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KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – John Radzilowski stood in front of a group of some 50 people Wednesday at the University of Alaska Southeast library in Ketchikan and asked for the survivors of the Aleut internment camps and their descendants to stand and be recognized. More than a dozen people, ranging in age from late 80s to teens, stood and were met with a round of applause. UAS showed “The Aleut Story” as part of the Ask UAS program this week. Radzilowski, UAS associate professor of history, introduced the film and led a discussion after the scree...
Alaska is poised for some big fish stories next year based on predictions trickling in from state and federal managers. For the state’s (and nation’s) largest fishery - Alaska pollock - the Eastern Bering Sea stock has more than doubled its ten year average to top nine million tons, or 20 billion pounds. And the stock is healthy and growing, according to annual surveys. “It is one of the most stunning fisheries management successes on the planet,” exclaimed global market expert John Sackton when the pollock numbers were released by the (Seattl...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Juneau Police Department has unveiled a new substation at the University of Alaska Southeast. JPD debuted the new space a converted storage room near the Egan Library to the public Thursday afternoon during “Coffee with a Cop.“ The room may be a little spartan (there's only one computer and desk, and the walls are mostly bare), but UAS officials expressed excitement at having a visible police presence on campus. Officers won't be staffing the substation, but they can go there instead of doing work at JPD headq...
Wrangell's unusual end of October avian visitors may have hopped a few islands to the north as winter creeps in, as a pair of Cattle Egrets caused a fair stir in Petersburg last week, enticing several out of town birders to witness the sightings themselves. The birds, regularly spotted along lawns in town for more than a week, are not a native resident to Alaska, or to the American continents, hailing originally from Africa. They arrived in Florida around 1953, hopping across the continent to...
September 10, 1914: The fire department was called out last Sunday to extinguish a fire in the house occupied by J.R. Bender, back of the St. Michaels Trading Company store. The fire started from distillate being spilled on a hot stove which flamed up and set fire to a tank used to supply an oil burner stove, which in turn flamed up and set fire to the house. The house is owned by P.C. McCormack. The fire came very close to being a disastrous one, but for the ready response of the fire boys, who extinguished it in fine shape, but only after...
Trollers in Southeast Alaska provide fresh king salmon nearly year round, but the runs of reds and kings to the Copper River mark the “official start” of Alaska’s salmon season. On May 15 the fleet of more than 570 fishermen set out their nets on a beautiful day for the first 12 hour opener amidst the usual hype for the first fish. “We’ve got a lot of people riding around in the sky checking out the conditions, and a lot of people are getting ready to move the fish to other places for First Fish celebrations,” said Kim Ryals, executive d...
Humble and competitive. That alone should be enough to justify a selection into any hall of fame. Mt. Edgecumbe High School basketball coach and teacher Archie Young carries those traits and passes them on to his students, players, coaches and opponents. He was acknowledged for these integrities by the Alaska School Activities Association recently and announced as one of the 11 members of the Class of 2014 to be inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame. "When I first heard about my...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Homer nurse Colleen James had been working in her field for about five years when she was confronted with something she’d never dealt with before _ a child patient who was sexually assaulted. “No one knew how to take care of that child and it ended up being a pretty hideous experience for everyone involved, especially the child,’’ said James, who was working in Homer at the time. When she encountered another case only a week later, James knew there had to be a better way. She went on to start Alaska’s first, and longest r...
The school board voted 4-0 Wednesday night to offer the top administrative position to Patrick Mayer. Mayer was one of two finalists who interviewed for the position and participated in a public meet-and-greet March 21. The board initially signed a contract with the other finalist, Jay Thomas, but Thomas withdrew last week citing personal reasons. Since 2010, Mayer has been principal of Delta High School in the Delta-Greely School District headquartered in Delta Junction, near Fairbanks. "I'm... Full story
Future Wrangell schools secondary principal Colter Barnes was in town this weekend to see the community and look for housing. Barnes will replace retiring secondary principal and athletic director Monty Buness Aug. 1. He's currently the traveling principal at Kokhanok and Igiugig schools in the Lake and Peninsula School system. He spent part of the weekend watching the multi-day middle school volleyball tournament at the high school. "Cause it's always sunny here, right?" he quipped, when asked...
For most Southeast residents the 1964 Good Friday earthquake is a relic of grainy newsreels and yellowed newspaper clippings. But some residents of Wrangell who lived through the disaster remember a hurried rush to higher ground to get away from a threatened tsunami they would not have been able to see in the dark. The wave never materialized, and no damage was reported. "The first thing that we knew that there was something wrong was the fire department was going around telling people to... Full story
The Wrangell school board selected two finalist candidates for the position of superintendent in executive session Monday. According to a press release issued Tuesday morning, the finalists are: Patrick Mayer, principal since 2010 of Delta High School and the short-lived Delta Cyber School for the Delta Greely School District in Delta Junction, near Fairbanks; and Jay Thomas, Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director in the Bering Strait School District in Unalakleet on the shores of the Bering Sea. The school system reviewed 14... Full story
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, US policy makers are quibbling over climate issues as bivalves dissolve in an increasingly corrosive Pacific Ocean. Any kid’s chemistry set will show that big changes are occurring in seawater throughout the world. As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning outputs (primarily coal), it increases acidity to a point where shellfish can’t survive. It is referred to as ocean acidification (OA) and results in sea creatures’ inability to grow skeletons and protective shells. The proce...
The borough staff returned to normal levels Tuesday with the addition of Finance Director Lee Burgess. The position had been vacant since the borough assembly named former finance director and Interim Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch to the manager post permanently Nov. 12. Jabusch announced the new hire to the borough assembly at the Feb. 11 assembly meeting. Jabusch has essentially performed both functions since the borough assembly accepted former manager Tim Rooney's resignation June 25. The...
Bait is always a big expenditure for many fishing businesses and pollock could help cut costs for Alaska halibut longliners who fish in the Gulf. Researchers have tested pollock in two projects to see if it might replace pricier chum salmon as halibut bait. Fish biologists use over 300,000 pounds of chums in their stock surveys each year, costing nearly half a million dollars. The baits are used at more than 1,200 testing stations from Oregon to the Bering Sea. A pilot study three years ago in the central Gulf and off of British Columbia...
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard again in 2013 to ramp up its message to policy makers, most of whom still tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance to the state and beyond. What is that message? That “the industry” is made up of thousands of small businesses – the fishing boats that each supports one or several families. That the seafood companies in coastal towns provide one of the state’s biggest tax bases. And together, fishing and processing provide more jobs in Alaska than oil/gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. S...
Want to know at a glance how many fishing boats call the Kenai Peninsula Borough home? It’s 1,089. Or what percentage of Wrangellites fish for a living? Just over 15 percent. Or how many skippers plus crew fish out of Juneau? That number is 705. To help policy makers and the public become better informed about how the seafood industry fits into the state’s economy, the United Fishermen of Alaska has compiled Fishing Fact sheets for 26 communities, plus statewide tallies for Alaska and Washington. A big misconception the well documented UFA dat...
Michael Daris Frazier, known to friends as Wolf Creek Mike, was born May 30, 1939 in Walla Walla, Wash. to Daris and Ellen Frazier. He grew up in Walla Walla, Spokane, Lake Pend Orrville, and Bremerton, Illahee, and Gilberton on the Kitsap Peninsula. Mike graduated from Lincoln High School in Seattle, and joined the Marines on November 10, 1957. After receiving his honorable discharge Mike spent a couple of years in college and then it was on to industry, firmly establishing himself in the... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Haida carvers Joe and TJ Young arrived in Juneau last Monday to begin work on the first of two totem poles for Juneau’s Gajaa Hit building on Willoughby Avenue. The two poles will replace originals currently on site at Gajaa Hit erected in 1977 to honor the Raven and Eagle clans of the Aak’w Kwáan Tlingit. For the next several months, the Young brothers will work on the Raven pole at the Sealaska building downtown, offering an opportunity for locals to observe two of the state’s most highly regarded young carvers at wor... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - New dormitories are going up at the University of Alaska Southeast campus in Juneau, and officials hope it will help retain more college students in the capital city. Concrete should begin pouring this week for the 31,000-square-foot freshman dormitory project. The $14 million project, which the Legislature provided $8 million, will feature two, four-story towers with a commons area. University officials said proceeds from the sale of the Bill Ray Center also will be put toward the freshman residence hall project. It will...
Alison Esther “SonE” Laurie Lewis, 70, passed away in Salem, Ore. on June 29, 2013. SonE was a lifelong Alaska resident, born in Anchorage on Nov. 21, 1942 to Robert and Vivian Laurie. She graduated from Anchorage High School in 1961 before attending the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and meeting her future husband, Gary. She completed her degree in Business Administration at Linfield College. SonE and Gary raised their family in Anchorage and later Palmer, and after some years in Cor... Full story
A former social services administrator for Alaska Island Community Services has found a new home in the Mat-Su Valley helping manage grant programs for the Mat-Su Health Foundation. Desiré Shepler, who departed Wrangell approximately a month ago, has been hired as a program associate with the Foundation. “Desiré (brings) unique skills and experiences to the Foundation, and … will be a great asset as we continue to grow in our mission to help Mat-Su become the healthiest Borough in the natio...
The jury trial of former resident Steve Marshall for felony charges related to an alleged 2011 sexual assault began this week in Wrangell’s First District Court. Marshall, 54, was arrested on Dec. 7, 2011 at his residence in the Bloom Trailer Court after police responded to an argument between Marshall and his former girlfriend, Sonja Turner. Court documents allege that Marshall, who was indicted by a grand jury on seven charges, including sexual assault and assault in the first degree, is a... Full story
Jesse Ryan Jack, son of David and Linda Jack, graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage, School of Engineering with a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering on May 5, 2013. Jesse, is currently serving an internship with the State of Alaska, Department of Environmental Conservation and resides in Palmer with his wife Lindsay and their three daughters, Candace, Scarlett and Sophia....
William Dennis Eastaugh 1941- 2013 William Dennis Eastaugh died quietly at Wrangell Medical Center very early Tuesday morning, March 19, 2013. He was born in Wrangell at the old Bishop Rowe Hospital on August 25, 1941 and, as it happened, was the very first cesarean delivery ever in Wrangell. He attended grade school in the big old white schoolhouse that stood next to our library. The family lived on Greif Street in the old pink house opposite the Roman Catholic Church. As with many young boys,... Full story