Sorted by date Results 3578 - 3602 of 8063
Salmon harvests are coming in slowly in the Wrangell-Petersburg area, according to Sea Level Seafoods and the state fisheries biologist out of Petersburg. Though it’s too early for a lot of specific numbers, both report catches have been lower than in previous seasons. “It’s going pretty slow,” said Nik Morozov, manager at Wrangell’s Sea Level plant. “We’re close to half of what we normally do.” Morozov said he has three tenders out right now, and had been assuming they would fill up and bring back loads of fish quickly, but that is not hap...
Sigrid Vanek, driftwood sculptor, "raises wildlife" on her Wrangell beachfront property. This summer, a curious bear made an appearance for Bearfest, the annual event now underway in town. For years, the life-size, captivating animals have delighted family members and neighbors, startled tour ship passengers, and amused visitors from around the world who ask permission to photograph the wooden zoo. Born and raised in Palmer, Vanek was introduced to Wrangell by Ken Lewis. Their annual Wrangell...
The U.S. Postal Service will officially release the "Raven Story" stamp at 11 a.m. Friday at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. The stamp, designed by Juneau-based Rico Lanáat' Worl, a Tlingit and Athabascan artist, depicts Raven freeing the sun, stars and moon. The ceremony will be streamed live through the heritage institute's YouTube channel. The Postal Service said Antonio Alcalá, who served as art director on the project, reached out to Worl about creating the stamp after seeing h...
There's some new leadership at the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, but the organization's mission is still the same: To promote and support local businesses. To do so, said the new executive director Britani Robbins, there are big but currently secret plans for the future. "I have lots of new ideas, but they're secret," she said. "I plan on having a fair amount more events following COVID. Everything's opening back up. When I was a kid Wrangell was all about events and community gatherings, and I...
The Della G, a Wrangell fishing vessel owned and operated by the Churchill family, was lost to a fire in Juneau on July 13. Nobody was on board the 32-foot boat at the time of the fire, according to news reports in Juneau. The Wrangell community has started to come together to help the Churchills. According to news reports, the Della G was in Gastineau Channel near the Juneau airport. Reports of the fire came in before midnight, but the response was delayed. “Initially unable to get through the wetlands to the fire from the airport side, Juneau...
The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has joined the list of health care providers encouraging Alaskans to participate in the potentially money-saving special enrollment period for insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The latest round of federal aid for people hurt by the pandemic’s hit to the economy, the American Rescue Plan Act, includes “additional insurance subsidies and (ACA) plan options for individuals and families,” SEARHC explained in a prepared statement July 22. “During this one-time special enrollm...
Although the directional signs for each hole have not yet arrived, eager disc golf players are tossing their way through the 18-basket course at Muskeg Meadows. "People are playing, it's just not well marked yet," said Kristi Woodbury, board president for Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. After a couple of years of work, the baskets went in last fall, she said. The baskets were delayed by COVID-19. The manufacturing plant closed down at the start of the pandemic last March, pushing off delivery until...
Practice starts next week for the Wrangell High School swim team, which had its season cut short last year by pandemic restrictions. After a month of five-day-a-week practice, the team’s first swim meet is tentatively planned for the first weekend of September, in Ketchikan. And although the team has put 13 or 14 swimmers into the pool in past years, “this year I might have only eight swimmers,” said coach Jamie Roberts. Fewer students this coming school year is part of the reason, Roberts said. In addition, some swimmers also compete in cross...
Alaska Airlines said it was not aware that a passenger who boarded Flight 73 in Sitka the morning of July 20 had tested positive for COVID-19 a day earlier “We would never allow someone to travel that is COVID-positive, knowing they were COVID-positive,” Alaska Airlines spokesman Tim Thompson said July 21. “Our priorities are for the safety of staff and employees.” State public health Denise Ewing said a visitor from outside Alaska who was in Sitka on vacation tested positive for COVID-19 on July 19 and was provided test results, includi...
It’s funny how life works out sometimes — how people often are in the right spot, at the right moment. Danielle Wakefield, the assistant coach for the Nunaka Valley Little League softball team from Anchorage, was in Ketchikan for the Junior Division state softball tournament last week. And it was shortly after her plane landed on July 15 at the Ketchikan airport that she realized the diamond from her ring was missing. The diamond has special meaning, as it’s the only thing Wakefield has from her late father. “I had nothing else from him,” she s...
JUNEAU (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans Monday to review whether the Southeast Alaska wolf population merits Endangered Species Act protections. In 2016, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined the wolf did not warrant such protections. The agency said Monday that a petition from conservation groups to protect the Alexander Archipelago wolf included information indicating protections may be warranted due to potential threats associated with logging, illegal and legal trapping and hunting, climate change impacts and...
TURNER, Ore. (AP) - The heat wave that recently hit the Pacific Northwest subjected the region’s vineyards to record-breaking temperatures nine months after the fields that produce world-class wine were blanketed by wildfire smoke. But when temperatures began climbing close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in late June, the grapes in Oregon and Washington state were still young, as small as BB’s, many still shaded by leaf canopies that had not been trimmed back yet. The good news for grape growers, wineries and wine lovers is the historic heat wav...
JUNEAU (AP) - Updated maps add 200 homes and other buildings to hazard zones for landslides and avalanches in Alaska’s capital city, bringing to about 550 the total number of structures that would be considered at moderate to severe risk of being damaged or destroyed if disaster struck. The new maps, finished this year, used technology to chart the risks and are meant to update hazard maps made in the 1970s. The area reviewed includes downtown Juneau. The Juneau Planning Commission is expected to review the maps next month before they a...
As visitor travel to Alaska picks up strength, as residents participate in summer events, and as the pace of vaccinations slows down, the state’s COVID-19 case count is rising, prompting a return to high-alert status and warnings by health officials. The statewide case count has been climbing since mid-June, with Alaska health officials attributing the rise in part to the highly contagious delta variant first identified in Alaska in May. Sitka went on high alert last week, as did Anchorage. The Kenai Peninsula went to high alert on Monday a...
Wrangell would see one northbound ferry every other week during October and November, and one southbound ferry the other weeks in October and November under the draft winter schedule released by the Alaska Marine Highway System. That’s down significantly from the current summer schedule of one northbound and one southbound stop each week. “At what point do we just say, ‘We don’t have a ferry system anymore,’” Mayor Steve Prysunka said. “We just get these schedules that are horrendous in the fall.” The community received one northbound ferry in...
The borough assembly has directed the administration to pursue an updated cost estimate for solving Wrangell’s deficient water-treatment plant. Progress on replacing the treatment process has moved slowly since a 2017 cost estimate of nearly $10 million, while Wrangell now faces key deadlines to retain $9 million in federal assistance that was approved for the work between 2017 and 2019. The likelihood of higher costs since 2017 is another hurdle, should Wrangell proceed with the project. Borough officials said at a July 13 assembly work s...
Wrangell's annual Bearfest opens Wednesday and will feature symposiums by bear experts, art and photo workshops, children's games, pool time and more - even a demonstration by a Seattle sushi chef, adding a seafood entrée to the five-day festival menu. This year's Bearfest will run to Aug. 1, returning in full force after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a scaled-back celebration in 2020. The schedule also includes children's events, live music, the annual Bearfest run, a golf tournament,...
The COVID-19 case count among the 214 passengers and crew who were aboard the American Constellation’s Southeast Alaska cruise the second week of July has risen to 16, as the ship prepared this week to end its 10-day quarantine in Juneau and resume voyages. Of the 16, four isolated in Petersburg, which was where the first case was discovered on July 8, and a dozen in Juneau, the City and Borough of Juneau reported July 15. As of Monday, nine had recovered and seven people remained in isolation in Juneau, officials said. The 267-foot-long s...
Dozens of people from Wrangell and Petersburg came together at the downtown pavilion Sunday morning for the first Heart Walk of their communities, organized as a fundraiser for the Children's Heart Foundation and as a way for the communities to show support for three families: The Buness, Shumway and Maddox families. As of Monday morning, the Heart Walk has raised $8,797, with donations still coming in online. Jaxon Buness, 17 months old, is the child of Wrangell's Shawna and Jordan Buness. Owen...
The decision to open a business just sort of happened, according to Bridgette Petticrew. She and Celsee Churchill were sitting with their kids at dinner one night, and had a spur-of-the-moment idea to start one. Churchill is a good cook, Petticrew said, and she is a good baker. Now, about a month down the road from that idea, Baked for Breakfast is gearing up for business. "We just had a couple of good ideas, and so far it's taking off," Churchill said. "We thought we'd start out small." Part...
This spring’s federal pandemic aid legislation included a provision that could reduce the cost of health insurance available under the Affordable Care Act, the decade-old program that has provided federally subsidized insurance to millions of Americans. The extended deadline to sign up for the latest savings is Aug. 15. The American Rescue Plan, signed into law in March, included a provision for a special enrollment period and additional savings, in particular to help people who lost jobs, income or insurance coverage due to the economic hit o...
“I don’t know, somehow you kind of get addicted to it, I guess,” Matt Nore said. Nore, volunteering with the Parks and Recreation Department, will be hosting jiu jitsu classes starting next month. Nore has grown up enjoying combat sports, he said, starting with wrestling in high school. He also participated in mixed martial arts through the Alaska Fighting Championship before he was first deployed to Iraq around 2004. He started getting back into jiu jitsu early this year, he said, and wants to begin teaching others the basics so he can keep...
Wrangell needs more foster homes for children. “A lot of people are afraid to even take that first step,” said Vena Talea Stough, a tribal family and youth services case worker in Wrangell with the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Providing a safe home could be temporary, such as in an emergency, or a long-term relationship. “If something happens in the middle of the night, that kid would have someplace to go,” Stough said. “The need is great,” for more foster homes in town, she said. Children with family ties to Wra...
Liz Buness is working to reestablish a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary detachment in Wrangell, and she received some help last week when a retired vice admiral, a division commander and Alaska district chief of staff were in town to meet with community members, answer questions and promote the idea. Wrangell has been without an auxiliary for about 25 years. While working to change that, Buness was sworn in as a member by the visiting dignitaries in a ceremony July 14 in Wrangell. “The Coast Guard, especially in Alaska, has radio stations up a...
TORONTO (AP) - Canada announced Monday it will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into the country on Aug. 9 — without a 14-day quarantine requirement and with no restrictions on the reason for traveling — and will allow travelers from the rest of the world on Sept. 7. The open border will apply only to U.S. citizens at least 14 days past their vaccination shot, according to the Canadian government announcement. Travelers will be required to upload proof of vaccination to Canada’s web portal, and will be required to show proof of a...