Sorted by date Results 725 - 749 of 1297
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...
Incumbents on the local Tribal Council seem set to return, according to unofficial results released Monday. Members of Wrangell Cooperative Association cast their votes on Feb. 3 at the new cultural center on Front Street. Turnout was slightly higher than in 2015, with 74 ballots cast rather than 71. This year WCA extended the vote to members aged 18 and up. Previously, one had to be 21 to vote. With four of eight seats on the Council up for election, positions would go to the candidates with the highest number of votes. Of four candidates...
Water quality concerns due to mining activity remains an issue for Southeast Alaskan communities, and recent moves have been taken by the state to address them. Last month the State of Alaska submitted a second draft for a statement of cooperation to British Columbia counterparts as part of the two governments’ ongoing talks on transboundary water issues. Submitted on Jan. 21, the pending agreement would be legally non-binding, but emphasizes the state and Canadian province’s commitment to maintaining water quality. The initial draft’s release...
The commissioner for the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development announced the state will be replacing its Alaska Measures of Progress (AMP) assessment. The exam was first administered during the 2014-15 school year, after being selected by the Legislature in 2012 to replace Alaska’s previous Standards Based Assessments test. Implementation of the test encountered some problems, however, and the exam proved unpopular with school districts across the state. “The commissioner felt that there was no sense struggling with this any...
Since Tuesday the Senate State Affairs Committee has been reviewing Senate Bill 128, and will formally be collecting testimony and public comment later today. The bill was submitted to the Senate by Gov. Bill Walker last month under the authority granted him by the Alaska Constitution. Addressing the state’s $3.5 billion budget deficit, it proposes a new financial model that the governor’s office says would stabilize funding for state services while also protecting the permanent fund. To that end, additional resource revenues would be dir...
At its end-of-month meeting Jan. 26, The Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a list of capital budget requests for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1. More than 50 projects costing over $140 million are listed and prioritized, with the city looking to the state and federal government to cover part or all of their costs. Economic development director Carol Rushmore and Public Works head Amber Al-Haddad started on the list, taking last year’s and updating its projects. Most of t...
