Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 123
I am extremely unhappy about the misleading headline in the June 26 Sentinel. I was shocked when I first read it and said immediately that it was very poor reporting. I believe the Wrangell Sentinel owes Mr. Wayne Johnson, the city and the public a sincere apology. I am sympathetic to Mr. Johnson’s situation. Your reporting made it appear that he was taking advantage of Wrangellites. It was very unfair and detrimental to progress for Wrangell. I am also very sad for Wrangell. It was an exciting and hopeful opportunity to have a purchaser for t...
More than 27 years ago, we arrived in Wrangell with our family as the new pastor at Bible Baptist Church and, soon thereafter, taking on the role as produce manager at City Market for the next 22 years of our time here. Thank you, Benn Curtis and Chet Powell for that opportunity. Wrangell welcomed our family with open arms, as did our new church family. Our children, Nathan, Westley and Mindy, experienced and enjoyed making a lifetime of memories living in such a different place than their familiar Midwest beginnings. Yes, the geographic...
I read with great interest the guest opinion by Laurie Overbay-Barker in the April 24 Wrangell Sentinel. She brought up important issues related to the challenging and invaluable work of paid caregiving. My thoughts are running in a related direction. Our town’s aging population has a growing number of folks who could benefit from support to maintain an enjoyable and safe quality of life. We currently have a patchwork system of family, community and paid supports that doesn’t cover everyone. Current caregivers, paid and unpaid, often feel ove...
According to a report from Housing Alaskans, on average, southern Southeast residents spend between 50% and 60% of their monthly income on rent. Above-average rents are particularly harmful to lower-income families, leading to an alarming increase in the number of families with housing needs. Child care expenses make up a particularly large portion of numerous families’ budgets. Parents without access to affordable child care can be faced with the difficult decisions of cutting essential expenses elsewhere to pay for child care. In some c...
April is National Prevention of Child Abuse Month. The Alaska Children’s Trust partners with organizations around the state to create awareness and help nurture healthy families. BRAVE is one such group working in Wrangell to build a positive outlook for the future for our children and youth. Our work is based on our core values of Building Respect and Valuing Everyone (BRAVE). Too often, our society thinks of raising strong children as a parent or caregiver’s responsibility alone. This simply isn’t true. Community support and famil...
The fishing industry has been a significant economic driver in the Southeast region for many years, and its importance has only grown over the past two decades. As a public official for the past decade, I have been working hard to support the industry, and I will continue to do so. Unfortunately, the recent collapse of salmon prices worldwide, due to Russia's actions to fund its war efforts in Ukraine, has caused serious challenges to our Southeast Alaska commercial fleet and the industry as a whole. Therefore, support from various entities is...
The community of Wrangell never stops showing up for each other. It is the quality that I most appreciate about living here. It keeps me humble and hopeful for the future, because I see examples of people caring for each other every day in Wrangell. Sometimes in little ways. Sometimes in big ways. On Saturday, March 16, I got off a plane from Washington, D.C., and attended the public memorial service for Ottie Florschutz. People brought food, memories, photos, laughter and tears to share with family and friends, as the community grieved...
On March 14, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed Senate Bill 140, which would have provided the largest increase in the base student allocation state funding formula for public schools since its inception. This legislation aimed to boost the base rate by $680 per student, about an 11% increase, a critical measure to uphold the state's constitutional duty to provide public education to all children in Alaska. Even though the BSA has only seen a 4.92% increase since 2012, while the consumer price index has risen more than 25%, indicating a 21% decrease in...
Regarding the editorial that appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel on Feb. 28: As a lifelong resident of Southeast Alaska, I’ve experienced the growth of the mega tourist industry and, yes, some of it is good for the economy. Along with that comes negative things, which should also be considered when deciding to jump into the fray. A few things to be explored are hands-on talks with the people of the other communities, not just the officials. Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Sitka have been totally overrun with shops owned by the tour industry and o...
As your representative in the Alaska Legislature, I have been and will continue to support legislation that advocates for our growing senior citizen population. That’s why I am proud to cosponsor House Bill 242 which, if passed, will extend the Alaska Senior Benefits Payment Program until June 2034. Alaska has a robust history of supporting its senior population, with the first efforts to help our seniors dating back to 1915. The territorial Legislature’s approval of the old-age bonus program marked the beginning of decades of evolution in ass...
This thought often crosses my mind and I decided it’s time to share it. We are so fortunate to live in Wrangell. There are times when people carry on vehemently about things they dislike, but when we need each other there’s always tremendous support. The response to the landslide is a prime example. It seems like we always run into a Wrangellite at the Seattle airport. When we do, it’s like old home week. Recently, Rod and I were there waiting for our plane which was a couple hours late. I was slowing making my way to the “facility” when someon...
The question for the Wrangell borough assembly is how many utilities will be free to owners of accessory dwelling units. The ordinance is not clear on what utilities will be billed. The recently passed accessory dwelling unit ordinance does not state an answer to this question. The assembly gives the normal government response, which is ignore the question and walk away. Toughen up and get a backbone, assembly members. It is your job to be transparent and honest about the content of ordinances you pass. Silence is no answer. Bill...
I am Robb Arnold and I plan to run for the District 1 seat (Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Wrangell) in the Alaska House of Representatives. I came to Alaska in the early 1990s to work with my dad at a logging camp on Kuiu Island, near Sitka. Rowan Bay changed my life. The challenging work, the forest, the bears, hunting and fishing — it made me fall in love with life in Southeast. I worked during the summers, then came back in 2000. For years, my home has been in Ketchikan. I was hired in 2006 as a crew member for the Alaska Marine Highway S...
For those of us who choose to walk the Volunteer Park (ballpark) Nature Trail on an almost daily basis, I would like to express our gratitude for the work that our city crew and volunteers have done to keep this accessible to us. The plowing of the trail by Todd White in the past and the city crew this year has been noticed. Walking on unplowed snowpack causes knee and ankle twisting and pain for some of us. We’ve also noticed there is enough snow for skiers to still use the trail as well. Meeting up with friends to walk and catch up or even u...
One of my daughters sent me an article about World Religion Day that appeared on her company intranet on Jan. 12. It occurred to me that this was a topic worth exploring, and I decided to investigate it further online. The event was first celebrated in 1947 in Portland, Maine, under the title, World Peace Through World Religion. Gradually, more communities began setting aside the third Sunday in January to observe it as World Religion Day. The purpose is to foster harmony between people of all faiths, including Indigenous values and cultures...
The 2024 Alaska legislative session started Tuesday, Jan. 16. My main committee assignment will be to serve for the eighth year on the House Finance Committee, which is responsible for moving the operating and capital budgets to the full House for approval. The challenge we always face is allocating limited revenue to meet the nearly limitless funding requests, including the annual Permanent Fund dividend. We will begin our work this session with the spending plan submitted by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which includes a deficit of $987 million and...
Artificial intelligence doesn’t seem natural to me. How can it be intelligent if it’s artificial? Back when I went to school in the 1950s, our intelligence was spurred on by a teacher standing in front of a classroom. We attended each day from 8 in the morning until noon and then back at 1 until 4:30 p.m. As each day passed, our intelligence increased. The goal, of course, was for us to go through our elementary, middle and high school with some real intelligence in our brains at the end of it. Reading, writing and arithmetic were our bas...
Only one utility in Wrangell is metered, electricity, the rest generally are not. This leads to the attitude that we pay a bill and can use as much as we want. This is especially true of borough assembly members. They approved an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units on single-family lots, but the ordinance does not make clear whether the new rental units would be charged for water and sewer services or if the landlords would get the services at no additional cost to their existing hookups on the same lot. The burden of paying for...
I attended the Dec. 12 borough assembly meeting where members approved an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units on lots that already have a house. The stated purpose is to increase housing and rental units. I asked several questions about utilities for the rental units. The assembly members did not answer my questions. This is why I am asking these questions in this letter: Will the landlords receive a utility bill? Will the utility bill contain all of the utilities that are on my bill? This is not stated in the ordinance, but I believe...
I like to think of myself as a responsible dog owner. I have traveled with my dogs for the past eight years to Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho. We have visited many dog parks where I found the dog owners to be extremely responsible in picking up their dog’s poop. Over 16 days I have taken my dog to City Park and the ballfields and I have picked up poop from 33 dogs. Please, be a responsible dog owner and pick up your own dog’s poop. If your dog is not on a leash, please keep them in your sight so you can pick up their dog poop. It spr...
At the 11th hour on the 11th day on November 1918, the guns fell silent in Europe, marking the end of the Great War, later to become known as World War I. Congress in 1954 passed a bill, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, that made Nov. 11 a national holiday, Veterans Day. It is crucial that residents in Southern Southeast remember and honor our veterans each year. The day is a reminder to express gratitude toward those who selflessly served their country and safeguarded the freedom and security we enjoy. By actively recognizing and...
This is a robust shout-out to the 14 agencies and organizations that shared information about new and ongoing resources in our community at BRAVE’s annual Resilience Fair on Oct. 14. We know that many individuals overcame obstacles and hardships just to be present. We also deeply appreciate the local businesses that contributed so generously to the door prizes: 56 North/Alaska Waters, Stikine Inn and Café, Angerman’s, Ottesen’s ACE, TK’s Mini-Mart, Hungry Beaver Pizza, You Escape Me, Estevan’s Taqueria and Salt and Cedar. The people at City Ma...
I find Larry Persily`s opinion piece in the Oct. 11 Sentinel, “Congressional Republicans too selfish to govern,” to be a misleading half-truth customized to fit his anti-Republican propaganda. He blames the Republican “mini-majority of eight members” for hijacking the remaining 427 House representatives, “creating turmoil, uncertainty,” etc. He conveniently leaves out that the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, was removed from his post because Democrats also voted against him. To be exact, 208 House Democrats and eight House...
I cannot agree more with John Bania’s letter to the editor in the Oct. 11 Sentinel. I live in Juneau and have been fighting the impact of cruise ship tourism on my neighborhood for over 30 years. Three years ago, we finally had a borough assembly that I thought might listen to residents impacted by the behemoth ships. But then COVID hit and tourism ground to a halt. This year they came back by the millions (1.7 million). Now people are finally talking about limits. Don’t let it happen to Wrangell. The best months of the year will be spent fig...
On Friday, Sept. 15, I and other stakeholders and community leaders participated in a ferry system focus group workshop for the southern Southeast service area. As state ferry service is one of the very essential elements of Southeast culture and lifestyle, sustainability of this important resource is a priority for me and the constituents of our legislative district. The first meetings of the group began last May. At that time, the Alaska Marine Highway System was soliciting feedback from stakeholders on the service schedule. The most recent...
