Week of June 11, 2025 2i4iq
Week of June 11, 2025 2i4iq
The public advisory board for the Alaska Marine Highway System has recommended that the state call an end to the Matanuska’s 53-year career in the fleet. The final decision whether to sell the unseaworthy ferry rests with the governor and his Department of Transportation commissioner. “There is currently no set timeline for action,” said Sam Dapcevich, the department’s spokesman. The 408-foot-long, 499-enger ferry has been out of service since the fall of 2022, when it went into the shipyard in Ketchikan for annual maintenance ...
This summer’s Southeast pink salmon catch is predicted at about 10% above average and 40% higher than last year, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issuing a harvest forecast of 29 million pinks. That would be slightly above the most recent 10-year average of 26 million fish and substantially higher than last year’s commercial pink salmon harvest of just over 20 million fish, more than 90% of which were caught by the seine fleet. Wrangell’s Trident Seafoods plant, which is expected to open for work in the coming days, focuses...
The borough is buying a little less than half an acre of property fronting on Reid Street from the Presbyterian Church to expand the adjacent parking area for high school students and staff. “This acquisition addresses longstanding access and congestion issues at the high school campus,” according to the staff recommendation presented to the borough assembly, which approved the land purchase unanimously on May 27. The borough will pay $30,000 in cash and provide $30,000 in credits for the church to apply against its utility bills over...
What makes a good neighbor? People learned it's someone who is there, after singer/songwriter Barry Manilow made "like a good neighbor" a hit advertising jingle for State Farm's insurance business in 1971. Edward Rust Jr., now retired chairman of the board at State Farm, believed it was someone to be trusted, someone to count on, someone who cares. Wrangell's Friends and Neighbors program is doing just that, but without insurance s and without an ad jingle. In order to address the...
Kids of all ages will have the chance to explore a variety of big rigs at the seventh annual Touch-a-Truck event, scheduled for Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to noon in the parking lot by Volunteer Park. The popular event allows attendees to get up close with work vehicles, including fire trucks, police cars, bulldozers and dump trucks. And there is the possibility that attendees will be able to take a look at a helicopter too. The event is free. Parks and Recreation Coordinator Devyn Johnson, who began organizing the annual event in 2018,...
Organizers of Wrangell’s multi-day Fourth of July celebration, themed “Small Town, Big Heart” this year, are seeking volunteers and sponsors to ensure a full slate of events. Without volunteers to serve as chairperson, some events may not happen. “As of right now, we need chair-people for the Red, White and Blue Fair and the Street Games,” said Tracey Martin, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which organizes the holiday event. “It’s not a huge time commitment to chair the events,” Martin said in an interview. “I...
While the swimming pool and community center remain closed for maintenance, Wrangell's Parks and Recreation Department announced that the weight room and cardio equipment have reopened, but with reduced hours. The department announced last week that the weight room, court and cardio equipment were to reopen Monday, June 9, with limited hours: Monday through Friday, 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; an early evening session on Tuesdays, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.; and Saturdays, 7 a.m. to noon. Parks and...
A sharp drop in optimism among businesses due largely to uncertainties created by Trump istration policies is among the key findings of an annual Southeast Alaska Business Climate Report released last month. “Last year we had one with the second-highest levels of positivity and now we have one with the second-lowest levels of positivity,” Meilani Schijvens, owner of Rain Coast Data, said in an interview about the report she has published every year since 2010. Separate from concerns over the national economy and political actions...
Wrangell's Stikine Stitchers quilting guild is gearing up for its annual Fourth of July quilt show - a tradition that began exactly two decades ago to brighten the town's storefronts. Organizer Joan Benjamin expects 12 to 15 quilters to display their intricate creations at various downtown businesses from June 23 to July 14. The quilt show's origins trace back to 2005. With several storefronts vacant following the sawmill closure and multiple store locations becoming empty, guild sought...
Wrangell residents Mike and Kimberly Ottesen plan to open Stikine Off-Road Rentals this week, offering utility-task vehicle (UTV) and side-by-side rentals to explore the island. The business will open as soon as its first vehicle arrives. Mike Ottesen, 28, said he's been planning the venture for over a year, aiming to provide a unique way for locals and visitors to experience Wrangell. "I wanted to bring something unique to town for people who don't have access to these kinds of machines,"...
The state has announced it is moving forward with a new ferry terminal at Cascade Point north of Juneau. The Department of Transportation has issued a request for proposals from contractors for the project’s first phase, which includes a road extension and site work, but not a dock or terminal. The department lacks funding for any actual dock construction. The Cascade Point terminal would be constructed on land owned by Goldbelt, the Native corporation for Juneau, about 30 miles north of the existing Alaska Marine Highway System terminal at...
An ocean acidification education program called 4-H pH is coming to Angoon and Petersburg this summer, on the heels of its success in Sitka, to teach elementary school students how to test water for its pH levels. “In some of these communities in Southeast they are monitoring ocean acidification, and in some they might not be, so the idea is also for community awareness,” said 4-H program assistant Jasmine Shaw with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, who led the Sitka program with Christina Buffington of the...
A three-judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the board which regulates subsistence hunting on federal lands within Alaska acted legally when it created an emergency hunt for Kake during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The order, issued June 2, is the latest chapter of a five-year-old legal dispute stemming from a hunt authorized by the Federal Subsistence Board because the emergency in 2020 disrupted the normal food supply for the Southeast Alaska community. The emergency hunt resulted in the harvest of two...
Alaska’s rates for childhood vaccinations are well below the national average, and the percentage of kindergarteners who had received all recommended vaccines was the lowest last year since at least 2017, according to a new report from the state Department of Health. Only 54% of kindergarteners in the state had received all of their recommended vaccinations in 2024, according to a bulletin issued by the department’s epidemiology section. That compares to a national rate of about 93%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...
Caleb Gray wasn't sure the 34-pound king he caught the first weekend of the 70th Sitka Salmon Derby would stay at the top of the leader board through the final weekend. The 9-year-old was at the weigh-in barge - "nervous and excited" - as the clock counted down on June 1. When it hit 7 p.m., derby officials invited him to sound the horn, securing his title and the $20,000 prize in the Sitka Sportsman's Association annual event. "I asked him if he'd ever seen $20,000 before," said John...
It’s never too early to think about good health, and SEARHC is putting the word out now for people to mark their calendars for the annual wellness fair Oct. 11. The event will run from 8 a.m. to noon at the Nolan Center. The community-wide event will offer health information and access to community resources, “including lab services and flu clinic offerings to help you prepare for fall,” said Kathryn Sweyer, director of communications and brand for the Southeast health care provider. The event will be free, with more specifics available...
Hawaii’s governor has signed legislation that boosts a tax imposed on hotel room and vacation rental stays in order to raise money to address eroding shorelines, wildfires and other consequences of climate change. The May 27 g, which comes nearly two years after a Maui wildfire killed 102 people and wiped out almost all of Lahaina town, marks the nation’s first such levy to help cope with a warming planet. Officials estimate the tax will generate nearly $100 million annually. The money will be used for projects like replenishing...
To help pull the struggling Alaska’s commercial seafood industry out of its tailspin, state lawmakers ed some bills aimed at lightening the financial load on harvesters and advanced others for next year that are intended to help businesses and fishery-dependent municipalities. The bills stemmed from recommendations made by the t Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry, which was created by lawmakers last year and which completed its work with a report at the start of this year’s session in January. Lawmakers...
June 11, 1925 An area embracing the drainage of the Stikine River for 25 miles above the international bounday has been set aside as a game sanctuary. The protection covers bird, game and fur-bearing animals. The order creating the reserve, promulgated by A.M. Manson, attorney general of British Columbia, follows: “The drainage valleys of the Taku and Stikine rivers and their tributaries within a distance of 25 miles of the international boundary line … no person shall at any time hunt, trap, take, wound or kill any game or carry a loaded...
Monday, June 2 Agency assist: State Troopers. Citizen assist. Summons service. Dangerous play: Unfounded. Report of gunshots. Tuesday, June 3 Agency assist: Pretrial services. Welfare check. Civil matter. Wednesday, June 4 Report of suspicion of driving under the influence: Citation issued for failure to provide proof of insurance. Thursday, June 5 Traffic stop: Verbal warning for defective headlight. Welfare check. Suspicious circumstance. Friday, June 6 Agency assist: Ambulance. Agency assist: State Wildlife Trooper. Saturday, June 7 Bar...
No surprise, but the state ferry Matanuska, once the stalwart of the fleet, needs more than 120,000 pounds of new steel to replace extensive sections of rust on the ship. Launched in 1963, the Mat has endured decades of saltwater and seas. But no more—it is tied to the dock in Ketchikan, serving as floating housing for ferry workers. It has been held out of service since late 2022. The citizens advisory board that watches over the Alaska Marine Highway System has recommended the state “make all due effort” to officially remove the ship...
Years ago, when I was working at a larger Alaska newspaper, my job included writing editorials. I was an employee, not the owner or publisher, so I had to submit the editorials to the publisher in advance for his approval. One editorial accused a state legislator of lying. The publisher thought the word was too harsh, too mean, too explicit. He wanted it changed to “not telling the truth.” I figured that was OK, since it still got the point across that the elected official knowingly misled the public. Sometimes, the right thing to do when...
