Articles from the August 28, 2024 edition


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  • State closes Southeast to king salmon sportfishing

    Sentinel staff|Aug 28, 2024

    The Southeast Alaska sport fishery is on track to exceed its king salmon allocation for the summer by 14,000 fish, prompting the state to close the region to sportfishing for kings. The closure went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, Aug. 26. “King salmon may not be retained or possessed, and any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed,” according to the Department of Fish and Game announcement late Friday, Aug. 23. The king salmon sport fishery will reopen on Oct. 1 for the winter season. “While the (...

  • Library, Parks and Rec, Nolan Center create after-school program

    Larry Persily, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    Staff at three borough offices saw a need and got together to do something about it. Their answer is to provide after-school activities three days a week over the next three months. “There’s always been the need for after-school care in the community … to fill that gap for parents and children,” said Sarah Scambler, director of the Irene Ingle Public Library. The activities will be free; no advance registration required. The program is open to children 7 through 13 years old, though younger children are welcome, but they must be accompa...

  • Ketchikan landslide kills 1, injures 3, damages 6 homes

    Zaz Hollander and Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News|Aug 28, 2024

    A landslide tore down a slope about a mile north of downtown Ketchikan, killing one person and injuring three on Sunday. The landslide hit around 4 p.m., and a mandatory evacuation order remained in place Monday for homes on several streets in the slide area near the waterfront. A dozen people stayed at an emergency shelter established at Ketchikan High School on Sunday night, emergency officials said. Others stayed with family or friends. Schools were closed Monday, which would have been the...

  • New ridgetop weather station will provide data for scientists and community

    Sam Pausman, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    The Alaska Department of Transportation installed a ridgetop weather station near 11-Mile earlier this month. The station will allow scientists and DOT officials to further monitor the area affected by the November 2023 landslides. Standing 18 feet tall, the structure will report data such as air temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and snow depth. Notably, it is the only snow depth monitor on the island other than the airport weather station, according to Pat Dryer, an...

  • The Way We Were

    Amber Armstrong, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    Aug. 28, 1924 A public meeting for fishermen was held Tuesday night to get an expression of their attitude toward the fisheries regulations as they apply in this immediate district. Carl Arola was selected as chairman of the meeting. After some discussion of the matter a resolution was passed opposing the present closed season on account of the inefficiency of the regulation in conserving salmon, as well as the unnecessary hardship that results from its enforcement. A committee was appointed to draft a resolution to be presented at the meeting...

  • Community Calendar

    Aug 28, 2024

    SKATER TOTS 1 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the TouchPoint Ministries rink on Bennett Street. For ages 0-10 years old. Scooters, flat boards, skates for novice beginning skaters. Separate play area, toys and tumbling mats for infants. Parents/guardians must stay to supervise. Free. RUMMAGE SALE 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Friday, Aug. 30, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Presbyterian Church. NOLAN CENTER THEATER “Deadpool and Wolverine” rated R, at 6 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30 - Sept. 1. The dark com...

  • Murkowski visit officially opens new Anan Bay cabin

    KSTK|Aug 28, 2024

    It's not often the U.S. Forest Service gets to open up a new public-use cabin in Southeast, and they had a special visitor to cut the ribbon: U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Alaska's senior senator participated in the event Aug. 19 at the Anan Bay cabin. After a tree fell in February 2023, crushing the cabin, the Forest Service decided it would use the need to replace the structure as an opportunity to give it some upgrades as well. The new red cedar cabin boasts a large, covered deck in addition to...

  • School board moves closer to buying $423,000 electric bus

    Sam Pausman, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    Cell phones won’t be the only things that need charging before a school day. Wrangell could need to plug in its bus too. The school board moved closer on Aug. 20 with plans to purchase an electric school bus. Most of the $423,000 cost would come from a $378,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency grant the school district received in 2023. The rest of the funding would likely come from the district’s reserve fund. Superintendent Bill Burr estimates the bus could arrive sometime in 2025. The board is scheduled to consider the purchase con...

  • Even if it doesn't affect Wrangell, it's still a bad idea

    Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    The U.S. Postal Service expects to lose $7 billion this year. That makes the USPS dependent on Congress, which is never a healthy dependency. Email and digital technology are forcing first class mail into the dead letter bin of history, slicing deeply into a key revenue source for the Postal Service. It’s more painful than the worst paper cut. So it’s no surprise that the federal agency continues to raise rates, though even at last month’s increase to 73 cents, a stamp is still pretty affordable — it’s lower than most developed countries...

  • Don't take campaign slogans too seriously

    Larry Persily Publisher|Aug 28, 2024

    Candidates have long waged election campaigns on catchy slogans, snappy jingles, popular promises and misleading but memorable mottos. It’s getting worse. The music is better but the lyrics are lacking. Vagueness is in vogue. The less specific candidates are with their actual plans to fulfill campaign promises, the less the opposition and analysts can pick apart the flaws. Running for president or Congress? Promise more funding for child care, lower taxes, lower prices at the grocery store, stronger defense, defeating China for jobs and i...

  • All smiles for first day of school

    Aug 28, 2024

  • Retired teacher Tracey Martin brings organizational skills to chamber

    Sam Pausman, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    Tracey Martin wants to bring everyone together. After working in classrooms for three decades, she found her way back to her hometown three years ago. She retired from teaching this past spring and began her new role as executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 13. After working with students for 30 years, Martin hopes to apply what she learned in classrooms to her new role working with small businesses. "There is so much planning that goes into teaching," she said. "I want...

  • Borough receives no bids for Meyers Chuck dock

    Sam Pausman, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    When the borough went out to bid to replace the dilapidated Meyers Chuck dock, there were four or five interested parties. When bids closed on Aug. 13, however, the borough received not a single one. After some delays in the project, the borough hoped to begin procurement for the dock’s new floats late this year. Ideally, construction and installation of the new 200-foot dock would take place next summer. The two-part project was estimated to cost $2.5 million, of which Wrangell would only have to pay $1.4 million thanks to a $1.1 million s...

  • Bynum top vote-getter in state House primary to replace Ortiz

    Ketchikan Daily News and Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    Republican candidate Jeremy Bynum received just under half the votes in the Aug. 20 primary election for state House District 1, easily outpolling two independent candidates in a preview of the Nov. 5 general election. The three candidates are competing to replace Rep. Dan Ortiz, who is retiring for health reasons after 10 years in the Legislature. The district covers Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Wrangell, plus Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales Island. All three candidates live in Ketchikan, whose larger population dominates the district. About...

  • Run (through the) forest, run: Cross-country team gets off to good start

    Sam Pausman, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    The cross-country season is officially underway. The boys team finished second overall in the team score, with Boomchain Loucks taking first handily. On the girls side of things, Kalee Herman was Wrangell's highest finisher, with Bella Ritchie crossing the finish line just behind her. The girls finished in 11th place at the race Saturday, Aug. 24, in Petersburg. Wrangell raced against all Southeast schools in the 5K race. And though head coach Mason Villarma saw the meet as a "test effort,"...

  • Athletic Club raises $17,000 toward covering students' state travel expenses

    Mark C. Robinson, Wrangell Sentinel|Aug 28, 2024

    The Wrangell Athletic Club has raised more than $17,000 toward covering the estimated $24,000 to $25,000 the school district spent on sending students, coaches and chaperones to state competition in the 2023-2024 school year. The district had sent the fundraising group an invoice for more than $29,000, but the nonprofit is contesting about $5,000 of the charges. The Wrangell Athletic Club said the additional costs were for school district administrators who accompanied the students to competition, which is outside of what the nonprofit...

  • Sweet giveaway

    Aug 28, 2024

  • Dahlstrom drops out of race to defeat Peltola for Congress

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Aug 28, 2024

    Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom is withdrawing from the race for the state’s lone U.S. House seat, she announced via social media on Friday, just three days after the primary election. With most of the votes counted, Dahlstrom is expected to finish third in the state’s top-four primary election, behind Democratic incumbent Mary Peltola and fellow Republican challenger Nick Begich. In a prepared statement published, Dahlstrom said she wanted to see Peltola voted out of office but “at this time, the best thing I can do to see that goal reali...

  • State supreme court clears ranked-choice repeal vote for ballot

    James Brooks, Alaska Beacon|Aug 28, 2024

    A ballot measure that could repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice election system is headed to a vote in November, the Alaska Supreme Court confirmed Thursday, Aug. 22. In a brief order, the court’s five members upheld a lower court decision that certified Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal the laws that created the state’s ranked-choice general election and open primary election system. The order came shortly after justices heard oral arguments in an appeal claiming that the Alaska Division of Elections improperly certified the measure. “Toda...

  • Saxman receives federal money to build affordable housing

    Anna Laffrey, Ketchikan Daily News|Aug 28, 2024

    Saxman, a community of about 400 people just south of the city of Ketchikan, will build 14 affordable housing units over the next year. In partnership with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Saxman will use $4.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds distributed through the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to develop four apartment buildings — three fourplexes and one duplex — containing a total of 14 two-bedroom dwellings for low-income tenants. The units could be open for occupancy by the end of 2025. AHFC, a public corporation and independent sta...

  • Bounty of the sea

    Aug 28, 2024

  • Alaska Airlines moves closer to purchase of Hawaiian Airlines

    Michelle Chapman, Associated Press|Aug 28, 2024

    Alaska Airlines is one step closer to acquiring Hawaiian Airlines after the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to challenge the $1 billion deal that the carriers say will create a company better able to serve travelers. The brands of both airlines would be preserved after the merger, which is rare in an industry where decades of acquisitions have left only four big carriers dominating the U.S. market. Alaska and Hawaiian say they have few overlapping routes and the intent of a tie-up is to allow the new airline to better compete with the...

  • Petersburg Indian Association buys 45-room Tides Inn hotel

    Olivia Rose, Petersburg Pilot|Aug 28, 2024

    The Petersburg Indian Association is now in the hospitality business with its purchase of the 45-room Tides Inn hotel and Highliner Car Rental from a longtime Petersburg family. “My sisters and I are very pleased with the conclusion of the sale of the Tides Inn and Highliner Car Rental to the Petersburg Indian Association,” Dave Ohmer said in a written statement. “The Ohmer family started doing business in Petersburg in 1916, and it is wonderful to now be selling the Tides Inn and Highliner to an organization whose families were here long...

  • Murkowski convenes summit on rural Alaska weather system failures

    Margaret Bauman, Cordova Times|Aug 28, 2024

    Alaska communications and aviation entities, together with federal and state officials, convened in a summit in Yakutat led by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to collaborate on solutions to reduce weather-related travel delays and boost aviation safety in the state. “We have 130 weather recording stations in Alaska and at any given time 50% are partially or entirely out of service,” Murkowski said on Aug. 15. The senator, a third-generation Alaskan born and raised in Ketchikan, and later Wrangell, is out to resolve this issue, which has resulted in...

  • Police report

    Aug 28, 2024

    Monday, Aug. 19 Criminal mischief. Tuesday, Aug. 20 Suspicious circumstance: Open door. Subpoena service. Wednesday, Aug. 21 Summons service. Theft. Agency assist: State sex-offender registry. Reckless driving. Thursday, Aug. 22 Missing child. Motor vehicle accident. Friday, Aug. 23 Motor vehicle accident. Agency assist: U.S. Forest Service. Welfare check. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for broken taillight. Bar check at Rayme’s. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for no visible registration. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for parking facing the wrong s...

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