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JUNEAU (AP) – In a move intended in part to encourage a COVID-conscious visitors to Juneau, city leaders have approved changes to local testing requirements for travelers. Those include waiving a $250 COVID-19 testing fee for non-resident travelers who are tested at the airport and exempting “fully vaccinated” individuals from strict social distancing after testing. The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly approved the changes March 1. The rules define fully vaccinated as people who have gone more than two weeks since receiving a second dose...
In response to new COVID-19 cases in town, and with 85 reported cases in Petersburg in the past two weeks, the Wrangell Borough Assembly adopted three emergency ordinances by wide margins Tuesday night, including reinstating a community mask mandate. The ordinances also require COVID-19 testing for interstate and intrastate travelers to Wrangell. The community had two active cases as of Tuesday, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen told the assembly. Petersburg had 65 active cases as of Tuesday eveni...
It was an international effort that started on a long journey about 10,000 years ago through what is now a cave on the mainland, across Blake Channel from Wrangell Island. A bone chip smaller than a dime, found almost 25 years ago by a University of South Dakota researcher, was being held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North. It was examined again by scientists with the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, who published their study last month in the...
The school district's draft budget for next year proposes $660,000 in total reductions in teacher payroll, funding for special education instruction, supplies and materials for the classroom, student activities and other categories to bring spending closer to projected revenues. Projected revenues for the 2021-2022 school year are roughly $4.88 million in state, municipal and federal funds, a decrease of about $800,000 from the approved budget for the current school year. The drop in revenue...
The Juneau candidate for the Wrangell schools superintendent job dropped out, leaving a field of three to meet the community in a Zoom event last week. The school board is scheduled to interview the finalists Friday. The three finalists are: Joseph Aldridge, superintendent of the Columbia Union School District, in Central California; Bill Burr, assistant superintendent of the Delta Junction/Greely School District, east of Fairbanks; and Ralph Watkins, superintendent and principal of Hoonah City...
The state is not going to fill its billion-dollar fiscal pothole with additional deep budget cuts, said two veteran legislative finance committee members. The hole is too deep, and years of cuts to the operating and capital budgets already have reduced state spending on public services to a 15-year low, on a per-capita basis adjusted for inflation, according to numbers assembled by one of the co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee. When dealing with the budget, legislators have had to...
The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Friday to apply for assistance with rent and/or utilities under a federally funded pandemic aid program in Alaska. As of last Friday, 65 Wrangell residents submitted applications for assistance under the state-operated program for Alaskans who have lost jobs or income due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An additional 16 completed their online eligibility check but had not yet submitted an application, said Stacy Barnes, director of governmental relations and public a...
Petersburg remained in its red high-risk level as of Tuesday after 85 COVID-19 cases were reported in the community over the past 13 days. As of Tuesday evening, 65 coronavirus cases were still active, according to the Petersburg Borough and Petersburg Medical Center. The spike in cases started Feb. 18, with the high point of 37 infections reported Feb. 23-26. There were 11 news cases reported on Tuesday. Results from 212 coronavirus tests were pending as of Tuesday evening. The joint...
More than 600 people in Wrangell have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. SEARHC's COVID-19 website reported Tuesday morning that 886 Wrangell residents had received their first vaccination shot. Of these, 612 had received both doses, almost one-quarter of the community's population. Aaron Angerman, with SEARHC, said they have started to share data online about how many vaccines have been administered in their communities....
The Alaska Natives Without Land campaign, working to win congressional approval of a Native corporation for Wrangell, has proposed several parcels near the community for transfer, including 2,146 acres at the Garnet Ledge on the mainland near the Stikine River, 3,168 acres around the Shoemaker Bay overlook and Chichagof Peak south of town, and 3,275 acres along Salamander Creek in the inner portion of Wrangell Island. The potential selections of U.S. Forest Service land also include 1,457 acres...
While shop classes are common in schools across the country, not many offer students a chance to build their own boats. The marine fabrication class at Wrangell High School had decades of history, according to teacher Winston Davies, who said it teaches students important lessons for their lives and careers. "This marine fab program, I think got started back in the '80s with Dave Brown," Davies said. "He was my shop teacher, and it's been going ever since. ... It's kind of a hallmark of the...
The Jehovah's Witnesses, which has a congregation in Wrangell and meets via Zoom twice a week during the pandemic, has posted a short video on its international website, "Virus Outbreaks - What You Can Do." "Few events in modern history have harmed the emotional well-being of people around the world as has the COVID-19 pandemic," the denomination says. "To help address this situation ... the three-minute whiteboard animation offers families practical methods to cope emotionally and spiritually...
By Sentinel staff As proposed in the draft schedule a month ago Wrangell will see two ferries a week, one southbound and one northbound, under the Alaska Marine Highway System summer schedule, which opened for reservations Feb. 24. The summer schedule runs May 1 to Sept. 30. The Matanuska is scheduled to stop in Wrangell southbound early Monday mornings and northbound on Friday afternoons on its weekly run between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. That's a shift from the schedule for...
The federal government has approved Alaska’s plan to distribute almost $50 million in pandemic relief payments to the state’s fishing industry. The decision came after two major revisions to the plan and more than 200 public comments from every industry sector. Applications will be accepted from March until May and payments could begin as early as June, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 26. They money is coming from the federal CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion package of pandemic relief aid, which Congress passed almost a year ago. The s...
JUNEAU (AP) - The Alaska Marine Highway System is working to finalize the sale of its two mothballed fast ferries to an overseas bidder, officials said. Mediterranean-based catamaran operator Trasmapi offered about $4.6 million for the Fairweather and Chenega. The company serves the Spanish island of Ibiza. The offer was less than half the $10 million reserve price set by the state, public radio network CoastAlaska reported Feb. 24. The state paid $68 million for the two ships, which started service in 2004-2005, but which were taken out of...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A highly transmissible coronavirus variant originally traced to Brazil has been discovered in Alaska, as have 10 cases of a strain first identified in California. The first case of the California variant was identified in Alaska in January, and has since been discovered in nine more infected people. The report came Feb. 24 from a team of scientists assembled by the state to investigate new strains of the virus. Researchers say the California variant is more contagious and potentially more effective at evading vaccines. The...
Wrangell’s 34th case of COVID-19 was reported Tuesday afternoon. The City and Borough of Wrangell reported this latest case is a Wrangell local, who has not recently traveled. The person is not exhibiting any symptoms, the city said, and is in isolation. The city also reported that Public Health has completed its initial contact tracing interview with this individual. The case is the only one active of the 34 infections reported since the pandemic started. Of those, 24 cases were identified as Wrangell residents and eight as non-residents. T... Full story
The Wrangell School Board has narrowed down the list to four superintendent applicants to succeed Debbie Lancaster, who plans to leave the job June 30. Three of the four candidates work in Alaska, and one is from California. The board met in executive session Saturday to review applications, and announced in a Sunday press release the four finalists who will be interviewed: Joseph Aldridge, of California; Tim Bauer, of Juneau; Bill Burr, of Delta Junction; and Ralph Watkins, of Hoonah. A...
A self-organized group of Wrangell high school and middle school students decided someone had to step up and try to make life better in the schools, and it might as well be them. "We want students to be motivated and feel supported," said senior Jade Balansag, one of about 10 high school students in BASE - Building a Supportive Environment. "We really want to reach out to the community for support for the schools." The year-old group's mission is to improve the schools aesthetically, socially...
The Borough Assembly will hold in-person meetings in the near future, with limits on people in the room to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. During their meeting Tuesday night, the assembly adopted a resolution repealing and replacing a temporary amendment to municipal code that allows city business to be conducted through virtual meetings. The item was adopted unanimously. Under the new provisions, six members of the public or city staff at a time, in addition to assembly members, will be...
Alaska's motor fuel tax rate is the lowest in the nation; less than one-third the average of the other 49 states. The 8-cent-a-gallon tax has not budged since 1970. Lawmakers again this year will consider increasing the tax rate and, in a separate provision of the bill, helping to maintain the dwindling state account for spill prevention and response. The state Senate approved a motor fuel tax increase last year, boosting the rate to 16 cents a gallon, still far below the national average, but...
The city has rejected an application to begin the recall process against Mayor Steve Prysunka. Borough Clerk Kim Lane, in a Feb. 17 letter, said the petitioners' list of grievances against the mayor does not rise to the legal threshold required for a recall. Recall organizers have 30 days from the date of the letter to appeal the decision to state Superior Court. The petition, signed by 10 members of the community, alleged that Prysunka broke state and municipal laws several months ago, when an...
The Fourth of July is a little more than four months away but it's not too soon to begin planning for the event and start recruiting royalty candidates to help with fundraising. "We're planning a normal Fourth, and will adjust as needed," said Stephanie Cook, executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, which has organized the community celebration for decades. "We're working out details now" for pandemic-related adjustments to the celebration, she said, such as hand-washing stations...
With a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the community - 36 between Thursday and Wednesday morning - Petersburg officials have elevated the community risk level to red. The number of active cases are the most in Petersburg since the pandemic started a year ago. "The cumulative total of cases is growing larger by the day," the Petersburg emergency operation center said in a statement at 4 p.m. Tuesday. "Many of these cases are still under investigation and contract tracing is difficult." The...
The city reports that levels of haloacetic acids (HAA5) in the community water supply are back down to allowable levels. HAA5 is a byproduct created when chlorine mixes with organic material during the disinfection process. The city reported that the level of HAA5 in Wrangell's water was well above the federal standard in late September. Levels have been in steady decline since then, and the test for the month of January showed a level of 42.1 parts per billion, below the federal maximum of 60...