Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 342
Community members showed their support for the Churchill family last week after Randy Churchill Jr., 39, was killed by a falling tree in an accident Feb. 22. Parks and Recreation Coordinator Lucy Robinson organized a community walk last Sunday to raise money for the family and about 50 people showed up. “There were a few really close family members there that joined us,” said Robinson. “There were good conversations.” She planned the walk to create an outlet for community members to express their support in-person and provide financial assista...
Pills laced with fentanyl are spreading through Southeast Alaska, and Wrangell authorities are doing what they can to address the health hazard and danger. “The buzzword right now is fentanyl,” said Police Chief Tom Radke. “The quantity that they’re recovering is exceeding what people thought was out there.” Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The Alaska Department of Health reports fentanyl was responsible for almost 75% of opioid-related deaths in the st...
With its controlled movements, deep stretches and emphasis on mental awareness and breath, yoga is a low-impact activity whose benefits can be enjoyed by all. Under a new program, yoga classes will be available to Parks and Recreation members at least 18 years old at 8 a.m. Saturdays in the community center multi-purpose room starting this weekend. After moving to Wrangell in October from North Carolina, Yoga Alliance certified teacher Rachel Lange quickly reached out to Lucy Robinson of Parks and Recreation about offering classes through the d...
The lights dimmed and a hush fell over the packed Wrangell High gymnasium, where the school had gathered to watch Team Hollywood celebrity streetball perform on Feb. 21. Orchestral music filled the room as a spotlight illuminated a masked figure, hanging upside down from a basketball hoop. Batman, or Tommy Adams, formerly of the NBA summer league, dropped to the floor while Black Panther, or football player and Disney actor Maurice "Mo" Woodward, climbed down a rope suspended from the balcony....
Last Wednesday afternoon, Alaska’s junior U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan visited Wrangell to learn more about the community’s priorities and concerns. After meeting with municipal and tribal leadership and touring the island, Sullivan held a public forum to discuss borough, state and national issues. He spoke with each of the roughly 20 attendees about their priorities. It was his first visit to Wrangell since 2018. Wrangell residents touched on a wide range of issues, such as adolescent mental health, harbor and transportation infrastructure, the Ton...
At its special meeting last Friday, the borough assembly unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Alaska Trollers Association in its fight against a lawsuit that could shut down the Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishery of chinook, or king salmon, this year. Though the association also requested a $7,500 donation to the fishery’s legal defense, the assembly did not approve funding for the cause. The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2020. The Washington-based nonprofit alleges t...
For Lucy Robinson, the Parks and Recreation Department provides residents with far more than workouts, programs and professional development opportunities - it is the "lifeblood of a healthy community," a space where Wrangellites of all ages and from all walks of life can come together to chat, sweat and enjoy their shared love for recreation. After attending open swim as a child, lifeguarding as a teen and working as recreation coordinator as an adult, Robinson is ready to take charge of the...
Communities throughout Southeast have signed a petition to oppose listing the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered species, due largely to the additional restrictions a listing could impose on wolf hunters and the potential risk to the deer population. Though members of the Wrangell borough assembly expressed widespread support for the petition, they took issue with details in its wording at the Feb. 14 assembly meeting and preferred to draft a statement of their own. The assembly instructed Borough Manager Jeff Good to prepare a resolut...
When longtime Public Works Department employee Brian Christian was asked to attend the Feb. 14 borough assembly meeting by his supervisor, Tom Wetor, he thought that he would be asked to share his expertise on a pump station collection process with the assembly. Instead, Wetor surprised him with an award for his 25 years of service, courtesy of the Alaska Rural Water Association. Wetor, the assembly and borough officials thanked Christian for his contributions to the borough and wished him well...
Wrangell is home to a passionate community of outdoor leaders and Parks and Recreation professionals, who are committed to uniting the town by developing public programs and maintaining public spaces. This fall, the Parks and Recreation Department will pool its knowledge with other departments statewide to improve services across Alaska. In September, representatives from municipalities around the state will visit Wrangell for the annual Alaska Recreation and Park Association conference — an opportunity for the state’s recreation departments to...
Southeast trollers and communities are awaiting a federal judge's decision on a lawsuit that could close down the region's chinook troll fishery. If the lawsuit prevails, Southeast trollers would be denied access to the highest-priced salmon available to the commercial fleet. The lawsuit seeks to ensure more of the salmon make it to an endangered population of killer whales in Washington state. The Southeast winter troll fishery is underway and will close March 15; the summer season is slated to...
When the recently retired Patty Kautz signed her restaurant, Hungry Beaver Pizza and Marine Bar, over to Rolland Wimberley on Feb. 4, it was exactly 43 years to the day since she first leased the establishment in 1981. "I could not believe it," she said. "It was pretty comical." Though Kautz looks back fondly on her quadragenarian run as owner of Wrangell's oldest pizza parlor, she looks forward with excitement to a retirement full of travel and family time. "There's been a lot of changes in 43...
The borough will use the results of an eight-day public survey of users of its downtown harbor floats to boost the competitiveness of its federal grant application to rebuild the facilities, which officials said are in desperate need of repair. The survey closed Monday and it will take a while to tabulate the results, but officials believe it will help make the borough’s case for as much as $25 million in federal funds. After completing an $11.5 million repair project at Shoemaker Bay Harbor in 2019, the borough does not have the cash on h...
On Thursday, Alaskans will celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich Day to honor the Tlingit civil rights advocate who pushed for the nation's first anti-discrimination law, 19 years before the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. During her lifelong campaign for Native rights, she fought segregation and a majority white territorial Legislature to establish a foundation of legal protections that have benefitted Alaskans since 1945. Peratrovich was born in segregated Petersburg on July 4, 1911. She was a...
Tribal citizens with new business ideas may be eligible for funds to help launch their small businesses through the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s start-up grant program. Tlingit and Haida has been operating pandemic relief programs for existing small businesses run by tribal citizens for three years. In 2021, they added the federally funded small business relief start-up grant program to their list of offerings to support citizens who do not yet have a small business, but would like to develop one. This year...
Wolves are social, territorial animals that educate their young, care for their injured and stick with their close-knit family groups - most of the time, that is. In the past few months, a wolf from Petersburg has struck out on its own and taken up swimming, behaviors that are unusual - though not unheard of - for a wolf. The swimming wolf traveled from Petersburg to Wrangell Island to Etolin Island, and its movements could help area scientists learn more about the animals' lifestyle . The...
Wrangell’s rendition of “The Sound of Music” sold out twice last December, but thanks to the Nolan Center and a host of dedicated community members, the curtain won’t stay closed for long. Last Tuesday, Nolan Center Director Cyni Crary announced that the spring musical will be “Annie.” This uplifting tale of resilience and found family, filled with classic show tunes like “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” is coming to Wrangell on the weekends of May 12-13 and 20-21. The Nolan Center is seeking actors to fill the musical’s colorful ca...
Einar Haaseth served in Vietnam from September 1964 to December 1965, and never received his entitlement of up to 160 acres of land under the 1906 Alaska Native Allotment Act. The program has reopened, but for Haaseth, and other Native veterans living in Southeast, there’s a problem: Nearly no Southeast Alaska land is available under the program. Last fall, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced an order and made available more than 27 million acres of public land to Alaska Native veterans who were unable to apply for their acres while s...
Thanks to its aging infrastructure and pricey upcoming projects, Port and Harbors is the least financially sustainable of all the borough’s enterprise funds. Last Thursday, the Port Commission met with Finance Director Mason Villarma and Susan Erickson of P-W Insurance to come up with a plan to improve the fund’s finances while minimizing the impacts on cash-strapped Wrangell residents. One major takeaway from the 2021 audit, Villarma explained, was that many of the borough’s self-supporting funds — particularly the Port and Harbors account...
Communities without 70,000-seat stadiums don’t often get visits from professional athletes, but later this month Wrangell will become an exception to the rule. Players from Team Hollywood celebrity streetball will visit Feb. 21 to share inspirational messages — and play sports — with students and community members through Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA) funding. Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese of the WCA invited the organization to town after a conversation with Tanana Chiefs Conference member Donald Charlie at the Associ...
The community pool may be empty after its Nov. 28 closure, but it is certainly not idle. A flurry of activity is taking place behind the scenes as borough staff and handy community members perform much-needed maintenance and prepare for major repairs. The pool's reopening date was pushed from Jan. 7 to February, then to the end of March as Parks and Recreation staff got a better sense of the scope of needed repairs. Mayor Patty Gilbert acknowledged the closure's inconvenience at the Jan. 24...
The state Board of Game has approved a proposal to reopen an elk hunt on Zarembo Island, though the odds that a local could nab a tag and take a bull will be low — a small number of tags will be available and the drawing will be open to hunters nationwide. The first drawing will likely take place this fall, with the hunt set for fall 2024. There hasn’t been an elk hunt on Zarembo for nearly 20 years, due to concerns about the small population’s sustainability, explained Petersburg-based state Fish and Game biologist Frank Robbins. “The last ye...
After months of negotiation, the borough is ready to approve a short-term lease with Juneau-based scrap metal recycling company Channel Construction for a portion of the 6-Mile mill site. At its Jan. 24 meeting, the assembly authorized Borough Manager Jeff Good to finalize the lease, which has been in progress since last September. At its Sept 1. meeting, the port commission unanimously voted down a motion to recommend leasing a portion of the property to company owner William “Shorty” Tonsgard Jr. Commissioners wanted more information about th...
The borough is moving forward with design of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision at the site of the former Wrangell Institute, a federal Alaska Native boarding school that closed in 1975. Borough officials hope the project will alleviate the community’s housing shortage — after its first phase is complete, 20 new residential lots could go on sale in 2024. At its Jan. 24 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved a $109,616 professional services contract with Ketchikan-based R&M Engineering to design roadways and water...
Rebecca Mork and Kristofer Vasquez-Kool are the proud parents of our newest community member, Alice Lynn Mork. She was the first baby to join a Wrangell family in 2023. Alice was born at 2:38 p.m. Jan. 19 in Juneau's Bartlett Regional Hospital. She was 7 pounds and 15 ounces. "It was a pretty fast delivery," said Rebecca Mork. "She took about 10 to 20 minutes." Mork hadn't realized how far along she was until she arrived at the hospital, where the nurses informed her that she would likely have...
