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At last week's 21st annual Stikine River Birding Festival, increasing public involvement in conservation efforts was a strong theme. The festival's focus always centers around the diverse bird species found around Wrangell and the Stikine River, highlighting different ways for residents and visitors alike to understand and enjoy them. From birdwatching to outdoor photography, using them thematic in the arts or enticing birds to backyards with self-built houses and feeders, the birding festival...
Three athletes from Wrangell Swim Club competed with 450 other swimmers from around the state last weekend, participating at the Alaska Junior Olympics in Anchorage. Coach Jamie Roberts reported it was the second time Nikolai Siekawitch and siblings Jack and Renee Roberts have participated at the event, among the state's premier annual swimming competitions. "All three swimmers had great races, got to see old friends and make a few new ones, spent time with family, and had some fun adventures in...
The Federal Subsistence Board announced on Monday it will be closing its Chinook salmon subsistence fishery in the Stikine River this year due to low expected returns. Under the authority delegated him by the board, Ranger Bob Dalrymple of Wrangell's Forest Service district made the decision to close down the fishery. Preseason forecasts made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game informed the decision, with 6,900 king salmon greater than 28 inches in length expected to return. Management...
Next week the Wrangell Assembly is scheduled to parse over its line items and budget figures for the coming fiscal year. Bound drafts were handed out to members at their Tuesday evening meeting, to digest before a pair of sessions set for May 1 and 2. As it stands now, the biggest change to come from the upcoming budget effective July 1 will be consolidation of maintenance and facilities services under a new capital facilities department. Separated from Public Works, the new department would also manage major projects and grant implementation....
A five-kilometer run will be held later next month to benefit participants in this year's Special Olympics. Special Olympics Alaska is a state chapter of the wider program that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympian sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Its calendar centers around two main tournaments, the Winter Olympics in March and the Summer games in June. The organization also holds a fall tournament in September and a...
A directory aimed at assisting the community’s seniors has recently been put out by Hospice of Wrangell. Finished last month, the 2018 Wrangell Senior Resource Directory identifies various support services that could be of use to members of that demographic, running a full gamut of state, tribal, federal, municipal and private programming. The 32-page guide is exhaustive, covering subjects from emergency and safety to adult education, financial services, housing assistance, medical cost resources, nutritional aid, ecumenical counseling and l...
There's a new face behind the big desk at Wrangell Senior Center. Leeann Martin took over management at the local center on March 19, having previously worked IT for the school system. Originally from the Seattle area, Martin has lived and worked in Wrangell for five years. "It was mostly because I can use more of my skills in one place," she said of the recent transition. A certified nutritionist with a background in healthcare, Martin's duties at the center include handling its paperwork and...
Wrangell Public School District learned last week its secondary school principal, Bill Schwan, will be departing after the current academic year ends. His departure is the latest among the district’s top administrators. At Evergreen Elementary, school principal Gail Taylor tendered notice in January. She took off for Oklahoma earlier than expected, departing this week on Tuesday. Faculty member Therese Pempek will helm the school through the year’s end. After a search for Taylor’s replacement, the district announced it will be hiring Virgi...
Wrangell was last week granted a special economic designation by the state along with 24 other Alaskan communities. The Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development named the community as one of its new "opportunity zones," part of a federal program designed to drive long-term capital investment to economically distressed communities. According to the federal Treasury Department, Alaska has 60 low-income communities eligible for the designation. With the creation of the Opportunity...
The City and Borough Assembly met with a delegation of the state’s project leads and contractors associated with the former Byford yard cleanup. The purpose of the session was for the Department of Environmental Conservation to update the council about the ongoing project, the first phase of which had been completed in 2016. Sixty containers of the most heavily contaminated soil and debris – plus two containers of lead battery plates – were shipped off-island for disposal. Around 18,300 cubic...
A work session on the Byford monofill between the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and City and Borough of Wrangell has been scheduled for next week. Around 18,500 cubic yards of treated, lead-contaminated soil is slated to be interred in a designated monofill as the second stage of site reclamation for a former privately-run junkyard along Zimovia Highway. The former Byford yard had passed to the City of Wrangell through foreclosure in 2009. Already on the Environmental Protection Agency’s radar as a contaminated site, after pla...
Wrangell's emergency services were the recipients of the first-ever grant from the Walker Foundation, a benevolent fund established after the acquisition of Alaska Island Community Services last year by Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium. Governed by an appointed board, the Foundation supports activities that promote health and the welfare of the Wrangell community. "It's on a project by project basis. We currently have about $3.75M," explained Mark Walker, formerly CEO for AICS and...
Wrangell Cooperative Association began work on renovating new office space last week. Workers began knocking down walls and pulling up old materials from a multiplex apartment at the corner of Wood Street and Zimovia Highway last Tuesday. Sale of the two-acre lot had been finalized in December 2016, and architects have since designed what will be about 2,500 square feet of office space for the Wrangell tribe. President Richard Oliver of the WCA Council explained offices will be provided for the...
Wrangell’s annual birding festival is gearing up for a week of activities late next week. This year’s Stikine River Birding Festival will be the 21st, put on cooperatively each year by Wrangell’s Convention and Visitor Bureau and the United States Forest Service. Highlighting birding opportunities on the Stikine River, the event also encourages wildlife conservation and is an opportunity to hone new skills. “This year we’ve brought back more of the art and photo aspects of the festival,” said Corree Delabrue, an interpreter with the USFS Wr...
Sen. Dan Sullivan stopped into Wrangell for a lightning tour Friday, arriving on the morning jet and taking off that afternoon for Ketchikan. His visit to Wrangell was the first since being sworn in, making the community one of his campaign stops in October 2014 while running on the Republican ticket. On a brief break in the session, he had earlier in the week attended training for the Marine Corps Reserves before heading back to Southeast. "I really just wanted to get back to the community and...
The presses were on hold early Wednesday morning as Wrangell Public School District announced its decision regarding the next superintendent. The WPSD Board has selected candidate Debbe Lancaster for the position, who will begin July 1. The board arrived at its decision after a series of interviews and consultation with a selection committee. That committee, representing district staff, a parent and student, also had the opportunity to meet and interview the candidates. Lancaster has reportedly accepted the district’s offer, agreeing to a t...
Three finalists for the Wrangell Public School District superintendent position made a joint visit to the island earlier this week. Patricia Hutcherson, Debbe Lancaster and Bill Schildbach were the top three of eight candidates submitted for consideration by the Association of Alaska School Boards. AASB had been contracted by the Wrangell School Board to help hire a replacement to current superintendent, Patrick Mayer, who will conclude his time in the position at the end of the school year....
A pair of Anchorage-area students were able to take the trip of a lifetime last month, heading to Ecuador with their class on a service learning trip. Mother Kara Carey said her children, daughter Taylor and son Quinn, had been planning the trip for over a year, and had been able to go through a combination of fundraising, work and savings. A significant component of those funds had come from the community of Wrangell, primarily through a pair of fundraisers the Carey family had held during July...
The snow around Wrangell has at last abated, temperatures are above freezing once again and spring is in the air. Left behind in the sweep of this seasonal change, a winter’s worth of litter, rubbish and debris have reappeared along city streets and facilities, which several initiatives planned for this month hope to address. First up, this Saturday Wrangell’s annual community cleanup is being organized at Evergreen Elementary School. The site will be a staging area and meeting point for volunteers through the morning. Starting at 8:30 a.m...
Not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, safety procedures among city workers developed into a topic for discussion for the City and Borough Assembly. After delivering her regular borough manager’s report, Lisa Von Bargen took a moment to absorb additional input from members and answer any questions. Member Stephen Prysunka revisited a longstanding complaint about laxness among public employees regarding the use of seat belts and other protection while on the job. Examples extend to not wearing protective headgear at the boatyard, and rec...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced late last week the extent of its expected king salmon sport fishing restrictions for this season. The region wide closure to retention of Chinook began on Sunday, April 1, to last through the first half of the summer for some waters. Citing a poor preseason forecast, ADFG has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (see map) The lengthiest closure will focu...
An important roundtable discussion on the future of public health care provision in Wrangell is set for this weekend, followed by a community meeting Monday night. At the behest of the City and Borough Assembly, a steering committee made up of representatives of a half-dozen stakeholder groups is in the process of being formed. From the assembly itself, Roland Howell and Patty Gilbert will be joined by Dan Neumeister of Southeast Rural Health Consortium and Mark Walker from its Alaska Island Community Services clinic; Jennifer Bates and Olinda...
Wrangell Public School District has narrowed the field in its search for a new school superintendent. Current superintendent Patrick Mayer informed the WPSD Board in February his intention to move on after finishing out the current academic year. Since then the district has been working with the Association of Alaska School Boards to find a replacement. AASB had been the organization which had referred Mayer when he was hired in 2014. After working out a fee with the Wrangell district, the association put forward eight interested candidates...
The Chamber of Commerce’s annual king salmon derby has been cancelled, it announced last week, following emergency management orders issued by the Department of Fish and Game (see king salmon story). A tradition for over 60 years, initially the month-long fishing derby was to be pared down to weekends this year, given restrictions ADFG had at first countenanced that would have centered around the Stikine River’s mouth in District 8. The eventual orders released last Thursday were far more expansive, encompassing nearly all inner waters in South...
The Department of Transportation is finally able to get started on a major Wrangell road repaving project. Perforated by potholes, the borough’s Evergreen Avenue will finally be resurfaced and repaired, with pedestrian improvements and other fixes. The major project has been on hold for half a decade, surviving rounds of budget cuts to capital funding elsewhere in the state along the way. Two local right of way issues which had lately been holding up the project were wrapped up in February, allowing the project to finally move along. At last we...
