Sorted by date Results 3302 - 3326 of 7954
Wrangell's water supply has its troubles. From the source reservoirs to the end users, the system for filtering and delivering water to businesses and residences needs some major overhauls -and they won't be cheap. The problems, officials say, start at the top at the lower reservoir and dam, which send water into the treatment plant where it goes through multiple phases of filtration and then is piped to customers. At an assembly meeting on Sept. 14, Public Works Director Tom Wetor presented a...
Wrangell is seeing some positive growth. The number of farming operations is on the rise throughout the community, and it's contributing to a healthier economy. There are two farms in Wrangell that grow a variety of fruits and vegetables and sell to residents and businesses, no less than nine residents that grow for their own consumption, and even Evergreen Elementary has a small farm. According to the Alaska Farmland Trust, the number of farms in the state increased by 30% from 2012 to 2017,...
While Wrangell did not report a single COVID-19 infection between Sept. 10 and 21, the state tracking website reported almost 8,000 new cases over that period. Alaska’s numbers are so bad lately that the state’s average rate of daily new infections over the past week is more almost triple the national average — and higher than any other state — as reported on The New York Times COVID-19 tracking page. Alaska is facing “one of the sharpest surges” in the country, the state epidemiologist said Sept. 16, adding that it’s not clear when the situ...
Virginia Oliver has been teaching Tlingit at Wrangell schools since 2016, and this fall will expand her student body to include adults in a new twice-a-week program at the WCA Cultural Center on Front Street. The classes will include a monthly bingo event, with a fluent Tlingit elder calling out the game. Gift cards to local businesses will be awarded the winners, and “everybody is welcome to come,” Oliver said. The language class will be held at noon Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a bag lunch provided. The program will be funded by a grant from...
A story in the Sept. 16 issue of the Sentinel incorrectly reported there is no real estate agent based in Wrangell. Kathleen Harding with MoveToWrangell.com is based here....
The borough is waiting on further guidance from the U.S. Department of the Interior on the agency’s nationwide initiative for researching and even searching the sites of former Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, including the former Wrangell Institute property. The borough plans to subdivide the property for residential development, turning the 134 acres into 40 building lots. While waiting on the Interior Department, borough officials are talking with the State Historic Preservation Office and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure t...
About 200 people convened in Haines last week - in-person and virtually - for the annual Southeast Conference, and much of the discussion among municipal and chambers of commerce officials focused on the region's economy, in particular the tourism outlook for next year. Cruise industry and airline officials talked optimistically of strong visitor travel next year, maybe even a record for cruise ship capacity, as the country emerges from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Right now, let's be positive ... this actually could happen," said Wendy...
Event organizer Jill Privett is looking to make a positive change with Tent City Days. In the past, the event celebrated the gold rush era, but Privett wants to focus more on “celebrating all things Wrangell, whether that be your love of the land, people, fishing, berry picking, etc.,” she said. From Oct. 14-17, various in-person and virtual events will be held, such as the Gold Nugget Open Swim, Alaska Day Fun Run, Tent City Steak Night, a food cache contest, Shady Lady Saturday Night, Zoom Story Time, Fisherman’s Crawl and the Wild Woman...
Acknowledging it is a “polarizing and divisive issue in Canada,” the Wrangell borough assembly will proceed “somewhat cautiously” in drafting a resolution on mining in the Stikine River watershed, Borough Mayor Steve Prysunka said. “Of course, we don’t want salmon impacted” by mining, he said. “We’re actually uniquely positioned, we’re at the outflow.” The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission has asked the Wrangell assembly, and other elected bodies in the region, to adopt a resolution calling for a pause on new mining permits...
Six candidates are vying for three seats on the Wrangell school board. Angela Allen, Alex Angerman, Brittani Robbins and Elizabeth Roundtree are running for two open three-year terms. The top two vote-getters will win the election. Julia Ostrander and Jessica Whitaker are competing to fill one seat for an unexpired one-year term. Although each candidate has similar goals they want to achieve during their term if elected, they all have varied backgrounds and experience they believe would lend a...
One of the bigger issues that got David Powell interested in serving on the assembly several years ago was his belief that the borough needs to get out of the real estate business. He wanted Wrangell to sell off more of its property for private development, and to do it at a faster pace. He also wanted to serve because "I was interested in how things work with the city," he said. "In a roundabout way, I found it doesn't work as everybody thinks it works." Powell is running for a one-year term to...
Don McConachie Sr. served on the assembly or as mayor between 1998 and when he resigned as mayor in 2013 for health reasons. He's ready now to get back to work at City Hall. McConachie, 75, who is retired, is running against incumbent David Powell for a one-year term on the borough assembly. "Our city has changed an awful lot. It has deteriorated a substantial amount," McConachie said. He was reluctant to provide specific examples, explaining, "The best way to understand what's going on is to...
The state has opened up another round of federally funded pandemic aid for businesses, though this latest program is different from past assistance efforts: The money will be awarded based solely on financial need, not on the date of application. The state has set aside $90 million for the program, which is being administered by the Juneau Economic Development Council under contract to Alaska Department of Commerce. The application deadline is 8 a.m. Oct. 17. The money is from the American Rescue Plan Act, which Congress approved and the...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Military leaders on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have declared a public health emergency and encouraged all personnel to avoid places that do not require masks or social distancing in response to increasing COVID-19 cases in Alaska, officials said. “We’ve all seen COVID-19 cases continue to spread rapidly across our nation, the state of Alaska and in our local community,” U.S. Air Force Col. Kirsten Aguilar, 673d Air Base Wing and JBER commander, said in a statement Sept. 17. “After close consultation with JBER mission...
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - In another ominous sign about the spread of the delta variant, Idaho public health leaders on Sept. 16 expanded health care rationing statewide and individual hospital systems Montana have enacted similar crisis standards amid a spike in the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. The decisions marked an escalation of the pandemic in several Western states struggling to convince skeptical people to get vaccinated. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement after St. Luke’s H...
SEATTLE (AP) - Federal officials have approved a plan that calls for cutting nontribal salmon fishing along the West Coast when the fish are needed to help the Northwest’s endangered killer whales. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries adopted the plan Sept. 14 as recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. It calls for restricting commercial and recreational salmon fishing when chinook salmon numbers are especially low. It’s one of the first times a federal agency has restricted hunting or fishing one spe...
BANGOR, Maine (AP) – Maine’s Penobscot River is on track to see the fewest Atlantic salmon in recent years, state officials said. According to a trap count report provided by the Maine Department of Marine Resources on Aug. 23, 520 salmon had passed through the Milford and Orono dams this year. Returning salmon are hampered by hydroelectric dams on the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers that reduce their ability to reach spawning grounds upstream. The total is the fewest fish counted, as of the same date, in four years and is the fourth-lowest tot...
BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) — More than 125 boats participated in a protest against plans for a salmon farm in waters near Acadia National Park in Maine. Commercial and recreational vessels comprised the “Save the Bay” flotilla that motored around Frenchman Bay on Aug. 29. Some people on land also participated by holding signs stating their opposition. American Aquafarms has proposed raising 66 million pounds of Atlantic salmon annually at a pair of 15-pen sites off the coast of Gouldsboro. Ted O’Meara, of Frenchman’s Bay United, likened the scope o...
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Environmental groups contend four Kennebec River dams in Maine are violating federal law by harming endangered Atlantic salmon. The dam operator, Brookfield Renewable U.S., is violating the federal Endangered Species Act because an exemption spelling out limits on the death and injury of salmon expired in 2019, according to a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Atlantic Salmon Federation U.S., Conservation Law Foundation and Maine Rivers. The lawsuit, filed...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Experts say Oregon is becoming less resilient to drought as fewer seasons of abundant rain and snow prevent it from bouncing back from hot and dry conditions. Larry O’Neill, state climatologist at Oregon State University, said the current drought is “historically significant,” with about three-quarters of the state experiencing conditions considered “extreme” or “exceptional.” However, the state is actually in the fourth year of below-average precipitation, which has exacerbated the drought during “unprecedente...
A 24-year-old Illinois woman submitted a fake COVID-19 vaccination card to visit Hawaii with a glaring spelling error that led to her arrest: Moderna was spelled “Maderna,” according to court documents. In order to bypass Hawaii’s 10-day traveler quarantine, she uploaded a vaccination card to the state’s Safe Travels program and arrived in Honolulu on Aug. 23 on a Southwest Airlines flight, the documents said. “Airport screeners found suspicious errors ... such as Moderna was spelled wrong and that her home was in Illinois but her shot was...
WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) - Three Vermont state troopers who are accused of being involved in a scheme to create fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards have resigned, state police said Sept. 7. The three ex-troopers are suspected of having varying roles in the making of fraudulent vaccination cards, according to the state. “The accusations in this case involve an extraordinary level of misconduct — a criminal violation of the law — and I could not be more upset and disappointed,” Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, said in...
The borough Saturday afternoon reported a new COVID-19 case in the community, followed by a second case reported Saturday evening, raising to nine the number of known infections in the past three days. The afternoon case is a Wrangell resident and "close contact to a previously identified positive case," the borough said in a statement released at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. "This individual is symptomatic and is isolating." Then, at 7:30 p.m., the borough reported another resident had tested positive for COVID and was isolating. Saturday's second...
Not content with the $1,100 Permanent Fund dividend adopted on the final day of the special legislative session that ended Tuesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy three hours later called lawmakers back for a fourth special session starting Oct. 1 to “get the rest of this year’s PFD.” Dunleavy, who is running for reelection next year, has been promoting a dividend this year of more than double the $1,100 approved by legislators. The Department of Revenue has said it would send the payments to Alaskans about 30 days after the measure is signed into law,...
Finding an apartment or home to rent or buy is difficult in Wrangell, leaving many scrambling for a place to live. “Wrangell is extremely tight, plain and simple,” said Bennett McGrath, owner of Anchor Properties in Petersburg. McGrath’s business focuses on home sales in Wrangell, Petersburg and Sitka. Kathleen Harding with MoveToWrangell.com is the only agent based in Wrangell. A survey of landlords conducted by the state earlier this year showed no vacancies for one-bedroom apartments and homes in the Wrangell/Petersburg census area. In ad...
