Sorted by date Results 3057 - 3081 of 7954
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...
Sitka-based Alaskan Dream Cruises has entered the rankings of the best small-ship cruise lines in the world, as voted by the readership of a popular travel magazine. Travel+Leisure, with about 4.8 million readers, announced Alaskan Dream Cruises as one of the Top 10 small-ship cruise lines, from a survey conducted between Jan. 11 and May 10. Alaskan Dream Cruises placed 10th, and posted the award on Facebook. Alaskan Dream Cruises’ six vessels each carry between 10 and 76 passengers and make frequent summer stops in Wrangell. It’s the fir...
JUNEAU (AP) — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is suing the Alaska Redistricting Board over recently drawn legislative boundaries that it says dilutes the votes of borough residents. The lawsuit was filed Dec. 2, said Stacey Stone, borough attorney. It is the first lawsuit filed against the new boundaries for state House and Senate seats. The redistricting board adopted its maps Nov. 10, triggering a 30-day period in which challenges could be filed. The board was charged with rewriting Alaska’s political boundaries following the 2020 census. Unles...
Former Alaska Senate President Cathy Giessel plans to run for the state Senate next year. Giessel, an Anchorage Republican, announced her plans Dec. 1 in the newsletter she has regularly distributed since leaving office earlier this year. Giessel lost her primary last year to Republican Roger Holland, who went on to win the seat. Holland based much of his campaign on a pledge that Alaskans should receive a significantly larger Permanent Fund dividend along with retroactive payments, costing a total of several billion dollars, to make good on...
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The warming of the planet is taking a deadly toll on seabirds that are suffering population declines from starvation, inability to reproduce, heat waves and extreme weather. Climate-related losses have hit albatrosses off the Hawaiian islands, northern gannets near the British Isles and puffins off the Maine coast. Some birds are less able to build nests and raise young as sea levels rise, while others are unable to find fish to eat as the ocean heats up, researchers have...
Longtime Sitka troller James Moore has won recognition for his work in developing salmon hatcheries in Southeast, promoting a troll-fleet logbook program, and many other activities supporting Southeast fisheries. After five decades as a salmon troller in Southeast waters, advocating for the fishery all the while, Moore has been honored by the Alaska Trollers Association as a Friend of the Fleet. Moore attributed the accolade in part to his work in establishing the Chichagof-Baranof Aquaculture...
Jeff Wright's long road to recovery led him from addiction and a heart attack in his 50s to hiking trails around Sitka and competing in the New York City Marathon. A lifelong Sitkan, Wright, who is 60, said he ran the 26.2 mile race on Nov. 7 to demonstrate that it's possible to recover from a variety of health issues. He hopes his example inspires those recovering from heart attacks or addiction. "Being in recovery and showing people that you can do it coming back from a heart attack," he said....
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles "Chuck" Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency. The National Park Service oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks, monuments, battlefields and other landmarks. It employs about 20,000 people in permanent, temporary and seasonal jobs, according to its website. In Alaska, the agency oversees 15 national parks, preserves, monuments and...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Dozens of West Point graduates have demanded that Rep. David Eastman, who represents Wasilla in the Alaska Legislature, resign from office over his ties to a right-wing extremist group, saying his affiliation has betrayed the values of the U.S. Military Academy that he attended. A letter signed by 69 fellow West Point graduates was published in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and called on Eastman to resign after his membership in the Oath Keepers became public, with another name added after publication. Eastman had p...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A cruise ship that carried at least 17 passengers and crew members with breakthrough COVID-19 infections when it docked in New Orleans has set sail again with new passengers. Nine crew members and eight passengers were infected when the Norwegian Breakaway arrived last Sunday, a Louisiana Department of Health spokeswoman said Monday. None of the individuals had any symptoms, and only fully vaccinated people are allowed on board, Norwegian Cruise Line said. The cruise line said all passengers who boarded the Norwegian B...
Wrangell marked two milestones in the fight against COVID-19 in November: The first death attributed to the highly infectious disease in the community, and a record number of new infections. The borough on Monday reported the death. To protect the individual and family privacy, neither the borough nor the state releases the name, specific age or day of death of the person, though the state reported the individual was a Wrangell man in his 60s. The state health department website only lists the death as occurring sometime in the past 30 days....
If something interested Ira Merrill, he would throw his all into it. He would order books to absorb and learn, just to master a subject before moving onto the next thing. As it was in all things that caught Merrill's attention, so it was especially in art. By the time of his death two years ago, at age 83, Merrill had created thousands of pieces of artwork which can still be found throughout Wrangell and beyond. Born in 1936, he had already lived an adventurous life by the time he reached...
An unexpected, strong weather system sent high winds tearing through Wrangell, snapping three Southeast Alaska Power Agency poles which blocked the highway at City Park and knocked out power to most of Wrangell for much of Tuesday afternoon into the evening. A peak wind gust of 54 mph out of the southwest was detected on Zarembo Island at 1:55 p.m., said Wes Adkins, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Juneau Forecast Office. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management operate a remote, automated weather system on...
The 19th annual Dove Tree Ceremony is a way to remember loved ones during the holiday season. Participants wrote the names of their loved ones on paper doves, one name per dove, and placed the names on the boughs of a tree set up in the lobby of the Nolan Center, using loops of ribbon. Ahead of hanging the paper doves, Alice Rooney, president of the nonprofit Hospice of Wrangell, which put on the event in-person this year after last year's was virtual, started the ceremony Sunday by expressing...
