Sorted by date Results 2996 - 3020 of 7954
High winds, deep snow, below-zero temperatures, frozen pipes, canceled flights and ice-covered everything - it was not a merry Christmas or a happy new year for many Alaskans. Ketchikan endured its coldest-ever Christmas, and the next day, too, shivering to a low of zero degrees on both days, breaking a 57-year-old record for Christmas Day. It was cold enough to freeze saltwater in shoreline areas of Bar Harbor, City Float, Mud Bight and Ward Cove. The 350 residents of Hydaburg, on the...
Anchorage public schools opened the new year with face mask requirements still in place, after the school board reversed a decision by the superintendent that would have made masks optional. Schools Superintendent Deena Bishop decided in mid-December to drop the masking requirement for when students and staff returned to class on Monday, but the Anchorage School Board on Dec. 20 voted 5-1 to reverse the decision. Face masks will be required in the state’s largest school district until at least Jan. 15, when the board will review the policy. B...
Citing COVID-19 concerns and weather-related transportation worries, the state has postponed the 12-day Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting that was scheduled to have started Tuesday at the civic center in Ketchikan. The meeting to consider more than 150 proposed changes to state management regulations for finfish and shellfish in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat already had been postponed from January 2021 because of COVID-19 issues. Last Friday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that the 2022 meeting would proceed in Ketchikan with...
The 58-year-old state ferry Matanuska needs additional time in a Ketchikan shipyard for steel decking replacement and other repairs, forcing cancellation of more sailings to Southeast communities and leaving Wrangell without any service between Jan. 11 and Feb. 4. The Alaska Marine Highway System on Dec. 27 announced that the Matanuska’s return to service — previously set for early December, then reset to Jan. 17 — has been delayed for a third time. The latest return date is Jan. 31. The ship has been out of service since early October for a...
Internet service provided by GCI was knocked out when Wrangell was pummeled by a gusty storm on Nov. 30, and three weeks later residents were still reporting outages. Technicians were able to restore service to customers by Dec. 3, but there were complaints as recently as Dec. 22 that the service comes and goes. Residents took to the Wrangell Community Group on Facebook to ask if others were experiencing outages — and to complain. Some were seeing disruptions every day, sometimes up to five hours with no service. “It’s my understanding that...
There were about 1,000 stories in the Wrangell Sentinel last year, covering state and local budgets, the ailing state ferry system, ongoing pandemic and more — including a new owner for the Sentinel. On Jan. 1, Larry Persily bought the newspaper — for the third time over the past 45 years — with a promise to return the operation to Wrangell, expand the paper and its staff, and focus on more local news. “We plan to add more news from around Southeast and the state, but not at the expense of crowding out news of Wrangell. It’s not one or the ot...
The borough assembly has selected an almost quarter-million-dollar recreation center project for Wrangell’s application to a competitive, federally funded COVID-19 aid grant program, while it has also adopted its projects wish list for consideration by the Legislature this year. The assembly at its Dec. 21 meeting approved upgrades to the heating and ventilation systems and carpet replacement at the recreation center as its selected project for a federal COVID aid community development grant program. The estimated $225,000 rec center work w...
Alaska’s economic development districts are in the running to win $50 million in federal money to grow the state’s seaweed and shellfish farming industry – known collectively as mariculture. The U.S. Economic Development Administration announced last month that the proposed Alaska mariculture project is among 60 finalists for a Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant. Advocates say the money could help with the state's goal of building a $100 million industry by 2040. More kelp and oyster farms have been popping up along Alaska’s shoreli...
State Sen. Bert Stedman, who represents Sitka and central and southern Southeast, including Wrangell, is in his 20th year in the Senate, serving much of that time as co-chair of the budget-writing Finance Committee. As lawmakers prepare to resume work Jan. 18 in Juneau, Stedman said Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget appears to be balanced — and not balanced — at the same time. “It’s balanced, but not when you compare recurring revenues to recurring expenditures,” Stedman said. “We’ve got to unwind that. The structural deficit is goin...
Almost 60 borough employees, union and non-union, will receive a 2% raise retroactive to July 1, 2021. A second 2% raise is scheduled for July 1 of this year. The new wage scale is the result of a collective bargaining agreement between the borough and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547, which represents power plant operators, the line crew, port and harbor workers, water treatment plant workers and other public works employees. The three-year IBEW contract run to June 30, 2024. The borough traditionally extends to...
Pieces of rigid foam — polystyrene — broken away from harbor floats installed in the 1970s and 1980s are bobbing along Wrangell’s waters and washing up on beaches along Zimovia Strait. Holdovers from the Shoemaker Bay harbor float replacement project in 2018, the pieces were part of 60- to 80-foot-long old floats that the borough sold in 2018 when it should have trashed them, Port Director Steve Miller said. While records were kept of the individuals who bought the old floats, it’s now impossible to identify who owns the debris floatin...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy has accepted Donald Trump’s endorsement for his 2022 reelection campaign, telling the former president he will not support Lisa Murkowski in her reelection bid for the U.S. Senate — a condition of winning Trump’s endorsement. The former president has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported impeachment for Trump’s role in instigating last January’s insurrection at the Capitol during certification of Joe Biden’s election as president. Trump has endorsed Murkowski’s primary challenger, K...
As of Jan. 1, Wrangell’s roadways won’t look much different after a new state regulation adopted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration took effect. Alaskans are now allowed to drive their ATVs on most roadways where the speed limit is 45 mph or less, unless the city or borough opts out. The new law will only affect one portion of Wrangell streets. “For us, there’s really not much of a change of anything,” said Lt. Bruce Smith, of the Wrangell Police Department. Except for the Airport Loop, he added. Municipal code already allows ATVs to be...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer will not run for reelection in 2022, leaving Gov. Mike Dunleavy free to choose a new Republican running mate this year. In an interview Dec. 28, Meyer did not rule out an eventual return to politics, but said he wants to take a break. “It’d be nice to get to sleep in and spend more time with the family,” he said. Dunleavy, who is running for reelection to a second term, said he expects Meyer will use his last year in office to focus on an election-reform bill the governor announced in late December. Under the new elect...
Klukwan resident and Diné (Navajo) artist Clara Natonabah wrote and sang a Navajo song that was featured in a Disney Junior Shake Your Tale with Chip 'N Dale music video. The song, titled "Hózhóogoo Dahwiit'áál" (We Will Sing in Beauty), was released on YouTube and appears in the cartoon where the popular Disney cartoon characters dance to Natonabah's song. Natonabah was chosen by Disney to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. "I was asked to participate for this mini...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has decided not to request home mail delivery. Assembly members on Dec. 20 defeated a resolution that would have asked the U.S. Postal Service to send carriers around town delivering mail, giving residents and businesses an option instead of requiring everyone to pick up letters and parcels at the post office. The resolution had been presented as a possible solution to ongoing issues at the short-staffed post office, which has seen long wait times for package pickup and reduced hours at the customer service...
The nine-member Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board, a new advisory panel created by the Legislature last year, has moved closer to full membership. State Senate President Peter Micciche last month appointed Paul Johnsen, of Petersburg, and David Arzt, of Homer, to the panel. Johnsen is the only board member so far from southern Southeast Alaska. He began his career in the Coast Guard, later going to work with the Alaska Marine Highway System. He retired from the state ferries in 2007 as a senior port and chief engineer. Arzt is an active...
MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned people on Dec. 30 not to go on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, because of onboard outbreaks fueled by the Omicron variant. The CDC said it has more than 90 cruise ships under investigation or observation as a result of COVID-19 cases. The agency did not disclose the number of infections. “The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships, and the chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is very high,” even...
Susan Doherty, who worked at the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association from 1980 to 2017, will return to the hatchery operator as general manager starting Jan. 22. Ketchikan-based SSRAA operates seven salmon hatcheries in Southern Southeast, including the Burnett Inlet hatchery on Etolin Island, about 25 miles south of Wrangell. The facility incubates mostly chum salmon, along with a small number of coho, according to SSRAA’s website. Doherty will be the fifth general manager to run the association since it was created in 1976. S...
JUNEAU (AP) — An Alaska Native nonprofit cultural organization has received a $2.9 million grant to start building a totem pole trail along Juneau’s downtown waterfront. The Sealaska Heritage Institute said the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will cover 10 poles, though the longer-term goal is to have 30 poles in place. “Our traditional poles historically dominated the shorelines of our ancestral homelands and told the world who we were,” said Rosita Worl, president of the institute. “It’s fitting that our totems will be one of the...
BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed investing $187 million in salmon recovery as part of his 2022 budget and policy proposals. The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, also would set new standards for salmon habitat protection and conservation efforts. Inslee said the legislation is the result of two years of discussions with tribes in the state. He announced his salmon proposals Dec. 14 at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community reservation’s Swadabs Park. “Our fight is simple: to be able to practice our cultu...
Mason Dingwall operates a tire cutter at the community's solid waste transfer station, working his way through the immense stack of tires that the borough hopes to dig into, chop up and ship out of town. Cutting up the tires makes it easier to fit the pieces into containers for the barge ride out of state. Wrangell is the first of the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority members to get the $56,700 hydraulic shear, which was purchased by the Southeast Conference with a grant and is being...
Wrangell’s water reservoir dams need fixing, and the borough assembly last week approved spending $100,000 to help determine the best options. The state dam safety engineer at the Department of Natural Resources has identified Wrangell’s upper and lower dams as Class I (high) hazard potential with recognized deficiencies that require rehabilitation, said the borough’s Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad. A stability study performed for the U.S. Forest Service in 1993 and a 2006 seismic study for the borough both indicated that while...
Two hundred at-home COVID-19 test kits were delivered to Wrangell’s emergency operations center last Friday, and more will soon be on the way. Capt. Dorianne Sprehe, of the EOC, said the fire department received the kits via SEARHC, and is making them available free to anyone who requests them. “We’ve already handed out a couple over the weekend,” Sprehe said on Monday. The kits are available to pick up any time at the fire hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. People who plan on large gatherings, especially those with friends...
Fundraising efforts are a year-round task for most organizations, but during the holidays those efforts are increased. People in Wrangell are willing to give their time, energy and money to support everything from the food pantry and pets to high school athletes. A pressing need "This community, hand over fist, is one of the most generous communities I've ever had the privilege to work in," said Lt. Jon Tollerud, of The Salvation Army. The Christian-based organization coordinates the community...
