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The varsity Lady Wolves beat both the junior varsity and alumni teams at a matchup Nov. 26. The games were part of an annual tradition used to give Wrangell residents a second look at their players – who would otherwise have only a single home meet – honor the team's four graduating seniors, and raise money to help supplement the high school's athletics budget. While that might mean the stakes for the game are relatively low, that doesn't mean either side in the main-event match up between the...
The Middle School basketball team concluded its six-week season in mid-November with a win at the Stikine Invitational in Craig. The invitational features teams from all over Southeast, and is held in Petersburg, Craig and Wrangell on a rotating basis. The Wolves this year featured two teams, an A team and a B team, and the B Wolves team seized the championship on the back of a single-point win over Craig to close out the tournament, said coach Dustin Johnson. "We went back and forth," he said....
Picking the right Christmas tree can be surprisingly difficult, even in the middle of the largest U.S. national forest. Officials from Wrangell Light and Power and the Department of Public Works scour woods, roads, and occasionally back yards in search the perfect tree year-round. The perfect tree is along a road, preferably a wide road (personnel have taken trees from the road near the city reservoirs in the past, meaning the large truck which carries the tree has to back in and then back out...
Wrangellites packed into the Stikine Native Organization building Tuesday night to partake in traditional native foods. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's Traditional Foods Project hosted a Unity Dinner, complete with traditional dancing, traditional foods, and native dress. The meal was the third time this year the program has collected the native organizations, and assistant Ken Hoyt ticked off the types of traditional foods local chefs, hunters, foragers, and others managed to...
A circuit court judge sentenced Robert W. Rinehart to a year and 70 days prison time and four years probation Nov. 18. The court convicted Rinehart, 51, of Wrangell, in September on two counts of Class C Felony Assault by threat of death or injury, and a single count of Class B Misdemeanor Criminal Mischief, and a single count of Class A Misdemeanor 4th degree reckless injury. Rinehart admitted two counts of Class B Misdemeanor parole violations. The jury dismissed an additional reckless injury...
Organizers of the annual Thanksgiving food basket giveaway called the 2013 chapter of the program "record-breaking" Thursday. In all, the community-funded program gave out $3699.88 worth of food to 89 families (give or take some latecomers who might have straggled in later), according to figures provided by Don and Bonnie Roher, who have helped organize the program for the last 11 years. That means 281 members of the Wrangell community will feast on turkey, green beans, fruit cocktail,...
Wrangell Medical Center board members voted 7-0 to approve the hospital’s 2012 financials, and discussed progress on a new hospital. The meeting was otherwise routine and brief, with two of the board’s nine members joining by phone. According to hospital documents, the hospital’s total assets have increased from $9,168,445 in the year ending June 30, 2012 to $10,462,459 in the year ending June 30, 2013. That increase, coupled with other asset increases totaling about $100,000, amounts to about 15.9 percent in the hospital’s total assets....
The first snowfall of the year struck last week, blanketing Wrangell in white stuff. While the poor man’s answer to the eternal question of how much snow could be as simple as looking out the window, authorities in Wrangell have been without specific snowfall data for months. Contracted observers for the National Weather Service collect rain totals at the airport. However, the service relies on a network of volunteer observers to collect snow totals, according to Kimberley Vaughan, an observation program leader and forecaster with the S...
A reduced Wrangell wrestling squad visited Juneau this weekend for the Pilot Invitational. Freshman Darren Shilts earned the highest place for the Wolves, wrestling his way back to third place in the 132-lb bracket. Senior Alex Cano wrestled his way to fourth place by beating Wrangell freshman Sam Armstrong before losing a close decision to Ketchikan’s Kadin Hallstron. Sophomore Chet Armstrong scored another fourth place for the Wolves in the 152-lb. bracket. Alissa Heller also secured a fifth place finish in the 98-lb bracket. Shilts lost h...
A number one seed for the Region V tournament is within the grasp of the Wrangell volleyball team after a weekend sweep in Haines. The Lady Wolves both benefited and suffered from foul weather. High seas and wind kept regional rivals Craig and Metlakatla from attending, but also barred the attendance of two of the volleyball team's starters and the varsity head coach. The meet led off with an exhibition match against Haines the first day, followed by an evening match up against Skagway. "There...
While one part of the news was certainly somber at the informal end-of-year Outfitter Guide Meeting at the Wrangell Ranger District, the tone was light-hearted. First, the somber news. The Wrangell Ranger District faces a 30 percent cut to its recreation budget in preliminary figures. Ranger Bob Dalrymple cautioned that if that number were to hold – although he’s seen budget cuts fail to materialize in the past – the Anan Bear Observatory could be shuttered. The observatory is a marquee attraction for tourism in Wrangell, and drew 2,873 visit...
It didn't matter what Ben Florschutz might have wanted. He wasn't going to get a sucking chest wound. "No chest wounds tonight!" said Fire Department administrator Dorianne Curley, putting the kibosh on Florschutz's plans. The wounds in this case were thankfully all simulated, though you wouldn't know it with a casual glance at Wrangell High senior Hannah Armstrong's left arm, which dribbled fake blood from a fake gunshot wound as she cradled it in the auditorium of the Nolan Center Thursday...
When he was nine months old, Spencer Petticrew’s parents tried to give him a single pea. The pea didn’t quite make it into his mouth, but only brushed his lips, his mother, Sherri Pettcrew, said. However, Spencer turned bright red within 30 seconds, and started having difficulty breathing. The Petticrews rushed their son to an emergency room, where doctors determined that Spencer had a severe food allergy. “His entire face turned red, he got hives all over his body and he couldn’t breathe and we had to go to the emergency room,” she said. “It...
Borough officials placed two items related to water use atop the 2014-15 capital budget request list. The list itself has yet to be completed. Borough assembly members said at the Nov. 12 assembly meeting they would work to revise items lower on the list, and possibly break one big-ticket item – the purchase and development of the former Mill property -- up into phases, which might be more palatable to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which plays a role in evaluating the r...
Coming months could bring big changes to the way the Wrangell Unit of the Tongass National Forest operates, officials said. The Wrangell Unit is looking at an approximately 30 percent cut to its total recreation budget this year, said Ranger Bob Dalrymple. At that rate, some 60 percent of remote access cabins (cabins which require a helicopter or boat for access) would be up for possible elimination, and officials would have to seriously re-evaluate — among other things — operations at the Anan Bear Observatory. That may come as pot...
Bar and liquor-store owners praised a possible revision in Wrangell’s liquor laws this week. Revisions to liquor sale ordinances approved on first reading by the borough assembly Nov. 12 would allow alcohol to be sold on election days in the borough, and also standardize the hours of operation for any business selling alcohol throughout the calendar year. As borough code currently stands, businesses selling alcohol may open between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. during the fall and winter only by special permit, and not at all on election days. Current law...
The borough's energy committee asked borough administrator Jeff Jabusch to provide the borough assembly with data-driven assessments of options for the future of the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The committee's Monday meeting was largely an informal affair, with most decisions being made by consensus instead of role-call votes. Committee members also honed in on the options for the TBPA, which has been stuck in limbo since the Petersburg borough council voted to withhold their portion of funding...
Wrangell Oil, Inc. officially ceased to exist Friday. Bill Privett, the current owner of the town’s multi-generational oil concern (and, in the interests of full disclosure, the Sentinel’s landlord) sold his company to Seward-based Petro Marine Services for an undisclosed sum. The sale is a win-win for the community, based largely on the economies of the scale Petro Marine can provide, Privett said. The Wrangell Distribution plant joined Petro Marine’s Alaskan plants in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Kodiak, Seward, Sitka, Skagway, Whittier, Anchorage,...
Wrangell High’s drama, debate and forensics team drew mixed results at the season’s lone home meet. Kyla Teat and Kaylauna Churchill placed third and delivered a command performance pantomime titled “Doctor’s Office,” the highest honor awarded to Wolves debaters over the course of the two-day event. Ben Florschutz earned another third place in extemporaneous commentary, a category in which presenters have a limited amount of time to research and present on a topic. Florschutz also placed fifth in the category of original oratory, during wh...
Alaska Island Community Services Chief Financial Officer Georgianna Buhler will depart the organization soon, AICS officials said. Buhler delivered a two-month notice after ten years with the community service group, according to AICS Executive director Mark Walker. Voicemail messages to Buhler’s phone weren’t immediately returned Tuesday. “We don’t think it’s going to impact our services,” Walker said. “Georgianna provided great service for us and was a very devoted employee and we’re gonna miss her.” AICS hasn’t yet formulated a plan t...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning commission voted 4-0 to grant a conditional use permit to Christie and Bruce Jamieson at a Nov. 14 meeting. The Jamiesons told commissioners they plan to operate a bed and breakfast out of their house at 612 Zimovia Highway, for one tourism season from approximately May 2014 until the end of September 2014. They plan to host as many as four people, and provide bicycles for tourists to travel around town, they said. “Our home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, so we have two empty bedrooms with one bathroom to...
The girls volleyball team was eager to size up the regional competition going into an invitational at Craig this weekend. Craig, Klawock and Wrangell sit atop the rankings for the Region V conference at first, second and third respectively. The invitational represented one last chance to test out the competition going into this weekend’s seeding tournament in Haines, according to head coach Jessica Whitaker. “It was kind of just pick-up games to get a look at each other,” she said. “Especially right before the seeding tournament, it’s ni...
The borough assembly voted 7-0 Tuesday night to select Jeff Jabusch for the borough manager position. The vote means Jabusch will enter into contract negotiations with assembly members Donald Blake and James Stough, as well as Mayor David Jack, in the coming weeks. The assembly had been looking for a new manager since the resignation of former administrator Tim Rooney in August. Assembly members had reduced a list of 15 candidates to four, prior to Tuesday's vote. Jabsuch said he was happy with...
Stikine Middle School seventh graders buzzed around Shoemaker Shelter lighting fires one afternoon last week. Instead of committing a spree of wanton teenage vandalism, students were learning skills essential to life in Southeast. One by one, they took turns starting a fire using a nine-volt battery and steel wool as well as flint and steel to light cotton balls smeared with Vaseline – all under careful supervision and in designated fire areas. They also practiced building shelters from n...
The borough assembly voted 7-0 Tuesday to push an amendment to borough code on the plight of abandoned or derelict vessels to a second reading. The suggested revisions originally came out of the city’s Ports & Harbors commission by a unanimous approval in October. At that time, assembly members objected to portions of the existing borough code relating to the harbormaster’s ability to impound vessels for violation of public code and the number of public notices made before impounding a boat. Assembly member James Stough, who raised con...
