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Oversupply from bumper harvests last year and inflationary pressures squeezing household food budgets have made it a terrible year for Alaska salmon prices. A near-record pink salmon harvest in Russia isn’t helping by adding more fish to the market. “It’s a challenging year for all Alaska seafood,” said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Pollock prices are down, “we’re seeing impacts on crab too, and other whitefish species,” he said Aug. 10. And now, “salmon is getting the microscope.” Th...
Oil and water don’t mix. We learned that in high school. And we learned it again when water got into a heating fuel line. In Alaska, oil and salmon don’t mix either, unless the oil is brushed on the grill before cooking a fillet. However, oil and salmon are in the same boat — economically speaking in Alaska. They both respond to supply and demand. When global oil supplies can’t keep up with demand, the price of a barrel of crude climbs higher. A shortage — or even a fear, a hint or speculation of shortage — drives up prices for the commodity....
Most changes are forced upon us as the world evolves, and there is little anyone can do about it. Though I want to be the exception to the rule, I grudgingly acknowledge I am not. I resist as much as I can and hold on to small victories, but I am constantly reminded that much of it is outside my control. Such as GCI’s decision to get out of the email business next year. Like many Alaskans, I have had a GCI email account since the 1990s — long before smartwatches and smartphones took away our ability to remember phone numbers and convinced peo...
The Head Start program operated in 10 Southeast communities by the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska wants to reduce its authorized enrollment by 80 children as the nonprofit adjusts to a tightening budget situation and staffing shortages. The program serves Wrangell, though the tribal nonprofit said there would be no reduction in classroom slots in the community. Tlingit & Haida is approved to serve 262 children across Southeast but has asked federal officials for permission to reduce the number to 182, according to...
Elected officials who say the proposed Alaska North Slope natural gas project is closer than ever to putting steel pipe in the ground and money in the pockets of construction workers should take a break from their political grandstanding and pay attention to the facts. Not a single analyst tracking gas projects around the world ever mentions Alaska when they list developments with the best potential of getting built. They talk about multiple liquefied natural gas export projects going to construction along the U.S. Gulf Coast, in Qatar,...
The Washington State Ferries system still has not returned to its full pre-pandemic schedule, coming up short due to fewer riders, an inability to recruit, hire and train onboard crew, high rates of retirements and resignations, and a “lack of vessels due to unanticipated breakdowns and an aging fleet.” Some sailings have been canceled for lack of crew, and a few routes are running at reduced service. It sounds a lot like the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Washington state system, which has been around since 1951, 12 years older than Alaska...
Like many kids, I grew up afraid of lots of things. Maybe I had a longer list than many, but I’m sure they all made sense at the time: Dentists, needles, bees, snakes, putting my head underwater, roller coasters, heights, fastballs thrown anywhere near my head, pimentos stuffed in green olives. I suppose that last one was more a dislike than a fear, but you could always spot my plate at holiday dinners — it was the one with piled-up pimentos that I had carefully picked out of the olives. The dentist scared me so much I would often go wit...
"It could have been a whole lot worse," Scott Brown said of running his 27-foot Tollycraft on to a rock in Circle Bay on the south side of Woronkofski Island last week. No one was hurt, the boat didn't take on water, and the only damage was a bent prop, Brown said July 12, the day after the mishap. Brown was piloting the boat, the Shawna Lea, named for his wife, around the southwest corner of Hat Island in the bay, "not paying attention to the depth," he said. It was about 10 a.m. July 11, soon...
After the past few years when resignations and retirements far outpaced new hires, the Alaska Marine Highway System was able to hire as many new onboard crew as it lost in the first six months of this year. It showed a net gain of two workers, adding 47 and losing 45, though most of the new hires were in entry-level jobs and not the critical experienced positions that remain vacant. The lack of enough crew to fully staff the state ferries has been a problem, keeping the Kennicott tied up this summer and creating spot shortages the past couple...
The Alaska Permanent Fund has prospered for almost half a century, growing ever more important for the state’s future. What started as a source of pride and prudence — showing the naysayers going back to statehood that Alaska can manage its money and save for when oil revenues go into decline — the fund has matured into the single-largest consistent source of income for public services. It has profited from good investments through a diversified portfolio. It has prospered from strong public support, protecting it from dumb ideas like writi...
Opponents of ranked-choice voting in Alaska want to put an initiative on the ballot so that voters can overturn the law in the 2024 election. To do that, they need to collect signatures from about 26,000 registered voters to win a spot on the statewide ballot. To do that, and then run a statewide campaign to convince a majority of voters to dump the new voting system, they will need money. Six-figure money. Which means fundraising. But the laws around soliciting and accepting campaign donations are a problem for people who want to remain...
Wrangell will go without any southbound ferry service in alternating weeks from Oct. 1 to mid-November under the Alaska Marine Highway System’s draft fall/winter schedule. The town is on the schedule for its usual weekly northbound stop during that period. The rest of the winter schedule shows once-a-week service to town in each direction, with the bonus of two stops in each direction the second week of each month from mid-November through February when the Kennicott will shorten its Southeast route and not go to Bellingham, Washington. The f...
There are many joys of aging, such as discounts at stores and services, using it as a convenient excuse for being forgetful, and smiling that few thieves would know how to drive my stick shift VW Beetle. I can also stop obsessing about everything I wanted to do before I was 60 (or 70), because, well, it’s too late now. It’s a blessing in a disguise of gray hair. But there are downsides, too. Like dealing with Medicare, assuming I can find doctors that will accept Medicare. Or figuring out why the keyboard on my laptop (yes, it’s old, too)...
The borough’s Economic Development Board needs a new member to fill an open seat, and Kate Thomas, economic development director, hopes for “a creative, innovative type.” The board’s job is to come up with and review ideas to improve the town’s economy, forwarding its recommendations to the assembly. Thomas describes it as “mining the ideas and opportunities we don’t already know.” Letters of interest to fill the open seat on the five-member board will be accepted until filled. The mayor appoints the members. The board generally meets monthly....
Actually, more than just knowing the news, you need to know more of the news than your neighbors. And if you do, you can win. But this isn’t about gossip. It’s about the news that affects your community, news that tells you what your elected officials are doing and what’s happening around town and the state. News based on facts, not rumors, which you can use to make decisions. News about the good work of your neighbors. It’s what the Sentinel provides every week. The staff works hard to gain and keep your trust, looking forward to hundred...
The Alaska Marine Highway System, which five months ago embarked on improving its hiring process to address chronic crew shortages, is unable to say how many new employees it has hired since then. The push started after a consultant’s report in January determined the state had hired just four out of 250 job applicants over the prior 12 months. The crew shortage forced the state to pull the Kennicott, the second-largest operable ship in the fleet, off this summer’s schedule and keep it tied up at the dock in Ketchikan. Asked how many new emp...
Southeast legislators said they were disappointed that Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of the one-time increase in state money for K-12 public schools, but will try again next year to address education funding needs. “We heard from school districts around the state that needed the money,” Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz said June 21. The $175 million increase that legislators appropriated for the 2023-2024 school year was a compromise between House and Senate members, Democrats, Republicans and independents, he explained. The money, which Dunleavy cut...
All I did was supply a pen and a writing tablet. Other than that, I was useless. Everyone else did the real work that made a difference. A woman two rows ahead of me suffered a seizure on an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage last Saturday evening. The man next to her quickly brought over the flight attendants, who called out to ask if there were any medical personnel on board while they tried to comfort the woman until help arrived. Fortunately, there was a doctor, a physician’s assistant and at least two nurses among the 178 passengers on t...
The reactions by Alaska’s top elected leaders to former President Donald Trump’s indictment last week say a lot about what they think of the public. Two out of the three — our governor and junior U.S. senator — must think the public is politically motivated above all else, unable to consider the facts and unwilling to believe that the former president could ever do anything wrong. I’ll add “gullible” to the list because, sadly, the two apparently think the public is gullible enough to believe their accusations, which sound like they were min...
People are growing increasingly cynical about government: How money is spent, how hiring decisions are made, and how it seems there are few consequences for actions that hurt the public. Yet too many elected leaders continue making bad decisions that add to the cynicism. Such as Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointing to the University of Alaska Board of Regents his former chief of staff whose poor judgment — and illegal actions, according to a judge — cost the state at least half-a-million dollars. Tuckerman Babcock, a longtime political adviser to the...
Remember what your parents, teachers and truant officer said: You are judged by the company you keep. Too bad Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his attorneys general didn’t think more about that before signing on to multiple lawsuits against the federal government, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Yes, that guy, the one who was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives on a lopsided 121-23 vote last week for 20 counts of bribery, abuse of public trust and other charges going back several years. Donald Trump blamed “radical left Democrats” f...
The budget that legislators approved last week and will send to the governor for his signature into law or veto would provide about $425,000 in one-time additional state funding to the Wrangell school district for the 2023-2024 classroom year. That would deliver almost a 9% boost to the district’s total operating budget revenue, which is comprised of state money (more than 60%), a borough contribution (32%) and federal dollars. “It will still need to pass the governor, so it’s not guaranteed,” Bill Burr, Wrangell schools superin...
Alaska lawmakers reached a compromise on the state budget and adjourned after a one-day special session last week, approving a $1,300 Permanent Fund dividend for this fall with the possibility of a second, smaller payment next year if oil revenues exceed projections. The amount of the PFD and the capital budget — construction and maintenance projects in legislators’ home districts — were the final items that forced legislators into a special session after the regular session ended May 17 without a budget. The governor called them back to work...
Trident Seafoods is on schedule with preparation work to reopen its processing plant on the Wrangell waterfront after a three-year closure. “We expect to start handling fish the week of July 10,” focusing on chum and pink salmon, Southeast regional manager John Scoblic said May 15. The company expects to have 100 to 110 workers on the job, somewhat under the count of past years, he said. Trident has said weak chum returns were behind the decision to keep the plant closed since 2019. Some workers will start before the first salmon come into the...
The Alaska Legislature is no different than a typical American household – torn between spending every last dollar from their paycheck on immediate wants or saving some for the inevitable future needs. When the wants win out, money often is short for the needs that come later. That pretty much sums up this year’s political battle over the amount of the Permanent Fund dividend. The bipartisan Senate favored an affordable PFD that would not require drawing from savings; the House Republican-led majority wanted to take hundreds of millions of dol...
