Sorted by date Results 3694 - 3718 of 7954
After four breakdowns of the state ferry Matanuska in a little over two months, the Department of Transportation is considering its options to ensure more reliable service as the heavier summer travel season approaches. "In light of the mechanical issues on the Matanuska, we are evaluating and considering alternatives to improve system reliability,” department spokesman Sam Dapcevich said April 29. The department provided no further information. “Will get back to you on this question,” Dapcevich said. The Alaska Marine Highway System’s five op...
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce is making plans for the community’s 66th king salmon derby to open June 15. It’s not exactly the 66th annual, since the derby was canceled 2018-2020 due to weak runs, but after that three-year wait the 66th derby could finally happen. The chamber is planning for a shorter derby this year, ending June 30, to make way for the community’s Fourth of July celebration and to ease into the event, which in the past ran an entire month, said Kimberly Cooper, of the chamber. “More details are on the way,” she said last Fr...
Rich with oil dollars, the Alaska Legislature in 1980 abolished the state’s annual $10-per-person tax that went to help support schools. More 41 years later, with North Slope oil production at its lowest level since the giant Prudhoe Bay field went online, and the state facing chronic budget gaps, a House committee this week is holding hearings to bring back the tax. The proposed tax would bring in an estimated $65 million a year, less than 10% of annual state budget deficits in recent years, but it’s a start, said Anchorage Rep. Ivy Spo...
Watershed-protection advocates told Alaska lawmakers that the three transboundary rivers crossing from Canada into Southeast need more protection from the risks created by mining operations in British Columbia, including more data on water quality. Tracking and ensuring the health of the waterways and their salmon runs, including the Stikine River, requires more monitoring over a wider area for more years, research scientist Chris Sergeant testified at the House Fisheries Committee on April 27. “The good news … is they’re still thriving watersh...
A few volunteers and city parks and recreation staff have started the work, but the big push to clean up, restore and replant downtown garden beds -and generally spruce up Front Street - is this weekend. The work project stretches down Front Street from the Stikine Inn to Rayme's Bar, said Kate Thomas, parks director. "I am not going to turn down help, ever." Volunteers can sign up and pick up tools, supplies and assignments at the downtown pavilion 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m....
The police department wants to get public feedback before its officers start wearing body cameras. The borough assembly took a first look at a draft policy for using the sound and video recording devices at its meeting April 27. The policy is under review by the borough attorney before it can go out for public comment. “This is kind of a document in motion,” Police Chief Tom Radke told the assembly. “We’re looking forward to community input. I think the community really needs to be involved in this process as we roll it out.” Radke reviewed...
Wrangell Sentinel reporter/photographer Caleb Vierkant won second place for best sports photo in the 2020 Alaska Press Club competition. The photo in the March 5, 2020, Sentinel, “Wolves host Haines for last home games of the season,” features the basketball team cheering and high-fiving Hank Voltz as he walks onto the court. Voltz, a now-graduated senior, has a heart condition that kept him from playing. He served as team manager but was brought onto the court for the opening of the final home game of his career. Voltz went on to score the...
Lucy Moline-Robinson is organizing her “finale” fun run for Southeast Beasts May 22. Robinson has been organizing events for Wrangell’s running group since 2012, she said, and it is time for her to step away from the work. “It’s been a wonderful time and I’ve enjoyed it, but I’d just like to take a break,” she said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort. … I am looking for folks to organize the main runs, because I think they have some value in our community.” The main events put on by Southeast Beasts are the Thanksgiving Turkey Tro...
The producers of Magnetic North, a series of historical documentaries on interesting and important Alaskans, is calling on Wrangell for photos or home movies of the community and Ed Rasmuson, who managed the town’s only bank branch 1965 to 1967. Rasmuson may be best known as chairman of the Rasmuson Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the state, with almost $700 million in assets as of Dec. 31. Before that, though, he was in the “family business” of banking, said producer Marla Williams. His grandparents took over the then-fai...
HONOLULU - A crew returned from the northernmost islands in the Hawaiian archipelago last month with a boatload of marine plastic and abandoned fishing nets that threaten to entangle endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other animals on the uninhabited beaches stretching more than 1,300 miles north of Honolulu. The cleanup effort in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument lasted three weeks and the crew picked up more than 47 tons of "ghost nets" and other marine plastics such as buoys, crates,...
JUNEAU (AP) - Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young said he will seek reelection to the seat he has held since 1973. The Republican, in an April 28 statement announcing his reelection plans, said with the challenges facing Alaska, this is “not the time to take risks on someone untested and unproven.” Young, 87, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. House. He won his latest reelection bid in November, with 54.4% of the vote, against Alyse Galvin. Galvin also lost to Young in 2018, losing by a wider margin in 2020. The incumbent’s closest reele...
A bill moving through the state House would require state recognition of Alaska’s 229 federally recognized tribes. Supporters say the measure is needed to encourage better collaboration and consultation between the state and tribes; formally acknowledge Alaska tribes’ sovereignty, history, culture and contributions; and potentially allow them to access additional resources. “By supporting this bill, you are uplifting these unique and resilient people that have been here for 10,000 years,” Brooke Woods, of the Athabascan Interior communi...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Federal agents served a search warrant at a small resort in Homer last week, saying they were looking for a laptop stolen from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, one of the Homer Inn and Spa owners said. Agents on April 28 confiscated laptop computers and a cellphone, owner Marilyn Hueper said. A cellphone belonging to her husband, Paul Hueper, was also searched by agents but not confiscated, she said. Marilyn Hueper said agents also claimed there was photographic evidence that she w...
JUNEAU (AP) - The Alaska Court System has temporarily disconnected most of its operations from the internet after a cybersecurity threat on Saturday, including shutting down its website and removing the ability to look up court records. The threat blocked electronic court filings, disrupted online payments and prevented hearings from taking place by videoconference for several days, officials said. “I think for a few days, there may be some inconveniences, there may be some hearings that are canceled, or some judges who decide to shift from v...
Norwegian Cruise Line will donate a total of $10 million to six communities most damaged economically by the loss of cruise ship travelers last year and again this summer. The company announced it will send the money to Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway, Hoonah and Seward, Howard Sherman, executive vice president, said on Juneau radio station KINY on Tuesday. The cruise line often donates to its partner communities during times of crisis, Sherman said in a morning radio interview. Norwegian Cruise Line has given money and supplies to...
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is naming Tommy Beaudreau, a former Obama administration official, to be deputy secretary at the Interior Department after dropping plans for a more liberal nominee who faced key Senate opposition. President Joe Biden on April 14 nominated Beaudreau, a former chief of staff at the department who was the first director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The agency, created after the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, oversees offshore...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - When the coronavirus pandemic began last year, Carolina Tolladay Vidal's pinata business in Alaska ground almost to a halt. "Many of the projects I had were moved to other dates," she told Alaska Public Media on April 16. "Many were canceled." Tolladay Vidal had to find fresh ideas to rejuvenate her Anchorage-based business and settled on making large, coronavirus-shaped pinatas. After Tolladay Vidal posted a photograph of a homemade coronavirus pinata on social media, the...
City officials reported a new COVID-19 case Thursday afternoon, the 21st infection reported in the community since April 8. "The Wrangell Emergency Operations Center was notified today of one new positive COVID case. This individual is a Wrangell resident who recently traveled outside of the state and tested upon returning to Wrangell," the city said in a statement issued at 4:45 p.m. Thursday. "The individual is asymptomatic and is isolating. No additional information is known at this time." It is one three active COVID-19 cases in the... Full story
Nearly $77 million in federal pandemic relief funds would be used to cover the state contribution to the Alaska Marine Highway System operating budget through Dec. 31, 2022, bringing more certainty to scheduling the vessels, under a deal worked out between the governor and legislators. The money would come from the transportation section of a $900 billion relief bill passed by Congress in December. The governor announced the funding plan while in Ketchikan last Thursday. The federal money, when...
Trident Seafoods has notified city officials the company will not reopen its Wrangell plant this summer. Plant manager Nick Ohmer called on Tuesday with the expected news, Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen told the assembly at its evening meeting. "I had a conversation with him about what it would take to get the plant back open here in Wrangell," Von Bargen said. Ohmer responded that the seafood processor would need "to see somewhere between 40% and 50% more fish chums than were projected to retu...
The 58-year-old Matanuska has been at the dock in Ketchikan since Sunday morning, waiting for repairs, and is not expected to return to service until Saturday. It is the ship's fourth mechanical breakdown since February, stranding passengers and imposing costs and delays on travelers with few options. "The Matanuska is still in Ketchikan awaiting parts for repair of the starboard engine," the Alaska Marine Highway System reported in a website posting Tuesday afternoon. "It is anticipated the vessel will get underway northbound Saturday...
Legislators will focus the next few weeks on how to spend $1.02 billion in federal pandemic relief destined for the state treasury, with last week's opening acts of the fiscal play showing somewhat different budgetary scripts from the House majority coalition and the governor. Both proposals would direct money to construction projects, the tourism industry and repairing Alaska's damaged economy, though at differing funding levels. The House plan also would direct funds to communities worst hit by the pandemic. And while House leadership has...
About 70 people came out for Saturday's Wrangell Community Cleanup, about 10 more than usual, said organizer Valerie Massie. There was no cleanup in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the annual event was brought back this spring, sending volunteers around the city to pick up trash. Massie said participants filled 146 bags with trash in a half-day of work, enough for 10 full dumpsters and four truckloads of large items like metal and mattresses. Organizer Kim Wickman said there was not one...
Due to an editor’s error, the Sentinel misspelled Issabella Crowley’s name in the credit line for the northern lights photo on Page 12 of the April 22 newspaper....
Wrangell, Petersburg and Juneau residents are competing to see who can walk, hike or run the farthest - without ever leaving town. "Bragging rights will go to the community that walks/hikes/runs the most miles (average miles per person)," the Wrangell Parks and Recreation website says. Juneau Parks and Recreation, which started Walk Southeast last year to keep people active during the pandemic, invited Wrangell and Petersburg to join up this year, giving the event a friendly competitive alure...
