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It was always going to be tough for City Hall to follow up a fiscal year that brought in over $50 million in federal and state funding, but 2025 hasn't exactly gotten off to a rip-roaring financial start. Congress' failure to reauthorize funding for the Secure Rural Schools program means that the borough is beginning to build next year's budget in a $800,000 hole after losing the federal aid; the pending launch of Sitka's new haul-out boatyard could take business away from Wrangell's economy; an...
Alaskans have until 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 31, to file for this year’s Permanent Fund dividend, whether they file online or mail a paper application to the PFD office. But if they mail the application, it absolutely positively must be postmarked by March 31. Anything dropped in the mail after that date will be rejected. Last year’s dividend was $1,702, though this year’s amount — which will be set by legislators during the budget-writing process this spring — likely will be at least several hundred dollars less. The state is facing a combine...
Starting next week, SEARHC patients will be able to schedule appointments, message their medical team, renew prescriptions, check lab results and more, all through a new online portal. The online service is optional, and there is no charge. “We’re really excited about the MySEARHC portal,” said Dr. Cate Buley, SEARHC’s chief medical officer. “It’s really a step up.” It will be available to patients in every Southeast community served by SEARHC. Outreach to publicize the new service will start Saturday, March 29, Buley said. Everyone who has a c...
Petersburg is going through the same problem that Wrangell confronted last September: Its sewage outfall line is broken. Petersburg officials discovered that the diffuser section at the end of the outfall pipe, which disperses treated effluent from the wastewater treatment plant into Frederick Sound, had become detached from the line. The outfall pipe extends about 800 feet offshore, reaching a depth of 60 feet, to disburse the sewage into the larger waterbody with strong currents. It’s not known when the line was damaged. “At some point in the...
“There’s nothing off the list,” Superintendent Bill Burr said about potential cuts to the school district’s 2025-2026 budget. From exploring what life would be like as a satellite site of the Petersburg school district to eliminating teacher positions, Burr said the district is exploring everything and anything. The draft budget presented to the school board last month showed a $1 million shortfall between projected revenue ($5.05 million) and proposed expenses ($6.1 million). Covering that gap — without a significant boost in state funding ...
The Salvation Army has cut back from opening its food pantry every week to every other week until it can restock the shelves with enough donated food to meet demand. “I feel that in the past couple of months, we’ve been receiving less donations,” said Capt. Belle Green. The Tuesday pantry serves an average of 25 to 30 households a week, she said. The two grocery stores in town, City Market and IGA, are the biggest donors to the food pantry shelves and “have been unbelievably supportive” in donating, she said. Individuals, food drives at the sc...
It may not seem like it, but it’s springtime, and for the third year in a row Parks and Recreation is organizing an adopt-a-garden program to maintain and beautify Wrangell’s downtown botanical offerings. “Spring has sprung!” recreation coordinator Devyn Johnson said. “Beds are going to need to be cleaned up and taken care of.” Parks and Rec is actively seeking volunteers for the program and the department hopes to begin working as soon as possible, weather permitting. Last year there were 10 groups and individuals who volunteered to keep up Wr...
The borough assembly on March 11 approved moving ahead with Mason Villarma’s request to buy two borough-owned industrial lots at the corner of Etolin and Pine streets. The vote to sell the land to the borough manager was 6-1. Villarma plans to clear both lots and eventually build a 40-by-60-foot building on each of the lots — “one for personal storage and one for a fabrication business venture,” he wrote in his request to the borough. “It might be boat storage or container storage until I can save up enough to build a shop,” Villarma sa...
Juneau has done it the past three years. The city of Ketchikan and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough will start doing it this year. And Wrangell may do it too. “We’re considering it,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma said of amending Wrangell municipal code to require cruise ships and tour boats to collect sales tax on goods and services they sell while in port. Juneau changed its code in 2021 to apply to onboard sales when the ship is tied up at the dock or in Gastineau Channel in front of town. Both the city and the borough of Ketchikan chang...
The chamber of commerce is surveying its more than 100 members to ask where they think the town’s barge ramp and freight yard should be located. The borough earlier this month closed down the facility on the downtown waterfront after an engineering report cited structural issues with the 47-year-old, 140-foot-long steel ramp. Even before the shutdown decision, the borough has been looking at moving the freight loading and unloading facility and staging area to the former 6-Mile mill property, which the borough purchased for $2.5 million in 2...
In most instances, the tenor saxophone lies under the surface. It's the wind blowing over the ocean - the invisible force that brings life to the world's waves. It acts as a railway, offering a platform for a jazz ensemble to thrive. In a way, the tenor sax - one of Ander Edens' artistic mediums of choice - is the perfect instrument for the graduating senior. He's someone who enjoys working outside the limelight, in roles that frequently go underappreciated, despite their necessity for a...
The Alaska House of Representatives is asking Congress to appropriate funding for a program that pays money to rural school districts affected by the decline of the timber industry — including Wrangell. The state House voted 35-4 on March 17 to pass a resolution urging Congress to reinstate the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. The U.S. Senate approved extending the program and providing funds last year, but the U.S. House never took up the legislation before it adjourned in December, leaving a big hole in c...
A 2023 presidential executive order expanding sovereignty rights for the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes was revoked March 14 by President Donald Trump, putting major tribal projects and policies in Alaska and elsewhere in question. Executive Order 14112, signed by President Joe Biden during the White House Tribal Nations Summit in early December 2023, sought to give Native Americans more access to federal funding and spending autonomy. The order was cited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in recognizing expanded tribal i...
No one expects a totally life-changing event on any given day. That’s the reason the SEARHC transitional-care team wants people to know about their services before they need them. Marin Donovan, southern regional director of rehabilitation services for Craig, Wrangell and Sitka, explains that their program is the kind of thing people don’t know about until they need it, but when they need it, everything that is happening can be overwhelming. It’s about education and advocacy skills, providing information and resources, in anticipation of a futu...
Confronted with an engineering report that cited “concern for potential failure of the ramp,” the borough on Thursday evening, March 13, notified freight haulers that the municipally owned barge ramp downtown was closed, immediately. The borough made arrangements for the weekly freight barge to use the old sawmill dock at the Marine Service Center as a temporary unloading and loading site, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said Friday, March 14. “This should have happened some time ago,” he said of shutting down the 47-year-old steel ramp which s...
The annual assessment of property values in town resulted in an overall increase of about 12% for taxable property, though an owner’s tax bill will depend on the tax rate set by the borough assembly in late May. State law requires municipalities to assess property —all land and buildings— at “full and true market value.” The borough’s contract assessor’s March 3 letter to the assembly said, “Our evaluations indicate that the overall market (value) … continues to grow despite the high cost of living and rising interest rates.” The annual assessm...
Citing concerns over heavy foot traffic and Front Street congestion, the borough assembly denied Brian Schwartz’s request to rent space facing Front Street for a food truck-style seafood trailer. Schwartz hoped to rent a small area in front of the public restrooms on the northern end of Front Street. Despite the planning and zoning commission recommending that the borough accept his request, the assembly voted 5-1 against the proposal on March 11. Phillip Mach, the newest assembly member, was the only yes vote. “That area gets very con...
The Alaska House passed a bill on March 12 intended to boost annual state funding for public schools by $275 million, starting with the 2025-2026 school year. If approved by the Alaska Senate and the governor, the legislation would increase state funding for the Wrangell school district next year by about $600,000, according to Kristy Andrew, the district’s business manager. The sizable increase in the state’s per-pupil funding formula approved by the House will face challenges winning approval from the Senate and the governor, however, as the...
Jeff and Kay Jabusch were named citizens of the year. The Wrangell Cooperative Association was named organization of the year. Alice Rooney took home volunteer of the year. Jack Carney won the award for educator of the year while his son, Jackson Carney, was awarded young leader of the year. And this year’s theme for the Fourth of July celebration? Small Town, Big Heart. The chamber of commerce’s annual dinner took place on Saturday, March 15, at the Nolan Center and was catered by Wrangell’s newest eatery: The Wolf Shack. For those famil...
A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate thousands of probationary federal workers fired as part of billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign to slash the government workforce. A federal judge in Maryland issued a similar ruling the same day, March 13. Two days before the judges’ orders, the Department of Agriculture on March 11 issued a temporary stay on the firings, which applies to U.S. Forest Service workers. The department’s job-reinstatement decision follows an order issued March 5 by the U.S....
Though a $5 million federal grant to help pay for expanding the generating capacity at the Tyee Lake hydroelectric station is “clearly frozen,” the head of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency hopes the funds will be released soon and the project can stay on schedule. The agency’s lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and others “feel fairly confident … that freeze will be thawed,” Robert Siedman, chief executive officer of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, or SEAPA, said earlier this month. The Tyee money is caught up in the nationwide spending fr...
Coffman Cove commercial fisherman Dugan Paul Daniels, 55, was sentenced on March 10 to six months in prison for illegally “taking” an endangered sperm whale and falsifying fishing records while catching sablefish in 2020. The term “take” legally means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. According to research by the prosecution in preparation for Daniels’ case, this appears to be the first Endangered Species Act charge to result from a sperm whale take in t...
A new service for dogs - and their owners - opened this week. Muddy Paws Pet Grooming owner and operator Destiny Becker is ready to give the town's dogs the glow-up treatment. Becker's story is a familiar one: She and her husband left Minnesota for a six-month stint in Wrangell but decided to stay. She wanted to find a way to get more rooted in the community, and to find her niche. She grew up around dogs and loved taking care of her family and friends' dogs, especially big dogs. She currently...
She loves its water, its plants, its people. She loves the community she's cultivated here, and she loves the personal history of which it reminds her. From tight matches on the wrestling mat to even tighter bonds connecting her with loved ones, Churchill is certain: After college, she's coming home to Wrangell. But before she does that, she needs to graduate high school - and to do that, she needs a senior project. For that, Churchill helped coach the middle school wrestling team alongside her...
“There’s nothing off the list,” Superintendent Bill Burr said about potential cuts to the school district’s 2025-2026 budget. From exploring what life would be like as a satellite site of the Petersburg school district to eliminating teacher positions, Burr said the district is exploring everything and anything. The draft budget presented to the school board last month showed a $1 million shortfall between projected revenue ($5.05 million) and proposed expenses ($6.1 million). Covering that gap — without a significant boost in state funding ...