine Highway System for 18 months, providing more stability for future seasons’ schedules. The budget also includes an additional $2.5 million for p...
It’s been about 25 years since Wrangell had a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary detachment — and Liz Buness wants to bring it back. She thought about the need while she was working aboard the state ferries for 16 years, vowing “when I retire, maybe that’ll happen.” Buness, who retired from the Alaska Marine Highway System as a chief purser in 2019, talked with Coast Guard auxiliary officials, took the classes required for auxiliary membership, and now serves as part of the Ketchikan flotilla in Wrangell. She decided this summer is a good time to s...
JUNEAU (AP) - The state of Alaska is trying to dispose of a 58-year-old, unused ferry, and even has offered to give it free to the government of the Philippines. Gov. Mike Dunleavy offered to give away the Malaspina in a letter last month to the Philippines consul general in San Francisco, public radio network CoastAlaska reported. “This vessel is surplus to our fleet, is in need of some repairs, but does have some service life left,” according to Dunleavy’s letter dated May 20 and obtained by the Alaska Public Media network in a routine publi...
Coastal lawmakers say they made progress this year toward at least halting the deterioration of the state ferry system, with the intent of maintaining reliable service in the years ahead. Their hopes, however, will have to wait on the governor’s decisions on the budget and also on legislation that would restructure the public advisory board for Alaska Marine Highway System operations. “It’s all got to get across the finish line,”past the possibility of any gubernatorial vetoes, said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, co-chair of the budget-...
A little over a year after being put back in the water, the Rainforest Islander is for sale again. Owner Eric Yancey has been operating the Islander under Breakaway Ferry and Freight. He has also operated the tour charter company Breakaway Adventures since the late '80s. Now, however, the 61 year old is looking toward retirement. "Boat's been running great for this past 14 months that I've had it, or whatever it's at now," Yancey said. "The fact that the Rainforest Islander's for sale, I've had...
We need to preserve the biggest of the kings Tyee is a Native word that has several meanings. The Big One is the one that describes a 30-pound or bigger king salmon. At the south end of Wrangell Island, there are five rivers that at one time had a lot of big kings, like the one that derby winner Gary Smart caught in 2017. Not all kings are created equal, the genetic strain is what makes the big ones so special. If we lose this genetic strain, it will be lost forever. More than 70 years ago, the...
Not a single legislator voted against the bill to reconfigure the public advisory board for the Alaska Marine Highway System, taking away from governors the power to appoint half the members. The Senate president and House speaker would each appoint two of the nine board members, with the governor naming the other five to the panel that would advise the Department of Transportation on operations and long-term planning for the ferry system. The final decision on the change in state law rests with the governor, who will have until next month to...
With frequent breakdowns of the Matanuska — the only state ferry scheduled to serve Wrangell through September — residents are adjusting to the uncertainty, although not always happily. Besides for canceled sailings, Mayor Steve Prysunka also is critical of ferry system management’s approach to dealing with COVID-19 cases among the crew. Crew members aboard the Matanuska tested positive for COVID on both the April 18 and 25 sailings into Ketchikan, posing a risk for others on board the ship and for communities where it stops, the mayor said....
The state Senate is considering House legislation that would restructure the 18-year-old ferry system advisory board, taking away the governor’s authority to appoint all of the members. House Bill 63 passed that body unanimously May 5, moving next to the Senate. The governor, however, does not believe a key provision of the legislation is legal. He had proposed his own restructuring bill that did not relinquish appointment authority for members to the board. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s bill also would continue the provision in law that a governor can...
After four breakdowns of the state ferry Matanuska in a little over two months, the Department of Transportation is considering its options to ensure more reliable service as the heavier summer travel season approaches. "In light of the mechanical issues on the Matanuska, we are evaluating and considering alternatives to improve system reliability,” department spokesman Sam Dapcevich said April 29. The department provided no further information. “Will get back to you on this question,” Dapcevich said. The Alaska Marine Highway System’s five op...