Sorted by date Results 635 - 659 of 1297
Power service went down to southern Southeast Alaska communities, following problems at the Swan Lake dam site on June 8. The hydroelectric dam is one of two major producers utilized by Southeast Alaska Power Agency, primarily servicing the Ketchikan area. This year an effort is being made to raise the dam, a $10 million project which will increase active storage by 25 percent and yield between 6,000 and 12,000 megawatt hours annually. A five-megawatt load bank being used during the project experienced a problem with its cooling circuit, which...
Wrangell's tribal government is continuing to cooperate with Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on its baseline water testing of the Stikine River. Initiated in November by Central Council's Native Lands and Resources Department (NLRD), each month two technicians have headed upriver to collect water samples, testing them for their chemical and physical properties in order to establish average conditions. This information eventually may be used in the management of these...
In a close vote the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a new fee structure for the community’s harbors and dock facilities. Already approved once on its first reading by the Assembly last month, the increases being put forward would institute a 10-percent increase to outside and inside dock face moorage, storage, port development fees and most boatyard rates. Those increases would also incorporate an anti-inflationary rise of two percent per year. Transient moorage rates have been rescheduled, shifting from flat per-foot rates to a s...
A consultancy returned with its draft findings for a feasibility study of developing Wrangell’s former mill site. A public presentation was given at the Nolan Center yesterday evening, following up on one given on Feb. 17. Washington-based firm Maul Foster & Alongi has spent the past several months assessing the Silver Bay Logging Company mill site at 6-Mile Zimovia Highway, a 110-acre property which the City and Borough of Wrangell has expressed interest in acquiring for future industrial development. “Overall it went positively,” said Micha... Full story
A former resident is finishing a book on Wrangell's famed garnet ledge, from which residents and visitors have extracted the precious gem for over a century. Trish Neal first moved to Wrangell in 1979, and the site's story quickly caught her eye. She decided she wanted to write a book detailing the ledge's history, but soon discovered not much was known about it. The process of researching and compiling the information needed for Neal's project subsequently stretched on for nearly four decades,... Full story
Five alternatives for a Wrangell Island timber sale were put forward by the United States Forest Service last week. On June 2 the project draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) was completed and put out by the Wrangell Ranger District, which manages the area. Of the four action alternatives and a no-action alternative being put forward, USFS expressed support for Alternative 2, proposing the harvest of 65 million board feet (MMBF) on 5,309 acres of land with the construction of... Full story
School may be out for the season, but kids can still keep up on their reading skills while picking up some fun gear with the library's summer reading program. Starting up on June 1, Irene Ingle Public Library's annual program encourages students to read books in exchange for tickets, which can be entered into drawings for a variety of prizes and cash drawings. The vast majority of the library's books for children about 80 to 90 percent of them have corresponding tests on the Renaissance...
After putting forward an operating budget to the governor’s desk late last week, the Legislature is now looking at a measure to restructure the Alaska Permanent Fund. In a special session called by Gov. Bill Walker, legislators were retained in the capital in order to pass a budget for the coming year. The budget they placed on his desk last week, a compromisory draft of House Bill 4001 and its Senate counterpart, SB 4001, remains largely unfunded. To remedy this, late on Monday evening the Senate passed SB 128, which would restructure the e...
The Wrangell Port Commission was tasked with solving a problem with access to the boatyard, after local sight-seeing operators were presented letters by the city asking them to stop driving buses through on tours. Gold Rush Tours and Alaska Waters were sent a pair of letters apiece from Borough Manager Jeff Jabusch, requesting them to discontinue tours through the Marine Service Center. This posed a problem for both outfits, as the yard had been included on the itinerary for tours which had already been booked through the season. Brooke Leslie...
Nearly $30,000 was raised by the hospital's foundation dinner and golf tournament on May 28. After covering costs, proceeds from the Wrangell Medical Center Foundation's annual fundraiser will go toward its cancer care and scholarship fund. "We did better than last year on the auction," explained WMC's development coordinator Kris Reed. At the Nolan Center on Saturday evening, auctioneer Steven Talbot led the proceedings, which included both a silent and live component. Guests bid on a number... Full story
A Wrangell resident brought back a number of top prizes from one of the world's largest muzzle loading shooting competitions. Don Roher was one of four men competing for Alaska's team at the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association's 25th annual Western National Shoot in March. Held just north of Phoenix, the week-long tournament drew 180 competitors from across the country and beyond. "These are the best of the western United States," Roher said. The state almost didn't have a team to send... Full story
Meeting in a special session last week, Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved a recommendation to the Assembly for changes to a local ordinance allowing for various classes of cannabis-related businesses. The recommendations follow several meetings the commission has held over the past couple of months to determine which activities licensed by the state would be appropriate for which zones. The memorandum approved on May 26 recommends updates to the city’s zoning regulations, which currently do not take marijuana processing or cul... Full story
The city power department has begun upgrading Wrangell’s power infrastructure, focusing on priorities approved by the Borough Assembly in March. The upgrades are expected to be part of a long and expensive process, estimated to cost between $3 million and $3.65 million over five years by consultants at Electric Power Systems. Fixes include replacing aging poles along Church Street, Case Avenue, Zimovia Highway and Cow Alley, and replacing the existing H structure and substation supporting the grid. “The guys have been hard at it,” said Wrangell...
After 48 years of service to the community, Wrangell's chapter of the Lions Club will be wrapping up its operations this summer. "It's a sad story," said Janet Strom, speaking for the club. "We don't have the membership and we don't have the volunteers that we used to." Perhaps best known for its collection and refurbishment of glasses, the Lions Club is an organization based around the premise of community service, which takes on different forms as needed from one to the next. Over the last...
At its May 24 meeting, the Borough Assembly learned of a possible development in the works for Wrangell’s Institute property. City Manager Jeff Jabusch explained he was currently in contact with the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), an accelerated learning program aimed at Alaskan high schoolers. ANSEP launched its Acceleration Academy in 2009, in part to address a longstanding problem Alaska’s university system has been experiencing with chronic remediation of incoming students. Compared to peers elsewhere in the cou...
An economic plan surveying the coming five years was adopted this week by Southeast Conference. The Southeast Alaska 2020 Economic Plan released on Tuesday looks at various economic and demographic trends in the region and lays out targets for improvement. The plan also highlights the importance of sound economic planning in light of impending cuts to federal and especially state government spending in coming years. The economic plan is the result of a year-long collaborative process in which more than 400 regional leaders were consulted....
Seven totem poles transferred this spring from city storage at the boatyard to Wrangell Cooperative Association's new cultural center have been identified. The Tribe contacted master carver Steve Brown, sending him photographs of the retired poles in hopes of shedding some light on their identities. Coming to Wrangell in 1984, Brown had learned the local style and had worked on recreating a number of local totems and wood pieces, and was instrumental in the restoration of the Chief Shakes House... Full story
As Wrangell High School prepared to send off 19 of its senior class last week, a number of awards and scholarships were distributed to students at a May 18 ceremony in the gym. "This is a phenomenal group of young men and women who are going off in all directions," school activities director Lisa Nikodym said. The 2016 class together earned over $130,000 in scholarships alone, and including grants, scholarships and unaccepted awards were offered $733,882 in all. Graduating senior Maleah Wenzel e... Full story
A draft for the Alaska Marine Highway System’s post-summer schedule was released last week. AMHS general manager Captain John Falvey Jr. reported the new schedule will be based on expected funding levels for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Presently, the ferry intends to run 330.2 operating weeks for nine of its vessels; the Taku and Chenega will both be on layup for much of the next fiscal year as cost saving measures. Entering its second year of inactivity, the Taku may be on the road to divestment. “We’ve announced this briefly,... Full story
Before its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening, the City and Borough Assembly was prefaced with a public hearing and special presentation on the coming fiscal year's budget. Following up on its first review of the FY2017 draft budget on May 9, finance director Lee Burgess was accompanied by consultant Paula Scott, vice president of USI and a long-standing professional associate of the city. Still weighing heavily on next year's budget is an expected 38-percent raise to Wrangell's group rate health insurance plan when the fiscal year beg...
After many months of preparation, higher rates for Wrangell's harbor and boatyard users passed a penultimate hurdle on Tuesday. The City and Borough Assembly approved on first reading Ordinance 917, amending the fee schedule for Wrangell's Harbor Department. The proposal will return to the Assembly for its second and final reading on June 14. Approved by the Port Commission at its May 5 meeting, the increases being put forward would institute a 10-percent increase to outside and inside dock face moorage, storage, port development fees and most...
On May 12 the Planning and Zoning Commission presided over a lengthy workshop and meeting meant to iron out which cannabis-related businesses would be appropriate for nonresidential zones in Wrangell. In particular, commissioners looked at the community's only such business being proposed, a mainly retail shop with small-scale cultivation and manufacturing capabilities to be opened in the old hotel behind the Diamond C Cafe. Restaurateur Kelsey Martinsen is already going through the state... Full story
An interisland ferry service startup has stopped again, after reporting trouble with its landing craft. After discovering water in the stern of the Rainforest Islander, operator Rainforest Islands Ferry contacted its customers last week to cancel reservations for the foreseeable future. On May 11, the ferry’s crew discovered water inside the hull. Closer inspection identified stress cracks on welds to the hull plating. Baker explained the engine’s shaft is slightly out of alignment, leading to the vibrations which may have caused the pla... Full story
With its last meeting of the academic year, the Wrangell Public School Board looked back on its progress as measured against its 2015-16 strategic plan goals. The plan started to develop in February 2015, with faculty and members of the community collaborating on ways to improve students' experience in four primary areas: academic achievement, technical education, safety and facilities improvements, and technology. "Everyone had a hand in the final product," school superintendent Patrick Mayer s...
After the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, Wrangell seems set to be permanently without a residential nurse at its Public Health Center due to anticipated budget cuts to the program. In March the Wrangell office’s nurse Ty Esposito retired from her position. At the time, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services had dispelled concerns that the office and another in Haines would be closed down. The nursing position for Haines’ PHC had been vacant since October. As the Legislature creeps ever closer to finalizing a budget for nex...
