Sorted by date Results 912 - 936 of 1297
Staff working for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski stopped into Wrangell on Aug. 14, during a string of visits this month to communities in Southeast. Setting up a mobile office outside the post office, Phillip Dodd and Ben Cotter caught up with constituents during the Friday lunch rush. “We do it every year, in different communities,” Cotter explained. “It’s kind of a good way to reach out.” The pair staffed one of several mobile offices deployed by Alaska’s congressional delegation this month, whil...
Test results for shellfish compiled by the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office have been released. Working locally in partnership with Wrangell Cooperative Association, IGAP's primary mission is to undertake projects focused on addressing environmental and quality of life problems. On April 20, IGAP staff and volunteers collected littleneck and butterneck clams, cockles, horse clams and other commonly-consumed shellfish from three beach locations along Zimovia...
Area golfers teed off for cancer treatment last weekend, during Wrangell Medical Center's tenth annual Rally For Cancer Care Tournament at Muskeg Meadows. The yearly tournaments raise funds for the WMC Foundation's cancer care program, which assists patients with travel and lodging expenses as they seek treatment for various forms of cancer. Fifty-nine women took part in Saturday's tournament, which featured noncompetitive, fun challenges on the course. Twenty-one of the participants came from...
Wrangell's former head librarian recently received an appointment by Gov. Bill Walker to sit on his Advisory Council on Libraries. Kay Jabusch will serve on the 12-person council through the end of 2016. She will help coordinate the state's five-year plan to implement the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) slated to take effect after the current one expires in 2017. The LSTA provides over $150 million to state systems across the nation, with Alaska State Libraries receiving $2.4 million...
The Wrangell Medical Center Board last week announced it had narrowed the field for the hospital’s future executive officer from ten candidates to three. After meeting Wednesday morning, board members wanted to see more of Jeffery Lyle, Aaron McPherson and Robert Rang. Coming from Belton, Texas, and Kodiak, Alaska, respectively, Lyle and Rang will be brought to Wrangell for site visits next week, from Tuesday through Friday. Along with Wrangell resident McPherson, they will meet with hospital staff, Alaska Island Community Services p...
Wrangell’s Port Commission decided it didn’t “have a dog in the fight” over a tidelands purchase proposal submitted to it for review. Meeting Thursday, it had to consider an application by BW Enterprises to purchase 6,240 square feet of city tidelands adjacent to its property near the state ferry terminal. With tidelands purchase proposals, both the Port and Planning and Zoning commissions have the opportunity to make assessments and forward their recommendations to the Assembly, which has ultimate say in such matters. Speaking at the meeting...
A region-wide campaign is kicking off, so to speak, with opponents of British Columbia mining projects collecting as many pairs of Alaska’s ubiquitous rubber boots as it can. Once assembled, the mountain of footwear will be deposited on Gov. Bill Walker’s lawn later this month. Collection locations have been set up in Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau, and in Wrangell donation boxes have been set up at Marine Artist Brenda Schwartz-Yeager’s shop and other local stores. The campaign is being driven by Inside Passage Waterkeeper, a Juneau-based affil...
If you've ever recycled a can in Wrangell, you probably have the Lions Club to thank. Since July 2014, the club has collected four full van-loads of the stuff. Since 1968, the local chapter has been doing good in the community, supporting projects ranging from childhood eyecare to the annual Gold Medal basketball tournament held each March. A steady source of its fundraising comes from collecting discarded aluminum, which gets redeemed for cash when turned in for recycling. "It doesn't have to b...
The City and Borough of Wrangell is taking applications for this year’s borough-wide regular election, set for Oct. 6. Up for contest this year are two 3-year seats on the Assembly, currently held by Daniel Blake and Julie Decker. The two three-year Port Commission seats of John Martin and Clay Hammer will expire in October, as will the four-year terms of Dorothy Hunt-Sweat and Woody Wilson on the Wrangell Medical Center Board. Tammy Groshong’s three-year seat on the School Board expires in October, and there will be two other vacant sea...
Anan Wildlife Observatory is apparently the place to be in Wrangell, according to a recent survey. A study commissioned in June and released earlier this month by the Wrangell Convention and Visitors Bureau found Anan to be the city's most popular visitor destination. Travelers migrate to the area each year from early July to late August to view Anan's bears, which themselves have arrived to take advantage of what is Southeast Alaska's largest pink salmon spawning event. According to United...
As several major mining projects continue to develop upstream of the Stikine River, Wrangell's Native community formally observed the first anniversary of the tailings dam failure at Mount Polley mine on Sunday afternoon. A water blessing ceremony was held outside of the Chief Shakes Island tribal house, with those in attendance including members of the Tlingit and Haida tribes, a delegation of First Nations activists from Canada, and other concerned community members. The visitors included...
Various members of the Wrangell community were invited to the high school library Monday afternoon to meet with technical preparation program staff for the University of Alaska Southeast. Earlier in the summer the program’s regional coordinator, Kim Szczatko, set up a permanent office at Wrangell High School, which will expand its scope in Wrangell and other island communities. Presenting with her was the associate dean for UAS Career Education Programs, Pete Traxler. The tech prep program is a partnership program between UAS and local s...
Deer hunting season began for Alaska residents and nonresidents in much of the Unit 3 management area last Saturday, lasting through Nov. 30. Bow hunting on Mitkof Island and the Petersburg Management Area, hunting on the remainder of the Mitkof, Woewodski and Butterworth islands, and residential hunting on the Lindenberg Peninsula portion of Kupreanof Island all begin on Oct. 15, and are subject to other limitations. Outlooks for this year’s season for Sitka black-tailed deer are much the same as last year, with smaller harvests expected t...
Members of the Wrangell City and Borough Assembly were given some positive news about the community’s visitor industry at its meeting July 28, as the Convention and Visitors Bureau presented results of a recently-completed study of that economic sector. Representing the CVB, Brenda Schwartz-Yeager delivered a short presentation on the data compiled by Rain Coast Data, an analytic firm in Juneau which has run similar assessments for Wrangell and Southeast Conference. “It’s kind of a snapshot of our visitor industry,” she explained. The study f...
A special meeting will be held on Aug. 12 to allow the public to discuss and review a proposed ordinance relating to the new property tax payment due date. In May the Wrangell Assembly passed an ordinance amending the Municipal Code to establish a single due date for payment of property taxes to Sept. 15, rather than dividing it between two dates. Under the ordinance, interest on late payments was set to 10 percent annually. Mayor David Jack requested the Assembly revisit the matter at its meeting Tuesday, after some residents expressed...
The jury in the trial of Greg Salard found the former family physician guilty of two child pornography charges, for receipt and distribution. A lesser, third count was not deliberated by jurors. Judge Anthony Burgess presided over the proceedings, which lasted seven days. Jury selection began last week, and the trial included five days of testimony. Prosecutors finally rested their case on Monday, after the court heard from a federal investigator, arresting officers and a computer specialist. Evidence shown during the trial included screenshots...
On Sunday Alaska Native and Canadian First Nations groups will mark the first anniversary of the Mount Polley tailings dam collapse in a ceremony on the Stikine River. On Aug. 4, 2014, a rupture in the tailings dam servicing the British Columbia mine released billions of gallons of metals-tainted effluent into waters that fed into the salmon-rich Fraser River system. Earlier this month the mine’s owner, Imperial Metals, received a restricted permit from the provincial government allowing it to reopen Mt. Polley, using an alternate tailings o...
In fits and kicks, with each passing year technological innovations continue to change the way people live, work, recreate and perceive the world. Many of these changes can go unnoticed by the average consumer, like a slightly longer-lasting battery or the stapleless tea bag. Other technologies that have today become virtually indispensable only a few decades ago were conceivable only in the realm of science fiction. Smartphones are one such example, transforming the way Americans communicate...
Members of the Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) board’s special hiring committee met at the Nolan Center Wednesday morning to sort through a sheaf of resumes received over the preceding weeks. A replacement chief executive officer for the hospital is being sought, after interim CEO Marla Sanger announced last month she will not continue in the position after October. Her employer, PeaceHealth, issued a statement that it would not seek to renew its management contract with WMC after Sanger’s departure. Made up of members of the hospital board, the...
District 36 Rep. Dan Ortiz stopped into Wrangell over the weekend, both to enjoy some of the Bearfest 2015 events and meet with constituents. The Ketchikan Independent has put his first session under his belt after being elected last November. And it was an interesting year to start with, after an atypical pair of special sessions were called by Gov. Bill Walker as legislators struggled to pass a budget. “In this last session we were able to cut the budget by $800 million,” Ortiz noted. However, he pointed out the state is still left with a m...
Wrangell's annual Bearfest offers a unique opportunity each year for biologists, researchers, photographers and artists to come together for a common cause, and last week's event was no exception. With an international climate conference set to meet in Paris this November, it seemed appropriate that this year's Bearfest lectures revolved around climate change and its anticipated effect on bears and other species. Speakers were invited and an overall theme was arranged by Lance Craighead, a...
A good-sized crowd of over 100 people attended the dedication ceremony for the Wrangell Cooperative Association's new cultural center on Saturday. After a welcoming performance by the Shxat Kwaan Dancers, the building was consecrated by Rev. Wilson Valentine of St. Philip's Episcopal Church and cleansed with a traditional placement of cedar boughs by community members. "This is over a decade in the making," said Aaron Angerman, WCA tribal administrator. He expressed the Tribe's thanks for those...
Despite hectic midsummer schedules, the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Trustees was able to find quorum for its meeting on July 15. During his monthly report, finance director Doran Hammett informed the board that a consultant with company TruBridge was on site at the hospital, preparing for the transition of WMC’s billing services. The board and the Wrangell Borough Assembly last month approved a contract with the firm, offering it 2.2 percent of the transactions it processes. Though the two-year contract may cost $400,000, the transition i...
A pair of friends decided to undertake a unique adventure, traveling the 1,200 miles from Washington to Alaska by kayak. Luca Lezzi and Xander Fehsenfeld departed from their hometown of Bainbridge Island, Wash., in May. En route to their final destination in Skagway, they arrived in Wrangell on July 16, after journeying for 65 days. Lezzi, a junior at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, said he has harbored a fascination with kayaking the Inside Passage since high school. "I feel like I need...
The trial for Greg Salard began in Juneau on Monday. The former Wrangell physician faces three felony charges related to the possession and distribution of child pornography, following a five-month investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The U.S. District Court clerk’s office in Juneau anticipated the trial will last through the week, with Judge Timothy Burgess presiding. Salard was arrested at his home on October 15, 2014, with charges filed the following day. Citing this development and other financial obligations, S...
