Sorted by date Results 2602 - 2626 of 7954
The borough assembly at its April 26 meeting approved an ordinance to hold boat owners liable for disposing of derelict vessels, after the port commission passed a resolution at its April 7 meeting requesting the change. The change to municipal code says, “the owner shall be liable for the costs of disposing or destroying the vessel.” The intent is to lessen the burden on the borough of paying for derelict and impounded vessels, which drains the Port and Harbors Department coffers when clunkers take on water or sink, leading the department to...
Alaska property owners have paid more than four times as much in premiums than they received back in claims under the National Flood Insurance Program going back to 1980. “It’s kind of ugly,” Lori Wing-Heier, the state’s insurance division director, told legislators this spring. “We don’t have the storms they get in Texas or Louisiana.” The nationwide program, which is voluntary for states and communities, has been around for more than half a century. It pools together property owners from all the states and territories, much like group he...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy last Thursday reiterated his push for payments of at least $3,700 to residents this year, with the legislative session in its last weeks and the size of the annual dividend check paid to residents still unresolved. The House in its version of the budget approved one-time “energy relief” payments of $1,300 plus a Permanent Fund dividend of about $1,250. The Senate Finance Committee is weighing a dividend of about $2,600 as it works on a draft budget plan. Annual dividends to residents traditionally have been...
Alaska House Republicans have removed Rep. David Eastman from their caucus, citing tensions with the controversial Wasilla Republican that have built up over time. The decision comes with less than three weeks left in the legislative session that began in January. “I think it’ll help us be more productive as a caucus. Just sometimes, his demeanor gets in the way of trying to be productive,” Anchorage Republican Laddie Shaw said in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News. “They finally said, ‘Enough’s enough,’” said Shaw, noting that freshman...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska lawmakers are considering a request by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration that the state take over part of a federal environmental permitting program for development in wetlands, though some members of the Senate's budget-writing committee have expressed concerns with the potential costs. Administration officials have said the idea behind the proposal is to speed the construction of roads, bridges, mines and drilling projects. While the state would have to follow federal standards, critics of the proposal say the state has...
While earthquake activity around Mount Edgecumbe has declined following a series of small quakes last month, further investigation by the Alaska Volcano Observatory shows that the area around the mountain has been steadily deforming since 2018, likely due to the movement of magma. The observatory said in an online post: “The recent (earthquake) swarm inspired an in-depth analysis of the last 7.5 years of ground deformation detectable with radar satellite data.” That analysis revealed a broad area, almost 11 miles in diameter, “of surface uplif...
JUNEAU (AP) — Some elected officials in Juneau have raised concerns about militarization of the police force after learning of the police department’s plans to buy an armored security vehicle that can seat 12 officers. Critics have referred to the vehicle as a tank and worry it could harm the relationship between police and the community. Police counter that the vehicle is a way to help protect officers, especially when dealing with people firing weapons, the Juneau Empire reported. “There’s a policy question here about militarizing our pol...
WASILLA (AP) - Sarah Palin isn't used to sharing the spotlight. In the nearly 14 years since she burst onto the national political scene, the former Alaska governor has appeared on reality television programs, written books, spent time as a Fox News contributor, formed a political action committee in her name and been a rumored White House contender. She more recently revived her status as a conservative sensation with an unsuccessful lawsuit against The New York Times. Now, the first...
In a two-page letter to the community, Schools Superintendent Bill Burr on Friday cautioned that ongoing staffing shortages, particularly aides and substitute teachers, could push the schools into considering a move to distance learning in lieu of in-person instruction. “As we have had a number of unfilled positions over the last month, we need to continue looking at the need to move toward distance learning,” he wrote in his letter Friday. “We have worked very hard to keep our schools open during (COVID) mitigation and adversity, but without o...
Some commercial fishermen prefer to sell their hauls in Wrangell. Some look for the best price, even if it's a few cents higher. Some decide where to sell based on services offered. No matter what determines where a fisherman will sell, processors try to lure as many their way throughout the year, including buying a bevy of different species. "What Pacific Seafood does here in Wrangell, we have our hands in a little bit of all of it," said Cody Angerman, general manager at the processor's plant...
Just as other communities, Wrangell is enduring a springtime bloom of COVID-19 cases. As of April 20, the state health department reported 79 new cases in the community in the past 30 days. Most of those were reported to the state in late March and early April, with new infections declining in the past week. The spread of the highly infectious disease is of particular concern at the schools. “We have had an increase in COVID and other illnesses during the past month and the schools have been struggling to find ways to stay open,” Sup...
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 Alaska Senate could vote this week on a new formula to calculate the annual Permanent Fund dividend, though proposed amendments and lengthy debate are expected and passage of the bill is uncertain. The bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee last Thursday would set this fall’s dividend at about $2,600 per person, putting the same cash in Alaskans’ pockets as the House plan to pay out half that amount as a dividend and half as a one-time energy relief check to help Alaskans paying the price of higher heating fuel, gasoline and diesel b...
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...
SEARHC plans to offer a paid, six-week, on-the-job training program in Wrangell in June for certified nursing assistants (CNAs). After successful completion of the program, a student is eligible to sit for the state certification exam. As of last Friday, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium had openings posted on its website for eight nursing assistant jobs in Wrangell. “CNAs are an important part of our workforce, with 20-plus on staff at any time,” said Carly Allen, hospital administrator. “The course is a hybrid of in-pe...
Bodies were strewn throughout the rocks north of the Wrangell Airport, the site of a grisly airplane wreck. Cries for help could be heard here and there. Bloodied victims wandered aimlessly. Every three years, the state Department of Transportation requires a drill to prepare emergency responders in the case of a real disaster. Last Wednesday, approximately 25 firefighters and EMTs treated volunteer victims during a mock plane crash, complete with fiery wreckage and triage stations. Before the...
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 could receive about $300,000 under a Senate Finance Committee plan to pay back municipalities across Alaska for years of short-funding of the state’s share of local school construction bond debt. The committee version of the state budget includes $221 million to pay back municipalities for incomplete state reimbursement payments going back five years. Years of low oil prices and large state budget deficits prompted governors to short-fund the reimbursements, with legislators lacking enough votes to override budget vetoes. This y...
The school board on April 18 voted to hire a former Alaskan as the new principal for Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle school. Robert Burkhart will begin as principal for the secondary schools on Aug. 8. He applied for the position after another candidate was chosen and had withdrawn her application. The district received more than 30 applications for the position, which is a one-year contract. It will be paid with federal funds from an American Rescue Plan Act grant. The school board approved the contract for a new principal at...
“Right now, we’re in a low-productivity era,” said Bill Auger, a fifth-generation commercial fisherman with 35 years of experience. Salmon fishing in District 8, in front of the Stikine River, has been closed for several years, and the gillnet fleet is limited to two days a week in District 6, west of Wrangell. “There is less out there to catch. Everybody is trying to do the best they can to catch what they can. Rebuilding the stocks is a big concern, and how you go about rebuilding them,” Auger said in an interview April 11, a week after Wrang...
After a strong return of pink salmon to Southeast last year, state fisheries managers are forecasting a commercial harvest of just over 16 million fish this summer, one-third the level of last year’s catch of 48.5 million pinks. “During recent decades, Alaska-wide pink salmon returns have tended to be larger” during odd-numbered years than even-numbered years, the Department of Fish and Game noted in its annual forecast released April 19. Last summer’s pink harvest was on track with the 10-year average for odd-numbered years (2010-2...
Global supply chain shortages and delays have extended past grocery stores, car dealers and electronics to the Alaska Marine Highway System. The state ferry Kennicott was delayed coming out of winter overhaul. Instead of returning to service last week, as had been scheduled, the ship was rescheduled to leave Ketchikan on Thursday for a trip to Juneau, Yakutat and Kodiak before sailing into Bellingham, Washington, to fully start its summer runs. The Kennicott’s scheduled return to service was delayed due to supply chain issues, labor constraints...
The Alaska Senate by a wide margin last week approved legislation to tax e-cigarette products just as the state taxes cigarettes and tobacco products. The legislation, which is scheduled for hearings this week in two House committees, also would raise the legal age to buy and sell tobacco products, including vaping devices and liquids, from 19 to 21 years old to match federal law. The House and Senate are working toward a May 18 adjournment deadline in the constitution, pushing both chambers to move quicker on legislation. “The goal here is t...
An average of 3,960 people die from drowning each year in the U.S. Roughly 35 of those are in Alaska, according to federal statistics. The Alaska Office of Boating Safety is looking to decrease those numbers through its Kids Don't Float education program, which came to town last Wednesday and Thursday. Kids Don't Float started in Homer in 1996 as a life jacket loaner program. The stations, now found at different public water access points across the state, hold life jackets that can be borrowed...
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed an expansion of lands available for selection by Alaska Native Vietnam War-era veterans who are entitled to allotments. Tom Heinlein, acting state director for the land agency in Alaska, last Thursday recommended opening about 27 million acres of land for allotment selections by eligible veterans. Currently, about 1.2 million acres are available, and concerns have been raised that some of the currently available lands are difficult to access or outside veterans’ cultural hom...
