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“There oughta be a law” is a common expression when people are frustrated with the behavior of others, the rules of society, the actions of their elected officials. Well, Alaskans will have an opportunity in the statewide primary election Aug. 18 to approve a new law, limiting the dollar size of donation checks to political campaigns of candidates running for the state Legislature and governor’s office. This is the chance for voters to do something about taking the money out of politics, limiting big-donor influence and fighting infla...
WRANGELL – Wrangell is getting closer to a major expansion of its downtown waterfront, building a new rock wall and adding fill to gain a couple of acres for expansion of the Marine Service Center, a public park, covered pavilion, parking and possible future commercial development along Campbell Drive. The overall project also includes an extension to the City Dock. City Hall staff briefed the borough assembly on plans at a work session July 28. The entire project could total around $15 m...
Hunters, recreational users and people who just want to enjoy the quiet and lake view should be able to reserve the new U.S. Forest Service cabin at Little Lakes, near the Long Lake trailhead in the middle of Wrangell Island, by this fall. Construction started in May - a little later than planned, due to heavy snow at the site - and the Forest Service is looking forward to completion by the end of September, Tory Houser, Wrangell District ranger, said last week. The Áax'w Sáani Cabin - Tlingit f...
WRANGELL — The Wrangel borough spent just over $1 million responding to the deadly November 2023 landslide that killed six people and is still owed about $346,000 after last month’s federal approval of reimbursement for debris removal costs. Last month’s approval of almost $638,000 in federal and state disaster funds is in addition to about $72,000 already paid to the borough to reimburse for utility repair costs and temporary shelter expenses. “Although the reimbursement wait is long, the borough has sufficient reserves and the delay is not...
Just as mosquitos, outdoor barbecues and sometimes even sunshine and warm skies return every summer in Alaska, and just as king salmon used to return in abundance and many Lower 48 relatives visit in too much abundance, Alaska experiences a special summer event in election years: The return of the dividend-promising political candidate. More persistent than swarms of malicious mosquitos and nasty no-see-ums, the PFD pledges are immune to citronella candles, aerosol sprays or mesh nets to cover your face. They spread on social media at a faster...
Alaska Airlines will add four more converted Boeing 737-800 freighters to its fleet, raising to nine the number of all-cargo aircraft the company operates. The additional freighters will be dedicated to serving Alaska and Hawai'i, not any specific route, Tim Thompson, the company's director of public relations, said in an email July 22. Alaska operates a weekly cargo flight into Petersburg on Wednesdays, using a Boeing 737-700, which is slightly smaller than the 800 series but capable of...
WRANGELL - The consultant that put together a feasibility study for a major shipbuilding and repair operation at the former 6-Mile Mill site released its cost estimates last week for a full build-out of the shipyard at $605 million to $726 million. Design, permitting and construction could take at least five years, dependent on assembling enough funding to pay for the ambitious project that could, at full development, create several hundred jobs with the shipyard operating at capacity. The...
Until last week, Alaska voters were facing one important decision on this year’s ballot to choose elected officials who work for the public, not political parties. That decision would be to uphold the system of ranked-choice voting and open primaries that has been state law since 2022. The system takes away from political parties the power of selecting candidates and lets Alaskans make their own decisions on who can lead the state in open primary elections. Vote no on the ballot question in November to block a return to the days of partisan p...
The state ferry system’s mainline service to Southeast Alaska remains intact under the draft schedule for the fall/winter season of Oct. 1 through April 30, at one sailing a week. The rest of coastal Alaska is not so fortunate. The Prince William Sound communities of Cordova and Valdez would be left without any service for five months Oct. 1 through March 5 while the Aurora is in the shop for annual winter maintenance and to replace rusted steel on the 49-year-old ship. Gulf of Alaska service to Kodiak, Homer and a couple of small c...
Southeast would go a week without mainline ferry service at the end of November as the Alaska Marine Highway System transitions between ships for its winter schedule. But seven days without the weekly northbound and southbound return voyage between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast is painless when compared to much longer service gaps in Prince William Sound and Southwest Alaska under the draft fall and winter schedule. Cordova and Valdez would be left without any ferry service for five months Oct. 1 through March 5 while the Aurora is in...
An agreement between the Canadian and British Columbia governments to boost resource development in the province includes a $500 million federal pledge (about US$350 million) to expand the capacity of a power line to the Red Chris Mine in the Stikine River watershed. The mine operator and 70% owner, Denver-based Newmont, along with its joint-venture partner, Vancouver-based Imperial Metals, are studying the feasibility of expanding the open-pit copper and gold mine to recover additional ore and extend its life. British Columbia regulators appro...
I’m sorry to say this column is about taxes. Oil and gas taxes. Corporate taxes. Legislative debate over taxes. If you want to read about the World Cup or salmon fishing or summer recipes for the best potato salad, this is not your cup of iced tea. But what better to talk about on the week of the nation’s birth than taxes, one of the major gripes of the colonies against England. In the week before the nation’s 250th birthday, the Alaska Legislature is embroiled in its own debate over taxes. It has nothing to do with tea and everything to do wi...
This is more about who will pay the cost of the president’s war on Iran and how it’s disrupting the global flow of oil than it is a history lesson about Alaska oil production. But stay with me as I run through the history to get to my point. Think of it like setting the handle on the gas pump to fill up your tank and watching as the dollars spin by on the screen. Decades ago, Alaska’s North Slope produced so much oil that the supply overwhelmed U.S. West Coast refineries. It required a choreographed system of tankers, barges and pipelines to fi...
I don’t believe the proposed multi-multibillion-dollar Alaska North Slope gas project will be built. It’s too expensive. The risk of construction delays and overruns are too much for investors to accept. The prospects of sufficient long-term demand growth for liquefied natural gas delivered by tanker to Asia are too uncertain. The competition from less risky gas projects is too much to overcome. Other than that, sure, it could be great for Alaska. Think of the jobs, the state tax and royalty revenues, and the profitable fact that selling the...
The state ferry Columbia, the largest vessel in the fleet, has been delayed a second time coming back to work on the busy summer route between Bellingham, Washington, and Southeast Alaska. The ship is now scheduled to make its first northbound run from Bellingham on June 5, according to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s online reservations site. The state will keep the Kennicott on the route until the Columbia is ready to go back into service. When the Columbia returns, the Kennicott will tie up at the dock in Ketchikan. The Marine Highway S...
WRANGELL - They had lived in the same house at 8.5-Mile Zimovia Highway since 2019, with Tim and Shei Gillen renting the downstairs apartment from homeowner Bruce Levine. All three lost their home and just about everything they owned in a fire Monday afternoon, April 27. Levine also lost his two dogs, and the Gillens lost two cats in the fire but were able to save their three dogs. They buried the cats last week. Levine suffered burns on his hands and face and was hospitalized a couple of days;...
Alaskans in November will decide for the third time on ranked-choice voting. They approved it in 2020, rejected an initiative in 2024 to repeal it, and now will vote this fall on another repeal initiative. The opponents are persistent, and they are good at raising money to run petition signature drives. But that doesn’t mean they are right. The successful 2020 ranked-choice ballot measure made big changes for the better in the state’s election laws. It eliminated partisan primaries in favor of an open primary, where the top four vot...
Little kids can’t help but play with their food. Gamblers can’t stop playing with a pair of dice or deck of cards. Cats can’t help but play with a ball of yarn. It’s the same with legislators who play around with voter-enticing talk of a fat Permanent Fund dividend. They just can’t help themselves, particularly in an election year. Like kids, gamblers and cats, it’s in the DNA of too many elected officials. It’s too much “fun” to talk about a PFD this year of almost four times the size of last year’s dividend. It’s too much “fun” to recite...
As the Alaska Marine Highway System moves around its limited fleet of operational vessels, Petersburg, Wrangell and the other communities served by the Southeast mainline route will see a gap in service from April 15 to May 3. The Kennicott, which has been serving Southeast this winter, is being pulled from the run mid-April to provide a couple of weeks of service on the cross-gulf route to Yakutat, Whittier, Kodiak and other communities that have been without any service while their usual ferry, the Tustumena, has been in winter overhaul since...
Tickets to ride the Alaska Marine Highway System will go up a little more than 2% effective May 1, the first fare increase since 2019. That 2019 increase instituted “dynamic pricing” of higher fares on popular routes, much like airlines and hotels price their rates to maximize revenues. But dynamic pricing was not popular among ferry riders and the state rescinded the fare structure in 2022, leaving tickets unchanged since then. Craig Tornga, marine director for the state ferry system, told legislators last month that it’s important for the m...
Spending money can be a lot of fun, while saving money can be pretty boring. Sure, you get to watch your account grow — assuming you invest it wisely — thinking about spending it someday, though thinking about that someday is not nearly as much fun as spending today. But when you do a good job of saving, life is much better as you grow old and life will be much better for the future generations who may benefit from your savings. As Alaskans depend ever more heavily on the Permanent Fund as the largest single source of stable revenue to pay for...
Last year’s inaugural event went so well that organizers have booked a return flight for the Milk Run Music Festival to land in Wrangell on May 1-2. “Most of the plans are locked in,” said lead organizer Olivia Strano, which is not to say the festival is on auto pilot. Volunteers started planning this year’s event last August, she said, running raffles, soliciting donations and lining up music and vendors and games to make this year’s festival better than the first time. The two days will include visiting and Wrangell musicians giving fr...
Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drove oil prices higher — over $100 a barrel for several months — so too are the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, and Iran’s counterattacks, sending prices upward. Higher oil prices mean more money for the Alaska state treasury. After the annual draw on Permanent Fund earnings, the money from oil taxes and royalties, which are based on price per barrel and production, are the second-largest deposit to the state checkbook. Every other taxpayer is so small as to be a drop in the barrel. Rising...
The Alaska Marine Highway System has been struggling with less than full staffing since 2019, with last month’s numbers showing the state ferries were short 59 workers to fill jobs as masters, mates, engineers, seaman and stewards. The shortage grows by about three dozen crew when measured against what would be needed to cover for workers out on personal leave, or due to injury or illness, according to a presentation by the Marine Highway System Director. “Attention to employee recruitment and retention strategies is core to this sta...
If the governor really wanted to improve state ferry service for the 33 coastal communities that depend on the ships, he would get out of his office and go on a national recruiting tour to help find new hires to fill the crew vacancies that jeopardize service. The crew shortage started during Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s first year in office, when he cut the Alaska Marine Highway System budget, driving workers to leave for other jobs or retire. The ferries have never fully recovered from the kick in the propeller end, though the state has closed the g...
