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The federal and state stars are not lining up well for Wrangell’s budget future, at least not for the next few years. And that will mean some hard choices for the community, particularly when it comes to deciding the future of its schools and how to pay for that future. The borough has been using money from a federal program that dates back to 2000 to cover much of its annual contribution to the school district operating budget. But Congress failed to appropriate the money last year — the Republican-controlled U.S. House declined to take up...
I am having a problem as I age. Well, sure, lots of problems, like my legs moving about as smoothly as an engine with cold motor oil on a winter day. Or a memory that drains faster than a smartphone left on video streaming overnight. Or an arthritic neck that moves about as easily as a frozen, rusted bolt. But I can handle those. They are physical reminders of aging. I know they are inevitable and cyclical, like the tides. So I just wait for the tide to change and go about life, though I did add a second handrail to the staircase at home. But...
I know I’ve made it home when I step off the plane and a rush of cedar bark invades my senses. As I step onto the airport tarmac, I see the Stikine River and the tiniest airport terminal I have ever laid eyes on. I’ve returned for my annual summer vacation in Wrangell. Once a small yet vibrant logging and fishing community which has long since diminished, leaving a population of roughly 2,000, what could make a town double in size for two weeks out of the year? That’s simple, the best Fourth of July celebration of my life. The Fourth is the t...
Going on attack against Canada makes as much sense as picking a fight with your best friend and neighbor, the one you share holiday meals with, the one who steps up when disaster hits the neighborhood, the one who helps make sure you and your family are safe. Which is to say it makes no sense whatsoever. President Donald Trump says Canada should become the 51st state. Canadians have declined. If the tiff would have ended there, no harm, no foul. But it hasn’t ended, and the fight could soon cost Alaskans money. Trump is throwing tariffs at Cana...
Elon Musk is right, there is waste in government. No question about it. Just as there is waste in most every household and every business in America. There is no such thing as 100% efficiency. Not everyone gives 110%. Not every good idea, new product or well-intentioned program bats a thousand. And not every kid eats everything on their dinner plate, including the green vegetables. That doesn’t mean you get rid of your kid, close down every business, cancel every project or fire every worker. A responsible leader would look, learn and listen be... Full story
I was surprised to learn of the procedure that has been evidently adopted by the Trump administration which allows high-level advisers like Elon Musk to maintain multiple private income sources that could benefit them substantially from the advice they are giving to our president. Musk is reported to have already received $38 billion in contracts, tax credits and loans from the federal government. He is reported to be seeking the federal government’s underwriting of a SpaceX voyage to Mars. Musk should be required to separate the benefits his b...
The borough received two proposals in the past few months to buy some of its land at the former 6-Mile mill site. One was a pretty firm proposal. The other was a concept. Tideline Construction, part of the half-century-old Juneau-based Channel Construction operation, applied in January to buy more than nine acres of borough-owned land at 6-Mile. Tideland offered to buy two parcels at the assessed value of about $250,000 and would like portions of three neighboring lots. It wants to grow its scrap metal recycling operation and expand into...
Tumultuous certainly applies to the goings-on in the nation’s capital. And not in a good way. While in Alaska’s Capitol, the goings-on are surprising too, but most definitely in a good way. Unlike congressional leadership, which is putting up no public resistance to the Trump/Musk dishonest assault on public services, people’s lives, the rule of law and human compassion, Alaska’s legislative leaders are standing up to do their job. And they are doing it honestly, unlike the deceitful duo of Trump and Musk who seem to be vaccinated against... Full story
In 1975, Gerald Ford, a Republican, was president of the United States. 1975 was 50 years ago — a half century. The U.S. civilian federal workforce was approximately 2.1 million. The population of the United States was 216 million. This made the federal workforce 1% of the U.S. population. In 2024, Joe Biden, a Democrat, was president of the United States. The U.S. civilian workforce was 2.2 million. The population of the United States was 336 million. This made the federal workforce 0.66% of the U.S. population. Over the past 50 years the U...
I love the fact that I can access all the Wrangell newspapers published back to 1898 through the Irene Ingle Public Library’s website. I recently searched the keywords “Bradfield road” and found these articles extremely interesting. Would you please consider reprinting all the Bradfield road articles on a weekly basis? I recently moved back to Wrangell. I was very disheartened about the lack of growth in our economy. City Hall’s archives are full of economic development studies. Instead of wasting money on another study, the community should...
The school district and borough share a money problem. And it’s a community problem that needs an answer this spring. The schools need more money to continue even the basic programs for Wrangell’s 260 students. The state funding formula over the past eight years has been flat, which is to say far short of keeping up with inflation, which is to say wholly inadequate. The borough assembly has tried pitching in, but its check-writing ability is limited by two factors: A state law that puts a cap on local contributions to school district budgets, a...
It may not look like it matters to most Alaskans, but it does. Not just for the money it would raise for the state treasury, but because it highlights a 45-year-old problem. A first-year Wasilla senator has introduced legislation to collect state corporate income taxes from Hilcorp, a privately held company that bought out BP’s North Slope assets in 2020. Similar legislation has been introduced in past years but failed to pass. It’s not that Hilcorp is cheating on its taxes, it’s simply following state law, which has always exempted such priva...
As if years of political interference and, for many elected officials, disinterest weren’t enough to sink the Alaska Marine Highway System, rust and age could finish the job. Maybe the answer is some duct tape to keep the ships running just a little longer until they turn 65 years old and could qualify for Medicare. But that’s too long to wait — the marine highway needs urgent care. The ships are aging, which is a polite way of saying they are long past their prime and getting older and rustier. Salt water accelerates the process. The Matan...
Amid all the upheaval in the nation’s capital — where the only certainty is that the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln memorials haven’t been sold off — comes a new idea to help school children nationwide. Regardless of what anyone thinks of efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, cut funding for programs that encourage vaccinations of children or allow appointed federal officials to dictate what and how colleges should teach, there was news last week that could have long-lasting, positive impacts on students for years. Unknowi...
Though February is the shortest month of the year, there still is plenty of time to get your fingers working at the keyboard — or thumbs on your smartphone — to help guide decisions that will affect the town’s economy, health and children’s fun in the years ahead. It’s as if someone proclaimed February as Community Survey Month. But that’s OK. Better that people have an opportunity to share their opinions before decisions are made than being left behind to complain after the decision making is finished. And it’s a triple header of opportunit...
Wealthy people enjoy their mansions, yachts, fancy cars, private jets and private clubs. No law against being super comfortable, living the good life with servants and avoiding TSA lines and self-serve kiosks. But considering that the ultra-wealthy already own so much, enjoy so many perks in life and never have to ask “how much” when grocery shopping, you would think they could leave alone federal services for everyone else who is not in the same high-income world. I’m not asking them to take a vow of poverty like a nun or even share their...
No matter what any crowd-pleasing elected official says, Alaska cannot afford a long-deserved increase in state funding for schools and a large Permanent Fund dividend. There just isn’t enough money in the state checkbook to do both this year — not unless Alaskans want to start paying an income tax or a state sales tax, which are both even less popular than a middle seat in the last row of a six-hour flight. More than 90% of the spendable dollars in the state budget comes from two sources: An annual draw on Permanent Fund investment ear...
President Donald Trump has strong opinions, strong confidence in his decisions and often uses strong language. All of which can be good traits for a leader. Assertiveness and assurances, particularly in times of crisis or disaster, can help the public feel that someone is taking charge and will make things better. Nations need leaders who can bring people together in times of sadness. Such as the day after a deadly crash between a passenger jet and a military helicopter at Washington National Airport last week. Trump started his press...
I am writing to express my outrage and disappointment over the recent actions of our school district activities director, Tammi Meissner, and Superintendent Bill Burr. As a parent of a student athlete, I am appalled by the strict enforcement of a fee-payment rule that resulted in two of our top student athletes being denied travel to a Jan. 23-25 basketball tournament in Craig. This is not the first time this issue has arisen. Just weeks ago, three other student athletes faced the same situation, initially being denied travel due to late...
An article appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel about Dale Borgford’s proposal to turn Wrangell’s former 6-Mile sawmill site into the trash-burning capital of Southeast Alaska. I was sent a letter that Dr. Gregory Duncan and Dr. Anne Duncan wrote to the Wrangell borough assembly and Borough Manager Mason Villarma. They raise extremely valid concerns about the extreme hazards and drawbacks of this proposal. Sitka’s municipal trash incinerator is now closed. If something like this was ever proposed again, I would spend every last dime I had t...
Sitka and Ketchikan have much in common: They both have airports on islands — Japonski (Sitka) and Gravina (Ketchikan). Yet there is a significant difference: Sitka has a bridge to their island and Ketchikan has a ferry. I believe there is another alternative. The late Don Young, while a member of the U.S. House, was successful in obtaining initial federal funding for planning and engineering for a bridge to Gravina Island, but we had a change in governors and the new governor moved the money to needed road projects in Central and Interior A...
Admittedly, a lot of people avoid surveys. They have other things they want to do with their time than answer questions. But this isn’t a political poll or an advocacy group asking your opinion about a hot topic, or a company asking how much you love their product. The borough has given the Sustainable Tourism Lab at Oregon State University a homework project. The students will run an online survey of Wrangell residents, asking their opinions about — yes, you’re right — tourism. What’s good about it, what’s not so good. What are the benefit...
I remember as a kid accompanying my mom to the elementary school a few blocks from our house. No, not because the principal had called her into the office to talk about my behavior. That came later, in high school and college. Such as in college, when the dorm manager called my dad at work to tattle on me. He called my dad collect. For people too young to know, that’s when the person making the call instructed the operator to bill the person getting the call, “collecting” the toll. That was back when you paid for long-distance calls by the expe...
The Wrangell School District — its students, staff and parents — will need to practice deep-breathing exercises to relieve the stress as they wait to see if the state Legislature and governor can agree on adequate funding for public education while at the same time waiting on Congress to reauthorize a quarter-century-old federal aid program for rural schools. These are significant and serious stress issues, particularly for Wrangell. State funding, based on a per-pupil formula, and the federal Secure Rural Schools money that comes through the...
The country is looking at tariffs the wrong way. This isn’t a new problem — we’ve been making the same mistake since the first U.S. tariffs on imported goods in 1790. But the self-inflicted case of mistaken identity has gone on far too long and it’s time to fix it. The problem is that the U.S. imposes tariffs on what we buy, which is why the added cost often ends up hurting no one but ourselves. And now the country is talking about even more and larger tariffs on what we buy for our homes, business and factories — the very items that many cons...