Sorted by date Results 675 - 699 of 1297
Power went down across three Southeast communities Tuesday morning, after a downed tree cut lines in Ketchikan. “Evidently there was some wind or storm action,” said Clay Hammer, superintendent of Wrangell Municipal Light and Power. Three sections of transmission line were taken down in the Ward Cove area just before 7 a.m., and with them the entire connection between the three primary communities serviced by the Southeast Alaska Power Agency. The two Swan Lake units went down as a result of the disruption, as did the feed from Tyee Lake, which...
Work to clean up the former Byford junkyard site has proven to be a larger task than first thought. Though the contaminated property is owned by the City and Borough of Wrangell, remediation is being undertaken by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency Region 10. In the latest status update, released April 22, contractors NRC Alaska and NORTECH reported their crews had unexpectedly encountered a new battery cache buried on the property. Workers at the site have since characterized the junk yard...
Wrangell’s Public School Board approved a second draft of its Fiscal Year 2017 budget during a special session Tuesday evening. Several sizable changes were made to both its expenditures and revenues, reflecting previously unacknowledged items. Driving the change was a reduction of $53,871 to the district’s Foundation Support revenues, due to expiry of Wrangell’s “Hold Harmless” provision with the state. Hold Harmless addresses declines in a district’s size-adjusted ADM, temporarily increasing it where a district has lost five or more percen...
The Wrangell City and Borough Assembly passed a resolution supporting the Landless Natives of Wrangell, a group seeking recognition in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The resolution was presented for consideration at the Assembly’s April 12 meeting by Christie Jamieson, vice president of the LNW interim board. She explained the board is in the process of incorporating and establishing a formal board, which would then be able to represent local interests in the ongoing effort. The Act had awarded $1,000,000,000 and 44,000,000 acres...
A preliminary report for the investigation into the April 8 plane crash which killed three and injured another was released late last week. The National Transportation Safety Board found that weather conditions may have contributed to the accident, which involved a Cessna 206 airplane registered to Sunrise Aviation. The flight had departed from Wrangell airport at 8:10 that morning, heading for Angoon. It crashed en route on the southeastern end of Admiralty Island, near Pybus Bay. The plane was flown by airline co-owner Dave Galla, who the rep...
The Nolan Center was the site of a four-day workshop on tribal transportation last week, held collaboratively by the Alaska Tribal Technical Assistance Program Center (AKTTAP) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The Transportation office of Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCAT) hosted the event, which drew state, federal, tribal and municipal personnel. "Each of them presented a different opportunity for collaborative work," said Bill Willard, WCAT manager. Held previously in Juneau...
The Stikine Inn celebrated a decade under its current management on Friday, a stretch of time marked by an extensive remodel and plans for future expansion. Located on the commercial district’s waterfront, Bill and Cheryl Goodale of Southeast Properties purchased the Inn on April 15, 2006. At the time the hotel had just 15 employees on staff, aging amenities and an inefficient restaurant. In the years since, the hotel now employs 45 during its peak season, the last room is being renovated, and the same kitchen is now feeding three times as m...
Work to replace the city's ailing sewage pump system is on schedule, set to be completed just after mid-May. Drivers on their way to the laundromat and Reliance Harbor will have noticed workers opening up access to Node 4 at the intersection with Case Avenue, just outside of Rayme's Bar. The pump station there is one of two slated for replacement, and Wrangell Public Works will be taking the opportunity to overhaul both sites with new utilities and improved accessibility. New pumps means...
The community’s dialogue on how it wants to proceed with regulated cannabis continued on April 14, with a public workshop held before the monthly Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. While members of the public were invited to attend and provide input, the commissioners themselves were encouraged to start deciding what they want to see from the nascent industry. Adopted by ballot initiative during the 2014 elections, Alaska’s marijuana legalization process began taking effect in February. Licenses to sell, cultivate, test and man...
Though it has discussed the matter before, the City and Borough Assembly held its first public workshop fully devoted to cannabis since its legalization was approved by referendum. The Tuesday evening meeting was intended to get members thinking about current regulations, as well as to gather input from residents. “It's a discussion. No decisions will be made here tonight,” Mayor David Jack told the mostly-filled chamber at City Hall. Economic development coordinator Carol Rushmore had prepared maps of the city, roughly outlining the 500-foot d...
A passenger plane based out of Wrangell crashed on Admiralty Island April 8, during a morning flight to Angoon. Of the four onboard the Cessna 206, the pilot and two passengers were killed. A third passenger, Morgan Enright, 21, of Ketchikan, survived the crash. The United States Coast Guard and Sitka Search and Rescue transported her from the scene and she remains in critical condition in a Seattle hospital. Alaska State Troopers identified those killed in the crash as pilot David Galla, 60;...
A pair of skiers were successfully rescued Tuesday afternoon, after being stranded on a glacier for four days. Jennifer Neyman, 36, of Wrangell, and Soldotna resident Christopher Hanna, 45, had been dropped off by airplane on the Kenai Peninsula's expansive Harding Ice Fields for a day trip on April 8. The weather took a turn for the worse, preventing the pilot from picking up the two. “They were going to be picked up well before dark and the weather turned,” explained Barb Neyman, Jennifer's mother. Though only planning on a day trip, the two...
A Wrangell jury unanimously reached a presumptive death verdict in the matter of missing resident Brandon Peterson. Peterson, 38, had last been seen on or about Dec. 13, 2015, at his Thoms Place cabin. A welfare check had been requested of Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department. Fire service volunteers met with him that evening, and determined him to be intoxicated but otherwise fine. Another check was requested by relatives on Dec. 17, but Peterson was nowhere to be found. A more extensive search effort followed, at points using all-terrain vehicl...
Residents had their hands full last week, working out knots and weaving cedar into baskets as part of an extended class. Alaska Native Sisterhood Association sponsored the event, which was led by local weaver Faye Kohrt. Kohrt has been weaving since 1988, when she took a course on the art form with Dolores Churchill from Ketchikan. "It's not that hard to do," she explained. Bundled coils of cedar bark are briefly soaked in water to make them more pliant. Following a pattern and exercising a...
Alaska’s Board of Game adopted a number of changes for the upcoming regulatory year, which take effect July 1. Of local interest, the definition of spike-fork antlers was updated to read as “antlers of a bull moose with only one or two tines on at least one antler, a point or tine originating within two inches of the base of the antler and less than three inches in length will not be counted as a tine; male calves are not considered spike bulls.” The change was proposed this year by Wrangell’s Game Advisory Committee (AC) as Proposal 6. In its...
A three-stop interisland ferry is to resume service on Friday after a four-month hiatus. Rainforest Islands Ferry anticipates a 26-week run through the summer, connecting communities in Wrangell, Petersburg and on Prince of Wales Island. Launched by North End Ferry Authority last year, the service experienced a series of operational setbacks. There were delays in repurposing the Rainforest Islander, a 65-foot landing craft formerly used by a Haines lumber company. The circuit was bumped back from June to August, and again to September. It was a...
Port commissioners continued to wrangle over potential rate increases last week, holding a workshop ahead of its regular meeting on April 7. In particular, they looked at raising rates for boatyard haulout fees, one of the Harbor Department’s five sources of revenue along with moorage, lease lots, utilities and storage. Harbormaster Greg Meissner explained there were limited opportunities for revenue growth with utilities and lease lots, the latter largely being settled last month with the extension of five-year leases by the Borough Assembly....
Students at Stikine Middle School will be hosting a group from Colony Middle School in Palmer next week as part of a cultural exchange program. Humanities teacher Jim Brooks has organized the exchange on Wrangell's end, which is supported by the Alaska Humanities Forum. Its Sister School Exchange is an experiential program which promotes understanding between urban and rural communities through cross-cultural exchanges for middle and high school students. A teacher and five students from an...
Results from last summer's citizen science bat tracking program were presented at the Nolan Center on Monday. Since 2004 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) has been tracking the region's bat population. One component of this research has been the trapping and radiotagging of little brown bats, one of the state's seven identified species. The department also makes use of year-round acoustic monitoring stations and has begun to enlist volunteers to use acoustic driving transects. This...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly will hold a public work session on marijuana at City Hall before its regularly scheduled meeting on April 12. Clerk Kim Lane explained the 6 p.m. session will help the Assembly’s members get up to speed on current regulations, as well as where local zoning will allow for the various types of retail and production “They’re just trying to – since there are a few people interested already – they want to make sure they know what they’re doing before the state sends those applications back,” she said. Last month th...
The trails to Rainbow Falls and other popular Wrangell destinations will be seeing a number of improvements this season. The Transportation Office of Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCAT) has reached a government-to-government cost sharing agreement with the United States Forest Service to resurface and brush along trails for maintenance. The two entities have cooperated on similar projects over the past few years, with the transportation office undertaking restorative work on the Nemo Loop...
The Nolan Center and Wrangell Ranger District wrapped up its Chautauqua season last week, a recurring talking circuit they have cosponsored for 11 years. Community members are invited to spend an hour sharing a valued hobby or favorite subject with their neighbors, blending education with entertainment. Speaking on March 31, Bonnie Demerjian laid out the history of local rock art, which includes paintings and petroglyphs. Having published a book on the subject last year, “Rock Art of Southeast Alaska,” she began with an overview of the art...
Wrangell's Amateur Athletic Union girls basketball team passed through the season unscathed, after tearing up the court in Juneau last week. Team Wrangell was unbeaten through three tournaments this season, taking first in Ketchikan in January, at home last month, and during last week's tournament. The Mike Jackson Memorial Tournament took place from March 23 through 26, a busy event held at Juneau-area schools which saw a total of 130 games played. Wrangell's AAU program took 14 girls, enough...
With legislators currently working out a budget for the 2017 fiscal year, proposed cuts to public radio contributions have a numbers of stations turning up their dials. First hitting the airwaves in 1977, local radio station KSTK serves the Wrangell area. Like similar public stations, its revenue sources at the moment come primarily from three sources, with a third derived from federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting money, a third from the state administered through the Alaska Public Broadcasting Corporation, and the rest a combination of...
Wrangell High School’s cheer squad represented the region with Petersburg last week during the Cheerleading State Championship on March 23. The squad took second place during Region V earlier this month, qualifying for the state-level competition in Anchorage. “It went really well,” said Megan Clark, one of the squad’s two coaches. Along with Anna Hagelman, Clark signed up for the program shortly before the season began last fall. “It’s been interesting,” she said. “We had a lot of trial and error on how to handle things.” A gymnast and cheer...
