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Members of the Alaska Senate are making another run at restoring the state’s pension system for public employees, one year after inaction by the Alaska House killed a prior effort. Senate Bill 28, filed Jan. 10 by Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel, would create a system slightly modified from the one eliminated by state lawmakers in 2006. Its early introduction is a sign that returning to a defined-benefit retirement plan — based on years of service — for state, municipal and school district employees will garner significant attention in the 34th...
Challenges in recruitment and retention of state employees continue to bog down public services, according to budget documents. In recent months, the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, a state-operated assisted-living facility, has reduced its capacity because of a shortage of staff. The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage, the only public inpatient mental health facility in the state, relies on contracted staff rather than employees to provide care. The Division of Juvenile Justice has closed its Fairbanks facility due to staffing shortages. The...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has asked President-elect Donald Trump to immediately reverse the Biden administration’s Alaska environmental and tribal lands policies, arguing that they hurt the state’s economy. “Your election will hail in a new era of optimism and opportunity, and Alaska stands ready to and is eager to work with you to repair this damage wrought by the previous administration, and to set both Alaska and America on a course to prosperity,” Dunleavy said in a letter accompanying a 27-page document listing his desired Alaska policy changes...
A creative Southeast Alaska fish processor took the often-discarded collars of black cod, smoked and canned them and came away with a new product for the holiday season that sold out to wholesalers within a few days. Mathew Scaletta is director of facilities and operations at Wildfish in Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island. Black cod tips, also known as collars, because they are taken from a part of the fish just below the head, offer a prime example of stretching a seafood harvest, and thanks to a $6,000 grant from the Alaska Sustainable...
A group of homeowners has filed a lawsuit against the Native Village of Eklutna over a casino planned near Anchorage. It would be the third tribal-owned casino in the state, following by more than a decade much smaller operations in Metlakatla and Klawock in Southeast Alaska. The Eklutna gaming hall would be built on about eight acres of land, a few miles off the Glenn Highway, about 25 miles driving miles north of downtown Anchorage. “There’s a lot of horses and dog mushing, and that kind of activity out here,” said Debbie Ossiander, who lives...
Officials are still not close to reaching their goal of returning at least 5 million salmon and steelhead to the Columbia River Basin. However, new data shows a positive trend in total abundance of fish in the basin. That’s according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which met Dec. 10 to discuss the latest data of salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin. Before 1850, salmon and steelhead runs to the Columbia River Basin were estimated to have been between 10 million to 16 million annually. Dams s...
On Saturday, Jan. 11, the U.S. Army will issue a formal apology to the community for its December 1869 bombardment of Wrangell's Tlingit village, Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw. This is the third recent military apology to Southeast communities after the Navy apologized last fall for its attacks on Kake (1869) and Angoon (1882). Given the rarity of these admissions of guilt, there is little precedent for the structure of the event, meaning the planning - at least for the Wrangell apology - was left up to loc...
The Washington state developer who wants to turn the former 6-Mile mill property into a waste-burning operation to heat large-scale greenhouses said his next steps include lining up financing and making an offer to buy the land from the borough. Dale Borgford said he was heartened by the warm reception he received from the borough assembly, mayor and borough staff when he and his crew met with officials and toured the site last month. The Colville, Washington businessman has estimated the cost for developing the Wrangell project could total...
Next time your friend asks for a ride to the airport, say yes. You might be their only hope. After two years in service, Tiny's Taxi turned off the ignition for the last time on Dec. 31. Tiny's has been the island's sole taxi service since Johnny Cab ceased operations last summer. "It's been an incredible journey," Tiny's founder Mike Lewis said. "I've met some amazing people and made some amazing friends. (I've) played catchup with a lot of the old-school locals after 30 years of being gone."...
In the 2022-2023 school year, over 70% of Wrangell students were chronically absent. That's nearly double the state average and nearly three times the national average. The Alaska Department of Education, which posts school district absenteeism numbers every year, defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year. In Alaska, that amounts to 18 days of missed classes. "If a student misses those 18 days every year from kindergarten to 12th grade, that will add up to them being absent...
Wrangell students’ filmmaking efforts are going global — at least to Vancouver, British Columbia. This February, Wrangell high schoolers Jackson Pearson and Silje Morse will travel to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival alongside teacher Laura Davies. The trio was invited to attend the festival by See Stories — an Alaska nonprofit dedicated to building “inclusive communities with film and story.” See Stories and Wrangell’s high school documentary film club, Stikine Stories (whose program is modeled after See Stories), have collab...
“Grease cake” is not a recipe for success in Public Works Director Tom Wetor’s kitchen. And there’s nothing completely handy and harmless about wiping up a mess and flushing it down the toilet. It all clogs up the pumps, screens and equipment at Wrangell’s sewage treatment plant. “It’s definitely a constant problem,” Wetor said, so much so that the borough sends out a reminder every year to residents about what not to dump into their sinks, tubs and toilets. “You’d be amazed at how those wipes clump together,” twisting into a rope around th...
Borough staff is working with an engineering team to finish up the design and specifications to put in streets and utilities for the second phase of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) residential subdivision near Shoemaker Harbor. If the borough goes ahead with the project, the street and utility work could be put out to bid for 2025 construction. Phase II of the subdivision of borough-owned land would make available for sale 20 residential lots, adding to the 20 lots already planned for sale by online bidding and a lottery this coming s...
Anne Morrison, who is moving to Montana to be closer to family, has resigned her seat on the borough assembly. Applications to fill the vacancy will be accepted until Feb. 11, when the assembly is expected to appoint a successor to serve until the next municipal election in October. Anyone interested in serving on the assembly needs to submit a letter of interest to the borough clerk’s office by 3 p.m. Feb. 11. The assembly will consider the applicants and make an appointment at its regularly scheduled meeting that evening. A majority vote o...
It’s been almost four months since an anchor line pulled up and bent the deepwater discharge pipe from Wrangell’s wastewater treatment plant, cutting off the outflow, but the repair work is going out for bid and the borough hopes to have everything back to normal by April. Borough crews will restore the normal flow through the buried discharge pipe near City Park just as soon as the contractor completes the underwater repairs, said Public Works Director Tom Wetor. Crews had dug up the pipe on the beach and cut into the line so that the tre...
President-elect Donald Trump has said he will "bring back the name of Mount McKinley" to the Alaska mountain known as Denali, the tallest in the United States. The mountain, referred to as Denali by Alaska Natives for centuries, was officially named Mount McKinley from 1917 until 2015, after former President William McKinley who was assassinated in 1901. The name was changed to Denali in 2015 during President Barack Obama's second term, with Trump vowing during his 2016 presidential campaign to...
The mayor convened the public workshop, inviting Washington state-based entrepreneur Dale Borgford to lay out for borough officials his plans to build biomass boilers that would burn trash from around Southeast to heat large commercial greenhouses at the site of the former 6-Mile mill. He also wants to build a plant capable of filling large plastic bottles with 40,000 gallons a day of clean water from a creek at the north end of the property, or from rainwater if the creek flow is insufficient. And his list includes a plant to turn fish waste...
No New Year’s resolution can possibly improve the condition of St. Michaels Street. After seven water main breaks in the past two years, the borough plans to give some much-needed love to St. Michaels in the spring. The road connects Front Street with Church Street and its surface resembles something of a wide-woven quilt — thanks to the numerous times that repair crews have needed to dig up the asphalt for repairs. Police Chief Gene Meek has even suggested that folks avoid the street during winter months due to ice hazards. Underground, thi...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has added Wi-Fi service for passengers aboard the state ferry Columbia - with other ships in the fleet to follow. The service, which initially will be free on the Columbia, started last month when the ship came out of a yearlong layup to take over the weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska when the Kennicott was pulled for its own yearlong layup for new generators. The Columbia is the only state ferry serving Wrangell, with a northbound...
The borough has until 2030 to meet tighter state and federal water quality standards for its wastewater treatment plant discharge, and will use this year to determine the best way to kill more of the bacteria in the outflow. The Environmental Protection Agency renewed Wrangell’s wastewater discharge permit in November — along with permits for Haines, Skagway, Sitka, Ketchikan and Petersburg. The communities must make improvements to their treatment systems to reduce the levels of bacteria discharged into marine waters. In Wrangell, that lik...
Nothing unlucky about the number 13 for Kim Lane, who is in her 13th year as borough clerk. She was honored as Clerk of the Year by her colleagues in the Alaska Association of Municipal Clerks. Lane was at the association's annual conference and dinner in Anchorage on Dec. 10 when the announcer started talking about the 2024 award winner, without spilling the name and spoiling the surprise. "And then I realized, it's me," she said in an interview after returning to Wrangell. "It makes you feel...
The Irene Ingle Public Library, which has run a summer reading program for children for years, is turning a new page for 2025 — it is running a similar program for adults. There will be prizes for adults who fill in their book bingo card. The idea started with parents asking during the annual summer activity for children, “I wish you had an adult reading program,” said Sarah Scambler, library director. She talked with other librarians around the state, including the Anchorage public library which has run a bingo-card style reading chall...
After missing last year, the chamber of commerce has resumed the decades-old tradition of assembling, printing and selling a calendar of community members’ birthdays and anniversaries. The calendar, which started in the 1950s, is a fundraiser for scholarships for high school seniors. People who preordered a calendar should come by the chamber office in the Stikine Inn to pick up their copy, said Tracey Martin, the chamber’s executive director. Copies also are available for people who did not preorder — the cost is $15. The calendars are a lim...
The Wrangell Athletic Club succeeded in raising enough money in its first full year to repay the school district for the cost of sending students to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The all-volunteer nonprofit organization was created in late 2023 after the school district determined it could not afford to pay the expenses of students traveling to state competition and needed community fundraising to cover the bills. The costs totaled $25,042 for the 2023-2024 school year, which...
Buyers picked up five of the eight lots in the borough-developed Industrial Park Subdivision land sale last month, with the three remaining parcels listed for sale online at minimum bids. The borough is putting in street access to the parcels, extending Fifth and Sixth avenues to serve the lots just off Airport Loop Road, a little past the turnoff to Ishiyama Drive. If the three remaining lots sell at the minimum prices of $31,400 for each for the two 16,500-square-foot parcels and $51,700 for the 25,849-square-foot lot, the borough will have...