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An arrangement has been reached in the case of a series of boat break-ins that took place late last fall at Heritage Harbor. On November 19 Wrangell police were called in to investigate several boats reported broken into during the night. A variety of items were taken and some damage done, with one vessel’s door being broken during the intrusion. By November 23 officers had located their suspects and a number of the missing items at an apartment near Inner Harbor, thanks in part to the a...
Petersburg played host to the region's budding artists at this year's Southeast Alaska Regional Art Festival, running from April 20 through the weekend. "It went well," said Ashley Lohr, Petersburg High School's art teacher. The community last hosted the festival in 2011. Thirteen high schools sent 102 students to this year's four-day event, much of which focused on honing artistic skills at an array of workshops. Eighteen 15-hour workshops were available to participating students, each of whom...
Wrangell Swim Club sent four of its junior swimmers to the Alaska Junior Olympics last weekend. Nearly 500 swimmers in 27 teams from around the state made their way to Anchorage's Bartlett High School for the meet. Among them were Kayla Meissner, Jack and Renee Roberts, and Nikolai Siekawitch from Wrangell, all of whom together qualified to compete in 22 different events. Swim coach Bruce McQueen explained the Junior Olympics is the state's foremost championship for teenagers and younger...
Muskeg Meadows drove into its first tournament of the year this weekend, with the annual Angerman's Best Ball Golf Tournament Saturday and Sunday. Twenty-two participants took part in the team-based tournament, running through a full set of 18 holes. It was sponsored by Angerman's, Inc. which donated drawing prizes players could vie for. A portion of entry fees went toward course maintenance and operations, with the remainder going in to the prize pot. Following Saturday's play, on Sunday,...
A group of Wrangell High School students blitzed two of the East Coast's premier cities last week, heading to Washington D.C. on April 21 and spending last weekend in New York City. Traveling as part of the Close Up program, the dozen students returned Monday morning, weary but well educated from the experience. "They're exhausted. We're all exhausted," explained Sarah Whittlesey-Merritt, who accompanied them as their program instructor. For 40 years the Close Up program has aimed to inform and...
Last weekend's 20th Annual Stikine River Birding Festival was not only a draw for birders hoping to see and learn more about the area's wildlife, but also was an opportunity for residents to learn more about them and others from around the state. Researcher Dan Ruthrauff, for instance, shared his findings studying rock sandpipers wintering in Cook Inlet. A wildlife biologist for the United States Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center, he spent several years at the inlet's icy tidal flats,...
At its regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday evening, the City and Borough Assembly revisited the water crisis that potentially looms over the coming summer. Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad reported efforts to “plunge” two of the plant’s four slow-sand filtration bays in order to clean them since last week showed promise. However, she was careful to point out that the method was still in its infancy, and only time and repetition would reveal how effective it actually is. Her plan is to plunge each of the filters in turn, repeating as neces...
Wrapping up the spring Chautauqua season at the Nolan Center this year, a Wrangell school senior presented the findings by her classmates and herself mapping the movements of Shakes Glacier. Located about 30 miles northeast of Wrangell up the Stikine River, the glacier is an oft-visited site by residents and visitors touring the river system. Its meltoff feeding into Shakes Lake, the glacier is part of the wider Stikine Ice Field, of which LeConte Glacier is included. Reyn Hutten this year was...
Wrangell Public Schools has adopted a final draft budget for the coming year. Meeting Monday evening at Evergreen Elementary School, the board voted to approve the third draft, which projects expenditures totaling $5,860,894. Attendance for the year is anticipated at 273 students. Costs since the first draft was put forward in February have come down by about $134,000 in expected benefits, due to lower insurance rates. “It's fairly straightforward, which is not always the case for the budget,” school superintendent Patrick Mayer explained. Som...
With the arrival of the Wilderness Adventurer on Tuesday, a sunnier outlook for the local economy breaks the clouds of Wrangell's off-season. The 160-foot vessel is operated by UnCruise Adventures in Seattle, and can carry up to 60 passengers. Early in the season, on Tuesday it was carrying 28 en route to Juneau. According to the latest cruise ship schedule, Adventurer will only be making the one stop into Wrangell this season, but its larger sister vessels Wilderness Explorer and Wilderness...
A number of Wrangell residents stepped out Friday for a bit of culture, partaking in a wine tasting fundraiser. Held at Rayme's Bar, proceeds from the 14-varietal sampling went to the local search and rescue (SAR) dogs program for Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department. The program currently enlists the services of three retrievers, named Katilli, Sage and Aspen. Katilli has been in service the longest, picking up trainings and certifications over the past three years. The dog has supported various...
Last week Wrangell’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program office issued an alert regarding potentially dangerous shellfish. Readings for butter clam samples taken from the south side of Zarembo Island earlier this month came back surprisingly high for saxitoxin, the root cause of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in humans. The Food and Drug Administration sets a safety threshold for consuming saxitoxin at 80 micrograms (μg) per 100 grams of shellfish. The butter clams sampled at Zarembo came back at 884 μg. As a contrast, the IGA...
In its monthly meeting the Wrangell Medical Center Board learned progress continues to be made in drawing up plans for a new hospital. Hospital chief executive officer Robert Rang informed the board that architects with Juneau firm Jensen Yorba Lott are still hammering out designs, following a site visit in mid-March. At the moment the contractors are trying to reconcile staff’s “wish list” for a future facility with applicable standards, minimizing the building’s footprint where possible. On the financial end, the accountant at BDO in Anchora...
The Borough Assembly convened in a special meeting midday Monday to change course on actions it took last week to curb water production issues this summer. Last Tuesday the Assembly approved moving forward with funding the redesign and installation of a new roughing filter system and purchasing fresh silicate for one of its four slow-sand filtration units at the water treatment plant. The intent was to address persistent clogging in the units from built up sediment, which was limiting the 17-year-old plant’s output such that it could not k...
Licenses for the cultivation and retail of marijuana were approved for a Wrangell applicant earlier this month. The Marijuana Control Board gave the go-ahead to the two applications during its April 4 and 5 meeting, put forward by Kelsey Martinsen of Happy Cannabis. The licenses are conditional, pending building plan approval from the Fire Marshal and local municipality. As proposed, the shop would be a grow and retail business just between First Bank and the Diamond C Restaurant. The shop would feature a store front, with 15 grow bays and...
Regional economic forum Southeast Conference is seeking out data on private sector investment for its annual report on the economy. The survey is supposed to only take three minutes, asking for general information on significant private project investments one’s business or company had made between July 1, 2016 and June 30 in Southeast Alaska. All individual survey answers are completely confidential, and will be reported in aggregate only. “We do this annually so we can get a better feel for what the private investment is in the reg...
Legislation advanced out of the House Resources Committee last week, which would allow municipalities to set their own rules to control trapping. House Bill 201 was proposed last month by Anchorage Democrat Rep. Andy Josephson. Under the bill’s language, municipal actions would be limited to preventing injuries to people and domestic animals. Municipalities could not limit reasonable opportunities for subsistence trapping activities, and could choose to exempt trappers from any trapping ordinances. In the sponsor statement, Josephson e...
The allotted 90 days of the Alaska Legislature’s 30th session has passed by with two leading bills on the coming year’s budget still awaiting reconciliation. The House last week passed a version of Senate Bill 26, which among other things allots 75 percent of Permanent Fund earnings to the state’s operating funds and ties earning computations to a market value model. The House version differed from that initially put forward by the Senate, notably eliminating an appropriation limit of $4.1 billion and reducing the draw from the earnings reser...
Wrangell's roller derby term held its last bout before the summer on April 8, heading over to Petersburg. The Garnet Grit Betties faced the Ragnarök Rollers at the local high school gym. The bleachers were pretty well packed with spectators, with about 170 people turning out for the bout. "We were super surprised and excited that such a large crowd turned out," said Ola "PolkaOlka" Richards, a first-year skater for Petersburg. Running a lean roster this year, Wrangell filled out its bench with...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly chose its new city manager on Tuesday, bringing to an end a search to replace recently retired manager Jeff Jabusch. Lisa Von Bargen, currently the community and economic development director for Valdez, was chosen for the position after meeting with residents and city staff last week. She has served in that capacity since 2001, and before that had served five years with the Valdez Convention and Visitors Bureau as its director and tourism manager. Continuing its...
Wrangell's junior swimmers competed in their fourth competitive meet last week, traveling to Ketchikan for the annual Spring Splash. Still in its first year, the Swim Club sent 17 swimmers to the three-day event, which took place over the April 1 weekend. The USA Swimming-sanctioned meet featured teams from Juneau, Petersburg, Ketchikan, Sitka and Craig, with around 100 participants in all. Wrangell's group participated in 71 individual events, and coach Bruce McQueen reported every swimmer...
Administrators for the Mental Health Trust Land Office last week finished off a series of meetings held to inform the public about an impending land exchange. More than a decade in the making, the exchange in question would be between AMHT and the United States Forest Service, involving nearly 39,000 acres of woodlands scattered across Southeast. The meetings coincide with bills submitted at the state and federal levels last month that would move the deal forward. Trust deputy director Wyn...
PETERSBURG – Petersburg was paid a visit by longstanding United States Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on Monday, part of a wider tour of Southeast that includes Ketchikan and Juneau. Extra chairs had to be brought into the Borough Assembly chambers to accommodate the audience, and people stood at the room's back and sides. Seated front and center, Young explained the session would be an informal way for people to give input and ask questions. "I'm here primarily to hear what's on your mind and w...
A survey being put out by Wrangell’s Parks Department will be digging into the community’s recreational priorities in the coming years. “With the current climate of our state economy and the increasing demand for our current facilities, we need to prioritize our tasks and goals,” explained department director Kate Thomas. She said a system-wide needs assessment would help the department focus in on what residents like – what parks they frequent, which trails they climb, the amenities they would like to see – beyond the programs and more easily...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its forecast for commercial salmon harvests this year, projecting a strong run of pinks for Southeast in 2017. If panning out as projected, the news should come as a relief to the region's fishermen after a disappointing 2016 harvest. The report details last year's commercial salmon season, which had come in about 30 percent lower than forecast. Alaska fishermen caught 112,500,000 salmon in 2016, of which 52.9 million had been sockeye and 39...
