Sorted by date Results 3327 - 3351 of 7954
Judy Bakeberg loves baseball. Specifically, she loves the Seattle Mariners. She's been following the team since its inception in 1977, and she's been a fan of baseball since she was a child. Now the Wrangellite has been chosen as the Mariners' 2021 Ultimate Fan for Alaska, a title that comes with lots of perks and bragging rights. On Oct. 1, Bakeberg and her daughter, Leslie Cummings, will be flown to Seattle and treated to a two-night stay and fan celebration in a box suite at T-Mobile Park....
Daily COVID-19 cases across Alaska over the past 30 days are about triple the average of the 18-month pandemic — more than quadruple on several days last week. The heavy caseload, particularly seriously ill unvaccinated individuals infected with the highly contagious Delta variant, has strained hospitals in the state’s population centers. Wrangell has fared better than much of the state, however, with just five cases reported in the first 14 days of September, a steep drop from the community’s record of 48 cases in August. State health offic...
After the number of people taking COVID-19 tests in Wrangell slowed down earlier in the summer, the volume doubled in August as the community reacted to the surge of new infections in town. The borough reported 48 cases of COVID-19 in Wrangell in August, the highest monthly total since the pandemic count started in March 2020 and more than one-third of all cases in the community since the coronavirus tally began. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which provides tests at the airport and the Wrangell Medical Center, administered 75...
Social distancing and masking requirements will continue to stay in place at Wrangell public schools. At the school board meeting on Monday night, Superintendent Bill Burr updated board members on a change in some language in the district’s COVID-19 mitigation plan, but students and staff will still be required to wear masks and stay apart. The board in August agreed to review the mitigation plan and masking requirement monthly. “There were a few additions we had to [the mitigation plan],” Burr said Monday, which will ease the testing requi...
Though its passage is uncertain amid partisan battles in Congress and even disagreements among the majority-holding Democrats, the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill could be an opportunity for federal help with costly improvements to Wrangell's water system. However, all communities in Alaska "have to be honest in regard to timing," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who visited Wrangell last weekend. In addition to waiting on Congress to decide on the legislation, "we know what it means to bring a (bi...
Working to carve up Alaska into 40 legislative districts of approximately equal population, a state board has released its draft maps based on the 2020 U.S. Census that move Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan into the same House district. Wrangell has shared a district with Ketchikan the past decade, while Petersburg has been part of the Sitka district. Population shifts, particularly increases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, forced the Alaska Redistricting Board to move boundaries across the state to keep legislative districts roughly equal...
Sometimes businesses can gain fresh insight with a new perspective. Just ask Terie Loomis, owner of Silver Liningz Boutique. In June, Loomis opened the doors on her Front Street shop down and across from where she'd been a few years earlier. On Labor Day, she was in the shop to gauge what traffic would be like on a day she's typically closed. Silver Liningz specializes strictly in women's apparel, carrying tops, jeans, dresses and intimate clothing, along with jewelry, accessories and other...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association will assist with a two-year research project into seafood consumption rates, intended to help state officials understand the importance of clean water and healthy seafood for the community’s Indigenous population. The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Climate Resilience Program has approved a $130,000 grant to the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, which will administer the program and work with WCA. The project will include a survey of current and past seafood consumption and its imp...
The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Department wants to help more kids whose families who may not be able to afford the fees for activities. “The department believes that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the scheduled activities, programs and classes.” The fee assistance also applies to punch cards for use of recreational facilities. The program is designed to provide financial assistance to youth 3 to 18 years old “who may not otherwise be able to participate,” with a limit of $150 per person for the fiscal year that st...
JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska officials have requested help from more than 470 out-of-state medical personnel in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases across Alaska, even as other states are coping with their own high case counts and hospitalizations. Alaska last week set multiple records for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, straining the health care system. The state has requested nurses, patient care technicians, respiratory therapists and other health care workers. There is no guarantee the state will get the personnel it is requesting, said s...
JUNEAU (AP) – An Eagle River legislator banned from Alaska Airlines for refusing to follow federal law that requires a face mask has been excused from attending state Senate floor sessions until mid-January — at her request. However, Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold decided to stick around for the final days of legislative action anyway, leaving her no apparent option but to take a ferry out of Juneau and then drive through Canada to get home. Reinbold on Sept. 9 requested the excusal to Jan. 15. Her request was accepted by the Republican-led Sen...
Travelers flying in or out of Wrangell on Alaska Airlines touch down in either Juneau or Ketchikan as they head north or south. The airports in both cities are set to look a lot different in coming years, amid tens of millions of dollars in planned and ongoing renovations and expansion. At the Ketchikan International Airport, there is a financial plan in place for new construction on the first and second floors, said airport manager Alex Puera. That includes more room for TSA screening, air taxi operations, changes to the concessions area, and...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take immediate action to improve fish passage at dams in Oregon’s Willamette Basin. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that in a final opinion and order issued last week, U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez said the Corps had for years failed to provide adequate passage for threatened chinook salmon and winter steelhead trout at dams it operates in the basin. “As evinced by the listed species’ continuing decline, the Corps’ failure to provide adequate fish pa...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Dozens of Afghan refugees will be resettled in Alaska over the next six months, a resettlement organization said Monday. Between 50 to 100 refugees will come to Alaska starting later in September, Catholic Social Services Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services said in a statement. Resettlement will continue through March. Catholic Social Services Alaska CEO Lisa Aquino told The Associated Press it’s not known when the first refugees would arrive in the state, but they were ready for them when it does happen. The r...
JUNEAU (AP) - Gov. Mike Dunleavy said President Joe Biden’s push to require millions of U.S. workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is “ill conceived, divisive and un-American.” “At a time in which we are called to work together, forced medical procedures run counter to our collective sense of fairness and liberty,” the Republican Dunleavy said Sept. 10. “My administration is aggressively identifying every tool at our disposal to protect the inherent individual rights of all Alaskans.” Biden a day earlier outlined plans to mandate that...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A seafood processing company with multiple operations in Alaska and Washington state will require its employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. “Our team often works in close quarters and in remote communities with limited access to health care resources,” Rodger May, president at Peter Pan Seafood, said in a statement. “Requiring employees to be vaccinated is the new gold standard. This is the best way I know to keep them and the communities we work in as healthy as possible,” May said. The policy will be enacted in tier...
With less than a week to go before the deadline to finish this year’s third special session of the Legislature, not only are the governor and most legislators unable to agree on the amount of the Permanent Fund dividend, they also don’t agree on two key numbers central to the fiscal debates. Legislative leadership and the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Division see a billion-dollar average annual budget deficit if the governor wins his push for a Permanent Fund dividend of $2,400 or so. The governor wants to cement the annual PFD into the con...
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...
