Sorted by date Results 3753 - 3777 of 7954
The borough assembly adopted changes Tuesday night to the harbor's liveaboard fee policy to make it easier for collection. The assembly earlier had backed away from a plan to increase the liveaboard fee, from $85 a month to about $117 a month. Instead, the assembly decided to rework the fee schedule and definitions of who needs to pay the fee. Under the ordinance, which passed unanimously, a liveaboard vessel is defined as "any vessel utilizing the harbor as a primary residence for one or more p...
Legislators are trying again this year to tax "electronic smoking products"- e-cigarettes and vaping devices - the same as tobacco products. Bills to extend the state's tobacco tax to electronic smoking products died last March as lawmakers rushed to close down the session amid the start of the pandemic. Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens and Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan are trying again this year. Their bills have each cleared their first committee and are both waiting for a hearing in their respective Financ...
Leatha Merculieff, who has served both as SEARHC vice president and as Wrangell hospital administrator since SEARHC took over the facility in 2019, has been promoted to the consortium's senior vice president and chief of operations. In her place, Wrangell resident Carly Allen will take over as hospital administrator. Allen is a third-generation Wrangell resident, according to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium news release on Monday. She has been with SEARHC since 2017, after a...
JUNEAU (AP) - The state health department said Tuesday upcoming appointments for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Alaska are being canceled or delayed after federal agencies recommended a “pause”to review reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots. State health officials said the federal recommendation shows that safety checks are working and they hope it will bolster rather than hinder public confidence in the vaccine rollout. Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the state epidemiologist, said people with appointments for the...
MIAMI (AP) - The state of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, demanding that cruise ships be allowed to start sailing immediately. Gov. Ron DeSantis said April 8 the federal no-sail order is outdated and hurts the state as the industry generates billions for the economy and employs tens of thousands of Floridians. “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data,”said the Republican governor, a frequent critic of the P...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Anchorage will lift all limits on outdoor gatherings in a new coronavirus emergency order that will take effect on Friday night. Outdoor gatherings will no longer have capacity restrictions, though mask and social distancing mandates will remain. The new emergency order will remain in effect until June 11, unless it is either revoked or the city’s health department certifies that 70% of eligible Anchorage residents are fully vaccinated. The order, issued Monday, said about 36% of Anchorage residents 16 or older are fully v...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Health officials have reported a case of a coronavirus variant in Southcentral Alaska first detected in South Africa. The Alaska case was reported as first identified in March in the region that includes Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, according to a report from a consortium of state and university health officials dated April 6. The report did not provide case details such as how the person got the virus or whether others may have been exposed. Five new cases of a variant first identified in the United Kingdom...
Face masks are required in all indoor public spaces until 11:59 p.m. April 30 under an emergency ordinance approved unanimously by the borough assembly Saturday morning as the city responds to the COVID-19 breakout in town. The community tallied 16 cases April 8-16. “This is the highest number by double we’ve ever had active in Wrangell at any one time,” Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen told the assembly. In addition to protecting public health, the outbreak is hurting the town’s economy, Von Bargen said. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health... Full story
State department operating budgets before the House Finance Committee this week for the fiscal year that starts July 1 include funding to restore the commercial fisheries position in Wrangell and also the Office of Children's Services caseworker job. The Legislature tried last year to fund both positions, but the money was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Wrangell lost its children's services worker several years ago to budget cuts. The Department of Fish and Game position was eliminated a year...
The steep drop in visitors to Alaska last year because of pandemic travel restrictions showed up in air, sea and land numbers - and resulting job losses - across the state. Overall, the state lost more than 22,000 jobs between February 2020 and February 2021, according to the Alaska Department of Labor. "Based on my forecast here, I do not anticipate a return to pre-pandemic employment levels until after 2022,"Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at the University of Alaska...
While Alaska legislators await federal rules for how the state can spend the almost $1.2 billion in federal pandemic relief funds headed this way, communities are waiting to see their allocations from a separate pot of federal aid - and ready to push the state to share some of its money. In addition to the general relief funding going to the state, Alaska communities will receive a share of a separate $231 million municipal allocation under the American Rescue Plan signed into law last month....
While they have not been able to meet in person due to the pandemic, the Head Start preschool program is still working to make sure Wrangell's kids get the help they need. Besides hosting their program virtually, Head Start has been putting together food boxes since November. "The parents are pretty happy with it,"said Sandy Churchill, with Head Start. "Plus, it's a good way to stay in contact with our parents." Head Start pus together food boxes for 15 kids each week, Churchill said. They...
The borough assembly will consider the purchase of a trash baler so that it can stop shipping the community's garbage out of town in open-top containers. The purchase, estimated at $600,000, will be on the agenda for the April 13 assembly meeting, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said Tuesday. A baler would cut and mash and compress the trash into dense blocks, about 50 cubic feet in size, based on the model the city is considering. The baler project has been ongoing for some time, but the need...
Back when the North Slope was pumping 2 million barrels of crude a day at its peak in 1988, and even for years after, oil provided upward of 90% of state general fund revenues in good years. But that was then, and now oil generates maybe 25% of the state's unrestricted dollars. The king of the budget hill is the Alaska Permanent Fund. The annual draw on the fund to help pay for public services and the dividend will provide about two-thirds of the state's unrestricted general revenues this year....
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new operating guidance for cruise lines, with at least one company just three days later submitting its plan to possibly resume sailings in July. An industry group, however, strongly criticized the instructions. The new federal guidance does not change the reality for Alaska that Canada has not lifted or amended its ban on cruise ships. Without a change in Canada, or a temporary waiver from U.S. law requiring a stop in a Canadian port for...
The Wrangell Police Department is warning the public about phone calls from scammers pretending to be with the Social Security Administration. The callers tell people the government has a warrant for their arrest. Police departments statewide reported a rash of such calls last week, including departments in Juneau, Anchorage, Homer and Unalaska. While some scammers claimed to represent the Social Security Administration, others said they were with the U.S. Marshals Service. Wrangell police said...
The Chugach Ranger, the last wooden boat in the U.S. Forest Service fleet, was relocated to its new home beside the Nolan Center on March 31. The city museum and visitor center has been advocating the past several years to move the boat into a permanent historical display outside the center. However, the protective tarp covering the boat could stay there awhile, Cyni Crary, Nolan Center director, said Monday. Relocating the boat is just the first phase of turning it into a museum exhibit, she sa...
Beginning April 24, Alaskans should start getting used to dialing the 907 area code when calling in state. For the next six months, callers can dial the old way - with just seven digits - or the new way - with 10 digits - but only the 10-digit dialing will work starting Oct. 24. Using the 907 area code on all calls in Alaska as of April 24 will be good practice for when the federally mandated switch to 10-digit dialing takes effect in the fall, even for local calls, said phone service providers...
The Wrangell community group BRAVE, Building Respect and Valuing Everyone, is handing out materials at the elementary school and around town this week to increase awareness that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. With support from the Alaska Children's Trust, a statewide organization that focuses on the well-being of children and families, BRAVE is distributing coloring books, growth charts, stickers, coffee sleeves, pinwheels and parental guides. BRAVE was founded in 2017 with the mission s...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The island community of St. Paul, in the middle of the Bering Sea, has issued an emergency stay-at-home ordinance after its first case of the coronavirus. An essential worker tested positive on the island, the Anchorage Daily News reported April 1. It is the first reported coronavirus case in St. Paul since the pandemic began. The city’s hunker-down order will last from April 1 until April 15 and was approved by the St. Paul City Council on March 31. All of St. Paul’s residents besides those in essential government, bus...
JUNEAU (AP) - A plan to upgrade the Gustavus airport faces criticism from residents as contractors plan to begin work on the $20 million federally funded project this month. Residents and organizations such as the Gustavus PFAS Action Coalition want more state accountability after toxic chemicals were found at the airport in 2018, Alaska public radio reported Monday. The contaminants are known as PFAS, a group of toxic chemicals found in firefighting foam that used to be required at airports and U.S. Defense Department sites. They are also...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Five people had to ski through a heavy Alaska snowstorm to a mountain chalet after abandoning their airplanes on a glacier on North America’s tallest peak, where they were stranded for the weekend, officials said Monday. The five landed Friday in three separate small airplanes — a Cessna 180 and two Piper PA18s — on Ruth Glacier on Denali, said Maureen Gualtieri, a spokesperson for Denali National Park and Preserve. A fast-moving storm prevented them from flying off the glacier, and they spent Friday night in their airpl...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Anchorage School District have implemented weekly coronavirus tests for high school hockey players after at least 64 students tested positive for the virus or were told to quarantine because they were a close contact to someone who had the coronavirus. The Anchorage district said all of the cases can be linked to two recent competitive hockey tournaments. “Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to the point where we have enough positive cases related to hockey that we are having to take extra precautions to keep schools open and kee...
With the announcement of three new cases Thursday evening, and one new case Friday morning, Wrangell now has six active cases of COVID-19. One of the new cases was someone at Evergreen Elementary School. “Based upon the information we have at this time, there will be no building closure,” the school district posted to Facebook on Thursday evening. The first COVID-19 case was reported by the city about 3:45 p.m. Thursday. The city said the individual was a local resident, and a close contact of a previous case. The individual has been in qua... Full story
City officials reported three more COVID-19 cases late Wednesday afternoon, bringing to 12 the total number of new cases in town in the past seven days. "Wrangell is experiencing a COVID outbreak," said the statement issued by Wrangell's emergency operations center. "There is confirmation of community spread of the virus. We need everyone’s help to stop this outbreak." The three reported coronavirus cases Wednesday are local residents and are in isolation. The outbreak started last Thursday, with more cases reported Friday, Sunday, Monday and T... Full story
