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SITKA (AP) - The family had given up hope of finding their blind, elderly golden retriever who wandered away from their Sitka home three weeks ago, but a construction crew found Lulu in salmonberry bushes after initially confusing her for a bear. Lulu was barely alive after being found July 5, but she is being nursed back to health and is back home with her family, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. "She means everything," owner Ted Kubacki said. "I have five daughters and they're 4 to 13 years...
Princess Cruises will not add any additional Southeast businesses to its MedallionPay program this summer, taking time after the season ends to better explain to merchants the digital payment system that can be used by passengers to buy goods and services while in port — with a substantial commission retained by the cruise line. The program takes as much as an 18% commission on local purchases. Objections from merchants and the mayor in Skagway were part of the company’s decision to pause adding new Southeast businesses to the payment system, w...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Southern Resident killer whales of the U.S. and Canadian West Coast have not had enough food for several years, which could affect their already small numbers, according to a study by the University of British Columbia. Researchers looked at requirements and availability of prey for Northeastern Pacific Southern Resident killer whales. The study found a fluctuating level of salmon from spawning areas on rivers had a detrimental effect on killer whale health, threatening a small and fragile group of whales, the B...
It's called Between Worlds. And it features a diving whale. "Peering through the bones of this diving whale pattern is this ancestor with her face and hands pressed against the veil between worlds," Alaska Chilkat and Ravenstail Weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope said. "Because we talk about the Chilkat dancing blanket as the veil that separates our physical realm to the spirit realm on the other side." Hope and weaving assistant Nadezdha Hughes are working on a full-size ceremonial Chilkat da...
TORONTO (AP) — Indigenous leaders met with Canadian bishops and were told Pope Francis will not add any more stops – despite their request – during his trip to Canada this month, when he will apologize in person for the abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church. Pope Francis, who has been using a wheelchair because of a bad knee, will head to Canada on July 24 and visit Alberta, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in the far north that is closer to Greenland than it is to any major Canadian city. The pope will depart...
Howard Starbard knew he had a problem when the pumps couldn’t keep up with the water pouring into his 37-foot commercial fishing boat, Miss Amy. The 63-year-old retired Alaska State Troopers commander couldn’t know he was about to spend 45 minutes in the sea, fighting to stay afloat before a relative, two Good Samaritan vessels and the U.S. Coast Guard intervened to help him survive his boat’s sinking off the Southeast community of Pelican. Starbard was power trolling for king salmon during a commercial opener July 4 with his 13-year-old grand...
With last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights advocates in Alaska are encouraging voters to vote no on a constitutional convention during the general election this November, while abortion opponents are encouraging voters to vote yes. The right to have an abortion in Alaska is protected through the state constitution’s provision on privacy, as recognized by the Alaska Supreme Court in 1997. This November, voters will be asked whether or not to call a constitutional convention, which would pave the...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding state authority to prosecute some crimes on Native American land is fracturing decades of law built around the hard-fought principle that tribes have the right to govern themselves on their own territory, legal experts say. The June 29 ruling is a marked departure from federal Indian law and veers away from the push to increase tribes’ ability to prosecute all crimes on reservations — regardless of who is involved. It also casts tribes as part of states, rather than the sover...
With smiles and hugs, the 2022 Race to Alaska concluded last Thursday evening when the last two teams still in the race — Fix Oder Nix and Sockeye Voyages — arrived at the finish in Ketchikan’s Thomas Basin. It had taken both teams more than 21 days to complete the approximately 710-mile distance between Victoria, British Columbia, where the R2AK’s second leg to Ketchikan had begun at noon Pacific time on June 16. Sails, ores or paddles — no motors allowed. “We made it,” Joachim Roesler of Team Fix Oder Nix said after their arrival at th...
Alaska’s state alcohol regulator is declining to stop distilleries from selling kegs of premixed cocktails despite a warning by federal regulators, who have concluded that the process is illegal. The Alaska Alcohol Control Board has rescinded an advisory notice that had cautioned distilleries against selling kegs to bars and other places with alcohol licenses. The board also voted unanimously to create a working group to consider the topic further. “In the meantime, I’m not going to go after a guy who has been doing something, allegedly lawfu...
No one bid on the former Wrangell hospital building, which the borough had offered to sell at a minimum asking price of $830,000. The bidding period was open for a month and closed last Thursday. The property is now available for an over-the-counter sale. “It means that the first person to come in to sign an intent to purchase with a 20% down payment (payment in full within 60 days of signing) would be the buyer,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane explained last Friday. “If that happens, I would then take a resolution to the assembly to approve the sale....
The borough assembly approved a budget for the fiscal year that started last Friday similar to past years — no increase in property tax or sales tax rates, and with more than half of the total spending going to the self-supporting operations of sewage, water, garbage, electricity, port and harbors services. The budget approved by the assembly June 28 includes more than 20 repair, maintenance and improvement projects across the borough and in several departments, including: Repairs and maintenance at the schools, recreation center and pool, i...
The U.S. Forest Service is looking to build a few new public-use recreational cabins in the Wrangell and Petersburg area, hoping to use federal infrastructure funding to pay for the work and considering sites that would be easier for people to reach. The site selection process has been underway for a few years, with the latest round of public comment closing July 6. Past suggestions have included a site several miles south of town along Zimovia Highway, Fools Inlet and a site near the southern end of Wrangell Island, Anita Bay and Burnett Inlet...
Sealaska Heritage Institute has made available online for the public recordings of two important treasures in the preservation of traditional Southeast Native culture, knowledge and history: Radio interviews with Native leaders that go back almost 40 years and the biennial Celebration festival. The 164 radio interviews preserved in digital files are from an hour-long program, “Southeast Native Radio,” that aired on Juneau public station KTOO 1985 to 2001. “The collection is remarkable, as it offers so many interviews with people on topic...
Though he vetoed funding for several projects and public services around Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy did not cross out $4.1 million in state grant funding toward a new $15 million water treatment plant in Wrangell. The borough hopes to finish design work and go out for bids on the project later this year. Federal funds are covering about $11 million of the cost. The governor also left intact a one-time $57 million legislative appropriation to boost state funding by 5% for local school district operating budgets. The increase for the 2022-2023...
School district staff, a school board member, borough assembly members and law enforcement met on June 28 in a work session to discuss school safety measures in the case of an intruder. Ideas such as single points of entry on campuses, student identification cards, video surveillance, arming teachers and others were brainstormed as possible solutions to increase the security of each school. Nationwide so far in 2022, there have been 27 school shootings that resulted in 27 deaths and 56 injuries, according to Education Week, a publication that...
The borough last week closed on its $2.5 million purchase of the former sawmill property at 6 Mile Zimovia Highway and separately signed an agreement with the state that would hold Wrangell harmless if any past contamination is discovered at the site. In exchange for the hold-harmless agreement, the borough will need to assess the current situation at the property and monitor the site, such as if any soil contamination is found during excavation or construction on the property, Borough Manager Jeff Good said last week. The agreement with the...
The Heritage Harbor boat launch ramp will close for a few weeks in August under a plan to replace the deteriorated asphalt apron with concrete paving. The 2-inch-thick asphalt is more than 10 years old and in bad shape, Amber Al-Haddad, borough capital facilities director, said last week. “We’ve set aside the first two weeks of August with the contractor” to dig out the approach to the ramp and lay down a 6-inch-thick concrete apron, she said. Another week for the concrete to cure and the ramp should be back open to the public, Al-Haddad said....
Raincountry Contracting cleared the way for visitors to enjoy the Anan Wildlife Observatory in time for this week’s opening of the bear viewing season. The Petersburg-based company needed to pump out the 750-gallon-capacity public toilets, which are typically emptied once a year, according to U.S. Forest Service staff. Due to a delay in changing Raincountry’s address in a federal database for contractors, the contracting department at the Forest Service found a way to work around the holdup, Clint Kolarich, district ranger, said Monday. The...
Bonnie Demerjian used to report for the Wrangell Sentinel in the early 2000s. One of the last stories she wrote for the newspaper in 2004 was about aviation author Greg Liefer. Though she enjoyed writing various stories, it was Demerjian's own aspirations of being a published author that led her to leave the life of journalism to pursue one in writing books. She's written four books in the past 20 years - Demerjian self-published three of them. The third one, "Images of America: Wrangell," was...
The million-dollar project to extend the Mount Dewey trail, add a parking lot off Bennett Street for the new portion of the trail and connect the Volunteer Park Trail to Ishiyama Drive has been pushed back to next year. In addition to resolving a federally required payment to a mitigation bank as compensation for filling in a small amount of wetlands in the work area, borough officials need to wait for further analysis of a slope on Mount Dewey above Third Street that shows signs of soil movement. A geologist was in town in May for another...
Eric Halstead took the lead in the 67th Wrangell King Salmon derby with a 43.4-pound catch near Blake Island on June 17 and never lost it, bringing him the first-place prize of $3,000 cash. Stanley Johnson took second, with his 41.8-pound king on June 19, near Found Island. He will receive $2,000, plus an additional $500 for the largest catch on Father’s Day. Dave Svendsen caught a 39.9-pound king on the first day of the derby June 15, near Blake Island, good for the third-place prize of $1,000, plus an additional $500 cash for reeling in t...
Beer and wine have been available at the bars on board the state ferries Matanuska and Kennicott since late May after the amenities were closed seven years ago, reportedly to save money. The ferry system “has collected feedback on the bar reopening through customer surveys answered by Kennicott and Matanuska passengers — all positive comments,” Sam Dapcevich, Department of Transportation spokesman, said last week. “I’ve also heard from a few Southeast Alaska residents who are happy to see the bars reopened.” There is no additional staff expense...
Friendly competitions, food tosses, tests of endurance and plenty of fun filled the weekend as hundreds flocked to various Fourth of July events throughout Wrangell. Tourists, visitors, family and former residents returning home joined locals in watching and participating in the parade, talent show, basketball and many other events from Friday through Monday in celebration of the Fourth. Despite a change in venue for the fireworks show from Volunteer Park to a barge in Zimovia Strait due to dry...
Tens of thousands of Alaskans will lose access to expanded food stamp benefits in September after the state ends its public health emergency in July. The end of additional benefits under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program comes as food aid groups say need is reaching previous pandemic highs while prices are soaring. Plus, other pandemic-era benefits, like the child tax credit and rental assistance, are expiring too, said Cara Durr, director of public engagement at the Food Bank of Alaska. “We know families are struggling a...
