Sorted by date Results 845 - 869 of 8120
The district’s electric school bus, originally scheduled to arrive in late spring through the federal Clean School Bus program, has been delayed until March 2025 due to a backlog of orders at the bus manufacturer, which could be too late for the terms of the grant’s fall deadline. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr explained the reasons for the delay at a school board meeting on March 18. The delay could pose a problem, as the grant deadline requires the bus to be on the job by October. Burr doesn’t know yet whether the grant can be salvaged. “We...
Almost half of the students enrolled at the school district are counted as Alaska Native. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that out of a total of 270 students enrolled in the district, 122 are registered as Alaska Native, while 13 are American Indian. “We’re 50% or really close,” he said. “Some of those might be mixed, depending on which parent filled it out.” Burr added that while Kim Powell, the district’s administrative assistant, had told him that the ratio has always been around that percentage, statistics from the state and f...
Wrangell’s BRAVE has started its running and empowerment program, I Toowú Klatseen (ITK), for kids in third through fifth grades. The program provides free running and exercise activities, lessons in self-respect, community building and healthy decision-making. I Toowú Klatseen means “strengthen your spirit” in Tlingit, or being strong on the inside and the outside — philosophies the program seeks to share with Wrangell’s youth. The program started Tuesday, March 26, and will run to May 9 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30 t...
This is the second year that Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Department will host an adopt-a-garden volunteer program to help beautify downtown. Though volunteers have maintained the garden beds in years past, last year was the first year that Parks and Rec organized the volunteer program and provided resources. The seasonal garden beds will be opened for work on April 6, when Parks and Rec will host a work party. That will include a meeting to discuss guidelines, available resources and a garden bed care schedule. Opening the garden beds e...
Five Wrangell teens know their books, chapters and verses better than any other team in Alaska, and for the second year in a row Wrangell won the state title at The Salvation Army’s Bible Bowl competition. The team was so dominant and won by such a wide margin at the competition March 16 in Juneau that “Anchorage actually forfeited,” said Capt. Chase Green of The Salvation Army’s Wrangell church. Haines took second and Juneau won third in the four-team contest, he said. With the state title in hand, Wrangell will move on to the nationa...
Under legislation passed March 21 by the Alaska House of Representatives, police searching for a lost hiker could obtain cell phone and satellite phone location data without a warrant. The House approved House Bill 316 by a 38-1 margin after moving it forward with unusual speed. The Senate has referred the bill to committee for discussion. The Legislature faces a mid-May adjournment deadline. The measure is modeled after similar laws in other states and is known as the “Kelsey Smith Act.” Smith was an 18-year-old who was abducted and mur...
Teacher salaries in Alaska are not competitive when compared to much of the Lower 48, according to new research from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Alaska teachers are paid below the national average once their salaries are adjusted for the high cost of living in Alaska, said Matthew Berman, a professor of Economics at UAA and one of two authors of the study published last month. The topic of public school funding and teacher pay has been a main focus in the Alaska Legislature this session and o...
A new legal opinion by the top attorney at the U.S. Department of the Interior has extended the land jurisdiction of Alaska tribes, upending decades of precedent and offering new opportunities for the state’s 228 federally recognized tribal governments. The opinion, issued Feb. 1 by Interior Department Solicitor Robert Anderson, says tribal authority applies on land allotments given to individual Alaska Natives, unless those parcels of land are owned by a non-tribal member or are “geographically removed from the tribal community.” “That...
Teacher salaries in Alaska are not competitive when compared to much of the Lower 48, according to new research from the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Alaska teachers are paid below the national average once their salaries are adjusted for the high cost of living in Alaska, said Matthew Berman, a professor of Economics at UAA and one of two authors of the study published last month. The topic of public school funding and teacher pay has been a main focus in the Alaska Legislature this session and o...
The Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association says the $514,000 federal grant it received for a feasibility study could lead to lower costs for the fishing fleet and a path to decarbonization of the industry. “This will inform our efforts to decarbonize the fleet and implement hybrid boats while we work with the rest of the maritime industry to identify and develop next-generation carbon-free fuels,” executive director Linda Behnken said. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced the funding for t...
Opponents of Gov. Mike Dunleavey’s proposal to criminalize unpermitted street protests and other activities that block passage through public places said it is unconstitutional, too vague and too broad to become law. If Senate Bill 255 or its companion, House Bill 386, is passed into law, certain types of protest could be counted among the state’s most serious crimes. Dunleavy has said the bill is aimed at increasing public safety. It would impose penalties for blocking highways, airport runways and other public places if it causes sig...
Alaska Power & Telephone Co. has announced it is designating its offices in Ketchikan as its new corporate headquarters — moving the nameplate from Washington state — the first time it will be headquartered in Alaska. AP&T's current headquarters are in Port Townsend, Washington. "We're not picking up jobs and moving them out of state (out of Washington) at this time," AP&T spokesman Jason Custer said March 19. "We're mostly just designating Ketchikan as our new headquarters. We'll eventually be selling the building in Washington. ... We don't h...
Kevin Gadsey, hired last month by the Wrangell Cooperative Association to work on domestic violence prevention, said the problem is more traumatic in smaller communities like Wrangell, where survivors often must leave town for support and treatment. Alaska has some of the highest domestic violence rates in the country, especially among Native communities. While more support and resources for survivors of domestic violence are needed, a key piece of the equation is prevention, Gadsey noted. The...
Alaska lawmakers fell one vote short Monday in an attempt to override the governor’s veto of a comprehensive school funding bill, which included a permanent increase in the state funding formula for K-12 education and which could have provided an additional $440,000 for the Wrangell school district. The additional funds would have covered about two-thirds of the deficit in the Wrangell district’s draft budget, reducing the amount of money it will need to pull out of reserves for the 2024-2025 school year. The vote in a joint session of the Hous...
The federal appropriations bill signed into law earlier this month includes a $2.5 million grant for Wrangell's new water treatment plant, which is under construction and scheduled for completion in June 2025. The latest federal grant, added to the budget bill by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, will reduce the amount of borrowed money the borough will need to repay, Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma confirmed Friday, March 15. President Joe Biden signed the appropriations bill on March 9, after the measure won approval by wide margins in the...
Ann Hilburn is leaving her job as elementary school principal in Wrangell at the end of the school year when she will move to Tok in Alaska’s Interior to serve as special education director. This was Hilburn’s second year as principal after serving a year as special education teacher at the high school and middle school. The new job with the Alaska Gateway School District in Tok “will provide the opportunity to combine what I enjoy most, serving in special education, with the administrative piece of my educational tenure,” she said in an emai...
Clean water advocates believe a seafood consumption survey among Wrangell residents might help in their push for higher water quality standards. Together, the Wrangell Cooperative Association and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission will conduct a survey in Wrangell to determine the quantity and types of seafood community members consume. The goal of the survey is to update the region’s outdated fish consumption rate, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, WCA tribal administrator. The metric is used by the U.S. Environmental Pr...
The borough assembly unanimously agreed March 12 to move forward with the sale of six borough-owned lots behind the former hospital property. The six lots will be appraised and sold at market value to Wayne Johnson, a Georgia-based real estate developer. Johnson is planning to build a 48-unit, condo-style housing development with covered parking on the former hospital property and six adjacent lots. The sales of the former hospital property and six adjacent lots are conditional upon each other, as Johnson has said he needs all the parcels for...
The borough assembly narrowed down the field of seven applicants for the borough manager job; a special meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, to interview the three finalists. The finalists include current interim borough manager and finance director Mason Villarma and two Lower 48 candidates with city manager experience: Jack Harper of Texas and Alan Lanning of Colorado. Lanning has served as city manager in Cordova and interim city manager in Bethel. The applicants were to be interviewed over Zoom in an executive session at the March...
Trident Seafoods has announced the sale of its Ketchikan processing facilities to Silver Bay Seafoods, and the sale of its Petersburg operation to E.C. Phillips & Son. Trident has not announced buyers for two other Alaska plants it has put on the market in Kodiak, the company’s largest operation in the state, and False Pass, in the Aleutian Islands. Seattle-based Trident is scaling back its Alaska operations amid weak seafood markets, low prices and changing consumer buying habits. The company has called it “a comprehensive, strategic res...
The weights and exercise areas at the swimming pool and community recreation facility have expanded, with more equipment stationed in the converted racquetball court. Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson said the facility has seen an increase in use of weight-lifting and cardio equipment like treadmills and stationary bikes over the past several years, so they wanted to expand to satisfy the demand and encourage people to keep coming back. "We've hustled our little tails off to make sure...
In addition to his duties as activities director, Mike Hoyt will now also serve as the new Indian Education Act director for the school district after the resignation of DaNika Smalley on Feb. 29. Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that Hoyt started on March 11. Working in cultural education has been Hoyt’s focus since 2011. He worked as a teacher in Nome for five years, and before that worked at culture camps operated by Goldbelt and Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. “He’s got background in writing grants,” Burr said. “And he...
High school student Cody Eastaugh has worked part time for almost two years at the Bay Company, known as BayCo, which specializes in marine sales and service at its Front Street location. While trying to decide on his senior project, his boss Dave Powell came up with the idea that Eastaugh could assist him with volunteer efforts for two fundraisers and cleanup and repairs at the shooting range. "I thought, that's a terrific idea and I should do that," Eastaugh said. First, he helped Powell with...
Illegal dumping of trash, appliances and whatever else people don’t want to take to the waste transfer station has long been a problem in town. “It’s not just a Wrangell issue,” Police Chief Tom Radke said last week. Radke, who spent almost 26 years in law enforcement in Minnesota before taking the Wrangell job in 2020, said he has seen it many times before. But just because it’s commonplace doesn’t mean it’s legal — it’s not. Illegal dumping of garbage in Wrangell is subject to a $150 fine. “It’s one of those issues we’re trying to get ahead o...
South Anchorage high school teacher Logan Pitney said his colleagues are making exit strategies to flee their bad financial prospects in Alaska. He called Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s teacher retention bonus plan a “Band-Aid on an arterial bleed.” Juneau Superintendent Franks Hauser called the governor’s charter school policy change proposal a “statewide solution without a statewide problem.” They were among dozens of teachers and school administrators who rejected Dunleavy’s education policy proposals at recent legislative hearings in Juneau. There’s...