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The first known case of the Omicron variant in Alaska was reported on Monday, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. The variant case was identified in an Anchorage resident. “The case was identified today through genomic sequencing performed at the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory from a person who recently tested positive in Anchorage following international travel in November,” the statement read. “Alaska now joins at least 30 other states and more than 60 countries that have already identified the varia...
Wrangell Medical Center will get an extra month of help from three traveling health care professionals, as the state has extended its contract for the workers. Alaska is adding to its $87 million contract that brought in about 470 out-of-state health care workers to assist hospitals, clinics and schools stressed this fall by the heavy workload of COVID-19 patients and testing, and to provide relief for overwhelmed medical staffs in multiple communities. In September, the state signed up Atlanta-based DLH Solutions to bring the workers to...
JUNEAU (AP) — A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a challenge by Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to a special subsistence hunt authorized for a Southeast Alaska tribe by a federal board last year. The Organized Village of Kake in spring 2020 requested an emergency hunt, citing food security concerns amid the pandemic. The Federal Subsistence Board granted a limited season of up to 60 days, and the harvest was distributed to 135 households in the village, according to filings with the court. The normal hunting season doesn’t begin...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly has voted to extend an emergency ordinance requiring masking in indoor public buildings. The Petersburg hospital reported 230 COVID-19 cases in November — infecting more than 7% of the community’s population. An emergency face mask ordinance adopted Nov. 5 was set to expire Dec. 6. The assembly voted 6-1 on Dec. 6 to extend the masking requirement to Jan. 3. The ordinance requires masking in public and communal spaces, other than private residences. Phil Hofstetter, chief executive officer of the Petersburg Med...
While Petersburg continues to endure limited hours at the post office service window, long lines and a lack of masking enforcement in the building, the borough assembly is considering asking the U.S. Postal Service to offer home delivery. A draft resolution was presented to the assembly at its Dec. 6 meeting, with further consideration planned when the assembly meets Dec. 20. The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter in support of home delivery. The post office has been a common frustration among businesses, said Jim Floyd, chamber of...
SEATTLE (AP) - Two Washington state artists are facing federal charges that they faked Native American heritage to sell works at downtown Seattle galleries. Lewis Anthony Rath, 52, of Maple Falls, and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, 67, also known as Jerry Witten, of Seattle, have been charged separately with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Rath falsely claimed to be...
Sitka will see minimal state ferry service this winter. Scheduled sailings of the Matanuska have been canceled until late January while the vessel undergoes more steel plate repairs in a Ketchikan shipyard, leaving Sitka cut off from the ferry network for more than a month. As a stopgap measure, the Alaska Marine Highway System ran the Kennicott into Sitka on Dec. 8, but the vessel is not scheduled to return until Jan. 11. The 58-year-old Matanuska is not expected to resume service until the fourth week in January, With the ferry system...
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer last year said the issue his office seemed to be getting the most email on after the 2020 election was the narrow victory of a ballot measure to overhaul Alaska’s election process. His chief of staff said they were getting up to 20 emails a day. But a records request by The Associated Press yielded fewer than 20 total unique emails that were received by the office with complaints or concerns about the election, and only three mentioned the ballot measure that would end political party primaries and institute r...
JUNEAU (AP) — Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Monday he plans to propose as part of his upcoming budget that the state spend $5 million in federal dollars to support tourism marketing efforts amid the ongoing pandemic, and additional funds to prepare state parks for visitors next year. He said the hope is for a return to “robust” tourism activity after a difficult two years. Speaking in Anchorage, Dunleavy said people are “starting to learn to live with (the coronavirus) … understanding that it’s not going to go away, but there’s ways to protect onese...
TORONTO (AP) — A meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and Canadian Indigenous people who were abused at church-run boarding schools has been postponed because of the new coronavirus variant. National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations said Dec. 7 that the delegation had planned to travel to Rome and meet with the pope on Dec. 20, but the trip is being put off because of the Omicron variant. Many of the First Nation delegates are elderly. “Particularly for many elderly delegates as well as those who live in rem...
A Wrangell company that makes bath and body care products has nothing to do with fish, but that's OK because it won this year's beyond-the-plate award at the Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition. Waterbody won for its Deep Blue Sea Bath Soak, which counts Pacific sea salt and Alaska bull kelp among its ingredients. Angie Flickinger started the business in 2015 as Gathered and Grown Botanicals. The idea began when she wanted to give handcrafted soap as a gift. She rebranded in 2020 as...
The sounds of laughter and excited conversation filled the halls, while brightly colored pieces of art adorned the walls on Dec. 1. Evergreen Elementary held its first art walk, allowing students to showcase their creative works throughout the school, a months-long effort that came about as a result of helping children express themselves. The art program, which is classified as a social-emotional learning (SEL) program, was created to help students walk through the mental and emotional...
For the second time in the past 30 days, the state has to shift around the two other ferries serving Southeast to cover for the Matanuska, which will stay in the Ketchikan shipyard longer than expected for more steel repairs. The loss of the Matanuska means reduced service to Wrangell for the next six weeks. The Alaska Marine Highway System has added a couple more runs of the Kennicott through Southeast, including two stops in Wrangell in January, to replace the Matanuska’s weekly service, but the schedule will be sparse — just one northbound a...
Wrangell residents have long complained that Petersburg enjoys more than its share of perks - a Coast Guard station, more state and federal offices, more ferry service last winter. But now, Wrangell has something Petersburg doesn't have: Lots of free parking at the airport. Starting Dec. 1, Petersburg travelers who park at the airport but can't find one of the limited free spaces in front of the Alaska Airlines terminal will be charged $7 per day to park in an area nearby that used to be free. A...
Correction The Dec. 2 issue of the Wrangell Sentinel mistakenly identified Cindy Martin as a liaison with the Wrangell Burial Assistance program. Martin is a board member of Hospice of Wrangell....
The aftermath of an unexpectedly strong Nov. 30 weather system affected life in Wrangell, postponing community events and unfurling an outpouring of support amid power outages. Community events including last Friday’s Midnight Madness and downtown Christmas tree lighting were rescheduled to this Saturday, according to the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce. As utility workers were busy restoring power, and food and craft vendors were focused on getting power to their homes, the chamber decided to postpone the Dec. 3 events to this weekend, Executive...
The borough is taking inventory of losses in the community to determine the total amount of damages for a possible disaster declaration after an unexpected windstorm on Nov. 30 knocked out power. After initial power restoration to much of the community, it took nearly 48 hours to restore electricity to 90 households after the storm snapped off Southeast Alaska Power Agency poles just south of City Park. "I was outside ready to pull the generator crank when the porch (light) came on!!!" wrote...
When Devyn Johnson unexpectedly lost her mom, Shannan Lee Phillips, on June 2, 2017, in Washington state at the age of 41, it wasn't until six months later that Johnson was able to sit in her grief and mourn her mother. As the eldest, Johnson said a lot of the financial responsibility of planning the funeral fell on her. She was 25 years old. "I hadn't lost anyone before," she said. "I was just like, 'Now what?' And instead of being able to be sad and grieve, I had to go into business mode, put...
JUNEAU (AP) — State health officials are urging Alaskans to get vaccinated and to get their booster shot as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the nation. Alaska had no confirmed cases of the variant as of Tuesday, but officials want residents to be prepared. “We know a lot about COVID, we were expecting this,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer. “We continue to learn from around the world.” Zink said Alaskans should get vaccinated for COVID-19 even though data on Omicron’s ability to possibly evade vaccine immun...
The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. is continuing its monthslong program of sending out rental and utility assistance payments — including almost $400,000 to Wrangell households as of last week — drawing on federal pandemic relief aid allocated to the states. As of last Friday, Alaska continued among the leaders nationwide in distributing the aid to households hurt by a loss of income due to the pandemic. AHFC reported it had sent out almost $193 million in payments, about 80% of the $242 million in federal funds allocated to Alaska under ren...
JUNEAU (AP) — Most of the people whose deaths were caused by or associated with COVID-19 in Alaska between January 2020 through September 2021 had at least one underlying medical condition, the state health department reported Dec. 1. The department, in an epidemiology bulletin, said 658 deaths between Jan. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, were determined to be caused by or associated with COVID-19. Of the 551 individuals for which their past medical history was known, 529 “had at least one underlying medical condition associated with inc...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is looking for private companies to fill service gaps over the winter for small Northern Southeast communities. The LeConte is scheduled to go out of service in early January until the end of February for its annual overhaul and recertification. That would leave several communities without ferry service for two months. Mainline ferries are too large to serve the communities and the state’s smaller ships are unavailable. “The stars are not aligning for us to use one of our own vessels,” said Sam Dapcevich, a spo...
Students at the middle and high schools have a new focus: Values. Students in grades six through 12 can take a photo they believe captures the essence of a value — like ethics, integrity or kindness — and enter it into a contest which could land them $300 if their photo wins the top spot. Bob Davis, the assistant principal of the two schools, said a similar photo contest was held at the high school last year, but a theme wasn’t attached. “We didn’t have ‘values,’ it was just a contest, and the kids really got into it.” The original deadli...
The school district is hiring for a full-time paraprofessional position, which is a change from what it was able to offer a short time ago. Thanks to federal grant funds, the district was able to make the position full-time and offer benefits including state retirement, health insurance for the employee and dependents, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave. Paraprofessionals have been needed at all three Wrangell schools for some time, though the current open position will be based at the elementary school level. They work one-on-one or in...
HAINES (AP) — Residents gathered in Haines to remember the two people killed by a landslide last year. The ceremony, held Saturday, honored kindergarten teacher Jenae Larson and David Simmons, who worked for the community’s economic development organization. Larson’s family is raising funds to build a school playground that will be named in her honor. Haines students are building benches in memory of both victims, whose bodies have not been recovered. Torrential rains last December prompted landslides in the community. The largest was estim...
