Sorted by date Results 2577 - 2601 of 7954
It's time to dust off that Duster and shine up that Chevelle. Proud owners of anything from classic cars and clunkers to tricked-out trikes and awesome ATVs will have a chance to cruise into infamy on July 2. A yet-to-be-named car show is scheduled to be part of the Fourth of July festivities, with prizes awarded to best in show and other categories. Ellen Jellum, a masseuse at Arctic Chiropractic, had the idea for a car show to raise funds for Wrangell's schools. It's something she used to do...
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...
SEATTLE (AP) — Passengers on the Carnival cruise ship Spirit that docked May 3 in Seattle say more than 100 people aboard the ship tested positive for COVID-19 and the crew was overwhelmed. Multiple passengers said they were quarantined at Seattle-area hotels after testing positive or being exposed to someone with COVID-19. Carnival Cruise Line would not confirm how many people tested positive but said there were a number of positive cases, Seattle KING5 TV reported. Darren Sieferston, a passenger on the cruise from Miami to Seattle, was in q...
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...
Juneau voters will likely be asked this fall if they’re willing to increase the city’s 5% sales tax to 6% during the summer in exchange for exempting food from sales tax year-round. The Juneau Assembly, meeting as the Committee of the Whole, voted unanimously May 2 to have city administrators draft language for an ordinance that would repeal the food tax if voters approve the summer sales tax increase. But numerous questions were raised about exemptions for nonprofits, effects on businesses that don’t get summer tourists among their custo...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Nearly 40 law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, social workers and survivors of violence have been named to a federal commission tasked with helping improve how the federal government addresses a decades-long crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced last Thursday. The committee's creation means that for the first time, the voices guiding the Interior and Justice departments in the effort will...
Adorned with red handprints across their mouths and carrying signs bearing the faces of the missing, hundreds gathered last Thursday at the Capitol in Juneau. Elected officials and Alaska Native dignitaries spoke before a solemn crowd amid flags bearing the red hand symbolizing the missing and murdered Indigenous persons awareness movement. The rally was held on Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day. “I think the turnout was great. The message was shared across the state. … It’s gaining more attention on national levels through p...
GOULDSBORO, Maine (AP) — A state agency in Maine has terminated an application for a 120-acre salmon farm opposed by lobstermen in Frenchman Bay. American Aquafarms, which was notified of the decision April 19, proposed a pair of 60-acre, 15-pen sites that together could produce 66 million pounds of Atlantic salmon a year. The Department of Marine Resources said the Portland-based company backed by Norwegian investors failed to find a state-approved hatchery for salmon eggs for the operation. The company also failed to prove the hatchery met r...
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)— The owner of hydroelectric dams in Maine has said it’s going to make changes to some of its operations to try to help save the final remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the United States. The country’s last wild populations of the fish are found in a few Maine rivers. Salmon counters found fewer of the fish on one of those rivers, the Penobscot, last year than in any year since 2016. Atlantic salmon were once plentiful in American rivers, but factors such as dams, overfishing and pollution hurt populations, and they are now...
Juneau-based Alaskan Brewing Co. won a platinum and a gold Crushie - symbolized by a crushed beer can in a raised fist - for two of its designs from the Craft Beer Marketing Awards, an international industry award for art and marketing. "To us it's a huge honor because we're trying to put art out," said Ryan Lange, the brewery's digital marketing specialist. The brewery won a gold Crushie for its recently released pilsner and a platinum Crushie for its Island Ale, according to the marketing...
Efforts were underway Monday to clear a road where a 300-foot-wide slide — taking down dozens of fully grown evergreen trees as well as rocks and dirt — toppled into the bay in front of Seward, covering the narrow roadway and cutting off road access for about 200 people. There were no injuries in the Saturday evening landslide about a half-mile south of downtown Seward, City Manager Janette Bower said. A private contractor was handling the removal process and planned to use heavy equipment to clear the debris at the top first, working down to...
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....
As borough staff finalize the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the Capital Facilities Department is requesting $350,000 toward a fuel tank project to bring the high school and Public Safety Building into regulatory compliance by replacing underground diesel storage tanks with aboveground tanks. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation inspected the now almost 40-year-old underground tanks in 2020 and determined they were out of compliance with regulations, and recommended they be taken out of service and removed. The Public...
For as long as the Tlingit people have built canoes, they have carved paddles. Just as there are many different sizes and styles of canoes for various purposes, paddles are created to be just as unique to their users. The tradition of carving paddles continues today throughout Southeast for cultural celebrations, dancing, decorations and even paddling canoes. In Wrangell, a workshop held April 22-24 educated about 15 participants on the type of wood to use, how to carve it and properly finish...
High school students were urged to use their smartphones and laptops during an assembly for once. It was announced last Monday that the painted and decorated shoes entered into the Vans Custom Culture design contest had won Wrangell High School a spot in the national top 50 and a chance at $50,000. Staff and students are calling on family, friends, neighbors and the online universe to go to https://customculture.vans.com/, click the "VOTE NOW" button and choose Wrangell. Public voting closes at...
Anyone who wants to get a pizza midweek at the Marine Bar or a steak or burger at the Elks Lodge knows that worker shortages have forced employers to reduce their days and cut back on offerings. “This worker shortage is real, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” Dan Robinson, research chief at the Alaska Department of Labor, told legislators last month. “For nine years in a row, more people have left the state than have come here,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. The population has been stable as births have outpaced deaths, but the y...
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...
A black bear cub seen wandering Shoemaker Loop off Zimovia Highway at 5.5 Mile last week was euthanized in Petersburg on April 24, a day after a state wildlife trooper and U.S. Forest Service officer captured it following several sightings by residents who live along the roadway. Trooper Chadd Yoder with Alaska Wildlife Troopers got a call from Wrangell police about people seeing a bear cub for days without its mother. “It was apparent the bear was separated,” he said April 25. “What happened to mom, we don’t know.” Jimmy Nelson, a Forest Se...
HOMER (AP) — A trailer containing mail intended for a dozen communities on the Kenai Peninsula caught fire and was destroyed, including all the contents. The driver of the truck hauling the trailer was not injured in the April 25 fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation, the U.S. Postal Service said in a statement. The contract truck left a processing center in Anchorage and caught fire near Mile 38 of the Seward Highway, or just north of the intersection of the Seward and Sterling highways, near Tern Lake. Mail in the trailer was i...
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...
"A River Runs Through Us" is the theme chosen for this year's Fourth of July celebration in Wrangell, prompting event organizers to hold a first-ever art contest, with the winner's work being featured on posters and other swag. Plus, there's a chance to win $1,000. Entries can come from anyone and can be hard copies or digital. The piece should capture the theme of the contest, which refers to the Stikine River. The deadline is Friday by 4 p.m. "It's a connection that everybody from here...
Thousands of Alaskans could lose Medicaid benefits as soon as July, when the federal government’s COVID-19 health emergency is expected to end. Alaska’s state health officials face the daunting task of combing through pandemic-swollen Medicaid rolls to establish who will no longer be eligible for benefits when the emergency ends. Health officials, who say they have been preparing for the shift for months, are concerned many of those Alaskans could soon find themselves without health insurance — particularly people who don’t know what steps to t...
About 5 million honeybees bound for Alaska got waylaid when Delta Air Lines routed them through Atlanta, where most of the bees died after being left for hours in crates on the ground during hot weather. The bees were the first of two shipments ordered by Soldotna beekeeper Sarah McElrea from a distributor in California. McElrea said the loss is devastating. She runs Sarah’s Alaska Honey and also coordinates shipments of bees to beekeepers around the state to pollinate orchards and nurseries. The bees were bumped from their original route to A...
A developer has notified Sitka that high construction costs have caused the partnership to withdraw its proposal to build a new boatyard and haul-out. Sitka's last haul-out operator, Halibut Point Marine, in March pulled up its last boat after it had converted the area into a cruise ship terminal. The decision by Sitka Community Boatyard to abandon its plans leaves no prospect in sight for a replacement operation in Sitka. Wrangell's Port and Harbors Department has reported an increase in calls...
Legislation to restore and increase the state licensing fee on sportfishing guides and operators ran into problems in the Senate Finance Committee last week, as lawmakers questioned why out-of-state boat owners who bring up guests are not required to get a license and pay the fee. “My district has got to be one of the top guided areas in the state,” said Committee Co-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman, whose district stretches from Sitka to Prince of Wales Island, including Wrangell. And while that means a lot of non-residents pay local operators for fis...
