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The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met for their monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, April 3. Two of the main topics covered in this month's meeting were the upcoming "Helping Our Parks" project, as well as how the parks and recreation department can best prepare for potential budget cuts. Kate Thomas, director of the parks and recreation department, said that the HOP Project has been one of her main priorities for the past few weeks. The project, which will be taking place on...
The Wrangell Rod and Gun Club, a relatively new organization that promotes shooting and fishing sports around town, will be hosting a "blanket shoot" at the outdoor range this Thursday, April 11, at 5:30 p.m. All participants should bring a prize to the event, which is worth at least $10, according to club member Terry Courson. These prizes will then be laid out on a large blanket for attendees to look over. Whoever gets the high score in the contest gets first pick of the prizes. There will be...
Robert Rang came on as the Wrangell Medical Center's administrator in October of 2015. The hospital was only the latest step in a three-decade career. Rang said he started his career as a CNA, and he kept on slowly rising up in the business. He was working in Kodiak when he first heard about this job being available in Wrangell, he said. "The opportunity opened up, it was something I was very interested in. Small town life is what my wife and I enjoy, along with all the other activities that...
The Wrangell Mariners' Memorial Board held its second annual auction at the Stikine Inn last Saturday evening. The auction, to raise money for a planned memorial to honor Wrangell seafarers, had over a dozen items in both a live and silent auction. Many people from across town came out to support the memorial and to bid. This was the second year in a row for the board to hold an auction. Board Member Brennon Eagle gave the public a short update on the memorial and the organization before the...
A health fair will be hosted at the Nolan Center next Sat., April 6, from 8 a.m. to noon. The Alaska Health Fair is a statewide nonprofit, which has been working since its founding in 1980 to provide Alaskans with affordable blood tests, screenings, and health education. They conduct almost 100 community events a year across the state, according to their website. Health Educator Haleena Vanveem, health director with SEARHC, is helping to organize the Wrangell Health Fair. She has helped to put...
Members of BRAVE, the Wrangell organization that works to build healthy relationships in the community, recently attended a summit in Anchorage last month to discuss topics like domestic and sexual violence, and prevention programs that can be put in place at the local level. The 2019 Alaska Primary Prevention Summit was organized by the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, which is a part of the Alaska Department of Public Safety. Kay Larson, Loretto Jones, and Joan Sargent...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association, the local organization dedicated to supporting Alaska Natives, held an election for new tribal council members last Monday, March 25. The WCA oversees cultural events, supports subsistence lifestyles, assists with transportation, and does much more for Wrangell's native community. Board members are elected by tribal members of the WCA. Five people have been chosen for the council this year, according to results released on the WCA's Facebook page: Christie...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly and the Wrangell School Board held a joint work session last Thursday to discuss the school district's proposed budget for the 2020 school year. Earlier this year, Governor Mike Dunleavy proposed a 23 percent cut to the Base Student Allocation, which helps determine the amount of funding a school district receives from the state based on the number of students within the district. Since then, funding for the Wrangell School District has been a topic of much concern...
The Pioneers of Alaska is one of the older social organizations in the state. According to the organization's website, the first group of pioneers, or "Igloos," was founded in Nome in 1907. The purpose of the Pioneers of Alaska is twofold, to preserve community history and to serve as a social outlet for members. At first it was a men-only club, but women were allowed in around 1912, according to the Pioneer website. From the first Igloo in Nome, the group spread across the state. The Wrangell...
The Helping Our Parks Project, or "HOP" Project, is an annual community service event organized by the Wrangell Parks and Recreation Department. Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas said that this is the third year it will be held and it's coming up on April 20. The HOP Project began in 2017, she said, when the department and local volunteers came out to Volunteer Park to clean up and repair the place. In 2018 it took place at City Park. This year, they are coming back to Volunteer Park,...
Bullying is, unfortunately, a common occurrence in many schools across the country. With modern technology, it is not limited to the schools any more, either. Bullying can come in many forms, from unkind words, to physical violence, to ostracism, to harassment via social media. While many people may want to pretend that bullying is not a serious issue, or that it does not even happen in their local school district, it happens everywhere. Even in Wrangell, there are instances of bullying....
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual dinner to recognize people and businesses around town. The dinner, held at the Nolan Center last Saturday evening, drew a very large crowd. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a silent auction and other contests. There was also an auction for various homemade desserts that saw a lot of high rollers. A chocolate cheesecake, baked by Kay Jabusch, was auctioned off for $500 to Jake Harris. The evening was not all about auctions and...
Alaska is not home to many reptiles, according to Joshua Ream, cultural anthropologist with the Alaska Herpetological Society. Alaska is home to some marine turtles, as well as garter snakes, but not much else. On the other hand, he said, the state is home to a variety of amphibians. From 2010 to 2018, Ream has researched the kinds of amphibians that can be found in Southeast Alaska, particularly around the Stikine River. There has not been much research into Alaskan amphibians, he said, so...
Bristol Bay is home to the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, according to pamphlets from the organization Save Bristol Bay. The Kvichak and Nushagak rivers, connecting to the bay, are two of the largest remaining sockeye runs in the world. The sustainable harvest from these runs reportedly provide over half of the sockeye salmon available in the global market. Bristol Bay's fishery supports over 14,000 jobs, the pamphlet says, and drives a $1.5 billion economy. However, some Alaskan...
The Wrangell Rod and Gun Club hosted a shooting event at the indoor range at the public safety building last Sunday. The "Pig Plunk," as it was called, was designed as a fundraiser, membership drive, and a fun way to spend the afternoon for club members and visitors. At 16, the turnout was smaller than the club's previous shooting event, the Turkey Shoot last December. Club member Terrell Courson attributed this to the nice weather Wrangell saw on Sunday. The rules of the competition were...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly discussed a proposed noise ordinance once again during their meeting onTuesday. The ordinance has been the source of some controversy around town, some seeing it as the result of two feuding neighbors, or that the regulations proposed by the ordinance are unrealistic. When the ordinance was brought up for discussion in the last meeting, on March 12, there was a very large public turnout to speak their minds on the topic. During that meeting, the assembly proposed various amendments to the ordinance. Previously,...
A meeting was held at City Hall last Wednesday to discuss the upcoming cruise ship season, as well as some proposed projects around City Dock. Cruise ships will begin arriving in Wrangell in April, and the season will close in October. Roughly 20,000 tourists are expected to visit Wrangell this year, 4,000 more than came to town last season. Almost 60 ships are scheduled to dock in town. In a previous meeting to discuss the city's priorities for the cruise season, held last January, it was...
A sentencing hearing was held Monday afternoon, March 19, for Kelly Gunderson. Back in October, Gunderson was charged with selling marijuana to a minor. The incident happened on Oct. 1, 2018, according to Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey. They became aware of somebody selling marijuana to underage persons when a 15-year-old boy, who will not be named as he is a minor, was caught high by his parents. The teen was brought to the police, and he informed officers where he had received the marijuana from, and helped them to catch Gunderson....
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a federal agency that works to care for the nation's veterans. The VA offers eligible veterans healthcare, as well as other non-medical benefits such as memorial benefits and disability payments. The state of Alaska is home to somewhere between 75 to 90,000 veterans, according to Alaska VA Healthcare System Director Dr. Timothy Ballard. Of these, however, he said that maybe only 36,000 are signed up and receiving their VA benefits, and they...
The Wrangell School Board met last Monday evening. During the meeting, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster provided the board with a brief recap of a recent public meeting the district held on school safety. For those unaware, concerns were raised among parents in the community after an unnamed student made threats against the school on Snapchat. The district contacted the police on the matter, who determined there was no threat, and then they informed parents of what had happened. The meeting was called to discuss the safety protocols the district...
Bob Dalrymple said he first became interested in forestry when he was in the Boy Scouts. It was a fairly linear career trajectory. He said he knew what he wanted to do since high school. He attended forestry school at Colorado State University, and got his first job with the Forest Service planting trees in 1975. In 1982 he came to Southeast Alaska for seasonal work, and fell in love with the area. He said that he worked on Prince of Wales and in Petersburg for many years, then went south for a...
Radio station KSTK, hosted a chili cookoff last Saturday. The cookoff is an annual fundraiser for the radio station, according to June Leffler. It was hosted in the Wrangell High School Commons this year. Almost a dozen different chilis were entered into the contest, each with a different flavor and level of spiciness. The top three winners were selected, with the first place winner getting their name put on a crockpot trophy. This year's winner was Jeanie Arnold, who also won the cookoff in...
Southeast Alaska is well known for its wildlife: Bears, moose, salmon and eagles. The Tongass National Forest is home to a wide variety of creatures. One species that is absent is elephants. Luckily, a Petersburg filmmaker has decided to bring the elephants to Alaska in the form of a new documentary, "A Herd of Orphans." Kelly Bakos has a background of doing film work for conservation organizations. In 2008, the nonprofit organization Game Rangers International opened up a new "elephant...
The Nolan Center hosted the first of several Chautauqua speaking lectures last Thursday. Members of the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, a regional organization dedicated to the stewardship of Southeast Alaska watersheds, were invited to talk about the Pat Creek watershed. A watershed, for those unfamiliar with the term, is an area of land that feeds all of the water that comes into the area into a single body of water. These bodies of water, then flow into larger bodies of water, which eventually all connect into a stream or a lake. The...
The Wrangell Lady Wolves had a very strong season this year. They went 11 and 3 in their regular season, their only losses coming from the Craig Lady Panthers and the Metlakatla Miss Chiefs. At regionals, held in Sitka earlier this month, the Lady Wolves took their first regional championship in 25 years. At Regionals, they beat school rival the Petersburg Lady Vikings, as well as the Miss Chiefs. Along with the championship, they won the second seed in the state tournament in Anchorage, which...
