Sorted by date Results 101 - 125 of 173
It took a consultant’s report for the collective management of the Alaska Marine Highway System and state Department of Transportation to realize that of 250 job applicants over the past year, just four were hired to work on the ships. At that rate, the ferry system would need close to 10,000 applicants to reach full staffing. The system has been seriously short-staffed for more than two years, losing crew to resignations and retirements faster than it could hire new workers. The crew shortage forced cutbacks in service, keeping ships tied to t...
State officials have known for months that delays in processing applications for food stamp benefits were denying financial assistance to thousands of eligible households — including children — who needed help to afford three meals a day. There were multiple explanations: Longstanding staffing shortages, a cyberattack on the computer system two years ago, more paperwork and income verification requirements after the state ended its pandemic emergency declaration months earlier. But children cannot swallow explanations, especially ones far pas...
Wrangell is fortunate its two state legislators know that a good education pays years more dividends for Alaskans than the short-term gain a larger PFD provides. They are on the long-term, good-thinking side of what is shaping up as a monumental debate this year embroiling lawmakers and the governor: The more the state spends on the Permanent Fund dividend, the less money is left in the treasury to help schools. Rep. Dan Ortiz and Sen. Bert Stedman between them have more than 25 years of legislative service. They have heard all the arguments...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy made a smart decision last week when he issued an administrative order directing state personnel officials to review and change job requirements where appropriate so that applicants could more easily substitute “practical experience” for a college degree. Almost one in six state government jobs were vacant in December, according to the governor’s Office of Management and Budget. The most empty desks were at one of the most important agencies: Almost one in four positions at the Department of Natural Resources were vacan...
Fewer Alaska high school graduates are qualifying for the state’s largest scholarship program; fewer who would qualify are bothering to participate in the program which requires that they attend college in Alaska; and more students who attend college out of state are choosing to set up their life outside Alaska. The numbers are not encouraging, unless you run a college in the Lower 48 that wants to attract more Alaskans. While elected officials debate the amount of the annual Permanent Fund dividend, who is tougher on crime, who is more s...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
No doubt Wrangell businesses do not stock everything on your holiday shopping list, but they probably have something on hand for most everyone on your list. It’s just a matter of being adaptive, like when the barge is late and you have to change the recipe for tonight’s dinner. Or when the plane is canceled due to weather and you have to host your visitors for another day, even though you were really ready to have the home to yourself. Or when you were late to the Girl Scouts cookie sale and your favorites, the Thin Mints, are sold out and you...
The borough has scheduled a public forum for 5:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Nolan Center to discuss a $2.5 million question: What would the community like to see done with the 6-Mile sawmill property which the borough purchased this summer? Sell the 39 acres, lease it in whole or in part, put public money into the development or let private dollars carry the cost of whatever may happen at the site are among the options. Tourism, industry, fisheries, storage — maybe some future use no one has ever really considered. Whatever may happen, next w...
Wrangell wants more visitors and the money they bring to town. But to compete against all the other Southeast ports that also want more tourism dollars to flow into their economy, Wrangell needs to provide accommodations and activities to help make visitors’ time in town enjoyable. That includes more public restrooms. Other than the two stalls in the small borough-owned restroom stop behind the Elks Lodge, and the facilities at the Nolan Center, there are no public restrooms in the downtown area. It’s not fair to expect businesses to pro...
The borough assembly said it was willing to discuss the issue when the Petersburg assembly suggested it’s time for the two communities to consider helping pay for restoring the Inter-Island Ferry Authority for runs between the towns. But there is a better option. It’s smaller than the 190-passenger ferries, it’s more affordable, and it’s local. Wrangell charter boat operators who already provide on-call runs to move people and goods between the two neighboring communities have said they could provide the service at a much lower cost than th...
When you’re trying to sell an unlivable house that needs an awful lot of expensive work — a fixer-upper, as it’s politely called — you keep dropping the price until someone comes along who wants the property and can afford to completely rebuild or maybe tear down and build a new home on the lot. No matter what you think that worn-down house with all its problems and unusable floor plan is worth in memories, it’s only really worth what someone else can make of it. The unused former Wrangell hospital is that fixer-upper, which is costing t...
The almost-four-decade-old Wrangell Public Safety Building still needs millions of dollars of repairs due to water damage, rot and aging equipment. The fact that voters defeated a municipal bond issue last month to pay for those repairs doesn’t in any way change the reality: The work is needed, and money is needed to pay for the work. “This community has to have this, whether they believe it or not,” Assemblymember David Powell said during assembly discussion of possible next steps last week. “We can’t be looking five years down the road at t...
The election is over, thankfully. No more campaign calls, tweets, texts or flyers in the mail. The polls closed around the state at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and now all that remains is to wait for the count. Which will require patience. That doesn’t mean anyone is stealing votes or changing ballots or messing with democracy and the will of the people. It just means that tens of thousands of Alaskans voted early, same as tens of millions of Americans. Some of those votes will be counted along with all the in-person ballots on Nov. 8, but many will not b...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy cares about Alaska and wants good things for its citizens. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has done serious and likely permanent damage to the state ferry system; that he has not supported adequate school funding; that he sliced the University of Alaska budget, cutting into student enrollment; and that his fixation on the size of the Permanent Fund dividend is politically popular but fiscally irresponsible. If re-elected, will Dunleavy’s second term be a repeat of his first year in office in 2019, when he was hea...
Four-term state House member Dan Ortiz deserves another two years representing Wrangell, Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island communities. He knows the district, knows the issues and has been persistent in his work in Juneau to ensure that his communities are not forgotten when the state budget is put together and when legislation is drafted. Ortiz is not a speechmaker but is not shy about standing up for the ferry system, community needs such as state money for improvements to Wrangell’s water treatment plant, and better funding for s...
Alaska’s constitution doesn’t need an overhaul, a new transmission or rewiring. It could use a tune-up to restrict campaign contributions from rich people, corporations and political action committees, and a new set of mud flaps to protect the Permanent Fund from political meddling. But it doesn’t need a wide open constitutional convention to take apart the vehicle in hopes that it will still run well after it is put back together. Vote no on the constitutional convention on the Nov. 8 ballot. It’s just not needed, and Alaska cannot afford...
Lisa Murkowski has represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate since December 2002. She has done it well and deserves another term. The fact that Murkowski, a lifelong Republican, has disagreed with her party at times, been at odds with former President Donald Trump, or sometimes worked and voted with Democrats does not diminish her abilities, her knowledge of the issues and her hard work in the Senate. Those qualities are positives, not negatives, though her angry detractors portray those same qualities as disloyal to the party. Rather, they show...
The Wrangell School District could face a financial squeeze in the next several years, forcing hard decisions over which programs get cut, what classes go away and how much staff is left. It’s not that the administration or staff did anything wrong. Just as school districts statewide, Wrangell has been waiting on some legislators and governors to put aside their biases against teacher unions, their personal views on political issues and their tendency to hold schools responsible for every shortcoming in society, and move to approve an i...
