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Wrangell Police Chief Dough McCloskey was honored by the borough assembly last Tuesday night, in recognition of his upcoming retirement. McCloskey came to Wrangell in 1992, after a career as a police officer and as a Merchant Marine with the Coast Guard. He joined the local police department in 1992 as a police officer, and was appointed chief of police in 2003. He has served as chief since then, for the past 16 years. As he has announced his intention to retire, the assembly made a...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency held a two-day meeting in Wrangell last week, on June 19 and 20. The SEAPA board of directors consists of five voting community members and their alternates from Wrangell, Petersburg, and Ketchikan, which are the three communities the power agency supplies. During last week's meetings, the board agreed to pay the two cities of Wrangell and Petersburg almost $850,000 in a reimbursement package. The reimbursement plan was to pay back the two cities for switching...
The Fourth of July brings many fun events to Wrangell. From the logging show to the street games, it is hard to be bored in Wrangell the week of the Fourth. One event that people should be very excited for, according to Bonnie Ritchie, is the annual talent show. The talent show has been a part of the Fourth of July Celebration for many years, Ritchie said, who has been chairman of the talent show since last year. This year the talent show will follow the celebration's wider theme of "Back to...
After the retirement of Bob Dalrymple earlier this year, Wrangell has been searching for a new ranger for their Forest Service district. As of last Sunday, that search has come to an end. Clint Kolarich, the new ranger, comes to Wrangell with an extensive background with the Forest Service. "I was in the YCC [Youth Conservation Corps] when I was a junior in high school, and from there I went into seasonal firefighting," he said. "That was back in 1986. So I was off and on in seasonal...
Nicholas Howell has a bit of a reputation as the guy around town who runs a lot. Last December he ran 100 miles in a single day to celebrate the new year. He said that he also competed in an Ironman triathlon down in California last year. Howell enjoys "ultra events" because it gives him the opportunity to test himself, and better his training and discipline, he said. Now, he is giving other Wrangell residents the opportunity to see what it is all about, by organizing the Tongass ToughMan...
Last Thursday, June 20, members of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Forest Service, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and local volunteers all converged on the beach of east Wrangell, near Channel Island, to dissect a dead gray whale that had washed ashore. Kate Savage, once a veterinarian in Wrangell but now working with NOAA, said that an Unusual Mortality Event is occurring all along the Pacific Coast, from Alaska to Mexico. There...
Wrangell residents are likely to see a new face patrolling the streets, as the Wrangell Police Department has recently recruited a new officer. Paul Jay Huerta was sworn in on June 10. New to Alaska, Huerta spent a lot of his life and career in California. Wrangell, he said, is a terrific opportunity for him to slow down and enjoy the small town life. "I started getting the Alaska bug," he said. "Alaska is something that I've always wanted to do. Long story short, I pretty much woke up one day...
The carcass of a gray whale was reported floating between Wrangell and Channel Island, in the eastern passage. According to Kate Savage, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, her organization heard about the whale early Saturday morning, June 15. Wrangell resident Sara Gadd shared several photographs of the animal on Facebook. Gadd's husband, Charles, took the photos. He said that he first found the whale floating in the water around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, and saw it again...
Pats Lake was crowded last Saturday as people came out to enjoy the eighth annual Kids Fishing Day. The day is an event hosted by the Forest Service, to encourage interest in fishing and the great outdoors. Plenty of kids came out to fish and spend time around the lake with their families. The Forest Service also had lots of games set up for the kids to enjoy, and booths where they could learn how to make fishing lures or paint their own custom T-shirts. The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, along with Corvus Design and SALT, a consulting team, held a workshop at the Nolan Center last Thursday, June 13. The workshop was part of the Administration for Native Americans grant project, which has been led in Wrangell by Ruby McMurren and Talea Massin of the WCA. The project was designed to look at ways to prevent the out-migration of the native community in Wrangell. Through several meetings with community and tribal leaders, McMurren and Massin...
The Wrangell Elks Lodge hosted a Flag Day ceremony last Friday, June 14. Flag Day is a national holiday to commemorate the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the country's national flag. According to military.com, commemoration of Flag Day dates back to the 1880s, when teacher BJ Cigrand organized a group of Wisconsin students to observe the flag's birthday. The practice grew and spread across the country until it was officially recognized as a holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The...
The Wrangell School Board held a meeting last Monday evening, June 17, to review contracts for the next school year. The district holds various contracts with other entities to assist in the day-to-day management of the district, from transporting students to assisting in educating them. One contract is between the school district and the Etolin Bus Company. The company had a three-year contract to pick up and deliver Wrangell students to school and then back home at the end of the day, from...
The Fourth of July is a fun holiday across the country. With fireworks, parades, barbecues, it is hard not to get into the patriotic spirit of the event. Wrangell is known far and wide for going above and beyond in their Fourth of July celebrations. Instead of a single day, a whole week of fun events draw the community and many visitors together. Alicia Holder, with the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, said that there are plenty of fun events that the public can look forward to this year. One of...
With two final games, the minor league division of the Wrangell Little League's season came to an end last week. The Sharks and the Rays ended their seasons on a high note, both teams taking a final victory for the season. The Bears, the third minor league team, ended their season with a loss, but created a strong track record through the season regardless. The first game was between the Rays and the Sharks on June 11. Rays Coach Tawney Crowley said that it was a very evenly-matched game. The...
The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission held a special meeting last week, June 4, to review the borough’s hazard mitigation plan. The plan, according to Economic Development Coordinator Carol Rushmore, is meant for city and other governing entities to better understand what kind of natural disasters it may be vulnerable to, the potential costs of those disasters, and ways that the risks can be lessened. Wrangell’s plan was first created in 2010, and was in need of an update. She also sai...
After traveling to Petersburg two weeks ago, the Wrangell little league and softball programs hosted a series of home games at Volunteer Park last Saturday, as teams from Petersburg visited Wrangell. There were five games in all, starting at 9:30 a.m.: Two softball games, and three baseball. Softball: Wrangell's fledgling softball team, the Eagles, made a very good showing in Saturday's games. They played against a softball team from Petersburg, which was a collection of players from softball...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly gave a second reading of the proposed FY 2020 budget during their meeting on Tuesday, June 11. This year's budget season has been a challenge for local governments across the state, thanks in part to an ongoing battle over the state budget in the Alaska legislature. City governments and school boards are all looking at financial challenges in the near future, and Wrangell is no exception. The proposed budget for the borough has revenues set at about $16.62 million,...
At approximately 4:20 p.m. last Friday, June 7, the power went out in the towns of Wrangell and Petersburg. Both islands completely lost power for about 40 minutes, before diesel generators were fired up around 5 p.m. The outage occurred due to a problem with a breaker at Tyee Lake, according to Rod Rhoades with Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. According to Rhoades, around 4:20 p.m. Breaker No. 10 at Tyee Lake opened up, shutting off power to the two towns. Tyee Lake provides hydroelectric po...
Breaking a season-long winning streak, the minor league Bears faced their first loss of the year at the hands of the Rays. It was not a narrow defeat, either, as the Rays made over twice as many points as the Bears, with a score of 16-7 on June 4. The Rays have had a somewhat average season, winning as many games as losing, but unseating the Bears was a good demonstration of how far the team has come, according to coach Tawney Crowley. "It was 100 percent their attitude," she said. "They were...
The Cubs have taken two wins over the Wolverines this week, putting them one game ahead of their rivals for the season. The first game was on Wednesday, June 5. It went very heavily in the Cubs' favor. The Cubs made one run in the first inning, while the Wolverines failed to score. After that, the Cubs were all but unstoppable. The Wolverines made a single point in the second inning, while the Cubs raised their score to 13. In the third inning, the Cubs made another 10 runs. The coaches of both...
Everybody, especially families with children, are invited to the eighth annual Kids' Fishing Day at Pats Lake this Saturday, June 15. Corree Delabrue, with the Forest Service, said that the fishing day was originally put together by Wrangell's scouting troops, but that the Forest Service had taken over in recent years. This year, the Wrangell Rod and Gun Club, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition are all involved. The event is designed to encourage...
The Wrangell Elks Lodge will be hosting a Flag Day ceremony tomorrow, June 14, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Flag Day is a national holiday, celebrated annually on June 14. The holiday was established in 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson, in honor of the flag of the United States, and also to give recognition to other historical events occurring near the same time. According to a 2018 article on history.com, Congress first established the Continental Army in June of 1775, during the Revolutionary War....
With old-time music playing in the background, and friends and family all talking and laughing together, Pastor Kem Haggard of Harbor Light Assembly of God welcomed everybody to the Diamond Club Celebration. The party, hosted at the Nolan Center, brought together eight Wrangell couples who were the guests of honor for the evening. A married couple's sixtieth anniversary is also known as the "diamond anniversary," as the couples are traditionally supposed to buy each other diamond jewelry....
There was a long and, at times, tense meeting over a single issue at city hall last Friday, May 31. The Wrangell Borough Assembly had called a special meeting to make a last-minute decision on how much money to give to the Wrangell School District this year. The assembly had planned to cover the item in their previous meeting on May 28, but opted to table the item to wait for extra financial information from the school. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours the assembly and several school...
A brown bear has been killed by Wildlife Troopers and Forest Service personnel after a run-in with a group of Alaska Crossings campers just north of Berg Bay, across the narrows on the mainland near Wrangell. According to information provided by Public Information Officer Ken Marsh, with the Alaska State Troopers, the encounter occurred on Sunday, May 26, around 3 a.m. A brown bear wandered into the Crossings camp and began rummaging through the group's food. The group had a bear fence,...
