Sorted by date Results 2909 - 2933 of 7954
Middle schoolers move in a circle while a woman beats a Tlingit drum, while just outside other students engage in a fierce and fun battle of warrior ball. Behaviors leading to suspension and other disciplinary actions have led school staff to apply a preventative approach. Activities, celebrations, contests and other methods have been implemented to help curb what appears to be a growing problem some have blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020-21 school year, there were 13 individual suspe...
The state is working through a couple of challenges in its plan to distribute tens of millions of dollars of federal relief funds to municipalities and businesses. Applications for grants to local governments far exceeded the available funds, while grant applications from eligible tourism-related businesses and others fell far short. The Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development is looking for answers to both questions: How to decide which cities and boroughs will receive how much of the limited money to replace their lost tax...
Mad Hesler has always noticed the tiny stuff. The Wrangell artist and business owner of Tongass Resin grew up in northern New Hampshire in the White Mountains, and first came to Alaska in 2015 for a summer job as a camp counselor in Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula when she was a junior at Plymouth State University, majoring in outdoor education. She had to return to New Hampshire for college, but Hesler, 27, said she "had this huge sense of, 'This is where I'm supposed to be.'" Hesler grad...
Finance Director Mason Villarma has been on the job for about five months and is proposing changes to the borough assembly that he believes could bolster Wrangell’s financial health. At a work session Jan. 25, Villarma said the borough’s assets totaled $39.7 million as of Dec. 31, a mixture of cash, cash equivalents, money market funds, investments and other accounts. Some can be spent, some is in long-term savings, and some is reserved for self-sufficient funds such as the electric utility and port and harbors. Almost one-quarter of that mon...
The state energy office is nominating corridors along Alaska’s roadways for electric vehicle charging station funding, including possibly in rural communities, using Federal Highway Administration money. It’s reached out to ask if Wrangell wants to be included in the request. Borough Manager Jeff Good told the assembly at its Jan. 25 meeting that the Alaska Energy Authority already has earmarked the state highway system for the program, and has asked Wrangell if it wants to be included in the funding request. Good on Monday said the energy aut...
After a delay pushed work on the Anan Wildlife Observatory to this spring from last fall, the Forest Service said the project timeline is still holding steady. The upper observation deck is set to be torn down this spring and reconstructed in time for the July 5 to Aug. 25 summer viewing season — weather depending — said Tory Houser, acting district ranger. “So far, it’s been a hard winter,” she said, but as far as funds and personnel, they are good to go. The Forest Service last June entered into a $989,800 contract with Petersbur...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in seeking to block the U.S. Department of Defense from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for National Guard members who are under state command. The Pentagon has required COVID-19 vaccination for all service members, including the National Guard and Reserve. Attorneys for the two governors, in an amended lawsuit dated Jan. 25, say that when National Guard members are serving the state, the federal government has no command authority. The lawsuit claims the mandate is an u...
Alaska elections will be held for the first time this year under a unique new system that scraps party primaries and uses ranked-choice voting in general elections. The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the system, narrowly approved by voters in 2020. It calls for an open primary in which all candidates for each race appear on the same ballot, regardless of party affiliation, followed by ranked voting in the general election. No other state conducts its elections with this combination, which appli...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The state Supreme Court on Friday narrowly upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by 16 young Alaskans who claimed the long-term effects of climate change will devastate Alaska and interfere with their fundamental constitutional rights. The lawsuit against the state argued that Alaska’s legislative and executive branches had not taken steps to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The lower court dismissed the case in 2018, saying these questions were better left to the other branches of government. The plaintiffs in the case are no...
Gone are the encroaching shrubbery and ramshackle structures. The first phase of a project to improve the Wrangell skeet range has been completed, and steps are being taken to fund the second phase. Improvements completed in November included cutting down trees and clearing debris and removing two dilapidated skeet-throwing houses and overgrown vegetation to install an aggregate surface for parking areas and the skeet range. The aggregate will also serve as a firm foundation for construction of...
The assembly has approved a 3½-year contract for Borough Manager Jeff Good, at a starting salary of $126,000 a year. The assembly approved the contract Jan. 25, after offering the job to Good on Jan. 14. He has been working as interim manager since Nov. 1, at an annualized salary of $108,000. The contract runs through June 30, 2025. The starting salary is a small increase over the $125,000 salary paid to Lisa Von Bargen, who left the job last October after four years as borough manager. After six months of employment, Good will be eligible...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Legislature last Thursday rejected a proposal that called for higher annual salaries for lawmakers but an even larger reduction and restrictions on the daily allowance they could receive for living expenses during sessions in Juneau. The net would have been a significant reduction in pay. Action came quickly: The bill to reject the salary commission’s recommendations was introduced in the Senate on Jan. 25, passed unanimously by that chamber on Jan. 26, and passed 37-0 in the House on Jan. 27. The bill next goes to Gov...
NEW YORK (AP) — Unvaccinated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 24, forcing postponement of the trial in her libel lawsuit against The New York Times. While waiting for the trial to start, Palin on Jan. 26 went back to a New York City restaurant where she had eaten the week before in violation of the city’s dining mandate requiring people to show proof of vaccination. Palin ate outdoors at the restaurant Jan. 26 on her second trip, contrary to the city’s health and safety measures calling for positive cases...
JUNEAU (AP) — A state legislative committee is hiring a law firm to investigate the controversial firing of the head of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. Angela Rodell was fired by the corporation board in December, after the $82 billion savings account had recorded its best year ever for investment returns. Rodell, who had been the corporation’s CEO since late 2015, has said she believes her firing was “political retribution” for advocating against exceeding draw limits set on the earnings of the Permanent Fund. The governor the past couple...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Supporters of a proposed initiative that seeks to formalize government-to-government relationships between the state and federally recognized tribes in Alaska have submitted signatures aimed at getting the measure on this year’s ballot. The campaign behind the measure needed to gather 36,140 signatures from across the state. It submitted 56,200 signatures to the state Division of Elections last month, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The division must review and verify the signatures, and the campaign will be notified wit...
Tourism-dependent Skagway has started using one-quarter of the $2 million gift it received last year from Norwegian Cruise Line to pay out unemployment benefits to eligible residents. The first round of aid went out this month, totaling $112,500, the maximum monthly payout authorized by the borough assembly. The borough received 75 applications for December’s jobless aid, paid out in January, Borough Clerk Steve Burnham Jr. said Jan. 26. The next round of applications, for January’s unemployment, are due Feb. 7. Though the program set a max...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska House tabled action Monday on a proposal to remove from all legislative committees Wasilla Rep. David Eastman, a member of the Oath Keepers far-right organization. The House Committee on Committees voted 5-2 to remove Eastman from his committee assignments, said Joe Plesha, communications director for the House's bipartisan majority. The committee meeting was not widely publicized beforehand, and Eastman expressed concern with the lack of transparency around the decision. The matter was tabled on the House floor f...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries voted 4-2 last Thursday to uphold its previous decision to convene the Southeast and Yakutat finfish and shellfish regulations meetings in Anchorage March 10 through 22 rather than in Ketchikan. Originally, the meeting — already postponed for one year due to the pandemic — was scheduled for Jan. 4-15 in Ketchikan. But on Jan. 1, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the meeting was being postponed “out of an abundance of caution due to the record-breaking rise of COVID-19 cases in the United State...
The police department is putting together a plan to hire a tow truck company from Petersburg to come over in the spring and haul to the borough's impound yard vehicles that have been abandoned for too long in port and harbor parking lots, and elsewhere throughout town. The vehicles are piled up in parking lots at Heritage Harbor, Shoemaker Bay and in the right of way on Zimovia Highway, making it difficult for snowplows to do their work. Others are leaning against derelict boats next to a bed-an...
The borough assembly on Tuesday approved $1.1 million for design and engineering of a new water treatment plant, though actual construction will depend on additional funding. The project is a top priority for the borough. The assembly authorized the design and engineering contract with Anchorage-based DOWL. About 10% of the cost will come from the borough’s water fund reserves, 35% from a loan from the borough’s general fund to the water utility at zero interest for 10 years, and 55% from Wrangell’s share of federal pandemic aid under the A...
Wrangell's emergency operations center last week received 650 COVID-19 at-home test kits from the state health department, reviving its supply which had dwindled to none amid the community's record number of new infections. As of Tuesday evening, Wrangell was up to 157 new COVID-19 cases reported by the borough since Dec. 30, two and a half times the community's highest monthly count of the pandemic and representing about one of every 14 residents. The post-holidays surge represents 40% of the...
Though they say the level of funding for the state ferry system in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is adequate, coastal legislators don’t like that the governor wants to use one-time federal money to pay the bills, eliminating almost 95% of state funding. Their fear is that when the federal dollars from last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending plan run out, so too will adequate ferry service. “Those federal dollars were meant to augment state money, not replace it,” House Speaker Louise Stutes, o...
The kids gathered atop the sledding hill across from Evergreen Elementary, next to a small fire in which they burned face masks. They carried signs reading "Unmask Wrangell Youth!!" and "Unmask our children! Let them be kids!" They chanted, "Burn the masks!" It was part of a walkout in which children and parents frustrated over wearing masks during school hours voiced their opposition to the districtwide rule. About 14 elementary and middle school students left the grounds at 10:30 a.m. last...
The borough’s convention and visitor bureau has released its draft cruise ship schedule, painting an updated picture of how many passengers might fill the streets of Wrangell, take in the sights and charter local fishing and sightseeing guides this summer. The number is down from 21,500 visitors in 2019 but, with the potential for more than 17,000 passengers berths this summer, it would be an economically significant improvement over last year’s trickle of cruise traffic and zero passengers in 2020. The 17,000-passenger capacity would be if...
Feel like getting the royal treatment? Well, it’s going to take some hard work. Wrangell’s chamber of commerce has begun recruiting efforts for this year’s royalty competition, with winners announced during the Fourth of July festivities. The contest is a fundraiser for the chamber, which sponsors the annual July 4th activities, and for the candidates, who get to keep a share of their sales. The candidates sell as many raffle tickets as possible through door-to-door efforts or by including the tickets as part of food sales. Last year’s ticket s...
