Sorted by date Results 807 - 831 of 1297
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...
A four-day search for missing fisherman Kenneth Trammel ended Nov. 18, after his body was recovered offshore near Earl West Cove. Trammel, 53, had left Wrangell on Nov. 5 in his white 38-foot Bayliner, “Thalasa,” with hand trolling gear, and was scheduled to return five days later. He was reported missing to Alaska State Troopers on Nov. 15. Relatives were unsure where he had intended to go, and Trammel had not been seen or heard from after departing. Shortly after he was reported missing, Wrangell’s Alaska Wildlife Trooper Fred Burke start...
The United States Forest Service has released an amended proposal for its Wrangell Island timber sale. Published to the Federal Register on Oct. 27, the proposed action was modified to more accurately reflect timber volume data collected since the sale was first put out in 2013. A corrected notice of intent and additional materials were released earlier this month. Under the action proposal a number of different timber stands would be harvested across the island, from the Mill Basin area in the...
Wrangell Cooperative Association is looking for project ideas from community members ahead of a special stakeholders meeting planned for Dec. 2 and 3. WCA has developed the 2015 Community Needs Survey to assist in the endeavor, allowing Tribal members and other residents the opportunity to identify needs, projects or programs that would be of local benefit. The process is being spearheaded by Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, which has arranged for planners to be brought down for the meeting and has made funds available to prepare a...
Wrangell High School’s wrestlers racked up the victories during the Final Four in Craig Nov. 13 and 14. Five Wolves finished first for their weight class: Ian Jenson,126-pound; Sam Armstrong, 138; Darren Shilts, 170; Chet Armstrong, 182; and Caleb Groshong, 220. Orion Heller took second place for the 120-pound bracket, while teammate Roger Miller placed third for the 145. J.D. Barratt placed fourth for the 106 weight class. “We had a really good tournament,” said coach Jeff Rooney. Due to weather the team was unable to make it to Kake last...
The volleyball season has come to an end for the Lady Wolves, after taking fourth at Region V in Skagway last weekend. "It went alright," said team coach Jessica Whittaker afterward. The girls started off with a win, beating Klawock in four matches Friday. The team beat the host team the next day, but then lost to Craig. Klawock was the team to beat in a rematch for third, but the Lady Wolves couldn't quite pull off a repeat win. "We were not able to come away with a win," said Whitaker. Craig...
The upcoming pink salmon run is expected to be about the same size as that in 2015, according to this month's Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast. ADF&G predicts the 2016 harvest will be strong, with a point estimate of 34 million pink salmon. The forecast was produced by projecting the trend in harvest averages for the period spanning between 1960 and 2010, adjusted using 2015 juvenile pink salmon abundance data. Adjustments were made using peak June-July juvenile pink salmon...
Island residents were invited to an open house at City Hall on Nov. 19, where Wrangell officials and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities presented final designs for the long-awaited Evergreen Road improvement project. The project would rehabilitate the road from the Alaska Marine Highway terminal to 500 feet short of the airport along Stikine and Evergreen Streets. “It was a decent turnout,” said Chris Schelb, environmental analyst for DOT’s Southcoast Region. He was among the design team flown in to meet with resid...
Planning and Zoning commissioners lent their support to a proposal by Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Transportation Office for a special contract zone, which would allow it to build a combined office, storage and maintenance facility in a residential area. The 6.87-acre portion is just north of the Panhandle Trailer Court on Zimovia Highway, near its intersection with Case Avenue. Currently zoned for single-family residential use, WCA would like to be able to develop the property for light industrial purposes. Currently the T...
At 2:18 pm on Wednesday, following a search by the United States Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers, the body of an adult white male was located floating in Earl West Cove approximately 12 air miles southeast of Wrangell. The body was transported and positively identified as Kenneth Trammel by next of kin in Wrangell. The body will be transported to the State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy. The vessel has not been located. Relatives of 53-year-old Kenneth Trammel reported him missing...
Building on an idea fielded during last month’s meeting, on Monday members of the Wrangell Public School Board decided they will begin participating in “coffee meetings” held with the public. Scheduled for a half hour before their regular business, the sessions would give parents, teachers and other community members the opportunity to discuss educational issues, trends and problems with the board in an informal atmosphere. While no actions would be taken as a result of these sessions, they would open up discourse in ways currently unava...
Accustomed to their students scoring highly on standardized tests, Wrangell parents may be unsure what to make of results for the new Alaska Measures of Progress (AMP) exam, due for release before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. First administered in schools across the state earlier this spring, AMP was selected by the Legislature in 2012 to replace its previous Standards Based Assessments test. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (EED) reports around 72,300 students took part in last year’s examination. The AMP is a...
Wrangell’s power infrastructure may be on the blink if left as it is, according to an electric system study presented in June. Conducted by Juneau-area consultancy Electric Power Systems, the study identified a number of infrastructural needs Wrangell will need to focus on over the coming five years. The two largest problems it identified were the state of Wrangell’s utility poles and its backup power generation capabilities. Most of the borough’s utility poles have reached or surpassed their life expectancy. Fifty percent are more than 40 ye...
Communities around the country took time to commemorate the men and women this Veterans Day, and Wrangell was no exception. A pair of hearty dinners were served by local service organizations to commemorate the service given by its men and women. At the Elks Club on Nov. 5, the Emblem Club No. 87 hosted its traditional Veterans Day dinner. One of the few times the club opens its door to non-members each year, around 50 guests were served dinner – better than half of these were veterans, r...
A project to renovate the facilities at Wrangell's Shoemaker Harbor seems well-placed to receive state assistance, the Port Commission learned this month. Harbormaster Greg Meissner told commissioners at their Nov. 4 meeting the Tier I capital project being proposed to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) was ranked second for consideration, after a proposal by Kodiak. The DOT 50/50 matching grant program was first approved by the Alaska Legislature in 2006, and...
Wrangell’s advisory board to the Parks and Recreation Department is exploring options to boost attendance to its annual Tot Gym program, which is set to start Nov. 16. The program offers public playtime geared toward smaller children, with the community center opened several times a week through the season’s end in May. Changes to Tot Gym’s administration have brought about a significant decline in participation over the past two years, a trend the Parks Department would like to curb this year. In her monthly report to the board on Nov. 4, de...
At its monthly meeting for November, Wrangell's City and Borough Assembly put the lights out on a proposal to conduct an electric rate study, deciding it was too expensive. The proposal would have awarded a $24,990 no-bid contract to HDR Engineering to assess the city's capital requirement needs for the next five years, determining whether or not and to what extent it should alter utility rates. The firm conducted a rate study in 2010 for a similar fee, and at the time had recommended that rates remain as they were for the foreseeable future....
Students are getting a technological edge in the Wrangell Public School District, as emphasis is placed on enhancing or else expanding the use of technology in the classroom. To meet the district's information technology (IT) needs, this year two new full-time positions have been established. Cyni Waddington has been hired as the technology coordinator, and Matt Gore began as the school's technology director. Together they improve technical support for the district, fixing issues in-house and...
Wrangell’s high school wrestlers took 10th overall at the Anchorage Christian Schools Tournament over the weekend. Drawing teams from all over the state, Wolves coach Jeff Rooney explained the ACS is a good forerunner to State. “It was a phenomenal tournament,” he recalled. “Of course you know we met some head-on competition there. We had some tough wrestling going on.” Of the 350 or so wrestlers participating in the tournament, three of Wrangell’s nine students ended up taking third placements. J.D. Barratt took third place for the 98-poun...
