Sorted by date Results 3857 - 3881 of 7954
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...
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...
Radio station KSTK, instead of its traditional cooking competition, will hold a chili feed at 11 a.m. Saturday at the downtown pavilion. Winners of KSTK's past cook-offs will serve bowls of their winning chili for the fundraising event. The chili cook-off is a longstanding tradition in Wrangell, said Lucy Moline-Robinson, with the radio station. It started back in 2000, she said, when the station invited several residents to prepare a pot of chili and compete to see who could make the best....
Stikine Middle School students explained to a statewide audience how they are using technology to cope with the pandemic-induced changes in their education. Members of the sixth grade class spoke at the Alaska Society of Technology in Education virtual conference Feb. 16, talking about ways technology has helped them learn throughout the year. The organization promotes access to technology information resources for Alaska students. Laura Davies, teacher for the sixth grade class, said she and...
There is a backlog at the driver's license and vehicle registration office in Wrangell, said Police Chief Tom Radke, but they are working their way down the list and hope to have things running smoothly in the near future. The office in the Public Safety Building on Zimovia Highway has been closed or otherwise inaccessible for several months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and retirement of the only employee. The Division of Motor Vehicles office, a function of the state, is working its way through a backlog of appointments. Radke said there...
SEATTLE (AP) - A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to stop the sale of the National Archives building in Seattle. More than two dozen Native American and Alaska Native tribes and cultural groups from the Northwest, along with the states of Washington and Oregon, sued the federal government to stop the sale and the relocation of millions of invaluable historical records to California and Missouri. The Seattle Times reported that U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour asked Brian C. Kipnis, an assistant U.S. attorney in...
PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) - The crash of a small plane in waters near Port Angeles, Washington, in late January that killed a Kodiak man occurred after the plane apparently ran out of fuel a few miles from an airport, The National Transportation Safety Board said. The agency said in a report of preliminary findings Feb. 18 that the Cessna 170A airplane with only the pilot aboard left Kodiak on Jan. 25, then refueled and departed from Ketchikan on Jan. 26. The man texted his mother that afternoon saying a severe headwind was causing concern...
A federal judge on Feb. 17 dismissed a lawsuit arguing that tribal members of Alaska’s sole Native reserve — on Annette Island, south of Ketchikan — should not need state permits to fish outside the reserve’s marine boundaries. Public radio KRBD reported the story. Metlakatla Indian Community sued Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration last year. Lawyers for the tribe said the 1891 federal law that established the Annette Islands Reserve was intended to create a self-sustaining community — and that the right to fish in waters within a day’s trave...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy said his administration will no longer respond to or participate in hearings led by Sen. Lora Reinbold, telling the fellow Republican in a withering letter Feb. 18 that she has used her position to “misrepresent” the state’s COVID-19 response and that her demands for information are “not based in fact.” Reinbold has criticized the governor’s pandemic disaster declarations and taken aim at health restrictions imposed by local governments, airlines and the Legislature, including mask requirements. She has used social medi...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Alaska public health officials said 58% of residents 65 and older have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccination since distribution efforts began. State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said the state hopes to move the process along faster as more contagious and potentially deadly strains of the coronavirus emerge. “Right now, it’s sort of a race against the variants to get people vaccinated,” McLaughlin said Feb. 17. Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said the state wants more Alaskans 65 and olde...
Free asymptomatic COVID-19 testing will be available to all community members at Wrangell airport this weekend, starting Friday afternoon. In a Facebook post, the city announced that from 2 to 4:30 p.m. today, and from 10 a.m. to noon this Saturday and Sunday, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium will offer free COVID-19 asymptomatic tests during Alaska Airlines arrivals and departures. The free testing is open to everybody, according to the city’s post, not just travelers. “People who have mild symptoms or who believe they may hav...
