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Every kid should learn from their parents the modern way to avoid responsibility for misdeeds and missed homework. When you fail or do something stupid or dishonest or regretful, or just don’t like the way the world is spinning that day or how the spicy chili went down, deny you’re at fault and deny the heartburn is self-inflicted. Instead, blame the news media. No one ever believed the dog ate your homework anyway. If you disagree with the facts of science, economics, the law or elections, accuse reporters and editors of making it all up. And...
Cases are starting to come down in Alaska after weeks of record-setting COVID-19 infections across the state. After averaging almost 1,250 new cases a day Sept. 21-27 — far above the numbers of the previous record of last December — the statewide average was just over 800 a day Oct. 5-11, according to the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard. That’s still significantly above the average of the past three months, when 560 new cases a day were reported. Alaska had low case counts in May, June and July, until infections increased with the spread...
Wrangell Medical Center this week welcomed eight temporary out-of-state health care workers assigned to the hospital under a state-financed program to bring as many as 473 professionals to help relieve staffing pressures across Alaska. The state is spending $87 million in federal money to bring in the workers, allocating them to 14 hospitals and care centers around the state, as many of the facilities are at or near capacity amid a surge in COVID-19 patients the past month. Some school districts also are included in the program for nurses. The...
Maybe someday COVID-19 will be like the flu, which kills an average of 36,000 Americans a year, rather than the coronavirus which has killed more than 700,000 people in the country over past 18 months. Maybe vaccines will become even more effective, health officials will approve the shots for children of all ages, researchers will develop new medicines to heal the sick and new treatments to ease the suffering. Although science can do a lot to block the virus and lessen its death sentence, no pill or shot or wishful thinking can make it go away...
Most of the six proposed legislative redistricting maps under consideration would keep Wrangell and Ketchikan in the same district, but one proposal would separate Wrangell from its longstanding share with Ketchikan and move it into a state House district with Sitka. A couple of the options would put Petersburg in the same district as Wrangell and Ketchikan, but half would assign Petersburg to a stretched-out House district from Prince of Wales Island to Yakutat. The Alaska Redistricting Board is traveling to communities statewide to show the...
Wrangell voters in Tuesday’s election will decide on three borough assembly seats, three school board members and three port commission members. Of the nine races, five are uncontested — unless a write-in candidate declares by Friday — and the other four present voters with a choice of candidates. The polls will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Nolan Center. People need to bring their state-issued voter ID card, said Kim Lane, borough clerk. If voters don’t have their ID card, they will be allowed to cast their ballot if the electio...
Sarah Aslam is the newest addition to the Sentinel staff, starting work as a reporter in Wrangell on Sept. 20 after almost eight years in news in Orlando, Florida, with a stint in 2016 in Seward and Anchorage. "I met Sarah when she was on vacation in Anchorage in July, and knew then she belonged in Alaska, not Florida," said Sentinel publisher Larry Persily. Aslam will cover borough government and other news in Wrangell, joining editor Marc Lutz and office manager Amber Armstrong on the...
The free testing station for individuals without COVID-19 symptoms but who what to get tested because they had recently traveled or just for peace of mind has moved from the airport to the hospital. “It’s more efficient here, we’re able to utilize our staff and resources,” said Alicia Gillen, COVID-19 screening manager for SEARHC, which operates the Wrangell Medical Center and ran the airport testing site. It also will be warmer at the trailer in the far corner of the hospital parking lot than outside the airport terminal as winter weather...
Wrangell business owners and managers who responded this past spring to an economic outlook survey were about in the middle among Southeast communities. While about half of those in Wrangell who answered the survey said they expected business would be down the next 12 months, the responses were much more pessimistic in Skagway, Haines, Hoonah and Ketchikan, all of which are more dependent on large cruise ships. In addition, Skagway and Haines have been hit hard by the U.S.-Canada border closure and loss of highway visitor traffic. Juneau-based...
It was the same day that Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the state would help hospitals cope with record numbers of COVID-19 patients by assisting with decisions to ration care, and the same day that the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said Alaska is “at the worst place in the pandemic that we’ve had this entire time.” It was the same day that the governor announced Alaska would spend $87 million to bring in out-of-state medical workers to help relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospital staff. And it was the same day Alaska set a r...
From building smokehouses and gardens to assisting with utility and food bills, the Wrangell Cooperative Association has been working to help its tribal citizens make it through the financial and emotional stress of the pandemic. "We took a hard look at what the WCA citizens were facing with the pandemic," said Esther Ashton, tribal administrator. That included financial needs and helping to build food self-sufficiency, she said. The eight-member elected tribal council last year considered how...
The borough expects to receive an additional $604,000 in federal pandemic relief aid through the state, and will move cautiously as it considers how best to use the money for the community’s benefit. The assembly will need to decide “what is the best long-term investment for us,” Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said last Friday. The administration will present recommendations to the assembly for its consideration after staff have reviewed federal guidance on spending the funds. The $604,000 is part of American Rescue Plan money directed to the...
Virginia Oliver has been teaching Tlingit at Wrangell schools since 2016, and this fall will expand her student body to include adults in a new twice-a-week program at the WCA Cultural Center on Front Street. The classes will include a monthly bingo event, with a fluent Tlingit elder calling out the game. Gift cards to local businesses will be awarded the winners, and “everybody is welcome to come,” Oliver said. The language class will be held at noon Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a bag lunch provided. The program will be funded by a grant from...
There is no precise count but it looks like federal pandemic aid distributed or allocated over the past 18 months to Wrangell residents, businesses, the borough, school district, tribe and nonprofits totals close to $30 million. That's about equal to all the income earned by every household in town in half a year, according to U.S. Census numbers. It's almost three times the annual budget of the borough and school board combined. Most of the money came as grants or simply as federal aid to keep...
The borough is waiting on further guidance from the U.S. Department of the Interior on the agency’s nationwide initiative for researching and even searching the sites of former Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding schools, including the former Wrangell Institute property. The borough plans to subdivide the property for residential development, turning the 134 acres into 40 building lots. While waiting on the Interior Department, borough officials are talking with the State Historic Preservation Office and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure t...
About 200 people convened in Haines last week - in-person and virtually - for the annual Southeast Conference, and much of the discussion among municipal and chambers of commerce officials focused on the region's economy, in particular the tourism outlook for next year. Cruise industry and airline officials talked optimistically of strong visitor travel next year, maybe even a record for cruise ship capacity, as the country emerges from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Right now, let's be positive ... this actually could happen," said Wendy...
Acknowledging it is a “polarizing and divisive issue in Canada,” the Wrangell borough assembly will proceed “somewhat cautiously” in drafting a resolution on mining in the Stikine River watershed, Borough Mayor Steve Prysunka said. “Of course, we don’t want salmon impacted” by mining, he said. “We’re actually uniquely positioned, we’re at the outflow.” The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission has asked the Wrangell assembly, and other elected bodies in the region, to adopt a resolution calling for a pause on new mining permits...
One of the bigger issues that got David Powell interested in serving on the assembly several years ago was his belief that the borough needs to get out of the real estate business. He wanted Wrangell to sell off more of its property for private development, and to do it at a faster pace. He also wanted to serve because "I was interested in how things work with the city," he said. "In a roundabout way, I found it doesn't work as everybody thinks it works." Powell is running for a one-year term to...
Don McConachie Sr. served on the assembly or as mayor between 1998 and when he resigned as mayor in 2013 for health reasons. He's ready now to get back to work at City Hall. McConachie, 75, who is retired, is running against incumbent David Powell for a one-year term on the borough assembly. "Our city has changed an awful lot. It has deteriorated a substantial amount," McConachie said. He was reluctant to provide specific examples, explaining, "The best way to understand what's going on is to...
Not content with the $1,100 Permanent Fund dividend adopted on the final day of the special legislative session that ended Tuesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy three hours later called lawmakers back for a fourth special session starting Oct. 1 to “get the rest of this year’s PFD.” Dunleavy, who is running for reelection next year, has been promoting a dividend this year of more than double the $1,100 approved by legislators. The Department of Revenue has said it would send the payments to Alaskans about 30 days after the measure is signed into law,...
Daily COVID-19 cases across Alaska over the past 30 days are about triple the average of the 18-month pandemic — more than quadruple on several days last week. The heavy caseload, particularly seriously ill unvaccinated individuals infected with the highly contagious Delta variant, has strained hospitals in the state’s population centers. Wrangell has fared better than much of the state, however, with just five cases reported in the first 14 days of September, a steep drop from the community’s record of 48 cases in August. State health offic...
After the number of people taking COVID-19 tests in Wrangell slowed down earlier in the summer, the volume doubled in August as the community reacted to the surge of new infections in town. The borough reported 48 cases of COVID-19 in Wrangell in August, the highest monthly total since the pandemic count started in March 2020 and more than one-third of all cases in the community since the coronavirus tally began. The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which provides tests at the airport and the Wrangell Medical Center, administered 75...
The anti-vaccination politics rolling across the country - much like a pandemic - have gotten so bad that the Alaska state Senate could not even manage to pass a bill last Friday allowing more telemedicine without lawmakers amending it into a debate over personal liberty. Much of the discussion had no connection whatsoever to patients and doctors working together online to diagnose and treat ailments often totally unrelated to COVID-19. The Senate amendments were targeted at blocking...
Though its passage is uncertain amid partisan battles in Congress and even disagreements among the majority-holding Democrats, the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill could be an opportunity for federal help with costly improvements to Wrangell's water system. However, all communities in Alaska "have to be honest in regard to timing," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who visited Wrangell last weekend. In addition to waiting on Congress to decide on the legislation, "we know what it means to bring a (bi...
Working to carve up Alaska into 40 legislative districts of approximately equal population, a state board has released its draft maps based on the 2020 U.S. Census that move Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan into the same House district. Wrangell has shared a district with Ketchikan the past decade, while Petersburg has been part of the Sitka district. Population shifts, particularly increases in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, forced the Alaska Redistricting Board to move boundaries across the state to keep legislative districts roughly equal...
