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The school board voted 5-0 Saturday to select Jay Thomas of Unalakleet as the next superintendent of Wrangell Schools. Both of the two finalists for the position – Thomas and Delta-Greeley High School principal Patrick Mayer - were equally qualified, said school board President Susan Eagle. "I don't think there was anything in particular" that led the board to choose Thomas and not Mayer, she said. "I felt that the candidates were very well qualified, and we just made the decision to go with M...
The borough assembly held an almost hour-long closed-door executive session Tuesday to discuss litigation stemming from a suit involving borough police department personnel. Alesa and Jerry McHolland filed the suit in Wrangle Superior Court in November 2013. It alleges wrongful termination, “deliberate and incessant discrimination,” and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” It accuses former borough Manager Tim Rooney, Police Chief Doug McCloskey, and Lt. Merlin Ehlers of harassing and terminating Alesa McHolland in 2011, when sh...
A ten-man Wrangell basketball team grabbed second place at a competitive regional basketball tournament held every spring in Juneau. The Wrangell Thunderbirds fought their way to Saturday's B-Bracket (for ages 32 and under) Championship game at the Lions Club Gold Medal Basketball tournament undefeated, but succumbed to returning champions Angoon despite beating them in the semifinals, said Cody Angerman, a member of the team. The championship was close, Angerman said. "We went back and forth...
A local carving facility and cultural center is a big step closer to completion. The MJ Murdoch Charitable Trust awarded a $250,000 grant to the Wrangell Cooperative Association this week. That leaves about$100,000, or 35 percent of total cost of the building, remaining before the shed's cost is totally funded, said Tis Peterman, a grant writer and administrator with the WCA. "We're really excited about it," she said. The carving facility - known informally around town as the "carving shed," a...
Local healthcare consumers face an imminent deadline. After twice extending the deadline to sign up for a healthcare plan under the Patient Affordable Care Act – known colloquially as Obamacare – the date finally stuck at March 31, with little indication that officials will change it, according to various national news outlets. Uninsured patients will thus face a penalty on their next tax return. Consumers who fail to enroll will face a penalty of $95 or one percent of their income, whichever is greater. Families must pay $47.50 per uni...
Hotel reservations and empty tables at local eateries may be a little hard to come by this fall. About 250 officials and leaders from all over Southeast will descend on Wrangell Sept. 16 to 18 as the annual membership meeting of the Southeast Conference comes to town. The Conference’s mid-session meeting was held March 12, 13, and 14 in Juneau. Wrangell’s role as host borough comes after a report issued by the 2013 session, which highlighted Wrangell’s success with the so-called blue economy, a combination of fisheries and marine servi...
The Wrangell school board selected two finalist candidates for the position of superintendent in executive session Monday. According to a press release issued Tuesday morning, the finalists are: Patrick Mayer, principal since 2010 of Delta High School and the short-lived Delta Cyber School for the Delta Greely School District in Delta Junction, near Fairbanks; and Jay Thomas, Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director in the Bering Strait School District in Unalakleet on the shores of the Bering Sea. The school system reviewed 14...
Two might just be the magic number for the Wrangell High School Cheer squad. The cheerleaders will head to the State competition in Anchorage this week for the second year in a row after having come in second place, also for the second time. After holding a community bake sale over the weekend to raise funds for traveling, the team left on an Anchorage-bound jet Monday with a performance slated for Tuesday evening. While basketball teams get 32 minutes of regulation (plus overtime) to craft a...
Water main breaks at two locations this week kept borough crews busy. The first break caused the closure of St. Michael's Street twice during the week, most recently on Monday afternoon. Another break hit the main supplying water to Wrangell Medical Center and Evergreen Elementary School in front of Senior Housing, said Public Works Director Carl Johnson. In both cases, materials used to construct the mains were responsible, Johnson said. The mains use ductile iron, or iron pipes with a cement...
It’s an ethical dilemma as old as the hills. You find a wallet stuffed with money lying unattended on the ground. What do you do? Members of the Wolves varsity basketball team and the pep band found themselves in just such a situation during the Region V basketball tournament, March 5. Some members of each student group were at a Fred Meyer’s store during the tournament loading into a van to return to Juneau Douglas High School, when freshman Sig Decker noticed something lying in a snow bank. “I almost let it go because we were all pilin...
The air was thick with sawdust and the sound of electric motors this weekend at Wrangell High School. Visiting representatives from the One People Canoe Society were in town to hold a paddle-making workshop in preparation for the biannual Celebration, a festival of Tlingit culture in Juneau. While decorative paddles are sometimes a feature of Alaskan Native culture, the workshop this weekend was a little more practically oriented, said Brian Chilton, an artist by trade who oversaw the workshop...
The Wrangell School board voted 4-0 Monday to fill two critical positions. The board offered Deidre Jenson, interim principal of Evergreen Elementary School from early in the second semester, the same job full time. Jenson, formerly of Thorne Bay, previously said she would accept the position if it were offered. She said Monday she was happy to have been offered the position. The board also voted to offer the position of secondary principal – the joint position for Wrangell middle and high schools – to Colter Barnes, currently a principal in...
A bill being considered in the State Senate could impact local ferry workers. Senate Bill 182 amends Alaska State law pertaining to bargaining rights to eliminate what is known as a cost-of-living differential. This provision of contracts allows for salaries to be automatically adjusted to match the cost of living of a certain area. For individual employees, this can amount to as much as $4 per hour, or roughly $8,320 per year for, in particular, Alaska Marine Highway System employees, who are currently bargaining with the state for a new...
The borough planning and zoning commission held a public hearing for a preliminary plat review March 13. The proposed re-plat would combine Dave Svendsen’s previously existing portions of tidelands – currently designated Lot 1 and Lot 2 — near Wrangell’s Inner Harbor into a single 20,366 square-foot lot designated as Lot 1A. In addition to combining the two lots, the replot will add a 1,955 square-foot triangle shaped piece of previously unsubdivided tidelands. Svendsen has been in the process of obtaining the re-plat since at least January...
The Chamber of Commerce honored Lucy Robinson with the Citizen of the Year award at Saturday's annual dinner. The event also honored new chamber members, the Business of the Year, retiring school system personnel, and distributed the Chamber Membership Appreciation Award. It drew more than 200 members and guests to the Nolan Center for dinner, drinks, dessert auctions, and games. The dinner is the sole event dedicated exclusively to Chamber fundraising, Director Cyni Waddington told the crowd....
The borough assembly voted 3-2 Tuesday in favor of amending a resolution serving as the primary motivation for ongoing negotiations between Petersburg and Wrangell. The original resolution, passed Dec. 10, 2013, directed borough manager Jeff Jabusch to enter into negotiations with Petersburg to switch the Tyee Electric project from Southeast Alaska Power Agency ownership and Thomas Bay Power Authority operation to SEAPA ownership and operation. Despite the vote in favor the motion failed because resolutions require four votes in favor in order...
ct plans for the Wrangell Medical Center’s trauma center. According to the most recent figures provided by the Legislative Finance Division, the governor’s proposed budget would reduce a state contribution to the Alaska Trauma Care Fund from $1 million to nothing. The fund distributes money to hospitals which pursue and obtain various trauma designations as obtained by state statute. Designated Level IV facilities – which the Wrangell Medical Center is presently seeking through a combination of equipment purchases and personnel certi...
Two prominent local taverns will join the ranks of the smoke-free in the coming weeks. Totem Bar & Liquor Store will go smoke-free tomorrow, according to signs posted inside the bar over the weekend. Elks Lodge members also voted this week to go smoke-free, though Elks leadership has not yet set a date for the transition. Both bars follow in the footsteps of Rayme’s Bar, which went smoke-free in January. The bar owner cited changing demographics among his clientele as the primary reason for the change. The moves by the Elks and the Totem leave...
The members of the Wrangell Economic Development Committee know they’re entitled to about 800 acres of land. The next trick will be figuring out which land to select. Discussion at the committee’s March 6 meeting focused around the land issue in general, a holdover issue stemming from the borough’s 2008 incorporation. The land is part of the borough allotment, originally set at about 200 acres, but increased to 800 acres after lobbying at the state legislature, said Economic Development Officer Carol Rushmore. Any land the borough doesn...
The Wrangell parks and recreation advisory board discussed but took no vote on a draft of an ordinance aimed to prevent logging in city parks. The ordinance has been in the works since police reported that at least two trees had been cut down for Christmas trees in December. Parks manager Amber Al-Haddad presented committee members with templates cribbed in part from similar ordinances on the Internet, though logging in public parks isn’t a particularly widespread public dilemma, she said. “What I found from cities around the nation is that par...
The Wrangell High School boys' varsity basketball team went out of the Region V 2A tournament on straight losses March 5 and 6. The Wolves dropped the opener to the Craig Panthers 49-26 March 5. Thursday's 53-49 loss to the Haines Glacier Bears was much closer, with the teams trading the lead late into the fourth quarter. Craig put on a relatively even effort, with no one player standing head and shoulders above the rest, said Coach Ray Stokes. "On their part, they just had a whole bunch of...
Wrangellites hoping to take advantage of the Southeast Regional Health Consortium’s services will no longer have to make two separate trips. SEARHC’s prevention and referral offices have been combined into a single office located in the Stikine Native Organizations building along Front Street. The SEARHC Traditional Foods Program and Referral Care had been located in separate office spaces. Officials with the Consortium celebrated the consolidation with an open house at the new offices March 4. The event drew about 30 people, officials sai...
Sentinel writer A highly contagious and potentially fatal canine virus has been reported in Wrangell. Two cases of Parvovirus, symptoms of which include lethargy, severe vomiting, loss of appetite and bloody diarrhea, have been reported in Wrangell, said Judge Conniff, a local vet. “I had two cases, both of them doing very well, both of them discharged,” he said. Several dog deaths earlier in the year could be tied to this outbreak, but there’s no way to know for sure, Conniff said. “No way to know the answer to that question for sure,...
The Lady Wolves season ended with two losses March 5 and 6 in Juneau. They dropped their Region V opener to Craig 38-26, then lost their Friday match-up against Haines by two points. Craig's Marie Yates contributed to the March 5 loss. The Lady Wolves struggled to find a defensive solution to an athletic and competitive player, said head coach Edna Abella-Nore. "We literally just got out-rebounded by (Yates)," she said. "She's got some vertical leap. No matter how much my kids would box out, the...
A Juneau designer presented three draft options on Monday for a potential layout to the Mariner's Memorial at a public workshop. An octagonal lighthouse pavilion is part of each design, but could be located toward the envisioned entryway for the memorial, at the memorial's midpoint, or at the end. All three drafts used landscaped vegetation to screen the memorial from the noise and bustle of nearby Heritage Harbor and the boat ramp, to create a solemn ceremonial air with a strong connection to n...
