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The borough assembly made a good choice in erasing the “interim” from Jeff Good’s title as borough manager. He has done a solid job since signing on Nov. 1 until the assembly could decide on a long-term hire. Stability and continuity are helpful and appreciated, especially for Wrangell as it faces multiple costly decisions in the years ahead. But the assembly didn’t go about the hiring decision the right way last week. No malfeasance, nothing so dramatic as that. The members were well intentioned when they met in executive session Jan. 12 and...
Polite requests didn't work, so I'll try bribery. Not the illegal kind that infects corrupt nations and businesses, but the nice kind, sort of like how your parents offered you dessert if you finished the broccoli on your plate. Think of a blank sheet of paper or an empty computer screen as that piece of broccoli. And think of a free 2022 Alaska calendar by award-winning Juneau photographer Mark Kelley as your dessert. Just as colorful as and artistic as chocolate cake, an ice cream sundae or a...
Every year, before the Legislature convenes in Juneau, lawmakers submit their “pre-file bills,” a chance to tell the public which important issues they want to work on during the session. Just as cities and boroughs statewide submit their annual wish lists of local projects for legislative funding, the pre-files are a wish list of each lawmaker’s priorities. And just as most local projects will not receive state funding, most pre-file bills will fail to become law. Most will not even get a hearing before a legislative committee, which is OK. L...
The deep snow and strong winds are making the moose in Alaska’s Interior cranky. Who can blame them. More than four feet of snow fell in Fairbanks in December, with over six feet in Denali National Park. Moose have long, strong legs, but those fur-covered limbs need to carry them around until spring, when there is something more to eat for energy than frozen tree bark and scraps of leftover Halloween pumpkins frozen into the ice. Grubhub does not deliver to moose. And even though they don’t have to worry about COVID-19 or wear a face mask or...
The successful conservative management and investment philosophy of the Alaska Permanent Fund must be restored. The importance of the Permanent Fund’s contribution to the economy of Alaska cannot be overstated. Its current value is more than $83 billion. The earnings from the fund account for about two-thirds of total state revenue. Without that revenue, we would be close to becoming wards of the federal government, like we were as a territory. Alaskans need to be kept informed of what the trustees are doing with their money. The public must b...
For those of you who knew Chuck Helland, you knew that he loved everyone. There is nothing more that he loved than a good conversation with a friend and a shared smile. Pops knew he was loved and in turn we knew we were loved. Pops and mom had moved to Juneau because mom’s health was fragile and the closest medical facility that could help her was in Juneau. When we lost mom in 2006, our sister Alora took pops home with her and Irene in Wrangell. After two years, they felt that pops was strong enough to get an apartment at senior housing. S...
The first cruise ships are less than four months away from pulling into Southeast Alaska ports. After a year of no ships in 2020, followed by a year of weak returns in 2021, the region is looking forward to a healthy number of cruise passengers this summer — maybe even a record number. Businesses, their employees and sales tax collectors dream of a strong 2022 for a healthy rebuilding from the sickly COVID-19 economics of the past two cruise ship seasons. The emphasis this year should be on healthy. No cruise company is going to want to o...
It’s helpful to remember the past, to learn from both the good and bad. Neither should be forgotten. Reliving the good can bring us joy and give us a chance to say thank you. Vowing never to repeat the really ugly moments can make us smarter and make our communities better. This week presents just such an opportunity. It was a year ago, Jan. 1, that I purchased the Wrangell Sentinel for the third time, proving that you can pay an accountant for wise tax and financial advice but you don’t have to pay attention. It’s been exhaustively fun, recon...
Maybe we need to pay more attention to what kids are saying. Especially around the holidays, when adults can get wrapped up in ribbons and bows and sometimes forget it is the thought, not the gift that really matters. Youth and innocence make for honest, direct answers. Funny ones, too. No politically calculated holiday greetings from these children. Sure, they’re kids, so they want toys and games and anything electronic. But in their heartfelt letters to Santa, Wrangell elementary school students told us what’s important to them and what sho...
If the almost 5.5 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide seem remote and irrelevant in Wrangell; if you feel a safe distance from the 805,000 deaths across the United States; and if the 946 deaths reported in Alaska as of Monday don’t touch anyone in your life, then think about your closer neighbors. State records show COVID-19 as a cause of death for 14 people in Ketchikan, 15 in Juneau, six in Sitka, three in Petersburg, six in Prince of Wales Island communities and Hyder, three in Angoon, Hoonah and Yakutat, and one in Wrangell. That’s alm...
Early last January, our weekly papers included very nice Mark Kelley 2021 calendars as we welcomed Larry Persily’s return as the Sentinel’s owner and editor. I have enjoyed my calendar all year, along with our improved, expanded local paper. Thanks for a great first year, and for the calendar! Alice Rooney...
I admit it, I’ve gotten old. Never thought it would happen to me. Certainly not in the ‘60s, when I was in college. Not when my wife and I moved from Chicago to Wrangell in 1976 and thought we’d never run out of energy working seven days a week at the Sentinel. Not even when I broke a leg playing softball in 1999 or shattered a kneecap in 2001. It’s not that I believe in eternity. Rather, I knew I would age, but never expected I would get cranky about “the way things used to be,” much like how your favorite uncle makes everyone listen to h...
Letting politics influence management decisions of the Alaska Permanent Fund is like inviting an acquaintance with COVID-19 to dinner. You may get lucky and nothing bad happens, but the possibilities for misery are real. One of the tenets of an endowment fund is to minimize risk, or at least measure the risks against the potential gains. It’s unclear whether the Permanent Fund’s board of trustees were thinking about that when they voted 5-1 last week to fire Angela Rodell, who has served as executive director the past six years. During her ten...
For the sake of this holiday political fable, let’s assume there is a Santa Claus and the all-knowing gift giver tracks your behavior 365 days a year, not just the month or so before Christmas — much like your phone, your web browsing history, Alexa, front-door camera or whatever other electronic tracking device that watches over you. Santa knows who has been naughty or nice long before anyone starts wrapping December presents. And let’s hope that Santa — and coastal Alaska voters — have been making the list and checking it twice for the past...
The state of Alaska has spent decades trying to predict, forecast and even guesstimate the price of oil in an ongoing effort to help the governor and legislators draft an annual spending plan. If state officials truly could know the price of crude a month, a year, two years out, budget-building work would be much easier. Or at least more accurate. And while Alaska’s budget health, public services, education funding and road maintenance is much more dependent these years on Permanent Fund earnings than on oil revenues, any periods of high oil p...
In fourth grade, my daughter, Dawson, said she wanted to be a doctor and I thought, “Oh, isn’t that cute.” She said it again when she was in eighth grade, and I thought, “Oh, that’s weird, she still thinks she wants to be a doctor.” Then she told me again when she was in 10th grade, and it drove me to my knees. I went to bible study that week, and with a broken spirit and tears rolling down my cheeks, I told the people at bible study that my daughter wants to be a doctor and there is no way I can afford schooling for her to be a doctor. And...
The Wrangell Institute was a big part of history — for the Native students who went to school there, for the community and the state. The Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, which operated at the site above Shoemaker Bay from 1932 to 1975, was among several federal- and church-run schools common across Alaska for much of the 20th century. Many of the schools, including the Wrangell Institute, graduated a generation of leaders who served important roles as Alaska Natives gained recognition and rights long denied. But, sadly, many of the s...
Sometimes, connecting the dots is the best way to learn. The first set of dots cost $87 million in federal pandemic aid money. That’s the price of the contract the state signed with an Atlanta-based for-profit health care staffing firm to provide up to 470 medical professionals to help out at 15 Alaska hospitals and medical clinics, schools too, for 90 days. The travelers helped relieve the strain during the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak this fall, when Alaska was in record territory for new cases and hospitalizations. The Wrangell Medical C...
We just wanted to thank everyone who helped out with Lester Schultz’s memorial on Nov. 14. A big thank you to Jake Harris for letting us use the Stikine Inn for the services last minute, Spenser Stavee with Breakaway Adventures for taking us to Olive Cove to spread his ashes, and to all who brought food, helped set up and helped clean up. We really appreciated the help throughout the day. Krystal and Shayna Schultz...
There is an inescapable irony to the fact that Alaska joined with a dozen other states in suing the federal government over their right to cut taxes. This from a state that has no property tax on homes or businesses, only on the oil industry. No state sales tax. No personal income tax since 1979. The lowest motor fuel tax in the nation, by a long shot. There were few federal strings attached to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which handed states hundreds of billions of dollars earlier this year to help pay the bills of the...
I am not an economist, though I like learning and thinking about economic problems. Nor am I a statistician, human resources manager or director of hiring at a business. But I do think a lot about why so many employers in Wrangell, around the state and across the country are finding it so hard recruiting people to fill vacant jobs. As of October, while there were 7,300 fewer jobs in Alaska than a year ago, there were three times as many people unemployed, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics. Yet, it seems some days there are more...
Congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the Irene Ingle Public Library. Bringing the joy of reading and love of learning to the people of Wrangell for a century is certainly worthy of celebration. The Wrangell library holds a special place in my heart as it was there that I was first introduced to the magic that a library holds. As a young child, I remember sitting on the floor of the library on rainy days, flipping through picture books. My first library card ever was from the Irene Ingle Public Library and was likely issued by Irene...
Regarding the opinion column “From The Publisher” in the Nov. 10 Sentinel, “Accuracy and fairness count in headlines, too,” the author, Larry Persily, only presents us with one side of how headlines can be biased. Yes, the headline, “CDC says go ahead and shoot the kids with Pfizer Covid vaccine,” from the Must Read Alaska website, was slanted, but how about also showing us one with a different perspective. For instance, there was a headline from the New York Times, dated Oct. 10, 2021, “FDA says Pfizer vaccine’s benefits outweigh risks...
As commercial fishermen traveling to and from the fishing grounds, we saw an increase in air and water pollution by the cruise industry — the summer of 2019 was very concerning. The mixing zone between Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound where it is legal for the cruise ships to dump their gray water was streaked with blackish, foamy water pollution miles long and hundreds of feet wide. The hillsides were lined with blue smoke from their exhaust scrubbers that clung to the trees all summer long. The Department of Environmental Conservation o...
On Saturday, Baha’is and their friends in Wrangell will commemorate with millions in communities across the world, the 100th anniversary of the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the eldest son of Bahá’u’lláh, prophet-founder of the Bahá’i faith. He is regarded as the Perfect Exemplar and living embodiment of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, which impressed upon society that religion is a cause for well-being through balanced spiritual and material advancement. He announced that the long-awaited time for humanity to unite had arrived. As a 9-yea...