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By Brenda Schwartz-Yeager Two years ago this fall, I testified at a Wrangell borough assembly meeting in support of yet another resolution calling on the U.S. government to be firm with British Columbia and Canada in protecting the Stikine River, as well as the Taku and Unuk rivers. These transboundary rivers, the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska, are threatened by the more than 30 British Columbia gold mines in some phase of development. Over a dozen of them are located within the Stikine-Iskut watershed. As I looked around the assembly...
Attracting people to run for public office in Wrangell can be as difficult as finding a snow shovel to borrow in a winter storm — they are all busy. Nonetheless, they are essential. Quality candidates for borough assembly, school board and port commission are invaluable for the community. The elected bodies control spending in excess of $20 million a year in taxpayer, state and federal money. The members make decisions that affect the life of more than 2,000 residents and the life span of public buildings. It’s a lot of work and a lot of res...
The state needs a new mainline ferry more than ever. The Alaska Marine Highway System is running out of operable ships, further driving away travelers. The scarcity of service makes it hard on locals and even harder on summer visitors, who find the skimpy schedule and undependable service a reason not to bring their RV or camper to Southeast. The 50-year-old Columbia and 60-year-old Matanuska are about as shipshape as could be expected for their age, which is to say both are in regular need of medical attention and at constant risk of...
The job of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. trustees is to focus on pursuing, maintaining and growing our fund. Instead, they are being sidetracked by their plan to open a satellite office in Anchorage by the end of the year. This is the first step in what will end up being a multi-year, disruptive, unnecessary and expensive move to Anchorage. The plan to set up an office in Anchorage is analyzed in a May 10 memo to Board Chair Ethan Schutt, from Mike Barnhill, the Permanent Fund’s chief operations officer. It lays out options and costs (...
Maybe we’ve developed immunity to misleading claims. Just like any other widely prevalent virus, we build up antibodies to fight off new infections. The claims cause nothing more than a mild headache, if that. Like contagious viruses, misleading and dishonest political and advertising claims are all around us, spread by word of mouth and even infectious online touches. There are state candidate claims about a fantasy plan to solve all of Alaska’s budget problems, without taxes and while paying out fat Permanent Fund dividends. Or pre...
The public library would like to thank all the individuals, businesses and organizations that donated prizes for the summer reading program. We appreciate your continued support in assisting us by encouraging children to read during the summer and improve their reading skills. We would especially like to thank: First Bank, for the funds to purchase Skull Candy earbuds for all those who completed the program; Alaska Airlines, for the funds to purchase prizes; the City and Borough of Wrangell; Jeff Angerman, for his ongoing support; Friends of...
Visitors to the Anan Wildlife Observatory currently pay a fee of $10 for a day’s visit to the popular bear viewing spot during the permit season of July and August. The U.S. Forest Service, which runs and maintains the observatory, has not raised the permit fee in almost 20 years and figures it’s time to charge more. The additional income could go toward maintenance and improvements. No question the Forest Service has put a lot of money into improving the facilities at Anan over the years, including spending about $1 million to build a new upp...
Oil and water don’t mix. We learned that in high school. And we learned it again when water got into a heating fuel line. In Alaska, oil and salmon don’t mix either, unless the oil is brushed on the grill before cooking a fillet. However, oil and salmon are in the same boat — economically speaking in Alaska. They both respond to supply and demand. When global oil supplies can’t keep up with demand, the price of a barrel of crude climbs higher. A shortage — or even a fear, a hint or speculation of shortage — drives up prices for the commodity....
One of three major credit-rating agencies downgraded the U.S. government’s creditworthiness by a notch last week. Fitch said it made the move mostly because of the government’s rising debt and ongoing political difficulties of addressing spending and tax policies — “and the erosion of governance.” With a review like that, the nation is lucky it didn’t drop more than one grade. The lower the credit rating, the higher the interest rate the nation may have to pay to borrow money, the same as home or car buyers with low credit scores. No doubt the...
Most changes are forced upon us as the world evolves, and there is little anyone can do about it. Though I want to be the exception to the rule, I grudgingly acknowledge I am not. I resist as much as I can and hold on to small victories, but I am constantly reminded that much of it is outside my control. Such as GCI’s decision to get out of the email business next year. Like many Alaskans, I have had a GCI email account since the 1990s — long before smartwatches and smartphones took away our ability to remember phone numbers and convinced peo...
Alaska is a vast and beautiful state but also one of the most isolated and underserved in terms of broadband access. According to the Federal Communications Commission, only 65% of Alaskans have access to broadband speeds of at least 25 Mbps, compared to 94% of Americans nationwide. This digital divide has serious consequences for Alaskans’ education, health, economy and quality of life. Created by the federal government as a response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a $14.2 billion e...
Borough Assembly Member Jim DeBord is right to warn against “going down the rabbit hole too far” when it comes to enforcing municipal code against junk vehicles and garbage on private property. But it’s a hole the borough needs to fill so that no one gets hurt and so that neighbors don’t see their property values go into a hole. The assembly and borough officials are doing the right thing to look at how they can best enforce municipal code provisions against property owners leaving junk vehicles, garbage, unused machinery and other leftove...
Elected officials who say the proposed Alaska North Slope natural gas project is closer than ever to putting steel pipe in the ground and money in the pockets of construction workers should take a break from their political grandstanding and pay attention to the facts. Not a single analyst tracking gas projects around the world ever mentions Alaska when they list developments with the best potential of getting built. They talk about multiple liquefied natural gas export projects going to construction along the U.S. Gulf Coast, in Qatar,...
Did you know some churches are color coordinated? We use colors to visually represent the purpose of a church season: blue is for Advent hope, purple is Lenten repentance, white is Christmas and Easter joy. The longest season is the one we’re in now, from June to October, and it’s green. Our banners are green, our altar cloths are green, sometimes even our bulletins are green! Green represents growth, and we’re meant to use these green, growing days to practice the lessons we learn from God, to grow a little for our own sake and the sake of ou...
If there ever was a town well suited to a fix-it clinic, it’s Wrangell. The community’s residents pride themselves on adapting, making do with what is available, repairing and reusing and repurposing most anything and everything that can find a second or third life on the island. They’re not hand-me-downs. A better way to think of it is good as new, or close enough. Which is why the fix-it clinic tentatively set for mid-August is a perfect fit for Wrangell. It will be the first time for such an organized second-hand revival. The WCA Earth Branc...
Like many kids, I grew up afraid of lots of things. Maybe I had a longer list than many, but I’m sure they all made sense at the time: Dentists, needles, bees, snakes, putting my head underwater, roller coasters, heights, fastballs thrown anywhere near my head, pimentos stuffed in green olives. I suppose that last one was more a dislike than a fear, but you could always spot my plate at holiday dinners — it was the one with piled-up pimentos that I had carefully picked out of the olives. The dentist scared me so much I would often go wit...
The borough assembly is making another attempt at selling the former hospital property. It contracted last month with a real estate agent who will search near, far and wide for a buyer willing to pay the asking price of $470,000 — or anything close. Last year, the borough’s efforts to sell the building and land produced no down payments at the original minimum of $830,000. The assembly later cut the price in hopes of enticing someone to take ownership of the 30,000-square-foot building and almost two acres of land. It would be great if the bor...
The Alaska Permanent Fund has prospered for almost half a century, growing ever more important for the state’s future. What started as a source of pride and prudence — showing the naysayers going back to statehood that Alaska can manage its money and save for when oil revenues go into decline — the fund has matured into the single-largest consistent source of income for public services. It has profited from good investments through a diversified portfolio. It has prospered from strong public support, protecting it from dumb ideas like writi...
Last year, I wanted to visit a few small towns in Alaska, traveling aboard the state ferries. I liked it very much and even though catching a ferry at 4 a.m. was inconvenient, I loved traveling with the locals. I met so many wonderful people, including a few who just helped prevent me from being a homeless tourist. I made the decision to return to Alaska this summer without using a plane. This was quite an adventure to plan considering I live on the New Jersey shore. The summer ferry schedule was very late this year, and I could not make...
Out of sight, out of mind probably is how most people think about trash. That has pretty much worked for Wrangell since the municipality closed its landfill at the north end of the island more than a decade ago and started shipping its garbage to an environmentally approved commercial landfill out of state. The system generally has worked well, moving the problem off the island. Petersburg and Sitka do the same with their garbage. But, as often happens, the increasing cost could be an issue. Republic Services, which has been hauling and...
Opponents of ranked-choice voting in Alaska want to put an initiative on the ballot so that voters can overturn the law in the 2024 election. To do that, they need to collect signatures from about 26,000 registered voters to win a spot on the statewide ballot. To do that, and then run a statewide campaign to convince a majority of voters to dump the new voting system, they will need money. Six-figure money. Which means fundraising. But the laws around soliciting and accepting campaign donations are a problem for people who want to remain...
We requested that the Sentinel publish a photo of the Wrangell Tlingit & Haida Community Council so that we could be transparent as leaders in the Native community. The reason I asked was because I recalled seeing a picture of the local tribal leaders in my youth and admiring them and thinking, “Maybe someday, I came accomplish the same status.” We were disappointed when we saw that only my picture along with Ed Rilatos was featured in a report in the June 14 Sentinel about totem pole work on Shakes Island. We work hard to accomplish pos...
As Americans celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this week, it’s good to remember that taxes helped drive the push to break away from the king’s control and the laws of Parliament. However, it wasn’t so much taxes themselves that rankled the colonists enough to start a war with England, though even then no one particularly liked paying taxes. The battle cry was over how they were imposed on people and businesses. “No taxation without representation” was the equivalent of a viral Twitter feed in 1765, more than a decade...
There are many joys of aging, such as discounts at stores and services, using it as a convenient excuse for being forgetful, and smiling that few thieves would know how to drive my stick shift VW Beetle. I can also stop obsessing about everything I wanted to do before I was 60 (or 70), because, well, it’s too late now. It’s a blessing in a disguise of gray hair. But there are downsides, too. Like dealing with Medicare, assuming I can find doctors that will accept Medicare. Or figuring out why the keyboard on my laptop (yes, it’s old, too)...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month announced his vetoes for the budget passed by the Legislature. After lawmakers had reached a bipartisan compromise, I was ultimately pleased with the final budget numbers that we passed. Therefore, I and a significant majority in the Legislature were disappointed in what the governor chose to veto. His largest veto was education funding. The legislature passed a $175 million increase in the base student allocation for K-12 public school funding, equivalent to an extra $680 per student. Nearly all of Alaska’s 54 s...
