Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 322
The Wrangell board of adjustment voted 4-0 to overturn a denied three-foot housing variance Monday. James Brenner, who intends to build a house near the intersection of Zimovia Highway and Pine Street on property owned by Bert and Tammy McCay, was originally granted a setback variance in a 5-0 decision by the borough planning and zoning commission, but denied the height variance by a 3-2 vote after neighbor Timothy Murray complained that the height variance would rob him of daylight. Murray had suggested Brenner use a differently pitched roof...
Kelley Krumm was in Wrangell for only the second time when the downrigger on his great uncle's boat began to dance. About 4 p.m. Saturday, Krumm, of Anaconda, Montana, along with great-uncle Dave Svendsen and father Tom Krumm were deep into the second straight day of fishing. They'd seen fish in the mid-to-low 20s from the landing craft Tideline, constructed in Svendsen's shop. It was the last weekend for the Salmon Derby. They were in Southeast Cove and had herring and a flasher on the line....
Girl Scouts, chaperones and an amphibian researcher braved mosquitos and rain to record amphibian populations in the Twin Lakes area this weekend. Scouts and Josh Ream - Alaska Fish and Game employee, Alaska Herpetological Society (AHS) member, University of Alaska-Fairbanks member and all-around frog guy - divided the area surrounding the dual lake system into 17 areas called "transects," then traipsed through them counting the number and species of frogs, toads, and newts they found. The weeke...
A May 23 landslide on a Stikine River tributary in British Columbia will likely not affect salmon runs on the river there, officials with a nearby First Nations band said. The landslide sent large rocks tumbling into the Tahltan River and could have potentially impeded returning salmon. Officials with the band at Telegraph Creek were keeping an eye on the river. In the short term, the danger to the spring salmon fishery appears to be mitigated by the effects of melting snows which, driving the river level up, should raise the level enough for...
Representatives from the US Forest Service presented publicly for the first time potential large-scale logging alternatives for Wrangell Island. The five alternatives presented at the borough’s economic development committee meeting Thursday evening deal with the minority of old-growth timber on Wrangell Island not included with existing federally mandated old-growth reserves, or impacted by the so-called “inventoried roadless rule” land of 2001, which critically altered the economic feasibility of the Southeast logging industry. Exist...
Officials kicked off the annual fourth of July festivities with food and speeches Saturday evening. Queen candidates introduced their teams and delivered an opening address. Food booths, a mainstay of the annual queen competition, opened Sunday morning in the alley between Wells Fargo and the Elks Lodge. The competition, in which local residents buy tickets to vote for their favorite queen candidates up until the winner is announced in July, is the official launch not only of the heated...
At least two prospective local business owners have submitted entries to this year’s Paths to Prosperity sustainable business competition. Last year’s competition saw Wrangell guitar maker Steve Helgesen and soon-to-be Wrangellite Kevin Skeek win the first iteration of the competition with a plan to make guitars from locally harvested Sitka Spruce. The deadline for this year’s competition was Monday, and it wasn’t immediately clear how many Wrangell entrepreneurs had submitted business plans for the competition, which aims to encourage sustain...
Young Wrangellites will take to the sidewalks for a borough-wide annual entrepreneurial experiment Saturday. Wrangell will celebrate Lemonade Day a week ahead of other towns, which will celebrate it on June 14, to accommodate families who might be trolling for salmon instead of pocket change that weekend. The event aims to bring first-hand experience with small business to eye-level for industrious youngsters, said borough economic development officer Carol Rushmore. “It’s a nationwide program to build entrepreneurial business skills for kid...
A pair of motions passed during the May 21 school board meeting might seem unrelated. One vote moved Evergreen Elementary school to school-wide Title I funding from the schools previous status as a targeted Title I school. The other move extended kindergarten instruction through the end of the day. Despite their seemingly different aims, both seek to address the needs of Evergreen students as early and as flexibly as possible, according to superintendent Rich Rhodes. “It gives us more time with kids,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest...
Eight Wrangell nurses recently completed a course aimed at certifying them to better assist local trauma victims. The training is part of the ongoing hospital push to seek a level IV trauma certification for the Medical Center. Nursing Director Denise McPherson said the hospital is almost two-thirds of the way through the process of obtaining the certification, and the final review in preparation to receive the designation could happen in February 2015. Officials started the drive late last...
Sentinel writer The first boat to come out of the water was named for the patron saint of lost causes. The new $1.3-million giant red boat lift pulled the Ketchikan-ported fishing tender St. Jude out of the water Saturday. Estimates of the 100-foot by 24-foot boat's weight range between 121 tons and 189 tons. The lower end of that range would have put the boat within the lifting capacity of the other machine, however, a weight reading of 198 tons meant harbor officials put the ASCOM lift in play...
Teachers and school board members gathered at the Elks Lodge May 22 to honor four retiring teachers, an administrator, and a middle school secretary. While the retirement banquet punctuates the end of an accumulated century of teaching experience, many of the schools personnel honored, like 30-year veteran teacher Dan Roope, said reality hadn't yet – and wouldn't yet – set in. "It doesn't seem real right now," he said. "One of the nice things about teaching is that you get to go to some oth...
The perennial Brian Gilbert Memorial Golf Tournament and accompanying auction took in $49,000 over the weekend. The tournament and awards banquet held Friday and Saturday, is the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation's largest single annual fundraiser. That amount doesn't include expenses, according to Kris Reed, who tracks the fundraiser's figures. Of money raised, 28 sponsors pledged $25,825, or more than half. While the number of sponsors was the largest number ever, their contributions missed b...
Authorities charged Chloe “Coco” Massin in connection with a February vehicle-pedestrian collision that landed a Wrangell man in the hospital, according to court documents. Massin, 55, of Wrangell, faces one count of assault in the first degree, leaving the scene of an accident without assisting the injured, driving under the influence, failing to provide immediate notice of an accident, and failure to carry proof of auto insurance. Massin pled not guilty to all charges April 23 before Judge Trevor Stevens, according to court documents. Acc...
According to news reports, a Tlingit hat sold for $365,000 on the auction block at Sotheby’s of New York May 21. The hat’s sale had been opposed by local Alaskan Natives and board members of the SEALAKSA corporation on the grounds that as a sacred at.óow object, it never should have left possession of the Wrangell Kiks.áadi clan in the first place. The hat was in the style of an Aleut hunting cap with Tlingit embossments and accents and was carved by master carver Wiliam Ukas, who carved the basis for the post office totem pole. An onlin...
How much land does a borough need? The answer may be a surprisingly large number. Wrangell is in the process of selecting 849 additional acres of land from a bevvy of local sites on Wrangell island, other nearby islands, and the mainland to complete a special issuance of 9,006 acres issued by the state legislature, according to Economic Development Officer Carol Rushmore. The borough had originally requested approximately 18,000 acres on legislative appeal after borough officials deemed the original selection amount inadequate, Rushmore said....
A shortage of workers willing to take on part time jobs has temporarily slowed plans for a spring cemetery cleanup. Officials had planned the cleanup in response to public criticism about the condition and size of graves, as well as standing borough ordinances preventing grave adornment outside of certain standards. However, city officials soon discovered how difficult it was to find the regular complement of two seasonal workers, much less the one or two additional workers officials had planned, according to borough manager Jeff Jabusch. The...
If you've ever looked in the mirror and idly thought you could be a star, this summer will give you an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. Haley Reed, studying screenwriting at the University of Loyola-Marymount in Los Angeles, will use Wrangellites and Wrangell for the characters and setting of a short film shooting this summer. Prospective Clooneys or Blanchetts will need to commit to a four-day shooting schedule in late July, with between four and six hours spent on set each da...
In the coming months, members of the hospital board’s building committee will start a push to update city officials and the public in detail about plans for a new hospital. The medical center’s nine-person building committee has spent the last several months reviewing existing plans for the hospital, and aims to bring those plans, as well as information about potential changes, to the borough assembly and staff, medical center CEO Marla Sanger told the hospital’s board of directors at their regular Wednesday meeting. Committee members inclu...
The 17 graduates of the 2014 class of Wrangell High School will be headed as far away as Florida. In the coming years, they will study mathematics, combination welding, physics, art, and film. They will attend institutions as diverse as the Alaska Vocational Technical Center, Gonzaga University, and the Academy of Art University. Others will head out into the world to spread faith and good works. Regardless of academic direction, scholarship or not, they were all in the house Friday night for...
Preliminary budget figures show a looming $64,000 reduction in funding for the Nolan Center. The draft budget, released publicly for the first time May 13, and discussed in a budget workshop before the regular borough assembly meeting, also shows a possible five percent rate hike for electricity consumers in the borough, as well as two other looming concerns. The Nolan Trust board has told the borough that a reduction of $64,000 will be required to allow interest from the $2 million funding to continue at sustainable levels, according to a draf...
The class of 2014 will have more than a little financial assistance as they head off to college. Wrangell High School officials formally acknowledged the numerous scholarships and financial awards distributed to students at a May 14 awards ceremony. In all, students obtained about 25 scholarships and awards this year for a given total of $471,475. Those figures are dependent on student reporting and may be low, according to Lisa Nikodym, who tracks senior scholarship figures for the school...
It may not be among the sexiest causes in the world, but it might be crucial to anyone who makes their living near the Stikine River. The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition went before the US Forest Service’s Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) seeking funding for a “Baseline Water Quality Monitoring” project along the Stikine River. Based only on preliminary discussion at the meeting, it appeared to be a non-starter for the RAC. However, the coalition’s project could have serious ramifications for calculating potential harm caused by a mining...
A concerned mother and teacher asked the school board to consider amending the bullying policy Monday. Mikki Kauppila presented school board members with a photocopy of a hurtful text message she said was circulated about her daughter on private cell phones during school hours, an account confirmed in part by secondary principal Monty Buness. A teacher at the high school saw the message, intervened, and the text’s author was punished with a two-day in-school suspension, Kauppila said. Kauppila, joined by fiancé Aaron Angerman, told school bo...
If past years are any indication, more than 100 students will complete the public library’s summer reading program this year. For the first time this year officials at the Irene Ingle Memorial library have opened the reading program to include high school students, according to Librarian Kay Jabusch. “There seems to be a lot of interest there,” she said. “These kids have grown up with the program. We’re actually expecting a lot more participation this year.” Registration for the program started last week, and continues until June 30, Jabusch...
