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JUNEAU (AP) - More people are leaving the city of Juneau than arriving because of state budget cuts and declining state jobs, labor officials said. The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development estimates more than 1,300 people have moved out of Juneau since the city’s population peaked at 33,162 in 2015, public radio KTOO-FM reported. Juneau lost 172 residents from July 2018 to July 2019, and 286 residents from July 2019 to July 2020, officials said. The state population has also declined during that time. Agency economist Sara Teel...
After missing 2020 due to the pandemic, the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines plans to return this year. The board voted unanimously last month to put together some version of the annual event, according to the Chilkat Valley News in Haines. But it will not be a normal year. Southeast Alaska State Fair Executive Director Kari Johnson said events are likely to be smaller and will certainly be outdoors. “We are hopeful,” Johnson told KHNS public radio. “Yes, there’s going to be one. It might be big, it might be small. … I think we’re kin...
JUNEAU (AP) - Officials in Alaska’s capital city are working on measures to prevent disruptions of online public meetings that have included verbal abuse of at least one assembly member. The use of videoconferences allows the public to continue observing and participating city government meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, but there have been problems, Juneau public radio station KTOO reported Jan. 26. City officials estimated there have been about a dozen instances of what has become known as “Zoom bombing,” or planned disruptions of me...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Fewer Alaska residents had routine cancer screenings in 2020 than in the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors said. There were 330 fewer mammograms and 28 fewer lung cancer screenings last year than there were in 2019 at Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital, said Paul Hawkins, director of the hospital’s diagnostic imaging center. Some medical providers said the screening decrease was likely linked to anxiety related to the virus that has lasted through the pandemic, the Anchorage Daily News reported Jan...
JUNEAU (AP) - Alaska has detected the state’s first known case of the coronavirus variant identified last year in the United Kingdom, officials said Jan. 26. The infected person is an Anchorage resident who had traveled to a state where the variant had already been detected, the Alaska health department said. The person first experienced symptoms on Dec. 17, was tested three days later and received a positive result Dec. 22. The resident lived with another person in Anchorage, who also became ill. Both isolated and have since recovered, o...
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Severe child abuse cases in Alaska have increased significantly at times during the coronavirus pandemic, experts said. As students return to classrooms, child welfare advocates are assessing the impact of the pandemic on child abuse, Alaska Public Media reported Jan. 27. Visits by one clinic to children in need of hospitalization for severe injuries because of suspected abuse skyrocketed by 173% in the past year, said Mike Canfield, a spokesperson for Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. “This absolutely reflects a...
Wrangell schools could receive at least a couple hundred thousand dollars less in state funding for the next school year, due to declining enrollment. The community has seen a sharp decline in enrollment this year, likely due to homeschooling and correspondence schooling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, about 200 students are enrolled in the district, according to a presentation at a school district town hall budget meeting Jan. 19. Historically, the district has counted about 300 st...
Wrangell would see one northbound and one southbound state ferry each week this summer, under the proposed schedule released Monday. That's one-third the level of service from 2017 to 2019, before the pandemic significantly cut into ferry runs last year. Under the draft schedule for May 1 through Sept. 30, the Matanuska would stop in Wrangell northbound on Sunday mornings and southbound on Friday afternoons on its weekly run to Southeast Alaska from Bellingham, Washington. The Alaska Marine...
The borough assembly on Tuesday evening appointed Bob Dalrymple to fill the unexpired term of member Julie Decker, who resigned Jan. 11. Dalrymple and Jim DeBord both expressed interest in filling the seat to the end of the term in October. DeBord has previous experience with the assembly. He served as a member from October 2018 to 2019, choosing not to seek reelection that year. Dalrymple also has experience on the assembly. He was appointed to sit on the assembly after Assembly Member Mya...
The state of Alaska and the municipality of Anchorage will share in $200 million in new federal funds to help renters who have lost jobs or suffered economic hardship due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Alaska Housing Finance Corp., which operated a similar, but much smaller, federally funded program last summer, is expected to manage the new assistance program outside Anchorage, with more information expected this week and application details possibly later in February. The housing...
The borough assembly on Tuesday postponed an increase to the residential user fee for liveaboard vessels in Wrangell harbors. The ordinance would have raised the fee for water, sewage and garbage services by about $35 a month. The change in municipal code also would have broadened the definition of liveaboard, while boosting the monthly rate to almost $117, the harbor department's Keeleigh Solverson told the assembly. The assembly decided the ordinance still needs some work, directing that it...
"I actually have always loved baking," said Devyn Johnson, of Moody Folks Bakery. "I baked with my mom growing up, and I baked for people all the time. ... It's my happy place." Moody Folks Bakery is one of Wrangell's newer businesses. Johnson was running a child care out of her home before COVID-19 struck. When the pandemic reached Alaska, however, she closed it down out of safety. She found herself with more time, and started filling that time with more and more baking. She was starting to...
Online sales tax revenues brought in more than $90,000 in nine months last year, with receipts continuing to rise, according to Wrangell Borough officials. While the municipality is struggling with rising costs and decreasing revenues, one bright spot has been the collection of sales taxes from online, out-of-town merchants. The borough is budgeted this fiscal year to collect $1.25 million in sales taxes, projected to be down substantially from last year due to the pandemic-inflicted economic...
The new Wrangell Medical Center is nearing the end of construction and will start a staggered opening on Saturday, with the long-term care unit first on the list and the rehabilitation unit scheduled for a Feb. 3 opening. "Departments are currently undergoing a phased relocation as finished punch lists are allowing for staggered staff move-ins," according to a press release Monday from SEARHC. "Patients scheduled for rehabilitation, imaging, laboratory or outpatient services will be contacted...
A Wrangell resident arriving at the airport tested positive for COVID-19 and went into isolation in town, the city reported Jan. 21. The city press release did not specify the date the individual was tested. The last COVID-19 positive case was reported by the city on Dec. 17. The case brought to 28 the total number of Wrangell-related COVID-19 positives since the start of the pandemic. Of those, 18 have been in Wrangell residents; eight were identified as non-locals, and two were Wrangell...
NEW YORK (AP) - Illustrator Michaela Goade became the first Native American to win the prestigious Randolph Caldecott Medal for best children’s picture story, honored for “We Are Water Protectors.” Goade is a member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian tribes in Southeast Alaska. “We Are Water Protectors,” written by Carole Lindstrom, is a celebration of nature and a call for environmental protection that was conceived in response to the planned construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline through Standing Rock Sioux territory. “I am really hono...
JUNEAU (AP) - State wildlife officials have reported that 68 wolves were taken by trappers in 2020 on or near Prince of Wales Island. Conservationists had unsuccessfully attempted to block the 21-day wolf trapping season from November to December. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials had ruled that trapping would not pose a danger to the overall wolf population. Conservationists had argued that state and federal officials were allowing unsustainable killings. “If you can catch 68 wolves in three weeks,” Schumacher told CoastAlaska pub...
JUNEAU (AP) - Alaska held the enviable position of having the highest rate of coronavirus vaccinations per capita in the nation as of this week, the state said. As of Monday, more than 80,000 Alaskans had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly 18,000 had received both doses, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News. That does not include shots administered through the departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs but does include vaccinations handled through Indian Health Service partners. That’s a gain in four d...
The city announced a new case of COVID-19 in Wrangell this morning, reportedly not related to any travel. This latest case, the 29th total for the community, was reported as a local resident infected with the virus. According to the press release, the resident had not traveled recently. The person has been notified and is in isolation, the city reported. This is the only currently active case of COVID-19 in Wrangell. The previous 28 are all reported as recovered....
Wrangell businesses and nonprofits received more than $8 million in federal and state CARES Act funds last year. "It absolutely made a difference, but it still wasn't enough," said Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's economic development director. "It's not making them whole, by any means," Rushmore said Jan. 14. "There are some businesses really hurting." For many businesses that rely on tourism, there is hope that visitor traffic will pick up this year. "We will see visitors coming to help," but short...
The borough will randomly select one resident each month for a one-month rebate of their residential electricity costs. The new program is called "2021: Wrangell's Year of Hope." "We know this is going to be a hard year economically. This program offers a small amount of relief," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said in her write-up presenting the idea to the assembly. Assembly members approved the program Jan. 12. "Given the community's economic situation there is great value in the borough...
The borough assembly accepted the resignation of member Julie Decker at its Jan. 11 meeting. Decker has served on the assembly for seven years. Her letter of resignation explained she is stepping away from the position to grieve the loss of her two children. Sig and Helen Decker, 21-years-old and 19-years-old, died in a car accident in Petersburg last July. The tragedy shocked the community, which came together to support the Deckers, to mourn, and to remember Sig and Helen. Decker said that...
Levels of a disinfectant byproduct in Wrangell's water supply are still a little above federal standards, the municipality reported Jan. 11, but are in decline. The presence of haleocetic acids (HAA5) were announced in late September. The levels were triple federal Environmental Protection Agency standards in the regular quarterly test in August, then down to double the standard in a special test in October, the city reported. November's test sample for HAA5 came in at 70 parts per billion...
Acknowledging Alaska's shortage of money, the Wrangell Borough Assembly has put together a list of priority projects for state funding "should the fiscal climate change." Until then, "(the city) understands there is little to no availability of funding for local capital needs," said the backup material for the assembly workshop Jan. 12 to compile state and federal legislative priorities for 2021-2022. In putting together the list - just in case money becomes available -the assembly considered...
The social-distancing protocols of the pandemic severely cut into their petition signature gathering efforts last year, but now the Recall Dunleavy group wants to reengage Alaskans and win a spot on the ballot. The group, which started its effort in July 2019, held a virtual press conference Jan. 19 to start a renewed push to reach the 71,252 signatures of registered voters to force a statewide special election to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The group already has close to 50,000 signatures, and...