Sorted by date Results 5 - 29 of 8247
The school board has invited to town the finalists for superintendent to meet with the community, answer questions and sit down for interviews with board members. The community meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to run from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at the high school commons. The finalists are Joshua Garrett, currently the director of a private, nonprofit school in Kazakhstan; Frank Oakes, a former principal who now works as a high school physics teacher in Texas; and Casey Robinson, a former principal at Schoenbar Middle...
American Cruise Lines, which operates a pair of 170-passenger ships in Southeast Alaska, is talking with the borough about a long-term lease on a new dock to better accommodate its overnight stays. The borough will hold a public work session on the plan at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29, at City Hall. Members of the assembly, port commission, planning and zoning commission, economic development board, and the convention and visitor bureau have been invited to the meeting where the cruise company will present its ideas. “The City Dock doesn’t fit...
A public hearing will be held Tuesday, May 27, at City Hall on a proposed ordinance that could raise an estimated $200,000 a year in total from collecting more sales tax on work performed at the Marine Service Center, on big-ticket purchases in town, and from sales aboard cruise ships. The ordinance would raise the taxable cap on a single purchase of goods or services in town. Under the current limit, sales taxes shut off when an invoice exceeds $3,000; the ordinance would raise that maximum to $5,000. That would mean, for example, a $350...
Among the revenue-raising measures before the assembly is an ordinance to boost the lease rate on borough-owned tidelands and other parcels. Several lots around town are borough-owned tidelands and upland properties, leased to private businesses or individuals. The current annual lease rate is 6% of the property’s market value. If the assembly approves the ordinance, the annual lease rate would increase to 10% of the parcel’s market value “or a negotiated rate, whichever is greater,” according to the ordinance. For example, the annual lease o...
The borough assembly has advanced a proposed ordinance to regulate and set a minimum age to ride an e-bike or e-scooter in town, scheduling a public hearing for Tuesday, May 27, on the possible new rules. A separate ordinance would set fines for violations of any of the rules, such as a $150 fine for violating a traffic law. “I was definitely shocked when I saw these,” Assembly Member Phillip Mach said of the list of fines. “I think these are pretty steep,” he added, suggesting that perhaps a better idea would be no fine for the first offense...
The borough assembly has approved a $2.296 million contract to construct gravel streets and install buried utility lines at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision near Shoemaker Bay, almost $400,000 more than the engineers estimate of $1.9 million. The contract with Petersburg-based Rock-N-Road Construction, which was the only bidder on the job, will push total development costs for the 20 residential lots to about $4.1 million, more than double what the borough hopes to recover from the land sale. The borough will put the lots u...
The Nolan Center has a new summer exhibit to engage both locals and cruise ship visitors: The display celebrates the legendary sporting goods entrepreneur George Herter. Herter's sporting goods catalogs were the Sears Christmas Wish Book, Field and Stream and the ads on the back of comics books all rolled into one. The cover of the 1965 catalog claims to be the "authentic world source for hunters, fisherman, guides, gunsmiths, law enforcement officers, tackle makers, forest rangers, commercial...
There will be no extra money for the University of Alaska’s sports teams, its effort to become a top-tier research university or its attempts to hire and keep staff. On May 16, the legislative committee assigned to write the final version of Alaska’s state operating budget axed all of those items — and many more — from its latest draft. Alaska is facing a severe budget crunch, thanks to low oil prices and reduced federal spending, and lawmakers are eliminating almost every previously considered addition, even before Gov. Mike Dunleavy gets a...
Almost 20 years after eliminating Alaska’s public employee pension program, the House of Representatives has voted to open a new pension system for municipal and state workers. With proponents saying the state’s existing, 401(k)-like retirement system is ineffective and a deterrent for hiring and retention, the House voted 21-19 on May 12 to approve House Bill 78. If enacted, it would create a new pension plan and allow current employees to opt into the program. The bill advanced to the Senate, which is expected to take up the measure when the...
A major elections reform bill, a priority of House and Senate leaders, is dead in the Alaska Legislature. Wednesday, May 21, is the last day of the regular legislative session, and members of the House’s multipartisan majority said on May 17 that they lack the support needed to overcome the opposition of the House Republican minority in the time left. Bills don’t expire at the end of the first year of the two-year legislative session, but Senate Bill 64 needed to become law this year in order to be implemented in time for the 2026 ele...
The Alaska House of Representatives, following in the path of the Senate, has approved a small construction and renovation budget for the state fiscal year that starts July 1. The House vote on Senate Bill 57, the annual infrastructure bill — formally known as the capital budget — was 21-19, along caucus lines, with the Democratic-led majority in charge. When oil prices and production are high, the Legislature pours hundreds of millions of dollars into new construction and maintenance projects across Alaska, much of it going to com...
A group of Alaska’s rural school districts — including Wrangell — are asking for help after the federal government failed to renew a program that sends grant money to previously logging-dependent areas. On May 12, the Alaska Legislature joined the call for help by passing House Joint Resolution 5, which asks Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act of 2000. That program sent $12.6 million to Alaska schools in federal fiscal year 2023, Congress failed to reauthorize the program last year when the legislation passed the Senate but d...
Smoking has steadily declined in Alaska over the past decades, evidence that coordinated health campaigns mounted over several years have been effective, a new report from the state Department of Health said. Adult cigarette smoking rates fell to 16% in 2023 from 28% in the 1990s, according to the Alaska Tobacco Prevention and Control Program’s annual report, released last month. Among Alaska Native adults, who have long had higher rates of smoking use than the state average, the declines were notable: down to 29% in 2022 from 41% in 2013. H...
Following a request by the federal government, the state of Alaska has turned over the personal information of roughly 70,000 Alaskans enrolled in the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. As first reported by National Public Radio, the federal government normally collects information to determine a SNAP applicant’s financial eligibility for the program. The new request goes beyond that, to cover name, date of birth, address, contact information, Social Security number, citizenship status a...
It happens every year, but that doesn't make it any less special. This year's graduation ceremony will start at 7 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the high school gym. Though seating on the gym floor is reserved for graduates and their special guests, there should be plenty of bleacher seating available for anyone who wants to attend, said Kaelene Harrison, one of the organizers with the parents committee. The 15 high school seniors selected Jennifer Ludwigsen, the mom of graduating senior Trevyn...
It’s just a short block but it’s long been a challenge for drivers and the borough public works crew. Relief is in sight, with new underground water and sewage pipes, a new crushed-rock subbase and, most noticeably, new concrete pavement coming for the one-block stretch of St. Michaels Street from Church to Front streets. Borough staff expect to receive 100% complete drawings from the engineers by the end of this week, the last step to bidding out the project, Capital Projects Director Amber Al-Haddad reported to the assembly for its mee...
The Presbyterian Church, which has had an interest in the Garnet Ledge on the mainland across from Wrangell for 63 years, has turned over ownership to the Wrangell Cooperative Association. The rules will not change, only the owner. The 39-acre property has been reserved since 1962 for “the children of Wrangell” to collect garnets, which they sell to tourists and at shops around town. “If anyone goes up there to get garnets, they have to have kids,” said Sandy Churchill, a member of the WCA tribal council. The church, which managed the propert...
President Donald Trump’s budget proposal would cut funding by more than half for the Essential Air Service program, which has ensured daily jet service to Wrangell, Petersburg, Yakutat and Cordova for almost 50 years. The program covers 65 small communities in Alaska — which includes 11 in Southeast — and 112 communities in the Lower 48, Hawaii and Puerto Rico as of late last year. Congress created the Essential Air Service subsidy in 1978 to ensure a minimum level of service for communities that otherwise might receive no regularly scheduled f...
After 13 years with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, the past seven as tribal administrator, Esther Aaltséen Reese will leave in June to start her new job as chief operating officer for the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority. "Housing is the No. 1 need" across Southeast Alaska, Reese said in an interview on May 8. The nonprofit tribal agency's mission "is to connect Southeast Alaskans with sustainable housing opportunities and innovative financial solutions," particularly aimed at...
After losing more than $500,000 in federal funding, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has put on hold this year’s community food distribution of herring roe and salmon. The Southeast tribal nonprofit’s Traditional Foods Security Department had planned to use the money to continue the program, which over the past three years has distributed more than 52,000 pounds of herring roe on kelp, 120,000 pounds of salmon and 31,000 pounds of black cod to the tribe’s 21 recognized communities. Wrangell is among the commu...
The school board has narrowed down its search for a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Bill Burr to three finalists. The board scheduled a special meeting for Monday, May 12, “to act on the superintendent finalists and discuss interview dates,” according to the meeting announcement. The board approved the list of three finalists after a five-hour, closed-door session Wednesday, May 7: Joshua Garrett, Mark Lee and Frank Oakes. As of Monday afternoon, May 12, the board had not released any information on the finalists — such as the appli...
Krizz Kaliko is bringing his unique brand of hip-hop/country music - and some mental health talk - to town as part of the Wrangell Cooperative Association's Bouncing Back program. He will give two free concerts on Tuesday, May 20: a student-only performance at 2:30 p.m. at the high school, and a community show at 6:30 p.m., also at the high school. He will then participate in a roundtable mental health discussion with community elders, moderated by Peter Adams of the WCA, at the Nolan Center at...
There are no timelines to process grief and trauma, and the impacts of the deadly 2023 landslide in Wrangell continue to affect the community. To help, the Wrangell Cooperative Association received a federal grant and is making resources available through its new Bouncing Back program to address this reality, led by Peter Adams, director of crisis counseling. Adams, based in Kansas City, Missouri, was familiar with Wrangell through visits with the Team Hollywood sports presentations. When he...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy ramped up his threats to school districts on May 8 by declaring he will use his line-item power to reduce per-student funding in next year’s budget unless the Legislature passes his education policy priorities. The Republican governor issued his ultimatum during a Zoom call with school district superintendents. It comes after the Legislature passed House Bill 57 a week earlier, increasing the per-pupil base student allocation by more than 11%. The increase, if it survives, would generate more than $400,000 in additional s...
State senators issued warnings on May 7 as they approved a draft operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Senate version of the spending bill, which includes an estimated $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend for eligible Alaskans and an increase for K-12 education, also cuts into state money for several services. The proposal would trim back proposed funding increases for early education programs, reduce funding for state prisons, eliminate the state’s office of citizenship assistance, mostly defund the state militia, reduce road maintenanc...