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My mom, Marlene Clarke, was a long-term care resident at SEARHC in Wrangell from August 2022 until her recent passing on Feb. 7. I was so impressed by the skilled and compassionate care that she received from the nurses, nursing assistants and doctors. She never wanted to go to the long-term care unit, but in my opinion she received the best care of any nursing home anywhere. I have worked as a registered nurse in Oregon for 32 years. I originally trained as a nursing assistant at Wrangell Medical Center in high school in the early 1970s. At th...
Each year, Hospice of Wrangell recognizes with “Hospice Hearts” those who have provided special assistance to the group. These will be awarded at the group’s annual meeting Monday, Feb. 20. Our hearts this year go to: Nettie Covalt, Anne Morrison, Michael Bania, Maria Byford, Bonnie Demerjian, Bill Rohrer, Donna Rohrer, Artha Deruyter, Kathy Watkins, Gary Watkins, Jim Bailey, Duke Mitchell and Loretta Rice. Special thanks go to the folks at the Nolan Center: Cyni Crary, Tyler Eagle and Michael Bahleda, to Cathy Gross, and to all the ladie...
February is the month when we turn our thoughts to matters of the heart. On the 14th we give our sweetheart a card, a box of candy or maybe take them out to dinner. No matter what is done we think of love to our wife, husband, girlfriend or boyfriend. Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman saint and was commemorated on the 14th of February. Yes, we still celebrate the event to this day. In the course of history there is an even greater event to show love. God sent his only son to show us just how much we are loved. That love was told to us...
The “Wrangell Community Final Arrangements and End of Life Publication” will be given out free to the community this spring. A big thanks from the Hospice Committee to Cathy Gross for donating a spectacular cover photo. – Cindy Martin We would like to thank everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers in the passing of our loved one, Felix Villarma. A special thank you to Dr. Lynn Prysunka and Dr. Victor Harrison for the kind and compassionate care they gave to Felix these past months; for all the cards, phone calls, flowers and food; for B...
Wrangell has come up short in good economic news in recent years, what with business closures, the loss of Alaska Crossings a year ago, not-so-great salmon runs and crab harvests, rising consumer prices and worker shortages. So it was especially welcome news when Trident Seafoods announced it will open its Wrangell plant this summer after a three-year shutdown. The company plans to start work at the downtown waterfront plant within the month, getting it ready for the summer season to handle pinks and chums for the fresh-frozen market. The...
It’s ironic that Wrangell’s Fourth of July depends on the money raised by royalty candidates who sell raffle tickets, lunches, baked goods and a lot more so that the community can enjoy fireworks, street games and other events packed into several days of fun. Ironic because the holiday celebrates the Declaration of Independence, when the colonies told England that Americans did not need royalty to throw a tea party. Wrangell, however, needs all the help it can get from the annual royalty fundraising competition, and the royalty candidates nee...
Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is easier. At least you can rent a backhoe and move the rock. Getting politically caught between more money for public schools and even more money for the Permanent Fund dividend will be the hardest place for legislators this year. The vote will come down to which is more important for Alaska: A long-needed, substantial increase in state funding for public schools, or the governor’s proposed supersized Happy Meal of a nearly $4,000 Permanent Fund dividend? But putting the dividend first and school...
The legislative session has begun, and I am back in Juneau working for you. As we dive into hearing proposed bills and dig into budget details, I want to share my priorities and remind you to reach out to me anytime. One of my biggest priorities this session is to reevaluate the base student allocation and the state funding we allocate to our public school system. K-12 education has been flat funded for most of the past eight years, which, when we take into account inflation, actually has resulted in a significant cut in funding. I know the...
As Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council president, I want to thank Carol Rushmore, the borough’s economic development director, and wish her the best for her retirement coming up in April. In January 2018, Tom Gillen Sr., our council member, and I went to see Carol at City Hall when WTHCC was attempting to assist Patrick Mayer, former superintendent of Wrangell Public Schools, to get the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program housed at the old Wrangell Institute property. Though we were not successful in obtaining approval f...
Sen. Lisa Murkowski succeeded in convincing her colleagues that the Alaska Marine Highway System deserves more federal funding. The proof of her success in helping to write last year’s federal spending legislation is the $284 million in grants announced last week for new ferries, repairs to old vessels, dock improvements and better service to small communities. The state will need to put up about $105 million in matching funds for the grants. Some of that already has been appropriated and the rest can come during this year’s legislative ses...
Wrangell is getting older. Not just the town, but its residents. Which means its labor pool is getting older and leaving the workforce, with fewer younger people to fill job openings. The numbers are not good for businesses, the services they want to provide their customers or the town’s economy. The job notices posted by multiple Front Street businesses, City Hall, the hospital and most everywhere else in town are as constant as rain, and just as demoralizing. “Closed due to staffing shortages” is frustrating for everyone, and far less appre...
Earlier this month, the 117th Congress formally adjourned, marking the close of a remarkably productive legislative stretch for Alaska. The past Congress was one of the best for our state in recent memory, and the bipartisan bills we passed will produce lasting benefits for Wrangell and across Southeast. Most significant is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which I played a lead role on. In just over a year, roughly $3 billion from it has been announced for Alaska. Those dollars are helping us build, expand and modernize everything...
A group of developers has offered the borough $350,000 for the former hospital property, which is $120,000 less than the new asking price and $480,000 less than the old asking price of last year. But what’s really new is that anyone is offering anything for the 1.94-acre property and the more than 30,000-square-foot building, much of which was built 45 years ago. The borough has been looking for buyers for almost a year, and this is the first real offer. The lack of serious interest is an indication that the original price was too high, that a...
The staff, faculty and students at Wrangell’s three public schools work hard and believe in the importance of education. Parents help out with volunteer work, and the overall community pitches in, too. The borough this year is contributing the maximum amount of funding to the school district operating budget allowed under state law. During budget deliberations last May, the assembly boosted the local contribution by more than $300,000 to reach the max for the 2022-2023 school year. And while that local support is enough for this year and p...
A pair of Holland America cruise ships — each with capacity for more than 2,700 passengers and crew — are scheduled to call on Wrangell in 2024. Each will make one visit. Each visit will more than double the community’s population for the day. And each visit will provide the town with a great opportunity to market itself — though also requiring a lot of work to get ready. It’s the first time the major cruise line has included Wrangell in its pre-season advertising. “We decided to add several ports that we have not typically visited to add vari...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has made a political career out of promising more than the state can afford while never supporting taxes to pay the bills, has a new, almost magical plan to help cover his budget deficits. It’s all about collecting so much money for essentially doing nothing that the state could continue avoiding taxes, continue paying the fattest Permanent Fund dividends in history, and continue avoiding an honest long-term fiscal plan to pay for public services. It sounds like a politically induced mirage. The plan? Promise never to l...
An old Staples printer paper box sat in front of me, spewing forth its contents. Instead of reams of 8.5-by-11 copy paper, old lifestyle sections, visitor guides, comics, real estate sections and business pages laid inside and scattered around the box. It was a small fraction of my work in journalism, dating back to the late 1990s, and showing the progression of my work. Hundreds of stories stared back at me, unrecognizable. Most of these I didn’t even remember writing. Others took me right back to the interviews. The ones I thought best illust...
It’s past time for Southeast and coastal Alaska communities to be heard regarding the collapse of our ferry system. It’s time to more forcefully make our needs known by energizing the Southeast Conference, the Southeast Conference of Mayors and other organizations. Southeast and coastal Alaska are entitled to have a highway functioning just like our roaded neighbors to the north. The newly passed federal infrastructure bill provides the federal funding to make this happen, if we don’t let it slip away The Alaska Marine Highway System was create...
There is more to state government in Alaska than just the amount of the annual Permanent Fund dividend. Though voters certainly might think otherwise, judging from the campaigns of many candidates in recent years. But the campaigns are over — at least officially — and it’s time for Alaska’s 60 legislators to start work in Juneau. The session opens Tuesday. No doubt one of the final negotiated compromises before adjournment will be to set the amount of this year’s PFD. It’s become an annual tradition, almost a ritual for lawmakers to politically...
For the 10th year in a row, more Alaskans moved out last year than new residents moved in. That’s a draining fact, with no real plan to plug the leak. To confirm the Alaska Department of Labor’s statistics about population and persistent out-migration, drive no farther than U-Haul. America’s do-it-yourself movers reported this month on its annual numbers for traffic into states and one-way rentals leaving each state. The traffic count for Alaska is not good. The state fell 25 spots in the nationwide ranking of growth states, from 16th place...
Governments levy taxes to pay for community services, such as schools, police and road repairs. And to help pay the public treasury costs of what can be unhealthy personal choices, such as excessive alcohol consumption and smoking. The state and federal governments pick up a large share of the expense of treating smoking-related illnesses, alcohol abuse and responding to alcohol-related crimes, and targeted taxes can help cover those bills. In addition, research has shown that adding taxes to cigarettes discourages consumption. Cigarette...
No doubt liars have served in public office ever since the first candidate printed a handbill and later evolved to taping a radio or TV commercial or clicking on social media. It’s as American as apple pie, and as dishonest as the pie stuffed with applesauce instead of apples. And if the candidates themselves were too honest to tell a fib, their campaign managers or biographers would step in and put out a lie to make the candidate look better. Even the story about how George Washington, our nation’s first president, had fessed up to cut...
I like to think I'm my own worst critic. Every word choice and every photo I run in print are reviewed, critiqued and deemed passable. For example, I rewrote this paragraph three times. When it comes to photography, I enjoy it so much that it's hard to boil down my choices for print. Sometimes, I'll take thousands of photos a month for news stories. Readers will maybe see 20 of those. My only hope is that what is printed has a positive affect for the most part. It doesn't always happen that...
Newly reelected Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week unveiled his proposed state spending plan for the next budget year. By far, the largest single expense in the entire state budget is the Permanent Fund dividend. The governor’s budget proposes no increase in state funding for public schools and a reduction in funding for the university system. No significant increases for road repairs, snow removal, mental health services, or more staff to help the backlog of food stamp applications which has created hours-long hold times for callers needing help. L...
It’s been almost 40 years since I read “The Good War,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning history as told by more than 120 participants in World War II. They remembered the fighting, the injuries and deaths, the personal sacrifices at home and even the moments of hope and kindness. They told the author, Chicago journalist Studs Terkel, of their lives and what the war did to them and what it meant to them. Though I was born after the war (1951), I’ve often thought about how strongly America came together to fight its enemies. Many volunteered for military...