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The Matanuska is old, no question about it. Even after a $47 million rebuild in 2018-2019, it will continue to suffer from the ailments of age as a 58-year-old ship in salt water. But Alaskans should question why the ship keeps coming out of service with mechanical problems. Sadly, the ferry has become as undependable as Democrats and Republicans working together. What are the state's costs of repairs and lost revenue from the service outages? What are the costs to people and businesses of...
Nearly $77 million in federal pandemic relief funds would be used to cover the state contribution to the Alaska Marine Highway System operating budget through Dec. 31, 2022, bringing more certainty to scheduling the vessels, under a deal worked out between the governor and legislators. The money would come from the transportation section of a $900 billion relief bill passed by Congress in December. The governor announced the funding plan while in Ketchikan last Thursday. The federal money, when...
The 58-year-old Matanuska has been at the dock in Ketchikan since Sunday morning, waiting for repairs, and is not expected to return to service until Saturday. It is the ship's fourth mechanical breakdown since February, stranding passengers and imposing costs and delays on travelers with few options. "The Matanuska is still in Ketchikan awaiting parts for repair of the starboard engine," the Alaska Marine Highway System reported in a website posting Tuesday afternoon. "It is anticipated the vessel will get underway northbound Saturday...
Ketchikan Daily News Two crew members aboard the state ferry Matanuska have tested positive for COVID-19, the Alaska Marine Highway System reported Monday. A member of the Matanuska’s engineering crew began showing symptoms while the ferry was sailing northbound to Ketchikan from Bellingham, Washington, according to the AMHS statement. “The ship’s captain followed the AMHS COVID-19 mitigation plan and quarantined the crew member in their cabin with the ventilation system turned off,” the state said. When the ship arrived in Ketchikan on Sund...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he wants to use federal pandemic relief dollars for a national advertising campaign to support Alaska's tourism industry, though he provided no details or budget for the marketing campaign in the April 9 announcement. The governor's office also said tourism businesses will soon receive relief grants from the state, with details to come this week. Legislative approval is required to appropriate state funds. Dunleavy said he has put Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer in charge of...
Legislators are trying again this year to tax "electronic smoking products"- e-cigarettes and vaping devices - the same as tobacco products. Bills to extend the state's tobacco tax to electronic smoking products died last March as lawmakers rushed to close down the session amid the start of the pandemic. Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens and Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan are trying again this year. Their bills have each cleared their first committee and are both waiting for a hearing in their respective Financ...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Health officials have reported a case of a coronavirus variant in Southcentral Alaska first detected in South Africa. The Alaska case was reported as first identified in March in the region that includes Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, according to a report from a consortium of state and university health officials dated April 6. The report did not provide case details such as how the person got the virus or whether others may have been exposed. Five new cases of a variant first identified in the United Kingdom...
Wrangell assembly members do not like the idea of a state sales tax, even if may be the only tax that state lawmakers are willing to consider. Despite their objection, members agreed they should stay engaged in the issue, particularly as the Alaska Municipal League discusses state revenue options and talks with communities about how a state sales tax could work. AML Director Nils Andreassen explained the situation at a borough assembly workshop March 23. Given the political reality in Alaska, a...
Alaska state transportation officials are contemplating sinking a ferry to save money. The Department of Transportation has considered turning the Malaspina into an artificial reef. The ship is one of the two large sister ships, along with the Matanuska, that helped start the Alaska Marine Highway System almost 60 years ago. The Malaspina has been tied up in Ketchikan since December 2019, when it was taken out of service to cut the budget. The department has said it could cost $18 million for...
The 58-year-old Matanuska, the oldest operating vessel in the state ferry fleet, has had troubles operating the past two months. The Alaska Marine Highway System took it out of service last week to fix a mechanical problem, canceling port calls Saturday through Thursday this week and expecting that repairs would be completed and the ship ready to resume its weekly run out of Bellingham, Washington, this Friday. The 23-year-old Kennicott stepped in to provide service. The Matanuska expected to...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Eight Alaska youths have developed a serious inflammatory syndrome from previous coronavirus infections, state health officials said in a report. The report, released March 26, said some of the eight youths ended up in the pediatric intensive-care unit with severe complications. The condition they developed is called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. The syndrome can lead to inflamed organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since...
Separate decisions affecting an effort to recall Wrangell's mayor and the Juneau-Douglas High School boys basketball team are similar, in that they disappointed some people, but they are not equal. The organizers of a recall effort against Mayor Stephen Prysunka made the wise decision not to fight over the legality of their recall petition, and instead to focus on the assembly seats at stake in the next municipal election. Rather than burn up time and money in litigation over the city's...
PALMER — Health officials in Anchorage say they’re worried about a COVID-19 transmission source that could delay efforts to move past the pandemic’s human toll and crippling economic effects. That source is the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the government-wary neighbor to the north where some residents balk at public health recommendations for mask-wearing and vaccination. “The large number of people who travel between the two communities daily makes high levels of disease transmission ... a concern,” Anchorage health officials warned in a rece...
After spending almost $1.1 million to keep the vessels out of service to save money and safely tied up the past several years, the state last week sold its two fast ferries - built at a combined cost of $68 million less than 20 years ago - for just over $5 million. Mediterranean-based catamaran operator Trasmapi had offered about $4.6 million for the Fairweather and Chenega. The company serves the Spanish island of Ibiza, about 70 miles off the coast. The state was able to negotiate the final...
In the past 17 years and at a cost of almost $200 million, the Alaska Marine Highway System took ownership of two ferries it could not afford to run and two that it could not run everywhere they are needed. That is painful. The state is selling the two it can't afford to keep fueled, while spending millions to add new doors so that the other two ships can call on smaller communities in Southeast. Even then, it will take additional millions of dollars in remodeling before one of the two can...
By Sentinel staff As proposed in the draft schedule a month ago Wrangell will see two ferries a week, one southbound and one northbound, under the Alaska Marine Highway System summer schedule, which opened for reservations Feb. 24. The summer schedule runs May 1 to Sept. 30. The Matanuska is scheduled to stop in Wrangell southbound early Monday mornings and northbound on Friday afternoons on its weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. That's a shift from the schedule for...
JUNEAU (AP) - The Alaska Marine Highway System is working to finalize the sale of its two mothballed fast ferries to an overseas bidder, officials said. Mediterranean-based catamaran operator Trasmapi offered about $4.6 million for the Fairweather and Chenega. The company serves the Spanish island of Ibiza. The offer was less than half the $10 million reserve price set by the state, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 24. The state paid $68 million for the two ships, which started service in 2004-2005, but which were taken out of...
Wrangell is one of four school districts in the state to remain open all year through the COVID-19 pandemic, according to school officials. On top of providing a quality education, Alaska's more than 50 school districts have been tasked with keeping their students healthy during the pandemic. Wrangell is one of the few to accomplish this without any pandemic-forced closures, said Special Education Teacher and Teacher's Association President Ryan Howe. "Just about all the other schools, they...
Wally McDonald, who got off the southbound LeConte on Monday to check on his boat in Wrangell's harbor, said he was just thankful the ferry finally got him to town. It is challenging getting to and from places on the ferry system these days, he said. The LeConte was just the fourth ferry visit to Wrangell in the past four months. And even that was a change in plans. The LeConte was filling in for the Matanuska, which broke down last week. The LeConte returned northbound to Wrangell on Tuesday,...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - School officials in Alaska’s second-largest municipality implemented a new policy requiring masks at sporting events last week in response to coronavirus outbreaks at a half-dozen Matanuska-Susitna Borough district schools. Three large high schools in the district — Colony, Palmer, Wasilla — are among five facilities closed as of Feb. 12 because of the outbreaks, the Anchorage Daily News reported. It was unclear when they would reopen. Public health officials said some of the confirmed COVID-19 cases started with students mixin...
Wrangell would see one northbound and one southbound state ferry each week this summer, under the proposed schedule released Monday. That's one-third the level of service from 2017 to 2019, before the pandemic significantly cut into ferry runs last year. Under the draft schedule for May 1 through Sept. 30, the Matanuska would stop in Wrangell northbound on Sunday mornings and southbound on Friday afternoons on its weekly run to Southeast Alaska from Bellingham, Washington. The Alaska Marine...
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...
December 16, 1920 Mrs. Towers is drilling the children on Christmas carols for a musical program to be given in the assembly Christmas week. At four o’clock on Christmas eve the carol singers will march in a body down Front street as far as the Episcopal Church and return by Church street. If it is convenient it is requested that a candle be placed in the windows of business houses and residences passed by the children. December 14, 1945 First new car since the war to be delivered to a Wrangell dealer arrived on the North Sea last Saturday f...
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...
