Sorted by date Results 3197 - 3221 of 7980
This year’s overall Southeast Alaska salmon harvest is headed toward 58 million fish, with pink salmon leading the tally at 48.2 million — more than 40% above the 10-year average for pinks. This summer’s pink catch was six times last year’s measly 8 million, and more than double the brood year of 2019. The numbers for fish tickets are still preliminary, said Troy Thynes, regional management coordinator for commercial fisheries with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Petersburg. “The main thing is the pink salmon run came in a lot stron...
Bob Russell recently returned to Alaska to continue his career pursuits in the technology arena. He started the next leg of his journey on July 2 as the school district's tech director, overseeing all computer equipment, internet connectivity, networking and learning devices. In short, if it's technology-related, Russell is in charge. Before coming to Wrangell, Russell and his wife, Kimberly, and Great Pyrenees dog, Yukon, lived in Tennessee. He had lived and worked in Fort Yukon some time...
The state has submitted for review its plan to spend $50 million in federal funds to help homeowners financially strained during the pandemic by loss of income to pay their mortgages. The U.S. Treasury Department is reviewing Alaska’s plan, along with those from other states. “Our mortgage plan is with Treasury for review and approval,” Stacy Barnes, governmental affairs director at the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., said last week. The $50 million is Alaska’s allocation of the $9.96 billion Congress appropriated for mortgage relief in the Ame...
By Garland Kennedy Sitka Sentinel staff writer Two years ago, a Russian-flagged inflatable catamaran sailed into Sitka, concluding a multi-year voyage from central Russia, through the Siberian river network, across the Bering Sea and along the Alaska coast. The vessel's Siberia-based crew now plans to repeat the voyage in reverse next spring and summer. Owner and captain of the Iskatel, Anatoly Kazakevich, said he had planned to begin the return trip last summer, but the pandemic sank those...
The borough finance department has “found” $2 million to add to its ledger of cash, cash equivalents and long- and short-term investments, boosting the total to closer to $38 million. The money wasn’t lost as much as left off a ledger. Joyce Mason, the finance director in 2020, had transferred $2 million from a UBS operating investment account into a KeyBank account invested in the Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool, said Mason Villarma, finance director. “That $2 million has been sitting in that KeyBank account since May of 2020,...
The Wrangell Senior Center wants to buy another bus for moving people around town, adding a four-wheel-drive vehicle to its operation, but it could be 2024 before the bus gets to town. The senior center already operates two buses, one for people and one for deliveries, but neither is four-wheel-drive, said Solvay Gillen, site manager at the senior center. Buying a four-wheel-drive bus would be helpful in the winter, she said. “Some of those roads are difficult to access in the wintertime,” Gillen said. “It makes a huge difference.” The $135,00...
The borough assembly has approved $75,600 to begin upgrades to the community’s water treatment plant. Assembly members on Oct. 26 agreed with the administration’s recommendation to move forward with the first phase in a multi-part solution to the ailing water filtration and delivery system. The funds would be used to buy two closed-loop cooling systems valued at $37,800 each. Tom Wetor, director of public works, explained that treated plant water is used to cool components within the ozone generators, one of the steps in the filtration pro...
KENAI (AP) — An impromptu fundraiser to allow a Kenai library to purchase books amid accusations of censorship has twice surpassed its goal. The fund was established after the Kenai City Council delayed accepting a federal grant until the library director provides a list of the books that would be purchased with the money. The council voted Oct. 20 to postpone action that would have accepted a grant to buy library materials related to health and wellness, including mental health, suicide prevention, self-care and reference books about Medicare...
Alaska and 17 other states filed three separate lawsuits last Friday to block President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the requirement violates federal law. Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to one lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri. Another group of states including Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia filed a lawsuit in f...
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations have declined to the point where the islands are welcoming travelers once again. Gov. David Ige said vacationers and business travelers were welcome to return to the islands starting Monday. His Oct. 19 announcement came nearly two months after he asked travelers on Aug. 23 to avoid Hawaii because case counts were surging with the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant and hospitals were becoming overwhelmed. The state didn’t impose any new travel quarantine restr...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials have extended for nearly three more months its rules that cruise ships must follow to sail during the pandemic, adding that the government will move to a voluntary program next year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the extension makes only “minor modifications” to rules already in effect. The agency said that after Jan. 15 it plans to move to a voluntary program for cruise companies to detect and control the spread of COVID-19 on their ships. The current regulations, calle...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — The board of the Alaska Railroad has voted unanimously to rescind a requirement for all of its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Initially, railroad employees were supposed to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 to comply with vaccine requirements ordered by President Joe Biden that, in part, required vaccination for employees of contractors doing business with the federal government. The railroad is a federal contractor. An email sent to railroad employees on Oct. 22 said the railroad must meet the standard. But the board decis...
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday granted a stay in litigation seeking to save endangered salmon runs on the Columbia and Snake rivers. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon in Portland granted a request by both sides in the lawsuit seeking the stay until July 31, 2022, so they can try to negotiate a settlement in the lawsuit. Fishing and conservation groups joined with the state of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Biden administration to seek the pause in litigation challenging the latest federal plan for hydropower operations o...
SITKA (AP) — A dozen bears have been killed in Sitka this year, including four last week, that were deemed dangers to life and property, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported. The city “has a garbage problem,” Stephen Bethune, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game, told the borough assembly recently. “Neither I or any of my agency colleagues like killing bears or the labor that ensues but will continue to do so as necessary,” he said. “However, removing bears from the population only serves to treat the symptom and fails t...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A woman known for 37 years only as Horseshoe Harriet, one of dozen or so victims of a notorious Alaska serial killer, has been identified through genetic genealogy and a DNA match, authorities said Oct. 22. The victim was identified as Robin Pelkey, who was 19 and living on the streets of Anchorage when she was killed by Robert Hansen in the early 1980s, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Investigation Unit said. Hansen, who owned a bakery, gained the nickname “Butcher Baker” for abducting and hunting down women ...
FAIRBANKS (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has selected a Fairbanks base to receive the nation’s first nuclear microreactor at an Air Force installation. Eielson Air Force Base, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Fairbanks, was selected in a project that began in 2019, when federal legislation required the military to identify potential sites for development and operation of a microreactor by 2027. “This technology has the potential to provide true energy assurance, and the existing energy infrastructure and compatible climate at Eielson make for t...
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A group of environmental organizations filed court papers Oct. 21 to try to halt operations at Maine dams to protect salmon. Atlantic salmon are listed as endangered by the federal government. They used to swim upstream and spawn in almost every river north of the Hudson River, but now only return to Maine. The conservation groups want a judge to stop or curtail the operations at four dams on the lower Kennebec River to help the fish. Brookfield Renewable owns the dams. The company is a subsidiary of a larger Canadian c...
While Wrangell experienced a small outbreak of community-spread cases over the weekend, Alaska continues to lead the nation in new COVID-19 cases per capita. The state health department reported more than 2,400 new cases Friday through Monday, continuing Alaska’s ranking at the top of cases per resident nationwide. In Wrangell, the borough reported 11 new cases Saturday through Tuesday, a majority of which were community spread and mostly linked to attendees at a memorial service Oct. 19. The 11 cases came after a lull during the first 22 d...
Readin', writin' and skinnin'? What might raise eyebrows and turn stomachs in more metropolitan locations is just another day of teaching for Brian Merritt at Evergreen Elementary. For 30 of his 33 years of teaching at the school, Merritt has given lessons in biology and anatomy by skinning deer and cleaning fish. It's a method that illustrates exactly what he's trying to relay to his fourth grade class. "I started as a biology major and wanted to teach high school science. I didn't care for it...
A shark thrashes its victim; legs poke out the end of rolled-up carpet; a skeleton rides a giant spider; a haunted house catches fire. Decorations are up around Wrangell to welcome the spookiest time of year, and for one couple their longtime decorating endeavors saw a truly frightening outcome. Jeff and Kay Jabusch have dressed up their front yard on Oceanview Drive for nearly four decades. "We started in the garage, went back about six feet, put bars there, and I dressed up as something,...
After no cruise ship visitors in 2020 and this year's pandemic-anemic numbers in the hundreds, Wrangell next year could see ships with berths for close to 20,000 passengers pull into town. In 2019, 21,540 passengers visited Wrangell, according to data compiled by Rain Coast Data for the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau. Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska has released its 2022 calendar for the vessels it represents, mostly larger vessels sailing under a foreign flag. The passenger capacity of...
Lisa Von Bargen is leaving after a little more than four years as borough manager, but that will not stop her from thinking about Wrangell. For now, she needs to help take care of her mother in Valdez, easing the burden on her sister, she said. “I don’t really want to leave Wrangell. I love it here,” Von Bargen said. “If I have an opportunity to do something here in town or Southeast, I would. I’m not giving up my condo right now unless it becomes absolutely necessary. So hopefully I’ll have...
The borough assembly acknowledged the life-giving watershed that feeds the Stikine River, which crosses the U.S.-Canada border, in approving a resolution to support efforts to protect Southeast Alaska’s three transboundary waters from mining pollution. The resolution references the ecosystem, Indigenous people, communities, residents and economies that depend on the health of the Stikine River. The assembly on Tuesday approved a “Wrangellized” version of a resolution that was originally scheduled for consideration Sept. 28. “The assembly furthe...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium reports 100% compliance with its policy requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees and contractors. “Very few have left employment due to the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine,” Maegan Bosak, a senior SEARHC official in Sitka, said last week. The health care provider operates in 19 Southeast communities. It has more than 1,500 employees, contractors and travelers, Bosak said, including more than 200 in Wrangell, where it operates the hospital, dental clinic, pharmacy and other services. “SE...
A memorial dedicated to those who made their lives on the sea or perished at sea is in its final stages. The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial at Heritage Harbor is in a last push for funds, said board member Jeff Jabusch, and is taking applications for commemorative plaques that will be installed at the site. People who died at sea will have an anchor insignia on their marker, and people who made their lives on the sea but died on land will not, Jabusch said. The memorial board is holding a...