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The family of Al and Lovey Brock would like to thank the community of Wrangell for all of the support we have received since Al has been sick. We were showered with many delicious meals, air mattresses, a vehicle to use, thoughts, prayers and love. A special thank you goes out to the incredible doctors, nurses and other staff at Wrangell Medical Center. This is what makes living and growing up in a small community special....
Kudos to the Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial Committee. Your years of meetings, emails, fundraisers and hiring “smart hands” have resulted in a stunning project. I hope you realize the impact, and recognize that your time has been well-invested. The primo accessible location, panoramic view, architectural design, spacing of elements, silhouette, variety and quality of materials will elicit responses for decades. It’s always intriguing when hard, cold elements, like metal, cement and nightlights, can meld and touch soft souls. Well done. -- Cindy M...
Wrangell’s public library is 100 years old this week and ready to turn the page for its next century. The library’s history includes several chapters, starting with 802 books on the shelves on opening night Oct. 31, 1921, about equal to the 821 residents counted in the 1920 census. It must have been a long wait for popular books back then. Members of the Wrangell Civic Club led the movement to open a library. The town was just 18 years old and ready for a library, which shared the building at the site where the senior center is now loc...
The nation responded to the harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption and instituted Prohibition in 1920. The idea was that people could not police themselves, the police could not protect people from the corruption and crime associated with alcohol, and the social problems would go away only if booze went away. It didn’t work, crime got worse and people figured out ways to get a drink. The nation brought back legal alcohol sales in 1933. Since then, the federal government, state and local governments have taxed alcohol, heavily in some j...
A steady stream of families came through the door at the BRAVE Resilience Fair on Oct. 16 at the Nolan Center. At least 125 people attended, with many informative conversations about scores of resources available to assist a wide range of needs and interests. Spirits and energy levels were high, and children were fully engaged in challenges, games and opportunities designed with them in mind. The fair included 18 tables of information and services — including a table filled with good quality used clothing for children, all free. The fair a...
Alaskans have been talking about the need to diversity our economy for decades, but it is diversified. In the years after oil began flowing in 1977, the vast majority of Alaska’s economy remained tied to oil. But in the past 20 years, the gross domestic product for the non-oil private sector has more than doubled, which is great news. At its heyday, oil revenue accounted for 90% of state government revenue, but today that number has dropped to about 25%. Alaska’s economy is more diversified, with a year-round tourism industry, a more prominent...
Rather than grumbling about face masks or grousing about politics, many of Wrangell’s students are working to improve the school, the community and the world. They are thinking about their life in the future and the life of others today. Good for them, and good for everyone. The high school students in BASE — Building a Supportive Environment — are working to help feed other students, recognize staff for their good work, support students who are having trouble, and even contribute to a microloan program that helps people in need around the w...
Businesses have learned over the years how to steer around government rules, avoiding many of the requirements that will cost them money. Nothing necessarily illegal about that unless the company goes so far over the line that even the federal bureaucracy can’t help but notice. It’s similar to baseball, when a runner is trying to avoid the tag. Umpires allow a little latitude when the runner steps outside the basepath, but if the player go so far outside the line that they could shake hands with fans in the stands, the ump has no choice but...
Mayor should conduct himself in a more professional manner I would like to personally thank Bob Lippert (letter to the editor, Oct. 7 Sentinel) for standing up for his belief, and the belief of others within this community and elsewhere. Thank you for your forthrightness and courage to speak up. There are people (like myself) who aren’t overly adept at social media platforms. Without the letter you put in the newspaper, I would not have known the mayor’s apparent disdain for myself and others he purports to serve. It is human nature to dis...
Former and current secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, who was instrumental in reimposing the 2001 roadless rule on the Tongass National Forest in 2011 and is planning to reimpose it again before Nov. 1, has announced a new Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy “to help support a diverse economy, enhance community resilience, and conserve natural resources.” This is to be “a collaborative process to invest approximately $25 million in financial and technical resources in sustainable opportunities for econo...
Many thanks to our St. Philip’s family for the caring tribute to honor the memory of Leonard on Oct. 8. Our family and friends extend a sincere thanks to the nurses at Wrangell Medical Center for the wonderful care they provided, the over-the-top service from the dietary team, Dr. Lynn Prysunka for her years of care and more recently Dr. Victor Harrison, the CNAs plus the kindness of the hospital staff. The family is humbled by the cards, food donations, support from friends, and the Wrangell Fire Department for their presence in our lives. K...
The unvaccinated are not idiots. They have been conned, and I feel sorry for them. There are a few who have legitimate health reasons to not get vaccinated, but that number is far fewer than the number of unvaccinated. The reasons most have for not getting vaccinated are rooted in the fear of the unknown and misinformation. I am unfortunately limited by 400 words, and cannot cover all of the science and history here, but I will highlight a few points. Vaccines as a technology have been around for more than 200 years, and have come a long way...
Thanks to Haig Demerjian for his many years of volunteer service on the Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Cindy Martin...
Doctors at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute are there to help make people think and feel better about themselves, to overcome the troubles that disrupt their lives and sometimes endanger the public. They are not there to make a governor look good, or to pledge allegiance to whatever agenda a new governor wants to promote. Good that a federal judge could see the difference. The judge last Friday ruled that two psychiatrists were wrongfully fired for political reasons when Gov. Mike Dunleavy took office in 2018. Their offense, according to the...
Every kid should learn from their parents the modern way to avoid responsibility for misdeeds and missed homework. When you fail or do something stupid or dishonest or regretful, or just don’t like the way the world is spinning that day or how the spicy chili went down, deny you’re at fault and deny the heartburn is self-inflicted. Instead, blame the news media. No one ever believed the dog ate your homework anyway. If you disagree with the facts of science, economics, the law or elections, accuse reporters and editors of making it all up. And...
I have long said that if I were conducting job interviews for any position in Southeast Alaska, my first question would be, “Do you like black and white photography or black and white movies?” These art forms are not stark black and white; what makes black and white movies and photos so striking is the interplay of gray. Seeing and celebrating the variety, contrasts and beauty in the range of the gray tones is critical for appreciating life in Southeast. Last week, I sat on a bench overlooking the water, and the bright, flat expanse of nic...
Once again, Alaska legislators have gaveled back into special session because Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants to show his constituents that he believes in one thing above all else: The largest Permanent Fund dividend in state history. He’s like a wide-eyed kid in the candy shop, only he’s got a record-setting Permanent Fund balance jingling in his pockets and wants to spend some of it to buy chocolates for everyone in the state. Talk about a dangerous sweet tooth that can only decay the future growth potential of the state’s only savings accou...
Maybe someday COVID-19 will be like the flu, which kills an average of 36,000 Americans a year, rather than the coronavirus which has killed more than 700,000 people in the country over past 18 months. Maybe vaccines will become even more effective, health officials will approve the shots for children of all ages, researchers will develop new medicines to heal the sick and new treatments to ease the suffering. Although science can do a lot to block the virus and lessen its death sentence, no pill or shot or wishful thinking can make it go away...
The Lower 48 TikTok craziness continues. September’s challenge was to vandalize school bathrooms. Wrangell schools got off lightly — a few messes in the bathrooms and small items like soap dispensers and toilet paper were stolen. Overall, nothing too serious. In fact, I was feeling fairly confident that we had gotten ahead of this trend, and that we could focus on better and more important things. Unfortunately, there is now a “devious licks” challenge for each month of the school year. October’s challenge is “Smack a Teacher;” December’s ch...
I served in the U.S. Army from mid-1966 to mid-1968 and I have written Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan to let him know that I find the Marine Corps. putting Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller in the brig for his two Facebook comments about the way the U.S. handled its withdrawal from Afghanistan to be unacceptable and sanctimonious. I would hope that Sen. Sullivan, as a member of the military and representing a state with a large active and veteran military population, would feel the same way. I understand the conflict of disobeying a direct order, especially i...
Recently, in a social media post, the mayor of Wrangell called persons who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine “idiots.” I would like to appeal to the mayor's less arrogant self to remind him that unvaxxed people are unvaxxed for many different reasons, many less idiotic than he may be able to perceive from the heights of his ego. Some have legitimate medical issues such as allergies or genetic anomalies that have made them concerned for their health if they get this never-used-previously medical technology. While I understand that bei...
As a former governor of Alaska (2002-2006) and a U.S. senator (1980-2002), I am appalled at the secretary of the Department of the Interior’s cavalier action challenging the legitimacy of recent sales of leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I must remind the secretary that the sale was advertised and consummated with payment made by the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and accepted by the U.S. government. Any attempt to void the sale will be seen as a taking, and litigation will result in substantial d...
It was the same day that Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the state would help hospitals cope with record numbers of COVID-19 patients by assisting with decisions to ration care, and the same day that the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said Alaska is “at the worst place in the pandemic that we’ve had this entire time.” It was the same day that the governor announced Alaska would spend $87 million to bring in out-of-state medical workers to help relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospital staff. And it was the same day Alaska set a r...
Filling out an election ballot isn’t very hard. Ink in the ovals, being careful to stay within the lines, and then turn in the single-sided piece of stiff paper for counting. It’s not much to ask of residents once a year. Wrangell holds its municipal elections next Tuesday. And while several races are uncontested, three school board seats and a borough assembly seat will be decided by voters. This is a chance for residents to have a say in the direction of the borough and the school district, which combined spend more than $10 million a yea...
Earlier this month, the Alaska Legislature gaveled out of its third special session. During the special session, we discussed the recommendations of the Comprehensive Fiscal Plan Working Group, weighed the merits of a COVID-19 bill, and passed an $1,100 dividend. We also considered Senate Bill 3006, a health care bill aimed at providing temporary telehealth and flexible background checks for our hospitals. However, after additional amendments drew concerns from health care providers, the bill did not pass. As our communities fight against this...