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A state seafood industry think tank is seeking value-added products for competitive entry. Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation will be holding its call for product for the 2018 Alaska Symphony of Seafood on October 6. The annual competition searches for new products for Alaskan seafood, hoping to encourage innovation in the multibillion-dollar industry. AFDF executive director Julie Decker explained that when the competition first started a quarter century ago it focused exclusively on salmon, in three different categories. In the years...
Venturing into Southeast waters this summer, Dr. Victor Stime of Spokane, Washington, plotted out a working retirement for himself. "I've been doing dentistry for 31 years," he explained. "I've been planning this for 20 years. It hasn't been too far from my mind for all of those years." He was inspired by Dr. Fred Bache, an Aberdeen, Washington dentist who has been visiting rural Alaskan communities in the Jenny-B since 1969. "We thought we'd maybe get the mantle passed on to us," said Stime....
Wrangell's City and Borough Assembly and the city's public employees union finally reached a settlement over a collective bargaining agreement last week, bringing to a close three years of negotiations. On July 13 Assembly members voted to implement a proposed amendment to the contract terms it had imposed the previous month, which had taken effect at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. The amendment was the product of negotiations between International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers...
The Tongass National Forest supervisor's office announced last week the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) and draft record of decision (ROD) for a prospective timber sale are now available for public review. Put together by United States Forest Service staff over the past decade, the Wrangell Island Project would open up federal forest for largely selective harvest. Five alternative plans were ultimately presented during the course of its design, with the one selected including the...
A full complement of events is being arranged for next week's Bearfest, the eighth held since the festival's inception. It was started in 2010 by Alaska Vistas operator Sylvia Ettefagh, in order to highlight Wrangell's robust bear population. One of the prime places to see the area's brown and black bears together in one place is at Anan Wildlife Observatory, a short jump south of the island on the mainland. Several thousand visitors come to the island each summer in order to visit the Forest...
A new administrator has been hired by Wrangell Cooperative Association, assuming the role last week. Esther Ashton was hired to the position, which had been created in 2015 in order to implement Wrangell Tribal Council’s long-range strategic plans and economic development initiatives, as well as manage its various grants and projects. Ashton has been a Wrangell resident for 13 years, having previously worked for Wachovia Securities in Elizabeth City, North Carolina as a financial advisor and business manager. She has worked for the Tribe s...
Wrangell’s utility users were advised last week to start being more conservative with their water usage, with the city going into the first phase of its emergency response plan. The plant which has treated the city’s municipal water supply for most of the past two decades has in recent years been having trouble keeping up with peak demand, which locally is during the summer. Ongoing problems with the aging facility came to a head last year, with a shortage prompting a declaration of disaster by the mayor in July and emergency conservation measu...
The Nolan Center is giving inquisitive locals someplace quiet to research, with Wrangell Museum staff setting up a station inside its office. Speaking Tuesday, Nolan Center director Terri Henson said the nook is now open to the public. It includes a cozy desk, a laptop computer, bookshelves and filing cabinets. It was set up by museum staff, and makes it easier for people to access their still-expanding digitized collection. "What we did was created a little research center," Henson explained....
Two weeks after the end of a public workers’ strike, a settlement may potentially be reached between the city and its employees. Unionized staff of the City and Borough of Wrangell on Monday voted to approve a package that would amend their current contract, potentially bringing to a close negotiations that have gone on for more than three years. Interim borough manager Carol Rushmore confirmed management at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 had forwarded the wage and benefits proposal, which would amend the contrac...
While Wrangell was preparing for its July 4 festivities last week, 17 miles away a fishing vessel had run aground in Stikine Strait. On the evening of July 3 the grounding of Deceptive C on some rocks was reported to the United States Coast Guard command center in Juneau. Cutter Bailey Barco was dispatched to the scene, confirming the vessel had run aground but reporting no injuries. Minimal sheening from three gallons of oily bilge water was present at the time, and the USCG worked with the...
It’s been a fairly good start to the summer for king salmon fishermen. The first opening of that troll season started on July 1, abruptly ending by emergency order just before midnight on July 4. The order was based on preliminary catch rate and effort data. “It looks like we did take the target harvest,” reported Grant Hagerman, ADFG’s region troll management biologist in Sitka. That target is 63,000 non-Alaska hatchery fish, as laid out by the Pacific Salmon Treaty signed with Canada. A total of approximately 26,000 Chinook and 550 landings h...
An arrangement made between the city and a Juneau contractor has freed up a considerable amount of waste storage space. Working between June 27 and July 2, Channel Construction loaded one of its barges high with scrap metal – everything from automobiles and industrial waste to white goods and spent equipment. Due to a combination of transportation costs and low commodities prices, the borough has been accumulating such materials for some time without a means to remove them. It has since been w...
Just averting a state government shutdown, Gov. Bill Walker signed into law an operating budget for the new fiscal year, which began July 1. The budget follows extensive negotiations between the largely Democratic coalition-led House and Republican Senate, whose majorities each offered differing plans on how to address Alaska's multibillion-dollar spending deficit. "The operating budget was an example of compromise, and an example of both sides not giving in and not exactly getting what they...
Towering over town as it does, Mount Dewey is just about impossible to miss while in Wrangell. The feature draws visitors about 400 feet up to its summit throughout the year, with a viewing platform there offering a unique view both of the town and of the surrounding islands. The quarter-mile boardwalk trail winding its way up to the platform also offers glimpses of the Back Channel, scattered muskegs and the industrial park. It makes for a short but active climb, and so has proven popular with...
A regional conservation group recently called attention to the prospective sale of a disused Canadian mine, and suggests the exchange could bode poorly for efforts to maintain water quality in transboundary rivers. The Tulsequah Chief zinc mine is across the Canadian border in British Columbia located along the Tulsequah River, a tributary of the Taku River. It has been out of use since 1957, and its critics contend it has since been a source of headache both for its past owners and for subsistence users along the Taku watershed it neighbors....
On Monday evening more than a month of hard work for two of Wrangell's July 4 Royalty candidates came to an end, with the year's queen and princess each crowned. Future high school senior Charley Seddon was crowned queen, after selling 46,463 tickets during the month of June. Named the celebration's princess, recent Wrangell High School graduate Hailie Davis sold 44,330. A tight race throughout, together the girls raised over $90,000 for the competition. A longstanding tradition for the town's I...
A strike called by public employees of Wrangell on June 22 only lasted a week, with workers taking up their posts again on June 29. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 had laid down its tools following a decision by the City and Borough Assembly on June 20 to implement a new contract after negotiations between the union and city's bargaining teams had reached an impasse. The two parties have been negotiating a collective bargaining agreement since the last...
In the middle of its run on television, a popular survival series on the History Channel pits a pair of Wrangell residents against the elements. Brothers Shannon and Jesse Bosdell form one team on Alone's fourth season cast. The show has seven pairs of relatives travel to the remote stretches of northern Vancouver Island, in the province of British Columbia. There each duo is separated by some miles in the wilderness, with the task of finding one another. Once reunited, the series' synopsis...
During its extensive Independence Day celebrations, Wrangell provides plenty of opportunity for children and adults alike to have fun. More than parades and fireworks displays, the event features a whole host of opportunities for good eating. One of its key highlights over the four-day weekend was the "Welcome Home Picnic" in Shoemaker Park on Sunday, for instance, giving reunited families and out-of-town friends the chance to catch up over a potluck, exchange some stories, and get their newest...
It was out of the workplace and into the streets for many Wrangell city staff last Thursday, as two dozen unionized workers began a strike over prolonged contract negotiations. The City and Borough has been negotiating for a new collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 since the summer of 2014, when the previous CBA expired. The process has at times been tumultuous, with court proceedings through the fall of 2016 being settled prejudicia...
With the public employees' union going on strike late last week, numbers have proven a key issue in the ongoing debate over fair compensation. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 – which represents 24 of the City and Borough of Wrangell's staff – has proposed a new collective bargaining agreement that would include a $2.50 hourly increase across the board for its member employees. The city's offer of $0.75 an hour's increase appears slight by comparison, but how muc...
In the week since the city’s public workers have gone on strike, the Wrangell Borough has had to work around the problem as best as it can. Twenty-four workers from eight different public departments are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547, which represents employees around the state. Beginning June 22, they walked off the job to protest the City and Borough Assembly’s unilateral adoption of a new contract two days prior, once drawn-out negotiations reached an impasse. (See main article) The two par...
The man accused of a spate of vehicular thefts earlier this month has entered a not guilty plea this week, and the case is expected to go to trial in August. Lief Cheyenne Bosdell, 20, appeared for his arraignment at Wrangell Courthouse on Monday. He had on June 9 been charged with seven felony counts of vehicular theft and three additional misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief. If convicted, the charges together carry a maximum jail sentence of 35 years and one month and up to $356,000 in fines. The alleged thefts took place in Wrangell...
With its abundance of mountains, seascape, wildlife and local color, Wrangell is no stranger to television. For instance, contractors at the Marine Service Center were featured on National Geographic Channel's series "The Yard," with episodes first being aired in 2016. Another show has shined a spotlight on the island this month, with BBC Two exploring the fish-out-of-water theme in "The Life Swap Adventure." The premise of the six-episode series takes residents from around the United Kingdom...
While more commonly Wrangell leaves a lasting impression on its visitors, one thought to leave his mark on Wrangell instead. With the aid of two chainsaws and assorted carving equipment, Denny Leak spent most of last week outside Wrangell Cooperative Association's Cultural Center as he worked on fashioning out part of one of the tribe's stored totems. Hailing from Kansas, Leak was up for a visit with his daughter, who in March began work at Wrangell Medical Center as a physical therapy...