Sorted by date Results 2934 - 2958 of 7954
A former concessions stand in City Park is slated to be the site of a commercial-scale composter that could give second life to food scraps on a bigger scale, potentially reducing the volume of trash that Wrangell pays to ship off the island. The folks reviving the community garden have budgeted $19,500 toward the composter, which will be located at the garden on the former Lions ball field. Valerie Massie, coordinator at Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian Environmental General...
In a break from past practice, the Alaska Department of Revenue this year will provide monthly updates to legislators whenever projected oil prices — and state revenues — move up or down more than 10%. Several legislators worry that could confuse budget deliberations this session. Revenue staff has updated the state’s twice-yearly oil-price forecasts internally but not released the numbers to the public, the department’s chief economist Dan Stickel told the Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 20. “We’ve decided to go ahead and start releasing t...
Earlier this month, a derelict tug boat, the Bee, went down in Shoemaker Bay, and five other vessels almost did, after heavy snow loads and single-digit temperatures weighted down Wrangell. The harbor department impounded the 60-foot Bee in September, Port Director Steve Miller said Friday. His staff had been checking it twice a day but "something broke on the boat that allowed some more water than our pumps could handle," he said. The boat went down on Jan. 5 after heavy snowfall earlier this...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries, which had planned to hold its Southeast and Yakutat shellfish and finfish regulations meeting in Ketchikan this month before a surge in COVID-19 cases and winter-weather travel problems forced its cancellation, has rescheduled the sessions for March 10-22 in Anchorage. The board, however, was scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon via Zoom to possibly reconsider the decision to move the meeting to Anchorage. “Given the myriad of factors to consider, the board will vote on the meeting location,” according to a boa...
Wrangell High School seniors have potentially more than $70,000 in higher education scholarships available to them from local organizations. Funds range anywhere from a one-time $100 award to $5,000 per year for four years. Though application deadlines for some are already past, many are still available for seniors looking to pursue a postsecondary education such as college or trade school. “These scholarship opportunities are vital to our students,” said counselor Addy Esco. “The world of postsecondary education and training has changed drast...
The scholarship fund created to honor the memory of Helen and Sig Decker is a little different from most. In addition to the usual requirements of being a graduating high school senior who is going on to postsecondary schooling, applicants must have worked in commercial fishing or seafood processing. It's recognition that the Deckers worked in the industry for years before they died in a car accident in Petersburg on July 28, 2020, at 19 and 21 years old, respectively. The family made...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved election system that ends party primaries in the state and institutes ranked-choice voting in general elections. A brief order on Jan. 19 affirmed a lower court ruling from last year. A fuller opinion explaining the Supreme Court’s decision was expected later. The ruling comes one day after the justices heard arguments in the case. The new system, narrowly approved by voters in 2020, is unique among states and will be used for this year’s elections. It is viewed by suppo...
JUNEAU (AP) — A commission tasked with reviewing legislative pay voted Jan. 18 to raise the annual salary for Alaska lawmakers but to restrict the daily allowance lawmakers can receive. The changes will go forward unless the Legislature votes to rejects them. The Alaska State Officers Compensation Commission voted 3-1 to raise the base salary from $50,400 a year to $64,000. The recommendation would cap at $100 a day an allowance for living expenses that lawmakers could claim during regular sessions, and also require receipts for r...
JUNEAU (AP) — A federal judge on Jan. 20 sided with a former state attorney who alleged she was wrongly fired over political opinions expressed on a personal blog. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Elizabeth Bakalar’s December 2018 firing violated her free speech and rights under the U.S. and state constitutions. In October, Sedwick sided with two doctors at the state’s psychiatric hospital in Anchorage who had declined to submit resignation letters and also were fired, same as Bakalar, as the new administration of Gov. Mike...
The state ferry system reports that the Kennicott’s return to service in late April will not be delayed after it collided with the Hubbard while docking in Ketchikan a couple of weeks ago. “We’re still in the investigation phase, so I’m unable to share additional details about the incident at this time,” state transportation department spokesman Sam Dapcevich said last week. The 23-year-old Kennicott bumped into the 2-year-old Hubbard while docking on Jan. 14, as the Kennicott was pulling into Ketchikan for the start of its three-mon...
The Sentinel incorrectly reported in the Jan. 20 issue that Lindsay Pomeroy worked at Alaska Crossings. Only her husband, Sebastian, worked at Crossings. She works at the elementary school....
Princess Cruises has pleaded guilty to a second violation of probation imposed in a 2017 criminal conviction for environmental crimes because it failed to establish and maintain an independent internal investigative office, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. In a statement Jan. 12, the department said Princess was ordered to pay an additional $1 million and will be required to undertake remedial measures to ensure the cruise line and its parent company, Carnival Corp., establish and maintain an independent investigative office....
SEATTLE (AP) — The British Columbia government has announced the surrender of mining rights at the headwaters of the Skagit River, just across the border from Washington state, after years of controversy over protection of one of the region’s premier salmon rivers. Under an agreement announced Jan. 19 by the office of the B.C. premier, Imperial Metals will return to the province all of its mining and related rights within an area known as the Skagit River “Donut Hole,”' The Seattle Times reported. The agreement is intended to ensure the pre...
MIAMI (AP) — Bahamian authorities say a cruise ship — owned by a failing company in Hong Kong — that was set to dock in Miami last weekend remained in the Bahamas on Monday, avoiding a U.S. judge’s order to seize the vessel over a dispute for an unpaid fuel bill. Sgt. Kareem Woods with the Royal Bahamas Police Force said the Crystal Symphony was still docked in Bimini and that authorities had no plans to seize the vessel. The arrest warrant for the 781-foot-long ship is part of a lawsuit over a delinquent $4.6 million fuel bill. The ship wa...
A Petersburg police officer hired last June was let go this month after a borough investigation into his posts to a Facebook page promoting white male supremacy, anti-government rhetoric and anti-Semitism. The Facebook page also expressed support for Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, who mailed explosives that killed and injured people in the U.S. in the late 1970s through early 1990s. Johnny Duane Pickle, using the account name J.D. Pickle, also posted a Facebook comment with a picture of a child who appears to be his son performing a...
The number of students enrolled in Wrangell Public Schools has dropped by nearly half in the past 30 years. According to data from the Alaska Department of Education, enrollment for the 1991-92 school year totaled 527. The 2021-22 school year enrollment totaled 257 in the fall count. So where have the children gone? “I came in ’94 and the mill was still running,” said Bob Davis, assistant principal for Wrangell High School and Stikine Middle School. “The mill went down about a year later and things have been rough ever since. When COVID h...
SEARHC's announcement last week that it was shuttering the 21-year-old Alaska Crossings program in Wrangell, a wilderness therapy program for at-risk children that the health care provider took over in 2017, disappointed much of the community. The news release cited rising costs. Spokesperson Maegan Bosak, senior director of lands and property management at SEARHC offices in Sitka, said Friday she didn't have an operating cost for Crossings but would ask the finance department for the...
The uptick in COVID-19 cases after the holiday season has caused businesses to alter hours or close for days at a time, borough government to reinstate safety protocols, and schools to postpone sporting events. As of Wednesday morning, the borough had reported 114 cases since Dec. 30, a one-month record for the community and one-third of all the infections tallied in the almost 2-year-old pandemic. Close contact with active COVID-19 cases for Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber o...
The state appears to be in prime position to capture well more than $1 billion in federal funding for its ferries that many Alaskans hope is the catalyst for long-sought change in the Alaska Marine Highway System. The $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed in November by President Joe Biden establishes new national programs and boosts existing funding to collectively offer nearly $1.6 billion in ferry-specific funding, according to information from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was among a bipartisan group of 10 senators wh...
The Alaska Department of Transportation on Jan. 14 announced it had awarded a $15 million contract to Vigor’s Ketchikan shipyard for installation of living quarters aboard the state ferry Hubbard, which will enable the ship to carry a change of crew for longer runs. The 280-foot-long Hubbard and its sister ship Tazlina were built at state specifications at a cost of about $60 million each at the Ketchikan shipyard and launched a few years ago, but have seen limited service due to the ferry system’s tight budget, lack of crew quarters and oth...
The Alaska Department of Transportation is contracting with Allen Marine to run one of its vessels “as needed” between Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg this winter, though no runs are scheduled and any operations likely would depend on whether the state ferry Matanuska finally comes out of winter overhaul as now expected on Jan. 31. Delays caused by extensive repair work to the 58-year-old ferry forced the Alaska Marine Highway System to cancel several sailings between the three communities in December and January. The Matanuska’s first...
After nearly three months, Jeff Good can drop "interim" from his title. On Friday, the assembly announced it had selected Good as borough manager. A committee took two days in executive session to interview Good and two other candidates for the job. The interviews, closed to the public, went Wednesday and Thursday, in part because one of the candidates, Kim Zimmerman, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who serves as borough manager of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, had to reschedule his interview...
Based on the current rate structure, Wrangell’s Marine Service Center could operate at a loss over the next five, 15 and 30 years. That’s according to a newly finished Marine Service Center business plan the port and harbors department will present to the port commission. Port Director Steve Miller will present the plan to the port commission at its Thursday night meeting. Any rate hikes — which would maintain future revenues in line with potential expenses — would require port commission and borough assembly approval. There are no operati...
The school board on Monday approved changes to the district’s COVID-19 mitigation plan that would allow staff and students to return to school sooner after close contact with infected individuals or positive test results. Changes reflect the latest guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in some cases cut isolation times in half. Masking and social distancing will still be required at all Wrangell schools. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said the revised plan took effect Jan. 7, with staff and parents n...
Under questioning from a bipartisan legislative committee on Monday, the chairman of the Alaska Permanent Fund defended the board’s decision to fire former executive director Angela Rodell but declined to answer substantive questions about the reasons for the action. Chairman Craig Richards said the board had years of “trust problems” with Rodell. Citing the confidentiality of board discussions and the possibility of a lawsuit by the ousted director, he refused to answer questions about the source of those problems, and he declined to say w...
