Week of November 20, 2024
The number of cruise ship passengers visiting Wrangell is expected to rise in 2026, with the borough’s draft schedule estimating it could come close to 70,000. This is an increase from the estimated 40,000 in 2025, which is already almost double the number of passengers Wrangell welcomed in 2024. Though the borough anticipated as many as 30,000 passengers this year, cancellations and cruise company bankruptcies caused that figure to fall short of expectations. The first ship of the 2026 season will arrive on May 7 when the 728-passenger...
Kids keep asking John Shank if he's Santa. "I can't lie to them," he laughed. "But I say, 'I'm just his helper.'" John Shank is 72. He has a big white beard and has been driving for Lynden Transport for 49 years. He and Fred Austin, another longtime Lynden driver, are transporting the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree and its 82-foot sled - trailer - from Seattle to Washington, D.C. This is Shank's second time driving The People's Tree from Alaska to Washington. He was selected to drive the rig back... Full story
Police Chief Gene Meek has revamped the Wrangell Police Department. Since arriving in July, he has implemented a series of policies that emphasize transparency, prevention and community engagement. When he arrived in town, he realized something pretty quickly about the police department. "This agency was stuck in the 1990s," he said. "It was a reactive model, where you sit back, wait for calls for service, and go out and handle the calls. That's fine from a law enforcement standpoint, but...
It's been 10 years since the community saw the map of a proposed new access route to the Mount Dewey Trail and its viewing platform for a scenic look at the town and harbor below. The wait ended with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new trailhead parking lot on Thursday, Nov. 14. "It's heavily used already," Amber Al-Haddad, the borough's capital projects director, said a few hours before the official opening. The trail runs from Bennett Street, starting at the new parking area on the road to...
GCI is pulling the plug on its cable TV and streaming services, just as its customers have been cutting the cable cord for years. The company announced Nov. 11 that it will shut down its TV services by mid-2025; it did not provide a more specific date. “Over the past few years, we have … seen our customers increasingly choose online video streaming as their preferred way to watch their favorite programming. In light of these factors, we will sunset our TV offerings by mid-2025,” the prepared statement said. GCI has been in the cable...
The ballot measure to repeal open primary elections and ranked-choice voting in general elections saw its lead narrow last week and then disappear on Monday, with a final vote count scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 20. As of Monday afternoon, the repeal effort was behind by 192 votes out of more than 332,000 ballots cast on the measure. State elections officials estimated there were about 5,000 ballots still to count this week, an assortment of early votes and mail-in absentee ballots. The repeal initiative led by more than 4,100 votes after the...
Hospice of Wrangell is planning its two biggest events of the year, including its only fundraiser of the year. The Dove Tree Ceremony is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the Nolan Center lobby. The tree, decorated with paper doves in memory of those who have died, will remain up through the new year. The annual remembrance started more than 20 years ago. Volunteers will prepare a dove for each community member who died in the past year, and blank doves will be available for people to add their own remembrances. People can add a dove to the...
The Wrangell advisory committee to the state boards of fisheries and game will meet Tuesday to begin its consideration of multiple proposed changes in state regulations for salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska. The committee also will hold elections to fill several seats on the 15-member panel. The public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, at the Nolan Center. Though the public may attend the meeting by Zoom, in-person attendance is required to nominate people to serve on the committee and to vote in the election. The meeting is... Full story
Since acquiring a new 3D printer for the Irene Ingle Public Library, librarian Sarah Scambler and library assistant Kaitlin Wilson have enjoyed familiarizing themselves on the latest addition. Much of the learning came through experimenting, creating different objects. After several weeks, Scambler had made several skeletons, spring-coiled ghosts and even segmented slugs for Halloween. "It's been fun to play around with it and figure out how it works," she said. The printer is not yet available...
As another dark winter season in Southeast Alaska approaches, developing healthy sleep habits can improve overall well-being, from creating a calming bedtime routine to tackling sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea. Internal medicine physician Dr. Guillermo E. Espinoza, who has worked for SEARHC since 2017, specializes in sleep study at the Mount Edgecumbe Medical Center in Sitka. Starting about three years ago, he began focusing on developing a practice for weight management. “(There’s) a lot of overlap between obesity and...
The Petersburg borough assembly is considering an ordinance that would impose requirements — including storage fees, a marine condition survey and proof of insurance — on vessels that don’t leave their moorage stall in the harbor for 12 consecutive months. The ordinance aims to discourage using stalls for vessel storage, especially for boats that may be inoperable. An inactive or inoperable boat may deteriorate as its condition worsens; removing derelict vessels is expensive and historically burdensome for the borough, officials said....
A five-member state commission has approved plans for a new borough centered on the Southeast Alaska town of Hoonah. Approval sets the stage for a local election on the proposed Xunaa Borough. If voters approve the borough’s creation, Hoonah will be dissolved as a town and reincorporated as a city-borough with governmental authority over a wide swath of northern Southeast Alaska, including much of Glacier Bay National Park. It would be the state’s 20th borough and the first new borough since Petersburg created a city-borough in 2013.... Full story
A federal judge in Alaska has dismissed a legal challenge filed by the Bering Sea bottom-trawl fleet against stricter halibut bycatch limits. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, or NMFS, approved a new halibut bycatch quota system in December 2021 based on annual surveys of the valuable flatfish. Instead of fixed limits, the new abundance-based system means that when halibut stocks are low, bycatch caps can be cut by up to 35%. The lawsuit challenging those caps was filed by Groundfish Forum, a Seattle-based trade association...
Juneau got a record number of cruise ship passengers for a second straight year, with 1,677,935 arriving during the 2024 season that ended Oct. 24 compared to 1,638,902 last year, according to the Docks and Harbors Department. Ships this year were at 104% capacity — meaning some cabins had more than two people staying in them, such as a child with parents — compared to 101% capacity last year, according to Docks and Harbors. Every month of this year’s season between April and October was at or above 100% capacity, compared to last year...
With a new stretch of undersea cable complete, Alaska Power & Telephone is set to expand its fiber optic broadband internet service to more communities on Prince of Wales Island. The utility announced Nov. 12 that it had finished a $39 million undersea fiber optic cable that connects Ketchikan with Hollis and Coffman Cove. The new 101-mile-long SEALink South cable runs west of Ketchikan and splits into a Y near Kasaan Arm to reach the two communities. The project is intended to strengthen high-speed fiber optic internet access across Prince...
Arthur Sammy Heckman Sr. has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of unlawful interference with an election after illegally canceling a 2023 election and hiding the results of a 2022 election while serving as acting mayor of Pilot Station in Southwest Alaska. The Alaska Department of Law announced the plea deal on Nov. 14 by email. It did not immediately answer a request for a copy of the plea deal and associated documents. Pilot Station is a town of about 600 people, on the Yukon River. Heckman and city clerk Ruthie Borromeo were... Full story
Two Southeast Alaska Native organizations are among seven entities that will share in $1 million in federal grant funds to support multi-year projects through the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Indigenous Engagement Program. Sealaska Heritage Institute was awarded $110,000 to use Indigenous knowledge to document changes in the ocean and marine ecosystems from human and climate-related impacts, to better understand their effects on subsistence resource systems in Native communities. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes...
A belt of rocks spanning Southeast Alaska hosts at least a dozen prospects and deposits enriched with nickel, copper and platinum group metals (PGM) needed for the energy transition. Granite Creek Copper, a small mining company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, believes a couple of prospects also host hidden stores of geological hydrogen that could offer a clean-burning fuel for the 21st century. The company has acquired two Southeast Alaska PGM projects with “white hydrogen” potential. An element that only emits water vapor when... Full story
And with that, the Jamie Roberts era of the Wrangell swim team comes to a close. A head coach who has always valued improvement over results, Roberts was pleased with the high school team’s final performance with her watching over from the pool deck. Of the 28 individual events that Wrangell swimmers competed in, they earned 13 personal-best times. Both relay teams posted their fastest swims of the year as well. The Southeast championships were held in Petersburg on Nov. 1-2. Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé won the girls... Full story
In a series of intersquad and exhibition matches, Wrangell wrestlers put on a show in front of their fans, friends and families. On Friday, Nov. 15, the high school wrestling team hosted their only home event of the year. Petersburg made the trip to town for the one-day meet, comprised of a handful of exhibition matches between the two rivals. The senior night festivities that preceded the competition were emotional for head coach Jack Carney. Carney, who also serves as the middle school...
Nov. 20, 1924 E.A. Rasmuson, president of the Bank of Alaska, said Wrangell had the best summer it has experienced during the past 20 years. The cold storage plant has done a splendid business, and the lumber mill ran full blast all summer. This mill has a capacity of 75,000 board feet a day. Mr. Rasmuson believes there will be quite a rush into Wrangell next spring, when miners and prospectors will arrive there en route to the new placer gold strike in the Cassiar region in British Columbia. He said miners who have visited the mining...
David C. "Dave" Sturdevant, 76, passed away on Nov. 7, 2024, at his home in Juneau of brain cancer. Dave was born April 5, 1948, in Centralia, Washington, to Clint Sturdevant and Ruth Reeder Sturdevant. He first came to Wrangell in the summer of 1959 to gillnet with his uncle "Duke" Chase (Bertrace "Sturdy" Chase). Dave's entire family moved to Wrangell in June 1960. Dave enjoyed playing basketball while attending school in Wrangell through 10th grade. He transferred to a high school Outside... Full story
Monday, Nov. 11 Burglary. Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Traffic stop: Verbal warning for equipment. Tuesday, Nov. 12 Traffic stop: Verbal warning for speeding. Courtesy transport. Wednesday, Nov. 13 Bear complaint. Agency assist: State Department of Transportation. Summons service. Thursday, Nov. 14 Traffic stop. Citizen assist. Traffic stop. Friday, Nov. 15 Traffic stop: Verbal warning for turn signal. Suspicious circumstance. Saturday, Nov. 16 Dog bite. Bar check. Bear complaint. Sunday, Nov. 17 Agency assist: Fire Department.... Full story
Not everyone in Wrangell welcomes more cruise ships or the visitors they bring to the community. There are detractors who fear too many ships and their passengers could change the character of the town. They look at Ketchikan, Juneau, Sitka and Skagway and see more than a million visitors a year crowding the sidewalks and shops, the buses crowding the streets and the summer workers crowding already tight housing. But they need to look at the numbers for Wrangell; actually, two sets of numbers. Wrangell could see 40,000 cruise passengers next...
Most people are not wealthy, or even close to it, though many enjoy reading about and watching and following the lives of the rich and famous. Maybe it’s envy, maybe it’s enjoying hanging on the drama, laughing at the comedy and gawking at the lavish spending. Or maybe it’s just the dumb things rich people do with their lives, the way they behave and the things that show how out of touch they are with the real world. Of course, I have a couple of examples. First, it’s the opposite of conspicuous consumption, which is when rich people... Full story
We stayed inside for days, the nonstop rain pelting the windows. We waited for the sun to come out to explore our new community. We were California girls. Little did we know the sun was not coming out; it can rain six to 12 feet a year in Southeast Alaska. I answered a knock on the front door to find two shy, Alaska Native boys. They had come to show my sister and me their island. We picked blueberries in the rain, hiked a steep winding trail through a dark, dripping rainforest to a waterfall, saw a beach where 3,000-year-old petroglyphs were... Full story
