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A patrol officer will be hanging up his hat and badge this week, after two decades of public service. Officer Terrell Courson officially finished with Wrangell Police Department yesterday. "I wanted to be a cop when I was a kid," he explained. His father had been a firefighter, but had dissuaded his son from pursuing a career in either that field or police work. "Eventually I went into the military." Courson served in the Navy for six years, primarily working as an aircraft technician aboard...
A pair of French travelers made their way down the Stikine River to Wrangell from Telegraph Creek using a homemade dugout. Both in their early twenties, friends Theophile Bouton and Karl Panchout have spent the past year exploring the Northwest, and their 11-day trip down the transboundary river was just one of a series of adventures. This part of the story begins in the Yukon, which Panchout hitch-hiked across Canada to reach from Quebec about 11 months ago. "I met a friend of my uncle there,"...
Twenty-four seniors graduated this year from Wrangell High School. A special commencement was held at the school gym on May 19, decked out with school colors, balloons and red carpet. All students in the year's class qualified for graduation this year, and many will be continuing their educations this coming fall. Together they earned a considerable number of scholarships as well. "That is quite an accomplishment, you guys," school counselor Kerry Nordstrom told the class at its awards ceremony...
Police were called in to Alpine Mini Mart early Tuesday morning, after being notified of a break-in by the store's alarm system. "So at about 3:30 this morning, the alarm goes off and calls us at home," Alpine manager Cori Robinson recounted. "The cop was here and called us, and told us someone had been here in the store." The intrusion was caught by the gas station's security cameras, with footage showing two individuals wearing ball caps and hooded sweatshirts approaching the rear entrance....
An area youth was seriously injured in a paddleboarding accident at Pats Creek late Sunday, and after being found by emergency medical technicians had to be airlifted out to safety. Sixteen-year-old Trevyn Stockton had been out on the water with two friends that evening. They were navigating Pats using paddleboards, similar to a surf board which the rider stands or sits on while using a paddle for direction. Heavy rainfall over the weekend contributed to high, swift water conditions. At some...
Residents are invited to attend a special presentation at the local clinic this evening, focused on understanding and treating addiction. Targeting problems with alcohol and opioids, Dr. Janice Sheufelt will lead the public presentation, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in the conference room at Alaska Island Community Services, a division of Southeast Regional Health Consortium. As the medical director for primary care across the SEARHC network, Sheufelt will explain the scope of the addiction problem facing Southeast communities, while also offering...
Wrangell Medical Center is gearing up for its 10th annual golf tournament and fundraiser dinner, proceeds from which will go toward several initiatives of its Foundation. Coupled with Saturday’s banquet and auction, the Brian Gilbert Memorial Golf Tournament is one of the biggest drives benefiting the WMC Foundation each year, with the weekend last year raising just under $30,000. The Foundation is the hospital’s philanthropic arm and in the past such weekends have supported two of the Foundation’s ongoing initiatives. One of these is its cance...
Ending its regular 120-day session without a budget plan in place, the Legislature was called back into its first special session of the year by Gov. Bill Walker. The body’s regular session expired last week, with unresolved questions on how to address a multibillion-dollar spending deficit. Led by a mostly Democratic majority, the solution put forward by the House consisted of an income tax with some cuts, as well as changes to the state’s oil tax and credit structure. Maintaining its majority in the Senate, Republicans put forward a pro...
The sounds of a couple dozen projects can be heard coming from Wrangell's Marine Service Center, as commercial fishermen, pleasure boaters and other mariners finish work ahead of the busy summer season. Activity at the yard has heightened over the past six weeks, harbormaster Greg Meissner reported, following a steady but comparatively slower winter. The uptick is normal, however, with a little fewer than half of the boats lifted at the yard through the year moved during this final fiscal quarte...
Senior students at Wrangell High School presented their end-of-year projects for parents, faculty and other passersby last week at the school gym. Twenty-four members of this year's graduating class worked on a variety of assignments to meet their core requirements. School activities director Bill Bradley explained the projects are self-driven, and encourage students to give back to the community as best they can. Projects are at least 25 hours each, which can be difficult to arrange when...
Wrangell’s Assembly mulled over a sizable list of capital priorities for the coming fiscal year Monday. There were 103 items on the list, which finance director Lee Burgess ranked from critical to moderate necessity. He recommended 20 of these requests be funded, 13 coming from the city’s General Fund in the amount of $594,000. Topping the list was an addressable fire alarm replacement for the Public Safety Building, as well as new heating system piping, roof repair and considerable siding repair. Together these four items would amount to $33...
The school district has begun advertising for a new principal at Evergreen Elementary School, after its board accepted the resignation of current principal Deidre Jenson on Monday. Once the school year ends, Jenson said she will be heading north this summer with her husband, Joel. “We’re heading to Deering, Alaska,” she explained. There, Jenson will be a principal and special education instructor for the Northwest Arctic School District. Two of the Jensons’ children have already graduated, while arrangements are being made for a third to rema...
By Dan Rudy Sentinel writer A Wrangell competitive shootist bested his own performance last year at the 26th annual Western National Shoot from February 28 to March 6. At the 2016 event, resident Don Roher took five different awards – a personal best – but this time around very nearly trebled that performance. “It was truly an amazing year,” he commented afterward. Hosted by the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility outside of Phoenix, Arizona, the competition is touted as one of the world’s largest f...
The next step in a five-year utility improvement process is wrapping up on Church Street. Work on Church Street’s power infrastructure is about one-third of the way through, Wrangell Municipal Light and Power superintendent Clay Hammer reported. “It’s the tough third,” Hammer added, serving the library and post office, as well as feeding much of the residences up the hill from them. Over the weekend the city collaborated with telecoms provider GCI to reroute the last of its cables on the street underground. The weighty cables have built u...
Wrangell Cooperative Association has created a new position for tourism development, hiring Rachel Moreno for the job. The move is one intended to better coordinate the Tribe’s participation in the visitor industry, a growing segment of the economy regionally despite declines in other sectors. According to state labor statistics, tourism accounted for nine percent of all employment earnings in Southeast for 2015. The sector made up about 17 percent of all jobs, and is currently the fastest-growing. About 500 average annual jobs were added last...
Troops were in town recently, decommissioning Wrangell’s National Guard armory on Bennett Street. Lt. Colonel Candis Olmstead of the state Army National Guard Public Affairs Office confirmed last week five soldiers from the 38th Troop Command, 297th Regional Support Group and Joint Forces Headquarters were in Wrangell on April 24 and 25. Additionally, on May 2 personnel from the Guard’s facilities and maintenance office were in town. Their purpose entailed the collection of materiel and disposing of unnecessary furniture and items. Once tha...
With the department heads scrambling to prepare budgets before the month’s end, rate discussions and spending plans seemed inevitable at the City and Borough Assembly’s Tuesday evening meeting. High up on its agenda was a continued discussion of the city’s residential and commercial water rates, which have lagged well behind covering costs. In light of looming supply problems (see water plant story), significant capital investments ahead for a new plant, and prospective development at the Institute and former mill sites, every penny count...
A pair of high schoolers announced plans to run for the crown in this year's Fourth of July Royalty competition. Each spring the competition raises funds for Wrangell's Independence Day celebrations, with candidates holding fundraisers and selling tickets. Last year's competition between Kyla Teat and Alex Angerman broke records, with the pair selling 126,408 tickets. Thirty percent of what contestants raise goes back to them as a scholarship, helping to pay for college or some other form of...
Staff numbers have been boosted for Wrangell’s ailing water treatment plant this summer in an effort to keep up with increased demand. Sedimentation has built up over the life of the 18-year-old plant’s slow sand filtration system, an increasing weight on efficiency, which last summer resulted in an emergency shortage of treated water. Measures to curb Wrangell’s usage were taken as a result, causing some disruption to the water-intensive seafood processors’ seasonal operations. Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad explained the plant was poor...
The city will be collecting a variety of household hazardous waste items this weekend at its waste disposal facility on Evergreen Avenue. Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad said the doors at the center will be open to residents this Friday and Saturday, where up to 200 pounds of items per household can be disposed of free of charge. Hazardous wastes being sought include various cleaners, sprays, waxes, solvents, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, fuels and lubricants – anything that cannot ordinarily be thrown into the garbage or p...
A relatively recent resident to Wrangell took a novel view of the place, in February self-publishing a fictional adventure set here. K.E. Hoover’s book West of North follows character Josh Campbell, a man who has come to Wrangell looking for a new start at life. He makes some new friendships – and new enemies – in the process, learning to live in the Alaskan wilderness. “It’s a thriller in addition to an adventure story,” Hoover explained. One of the characters is loosely based on his own father, Jack Hoover, a resident of Wrangell. ...
The month-long King Salmon Derby will get to a start on Saturday, the 65th in Wrangell's long-running competition. Wrangell's annual derby is organized by the Chamber of Commerce, and during its month long run draws close to 1,000 participants. Last year's grand prize winner was Malia McIntyre, who brought in a 46.7 pound king salmon toward the end of the derby. As with last year, first prize for 2017 will yield a $6,000 jackpot. Additional prizes for second through fourth place are $4,000,...
Bringing to a conclusion a writing grant received two years ago, local poet Vivian Prescott will be publishing a pair of works this summer. “The newest book that’s coming out in July is a poetry chapbook,” she explained. “So it’s small, about 30 pages. It’s more a hybrid so it’s a little bit of prose poetry. It’s called Traveling With the Underground People.” The subject matter focuses on the diaspora of the Sami people, a group indigenous to the northern parts of Finland, Norway, Sweden and nearby Russia. Though Alaska residents for about five...
Wrangell's elementary school gardening program is getting its future greenhouse off the ground, hoping to have it ready before next year's growing season. E.A.T.S. Garden program coordinator Jenn Miller explained the new greenhouse will be bigger and more efficient than the school's old one, a longstanding structure that has seen better days and is now being used primarily for storage. The high school construction class last year assembled the structure's framing, and this year a group of...
By Dan Rudy Sentinel writer Wrangell’s sole taxi service announced April was to be its last month running, making its final drop-off Saturday evening. Citing unforeseen circumstances, Northern Lights Taxi made the announcement late last week on social media site Facebook. It thanked Wrangell for its continued support over 18 years of business. “My husband and I have been looking to get out of the taxi business for the last couple of years,” co-owner Charity Hommel explained. She and her husband, Joe, had operated the service for a decade, takin...
