Sorted by date Results 17 - 41 of 8207
A Wasilla-based rental property owner wants to build 16 units on 1.3 acres of borough-owned land behind the old hospital building. The developer, Jiaying Lu, has applied to purchase the six vacant lots, which were last appraised at $316,000. The assembly will hold a public hearing on the land sale during its May 13 meeting at City Hall. The planning and zoning commission on April 10 unanimously recommended approval of the sale. Lu proposes to build four fourplexes on the property. She said she does not yet have a construction estimate for the...
As recommended by the borough manager, the assembly voted on April 22 to sell the first 20 lots of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision by auction to the highest bidder, dropping plans of the past 18 months to sell half of the parcels by lottery. The intent of an auction is to raise more money than in a fixed-price lottery to help cover a larger share of the development costs for the borough-owned land just past Shoemaker Bay. “It would be imprudent of us to use public dollars to subsidize a lottery,” Borough Manager Mason...
Alaska Airlines has been flying the “milk run” for decades, serving the string of Southeast communities between Ketchikan and Juneau, but this weekend will be the first flight for the Milk Run Music Festival in Wrangell. Two days of music, food booths, corn hole competition, kids events and more are planned for Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, in front of the City Dock. The Nolan Center is the backup plan if the rain gets to be too much. “We’re hoping for great weather,” said Reme Privett, one of the organizers. “We’re doing a sun dance.” The e...
The Legislature appears to have reached a deal on an education bill. The Senate passed the measure with a $700 increase in per-student funding, almost a 12% boost, on a 19-1 vote at midday Monday, April 28. The House was expected to take up the bill on Wednesday. House approval would send the bill to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his approval or veto, though the wide margin of legislative approval indicates lawmakers could have enough votes to override a veto. House Bill 57 started three months ago as a measure to place limits on student cellphone...
The 459-foot-long, 530-passenger Roald Amundsen is scheduled to start Wrangell's cruise ship season on May 8. To discuss plans for the season and share information, the borough's Economic Development Department has called a tourism stakeholder meeting for 9 a.m. Thursday, May 1, at the Nolan Center. "This meeting is intended for businesses that operate within or provide services to the tourism industry. This includes tribal partners, agency partners, tour operators, accommodation providers,...
The third annual plant swap and seed potato sale will sprout from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in a yard on St. Michaels Street, near the bottom of the hill. “It’s kind of been building each year,” said Mya DeLong, one of the organizers. Sponsored by the Wrangell Community Garden and Wrangell Cooperative Association, the event provides gardeners with an opportunity to swap out their excess plants and starters for something they may want to add to their greenery. “You can swap your Brussels sprouts for celery,” DeLong said, or any other...
To clarify the school district’s and borough’s responsibilities for maintenance and repairs at the school buildings, the assembly has approved an agreement that says the borough will pay for major repair and rehab projects that cost more than $25,000. The district is responsible for “routine maintenance,” as specified in the three-page agreement adopted by the assembly in a unanimous vote on April 22. In addition to removing any doubt as to who pays for what at the schools — the borough owns the buildings and the school district covers op...
This year’s first tax-free shopping day in Wrangell is Saturday, May 3. Continuing a yearslong tradition, the borough assembly has approved a second tax-free day, accepting the chamber of commerce request for Oct. 6. The assembly vote on April 22 was unanimous. “These events have historically stimulated the local economy by encouraging increased consumer spending and supporting Wrangell's small businesses,” Borough Finance Director Jackson Pool reported to the assembly. “By temporarily removing the barrier of sales tax, these days help drive r...
The borough assembly voted 7-0 on April 22 to approve the chamber of commerce moving into the Nolan Center — in the interest of closer collaboration between the borough and the chamber. The move provides a more heavily trafficked site for visitor information than the chamber’s current offices in the Stikine Inn. Although the vote was unanimous, a couple of assembly members raised questions. “I’ve seen it go up and down too many times,” Assembly Member David Powell said of the chamber’s finances, adding that while chamber and Nolan Center staf...
Ann Hegney, who started work last September as the only counselor at Wrangell schools, has resigned and will leave after the end of the school year. Hegney is the school district’s third counselor since 2021. “The staff and students are great. I am leaving because my father is in decline and needs help caring for my sister, who has Down Syndrome,” Hegney said in a text last week. “It’s actually the best job I ever had,” she said of her work in Wrangell. Hegney came to Alaska from New York state with 36 years of experience as a teacher and...
Maylee Martin is shifting into gear for her new business, called Lady Driver Taxi. Though she started taking fares last week, she expects it could be early May before she goes to work full time giving rides around town. Martin will be the only driver, providing rides in her Subaru Outback. Lady Driver Taxi will operate noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 3 p.m. to bar closings on Friday and Saturday, Martin said. Any other time, text her at 907-660-7102 in advance to schedule a ride, she said. Martin had been working since February to...
The Senate Finance Committee is considering a draft of Alaska’s state operating budget that would cut more than $200 million from a version adopted earlier this month by the state House. The committee unveiled the first draft of its operating budget proposal at an April 24 meeting in the Capitol in Juneau. The committee’s version of the budget would send less state money to school districts than the House had proposed, though it appears a compromise has been reached on that number — less than the House and school districts wanted but more than...
The U.S. Forest Service, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, has closed the Stikine River to subsistence fishing for king salmon from May 15 to June 20. The preseason returns forecast for the Stikine River is 10,000 large king salmon (greater than 28 inches in length), which is far below the spawning escapement goal of 14,000 to 28,000. This is the ninth year in a row for the federal closure, intended to protect weak returns of the highly prized fish. State and federal fisheries managers are trying to rebuild the run....
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s 90th annual tribal assembly voted on April 18 to give Southeast Alaska communities more representation by reducing the number allocated for larger cities such as Anchorage and Seattle. The change in representation on the tribal assembly was approved after an emotional five-hour debate at the gathering in Juneau. The change, part of Tlingit and Haida’s first constitutional convention at its assembly since 2018, makes significant shifts to a tribal delegation where Juneau and...
Legislation passed April 16 by the Alaska House of Representatives would require school districts to adopt policies that restrict the use of cellphones by students during school hours. House Bill 57, which advanced to the Senate after a 34-6 vote, does not require districts to ban students’ cellphones but does require them to regulate students’ use of phones during regular school hours, including during lunch and the time between classes. Wrangell’s middle school already bans cellphones on the premises during school hours. The high schoo...
The Alaska Senate passed legislation on April 17 that would significantly cap the interest rates and fees payday lenders can charge for loans of $25,000 or less. Senate Bill 39 would remove payday lenders from an exemption in the state’s lending laws, and require payday loan companies to cap interest rates and fees at an annual percentage rate of 36% for loans of $25,000 or less. An estimated 15,000 Alaskans take out a payday loan each year, according to research by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group....
Members of the federal government’s ocean-mapping corps and Alaskans training for the merchant marine would continue to receive Permanent Fund dividends while away from the state, under a bill approved by the Alaska House of Representatives. House Bill 75, from Rep. Jeremy Bynum, is the first piece of legislation from a freshman lawmaker to pass either the House or Senate this year. Bynum, who was elected last year, represents Ketchikan and Wrangell. The legislation also would change state law to make the names of dividend applicants c...
Southeast Alaska’s golden king crab fishery reached an all-time high value of $5 million this year, marking an impressive recovery for a fishery that was struggling just a few years ago. The East Central management area, which includes waters around and north of Petersburg, led the record-breaking season with a harvest value of $2.97 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game data. The high value comes despite lower harvest volumes than last year. Fishermen landed 177,060 pounds from the East Central area this year, c...
As the Trump administration continues to cut federal spending in multiple areas, Sitka’s 4-H program has received notice that the Department of Agriculture has terminated the grant that funds about half of the 4-H budget. The 4-H Alaska Way of Life program is run by the nonprofit Sitka Conservation Society in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, offering people ages 5 to 18 a chance to learn outdoor skills such as boating and water safety, bicycling, deer and fish butchering and berry gathering. “It’s all about teaching skill...
Thirteen years ago, Palmer farmer Scott Robb set a world record with a 138-pound cabbage he brought to the Alaska State Fair. Not long afterward, Palmer’s local visitor center dedicated a statue to the cabbage and the other colossal world-record vegetables grown in the area. Now, at the urging of a leading visitor center volunteer, a state legislator from Palmer is proposing to enshrine Alaska’s giant cabbages in state law as the official state vegetable. If adopted by the House, Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, House Bill 202 would declare tha...
The federal leader of the Denali Commission said April 18 she is trying to save long-planned Alaska infrastructure projects now threatened by the Trump administration — and the life of the independent federal commission itself. Julie Kitka, who served for three decades as president of the Alaska Federation of Natives before taking on the new role in October as federal co-chair of the Denali Commission, discussed those challenges in Nome at a conference organized by that city’s government. “I have to tell you that dealing with the new feder...
Josh Chevalier says working as the chief engineer aboard the state ferry Columbia is rewarding because there's always a new problem to solve, but right now one of the challenges is finding other workers who share that enthusiasm. He was among the crew members providing members of the State Legislature insight into a day in the life of working aboard the biggest and fastest ship in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet. "It's nice to see them come out and look at the boats and find out what we...
A Juneau-based contractor and scrap metal recycler wants to expand its operations in Wrangell. It has offered the borough about $700,000 in site work in exchange for almost 10 acres of land at the former 6-Mile mill site. Tideline Construction, a sister company of Channel Construction, in January offered the borough $250,000 for the acreage, but submitted a new proposal last month for an extensive cleanup of the mill property in exchange for the acreage it wants at the southern end of the site....
Facing a gap of several hundred thousand dollars between available funds and its draft spending plan, the school board will hold a special meeting Wednesday, April 30, to adopt a final budget — which could include spending cuts. The latest draft budget presented to the board at its regular monthly meeting on April 14 showed about $6 million in spending versus just $4.7 million in projected revenue from state, municipal and federal sources for the 2025-2026 school year. The district expects to start the next school year with $990,000 left in its...
School Board President Dave Wilson on April 14 named 10 people to a special committee to assist the board in developing a long-term budget plan. The district has been drawing on its dwindling savings the past few years to cover spending, and it doesn’t look likely that any combination of state, municipal or federal money is going to rescue the district from spending cuts. “The budget situation is extremely dire,” Ryan Howe, a 16-year teacher in the district, said at the school board’s April 14 meeting. “There’s no calvary coming.” Wi...
