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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Nearly 40 law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, social workers and survivors of violence have been named to a federal commission tasked with helping improve how the federal government addresses a decades-long crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced last Thursday. The committee's creation means that for the first time, the voices guiding the Interior and Justice departments in the effort will...
As borough staff finalize the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the Capital Facilities Department is requesting $350,000 toward a fuel tank project to bring the high school and Public Safety Building into regulatory compliance by replacing underground diesel storage tanks with aboveground tanks. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation inspected the now almost 40-year-old underground tanks in 2020 and determined they were out of compliance with regulations, and recommended they be taken out of service and removed. The Public...
The borough assembly has started work on its budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1 and will need to decide on a school district request for more funding in addition to paying higher fuel and property insurance costs and spending on necessary maintenance of public facilities. Revenues are up, however, with more money coming in from sales taxes and federal payments in lieu of property taxes on national forest lands. Borough staff and assembly members started their budget review during a work session April 20. The borough’s annual c...
For the first time in more than a decade, Wrangell has a state child protection services caseworker. Jennifer Ridgeway was the Office of Children's Services worker in Petersburg from October 2021 until February, when she transferred to Wrangell. She first visited Wrangell from Tennessee in July 2018 to officiate and attend her daughter's wedding, according to a release from the state. She had no plans to move but loved the area and moved to Wrangell that fall. "Southeast Alaska offers so much...
With 1,153 boxes of two tests each piled up at the fire hall, there were enough COVID-19 self-tests available as of last Friday for more than the entire population of Wrangell to check for the virus at home. The tests are still available for free, though it can be days in between requests, said Wrangell Fire Department Capt. Dorianne Sprehe last Friday. Initially, during the Omicron wave of infections that hit the country last fall, at-home test kits were in short supply. Eventually, supply caught up with demand, and now demand has fallen back...
After not having a state Office of Children’s Services caseworker in town for more than a decade, Wrangell could have a staffer here by spring. The Legislature last year added funding for the position to the budget and, unlike 2020, Gov. Mike Dunleavy did not veto the money for the Wrangell caseworker. The borough helped the deal last year by offering to pick up half of the expenses for the staff position, along with donating office space. The borough offered the same deal in 2020 when the governor vetoed the spending along with other a...
An Alaska state ferry hasn’t stopped in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, since fall 2019, but officials “remain hopeful” they can add back the Canadian port to Southeast Alaska runs on May 1. “The Alaska Marine Highway System continues to work closely with both U.S. and Canadian customs regarding a return to service in Prince Rupert,” Sam Dapcevich, state Transportation Department spokesman, said in a Feb. 1 email. The department and ferry system management “have multiple tasks to complete before we will be approved to re-commence service,” t...
Jan. 26, 1922 The high school English I class had a first introduction to debating last Friday. The question was, “Resolved, that the Petersburg basketball team has a chance of winning over the Wrangell High School team next Saturday.” The issues were given but the proving of the issues was not attempted. It was useless. One of the debaters said the Petersburg team could not beat us because it was composed of bald-headed men. Jan. 24, 1947 Walter Stuart, of Ketchikan, a well-known authority on public utilities, arrived in Wrangell on Wed...
Jan. 19, 1922 Some excellent work is being done on the cemetery road this week by a number of public-spirited citizens. The road was badly in need of repair, and a number of citizens with picks and shovels have been on the job this week, with the result that this highway is greatly improved. The various automobile owners rendered valuable aid in hauling dirt and gravel for the fill-ins. The movement to improve the cemetery road was fostered by the Redmen’s Lodge and supported by the public-spirited citizens generally. Jan. 17, 1947 Mrs. Norman...
JUNEAU (AP) — Parts of Southeast Alaska are receiving assistance from the state after getting up to six feet of snow. Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Jan. 13 issued a disaster declaration for the Yakutat, Juneau, Haines and Skagway areas, his office said in a statement. The declaration activates emergency response options and a disaster recovery program, including possibly financial help, for those affected by the storm. For a four-day stretch ending Jan. 11, up to six feet of snow fell in parts of the disaster area. That was followed by warmer temperatu...
There were about 1,000 stories in the Wrangell Sentinel last year, covering state and local budgets, the ailing state ferry system, ongoing pandemic and more — including a new owner for the Sentinel. On Jan. 1, Larry Persily bought the newspaper — for the third time over the past 45 years — with a promise to return the operation to Wrangell, expand the paper and its staff, and focus on more local news. “We plan to add more news from around Southeast and the state, but not at the expense of crowding out news of Wrangell. It’s not one or the ot...
The borough assembly has selected an almost quarter-million-dollar recreation center project for Wrangell’s application to a competitive, federally funded COVID-19 aid grant program, while it has also adopted its projects wish list for consideration by the Legislature this year. The assembly at its Dec. 21 meeting approved upgrades to the heating and ventilation systems and carpet replacement at the recreation center as its selected project for a federal COVID aid community development grant program. The estimated $225,000 rec center work w...
When Amber Al-Haddad inherited the public safety building project as the borough’s capital facilities director in 2018, she was told the building simply needed a paint job. The now 34-year-old building needed, and still needs, much more than that. The assembly convened in a work session Monday night to discuss a phased rehabilitation plan for overhauling the water- and rot-damaged building, a plan it had requested of Al-Haddad at its Nov. 9 assembly meeting. The latest proposal comes with an estimated price tag of at least $14.7 million, in t...
An unexpected, strong weather system sent high winds tearing through Wrangell, snapping three Southeast Alaska Power Agency poles which blocked the highway at City Park and knocked out power to most of Wrangell for much of Tuesday afternoon into the evening. A peak wind gust of 54 mph out of the southwest was detected on Zarembo Island at 1:55 p.m., said Wes Adkins, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Juneau Forecast Office. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management operate a remote, automated weather system on...
Wrangell's interim borough manager has been in the role for more than two weeks and would like to stay a lot longer. Jeff Good has applied for the full-time borough manager position, seeking to make his role more permanent. The assembly is continuing to accept applications for the job "until filled," with no deadline for a decision. Whether temporary or permanent, the retired Coast Guard officer, who served as base director in Kodiak from 2017 to 2020, said his job at the borough draws plenty...
An addiction recovery center operator is interested in possibly buying the former hospital to open a residential and outpatient treatment center in Wrangell. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based Regard Recovery Centers planned to send a representative, Casey Odell, to the borough assembly’s Tuesday meeting this week to introduce the organization, discuss its interest in the former Wrangell Medical Center property, and to schedule a time in the coming weeks for a follow-up visit to Wrangell, Amber Al-Haddad, capital facilities director, reported to t...
Bob Dalrymple currently serves on the borough assembly, the second time he has been appointed to temporarily fill a vacant seat. He is running for a three-year term in Tuesday's municipal election. Dalrymple and Jim DeBord are running for the two open three-year terms. Both will win unless a write-in candidate declares by Monday and gathers more votes than either of the two names on the ballot. "My entire adult life I've been in public service," Dalrymple said. He serves on the borough's...
Filling out an election ballot isn’t very hard. Ink in the ovals, being careful to stay within the lines, and then turn in the single-sided piece of stiff paper for counting. It’s not much to ask of residents once a year. Wrangell holds its municipal elections next Tuesday. And while several races are uncontested, three school board seats and a borough assembly seat will be decided by voters. This is a chance for residents to have a say in the direction of the borough and the school district, which combined spend more than $10 million a yea...
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Wrangell school board. Angela Allen, Alex Angerman, Brittani Robbins and Elizabeth Roundtree are running for two open three-year terms. The top two vote-getters will win the election. Julia Ostrander and Jessica Whitaker are competing to fill one seat for an unexpired one-year term. Although each candidate has similar goals they want to achieve during their term if elected, they all have varied backgrounds and experience they believe would lend a...
The assembly has directed borough staff to get two estimates for possibly resolving the longstanding deliberations over repairs to the rot-damaged Public Safety Building and the future of the former hospital building. One estimate would be for a two-year project to repair and renovate the 34-year-old Public Safety Building, restoring it for full use by the police and fire departments, state court system, federal customs and other agencies. The other estimate from an engineering firm would cover remodeling the vacant Wrangell Medical Center as...
Borough leadership will expand in the near future, with the creation of a new position intended to help allow the borough manager to focus on bigger projects — in addition to taking on its own set of assignments. The assembly unanimously approved Aug. 24 the creation of a deputy borough manager position, following up on discussion from two weeks earlier. The deputy manager would share the workload and assist the borough manager in administrative functions. Assemblymember Patty Gilbert asked what parts of the borough manager job the deputy would...
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...
After a two-week delay due to an incomplete property appraisal, the borough assembly has approved the lease for a new cell tower. The first tenant of the new tower near the city landfill will be Verizon Wireless, though additional carriers could be added later. The lease was delayed from the assembly’s July 27 meeting to wait for the appraisal. Lease fees on borough land are based on property value. The lease will be $645 a month. The payments to the borough will increase if more cell providers are added to the tower. The assembly approved t...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - An Alaska prison that was closed for about five years reopened Aug. 16 after a nearly $17 million renovation, corrections officials said. The reopening of the Palmer Correctional Facility in Sutton will add about 300 beds to the state’s current prison capacity of about 5,200. The prison closed in 2016 because of a declining inmate population and as the state wanted to cut costs. The state estimates it will cost about $15 million a year to operate the prison. The number of people incarcerated in Alaska increased over the past t...
The filing period opened this week for nine seats on the borough assembly, school board and port commission. Which means it's time for people to think about what they want for the community's future and how they could help make it happen. The best candidates are those who are for something, not against. Those who have ideas, not grudges and gripes. There is probably no shortage of people against COVID-19 health rules, taxes, zoning restrictions, cell phone towers, school policies, dog control la...
