Sorted by date Results 676 - 700 of 6036
High oil prices could provide an additional $500 for Alaskans a year from now. As part of the end-of-session budget deal put together by legislative leaders, particularly in the Senate, lawmakers in May adopted a provision in the fiscal year 2024 state spending plan that will provide a one-time “energy relief payment” next fall if state revenues exceed estimates. Global supply shortages, caused largely by production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia, have driven up oil prices and boosted state revenues for the first three months of the fis...
The Irene Ingle Public Library already offers robust programming to support literacy for children, from weekly story times to the summer reading program. But thanks to a new book club geared toward adults, kids won’t be the only ones reaping the rewards of reading. Starting next month, the book club will give grown-ups a chance to read, discuss, socialize and build a community of fellow literature-lovers. The first meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the library. So far, 17 people have signed up, which is ...
The process for recycling aluminum cans is about to get easier in the coming months. The Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Tl’átk - Earth Branch was awarded a $40,000 grant through the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in July to purchase a compactor and baler for its aluminum recycling program. The consortium is working with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to provide solid waste disposal funding to tribes. For the past three years, Tl’átk – Earth Branch has collected aluminum cans outside Wrangell IGA and City Market. W...
Residents who will not be in town on election day Tuesday, Oct. 3, or simply would prefer to vote early can come to City Hall between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays through Monday, Oct. 2, to cast an absentee ballot. Election day voting will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Nolan Center. People who cannot vote absentee in person by Oct. 2 can contact the borough clerk’s office at 907-874-2381 to request a ballot by mail or fax. Registered voters will cast ballots for two seats on the borough assembly, one seat on the school board and one p...
The state wants to send the Matanuska, the oldest vessel in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet, into a shipyard for the equivalent of a full-body scan. Management wants to find out just how much of the ship’s steel has rusted, and how far the rust has eaten into the thickness of the metal. The 60-year-old Matanuska has been tied up at the dock in Ketchikan since last November, waiting for the state to decide whether to repair the vessel and restore it to working order, or give up on the ship. “We know we have bad steel,” Craig Torng...
Alaska Airlines would like to improve passenger flow at its Wrangell and Petersburg airport terminals. The idea of making any changes to the buildings was put on hold during the pandemic. “We’ve got to find a way to improve the passenger flow in both those terminals,” Scott Habberstad, the airline’s managing director for Alaska, said last week. The tight space for people waiting to board after they clear TSA security screening creates a logjam on heavy traveler days that can slow down the boarding process. But the terminal buildings are hem...
During the budget process next year, the school district will need to cut about $500,000 from its current $5.1 million operating budget to maintain financial sustainability as it prepares for the end of federal pandemic relief funding. This could mean staffing cuts and major changes to school facilities and programs, unless new sources of money are found. Over the past three years, the district has relied on pandemic aid to help cover its costs, but this funding is ending soon. Those federal aid grants, which will run out in fall of 2024, curre...
Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Cunard Line — among the biggest names in Alaska summer cruises — have added Wrangell to some of their longer itineraries. The traditional seven-day Southeast Alaska cruises from Seattle or Vancouver, B.C., don’t leave time for adding new ports after the companies book stops among the popular destinations of Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and Skagway, and cruising through Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm south of Juneau. Longer cruises, however, allow the addition of new ports of call. The compa...
In an effort to make more housing available in the community, the planning and zoning commission has accepted a draft set of rules to allow the addition of a detached rental unit on the same lot as a single-family home. Such rentals currently are not allowed under municipal code. The vote on Thursday, Sept. 14, will set the proposal for a public hearing and further consideration by the commission, which could then forward the recommended ordinance to the borough assembly for another public hearing and approval. “As the housing market c...
A state parks official said staff shortages and lack of information about commercial tour operations led to the situation where the state didn’t realize until this summer that businesses were failing to register or pay the required permit fees to bring visitors to the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site. Though the Petroglyph Beach was designated a state historic site in 2000, the division never specifically publicized or enforced the annual permit and per-person fee on commercial operators taking people to the Wrangell attraction. ...
The borough needs to fill a funding gap of almost $10 million before it can upgrade its water treatment plant. The new design would increase the plant’s water output and storage capacity to accommodate future growth. The low bid for construction came in at $19.6 million, but borough officials estimate that the total cost will be closer to $24.2 million — a figure that factors in engineering and inspection costs. The borough has $14.3 million available for the project, mostly state and federal money. On Aug. 31, the borough submitted an app...
The borough hopes to partner with the U.S. Forest Service to give the Chugach - a wooden Forest Service boat built in 1925 - an improved permanent home outside the Nolan Center, complete with a viewing deck and interpretive signs. Currently, the boat spends most of the year wrapped in a protective plastic covering, though it is occasionally unveiled for events like the Fourth of July. The 62-foot vessel is the last of the Forest Service's ranger fleet, which was once 11 strong. The boat was...
No matter how many muddy boots soil your car's seat or how many lattes you spill driving over the Case Avenue potholes, a new car detailing business in town can return your vehicle to mint condition. Scheib's Detailing, owned and operated by Erik Scheib, offers full interior deep cleans for $150. "It puts me in a better mood when I'm in a cleaner car," he said, and since there wasn't a detailing business in town when he moved here this summer, he knew he could "kind of corner that market."...
The Parks and Recreation Department will offer American Sign Language classes next month for youth and adults. “We want to expand” what the department offers the community, said Devyn Johnson. “My goal is to offer something for everyone,” she said. Eventually, Johnson hopes to expand the department’s programming to include music, art and more, not just exercise, swimming and pickleball. The upcoming course will be the first time Parks and Recreation has ever offered sign language, she said. The five-session beginner class for people 14 and ol...
Wrangell won a regional Parks and Recreation competition as local participants walked more than others in Southeast this summer. On average, Wrangell’s 22 participants in the challenge tallied 252 miles each — enough to walk from Juneau to Wrangell to Ketchikan, with almost two dozen miles to spare. In total, the 22 people walked more than 5,500 miles. Wrangell Parks and Rec Director Lucy Robinson told the borough assembly at its Sept. 12 meeting that her department helped promote and localize the competition. “We did some fun stuff,” Robinso...
The school district hopes to sign up a new activities director this week after the person handling the work moved on to another job in town. The activities director is a contract position — not a full-time or even part-time staff job — and handles travel and other arrangements for sports, music, art and other school-sponsored activities. Erik Scheib had been in the position just since the start of the school year when he accepted a job with the Public Works Department last week. “Mainly, getting into Wrangell, being new here, there’s been a lot...
Voters on Oct. 3 will choose between incumbent Esther Aaltséen Reese and challenger John DeRuyter for a three-year term on the school board. It is the only one of five school board seats on this year's ballot. Reese, tribal administrator for the Wrangell Cooperative Association, is finishing her first year on the board after winning election last October, when she was unopposed. DeRuyter, in his third year on the secondary school advisory committee, is making his first run for office in...
Two candidates will be running for two seats on the borough assembly in the municipal election Oct. 3 - Michael J. Ottesen and incumbent Anne Morrison. Barring a successful write-in campaign, both candidates will be elected for three-year terms. Ottesen, a captain and tour guide for Alaska Vistas, is running for public office for the first time to bolster youth engagement in municipal government and develop the town's economy. "I feel like we need a little bit more ... of the younger generation...
Gary Morrison is running unopposed for his fourth term on the port commission. He is seeking reelection so that he can support ongoing harbor projects and, he admits, "because no one else is doing it." During his tenure as a commissioner, the borough completed the Shoemaker Bay Harbor project and made improvements to the community's many harbor floats. His priorities for the upcoming term include the installation of the security system cameras at the harbors and the corrosion-inhibiting anode...
It appears that tour operators who bring visitors to Wrangell’s Petroglyph Beach will be required to pay a $350 annual fee to the state plus $6 per person starting next year. The fee for commercial use of a state park or historic site has been a provision in Alaska law since the 1980s but apparently never enforced for the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site, which was designated in 2000. The fee structure was updated in 2021. The State Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation realized it had not issued any commercial-use permits or collected f...
Wrangell is one of 64 communities nationwide selected for the first year of a new federal program called Thriving Communities, intended to help towns get a better shot at federal funds. In Wrangell’s case, the two-year effort will focus on developing a plan for the former 6-Mile mill property. The borough purchased the property last year for $2.5 million in hopes of enticing private investment and spurring economic development for the community. The federal program will not provide any cash to the borough but will pay the bills for a team of c...
A former garnet seller was reunited with one of her customers last week after 34 years. In 1989, Eva Lee Henderson traveled to Wrangell from Chicago for a ferry trip with a friend. During her roughly 30-minute stop in town, she had just enough time to purchase two garnets from an 11-year-old girl at City Dock - Kristy Nore, now Kristy Woodbury. The garnets came with a handwritten note, explaining how they were formed and where they were excavated from. "I thought it was very interesting that...
The borough this week went out to bid for a contractor to supply and install corrosion-preventing aluminum anodes on the steel pilings at Heritage Harbor. The job is estimated at $1.5 million. The plan is for the contractor to start work in February and finish by April 2024, Harbormaster Steve Miller said last week. Bids are due Oct. 2. The pilings for the harbor floats “are still in good shape,” Miller said, but are starting to corrode. Anodes were not included in the job specifications when Heritage was built. The harbor and its floats were c...
The Zarembo Island parking lot is free, as are the tags to put on the windshield. What’s changing is that the U.S. Forest Service now wants people to get a new tag each year so that the agency can keep better track of vehicles left at the Roosevelt Harbor parking lot on Zarembo Island. After it spent a couple hundred thousand dollars to improve the drainage and parking surface at the lot, and clear out abandoned vehicles, the agency would like to keep the area in better shape. “We’re hoping the public will help us self-police the site,...
Wrangell-Petersburg area hunters took 118 moose last year and a similar harvest is expected this year. Harvest levels have remained fairly constant in recent years, area game biologist Frank Robbins said last week. The season opens Friday, Sept. 15, and runs through Oct. 15. The annual harvest has averaged 120 moose over the past five years, Robbins said. That covers state Game Management Units 3, 1B and the southern portion of 1C, which includes Wrangell, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, Zarembo, Woronkofski and Etolin islands, and the mainland....