Sorted by date Results 27 - 51 of 1056
Wrangell hasn’t been this excited about a harvested spruce tree since the sawmills were running. Only the tree that is the subject of this month’s enthusiasm wasn’t cut down, it was dug up. Crews dug, then dug some more, cut some roots and then lifted the 80-foot-tall tree and its massive root wad out of the ground on Zarembo Island on Oct. 19 for a short ride to Wrangell, where it will go on display Saturday, surrounded by a weekend of activities. Not to diminish its brief display in Wrangell, but the tree’s real destination is the West La...
Making it easier for Alaskans to cast their ballots shouldn’t be about how they vote, which way they lean politically or how much they favor one party over another. Admittedly, elections are partisan. Sadly, increasingly so. Candidates, their fat-funded political action committees and political parties have turned the nation’s elections into an endless stream of negative attack ads that prey on the public’s fear of anything that will get them to the polls. It’s bad enough that partisanship has taken over election campaigns. But those same ug...
In state House District 1 there are three candidates: Jeremy Bynum, Republican, and Agnes Moran and Grant EchoHawk, both running as nonpartisan. But are they really nonpartisan? Moran, who has donated to the Democrat party and its fundraising mechanisms more than 98 times since February 2019, raises significant questions about her nonpartisan claim. Specific instances include contributions to Democrat U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, the Progressive Era PAC (described as a Democrat liberal organization), and seven donations to Democrat presidential...
Alaskans will be asked on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot if they want to vote yes and repeal the state’s ranked-choice election system. Opponents of ranked voting collected enough signatures to put the question on the ballot, though they violated state campaign finance laws to get there — a rank and dishonorable start. Alaskans would be better served to vote no on Proposition No. 2. Ranked-choice voting, adopted by Alaskans in 2020, ensures that the winning candidates in state and congressional races have the support of a majority of voters. Not...
Supporters of Herbert Hoover’s 1928 campaign for president ran newspaper ads with the headline, “A Chicken for Every Pot.” An impractical campaign pledge, though maybe it helped: Hoover won the election. But he then presided over the start of the Great Depression in 1929, when many could afford neither a chicken nor a pot. Almost 100 years later, political campaigns are still promising a better life for voters, though the price tag has risen far above the cost of a chicken, or a pot, or even an entire new kitchen. In rare cases, the count...
The Nolan Center is so much more than a museum, though it certainly excels in its historical role. It’s the center of activity in town. It’s a meeting place, a conference center, movie theater, visitor information center. It’s something for everyone, all under one roof. And it’s 20 years old. Actually, 20 years and 3 months old, but Nolan Center staff figured they couldn’t very well manage a big community birthday party for residents in the middle of the visitor season, so the celebration was moved to 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14. A birthday cake cou...
Southeast Alaska communities and their local newspapers share a common problem: Not enough people, and the ones who are here are getting older. For the communities, an aging and declining population means not enough people to fill jobs. It means falling further behind in providing services that attract and retain new residents, making the situation worse. For newspapers, it means a declining population of readers as aging residents who grew up with their local paper die out. Younger generations are so unconcerned about the necessity of...
The community is climbing up the right tree as it prepares to celebrate an early start to the holiday season Oct. 25-27. The borough’s economic development team, the Nolan Center, chamber of commerce, U.S. Forest Service and other branches of community service are going all out to deck out the weekend as Wrangell will for the first time see and then say goodbye to the special tall tree that will truck its way to a spot on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. It’s not going out on a limb to say it’s a big deal for the town. This year’s Capitol...
Whichever side wins the national election Nov. 5 needs to think about why they did not get a larger share of the vote. Not that they ever really expected to win over the hearts, minds and ballots of 60% of voters. The honest reality is that most candidates would accept 51% as a clear victory in this divisive world. OK, maybe they’re prefer 52%. But they’ll happily declare a mandate on the thinnest of margins. Gloating is ugly. It makes sore losers out of disappointed losers. Even worse, many of those sore losers are increasingly embracing anger...
The Public Safety Building needs work. Water and rot damage have taken their toll on the almost 40-year-old wood-frame building. Yes, the borough could have and should have spent more on maintenance and repairs in years past but that doesn’t change the fact that the work is past due and the community needs to pay the bill. Voters are asked on the Oct. 1 municipal election ballot to approve a $3 million bond issue to help pay for new roofing and siding and other critical repairs. The Sentinel supports a “yes” vote. The borough would borro...
To say I am resistant to change is an understatement. I acknowledge that it happens in life — after all, I am about to turn 73 — but that doesn’t mean I embrace or enjoy it. Rather, I quietly accept change, though not happily, just like I accept that rainy fall comes after summer, and that my 20-year-old spices don’t seem to smell like anything anymore and it is time to buy new jars. My resistance to change in life was obvious when I was getting coffee with a friend recently and pulled actual change out of my pocket, just as I’ve done sinc...
The school board made the right decision last week to pull the plug on accepting a federal grant to purchase an electric school bus. Just because the EPA grant would have covered 90% of the purchase price doesn’t mean it was a good fit for Wrangell at this time. In this case, board members discussed it at a public meeting and voted down the idea. But it was a close vote, with two of the five board members wanting to go ahead with the purchase. It was a close vote because there are good reasons to run an electric bus rather than continue b...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy made the pledge and he’s stickin’ to it. Too bad he is putting national anti-tax politics above tax fairness in Alaska. Specifically, he vetoed legislation this month that would have taxed car rentals through online platforms the same as car rentals from brick-and-mortar agencies with local offices. And he vetoed legislation two years ago that would have taxed vape and e-cigarette products the same as traditional tobacco products. The car rental fairness legislation passed with 51 out of 60 state senators and rep...
In early August an ad hoc meeting was held in Ketchikan by a group consisting of knowledgeable residents who had followed the Alaska Marine Highway Service since its inception in the early 1960s. The purpose of was to discuss how to revise the system. We addressed AMHS maintenance. We discussed using money made available to AMHS through the federal infrastructure legislation to restructure the system. Finally, we discussed the need to reestablish the run to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Operationally, we currently have only one vessel, the...
The borough’s Economic Development Department has a caffeinated idea to energize the community’s push for economic stability and, in time, some growth would be good, too. The plan is for a series of “economic coffee chats” the third Friday of every month through March, starting Oct. 18. The location will vary each month. The department is calling the informal sessions “Our Town, Our Future.” It’s a good time to talk about a better future. Wrangell needs some new ideas to reverse years of population loss. Even worse, the state’s latest forecast...
We deliver you the Sentinel as one piece, whether in print or online. If you’re reading this in print, just pretend that the sheets of paper folded together are one piece. Regardless of how you read the paper, it has five elements: Paid advertising, news, the Sentinel’s editorial, my personal opinion column and opinions from our readers. Each has different rules and standards. Each is essential for newspapers that want to serve their community. Paid ads are pretty simple: The advertiser, be it a business or an individual or a government agency,...
On July 26, KSM Mining ULC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seabridge Gold, received its “substantially started” determination from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office for its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project. KSM is a huge proposed open-pit and underground gold-copper-silver mine targeting coastal mountains of northwestern B.C., within the headwaters of both the Nass River, which lies entirely within B.C., and the transboundary Unuk River, which flows into Southeast Alaska near Ketchikan. Why does this matter? Acc...
In less than four weeks, Wrangell voters will cast their ballots in the Oct. 1 municipal election. Voting is easy — cast an early ballot at City Hall any weekday starting Sept. 16, or vote at the Nolan Center on election day. The harder part is deciding how to vote. The decisions include contested races for mayor, the school board and port commission, and two ballot propositions: One question asks voters whether the borough should borrow $3 million to start repairs to the 40-year-old Public Safety Building, and the other asks if voters want t...
Remember those perplexing math problems in school? Not the easy ones that required only simple subtraction, addition, multiplication or division. I’m talking about those word problems that told what seemed like a purposefully confusing story about trains moving in opposite directions at different speeds and you had to calculate how far apart they would be in an hour. I figured the purpose was to teach us problem solving. Though in my early school years, the biggest math problem I wanted to solve was how to buy 25 cents worth of candy when I h...
The U.S. Postal Service expects to lose $7 billion this year. That makes the USPS dependent on Congress, which is never a healthy dependency. Email and digital technology are forcing first class mail into the dead letter bin of history, slicing deeply into a key revenue source for the Postal Service. It’s more painful than the worst paper cut. So it’s no surprise that the federal agency continues to raise rates, though even at last month’s increase to 73 cents, a stamp is still pretty affordable — it’s lower than most developed countries...
Candidates have long waged election campaigns on catchy slogans, snappy jingles, popular promises and misleading but memorable mottos. It’s getting worse. The music is better but the lyrics are lacking. Vagueness is in vogue. The less specific candidates are with their actual plans to fulfill campaign promises, the less the opposition and analysts can pick apart the flaws. Running for president or Congress? Promise more funding for child care, lower taxes, lower prices at the grocery store, stronger defense, defeating China for jobs and i...
Wrangell’s Public Safety Building is two-thirds of its way to becoming a senior citizen. It’s not yet at the knee replacement or artificial hip stage, but it certainly needs a new roof along with replacement of siding and multiple structural pieces damaged and weakened by years of water and rot. The 40-year-old building needs work. Voters may get a chance in the Oct. 1 municipal election to schedule the building for repairs. The assembly has talked for years about whether to repair or replace the building, always scared off by price tags of...
Some of the best times in life are when a bad thing turns into a good thing. When frustration and disappointment transform into happiness. It’s not magic, though it seems magical. It’s when someone you don’t even know steps up and does something nice. I recently flew to Washington, D.C., and being frugal, which sounds so much better than cheap, took a 53-minute train ride from the suburban airport to the stop closest to my downtown hotel, rather than the more convenient but 20 times more expensive taxi. The Metro train station was almost a mil...
The state has long allowed early voting, making it easy on Alaskans to never miss marking a ballot in an election year. And now the borough is doing the same thing. Good for borough officials and the assembly to approve the change in voting procedures, good for residents and a good move for representative government, which is more representative of the public when more people vote. Rather than require voters to make time only on election day or go through a cumbersome absentee voting process to cast their ballot in advance, the assembly has...
To modernize an old expression, Alaskans are fiddling while the Permanent Fund burns. Not literally, of course. The Permanent Fund’s stocks and bonds, real estate deeds, lease agreements and investment contracts are all safely stored. But the fiddling part, that’s true. And because it’s a state election year, we can expect a lot of candidates to turn up the volume on their fiddles. No matter how off-key the music, no one ever loses an election by playing happy tunes about big Permanent Fund dividends. No one wins an election talking about...
