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The borough and Alaska Court System are awaiting results of air quality testing at Wrangell’s Public Safety Building before courthouse services can be resumed. ACS shuttered the office space it rents there just before Thanksgiving, citing safety concerns for its staff. Long-term water damage and rot to exterior walls of the court offices had been revealed back in September when maintenance workers opened up the drywall, following reports of a carpenter ant infestation. A judicial officer had to be relocated to another part of the office w...
Action plans for the emergency management of Chinook salmon in Southeast Alaskan rivers have been drafted ahead of next month's Board of Fisheries meeting in Sitka. The board, which reviews regulatory oversight of fisheries across the state, planned to meet on January 11 to discuss shellfish and finfish proposals for the coming year. But added to its plate will be a trio of action plans drawn up by the Department of Fish and Game designating king salmon populations in several rivers as stocks...
Wrangell Medical Center passed its annual financial audit without complaint, though its cash flow situation is still not in the best of health. Financial officer Doran Hammett ran down the numbers for members of the hospital’s governing board during their monthly meeting December 20. Revenues for the past five months still are lagging behind expectation, around eight percent below budget. Expenses have also been lower than expected, by about six percent, but the hospital is nonetheless running at around a $224,460 loss for the 2018 fiscal y...
A home-harvested fundraiser raised just over $3,800 for a child's medical expenses on Sunday, which follows another effort in October that had raised $1,800. The funds are for Taryn Lee, a five-year-old diagnosed with spitzoid melanoma earlier this summer. According to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer due to its tendency to spread quickly. While rare among the general population for skin cancers, it is even more rare among pediatric cases,...
The Planning and Zoning Commission moved forward several developments of properties neighboring the ferry terminal at its monthly meeting last week. It signed off on a conditional use permit for the corner property at Church Street and Evergreen Road, which had been purchased from the Stough Family Trust by Tidewater Investments LLC in October. Owners Benn Curtis and Shirley Wimberley wanted to continue using the undeveloped lot for outdoor storage. Under the commission's recommendations,...
School may be out for Wrangell students’ winter break, but the Public School Board still came together for its last meeting of the year on Monday. Board members were given a preview of a new disciplinary policy for students at Evergreen Elementary School. A committee of teachers, parents and even a student had developed the exhibit over the past semester. “We all had ideas on the table,” explained kindergarten teacher Mikki Angerman, one of the committee’s members. “We were all really happy with what the end result was.” The new disciplinary ma...
In an announcement last week, the public is reminded a comment deadline for proposed changes to fisheries management is quickly coming up. The Board of Fisheries, the regulatory body charged with oversight over the state’s fisheries management will gather in Sitka on January 11 for a 13-day meeting, during which it will consider 153 proposals specific to finfish and shellfish issues in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Proposals come from the board itself, the Department of Fish and Game, fishing organizations and the general public, and comments a...
Wrangell’s high school wrestling team finished up its season at the state championships in Anchorage last weekend, securing 11th overall with 58.5 points. Competing at the Alaska Airlines Center Friday through Sunday, students from 56 different schools took part in the 1-3A tournament. Wrangell’s inclusion comes after its third-place finish at Region V in Ketchikan the week prior. “It went very well,” said Wolves coach Jeff Rooney. “We didn’t have any champions, but we had some great wrestling. It was a good time.” Wrestling in the 106-pound we...
By popular demand, the Chamber of Commerce will be bringing the holiday spirit back to Wrangell's shores next week with its annual boat parade. Once a tradition every Christmas season, mariners of every stripe would string up lights and decorations on their vessels for a floating parade. The event started with physician Wayne "Doc" Davenport, who arrived to the island to practice medicine during the mid-1970s. Just before the holiday he would decorate his boat, and had afterward encouraged...
Board members on the Wrangell Convention and Visitor Bureau last week approved funding site construction for a new web page showcasing the community to potential visitors. The borough’s current page for tourists, WrangellAlaska.org, has proven a pain to maintain. Economic development director Carol Rushmore explained that site had been designed some years ago primarily with conventions in mind. The information it does have to share is limited and mostly links over to the city’s formal Wrangell.com site. “It’s an old design. We can’t get in th...
The regional forest supervisor with the United States Forest Service issued a final decision on the Wrangell Island timber sale project on Monday. Addressing a number of objections to the project as it was proposed last year, the scope of the sale approved by the Tongass National Forest supervisor’s office in Ketchikan will be but a fraction of what it had been. Among five alternatives presented, it was Alternative 2 which the USFS opted for. Of the plans, it had the greatest amounts of acreage and timber deemed to be sustainably harvested, a...
A Wrangell organization will this evening hold a storybook reading along with other communities across the country, to support transgender and non-binary youth. The book is I Am Jazz, a children's book written by transgender teen Jazz Jennings, an online and television personality and youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Her book's intent is to introduce the concept of gender identity to young audiences. "It's a good way to start the conversation, expose people to different...
Wrangell’s wrestlers took third at Region V in Ketchikan over the weekend, and will be sending all seven of its students to state-level competition in Anchorage this weekend. The team brought six boys and one girl for the tournament, and between them took third place overall. Four wrestlers took championship titles for the region and the other three were runners-up. “Extremely good tournament for all our wrestlers,” Wrangell coach Jeff Rooney said afterward. “They were all standouts. They wrestled hard, and they wrestled smart.” JD Barratt s...
After volleyball's silver-place showing at State last month and as the wrestling team wraps its own season, Wrangell High School's basketball program is already practicing for its new year. After bidding goodbye this spring to its coach of 30 years, the boys team will be headed up by a new coaching staff this season. Cody Angerman will be replacing retiring Ray Stokes as head coach, and Graham Gablehouse has been hired as assistant coach. Both men grew up in Wrangell, and are familiar faces on...
A preseason forecast for next year's king salmon return to the Stikine River has come up worryingly short, boding ill for local fisheries. Released last week by Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the preseason terminal run size forecast for the Stikine River was at only 6,900 fish, less than half the lower threshold of the stock's escapement goal range. The Stikine EGR is between 14,000 and 28,000 Chinook salmon, and such a low forecast does not allow for an allowable catch under treaty...
A dozen members of Wrangell Swim Club joined swimmers from six other clubs around the region in Ketchikan earlier this month. Entering its second year of competitive swimming, the Wrangell group saw some first and second place finishes from its kids during this year's Mike Smithers Southeast Championship. There were 144 swimmers in all, coming from Juneau, Sitka, Craig, Haines, Petersburg and Ketchikan. Wrangell coach Bruce McQueen explained the meet is equivalent to the league's regionals,...
In an effort to curb roadside eyesores around town, Wrangell Public Works announced at last week’s meeting of the Borough Assembly its intention to allow people to dispose of their excess scrap metal for free through the end of December. The twice-extended arrangement was initially meant to last through mid-November, when a construction firm was expected to bring a barge to retrieve the city’s scrap. Channel Construction of Juneau had previously removed tons of the stuff earlier this April, in an arrangement where it charged no fees for the...
With a stellar conclusion to its 2017 season, the Wrangell High School volleyball team finished second at the State 2A Championships on Saturday. The team headed up early last Tuesday, practicing the next morning at Dimond High School. It was a crowded tournament, between the 2A and the mix-six. Teams were practicing two at a time on court throughout the day. Beginning play November 30 against King Cove, the Lady Wolves had already been preparing for their first meet. Whitaker said her girls...
At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Borough Assembly approved moving ahead with seeking a consultant on the hospital’s future, while members also learned city computers had been targeted by a hacking attack. A letter recommending hiring a consultant had been submitted to the city by the Wrangell Medical Center governing board last month. Currently the hospital is a municipal service, but recent cash flow troubles and sizable costs for a replacement facility have had administrators and elected officials alike considering other alternatives. A...
Before the Assembly’s regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday, members met to discuss legislative priorities for the coming year. City manager Lisa Von Bargen had prepared a draft list of items for their consideration, a summary of considerations and needs to be shared with Wrangell’s legislative delegation and its lobbyist in Juneau. “These are things that are most critical to the community, based on a number of issues we have dealt with around here,” she said at the start. With the Alaska Legislature scheduled to convene for its 2018 regular...
Creative programs at the high and middle schools will be putting their works under the hammer Monday evening in an effort to raise money for supplies. As with the schools’ four previous auctions, this year’s will precede their annual Christmas concert, with event patrons getting to peruse and vie over various works produced by students of the art and industrial arts programs. Sixth to 12th graders each submit something for the auction. Art teacher Anne Luetkemeyer explained close to 90 of her students from several classes have pitched in pie...
A final decision on the Wrangell Island timber sale is expected out next week, wrapping up years of deliberation and planning. Citing objections to the economics and ecological impacts of its preferred plan, the United States Forest Service has indicated it will be reducing total harvest for the proposed sale on Wrangell Island to around 428 acres, or 5- to 7-million board feet (mmbf) of timber. These would be sold piecemeal over the course of several years. Of five alternatives put forward, Alternative 2 had proposed around 55.8 mmbf...
A group of Wrangell’s wrestlers were able to make it over to Sitka over the weekend, finishing with several high placements and an injury. “It went well,” said Jeff Rooney, the team’s coach. After taking a weekend off to recuperate from some injuries and catch up on schoolwork, Wrangell started wrestling at Mount Edgecumbe High School on December 1 with a round-robin tournament. The next day weight groups went into competitive bracket play. “We had a few really good matches and some really good wrestling,” said Rooney. In the 113-weight...
After being kept away for most of the year while a petition for residency was processed, the Balansag family returned to Wrangell earlier this month. The Balansags – Vincent, wife Lynn, and children Jade, Lee and Chrysalis – have been calling Wrangell home since January 2011. They first moved here from the Philippines – an island nation off the coast of East Asia – after Vincent found employment at the local hospital, where he still works as a medical technician. His three-year work visa ha...
