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The Wrangell Wolves very nearly had a win at Petersburg last week, during the Vikings' homecoming weekend. "We played I thought a really good game the first game," explained coach Ray Stokes. Starting the last set of regular-season games for the season, on Friday Wrangell opened up with the lead against the Vikings. The Wolves held their hosts to seven points in the first quarter, scoring 13 themselves. They maintained a lead all the way into the fourth quarter, but after a low-scoring, particul...
The City and Borough Assembly confirmed its selection of an interim borough manager to serve after Jeff Jabusch retires from the position March 31. He announced his plans to retire last September, putting an end to four decades of service to the city. In his stead, economic director Carol Rushmore has been named to serve as interim manager. As part of the arrangement, the Assembly agreed she will be paid an extra stipend for the months of March, April, and however long it might take for the transition to resolve itself. Funds would be paid...
The high school gymnasium was abuzz with activity late last week, as parents and students of all ages descended on the first annual Education Fair. Open to the public, the event drew in visitors with door prizes and refreshments, and drew their eyes to 20 different tables and displays that highlight what's going on with Wrangell Public School District. Presentations included the schools' Spanish and Tlingit language programs, migrant education, music and other arts programs, and the annual...
When Southeast Conference meets for its annual Mid-Session Summit in Juneau later this month, among the items high on its list for discussion is the structural reform of Alaska's ferry system. Southeast Alaskans have become dependent on the state's Marine Highway System since its establishment in 1959, essentially becoming their road network into and out of the region. It is a significant economic driver for the coastal communities it services as well, with an estimated impact of just over $103...
Five Wrangell swimmers joined athletes from 22 other Alaskan teams to participate in the 2017 Alaska Age Group Championship meet in Fairbanks over the weekend. The meet was the third that Wrangell Swimming Club has entered competitively since starting up last year. Previously, the youth program participated in events hosted by Petersburg in November and Juneau in December. “It was a lot larger than any of the other two tournaments we’ve been to,” team coach Jamie Roberts said of Fairbanks’ meet. Held inside the city’s public Hamme Pool, 378...
Wrangell’s peewee wrestlers hosted their counterparts from Petersburg Saturday. The Wolfpack Wrestling program sent around 36 kids to the mats, while the group from Petersburg’s Arena Wrestling rounded out the total number of participants to 90. Both programs focus on building skills for elementary age students, from kindergarten to fifth grade. While Wolfpack is a program of Wrangell Parks and Recreation, Arena Wrestling is an independent program organized by parents and volunteers. With so many children competing, matches at the Community Cen...
As the Alaska House and Senate continue to prepare budgets for the coming year, residents of Wrangell and Ketchikan were invited to their Legislative Information Office locations for a call-in session with Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-District 36). Meeting late in the afternoon February 23, 10 Wrangell residents and seven in Ketchikan tuned in for the representative’s pitch for House Bill 115, a proposal to reconfigure Alaska’s Permanent Fund along with revenue enhancements being sponsored by the Majority-led House Finance Committee. The bill calls for...
At its rescheduled meeting last week, the City and Borough Assembly approved a bid by the Stikine Inn to purchase adjacent tidelands for less than assessed value. Southeast Properties LLC, which has owned the hotel for a decade, proposed purchasing from the city 5,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the property's current boundaries. The assessed value of the site was at $101,200, based on estimated fair market value as of July 1,...
After meeting with one candidate in a closed-door session last week, the Wrangell Borough Assembly has decided to put the city manager position back out for advertisement. In the position since 2013, present manager Jeff Jabusch announced last September his plans to retire on March 31. Prior to that, he spent the better four decades as the city finance director. From a pool of 25 candidates a selection committee made up of Mayor David Jack, city staff and some Assembly members winnowed the field to four candidates. Of these, two dropped out...
The hospital approved a response to the Wrangell Borough Assembly regarding the future of its billing services contract. At an August 23 meeting, the city’s governing body asked that Wrangell Medical Center put together an assessment of its two-year contract with TruBridge, which took over billing services for the community-owned hospital the summer of 2015. The contract offered the company 2.2 percent of the transactions it processes on behalf of the hospital, with the intention of addressing its excessive accounts receivable and minimizing u...
A Wrangellite took part in the 44th annual March for Life, which last month made its way through the streets of Washington, D.C. Since 1974, the annual nondenominational march is held each year on or around the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which held that abortion was protected under the right to privacy in the Constitution. Opponents to the court decision have since met at the National Mall on about every January 22 since, marching from there to the steps of the...
Wrangell Parks and Recreation is looking to raise some funds and gather a few hands to spruce up the trail at Volunteer Park. Volunteer is the most popular public use facility in Wrangell, outside of the city’s ports and harbor system. It already got a bit of work last year, with two culverts added and some patchwork done to its trail surface. In laying down patches, the department used a different, smaller grade of rock, which proved pretty popular with runners. “We got a lot of positive response from the community,” said department head...
Wrangell High School's girls finished off the home stretch of their season with a pair of wins over Haines last weekend. On Friday the game began very much back-and-forth, with Wrangell leading 7-6 by the end of the first quarter. By the end of the second the team had extended its hold to 23-12, with Helen Decker landing six of eight free throws for the half and Anna Allen racking up 13 points. The team continued to outscore its visitors the rest of the game, with both teams scoring in the...
Wrangell’s high school basketball boys won one and lost one in a match-up at Haines last weekend. The boys played a pair of close games against the Glacier Bears. In Friday’s game, the Wolves followed just behind through much of the first half, with Haines up by two at the start of the second quarter. By halftime Wrangell had eked out a 22-21 lead after a seven-point quarter from Trent Stokes and points contributed by Tyman Teat, Jacob Hammer and Sam Prysunka. Riley Blatchley dominated the court offensively for the next 16 minutes, sec...
Women of a local service organization celebrated 30 years of its teddy bear program this Valentine's Day. The Wrangell chapter of Beta Sigma Phi (ΒΣΦ) continued its February 14 tradition of a dance and auction at the American Legion, with proceeds from the event going to purchase the plush toys. These in turn get sent to Wrangell Medical Center, providing a buddy for pediatric patients in need of care. For many years, ΒΣΦ supported the program in association with the Wrangell Lions Club, which...
A planned-for merger between two regional healthcare providers has been put on hold for two months. Alaska Island Community Services was to merge with larger organization SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) on February 1, but the consolidation will have to wait until April 1. The merger was formally announced last October, and heads of both organizations subsequently met with Wrangell officials in November and in January to explain the transition. AICS executive Mark Walker has said the move was needed due to growth in the orga...
Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a pair of conditional use applications for prospective bed and breakfast establishments at last Thursday’s evening meeting. For one of these, Linda Nore and Steve Thomassen want to operate “Mount Dewey Extended Stay,” a two-bedroom rental operated out of their home on Mt. Dewey Lane. They put in an application with the city on January 19 that would allow for the limited use, specifying no additional construction would be needed to make the transition. The request drew a number of neighbo...
At its 27th Annual Fundraiser Dinner on Saturday, the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce announced its honors list for 2017. There were five nominees for this year’s Wrangell Citizen of the Year: school board member and Wells Fargo Bank employee Aleisha Mollen; Sourdough Lodge proprietor Bruce Harding; Alaska Vistas operator Sylvia Ettefagh; Dr. Lynn Prysunka at Alaska Island Community Services; and Evergreen Elementary School secretary Renate Davies. Of the candidates, Prysunka was awarded this year’s honor, having served the community as a fam...
A new archiving station has been acquired by the local library, allowing the public access to digital scanning services free of charge. Irene Ingle Public Library was able to purchase its Knowledge Imaging Center largely through use of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Librarian Margaret Villarma explained the versatile system makes digital archiving very simple, and is easy on original materials. Documents are placed open, facing upward, and a digital scanner overhead...
Wrangell's springtime birding festival was acknowledged for its mindfulness and dedication to conservation. The Stikine River Birding Festival received the 2017 Mindful Birding Award from the Mindful Birding Project, which promotes ethical birding and conservation efforts nationwide. The award comes with a $500 grant, which was applied for by the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We wrote in and explained how we met their criteria," said Carol Rushmore, Wrangell's economic director....
In its first meeting of the new year, the governing board for Southeast Alaska Power Agency looked ahead to political reshufflings at the state and federal levels. Meeting in Petersburg February 8, members of the board learned from SEAPA executive officer Trey Acteson a change in administrations at the federal level could be useful to the agency’s future operations. For example, only two commissioners sitting on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – which licenses hydropower projects – remain in place since the swearing in of Presi...
Wrangell’s Port Commission gave its go-ahead to a tidelands purchase proposed by the Stikine Inn’s owners. Bill Goodale, who jointly manages the dockside hotel with his wife, Cheryl Goodale, appeared at the February 2 meeting to explain his proposal. He wishes to purchase from the city 25,450 square feet of submerged tidelands and 2,000 square feet of uplands to the north and west of the hotel’s current property line, with the intent of expanding and adding to the building. “We’re hoping for 30 rooms, plus retail space on the lower floor,” G...
The Volunteer Fire Department will be sending six of its members to Seattle next month, to climb a lot of stairs and raise a lot of money for cancer research in the process. Held this year on March 12, the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb is an annual event put on by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Washington and Alaska. Founded in 1949, the society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to researching and treating various blood cancers. About 1,800 firefighters from...
A new trooper has been selected to take the vacant Wrangell assignment, Alaska Wildlife Troopers confirmed this week. “We’ve had that position filled,” said AWT Captain Steve Hall. In October the Wrangell post was vacated with the resignation of Trooper Fred Burk. Burk had been stationed in the area about a year, following a push by locals and their legislative representation to retain the position, which had been under threat of reduction due to budget cutbacks. No trooper had been stationed in Wrangell through the spring and summer of 2015,...
Wrangell High School said its goodbyes to its championship-winning basketball coach during a special ceremony last week. Boys coach Ray Stokes announced last month his plan to retire after the end of the season, bringing to an end 30 years with the school program. As it was the boys' last home game for the year, a group of colleagues, friends and former players arranged a special tribute before Friday's varsity game. "I had no idea it was going to be the extent it was," Stokes recounted...
