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JUNEAU (AP) — Juneau has purchased a gondola in Austria for the city-owned ski area, but questions remain about long-term plans. Officials have expressed interest in working with the Goldbelt Native corporation on the project. City officials recently signed a purchase agreement to buy the gondola system for $1.33 million. Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city is seeking bids from transport companies to bring the gondola to Juneau. Eaglecrest Ski Area has been looking for ways to expand summer operations and create opportunities for a m...
The Alaska House of Representatives voted Saturday to turn an oil-price surge into money for schools, repayment of tax credits the state has owed to oil explorers for years, and $2,600 payments for Alaska residents this fall. The House voted 25-14 to send its state operating budget proposal to the Senate, which is developing its own version. The two budget plans, which set spending for public services starting with the new fiscal year on July 1, will be negotiated into a compromise bill and sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who can accept or reject...
In a special session last Saturday, the school board approved the contract for a new elementary school principal. Board members unanimously accepted the contract for Ann Hilburn as Evergreen Elementary School principal beginning the 2022-23 school year. Hilburn is in her first year as the special education teacher at the high school and middle school, having moved to Wrangell from Mississippi last fall. Hilburn was part of an applicant pool of more than 30 people, which was narrowed down to eight to 10 applicants. Schools Superintendent Bill...
Schools try to prepare students for life beyond the walls of academia and sometimes that requires more than classroom education. Last Tuesday, high school and middle school staff held a health fair that centered around not only physical and mental health but financial health and planning for the future. Separate sessions were held for the high school and the middle school and each was brimming with students actively going to various tables, asking questions, playing games and competing with...
If visitors read the bear-sighting sheet at Anan Wildlife Observatory, which the workers fill out every season, bear names would sound more like tax forms: 7-05-A, for the first bear spotted on the stream to fish on July 5, and 7-05-B, for the second bear spotted on July 5. Well, humans only do so well with numbering systems before our penchant for nicknames kicks in: Casino, Crack and Scuba Sue, to name a few. Bear naming can be a controversial issue, Dee Galla, outdoor recreation planner at...
The state budget plan adopted by the House last weekend includes an additional $143,000 in one-time funding for Wrangell schools, almost a 5% boost from a state aid formula that has not changed in five years. The district has been relying heavily on federal pandemic relief money and reserves to fill budget holes the past couple of years, and plans to do the same for the 2022-2023 school year. District officials acknowledge it’s not a sustainable financial plan. State funding to school districts is based on a per-student formula, and Wrangell h...
Tribal members can apply for a fourth distribution of federal pandemic relief funds administered by the Wrangell Cooperative Association. This round of financial aid is limited to $2,000 per household. The application period closes May 16. Tribal members can select to receive the assistance for utilities, groceries, heating fuel or gasoline, or a combination of any of the four choices in increments of $500, $1,000 or $2,000 if the applicant prefers that the aid go all to one category. Previous rounds were limited to covering utility bills or...
Art students are decking out their deck shoes. Wrangell High School was one of 250 schools across the country picked to participate in the Vans Custom Culture art contest and could win up to $50,000. It was an opportunity that almost didn't happen. "We were supposed to get the shoes mid-February. (Vans) sent them but they got lost," said art teacher Tasha Morse. She contacted the company, which told her to keep a lookout for the shoes. If the two pairs didn't arrive, they would send...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been hoping since last August to bring back the Columbia to service this year after an almost three-year absence, but with the start of the summer schedule only weeks away the state has not announced a decision on the ship. The Columbia’s summer return is contingent on hiring enough crew to replace staff that were laid off, retired, quit or moved to other ships since the state’s largest ferry was pulled out of service in the fall of 2019. “We’re pouring a lot of effort into recruitment, but headway has bee...
The Port and Harbors Department wants to strengthen municipal code to lessen the burden of paying for derelict and impounded vessels. It drains the department’s coffers when clunkers take on water or sink, leading port staff to foot the cleanup efforts and the department to foot the bill. The port commission is asking the borough assembly to amend municipal code to hold boat owners liable for disposing of derelict boats. The commission has also begun discussing whether to require boat owners to have insurance if their vessel is moored in a W...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court last Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice. Cheers rang out in the Senate chamber as Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47, mostly along party lines but with three Republican votes. Alaska’s two Republican senators split on the issue. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was one of only three Republicans to vote in favor of confirming Jackson. Oth...
Longtime Anchorage civic activist and trailblazing politician Arliss Sturgulewski died last Thursday, her family said. She was 94. Raising a young son after her husband died in a plane crash, Sturgulewski became involved in Anchorage politics in the 1970s and later served as a state senator for more than a decade, shaping important institutions of modern Alaska with a collaborative, moderate approach. In 1986 she became the first Alaska woman to head the ticket for a major political party’s gubernatorial campaign. The moderate Republican’s cam...
The Port and Harbors Department plans to select a company this month to design a surveillance camera system for installation at Wrangell harbors by the end of the year. The department has about $407,000 from two federal grants — $148,000 in fall 2020 and $259,468 in fall 2021 from the Department of Homeland Security — for the design, purchase and installation of a security camera system. It’ll help keep an eye on things, and prevent theft and illegal dumping of garbage, such as a ‘70s-era Volkswagen Beetle chopped into pieces found in a dumps...
An official with a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that has awarded more than $820,000 to the Wrangell borough, Forest Service and tribe said more could be on the way. The Wrangell Cooperative Association was awarded $620,000 from the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, part of a $25 million federal grant program intended to help diversify the economy of Southeast communities. The borough was awarded $100,000 to manage lands for the improvement of wild blueberry harvests and $103,000 for trail upkeep. The program also provided...
Picking a senior project was just like ringing a bell for Caleb Garcia. Since 2013, the 17-year-old has been involved with The Salvation Army, so being the volunteer coordinator of the nonprofit's Red Kettle fundraising effort made perfect sense. Born in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley, Garcia grew up in southern part of the state around Los Angeles, where there's no shortage of people in need. His mother, Lt. Rosie Tollerud, of The Salvation Army, said her son was always ready to...
A new plasma torch purchased by the school district will provide shop class students with a more versatile way to cut and build metal projects - and it won't cost the district a penny of borough funds. The new computer numerical control (CNC) machine is like the shop's current CNC machine, a computer-driven router, but it uses a plasma torch, which cuts with electrically charged, superheated gas. It will give students much more choice in projects, according to shop teacher Winston Davies. "I've...
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A subsidiary of one of the largest U.S. providers of renewable energy pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said April 6. NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy was also sentenced to five years probation after being charged with three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The charges arose from the deaths o...
Concerned that a contentious, political rewrite of the state constitution could destabilize Alaska and jeopardize private investment, a new bipartisan group has launched a campaign to convince voters to reject a convention to change the state’s founding set of laws. Voters will be asked in November whether they want to convene a convention to rewrite the constitution, a question which the constitution requires go before voters every 10 years. In a meeting with reporters on April 7, co-chairs of Defend Our Constitution announced more than 150 A...
A Delta Junction man who threatened to assassinate both of Alaska’s U.S. senators in a series of profane messages left at their congressional offices was sentenced last Friday to 32 months in prison. Jay Allen Johnson was also fined $5,000, ordered to serve three years of supervised release after his prison sentence, and is barred by a protective order from contacting Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, their family and staff members for three years. “Nothing excuses this conduct, threatening our elected officials, an act that attacks our...
As Native Americans cautiously welcome Pope Francis’ historic apology for abuses at Catholic-run boarding schools for Indigenous children in Canada, U.S. churches are bracing for an unprecedented reckoning with their own legacies of operating such schools. Church schools are likely to feature prominently in a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior, led by the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary, Deb Haaland, due to be released later this month. The report, prompted by last year’s discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at...
JUNEAU (AP) — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, plans to visit Alaska this month, with a planned visit to the community at the center of a long-running dispute over a proposed land exchange aimed at building a road through a national wildlife refuge. Haaland had planned to visit King Cove last year, but the trip never happened. The Interior Department on April 4 said Haaland planned to visit several communities and sites in Alaska the week of April 17, including Anchorage, Fairbanks a...
JUNEAU (AP) — Political donors have sued over state campaign finance rules enacted under a 2020 voter initiative, arguing the donor disclosure rules are burdensome and could lead to reprisals against them and their business interests in a climate of “cancel culture.” The disclosure rules were part of a ballot measure that overhauled Alaska’s elections system and was passed by voters in 2020. Provisions of the measure calling for open primaries and ranked-choice voting in general elections were challenged previously in state courts and upheld. A...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska House has voted to cut the state Medicaid budget in a bid to eliminate state funding for abortions in spite of constitutional questions. House members voted 21-18 on April 6 to zero out $350,000 in funding for Medicaid services related to abortions. The vote came during debate on the state operating budget. The budget bill must go to the Senate for review, and the two chambers must agree on the same numbers and same provisions before it can go to the governor for his consideration. Lawmakers previously have sought to r...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Local, state and federal officials must do more to ensure Native Americans facing persistent, longstanding and deep-rooted barriers to voting have equal access to ballots, a White House report said. Native Americans and Alaska Natives vote at lower rates than the national average but have been a key constituency in tight races and states with large Native populations. A surge in voter turnout among tribal members in Arizona, for example, helped lead Joe Biden to victory in the state that hadn’t supported a Democrat in...
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the "deplorable" abuses they suffered in Canada's Catholic-run residential schools, and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church's misguided missionary zeal. Francis begged forgiveness during an audience April 1 with dozens of members of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities who came to Rome seeking a papal apology and a commitment from the...
