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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska’s government has announced that child care providers will receive an additional $10.5 million from the state’s portion of federal coronavirus relief funds. State Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum said in a statement that the department and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy directed the additional funding to businesses providing child care, The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday. “We found that the funding available to this sector was not coming fast enough,” Crum said. Child care is...
After last week's announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Wrangell, two other cases were confirmed shortly after. Wrangell now has three total cases of the virus. One case has been declared recovered. However, there is some question about the source of the third case. Public Health officials state that Wrangell's third case was a contact with the first case, but the first case said she does not know how that could be. The first case was announced on Sunday evening, June 7. A join...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly hosted a public hearing on next year's budget Tuesday night, June 16. This was an opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinions and concerns regarding FY 2021, and how Wrangell's money is going to be allocated. Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, like many other communities, Wrangell is facing a lean financial year. There were several people who called in to the meeting, or wrote emails to the city, who wanted to state their support for...
In one of their final budget workshops for FY 2021, the borough assembly gave guidance to city administration to do as much as they can to close Wrangell's general fund deficit. According to the agenda packet for the June 10 meeting the FY 2021 general fund was facing a deficit of $801,451. However, city administration is anticipating that roughly $350,000 in wages for the upcoming financial year will be eligible for reimbursement through the CARES Act, "due to time spent on COVID-19 by...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission met last Thursday, June 11. During this meeting, they heard a request to purchase city land, continued their ongoing discussion of rezoning the old Institute property, and held a public hearing on a conditional use permit. The request to purchase city land came from Jim and Sue Nelson. They were seeking to buy 1,600 square feet of triangular land adjacent to the switch yard near the Public Works Department. They wanted to buy this land, according to th...
Wrangell is home to many locally-owned businesses. One of the community's newest businesses, Lover Bear Candle Co., is really thriving in the locals-supporting-locals environment. "My husband and I were getting married last September, and we wanted to do something personalized ... for all 150 of our wedding guests," said Anna Angerman, one of the company founders. "We wanted to make a party favor that people would enjoy." Anna and her then-fiancé, Cody Angerman, were batting around ideas for...
Wrangell's Economic Development Committee met Monday, June 15, to workshop various grant programs to assist Wrangell businesses. The EDC has put together three local grants that businesses could apply for to get some financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the discussion revolved around eligibility requirements and dollar amounts for these grants. The first grant they workshopped was for small businesses. This grant program, according to a draft application the EDC rev...
During the June 9 meeting of the borough assembly, Wrangell resident Ryan Howe was appointed to fill a vacant position. A seat on the assembly was left empty after Drew Larrabee announced his resignation, brought about by his plans to move to pursue a new career opportunity. The unexpired term, now filled by Howe, comes to an end this October. However, the appointment of Howe has led to some question of whether or not the city violated the Open Meetings Act. The Open Meetings Act, section...
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, June 15, to accept a collaboration agreement with the Sealaska Heritage Institute. They also approved of some budget revisions. According to the collaboration agreement, in the meeting's agenda packet, Sealaska has received an Alaska Native Education Program grant, from the Department of Education. The purpose of this grant is to support a three-year project to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in several Southeast...
A sample of butter clams from Etolin Island have been found with high levels of Paralytic Shellfish Toxins, the Wrangell Cooperative Association's IGAP Department reports. Kim Wickman, with WCA IGAP, said that a group of campers on Etolin Island gave them some clams to test for toxins, and they were found to be above regulatory limits. The clams that were tested had 110 ug/100 grams of PST, she said, while the limit is only 80. According to a June 13 PSA, shared on the IGAP Department's...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska Permanent Fund dividend was finalized at $992 and distribution is expected to begin early this year because of economic impacts caused by the coronavirus pandemic, state department officials said. The state Department of Revenue made the announcement Friday, saying payments are expected to begin July 1 instead of in October. "We are in extraordinary times. We need to make sure that the people of Alaska have cash in their hands to help in this economy," R...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A subsidiary of an Alaska Native corporation has agreed to pay $1.3 million in a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice over a fraud scheme allegedly involving a former employee. Manufacturing company Alutiiq International Solutions told the agency in a non-prosecution deal that former manager Elmer Baker received cash and other kickbacks over several years in connection with a project to modernize the Harry S. Truman Federal Building in Washington, D.C., the Anchorage Daily News reported. Alutiiq International S...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly considered adopting a new emergency ordinance last week, mandating that out of state visitors to Wrangell take a COVID-19 test or quarantine themselves. However, this ordinance proved to be controversial with the public and, with recent updates to state health mandates, unnecessary. The item was dropped by the assembly, after two meetings and lots of public input. Ordinance No. 978 was put together in the first place because the state government was preparing to rev...
On Sunday evening, June 7, the first positive case of COVID-19 was announced in the community of Wrangell. A joint press release from the city and SEARHC reports that the patient is an unnamed female. She is a resident of Wrangell, according to the press release, and is asymptomatic. Contact tracing, trying to determine who might have come into contact with the patient and may potentially be at risk, is currently ongoing. "SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) representatives are...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met last Wednesday evening, June 3, for a special meeting. City administration was wanting to enter a Memorandum of Understanding with SEARHC to provide COVID-19 testing for Sea Level Seafood employees. The total cost for the proposed memorandum, according to the meeting's agenda packet, comes out to $60,000. This amount provides some padding in case of emergency, the actual cost of the memorandum is anticipated to be $52,500. "In order to ensure an appropriate...
The Wrangell Borough assembly held another budget workshop last week, Wednesday, June 3. In this meeting the assembly briefly reviewed a looming budget deficit in the borough's general fund. They also looked at a variety of department budgets that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are anticipating reduced revenues. Among these are the Transient Tax and CPV budget, the Nolan Center, and Parks and Recreation. As reported in previous articles regarding these budget workshops, the City and Borough of...
The Wrangell-Petersburg-Kake Resource Advisory Committee met last Tuesday evening, June 2, to consider multiple projects to recommend funding for. Among these was a plan for a culture camp, presented by Wrangellite Virginia Oliver on behalf of the Wrangell Cooperative Association. The "Kaatslitaan Culture Camp," as the project was named, is designed to be an adult camp for people to learn about traditional native values and the subsistence lifestyle from cultural bearers of the native...
Construction of the new Wrangell Medical Center is continuing on schedule and on budget, according to an update provided by Sondra Forrester. According to the update, construction is ramping up as the crew size has increased to 45. A fire suppression and an additional drywall crew has joined the team. Several important parts of the construction process have been recently achieved. Interior metal framing is complete in two of the four areas of the construction site, and most of the framing in...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met Tuesday evening to hear from some Alaskan health experts regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. As Wrangell received its first case of the virus over the weekend, assembly members and other city officials wanted an opportunity to learn more about how the pandemic is being handled, and to ask questions about how testing works and the process behind pandemic response. Public Health Nurse Erin Michael was given the opportunity to explain the process of what happens when...
The Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau met last Tuesday afternoon, June 9, to workshop various marketing plans. The CVB was looking to put together a list of various ways they could promote Wrangell and its local businesses, to draw in tourists to present to the borough assembly in the near future. Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore said that, as many communities were struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they could potentially use CARES Act funding to cover the costs of som...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Forty-one crew members and passengers of an Alaska state ferry will undergo testing for COVID-19 before disembarking the Tustumena in Homer later Monday after another crew member tested positive over the weekend. The crew member on the 198-foot ferry began exhibiting symptom and tested positive Saturday in Dutch Harbor. The ferry set sail for Homer that night after 21 passengers who boarded in Dutch Harbor were put back ashore. No other tests on crew members or passengers were conducted on Saturday. In all, 35 crew m...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska Department of Administration audit has found that the state’s National Guard units improved the handling of sexual assault and sexual harassment since 2014, but some problems remain. The administration department’s oversight unit said the National Guard increased sexual assault and prevention training, set up new procedures for addressing complaints and created a new military judicial system under laws passed by the Alaska Legislature, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday. Citing the results of anony...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly began several days of budget workshops last Monday, June 1. The meeting opened with an overview of the borough's general fund for FY 2021, and then went into specific department budgets. Points of interest in the meeting included the budgets for the fire department, police department, and the public safety building. The general fund is facing a deficit this upcoming year. Total revenues and transfers for the general fund for FY 2021 are estimated at about $5.32 mill...
In a special meeting last Thursday evening, May 28, the borough assembly approved the purchase of a new ambulance. This purchase, according to Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, is to strengthen a potential weak spot in the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "It became glaringly apparent, recently, that a huge gap in our local medical capacity is an ambulance," she said. "You heard Captain Sprehe speak tonight, now that we have to consider every individual a screen positive because so many...
The Southeast Alaska Indiginous Transboundary Commission has been led by Wrangellite Tis Peterman since 2017. Before that, Peterman was part of the group that put the organization together back in 2014, representing the Wrangell Cooperative Association. SEITC has worked to raise awareness of the risks transboundary mining represents to Southeast Alaskan waters since their founding. The organization will be continuing this mission without Peterman moving forward, however, as she intends to...