Sorted by date Results 745 - 769 of 1297
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...
A vehicle lost control near Shoemaker Bay Monday morning and took out about 260 feet of chain-link fencing around a playground. In a pickup truck on Zimovia Highway northward toward town, a driver reportedly lost control after hitting a patch of ice and slid off the road. "Basically it was black ice," explained Chief Doug McCloskey of the Wrangell Police Department. A witness reported the accident at around 9 a.m. and the driver remained at the scene until police responded. He was cooperative,...
Wrangell High School's boys basketball team chalked up a pair of wins at home over the weekend. The Wolves captured the momentum early on in Friday's game, leading throughout the high-scoring matchup and finishing 92-62. Tyler Gillen led the team for points, scoring 26. He led for free-throws as well, sinking six of 11 attempts, and picked up three assists and three steals. Trent Stokes, Tyman Teat and Blake Stokes each scored 11 in the game, Dawson Miller had 10, Bryce Gerald eight, Sam...
The Lady Wolves took their first win of the season last weekend at Craig High School, scoring the winning points in the last few seconds of the game. Friday’s basketball game saw a lot of back-and-forth but low scoring, with the Lady Panthers ahead 18-15 at the half. Craig kept a slight lead going into the fourth quarter and looked set to beat Wrangell by one point as the game clock went into its last minute. A foul in the final ten seconds gave Amy Jensen the opportunity to make two free throws. Pressure on, she sank both and turned the score...
One of Alaska’s two primary insurers offering individual health plans has been restricted from continuing business in the state. On Jan. 28 the Alaska Division of Insurance announced it was limiting the business practices of Moda Health Plan, issuing a termination of impairment against the company. The division took this action to protect consumers after learning Moda has been experiencing “significant financial difficulties.” These include large operating losses, and inadequate capital and surplus compared to the company’s liabili...
Wrangell residents were rocked late Monday and early Tuesday morning as a storm system worked its way northward along the Southeast panhandle. Homes, businesses and facilities along Zimovia Highway were hit hardest as sustained gusts of up to 55 miles per hour or more buffeted the coastline. Work crews scrambled throughout the morning trying to remove debris and fallen trees from yards, streets – even homes. Power was down for parts of the island in the early morning hours, with an outage to t...
Members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association are encouraged to come vote on Wednesday, with nine candidates putting their names in for four seats on the Council. The open seats each carry a two-year term, going to the four candidates with the most votes. Those elected to the positions will be sworn in at the next scheduled meeting, on a date to be announced in mid-February. Current president Sam Campus and sitting members Arthur Larsen, Tammi Meissner and Frank Churchill Jr. will be standing for re-election. Timothy Gillen Sr., James Stough...
Wrangell’s hospital will be getting two new pieces of equipment for its laboratory. The Wrangell Medical Center Board approved the leasing of a chemical analyzer and blood coagulation analyzer at its Jan. 20 meeting. CEO Robert Rang explained the devices are crucial to the lab’s operations, accounting for around 90 percent of that department’s revenue. Operationally, the machines are essential for diagnostics, emergency services and the long-term care program, and also are used for Alaska Island Community Services’ screenings. The chemica...
Alaskan fans of cannabis are another step closer to being able to pick up the drug from their own neighborhood dispensaries. Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott filed marijuana establishment regulations in accordance with state statute. The regulations filing comes after the Marijuana Control Board (MCB) adopted the regulations package in November, which was subsequently approved by the Alaska Department of Law. A year prior, 57 percent of Wrangellites had joined other Alaska voters in allowing the regulated cultivation and sale of...
Meeting January 20, the Economic Development Committee began thinking about the next steps for its ongoing review of entitlement lands use. The City and Borough of Wrangell last April received management authority from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for 9,006 acres of properties in accordance with the state Municipal Entitlement Act. The act portions out a percentage of state lands for administration by newly incorporated municipalities, as Wrangell had done in 2008. Lands the Borough selected and the DNR approved include parcels...
Wrangell High School's girls basketball team was dealt another pair of losses over the weekend, hosting Metlakatla. During Friday's game, the Lady Wolves quickly fell behind Metlakatla's offense, which built up an early lead in the second quarter and sunk a number of hoops in the third. Wrangell was able to outscore the Miss Chiefs in the final but were unable to close the gap, finishing the game 35-57. The next evening Metlakatla was on fire again, taking the lead early on in the first quarter...
On the road at Metlakatla High School, the Wrangell Wolves basketball team took a pair of losses in its third weekend of the season. During the varsity game on Jan. 21 the hosting Chiefs led things off with a 15-6 lead in the first, building from there. The team gave away plenty of fouls in the fourth quarter, but Wrangell was unable to close in by the final buzzer, losing 41-68. During the game Trent Stokes led his team for points, scoring 14 and sinking five of seven free-throws. Caleb Groshong made 10 points, Sam Armstrong scored nine,...
After a public hearing and much discussion Tuesday evening, the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly approved a contract zone for light industrial use for a transportation office, storage and maintenance area requested by Wrangell Cooperative Association. The item had been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in December with several stipulations, including its review of a final site plan, the addition of unobtrusive lighting, exclusively indoor storage on site, and a 50-foot buffer along shared boundary lines. The property, the...
At its regular monthly meeting, the Wrangell Public School Board approved the purchase of a new phone system for its two campuses. Board members approved a $65,000 contract with AP&T to install the new system, which replaces the district's 71 phones with IP-based handsets and will include a one-year service agreement for parts and equipment. "The current system that we have right now, they say they can't support them," explained Matt Gore, technology director for the school district. The new...
Wrangell High School finished its second weekend of the regular basketball season with a win, splitting games with Haines on its visit last weekend. Playing Friday, the Wolves kept a close game with the Glacier Bears. Wrangell was leading at the start of the fourth quarter, but the final score hinged on free throws – Haines placed 10 of its 12 throws in the quarter, which with another 10 points put it two ahead at the last buzzer. Wrangell had the opportunity to win though, sinking only four of...
The community’s coalition for health and wellness organizations is looking for a new image. The Healthy Wrangell Coalition has announced a sort of logo contest, through which it hopes to make its activities more recognizable to the community at large. “We’ve kind of been operating under the radar for a while,” explained Kris Reed, with HWC. “Folks don’t really know who we are and what we do, and that we’re available for things like letters of support for grants.” Member organizations include Alaska Island Community Services, Wrangell Medica...
The workshop at Wrangell High School is humming, hammering and making all sorts of noise as students in the various fabrications classes work on a number of projects. Under the Wolf Fabrication umbrella, students of industrial technologies teacher Drew Larrabee have been learning to use a widening array of tools on and off campus. The humming comes from the new tech room, which Larrabee and the school's technology department set up inside the high school's old computer lab. The dust from the...
Members of the community were invited to the Wrangell Ranger District Office on Jan. 13, to meet and greet with some of the minds behind the latest proposals for the future Tongass management plan. The United States Forest Service is amending the current Land and Resource Management Plan for the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest in the country. Covering 16.7 million acres in Southeast Alaska, 3.4 million acres of that has been set aside for resource development. The purpose of the am...
Playing in Haines over the weekend, Wrangell’s Lady Wolves basketballers were not quite able to take a win, despite a close game Saturday. The Glacier Bears maintained a lead throughout the first game Friday, finishing with 58 to Wrangell’s 38. Among the Lady Wolves, Amy Jensen led the team for points with 12, followed by Helen Decker with nine. Teresa Flores scored eight points, Anna Dow Allen five, and Abby Armstrong and Abigail Gerald each had two apiece. On Saturday evening the Lady Wolves played a much closer game, bringing the score to a...
Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission concluded its discussion of entitlement lands at its Jan. 14 meeting. Along with the Economic Development Committee, the commission will use its recommendations as a framework for public discussion of possible uses for properties transferred to the Borough from the Department of Natural Resources last year. Just over 9,000 acres of undeveloped parcels were transferred, encompassing land at Thoms Place, Crittenden Creek, Sunny Bay, Earl West Cove, Mill Creek and other locations on and around Wrangell I...
Alaska's Legislature returns to work next week to begin its second regular session, and by far its biggest task will be to make the state's budget sustainable. Convening in Juneau on Jan. 19, legislators in the House and Senate will begin putting together budgets for the 2017 Fiscal Year, which will have to address a projected $3.6 billion spending deficit. Last month the office of Gov. Bill Walker released its budget plan, which proposes $100 million in net cuts to agency spending and $360...
