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Gym denizens looking for a treat after a few hours on a treadmill may have to go a little further. Parks officials are considering remove vending machines from the swimming pool to make space for additional exercise equipment and the hallway outside the community gym to prevent food from working its way into the gym, Parks and Recreation Director Amber Al-Haddad told the department’s advisory committee. Concerns about the availability of space and about the healthiness of the snacks offered drove the decision, Al-Haddad said. “I totally und...
A bruised and somewhat diminished Wolves team still found ways to shine at the Craig Invitational Nov. 8 and 9. The key word for the Wolves was experience, said head coach Jeffery Rooney. The Craig Invitational’s structure of round-robin wrestling Nov. 8 and tournament wrestling Nov. 9 allowed each of the Wolves to boost their mat time considerably, Rooney added. “We combined a few classes, moved a few kids around all over there, a lot of good wrestling,” he said. “Everybody walked out of the tournament there with five, six, seven matches...
U.S. Rep. Don Young cancelled a planned public appearance in Wrangell and Petersburg Nov. 6 after reporting chest discomfort, according to a press release issued by his office. Young had originally planned for a public meet-and-greet following a tour of city facilities in Wrangell with borough department heads and assembly members. He completed the tour with department heads, according to Harbormaster Greg Meissner. When media representatives and officials later showed up for the 3 pm meeting with Mr. Young, a staff representative said Young...
The Ports & Harbors Commission discussed suggested changes to an ordinance designed to help remove abandoned vessels stored in the marine services yard. The ordinance had originally been passed out of a first public hearing and sent to the borough assembly. Members rejected the ordinance out of concerns about the wording of existing portions of the ordinance, not revisions created by the new ordinance. Harbormaster Greg Meissner told commissioners the suggested changes, which entailed objections to a phrase empowering the harbormaster to...
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Wrangell Ministerial Association will hand out Thanksgiving food baskets to needy families. Distribution of the food baskets will be Nov. 22 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the first (upper) floor of the Harbor Light Assembly of God Church. Families in need of a little assistance over the holiday should make sure their names are on the list beforehand, organizers said. Families collecting their baskets will see two familiar faces. Don and Bonnie Roher, who’ve helped coordinate the annual food giveaway since t...
Officials from Samson Tug and Barge said freight operations in Wrangell and Petersburg would go largely unaltered as a result of a merger set to take effect this weekend. The merger has been in the works for months. Global shipping company Lynden, Inc. announced it would purchase the Northland Services brand and combine it with Alaska Marine Lines (AML) in April. Northland and AML are the two main cargo providers to Southeast, and Alaska state officials initially warned the arrangement could lea...
Clients of the Wrangell Medical Center's physical therapy program may notice a change in coordination with their physicians, as well as a change in their surroundings. Physical therapy is moving from services provided by a contractor to a fully integrated department of the hospital, complete with a newly renovated activity and treatment space. Doctors and officials plan the transition for the weekend of Nov. 15 and 16, with contract services finishing out appointments on Nov. 14, and new...
Officials will decide upon and announce a new borough manager in one swoop Nov. 12. The borough has been looking for a new manager since the resignation of Tim Rooney this summer. Finance director Jeff Jabusch has served as the interim manager since Rooney’s resignation. The borough received 15 applications for the position from throughout Alaska and other places. Of these 15, five were selected as potential finalists. Assembly members winnowed that number to four. The remaining candidates are: retired 15-year borough clerk Christie Jamieson, w...
The Wolves might be expected to feel a bit of a comedown. After placing third at their home meet, and seeing three of the team’s nine wrestlers virtually walk away with first place, the wrestling team faced a larger field of competition Nov. 1 and 2 at the Lime Solar Anchorage Christian Schools Tournament. The Anchorage meet, which head coach Jeffrey Rooney held up early in the season as a potentially eye-opening experience, ended with injuries for two Wolves, and a tie for fifteenth with Sitka. “We brought nine up there, and they competed ver...
The Lady Wolves turned in a first-place performance at the small schools tournament in Juneau Nov. 2 and 3. After a day and a half of pool play against other teams at the tournament on Friday and Saturday morning, the Wrangell High volleyball team’s record stood at 3-2, good enough to qualify them as the first seed for the middle of three tournament brackets on Saturday afternoon, working exceptionally well together to beat the varsity Ketchikan team, said coach Lisa Nikodym. “The girls just did amazingly well,” she said. “It was probabl...
Energy officials for the State’s leading trade agency say they hope to one day add wind to the energy mix in Southeast Alaska. This year, officials have erected large meteorological towers in and around Wrangell to record data, with a possible eye toward picking up the seasonal slack at area hydro plants during the winter months. Two 10-meter (almost 33 feet) towers have been erected on the island, and an additional 34-meter (about 112 feet) meteorological tower is in Ketchikan, awaiting permitting approval from local officials, said Rich Strom...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly’s energy committee met for the second time ever Tuesday night. Committee members took no formal actions, other than to elect assembly member James Stough – the only sitting assembly member on the committee – as chair, and to elect Brian Ashton, a Southeast Alaska Power Agency board member and Thomas Bay Power Authority commissioner. The former energy committee chair, board member Pamella McClocskey, had resigned. However, the committee composed a set of possible recommendations to the assembly to be formally consi...
Shirley Wimberley has no shortage of adults willing to say they’ll volunteer to help re-form the Cub scout troop in Wrangell. “We get people who say ‘Oh yeah, I’d like to help,’ but then you give ‘em the paperwork and never get it back,” she said. Pack sponsorship has always been a delicate proposition. Sponsorship for the pack by a community organization is required by the Boy Scouts of America. Parents have become less involved with the junior scouting organization — which focuses on students from the first to the fifth grade – as students a...
Fairy princesses, ghost, goblins, ghouls, and more than a few Wolverines milled around in the old gym last Thursday night. The little monsters played games and bounced around in bouncy castles. They ate hot dogs and popcorn. They had about as much free fun as a Halloween-costumed kid can stand. Organizers of the Harbor Light Assembly of God's annual Harvest Celebrationaren't exactly sure how long the event has been held, said the Rev. Kem Haggard. The event started before he arrived in Wrangell...
In the darkened gymnasium at Wrangell High Saturday evening, a large home crowd waited for wrestler Devon Miller to complete his match. The crowd didn't wait long. Only 38 seconds in, Miller pinned Chris Lerma of Kake and then walked to the center to have his arm lifted by the referee. It was the fastest pin of the finals round, and the second-fastest pin of the two-day Tom Sims Invitational tournament Oct. 25 and 26. Miller's rapid victory was one of three accomplishments by the Wolves'...
Wrangell High School opened a new salad bar for lunch Oct. 23 in the student commons. The salad bar has been in the works for several months at the cafeteria after the school received a grant for the salad bar at the end of last year, and opens after last month's numbers from the food services program showed a steep decline between the number of lunches eaten this year and the number of lunches eaten at the same time last year. Most students said they enjoyed school lunches in general, even if t...
A power outage left Ketchikan and Wrangell without power for about an hour Friday afternoon. Lights and signs all along Front Street and throughout town abruptly shut off at about 4 pm. Power had been restored to most of the town by about 5 p.m. Lights remained on at businesses with back-up generators, most powered by either diesel fuel or propane. Petersburg reportedly suffered some temporary fluctuations about the same time, but never lost power entirely. Some businesses, like radio station KSTK, Alaska Island Community Services, and City Mar...
When Zak's Café owner James George started to get sick, he knew the cause. Since doctors diagnosed him with diverticulitis in 2005, he'd gone a few rounds with the chronic digestive condition. "After you've had it for a while, you can tell if it's flaring up," he said. The uninsured restaurateur went to the emergency room at Wrangell Medical Center in the last week of August. Doctors then sent him to Ketchikan Medical Center to stabilize him and perform surgery. Instead of surgery, doctors in Ke...
The high school drama, debate and forensics team is off to a good start on the season. Tournaments at Haines and Mount Edgecumbe have seen the team’s senior debaters Matthew Covalt and Tyler Eagle go to the finals, according to debate coach Stephen Prysunka. “I believe it’s the first time they’ve ever done it, and I believe it’s the first time at our school we’ve ever had kids go to a final in a tournament,” he said. “They came in second place, but it was two judges to one. They did a really good job.” At the Haines meet, held Sept. 20 and...
Wanted: a few tough women (and men) who aren’t scared of a few bruises. The Garnet Grit Betties, the Wrangell-based roller derby team, is looking for skaters to fill out a small roster, according to Katie Robbins. The team currently fields about seven or eight skaters, and while that’s enough to cover one session, called a jam, the team would really like additional players to give the team a competitive edge and allow them to travel and take on teams in Sitka, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. “Down the road, we’d love to compete against other teams,...
The Lady Wolves met expectations to finish third at a critical seeding tournament in Metlakatla Oct. 25 and 26. The Lady Wolves took victories from Metlakatla, Haines and Skagway, but lost in five games to Klawock and three games to Craig. The seeding tournaments are a crucial benchmark of whether the Lady Wolves will be among the teams to qualify for the state tournament in Anchorage in December. “Right in the middle,” said varsity head coach Jessica Whitaker. “We need to be in the top two to make it to State.” The record from this tournam...
The Wrangell Medical Center board unanimously elected Terri Henson to the board presidency Oct. 16, replacing Woody Wilson. Board members elected Bernie Massin vice president, Cori Robinson as secretary and Barb Conine as treasurer. The board re-organization meeting took place in the wake of the Oct. 1 election, in which Henson and Massin were re-elected to the board without opposition. Wilson served as board president from Aug. 29 and was the first medical center board president after a recall election removed six board members. Wilson lead...
The two-day Southeast Alaska Power Agency board meeting became in part a prism through which to view debate over the future of the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The TBPA debate has raised hackles both with SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson and board members, particularly the amount of misinformation SEAPA officials claim was circulated during a Sept. 24 meeting of the Wrangell Borough Assembly. Nor are factual inaccuracies limited to that assembly meeting, officials say. They cited a letter from Ketchikan Public Utilities to the Mayor, included with...
The borough port commission unanimously recommended a new ordinance to the borough assembly Oct. 17 after a public hearing. The ordinance empowers the harbormaster to auction derelict or abandoned vessels, as defined by state code, or boats in the harbormaster’s “opinion … is unsound, unseaworthy, and unfit for its trade or occupation” to auction or impound those vessels after 24 months. Harbormaster Greg Meissner told the commission the ordinance could affect as many as six boats currently taking up space at the marine service yard. The code w...
Federal employees returned to work Oct. 17 after sixteen days of government shut down. As widely reported, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Democrats in the Senate reached a deal Oct. 15 to return federal employees to their offices until at least Jan. 15. Budget negotiations to keep the government open longer are continuing. The largest federal presence in Wrangell is the U.S. Forest Service, with 24 employees. Those employees were hard at work on their first day back trying to bring various systems online and return...
