Sorted by date Results 720 - 744 of 1297
Monday evening’s meeting of the Port Commission was spent largely on discussing rate increases, with an hour-long workshop focused on moorage fees. The way harbormaster Greg Meissner figured it, stalls at the moment are not paying nearly enough for themselves, which will be a problem further down the line. At the present, dockside moorage fees are at a flat $25 per foot, a cost which has not changed for the better part of a decade. More than half of fees collected go into savings for deferred maintenance, which in turn gets used toward the purc...
Garrett Miller shoots from the three during Wrangell's game against Metlakatla on Friday. The Wolves lost to the visitors 30-44, but fought hard again in the next afternoon's game for a 56-52 win over the Chiefs. The team heads to Region V this week in Sitka, where they are set for a rematch with Metlakatla in the semifinals. Playing in Metlakatla, the Lady Wolves won both of its matches against the home team, 45-32 on Friday and 39-35 on Saturday. The girls finished off their season on a...
Wrangell’s Parks and Recreation Department will be changing up the fee assistance program, its advisory board decided. Meeting on March 2, the board examined the program since its redesign last year. “What we found there is, we are going to eliminate the option for people to get annual passes,” explained parks director Kate Thomas. With the pass rate increases which also took effect, someone applying for assistance could get upwards of $700 off of a family pass. The program only budgeted $1,800 to start with, so an application or two could take...
With a lot to learn about the state’s new marijuana regulations, residents met at the Nolan Center on Tuesday to hear what some of these entail from Cynthia Franklin, director of the Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office (AMCO). Because of a travel freeze at the state level, the city covered the costs for Franklin to come down. “I figured it would be good to have the person who knows the most to come down and explain it,” explained City Clerk Kim Lane, who invited her. Wrangell’s council had not formally formed a committee to approach the new leg...
Members of Wrangell Cooperative Association and the wider community were invited out to an informational workshop Tuesday night, introducing them to the Tribe's latest program. Alongside its Transportation and IGAP (see article inside) offices, the Subsistence Fisheries Management Program intends to improve quality of life and opportunity for tribal members, in this case through salmon restoration in traditional watersheds. Brian Ashton was invited by WCA to head the new program, which at the...
The environmental arm of Wrangell Cooperative Association wants to know which issues with wood fire heating have been getting residents hot under the collar. Its Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office held an open house discussion Tuesday to identify and discuss challenges related to household heating. “Essentially the goal is to gather information from people who burn wood,” summarized Chris Hatton, IGAP coordinator for Wrangell. Items she looked for include costs, efficiency, whether a household has dependable access to...
Continuing the next step in its development of the former Wrangell Institute property, the city brought up the master plan design team for a series of town meetings this week. Originally built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1932 as a boarding school, by 1978 the site was only intermittently used. The property was transferred to the City of Wrangell in 1995. The majority of the 134-acre property is undeveloped, forested wetlands, with potential for future residential use. The Borough Assembly...
At the height of the weekend’s Tent City Days celebrations, local skaters were able to lace up for Hope Community Church of God’s roller rink reopening on Saturday evening. Around 68 kids and parents attended, a number of whom donned glow-in-the-dark face paint and light-up accessories. The church last summer undertook some drainage repairs and replaced the rink’s rooftop with metal paneling, a $20,000 project. Built as an addition in the early 1980s, the building’s tarpaper shingles and rooftop framework were in need of an update. Wrangel...
Wrangell's high school girls won both games against Craig over the weekend, following up after a close win against Haines the previous week. Playing at home Feb. 26, the Lady Wolves overtook the visitors early in the second quarter, keeping ahead in a close game until the finish. Wrangell won their match 39 to 33, led by scorer Helen Decker with 13 points. The girls put down seven of 10 free throw attempts during the second quarter, giving them the edge they needed to win the game. Amy Jenson le...
The Borough Assembly received a disappointing update that plans to pave Evergreen Road this year have been delayed until at least 2017. The news came while the Assembly considered a proposal to amend the design contract for Wood Street improvements, which was previously expected to be bid ahead of the Alaska Department of Transportation’s Evergreen project. The city had hoped for efficiencies in equipment costs by having both projects undertaken at around the same time. First expected complete in 2013, the Evergreen paving project would r...
One of the unique pleasures of living in Alaska is being able subsist off the land. Much can be made of the opportunities to fish, hunt and gather various edibles, but some locals have decided to live off the land a little closer to home. A number of residents have taken to raising chickens, either for themselves or to sell, or a bit of both. Dave and Paula Rak have been raising them on their property now since 2000, and today the flock numbers at around 40 hens. "We started with just getting...
For the next month and a half the United States Forest Service is coordinating with the Nolan Center to put on their annual community Chautauqua presentations. Named after the town in New York where the practice originated, the Chautauqua harkens back to a brand of entertainment widely popular in rural America through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. How the Chautauqua is presented can vary, but generally it emphasizes community building through education and entertainment. The Wrangell Ranger District and museum have sponsored theirs...
Between Midnight Madness in December and the King Salmon Derby in April, Wrangell's annual Tent City Days celebration gives residents a reason to shake away the winter blues and have a little fun on the town. Put on by volunteers and area businesses, the four-day series of events will try to feature activities fit for kids and adults alike. The celebration kicks off tonight at the Elks Lodge with its second-ever chowder cook off, starting at 5 p.m. Whether corn, crab, clam or something else...
In the midst of rate increase talks and utility concerns, Wrangell’s Port Commission approved the renewal of three leases at the Marine Service Center during its Feb. 18 meeting. The lease lots of welder Chuck Jenkins, shipwright Tyler Thompson and contractor Steve Keller were up for their five-year renewal. Commissioners had previously approved Jenkins’ renewal in December at its $0.08 per square foot monthly rate. On Jan. 12 the Assembly decided to return Jenkins’ request for renewal to the commission, reasoning it might want to update lease...
Members of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors met for a brief monthly meeting Feb. 17. There were no action items on the agenda, only staff reports. Hospital CEO Robert Rang reported the Borough Assembly approved the purchase of new laboratory equipment last month. An equipment chemical analyzer and a coagulation analyzer will together be purchased outright for $135,000. The hospital board had initially approved leasing the machines, but Assembly members preferred to front them the money using an emergency fund it set aside last...
Wrangell residents gave their input about what they would like to see happen to the former Silver Bay Logging Company mill site, which the City and Borough is interested in acquiring and eventually developing for maritime and industrial use. One of the borough's first steps was to initiate a feasibility study of the 110-acre site, with a bid going to Maul Foster & Alongi of Bellingham, Wash. The bid was approved by the Borough Assembly in early November, funded through a $90,000 Department of Co...
Wrangell High School's boys basketball team kicked off the school's homecoming celebrations with a victory, striking a blow to their visiting rivals from Petersburg with the Vikings' first defeat of the season. The homecoming royalty was already crowned and supporters of both teams packed the gymnasium stands when players bounded onto the court Saturday night. Wrangell was tenacious through the first half, edging a lead at the first quarter buzzer and making good on a number of turnovers. By...
Local spending appears to have dropped substantially during the last holiday season. The latest sales tax figures collected by the City and Borough of Wrangell indicated that for the 2016 fiscal year’s second quarter – or from October through December 2015 – only $506,216 in sales taxes were collected, a 16-percent drop over the corresponding period the previous year. Sales tend to be lower through the third quarter than the second, picking up again during the spring and summer seasons. So in 2015, from January to March the city colle...
This year's planned expansion of one of its primary hydropower facilities weighed high on the list of priorities for Southeast Alaska Power Agency's governing board when it met in Wrangell late last week. SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson reported most of the major bids had been awarded for components of the Swan Lake dam expansion, a $10 million project which will increase active storage by 25 percent and yield between 6,000 and 12,000 Megawatt hours annually. A civil, mechanical and electrical engineerin...
After nearly a year and a half of legal proceedings, former Wrangell physician Greg Salard was sentenced to 20 years for the receipt and distribution of child pornography. Following a brief status conference the previous afternoon, on Feb. 9 Judge Timothy Burgess sentenced Salard to serve 240 months concurrently for each count, and to pay $25,200 in fines and assessments. If eventually released, Salard would be placed under supervision for life. Salard had been arrested at his Wrangell home in October 2014, following a five-month investigation...
Nationally, the country sets aside February to remember the civil rights advances won for African Americans by such leaders as Martin Luther King Jr. Other marginalized groups struggled for equality as well, and their efforts are likewise remembered. To that end, students at Stikine Middle School and Wrangell High School were invited Tuesday to remember one of the champions of equal rights for Native Alaskans. Elizabeth Peratrovich was a Tlingit activist who pushed for passage of the Alaska...
The girls basketball varsity and junior varsity teams came away with losses over the weekend, as Wrangell High School hosted division leader Petersburg for its homecoming celebrations. Friday and Saturday's varsity games played out similarly in terms of points, with Petersburg picking up leads early on and building from there. Wrangell finished each evening with 32 points, to the visitors' 61 and 63 points on Friday and Saturday. The team had some standout moments, with Helen Decker making...
A pair of entrepreneurs have begun to make their shared dream a reality, building and selling guitars using locally-derived materials. Wrangell resident Steve Helgeson and Kevin Skeek of Hoonah together launched Raven Guitars after winning a $40,000 entrepreneurial grant through Path to Prosperity two years ago. Initially the two were in competition with each other, having independently reached the final round with a similar idea to build guitars using local resources. Concerned they would...
Assembly members were given an update by the Alaska Court System on Tuesday about its upcoming lease renewal for courtroom facilities. Court administrator for Southeast Neil Nesheim explained he was there to let Assembly members and the wider community know what the stance of ACS was in negotiating its lease, so to prevent any confusion. Nesheim put it to them that ACS would like to pay less on its annual lease for the space provided. This was due to a combination of declining state revenues and diminished court activity in Wrangell since the...
The United States Forest Service has put out a preliminary project design for a mooring float at Anan Bay. Similar to a proposal shelved last fall after funding was reappropriated for wildfire containment efforts, the dock project would service amphibious aircraft. One notable difference is that it would now be designed to accommodate boats as well, a point of contention for some outfitters during the last proposal process. Wrangell Ranger District anticipates the dock would address moorage needs at Anan, a popular wildlife observatory it...
