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The assembly on May 10 unanimously approved $1.617 million as the borough contribution to the school budget for the 2022-2023 academic year, more than $300,000 higher than this year's local funding level and at the maximum allowed under state law. Everyone who spoke at the assembly meeting called on the assembly to appropriate more money for schools. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr, School Board President David Wilson, teacher Tasha Morse, parent Kaelene Harrison and first grade teacher and...
The borough assembly was scheduled to hold a special meeting Tuesday evening to consider an agreement for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to make voluntary payments on tax-exempt property it owns in town. A draft agreement had been on the agenda at the assembly’s May 10 meeting but discussion was postponed. Mayor Steve Prysunka is leading the negotiations on the borough’s side, Borough Manager Jeff Good said last Thursday. The borough had started negotiations by asking for $225,000 a year, and SEARHC offered $45,000 per year for...
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will not open its Wrangell processing plant this summer, the third year in a row the operation has been closed. As in the past two years, the company cited weak chum salmon returns for its decision not to run the plant. Company officials did not return calls to the Sentinel last Friday or Monday. News of the plant closure was presented in Borough Manager Jeff Good’s report for Tuesday’s assembly meeting: “They have notified us that they do not intend on running this year but are hoping for next year.” “We wou...
The borough assembly on Tuesday was to consider a draft agreement for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to make voluntary payments of $45,000 per year for 10 years on property owned by the nonprofit health care provider in town. The borough had initially asked for $225,000 a year. SEARHC is not legally required to pay taxes — state law exempts nonprofit religious, charitable, hospital or educational organizations from municipal property taxes — and it has been in negotiations with the borough for several months for a vol...
Wrangell is moving closer to receiving at least a $4.1 million state grant to add to $11 million in federal funds for construction of a new $15.4 million water treatment plant. The House Finance Committee version of the state capital spending bill — the public works budget — includes a $5 million appropriation, while the Senate on Monday amended its version of the bill to include $4.1 million for the Wrangell project. Lawmakers will need to merge and reconcile the two versions of the capital budget in the next week. With money in both the Hou...
The assembly has raised rates for cemetery plots and other fees to help pay for the expansion of Sunset Gardens. The fee for a full-casket cemetery plot went up by $670 to $1,000, effective April 26. Previously, a grave plot cost $330 and plots for children under six years of age were $150. Opening and closing of the plot during the weekdays remains at $900, but a weekend opening/closing now costs $1,500, an increase of $415. Headstone installation costs $200, an $80 increase. The borough plans to start work later this year to add 50...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has voted to write a letter opposing federal legislation that would transfer federal land to new Native corporations proposed for Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Ketchikan and Tenakee Springs. The assembly action was prompted by a request from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski for a Senate committee hearing on legislation to create the corporations as an amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The bill would allow the so-called “landless Native communities” to form corporations and receive 23,040 acres of...
The borough assembly has approved a 30% boost to water rates effective May 1 instead of a 21% rate hike with additional smaller, staggered increases until 2026 originally suggested by staff. The assembly approved the increase April 26 after it postponed a decision on the 21% rate increase at its March 22 meeting. Several assembly members including Patty Gilbert said they had wanted to hear more public comment on the issue. At the April 26 meeting where the 30% increase was approved, no one from the public showed up to speak on the issue....
The borough assembly has approved applying for a $3.8 million loan from the state to fund construction of a new water treatment plant, estimated to cost nearly $15.4 million. The borough has nearly $11.1 million in funding from two federal grants and one federal loan, leaving a shortfall of $4.3 million, according to information presented to the assembly for its April 26 meeting. The assembly approved seeking a loan from the Alaska Drinking Water Fund, to be paid back over 20 years. It would cover construction of a new building to house...
Probably nothing is more important to the community than its school. Not just for educating students, but as a point of pride and center of activities, and a source of future workers needed to keep the town in business. Good schools also are an attraction to bring new families to town, and to keep them here. It’s a cliché, but good schools cost money. “Doing more with less” is not a sustainable education plan, and the risk of losing more programs from an already limited school district operation is an admission of defeat, not hope, for future s...
The borough assembly on April 26 postponed a vote to put the old hospital building up for online auction after assembly members raised the question if the $830,000 starting bid went up to or beyond the $1 million limit in the law for selling municipal property without a vote of the people. If that were to happen, the sale would have to be approved by voters at an election — either the regular one in October, or the borough would have to hold a special election. The assembly will consider the issue again at its May 10 meeting. “If it (bi...
The borough assembly may put the old hospital building up for online auction next month, at a starting bid of $830,000, the value deemed by a recent commercial appraisal. A Florida-based substance abuse treatment center that had expressed interest last year in taking over the property had told borough staff it was waiting on an appraisal but hasn’t been back in touch. The borough assembly on Tuesday considered a resolution to put the 30,596-square-foot former Wrangell Medical Center on nearly two acres along Bennett Street up for auction on p...
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...
School board members voted unanimously on April 18 to adopt the district’s budget for the 2022-23 school year, which is balanced on the assumption of $432,000 in additional state and borough funding. The school district submitted a letter along with the adopted $5 million budget to the borough, requesting an additional $292,000 on top of the $1.3 million the borough has paid the district in past annual appropriations. The district also is counting on an additional $140,000 in state funding for next year. The borough funds its local c...
The borough assembly has postponed for the second time a decision on a proposed increase in water rates, and is now considering a 30% boost instead of the 21% rate hike originally suggested by staff. The assembly last month delayed a decision on the 21% rate increase after several members said they wanted to hear more public comment on the issue. At the April 12 assembly meeting, Assemblymember David Powell said he doesn’t put much stock in future assemblies honoring the incremental rate increases over several years included in the original p...
The borough assembly has rejected a staff proposal to remove the cap on sales taxes payable on individual purchases. Dropping the limitation, which shuts off Wrangell’s 7% sales tax on the purchase price above $3,000, could have generated an estimated $500,000 a year in additional revenue for the borough. The assembly April 12 accepted moving to second reading the other provisions of the ordinance that would make some administrative changes to the sales tax code, but deleted the change to the tax cap. The ordinance is scheduled for a public hea...
The borough is moving to solve the problem of dwindling burial space in town. The community this summer will get a new columbarium, a structure for keeping urns, and the borough assembly has approved an expansion to Sunset Gardens Cemetery. The expansion, in two phases, will add 100 burial plots. Only three plots remain in Sunset Gardens at 1.5 Mile Zimovia Highway, on the uplands side of the highway, and four in Memorial Cemetery at 1 Mile, on the water side of the highway. But even that number is iffy. “The borough has been reluctant to s...
The Port and Harbors Department wants to strengthen municipal code to lessen the burden of paying for derelict and impounded vessels. It drains the department’s coffers when clunkers take on water or sink, leading port staff to foot the cleanup efforts and the department to foot the bill. The port commission is asking the borough assembly to amend municipal code to hold boat owners liable for disposing of derelict boats. The commission has also begun discussing whether to require boat owners to have insurance if their vessel is moored in a W...
The borough is not looking to inhibit private development or evict business owners with its pending purchase of the former sawmill property at 6.5 Mile, no matter the rumors on Facebook, Mayor Steve Prysunka said. The property owner accepted the borough’s offer of about $2.5 million for the 39 acres, with closing on the sale expected June 1. More than 50 replies and comments were added to a Facebook posting last month, questioning whether the borough would kick Channel Construction off the property. The Juneau-based company periodically collect...
A 21% increase in sewage rates will take effect in May, adding about $8.50 a month to a residential utility bill. The borough has not raised the rate since 2015 and anticipates costly upgrades will be needed to the community’s sewage treatment system to meet state and federal standards. The assembly unanimously approved the increase at its March 22 meeting. Though a similar rate hike for water service was on the agenda, the assembly postponed action and set another public hearing on the issue for April 12. In addition to the 21% boost in sewage...
The borough set a record last year for sales tax collections, exceeding budget estimates for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021. And so far this year, sales tax receipts are continuing on another record pace. Multiple factors are leading to the increase in sales tax collections, officials said. The borough collected $3.26 million from its 7% sales tax on goods and services last year, about $300,000 more than in the pre-pandemic fiscal year 2019 and $600,000 above the 2017 number. Sales tax revenues have exceeded budget estimates each of...
Wrangell schools are not short of dedicated staff, engaged students or supportive parents. But what the district is short of — and getting shorter — are students and funding. That is a bad combination, putting stress on the schools as management puts together a budget for the 2022-2023 school year, and creating a serious long-term problem that needs the full attention of the school board, borough assembly and, most importantly, the community. The Wrangell School District has been losing students for the past 25 years, dropping from more tha...
With lower enrollment creating ongoing revenue shortfalls, the school district is seeking solutions and resources to close the persistent gap — particularly as one-time federal pandemic aid money will run out in two years. On March 7, members of the school board and district employees met with the borough assembly to present what district Business Manager Tammy Stromberg referred to as Version 1.5 of the budget. The work session lasted nearly two hours and consisted of an exchange of ideas and positive remarks as the process moves forward. ...
Regard Recovery Centers, a Fort Lauderdale-based for-profit substance abuse treatment chain that has expressed interest in the former Wrangell hospital, has been waiting on a commercial appraisal of the building — and last week the borough said it’s found a company to do the work. The borough is paying Anchorage-based Reliant $42,000 to appraise the value of the former hospital building as well as the former sawmill site at 6.5 Mile Zimovia Highway, Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said last Thursday. “The hospital appraisal quote...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and the borough are negotiating another year of voluntary payment in lieu of taxes on the nonprofit’s property in town. SEARHC paid property taxes when the clinic and hospital were under construction, Finance Director Mason Villarma said March 2, even though those tribal-owned parcels are exempt from property taxes. Construction on the $30 million hospital started in 2019; the facility opened in February 2021. SEARHC paid $331,000 for the 2021 tax year. Payments in lieu of taxes, or PILTs, “are re...
