Wrangell Sentinel -

During the budget process next year, the school district will need to cut about $500,000 from its current $5.1 million operating budget to maintain financial sustainability as it prepares for the end of federal pandemic relief funding. This could mea...

Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Cunard Line — among the biggest names in Alaska summer cruises — have added Wrangell to some of their longer itineraries. The traditional seven-day Southeast Alaska cruises from Seattle or Vancouver,...

In an effort to make more housing available in the community, the planning and zoning commission has accepted a draft set of rules to allow the addition of a detached rental unit on the same lot as a single-family home. Such rentals currently are...

A state parks official said staff shortages and lack of information about commercial tour operations led to the situation where the state didn’t realize until this summer that businesses were failing to register or pay the required permit fees to...

The borough needs to fill a funding gap of almost $10 million before it can upgrade its water treatment plant. The new design would increase the plant’s water output and storage capacity to accommodate future growth. The low bid for construction...

The Parks and Recreation Department will offer American Sign Language classes next month for youth and adults. “We want to expand” what the department offers the community, said Devyn Johnson. “My goal is to offer something for everyone,...

Wrangell won a regional Parks and Recreation competition as local participants walked more than others in Southeast this summer. On average, Wrangell’s 22 participants in the challenge tallied 252 miles each — enough to walk from Juneau to...

The school district hopes to sign up a new activities director this week after the person handling the work moved on to another job in town. The activities director is a contract position — not a full-time or even part-time staff job — and handle...

Alaska U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband, Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., died after a plane he was flying crashed Sept. 12 in Southwest Alaska. Peltola, 57, was the former regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Alaska, serving from...

In an unusual offseason hearing, a committee of the Alaska Legislature considered a proposal on Friday, Sept. 15, that could lower the state tax on marijuana sold in the state. House Bill 119, considered by the House Labor and Commerce Committee,... Full story

Officials from the state Division of Public Assistance said its staff has worked through the backlog of applications for food stamps that stressed Alaska families for more than a year. But that success came at the cost of what officials are calling... Full story

After a period when COVID-19 restrictions halted the spread of other respiratory diseases, Alaska had a big increase in influenza cases last fall and winter, state data shows. The overall influenza case load during the 2022-23 season was much higher... Full story

More than half of Alaskans born within the state have moved away, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. A state’s ability to retain Alaska-born residents is an indicator of its... Full story

It appears that tour operators who bring visitors to Wrangell’s Petroglyph Beach will be required to pay a $350 annual fee to the state plus $6 per person starting next year. The fee for commercial use of a state park or historic site has been a pr...

Wrangell is one of 64 communities nationwide selected for the first year of a new federal program called Thriving Communities, intended to help towns get a better shot at federal funds. In Wrangell’s case, the two-year effort will focus on...

The borough this week went out to bid for a contractor to supply and install corrosion-preventing aluminum anodes on the steel pilings at Heritage Harbor. The job is estimated at $1.5 million. The plan is for the contractor to start work in February...

The Zarembo Island parking lot is free, as are the tags to put on the windshield. What’s changing is that the U.S. Forest Service now wants people to get a new tag each year so that the agency can keep better track of vehicles left at the...

Wrangell-Petersburg area hunters took 118 moose last year and a similar harvest is expected this year. Harvest levels have remained fairly constant in recent years, area game biologist Frank Robbins said last week. The season opens Friday, Sept. 15,...

A legal challenge by the state to the Biden administration’s reinstatement of the roadless rule, banning logging and road building on more than nine million acres in the Tongass National Forest, was filed Friday, Sept. 8, in federal court. The...