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Sitka responded to fatal 2015 landslide with monitoring system

A series of landslides hit Sitka more than eight years ago during heavy rain, with the largest striking a new subdivision and killing three workers. It prompted the community, led by the Sitka Sound Science Center, to set up a landslide warning...

 

Satellite link in a backpack provides service for landslide responders

First responders and volunteers working at the site of the deadly landslide have a Wi-Fi signal, thanks to a backpack satellite-link setup the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska sent to Wrangell. The council’s operations c...

 

Annual PFD debate is similar to a food fight

I can be sentimental. Not often, but I’m working on it. I just need to figure out how to increase my sentimentality without decreasing my cynicism. Nostalgia is my favorite form of sentimentality. I enjoy recalling the more pleasant times before s...

 

Businesses look at working together to bring more shoppers downtown

Several store owners and managers are talking about the need to form a business association of some kind to work toward drawing more locals to shop downtown. Wrangell residents are spending an increasing amount of their dollars online, ordering from...

 

SEARHC provides sign-up help with Affordable Care Act insurance

A SEARHC patient benefits staffer will be in Wrangell Monday through Thursday, Nov. 27-30, to assist people who have questions about health insurance and need help signing up for low-cost coverage through the Affordable Care Act federally operated...

 

Hospice organizes pair of annual holiday events

Groups and individuals can bring their decorated holiday trees to the Nolan Center this weekend for the Hospice of Wrangell annual Christmas Tree Lane fundraiser. The only rules are no real trees — only artificial ones to avoid any fire risk at t...

 

State releases names of landslide dead and missing

State officials today released the names of the three people killed and three others still missing from the Monday night landslide at 11-Mile Zimovia Highway. Searchers have found the bodies of Timothy Heller, 44, his wife, Beth Heller, 36, and... Full story

 

Dreams are memorable but also forgettable

It seems as I get older, the more I have dreams. Not of being a baseball player, writing an award-winning book or mastering the kitchen art of making great crusty bread. No, my dreams are nocturnal. They interrupt my sleep. The good thing is I have...

 

Volunteers continue long tradition of recycling eyeglasses

The Lions Club closed down its Wrangell chapter seven years ago, but volunteers still participate in the international service organization’s eyeglass recycling program. “We’re still collecting eyeglasses,” said Janet Strom, who along with her hus...

 

Elks Lodge needs more volunteers for dinners, other help

The Wrangell Elks Lodge has been active in town since 1935 and could use a few more active volunteers to help with its weekend dinners, chores around the building and public services. “It is getting worse over time,” said Dawn Angerman, one of the...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    November 8, 2023

University fisheries program attracts more students, and not just from Alaska

Now in its 15th year, the applied fisheries program at the University of Alaska Southeast draws students from across the state and across the country. Not just ocean states like Florida, but the Great Lakes state of Wisconsin, and even landlocked...

 

Drug companies decide what our lives are worth

I’ve been reading more about prescription drug prices lately: How they are set; why they are so high, especially in the United States; and what can be done to reduce the costs. It’s not like I take a lot of drugs — just one prescription — but thi...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    November 8, 2023

Tlingit Haida household pandemic aid program ends this month

A pandemic aid program that provides one-time payments to tribal citizens is ending Nov. 30, though the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will continue to offer other federally funded assistance programs for its citizens...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    November 1, 2023

Wrangell sets record for sales tax revenues

The borough collected a record amount of sales tax revenues in the fiscal year that ended June 30, passing the $4 million mark. A growing share of the borough’s tax collections is coming from online sales, just over $401,000, according to Finance D...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    November 1, 2023

Borough surveys public to help decide how to sell Alder Top subdivision lots

The borough wants to hear from the public as officials work toward deciding the best way to sell the several dozen residential lots that will be created at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision upland from Shoemaker Bay. “The bor...

 

Asking why is a good place to start

Normally, I would use this space to share my opinions with readers. That’s what newspaper columnists do: They give their opinions, the facts behind those views, and hope to educate, enlighten or at least entertain readers. But this week is different....

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 25, 2023

School district may use reserves to cover state travel deficit

School district administrators have recommended using a collection of unspent accounts and general fund reserves to cover the $44,000 deficit in the travel account from past state competition, while...

 

Alaska's gas line dream is out of alignment

Alaska officials who say the stars are aligned for the long-dreamt, long-on-the-odds multibillion-dollar North Slope natural gas project are confusing shiny stars with black holes. Like the black hole the state already has poured close to a billion...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 25, 2023

WCA nears completion of Transportation Department building

The Wrangell Cooperative Association is nearing completion of its 5,000-square-foot maintenance and warehouse building on Zimovia Highway. The facility is in its second year of construction, though planning for the project started about a decade ago....

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 25, 2023

Tribe working with Tlingit Haida to put up rental duplex in town

No question housing is tight in town, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association is trying to help. WCA already has used federal funds to build two single-family homes, which it sold to tribal members, and now is partnering with the Tlingit Haida...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 25, 2023

Wrangell's death rate has exceeded births since 2017

Though fewer Wrangell residents died in 2022 than in 2021, and more babies were born last year to Wrangell moms than the year before, the longer-term numbers continue to show more deaths than births for the community, matching the downward trend in t...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 18, 2023

Building mariculture industry means growing production and market at same time

A statewide effort to build up Alaska’s mariculture industry is looking to expand production at the same time it grows the market, particularly for kelp. “Everyone talks of the chicken-and-the-egg situation,” Juliana Leggitt, mariculture program mana...

 

Remembering a moment of sharing religions

Jews in Israel and Palestinians in Gaza are embroiled in the deadliest fighting in decades, prompted by an organized assault by Hamas soldiers who murdered innocent people in Israel on Oct. 7, while also taking hostages. Israel has followed the...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 18, 2023

Ordinance allowing more rentals goes to the assembly

The borough assembly will be the next for a proposed ordinance intended to make it easier for some homeowners to add a small rental unit to their property. The planning and zoning commission voted Thursday, Oct. 12, to recommend assembly approval of...

 
 By Larry Persily    News    October 18, 2023

Historian assembles 40 years of stories from Wrangell Institute

Award-winning historian Ronan Rooney’s latest project is filling up a new webpage with interviews, photos, government and university reports — even the student newspaper and yearbooks — remembering the Wrangell Institute Bureau of Indian Affai...

 

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