Sorted by date Results 2141 - 2165 of 7954
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is preparing a new program that would allow Alaska sawmills to sell lumber for local construction without having that wood graded for quality by an Outside inspector. The program was announced by Alaska State Forester Helge Eng on Sept. 13 at Southeast Conference, a gathering of Southeast Alaska political and business leaders. Eng said the program, which may take two years to implement, would encourage the growth of Alaska’s lumber industry by making it easier to use locally produced lumber. Many resid...
The busy cruise ship town of Skagway is looking for a solution to the rockslides that continue to roll down on its largest cruise ship dock. It also hopes to prevent a major rockslide that experts are calling inevitable. And as winter approaches, the window to execute a workable solution gets smaller and smaller. The forward berth of the town’s largest cruise ship dock was shut down earlier this summer, about a week before a large slide hit the area. The town has been operating only three out of four berths ever since. That has resulted in t...
In a Sept. 21 candidate forum hosted in Fairbanks by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, Democratic governor candidate Les Gara and independent candidate Bill Walker said that if elected they would seek new state revenue to pay for a variety of projects and reverse years of cuts to state services. Both men are seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has advocated cuts to public services and opposes any new taxes unless approved by a statewide vote of the public. Also competing in the Nov. 8 general election is Republican...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is extending until Dec. 2 the timeline to decide whether to proceed with proposed restrictions that would block plans for the controversial Pebble copper and gold mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay region. The agency, in a recent notice, said this would “help ensure full consideration of the extensive administrative record, including all public comments.” The public comment period ended Sept. 6. The EPA earlier this year released a proposal that it said would bar discharges of dred...
Millions of federal dollars are going to Alaska Native organizations and entities across the state for education projects. The U.S. Department of Education has announced it awarded funds totaling more than $35 million dispersed over three years to support Alaska Native education programs statewide. Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska were among the 30 organizations that were awarded the funds. The program aims to improve curricula, education programs and education needs for Alaska...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A former Alaska attorney general has been indicted by a state grand jury on three felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor, a special prosecutor announced Sept. 21. The allegations against Clyde “Ed” Sniffen involve an Anchorage West High School student while Sniffen was in a position of authority in 1991, according to a statement released by the attorney general’s office on behalf of Gregg Olson, the special prosecutor. Sniffen was arraigned Monday. Olson in May filed the charges against Sniffen, 58, and the grand jury returne...
Before departing Sitka on a recent cruise stop, The Serenade of the Seas took more than passengers aboard — it took 2,000 pounds of fresh Sitka seafood. It’s the latest development in a collaborative effort that started decades ago among seafood processors, cruise lines and their chefs, and the industry organization Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska. “We’ve had fish come off the (fishing) boats, into the processing room and onto the cruise ships within one and a half hours,” said Fred Reeder, Sitka port director for Cruise Line Agencies....
An Anchorage judge said last Thursday that based on the limited evidence presented, Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman is likely ineligible to hold public office, but his name will stay on the general election ballot until a trial scheduled for December is held. Former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assemblymember Randall Kowalke, who filed the lawsuit, has argued Eastman’s membership in the Oath Keepers runs afoul of the state Constitution’s disloyalty clause, which bars a person from holding public office in Alaska who advocates for the overthr...
Officials believe the borough can cover the entire annual debt payment on $3.5 million in school maintenance bonds by taking advantage of strong sales tax revenues and higher federal aid payments — without turning to property taxes. State lease payments for the community’s jail and investment earnings from Wrangell’s $10 million permanent fund savings account could help reduce the tax cost of the other bond issue on the Oct. 4 municipal election ballot — $8.5 million for rebuild and repair to the rot-damaged Public Safety Building — according...
Wrangell will be without ferry service from Jan. 10 to Feb. 3 under the fall/winter schedule released by the Alaska Marine Highway System last week. The rest of the seven months covered by the schedule includes a weekly stop in each direction in Wrangell, with the bonus of a second northbound and southbound sailing one week a month when the ferry travels only as far south as Prince Rupert, British Columbia, instead of the longer round-trip voyage to Bellingham, Washington. The three-week break in service to Wrangell in January is scheduled as...
A nine-course lunch in 1965 left an indelible mark on the memory of a young teacher from Denver. Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96, but she left an historical legacy that included a meal with Jacquie Dozier. Though it was just an afternoon in the 70-year reign of Britain's monarch, it profoundly affected Dozier and created a memory to last her lifetime. Dozier, now retired and living in Wrangell, began her teaching career at the age of 19. She was born in Michigan, made her...
A federal appeals court has ruled that Metlakatla tribal members shouldn’t need state permits to fish in waters they’ve traditionally relied on — even outside their reservation’s boundaries. The decision is a major victory in the tribe’s decades-long fight for fishing rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 28-page opinion on Sept. 8 is broad and unambiguous: The 1891 law that created Metlakatla’s reservation gives tribal members the right to fish in areas near Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island, outside the boundaries of the Annett...
Exuberant shouts resounded in the Evergreen Elementary gym last Thursday night as a group of nine young runners, between the third and fifth grades, bounded into the room for another session of I Toowú Klatseen, a running program for youth that combines athletic activity with Tlingit language learning and cultural education. The group settled into a circle to learn about the Tlingit subsistence lifestyle, healthy foods and the importance of having respect for the plants and animals we eat. Kim Wickman, a program volunteer, instructed the...
Last Thursday afternoon, Tanner Thomassen, 27, shot Wrangell's first moose of the season on Andrew Island in the Stikine River. The moose is also Thomassen's first - he has been trying to bag one since the fifth grade, and after 15 years of effort, he was finally in the right place at the right time. "I was in a tree and I saw a calf," he said. "I thought that was all there was, so we were ready to crawl down the tree and go down to another spot." Thankfully for Thomassen, he stayed put long eno...
As he neared the end of an ocean swim just south of Sitka earlier this month, Dean Orbison felt a pain in his foot and thought he’d kicked a rock. But when the pain recurred, he stopped to look around and was startled by what he saw. A river otter was in hot pursuit and biting at his feet. “I was about 50 yards from the boat on my way back and I felt something bite at my foot and I turned around and thought, ‘That was weird.’ But I didn’t see anything. I thought I must have just kicked a rock, because I was in a really shallow rocky place. ...
A team of scientists exploring an underwater region of southern Southeast Alaska has discovered what might be the oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world. The existence of the fish trap, which is thought to date to at least 11,100 years ago, was confirmed earlier this year by a group of university academics and Sunfish Inc., a robotics company specializing in undersea exploration and inspection. The scientists, in partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, are using artificial intelligence to explore ancient, submerged caves in the...
The remnants of a massive Pacific typhoon that battered a thousand-mile stretch of Western Alaska dissipated Sunday morning, with floodwaters dropping and communities assessing damage from one of the worst storms on record. The storm left a trail of wreckage across coastal Alaska, with flooding, telecommunications outages and damage to buildings and infrastructure including roads, docks, seawalls and village runways. As of Monday morning, there were no reports of deaths, serious injuries or people missing, said National Weather Service...
It's taken a few years of requests and planning, but the community center weight room finally has new equipment, freeing up valuable space and increasing safety. Two metal frames allow users to do pull-ups, triceps dips, landmines, seated rows and many other exercises, helping to create targeted workouts. A survey was conducted to identify the value of each piece of equipment in the weight room before the upgrade was made. Free weights were unanimously chosen as the most used items. However,...
Alex Angerman, CARES Act coordinator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association, is running for borough assembly to improve community outreach and foster youth engagement in municipal government. "The community oftentimes feels like they aren't heard," she said, and she hopes to use her assembly seat to provide a voice for the rising generation. She believes that the borough should increase its social media presence to better connect with the community, and has been actively fielding questions...
Brittani Robbins is running for borough assembly to bolster Wrangell's economic development and stem the out-migration of families and youth from the island. Robbins, 37, is executive director of the chamber of commerce. She has one year of experience in public office as a member of the school board. She was elected to the board last October and intends to keep her seat if elected to the assembly. As a school board member, Robbins said she advocates for students and for non-certified staff,...
After seven years on the borough assembly, Bay Co. manager David Powell is running for another three-year term. Powell's desire to get land out of the borough's hands was what first motivated him to pursue an assembly seat, and he is running again in hopes of seeing his goals completed. If elected, his primary focuses will be selling or leasing the 6-Mile mill property, which the borough purchased this summer, and the former Wrangell Institute property, which was the site of a federally...
One of the foundational wooden beams under the Senior Center is rotting and will have to be repaired, according to Borough Manager Jeff Good. “There is no immediate threat to life and safety,” Good explained, but he hopes to address the problem quickly. “The more you wait with rot, especially with wood, the worse it gets.” He plans to hire an engineer to assess the damage and design a solution, but he does not yet have details about how soon this assessment will take place. “We typically work with a couple of engineers,” said Good, but since n...
What to do with someone's property when they die can be a complicated task involving beneficiaries, a ton of paperwork and the court system. But it doesn't necessarily have to be. Liz Smith, a Juneau-based lawyer specializing in estate planning, gave a presentation last Wednesday to help clear up the often confusing world of wills, asset protection and long-term health care decisions Twelve people of various ages attended the presentation at Irene Ingle Public Library, listening as Smith gave a...
The three candidates for U.S. Senate in November’s general election shared familiar political stances on Southeast Alaska issues during an hour-long forum at the Southeast Conference in Ketchikan on Sept. 13. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, emphasized accomplishments such as securing billions in federal infrastructure funds largely designated for ferries; Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka attacked President Joe Biden in nearly every answer and called less federal intrusion the path to regional growth; and Democratic c...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A little-known candidate for the U.S. Senate race in Alaska has suspended his campaign, hoping not to divide the GOP vote during the general election by throwing his support to a fellow Republican backed by former President Donald Trump. Buzz Kelley, who finished fourth in the primary race, said his motivation for suspending the campaign on Sept. 12 came after Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in the special general election for the state’s U.S. House seat left vacant with the death in Mar...
