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Brad Traxler is a walking miracle. One could go a step further and say he's a running miracle, literally. Ten years ago, at age 51, Traxler was in an auto collision near Belle Fourche, South Dakota, breaking his neck which left him a quadriplegic. Now, at 61, he's training to finish a 50-mile run in Daytona Beach, Florida. His doctors doubted Traxler would ever walk again. "They felt that if I ever walked again, it would only be with assistance," Traxler said. "Actually, in rehab, they figured...
It's a familiar storefront sight throughout Wrangell: "Help Wanted" signs placed in business windows. For various reasons, employers are having trouble filling positions. "We couldn't find someone to hire, even if we wanted to," said Jennifer Ludwigsen at the Totem Bar & Liquor Store, which is looking for extra workers. The business is currently down to three staff members, but finding new employees has been challenging. It isn't unique. "A lot, especially the larger businesses, the grocery stor...
Wrangell school enrollment numbers are a lot better than a year ago. As of last week, 262 students were enrolled in the elementary, middle and high schools. That’s far ahead of the enrollment low of the pandemic in fall 2020, when the student count dipped below 200. Enrollment was sitting at 206 the month before the school year ended in May. Though the district is not back up to its pre-pandemic tally of 306 in fall 2019, this year’s enrollment is “excellent,” said Schools Superintendent Bill Burr. Much of the loss of students last year wa...
The state reported 186 people hospitalized around Alaska on Monday, 20% more than at the worst of COVID-19 admissions last December. Almost two dozen patients were on ventilators, the state health website reported Tuesday. However, in perhaps a hopeful sign, case counts across Alaska are trending down the past few days. After averaging 540 new infections a day statewide the past two weeks through Monday, and 580 new cases a day in the past week, the Labor Day weekend count averaged 403 new cases a day — though holiday weekend counts have in t...
It’s looking to be a very good summer for pink salmon commercial fishing, much better than last year’s dismal catch. The pink harvest in Southeast was just over 44 million fish as of Sept. 3, over 50% more than the 28 million forecast issued after the 2020 season, according to the state’s preliminary commercial salmon harvest report. And more than five times the catch of last year. “For pink salmon, we’re around 40 million for the harvest for the Southeast region,” said Paul Salomone, a management biologist for the commercial fisheries d...
The state is talking with the borough about restoring the Alaska Office of Children’s Services staff position in Wrangell, working through the details after the Legislature added funding for the job in this year’s budget. Legislators appropriated enough money to cover half the salary, with the borough agreeing to cover the other half and provide free office space. “The Office of Children’s Services is currently working with the Wrangell Borough to try to solidify details of the position,” Clinton Bennett, spokesman for the Department of Health...
It's been quite a while since the Wrangell skeet range has had any improvements. That's about to change. The borough recently issued a request for bids to surface the parking area, a job it estimates will not take more than $50,000 to complete. That's only phase one of a potentially multi-phase project that will provide better access and make the site usable again. "The skeet range is just fallen into disrepair," said Amber Al-Haddad, capital facilities director for Wrangell. "The two houses -...
The state is opening a second round of federally funded pandemic financial assistance for renters who are not currently receiving help from the program that started this spring. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp., which is managing the aid program, opened the second round to pre-registration last weekend. The online portal will open to applications on Sept. 13 and will remain open through Oct. 1. To pre-register or apply, or for more information, go to www.AlaskaHousingRelief.org. The housing agency has about $125 million available in the second...
The Department of Fish and Game decided that money appropriated to partially restore a commercial fisheries job in Wrangell would be better spent this year to provide in-town assistance for moose and elk hunters who need to register their harvest. Legislators had added $66,000 to this year’s budget, intended to go toward bringing back a commercial fisheries management position to Wrangell which lost the job to a budget veto by Gov. Mike Dunleavy more than a year ago. But the $66,000 would not cover the full salary for a year-round staffer, p...
Alaska Airlines, and its subsidiary Horizon Air, have joined the list of U.S. airlines taking steps to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate among employees. Alaska announced last week that all new employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 before being hired. The new rule took effect immediately. Unvaccinated employees already on the payroll will need to participate in a “vaccine education program,” the airline said. And unvaccinated employees will no longer be eligible for special COVID-19 pay if they test positive or need to take time off...
It didn’t cost much, but adding text-to-911 service could be a big help in certain situations, said Wrangell Police Chief Tom Radke. The new text service could be particularly useful for boaters in trouble who may not have a strong enough cell signal for voice but just enough to send a text, he said. Same thing for people in remote areas onshore in an emergency. The software and equipment cost Wrangell about $4,000, Radke said last Friday. The service started up Sept. 1, after two or three weeks of testing. Wrangell and Petersburg are the f...
Small business owners of the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska who have been economically hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible to apply for grants of up to $5,000 each. The grant program is funded under the tribal allocation of the American Rescue Plan, which Congress approved and the president signed into law this past spring. “All impacted (Tlingit & Haida) tribal citizens who are U.S. citizens, own a small business and reside in the United States are eligible to apply, including those who previously r...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — State officials are hoping that a weekly lottery prize will encourage more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Alaska Chamber and state officials announced Sept. 2 that they are offering $49,000 each to one newly vaccinated adult and one youth weekly through Oct. 30. Those vaccinated before Sept. 2 won’t be left out. There will be a one-time prize of $49,000 awarded to an adult and also to a young person who rolled up their sleeves before the contest started. Kati Capozzi, the state chamber’s president, in a state...
JUNEAU (AP) — Costs to contain pollution from a ship that sank near Kodiak Island more than 30 years ago have reached about $3 million in the weeks since authorities were notified of an oily sheen from the wreckage, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The state’s Spill Prevention and Response Division has been coordinating divers and boom deployment, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation last week reported about 9,730 gallons of oily water had been recovered. The wreckage is in Womens Bay, which the department said provides cri...
Southeast Alaskans and officials in British Columbia say they're getting closer to meeting on transboundary mining issues. Until that happens, advocates on the Alaska side of the border want to see a pause in new projects upstream in Canada. "I've always been an optimistic person," said Frederick Olsen Jr., executive director of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. "In this issue you really have to be. We have some good allies that we've met across the border." There are...
Design plans have been finalized to add crew quarters to the state ferry Hubbard, which hasn’t been in service since it was built a few years ago because its intended routes would go beyond limits for employee working hours. The Alaska Marine Highway System is getting ready to seek bids for the project. “We’re hoping to be in a shipyard somewhere ... by the first of November. That’s our goal,” John Falvey, general manager of the marine highway, said Aug. 23. “We don’t know where. Could be here (the Ketchikan shipyard), could be the Lower 48.” T...
The two unused Alaska fast ferries — which the state sold earlier this year as surplus — have been delivered to the Spanish Island of Ibiza, according to the Diario de Ibiza news website. Diario de Ibiza on Aug. 30 posted several photographs of the former ferries Chenega and Fairweather aboard a heavy-lift ship that left Ketchikan on July 4 and made its way to and through the Panama Canal before crossing the Atlantic Ocean and into the Mediterranean Sea. “The two ships arrived this morning on the island, specifically to the Calo des Moro area,...
Almost 12,000 COVID-19 cases were reported around the state in August, the most since last fall, with some schools starting to close to in-person learning in only the first week or two of classes. Alaska set a record for hospitalizations on Tuesday, with 152 COVID patients under care. Wrangell also had a record COVID month, with 48 new infections reported in the community, more than one-third of all cases since the pandemic tally started in March 2020. The community is trying to stem the surge....
The state House has approved a Permanent Fund dividend of about $1,100 this fall, but even if the Senate agrees and the governor signs the appropriations bill, it is too late to avoid a delay in sending out the payment to Alaskans. Full approval was needed by Tuesday if the state were to meet its traditional date of issuing the annual PFD by the first week of October, according to a Department of Revenue spokesperson, who added that the dividends could be issued about 30 days after elected officials settle on the amount. The House passed the...
Marc Lutz started work this week as editor at the Wrangell Sentinel, and the Central California transplant will be doing more than writing stories about the community. "Marc is an accomplished photographer and skilled in page layout software, which means sometime this fall the Sentinel will bring back all its production in-house rather than contracting with the Petersburg newspaper for the design work," said Sentinel owner and publisher Larry Persily. "A major objective when I bought the Sentine...
The Alaska Marine Highway System fall/winter schedule is online and open for reservations, but don’t look for too many sailings into Wrangell in October and November. A state ferry will pull into town just six times over the two months. But it will be more service than the community received last year. The Kennicott will make two northbound and two southbound stops in Wrangell in October, and just two southbound stops — nothing northbound — during November. The Matanuska, which usually calls on Wrangell once a week in each direction, will...
Amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in town, Wrangell schools opened for classes on Monday with several measures in place to help protect students, staff and the community from further spread of the virus. Those measures include face masks, sanitation cleaning, improved ventilation, distancing between students whenever possible, and policies for students and staff who travel out of town. “It had been our hope that we would have been able to start the year with less restrictions, but the current COVID-19 variants (Delta especially, which i...
Ann Hilburn and her husband had driven from Mississippi to Bellingham, Washington, to catch the ferry for her new job at Wrangell Public Schools. They made the 2,700-mile drive in four days. "It was long days," she said. "The day we pulled off the ferry with our U-Haul and our pickup truck," the schools superintendent, principal and special education coordinator had planned to meet the couple at the terminal. But the ferry was early, and the welcoming committee missed the rendezvous. "They had c...
The Sentinel incorrectly reported Aug. 26 that the borough assembly had voted unanimously to reject a face mask mandate to help stem the spread of COVID-19 infections. The vote was 6-1. Assemblymember Ryan Howe voted yes. —- The Sentinel incorrectly reported Aug. 26 that the first day of classes at Wrangell schools would be Tuesday, Aug. 31. It was Monday....
There will be contested races for one seat on the borough assembly, three seats on the school board and one seat on the port commission in Wrangell’s Oct. 5 municipal election. Candidates for two other borough assembly seats and a port commission seat are unchallenged. Jim DeBord and Bob Dalrymple are running for the two three-year open terms on the assembly. Dalrymple is an incumbent; he was appointed in January to fill out the year for Julie Decker, who left the assembly. DeBord also expressed interest in the seat at that time, though the a...