Sorted by date Results 789 - 813 of 1297
During a special meeting on Dec. 17, city staff and members of the City and Borough Assembly met with Wrangell Municipal Light and Power superintendent Clay Hammer to discuss looming problems with the island's power infrastructure. In a workshop, Hammer boiled down the findings of a system study concluded this summer which found four primary areas of concern with Wrangell's power system. The meeting was prefaced by intermittent power outages downtown throughout the day after Feeder 1 failed....
Last weekend Wrangell’s high school wrestlers took 10th overall at the Alaska School Activities Association 123A State Championships. The two-day tournament was hosted by the Bartlett and Chugiak high schools in the Anchorage area, and featured wrestlers from around the state who had finished in the top four spots of their regional brackets. The Wolves’ nine wrestlers together earned 64.5 points, putting the team 10th out of 65 schools competing. From among Region V schools, Sitka came in seventh place with 80.5 points, and Craig High School wa...
Around 20 local bird enthusiasts participated in this year's Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the 75th in Alaska and 116th held nationwide since 1900. Communities select a day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 to conduct a count, taking 24 hours to record as many birds as possible within a 15-mile diameter circle. The data collected then can be compared between years and across borders. Christmas counts occur in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, several Latin American countries and several islands...
The year’s end has been slow for Wrangell Medical Center, with patient volumes declining through October and November. In his report to the hospital board on Dec. 16, chief financial officer Doran Hammett guessed this was likely seasonal as fish processing came to an end and people began heading south for the winter. Figures were still up from last year, but revenue has nonetheless been impacted. “That slow-down is affecting cash flow,” he explained. Reserves have subsequently dropped from just over $800,000 to around $600,000 by last week...
Christmas was always one of the best times of the year for our family. Growing up on an Army base in Germany, the odds of having at least a few inches of snow in December were pretty good. School would be on hiatus for a few weeks, so my brother and I and our friends would make the most of the shortened days on the sledding hill behind our apartment block, a doubly sloping expanse with an enormous pear tree sticking out of it. The lot of us would trudge up and propel ourselves down again and...
With mining concerns looming upstream, a program through the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is anxious to define what's normal for Southeast Alaska's major transboundary rivers. The second round of water quality testing was conducted on the Stikine River by Central Council's Native Lands and Resources Department (NLRD) Dec. 9. "The reason we started this project was prompted by what's going on upriver in British Columbia," explained Jennifer Hanlon, an environmental...
Future use of borough lands at Crittenden Creek, Sunny Bay and Mill Creek should continue to be recreational in nature, Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission concluded at its regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 10. The entitlement properties were among those transferred to Wrangell from the Department of Natural Resources earlier this year, just over 9,000 acres of undeveloped lands on the mainland and surrounding islands. Planning and Zoning has been offering recommendations to guide future use of the properties along with the Economic D...
Wrangell and Petersburg utilities can be expecting a rebate this year from Southeast Alaska Power Agency. This summer the board approved a rebate of $1.5 million for member utilities. A formal award plan was presented at last week’s meeting in Ketchikan on Dec. 10, with $340,563 to go to Wrangell and $372,343 to Petersburg. The remaining $787,093 would be distributed to Ketchikan. Voting alternate and electrical superintendent Clay Hammer represented Wrangell at the meeting, and he explained the rebate was possible in part because of funds u...
Holding the first of its planned informal sessions with the public last Saturday morning, members of the Wrangell Public School Board learned it might also have to be the last. Resident and former school superintendent Woody Wilson stopped in to let the board know what it was doing seemed to be violating its own policies. Citing Board Policy 7320, he pointed out that minutes were not being taken and that the public had not been given due notice of a meeting. Under the parameters set out in BP-7320 and in BP-7012 regarding communication with the...
Wrangell's roller derby team has started their new season with a bang, coming away with a win in Ketchikan on Saturday. The Garnet Grit Betties beat the hosting Rainforest Rollergirls with a final score of 270 to 132. "We're really proud of the way we played," said Coach Shawna Buness, who rolls under the pseudonym "BabyCakes." The Betties started the match with a scoreless two jams before retaking the momentum, building an early lead and building from there. "Our team really pulled together," s...
Most of Wrangell High School's wrestlers will be headed to the State Tournament in Anchorage this weekend, after taking a number of top-four spots at Petersburg during the Region V Tournament Dec. 11 and 12. "We had a tough team," commented Coach Jeff Rooney. Nine students qualified with top-four placements in the regional tournament. "We've had some tough customers out there, some real high-end finishers," said Rooney. Chet Armstrong finished in first place for the 182-pound bracket, finishing...
First steps toward redeveloping the old mill site near Shoemaker Bay were taken at a special meeting of the City and Borough Assembly on Dec. 2. Assembly members approved a proposal received for an assessment and feasibility study for possible redevelopment of the Silver Bay Logging Company mill site, a 110-acre property currently in private hands. Along with the Borough’s old Institute property, the mill has lately been suggested as suitable for future expansion since its closure in 2008. While the 134-acre Institute property has potential f...
A special stakeholders meeting coordinated by Wrangell Cooperative Association and Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority determined jobs and affordable housing for seniors should be top local priorities. This conclusion was reached using the help of participants of last week's meetings and results collected through WCA's 2015 Community Needs Survey. Survey results found a lack of economic opportunities was the most important local issue. While the 60-plus respondents felt Wrangell's friendly...
The priest who had been serving the Roman Catholic parishes in Petersburg and Wrangell died over the weekend. Fr. Thomas Weise, 46, died Sunday evening, Dec. 6 at a hospital in San Luis Obispo, Calif., surrounded by family. He had been on a visit for the Thanksgiving weekend when respiratory arrest triggered a heart attack on Nov. 25. He was hospitalized, but never regained consciousness. Speaking at Wrangell's annual Dove Tree proceedings Sunday afternoon, Fr. Michael Galbraith explained Weise...
Wrangell’s high school wrestlers concluded their last regular tournament of the season strongly, with a couple of first placements and more than a few second- and fourth-placements in Sitka last weekend. “It went very well,” said Coach Jeff Rooney afterward. The Wolves’ wins put them in contention with Craig and Mount Edgecumbe for the 2A Region V Tournament this weekend, where individual wrestlers will have to land in the top-four of their weight classes to proceed to State in Anchorage next week. “We’re right up there,” said Rooney. “They’re...
The plan to build a memorial dedicated to Wrangell's mariners is now shovel-ready – organizers now just need to pull together the funds to buy the shovels. The Port Commission has been spearheading the memorial project, and accepted completed designs from Corvus Design's principal landscape architect Chris Mertl during its Dec. 3 meeting. "I'm really happy with the progress we've made," said commissioner Clay Hammer. "Stuff's about to get real here." A draft design was last presented to the p...
Members of the Tongass Advisory Committee (TAC) ended a series of meetings last week in Ketchikan, finalizing its recommendations on an updated management strategy for the country’s largest national forest. The TAC was formed 16 months ago to review the United States Forest Service’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for amending the current Tongass Land and Resource Management Plan. The management plan amendment is in response to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s directive in July 2013 to transition timber harvest in the Tongass...
With the advent of December, Wrangell's streets and storefronts have begun taking on a more festive appearance ahead of the Christmas season. The tree which serves as the centerpiece of the community's Midnight Madness celebration tomorrow evening was cut down, moved and re-raised at the Elks Club by Wrangell Municipal Light and Power on Monday. Despite gusts of up to 31 miles per hour, the work crew managed to trim and place the 54-foot Sitka spruce, which was harvested from federal forest at t...
Firefighters responded to an early fire on Thanksgiving Day. 20 Wrangell volunteers roused from their beds early that morning to answer an emergency call. A structure fire at a 6-Mile Zimovia Highway residence was reported to emergency services at 2:17 a.m., setting off emergency radios around town and sounding the fire station alarm siren. The first truck arrived from the substation at 5-Mile within five minutes to put out the blaze, which had started inside the residence's shop area....
Catholic parishioners of Wrangell and Petersburg were disheartened to learn the priest serving both communities has been hospitalized while visiting family in California. Fr. Thomas Weise, 46, was taken ill late Nov. 25 after experiencing cardiac arrest. As of Dec. 1 he remains in intensive care, and is in a critical but stable condition. Weise is the pastor at St. Rose of Lima parish in Wrangell and St. Catherine of Siena parish in Petersburg, splitting his time between both communities. He...
An interpreter with the United States Forest Service has received an award recognizing her work in the Wrangell Ranger District. Corree Delabrue was last month presented the Hakala Award, an agency award which recognizes sustained excellence in interpretive and conservation education for Alaska. She is the 24th winner of the prize, named after Bob Hakala, the first regional interpreter of the USFS Alaska Region. USFS Tongass interpretation program manager Faith Duncan explained award winners...
Two weeks into its Tot Gym program, Wrangell's Parks and Recreation Department expects some new equipment and other changes will have a positive effect. At the Parks Board monthly meeting in November, department director Kate Thomas brainstormed with board members and concerned parents about how to give the tri-weekly gym program a boost. The number of participants dropped from 1,058 for the 2013-14 season to a mere 164 for 2014-15. Thomas has said several changes that year probably contributed to the drop, including implementation of age...
Members of the Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department are rising to a national challenge to combat cancer, putting together a team for next year's Scott Firefighter Stairclimb in Seattle. Fire departments from around the world raise money for the annual event, sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Founded in 1949, the society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to researching and treating various blood cancers. Taking place on March 6, 2016, six Wrangell firefighte...
The hospital’s financial reserves continue to improve, the Wrangell Medical Center Board learned during its monthly meeting Nov. 18. Financial officer Doran Hammett reported the medical center’s coffers topped $1,001,000 by the end of October, equivalent to 36 days’ operating expenses. This was up from under $600,000 at the month’s start, though after payments made to Medicare, Hammett said the reserves were back to $729,000 by the time of the meeting. “It is certainly trending in the right direction,” he said. Deposits collected by WMC for...
Former Wrangell physician Greg Salard has applied for a new trial, ahead of his sentencing set for Dec. 3. In July a Juneau jury had found him guilty of two of three child pornography charges brought against him by federal prosecutors. In documents filed Nov. 16, attorney Steven Wells contended there were legitimate grounds for a new trial to be held, citing mismanagement by Salard’s court-appointed defender, Cara McNamara. Salard had been arrested on October 15, 2014, when a search warrant was executed at his Zimovia Highway home following a...
