Sorted by date Results 676 - 700 of 1088
Renovations to Shoemaker Harbor are about 95 percent complete, according to Wrangell Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad. The project was originally planned to be finished in June, but renovations faced delays in getting floats built and shipped to Wrangell. Work has been ongoing despite delays, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Electrical and water work has been finished, Al-Haddad said, and they have begun moving boats back into the harbor. "All of the main floats are in, an...
Renovations to Bennett Street and the Airport loop road, which began last May, are still ongoing. Workers with SECON have been doing a complete rehab of Bennett Street. This includes repaving the road, putting in new drains, repairing old sidewalks and constructing new ones. They have also been repaving the airport road. Another part of the project that was added at the eleventh hour, according to Project Director Ralph Vigilante, was replacing a city water line along the road. Adding this to...
Members of Wrangell High School's cross country team, and their parents met in the high school commons Aug. 7 to meet with the team's new coach. Drew Larrabee, who teaches the high school's CTE class, is the team's new coach after Jen Davies decided to step away from the position this year. The first thing he told everyone in attendance, about 20 people in all, is that he does have experience in cross country. "Rest assured, I have coached cross country for quite a few years previous to this,"...
Last weekend was the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation's Rally for Cancer Care Tournament, held at Muskeg Meadows. The annual event draws sizable crowds from both Wrangell and Petersburg, to raise money to cover cancer patients' travel expenses. This year was no exception. On Saturday, Aug. 17, 51 women attended the tournament. Of these, 31 were from Petersburg. This was not a serious tournament, but an excuse to hang out with friends and enjoy several golf-themed contests. Food, and a silent a...
It was a perfect day to be outdoors last Sunday, Aug. 4. The sun was shining, the water was smooth, and the temperature was warm. Besides the nice weather, concerned locals also spent the day outdoors to raise awareness for another issue: Mining along the Stikine River. The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, SEITC, held a rally upriver last Sunday. Tis Peterman, CEO of the commission, said that the Stikine was recently listed among the top 10 endangered rivers in the country...
This coming weekend, Muskeg Meadows Golf Course will host the annual Rally for Cancer Care tournaments. The rally has become a longstanding and popular tradition for people in Wrangell and Petersburg, drawing people from both towns. Betty Abbott, with the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation, said that the program has been around since 2009. She explained that the foundation uses the tournament to raise funds, which they then use to help offset travel expenses for cancer patients. As Southeast...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration held an online press conference last Friday, Aug. 2, to announce the release of their annual report to Congress on the state of the country's fisheries. This report, for the year 2018, looks at 479 federally managed fish stocks across the United States. Alan Risenhoover, director of the office of sustainable fisheries, said that the report was designed to give Congressmen and the wider public more insight into the state of American fish stocks....
Closing on July 19 last month, the Wrangell Community Prioritization Survey garnered what Ruby McMurren called a surprising number of responses. A total of 482 people responded to the survey, she said. Most of these surveys were completed online, but 49 of them were hard copies. The survey is part of a grant project by the Administration for Native Americans, lead by McMurren and Talea Massin of the Wrangell Cooperative Association, seeking to combat outmigration of tribal citizens and improve t...
With approximately 400 members of the Inlandboatmen's Union going on strike last Wednesday, July 24, the Alaska Marine Highway System came to a halt. Without ferry services, many people across the state, especially in Southeast Alaska, found themselves stranded. In the communities of Wrangell and Petersburg, many people are facing disruptions to their schedules, families, and work. WRANGELL: Several of Wrangell's children and adults attending a church camp in Juneau were stranded when the ferry...
SEARHC hosted an Alaska Native culture camp during Wrangell's annual Bearfest this past week. Running from July 24 to 28, the camp invited anybody interested to come together to make paddles and headbands, and to learn more about Wrangell's native culture. "The high school shop was where we were doing the paddle making, then we had the sewing in the middle school commons with our elder, Donna Kuntz," Tammi Meissner said. The wood for the paddles was donated by the Sealaska Corporation, Meissner...
One of the central parts of the annual Bearfest celebration are the symposiums. Experts on bears and bear-related subjects are invited to come speak in Wrangell each year. This year saw several such speakers, including Lance Craighead who spoke on federal and state regulations on bear conservation, Harry Reynolds on the endangered subspecies of Gobi Desert brown bears, and John Nary on bear observation challenges at the Mendenhall Glacier. A roundtable discussion was held on Thursday, July 25,...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, once again, is helping out with the Tlingit and Haida Central Council's back to school backpack event. Tribal Administrator Esther Ashton said that the WCA partners with the central council every year for this event, which aims to provide backpacks and school supplies to native children across Southeast Alaska. Applications to receive a backpack will close on Aug. 2. "Basically, it's for Alaska Native or American Indian," she said. "You have to reside in...
Author and photographer Amy Gulick visited Wrangell this past week for Bearfest. Gulick last visited Wrangell about four years ago, she said, while doing research for her latest book. Now that said book is on the market, she returned to promote her work and to talk about some of what she learned. "The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind" gathers together stories and photographs across Alaska, showing a unique way of life where peoples' lifestyles are still closely connected to the natural...
A bear safety workshop was held at the gun range on Spur Road last Wednesday, July 24, as one of the first events scheduled for Wrangell's annual Bearfest. Wrangell resident Robert Johnson led the workshop. He has had a lot of experiences with bears over the years, he said, and told everyone early in the workshop that having respect for bears was an important part of staying safe around them. "You just have to be in awe of these animals and show them the utmost respect," he said. "As long as...
Celebration is a large, biennial cultural event for all Southeast Alaskan tribes across the region. For four days in June, according to the Sealaska Heritage Institute's website, tribal citizens from all over Southeast Alaska and beyond come together in Juneau for traditional songs, dances, and crafts. It is one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaskan tribes in the state. Next year's Celebration will be extra special, as members of Wrangell's native community have been named 2020's lead d...
Sea otters are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, a federal law that prohibits the harvesting of marine mammals. However, this law does allow for some exceptions. Under section 101 of the act, on page 16, it reads that "... the provisions of this Act shall not apply with respect to the taking of any marine mammal by any Indian, Aleut, or Eskimo who resides in Alaska and who dwells on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean if such taking-(1) is for subsistence...
State Wildlife Trooper Kyle Freeberg moved to Wrangell back in April. As a state trooper, Freeberg's job includes patrolling old logging roads during the hunting season, and watching the commercial and sport fishing in Wrangell's waters. Of course, being the only trooper in Wrangell means he has a lot of ground to cover, literally and figuratively. As such, he said that he wants to increase the amount of collaboration between himself and the people of Wrangell. This is not only to help him do a...
August is just around the corner, meaning it is almost time for Wrangell's annual fishing derby. Fishing derbies have been a longstanding tradition in Wrangell, and for many years the king salmon derby was a very popular event for locals and tourists. However, the king derby was set aside last year due to struggling stock numbers, and replaced with a coho salmon derby. Last year's coho derby saw 240 tickets sold and 106 salmon weighed in. This year, the chamber of commerce is offering tickets...
Suicide is an important topic in Alaska, as the state has one of the highest suicide rates per capita in the country. According to the Statewide Suicide Prevention Council, in 2014 there were 22.3 suicides per 100,000 people across Alaska. As such, several community members have wanted to know how they can help those around them who are struggling with suicidal thoughts. Along with some cafe-style discussions on the topic of suicide prevention put together by SEARHC, “safeTALK” training was held at the Nolan Center last Thursday and Fri...
The Nolan Center hosted a grand opening presentation for its most recent exhibit last Tuesday, July 16: "Muybridge in Alaska: 1868." The exhibit has been traveling around the state this year, first being shown in the Alaska Native Heritage Museum in Anchorage, then in the Sheldon Museum, in Haines. The Nolan Center will house this exhibit until the end of August. "Muybridge in Alaska" is, among other items, a collection of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge of Southeast Alaska in the late 1800s. These are some of the first photographs of...
As the debates over the state budget and Governor Mike Dunleavy's vetoes continue, many Alaskans are left to worry about how they will be affected. In a Facebook post on July 22, Mayor Steve Prysunka said that the state is looking at a total of $749 million in cuts from the state budget, the largest portion being about $444 million in line item vetoes. Among the 182 line items reduced or eliminated by the Governor, according to an article in the Anchorage Daily News, was the elimination of the...
The borough assembly held a second reading of a proposed amendment to Wrangell's municipal code during their meeting Tuesday. The amendment would be to chapter 15.12, Electricity, and would add a section that covers rate stabilization. This amendment was first brought up during the city's recent budget workshops, according to the meeting's agenda packet, where the assembly requested a "rate stabilization fund" be created to help offset increased power costs to residents in case the city had to s...
It is no secret that Southeast Alaska is a hot tourist destination. Every year, the region is flooded with nature enthusiasts, retirees, and other tourists. According to a calendar from the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska, Petersburg will receive a total of 62 cruise ship stops in the 2019 season. Ketchikan, one of the larger cruise ship destinations in Southeast Alaska, is expecting 576 cruise ship stops this year, bringing in a total estimated 1.15 million passengers. The tourist industry is...
Sea otters are considered by many people to be an adorable animal, an important part of the ecosystem, and also a nuisance that is threatening other marine life populations in Southeast Alaska. In Wrangell, many people have talked about the need for better population control when it comes to otters. The Wrangell Borough Assembly talked about loosening restrictions on hunting the creatures last September with Sebastian O'Kelly, a federal lobbyist. Back in May, fifth-grade student Brody Knecht...
Wrangell resident and attorney Michael Nash, 68, passed away in a plane crash near Ketchikan last Thursday. Alaska State Troopers were notified by Ketchikan Flight Service of an overdue aircraft around 3:07 p.m., July 11, according to a dispatch on the department of public safety's website. Nash was flying his plane, a PA-24 Comanche, and was due to land in Ketchikan at 2:15 p.m. "The US Coast Guard, Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Saxman VPSO responded to the...
