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Most folks who ride the ferries have no idea there’s a crew of highly trained engineers, unseen below deck, running complex systems that could run a small city. Marine engineers control ships’ propulsion, power generation and other vital systems. We monitor control systems and ensure all machinery is operating correctly. We not only operate the ferries, we repair and maintain their mechanical and electrical systems and equipment. We’re also the ones called when just about anything goes wrong on the ship, from the elevator breaking down to a...
Our family-owned and operated small business provides 140 jobs on Prince of Wales Island. With 30 years in operation, we know that year-round jobs in rural communities keep grocery stores and schools open. Viking Lumber employs 46 Alaskans living in rural communities like Craig and Klawock. Employees at Viking Lumber receive family wages, health care, dental, vision, life insurance and a retirement plan. School-age children of Viking employees are equal to one full class of students in our already shrinking schools. Viking’s operations also s...
Article VII of the Alaska Constitution requires the Legislature to “maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the state.” Alaska statute, in the Alaska Students’ Educational Bill of Rights, states: “A quality education for students of all ages is a concrete investment that vastly improves the future prosperity, welfare, productivity and vitality of society.” The indisputable, mathematical fact is that at least for the past 10 years; (years in which I served in the Alaska State House), the Legislature and the executive...
It’s a two-sided coin, this. An opportunity to say goodbye to an entire community but also something that can only be written in broad strokes, absent the hugs and the clasping of hands that I usually prefer for my goodbyes. The reason is that today was my last day at the Wrangell Sentinel. I start my new job as a food and culture writer with the USA Today network in Boston in just five days. So, to all those who’ve been kind to me at any point in the past nine months — even if it was just a tiny little moment — I’m clasping my hands together,...
I know I’ve made it home when I step off the plane and a rush of cedar bark invades my senses. As I step onto the airport tarmac, I see the Stikine River and the tiniest airport terminal I have ever laid eyes on. I’ve returned for my annual summer vacation in Wrangell. Once a small yet vibrant logging and fishing community which has long since diminished, leaving a population of roughly 2,000, what could make a town double in size for two weeks out of the year? That’s simple, the best Fourth of July celebration of my life. The Fourth is the t...
I was surprised to learn of the procedure that has been evidently adopted by the Trump administration which allows high-level advisers like Elon Musk to maintain multiple private income sources that could benefit them substantially from the advice they are giving to our president. Musk is reported to have already received $38 billion in contracts, tax credits and loans from the federal government. He is reported to be seeking the federal government’s underwriting of a SpaceX voyage to Mars. Musk should be required to separate the benefits his b...
The recent announcement by the state’s bank AIDEA, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, and the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. warrants close examination not only by the Legislature but every Alaskan who might become a ratepayer utilizing the natural gas. The AIDEA proposal commits up to $50 million as a backstop in support of engineering work on the proposed pipeline to move North Slope gas to Fairbanks and Southcentral Alaska. The work would be conducted and initially funded by an unnamed private company. If the study c...
I have worked for hourly wages and also for many years operated restaurants paying hourly wages. During college and around and about my service in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam, I worked as a roughneck on oil rigs throughout the west. After graduation in 1968 I roughnecked in California for the “high” wage of some $3.50 an hour before the new oil discovery in Prudhoe Bay enticed me to move to Alaska. There I found employment roughnecking on the North Slope for the even higher wage of about $4.50 an hour until I decided to try my han...
To say I am resistant to change is an understatement. I acknowledge that it happens in life — after all, I am about to turn 73 — but that doesn’t mean I embrace or enjoy it. Rather, I quietly accept change, though not happily, just like I accept that rainy fall comes after summer, and that my 20-year-old spices don’t seem to smell like anything anymore and it is time to buy new jars. My resistance to change in life was obvious when I was getting coffee with a friend recently and pulled actual change out of my pocket, just as I’ve done sinc... Full story
In early August an ad hoc meeting was held in Ketchikan by a group consisting of knowledgeable residents who had followed the Alaska Marine Highway Service since its inception in the early 1960s. The purpose of was to discuss how to revise the system. We addressed AMHS maintenance. We discussed using money made available to AMHS through the federal infrastructure legislation to restructure the system. Finally, we discussed the need to reestablish the run to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Operationally, we currently have only one vessel, the...
On July 26, KSM Mining ULC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seabridge Gold, received its “substantially started” determination from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office for its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project. KSM is a huge proposed open-pit and underground gold-copper-silver mine targeting coastal mountains of northwestern B.C., within the headwaters of both the Nass River, which lies entirely within B.C., and the transboundary Unuk River, which flows into Southeast Alaska near Ketchikan. Why does this matter? Acc...
I became a senator one month after President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980, and over the next three decades I was involved in the law’s implementation, both as a senator and later as Alaska’s governor. As I write this now, nearly 45 years after ANILCA became law, I am discouraged that we are still fighting battles that should have been resolved as soon as the ink dried on this law. A case in point is the Ambler Road, which is unambiguously authorized by the law: “Congress finds that...
Changes are happening at the paper. As a result, I will no longer be working full-time at the Sentinel. It’s nobody’s fault; it’s the nature of this business. Since my arrival last October, people asked me now and then if I thought I might stick around, but I knew better than to commit to anything. Residents have seen a lot of reporters come and go through this newspaper, and my plan was to take this unique adventure one day at a time. Newfound friends expressed their sadness when I told them last month I would likely be leaving. And I was g...
We have a great opportunity before us. Let’s change our visitors’ first impression of Wrangell. Currently, the view is of old containers piled high. Not only do they block the visitors’ view of the downtown area, but the vans are surrounded with muddy water, which is very unattractive. I don’t believe the current container location fits in with the welcome intended by the community, evident by the children selling garnets and other trinkets on the pier. The borough has been successful in acquiring the former 6-Mile mill site. This location has...
On beautiful Wrangell Island, where my family has deep roots spanning generations, hard work is not just a way of life, it’s ingrained in our very existence. As a caregiver in this tight-knit community, I’ve always embraced the notion that our work is critical to the well-being of our elders and those in need of extra support. It’s a labor of love, despite its backbreaking nature, because it brings a profound sense of satisfaction to know that I’m making a difference in the lives of my neighbors, friends and family. But lately, the work of...
By Frank Rue It’s hard to believe that the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine, just across the Alaska border in Canada, has been discharging toxic, acidic and metals-laden waste water into the Taku River watershed for almost 70 years. A kaleidoscope of Canadian excuses, corporate bankruptcies, and hollow promises have meant no meaningful, on-the-ground effort has been made to clean up this mess in Southeast Alaska’s top salmon-producing river system. The mine site is about 40 air miles northeast of Juneau. Alaskans have been pressing to have the pr...
I often wonder about the ever-moving changes that are taking place in our society. The increase in homelessness is evident on the sidewalks of our major regions as well as here in our own state. The extent to which cultural issues divide us. The dialogue coming from many of our leading universities that the constitutional right to freedom of speech justifies the growing attitude that anything goes. The reappearance of isolationism which negates America’s leadership role in projecting democracy and protecting peace. Our own border problem — on o...
As we wrapped up the Senate session in late December, I was anxious to leave Washington, D.C., to return home to Anchorage, with a stop in Wrangell, a place I still call home. I wanted to share my condolences, see for myself the damage from the Nov. 20 landslide, and determine what resources I could assist with. I also wanted to thank the community members and assure them that they are not forgotten once the destruction is cleaned up and the road repaired. Seeing the open scar on the mountain scraped raw by the slide, massive trees littered...
By the time this paper hits the stores, I’ll be on a plane to my family home in Salt Lake City for the holidays. But unlike last year, I won’t be coming back to Wrangell in January. Instead, I’ll be making a leap from the oldest continuously published newspaper in Alaska to the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States — Harper’s Magazine, in New York City. According to Marilynne Robinson, one of my favorite authors, “a character or a place is inexhaustible and will always reward further attention.” For the past year and...
Growing up in central Virginia and later moving to the Washington, D.C., area, natural disasters took the form of thunderstorms, hurricanes, floods, snowfalls and ice storms. I even experienced an earthquake in Silver Spring, Maryland in the summer of 2011. But until last Monday, my only personal experience with the word “landslide” was when I first heard it on Nov. 7, 1973, when reporters and political pundits used that same word over and over to describe Republican Richard Nixon’s overwhelming victory in the presidential election again...
In my 20s and 30s, in addition to relying on public transportation to get around, I did a lot of walking. I briefly owned a couple of cars at different times, but they were, for the most part, older and often in disrepair. Plus, I mostly worked in retail back then, so I was on my feet most of the day. Then in 2001, two events happened that changed my life: I moved from retail work to a desk job, and I got a reliable car that was only five years old. Thus began my shift to the sedentary lifestyle. While my ability to travel expanded and I could...
The governor or Legislature, or both, need to conduct an audit available to the public or engage in serious oversight of the Permanent Fund’s recent erratic decisions. There is a growing threat to the Permanent Fund, and it is coming from the trustees themselves. Their plan included opening satellite offices to expand the fund’s national and international presence. The trustees moved ahead this summer with an Anchorage office, spending money the Legislature approved for other purposes, despite being unable to show any benefit to the fund from d...
Thanks to plenty of time spent in libraries and bookstores, both as a customer and staff member, along with my own collection of reading material, I’ve grown very comfortable in the world of books. In the fall of 1996, I had been working for a few years at Borders Books and Music in Kensington, Maryland, and that’s when I got the idea to start a mystery novel discussion group. It did very well, and while several members have since passed on, the group is still going strong, outlasting the bookstore franchise where it started by over a dec...
I want to share my thoughts about the development of Wrangell’s waterfront properties. My opinions are based on the unique experience our family has enjoyed from residing in many Southeast communities. Raised and schooled in Ketchikan, serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in Sitka, banking and serving in my first elective office on the school board in Wrangell and living in Juneau as commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development and then later as governor have given us a terrific opportunity to see change throughout Southeast. F...
"Why would you want to move to a small town in Alaska?" That was the question put to me by the Sentinel's publisher, Larry Persily, when I applied for the position of editor. My answer? I was looking for an adventure. Before coming here, I had never been near the state of Alaska. I did live in Fargo, North Dakota, from 2004 to 2006, which is a lot colder. But it's a dry cold; I heard that phrase a lot while I was there - that and "uff da". I was born in Richmond, Virginia, and spent my...
