Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 1088
“I don’t know, somehow you kind of get addicted to it, I guess,” Matt Nore said. Nore, volunteering with the Parks and Recreation Department, will be hosting jiu jitsu classes starting next month. Nore has grown up enjoying combat sports, he said, starting with wrestling in high school. He also participated in mixed martial arts through the Alaska Fighting Championship before he was first deployed to Iraq around 2004. He started getting back into jiu jitsu early this year, he said, and wants to begin teaching others the basics so he can keep...
Liz Buness is working to reestablish a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary detachment in Wrangell, and she received some help last week when a retired vice admiral, a division commander and Alaska district chief of staff were in town to meet with community members, answer questions and promote the idea. Wrangell has been without an auxiliary for about 25 years. While working to change that, Buness was sworn in as a member by the visiting dignitaries in a ceremony July 14 in Wrangell. “The Coast Guard, especially in Alaska, has radio stations up a...
The community came together last week to help make a wish come true for Jason Gadd, 16, with a parade in his honor and a bedroom makeover thanks to community volunteers and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "I don't even have words to describe how thankful I am to everybody who came out to help," Dacee Gustafson, Jason's mother, said. "He's shown emotions and things we haven't seen in years that day." Jason has Dravet Syndrome, Gustafson said, which causes unpredictable seizures. This has limited him...
Even while Bill Burr, Wrangell's new schools superintendent, is still unpacking, he already is looking toward challenges the district will face in the coming school year. One area of improvement he is optimistic about is bringing enrollment numbers back to previous levels. Last year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment in Wrangell schools dropped to about 200 from their typical number around 300 - the largest percentage decrease in any school district in Alaska. Many families chose to...
The borough assembly on Tuesday approved spending about $42,000 to find out how much diesel and other contaminants may have leaked into the soil around Wrangell Municipal Light and Power’s generator building on Case Avenue. The site assessment will drill down and take samples from 14 different points around the facility and the property next door to help determine if any environmental cleanup will be necessary. The power plant houses the city’s diesel generators, which serve as backup to electricity from the Tyee Lake hydropower station. The...
With over $450,000 in promised federal funding, the city will spend the next few months scoping out a possible extension of the Mt. Dewey trail. “There are so many conditions or issues at play that affect our timeline,” Amber Al-Haddad, Wrangell capital facilities director, said. “Assuming we got that money in short order we would move forward and pursue the full engineering design of the project. … Our best case would be to see this project constructed in the summer of 2022.” The proposed extension would connect to the trail somewhere...
The third annual Tongass ToughMan triathlon drew 22 competitors to swim, bike and run through Wrangell, with Rob Cross logging the best solo time of 7 hours, 54 minutes and 40 seconds. After sparse turnout last year, the July 3 event this year attracted almost as many competitors as 2019. The triathlon results: Solo Rob Cross, 7:54:50 Patrick Howell, 9:11:00 Robbie Rooney, 12:45:00 Senoe Harris (completed swim and bike but not the run) Team Jackie McMahon, Ceona Koch and Jason Rooney, 8:39:30 Jimmy Nelson and Chadd Yoder, 8:42:35 Sage Smiley,...
After a long year of empty boat stalls and a diminished tourism industry, 2021 is motoring in the direction of normalcy for many Southeast communities, with several towns - Wrangell included - reporting an increase in yacht traffic. Wrangell saw only a dozen yachts in 2020, estimated Harbormaster Steve Miller, but already this year 18 or 19 have called on town as of July 2. Looking ahead, the months of July and August are the busiest for bear viewing at Anan Creek, the community's prime summer attraction. It is also a busy time of year for trip...
"How long it's been going? Since I was a 3 year old, I think," said Jamie Stough, 38, one of the volunteers running the Art Clark Scrap Fish Derby. "My parents started it. They did it as a tribute to Art Clark, the old carver in town, and since then we've been doing it. My family was finally going to give it away to somebody else this year and I was like, 'Nope! I'm taking it.'" The derby was held off of the City Dock on July 2. Kids ages 6 to 13 were invited to come out, throw a line off the...
Just like so many other events returned to Wrangell’s Fourth of July this year, the Chuck Oliver Logging Show was back after taking a COVID-19 year off. Oliver started the show in 1975, and he and his family members ran the event off and on for many years, featuring logging skills and tools common in the timber industry, a callback to the days when Wrangell was a logging town. Randy Oliver, Chuck’s son, retired in 2019 after the 45th logging show, and Tom Roland and his crew of volunteers too...
Wrangell’s king salmon derby, back after a three-year hiatus, closed June 30, ahead of the Fourth of July celebration. The biggest fish of the derby went to Trevor Acker, who caught a 36.9-pound king salmon near Found Island on June 17, netting a $3,000 first place award. While the number of derby participants was not available Tuesday, Stephanie Cook, one of the organizers, said there was a good turnout this year. “There were definitely more people who were excited about it.” Second place went to Randy Churchill, with a 36-pound catch on Ju...
Emma Martinsen and Cassady Cowan came close to setting a record for Fourth of July fundraising raffle ticket sales this year, totaling $114,564. They were not much behind the 2016 record of $126,408 and far exceeded the pandemic-crimped sales of 2020, while about doubling the number from 2019. "These girls are, along with the community, what makes this Fourth of July celebration possible," Stephanie Cook, with the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, said at the coronation ceremony at the Nolan Center...
After a rough pandemic-closed year for the tourism industry nationwide, especially in visitor-dependent Alaska, businesses are starting to show signs of recovery. And that means guests filling up overnight accommodations in Wrangell after a dismal 2020 visitor season. “In my estimation, this is my best year ever!” said Leslie Cummings. “My B&B muscles, my breakfast-cooking muscles are way out of shape. I feel like I had a year off, almost. It’s been kind of a challenge,” she said Monday. Leslie and her husband Alan run Grand View Bed & Breakfa...
"Fly-fishing in general, I think, it's really hard to explain but everybody that I talk to about fly-fishing, that has fly-fished, they get it," Jason Rivers said. "It's really hard to explain to people until they've caught their first fish on a fly rod." Rivers, 47, has enjoyed fly-fishing from a young age, only recently pursuing it as a business. His interest dawned in Washington, when he saw somebody catch a steelhead trout while fly-fishing on the Kalama River. He really learned the "how...
The borough is selling the unused National Guard armory at 101 Second Ave. The armory was built in 1982 on land leased from the city, and the building was turned over to the borough when the Guard shut down its Wrangell operations in 2017. The 30-by-40-foot, wood-frame metal-sided building on a 0.21-acre lot has been appraised at $110,000. The borough has set a minimum price for the sale at $99,000. The borough had planned to sell the property by outcry auction, but the decision was postponed at...
"Since I was a kid, a 12-year-old kid, I just started hunting myself,"Trooper Chadd Yoder said. "My parents didn't hunt, so to start legally hunting I took my mom with me. I educated myself about hunting and got out there and did it. That started my love for the outdoors." Yoder, 33, said he is enjoying his dream job as Wrangell's new state wildlife trooper. He and his wife and three kids moved to Wrangell mid-April from Wasilla. He has been a trooper since 2019. Before that, he worked as a...
Wrangell’s municipal government will operate in the black for another fiscal year, under the budget adopted by the borough assembly Tuesday evening. However, the assembly is prepared to make amendments during the fiscal year, which starts July 1, as new information arises. The budget anticipates general fund revenues of about $6.4 million, which includes taxes, service fees, state and federal funding, and the annual conservative withdrawal of investment earnings from Wrangell’s own permanent fund. Of that total, about 60% is anticipated from sa...
A fun tradition for Wrangell’s grown-ups is returning this Saturday, with the 2021 Adult Prom. The party will start at 8 p.m. at Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. The prom is an opportunity for locals to get out, dress up and dance the night away, said Lucy Moline-Robinson, with KSTK, which is sponsoring the event as a fundraiser for the radio station. “I felt there was a need for that, Wrangell doesn’t have a lot of adult-type dances,”she said. The prom was not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson said. In 2019, it was held at the...
Alaska Power & Telephone has begun preparations for a 214-mile fiber optic cable that will run from Juneau down to Coffman Cove. The SEALink submarine cable project will bring faster broadband internet access to communities like Coffman Cove and Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island. While the project is not expected to affect Wrangell, AP&T Business Development Vice President Jason Custer said Wrangell could be the target of future improvements in the company’s Southeast network. “It’s a major investment in the region, and we’re glad to see it happ...
"If you have the dream, or hopes, just try that," Shinji Maeda said. "Put the effort to make that happen, not sit and complain about your life. That's the whole purpose of this flight." Maeda, 41, is an engineer for Boeing, a one-eyed pilot, a flight instructor, and recently completed a 43-day flight around the world. His last stop before flying home and completing his journey was in Wrangell last Friday. His flight brought him to 18 different countries in a single-engine 1963 Beechcraft...
A conditional-use permit for construction of a new cell tower at the north end of town was approved by the planning and zoning commission last Thursday, after a consulting health physicist working for the developer testified that the tower’s radio signals would not pose a health risk. “I’m a board-certified health physicist, I’ve been an expert in this area for a whole long time,” said Andrew Thatcher, of Lakewood, Washington, introducing himself to the commission June 10. “I was the expert for the state of Washington for about 20 years.” The...
Continuing a decade-plus of tradition, the U.S. Forest Service and other volunteers will sponsor Family Fishing Day at Pats Lake from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 26. The fishing day is an opportunity for families to come out and enjoy the outdoors, said Corree Delabrue with the Forest Service. It’s also a chance for kids to develop an interest in fishing and become “anglers for life.” “Family Fishing Day, it started probably over 10 years ago, I think,” she said. “It was originally put on and organized by the local Boy Scout troop. When all those s...
With vibrant colors, an eye-catching logo and the goal of telling visitors what they can expect, Wrangell has launched its new tourism branding campaign. The "Travel Outside The Lines" slogan is meant to draw in tourists, said Brooke Leslie, with the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau, who presented on the new branding at the June 8 borough assembly meeting. "This is a project that we took up with (federal) CARES Act funding," she said. "In 2019, pre-COVID, there was a post-(tourist) season...
Much like the rest of the country, several businesses in Wrangell said hiring has become a greater struggle than in the past. “I haven’t had a full staff in a year and a half,” said Josh Young, with J&W’s. “I hired my first new employee in over a year four days ago.” J&W’s is looking for at least two more people to staff its kitchen, Young said, but he would prefer more. Normally there’s an influx of applications around May, kids looking for summer jobs. That hasn’t happened this year. The odd thing, he said, is while the restaurant is only ope...
A little over a year after being put back in the water, the Rainforest Islander is for sale again. Owner Eric Yancey has been operating the Islander under Breakaway Ferry and Freight. He has also operated the tour charter company Breakaway Adventures since the late '80s. Now, however, the 61 year old is looking toward retirement. "Boat's been running great for this past 14 months that I've had it, or whatever it's at now," Yancey said. "The fact that the Rainforest Islander's for sale, I've had...