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The Wrangell Port Commission passed a resolution last week that will prioritize Shoemaker Bay Harbor as the next renovation and replacement project for the Borough’s Harbor Department. Shoemaker emerged as the lead candidate for replacement after a March discussion by commissioners. They weighed the issue of whether Shoemaker or Inner Harbor would be next on the list. Before passing the resolution, resident Frank Roppel spoke to the commission about his feelings on the harbor project. “I wou...
Lucy Robinson is all about raising money for local causes – and staying in shape while doing it. Her most recent event, the XTRATUF Challenge, was a dirty affair with 15 participants getting muddy and wet at the city track to raise money for local woman Dawn Mathis to assist with her medical costs. “Dawn and her family are a big part of the community, having been here for a very long time, and I think it’s important to help out like this in a small town like Wrangell,” Robinson said. “We all...
The Thomas Bay Power Authority Commission met in a special meeting last Friday to discuss another counter offer by Mick Nicholls to the commission for the position of TBPA General Manager. Nicholls, who is still acting as foreman until today, said he is looking forward to taking the reins at the TBPA office. “My plan is to make sure that Tyee continues to run in a very efficient manner,” Nicholls said. “I believe that the GM’s job should be centered toward the plant and not toward the public....
The Lady Wolves and Petersburg’s Lady Vikings club team split a pair of games last week as Wrangell played their first matches of the 2013 softball season. At home to kick off the season, Wrangell won the first game on Thursday, April 25 by a 21-20 margin. Head coach Kathleen Harding said she thought the weather – which contributed to officials calling the game in the sixth inning – had an impact on the game and helped the Lady Wolves to the win. “For having mostly beginners, I think we played...
A failure by the Alaska State Legislature to include a regional ferry in their 2013-14 budgets may have a significant impact on a carrier serving portions of Southeast. Funding for the Inter-island Ferry Authority was not included in any state budgets passed by lawmakers during the 2013 Legislative session. After failing to get funding for the IFA system, general manager Dennis Watson released a statement to “assure” the public that avenues were being explored to maintain the current level of se...
Alaska’s state-owned ferries are scaling back costs by getting rid of the naturalist program on all but one of the 11-ship fleet this year. State officials say the program may eventually be brought back, but for now, the plan is to replace them with computerized equipment and brochures on the Alaska Marine Highway System, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In light of Alaska’s declining revenues and an unclear financial future, the state’s various departments were asked to bring expenses down by eliminating items that do not a...
Ketchikan Medical Center is poised to become the first hospital in the PeaceHealth system and the fourth facility in Alaska to implement the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge in its operating and delivery rooms. The SurgiCount system is designed to prevent retained medical devices being left inside a human body - one of the most common surgical errors. Studies have shown that sponges get left inside one patient in every 6,000 surgeries in the U.S. “We want that number to be zero,” said Patrick Branco, CEO of Ketchikan Medical Center. “By using this...
Senator Lisa Murkowski last week introduced the Alaska Subsistence Structure Protection Act of 2013. The legislation would limit the fees the National Forest Service could charge owners of private cabins on National Forest land that are used primarily for subsistence purposes. “It’s wrong for the Forest Service to charge subsistence users for owning cabins on National Forest land at the same rate as they charge commercial operators,” Murkowski said. “Subsistence is a vital part of life for many Southeast Alaska families.” There are roughly 6...
The sea otter population in Southeast has more than doubled over the last decade. Those are the findings of an estimate conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which are accepting 90 days of public comment on its revised stock assessment for the furry creature. The agency estimates there are more than 25,000 sea otters in Southeast, compared to more than 10,500 in 2003. The animals were reintroduced to Southeast in the 1960s after the Russian fur trade wiped them out early in the last...
After a nomination by Assembly member Ernie Christian, former Borough Clerk Christie Jamieson was appointed as the newest member of the Borough Assembly, filling the seat left vacant after the resignation of long-time member Bill Privett. Privett resigned earlier this month after informing the Assembly that he could not hold his position while a family member was seeking employment with the City and Borough of Wrangell. Christian was nominated and unanimously approved as the Vice Mayor, with...
With the Alaska Marine Highway System’s maiden ferry, the M/V Malaspina, making a celebratory tour throughout Southeast Alaska next week, the Sentinel is taking a look back in time at some of the events and stories that led up to the development of the system many Alaskans and lower 48 residents rely on every week. During the Malaspina’s docking in Wrangell, guests will be able to tour the bridge, dine onboard, and visit the gift shop for new 50th Anniversary items. The Malaspina will dock in...
A possible merger between two Southeast freight carriers has a Sitka-based firm looking to move to Wrangell. Samson Tug and Barge a family-owned marine freight transportation company has released a statement saying they plan to “expand their current service in Southeast Alaska pending a planned purchase of Northland Services, Inc. by Lynden, Inc.” Lynden has entered into a purchase agreement to buy Northland Services, a tug and barge carrier that provides service between Seattle, Alaska and Haw...
February wasn’t exactly the best month financially Wrangell Medical Center has seen, with the hospital showing a net loss of $184,124. According to WMC Chief Financial Officer Garth Hamblin, even though the hospital came in under budget for capital outlays, a downturn in revenue was to blame for the deficit. “For the month of February, total revenue charges was significantly under budget,” Hamblin wrote in his report to the WMC Board of Trustees during the group’s April 17 meeting. “Net re...
Sentinel writer When you look at a website, a business card, or just about any sign or graphical image you can imagine, you can expect to see information. That information is usually one-dimensional and does not extend beyond what you might see with your own eyes. A group of students from Wrangell High School are working to change that, however. An after-school “AVATAR” club led by WHS teacher Michele Galla has been working on developing a technology that will “augment” the reality of images...
For Jeff Rooney, Sr., a longtime employee of the Wrangell Public Works Department and head coach of the Wrangell High School Wolves wrestling team, getting up at the crack of dawn to clean our streets or work on an important project is just something he does – and has done for years – without any major recognition or awards. That changed last weekend as the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce held their annual dinner and auction at the Nolan Center. Rooney, who was nominated by a number of local res...
Michael J. Nicholls, who oversees the operation and maintenance of the Tyee Hydroelectric Project as the site’s foreman was offered the position of Thomas Bay Power Authority General Manager on Monday, April 15 – an offer Nicholls initially declined, then sending a counteroffer of his own. “The TBPA board finally made me an offer on Monday, April 15 which was so ludicrous it insulted me,” Nicholls wrote in an email to the Sentinel. “The offer would require me to take a 15-percent cut in pay, l...
The Shtax’ Heen Kwaan canoe group held a blessing ceremony last weekend for a canoe that will lead the dozens of participants from the One People Canoe Society into Wrangell during the Shakes Island rededication on May 2. The OPCS paddlers began their voyage to Shakes Island on Wednesday, April 24 from a number of communities throughout Southeast, with canoes coming from Yakutat, Juneau, Kake, Petersburg, Sitka, Prince of Wales, Hydaburg and Klawock. Nearly 50 members of the community were on h...
The Alaska Marine Highway System is celebrating 50 years of service to Alaskans this year. In light of this, the Wrangell Sentinel is looking back at the stories that shaped the development of the system, which began with one ship in 1963 and has grown to eleven vessels serving more than 350,000 passengers a year. It all began with the M/V Malaspina, when the first ship in the newly formed system docked in Ketchikan on Jan. 21, 1963. Three days later the vessel docked in Wrangell for the first...
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce has moved from their former location on Front Street to a new home at the Stikine Inn, in the office space formerly used by the Parlor Salon. Cyni Waddington, the office manager for the Chamber, said the move would allow more of the visitors who come to Wrangell to discover facts about the Borough, its businesses, and provide access to the Stikine Inn’s tenants and services. “The opportunity presented itself and we took it because we thought it would be a won...
The MV Taku will be available as a hotel ship in Wrangell for the Chief Shakes Tribal House rededication event set for May 2-4. The ferry will arrive at the city dock in Wrangell midday on Thursday, May 2 and will be available to provide nightly accommodations starting at 4:00pm. The vessel will depart Wrangell on Sunday, May 5, and checkout will be required by 11:00 a.m. No food or beverage service will be available on the vessel and the service schedule of the Taku will be held in a restricted status within the AMHS reservations system so...
A tersely worded letter from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office to Mayor David Jack is spelling out the Trust’s views on issues surrounding a timber sale near the former Wrangell Institute property. In the letter, Paul Slenkamp, who is a senior resource manager for the TLO, said that while his office and Alcan, the winner of the bid to log the area, will work to ensure viewsheds and water/wind quality, there are other issues which his office takes issue with related to recent public c...
If you ask Randy Oliver what is upsetting him most these days, he’ll tell you one thing. “I’m mad as hell,” he said. “And it has to do with theft of ferrous and non-ferrous metals going on at the city dump.” Oliver, who has had a contractual arrangement with the City and Borough of Wrangell since November 2009 for scrap metal removal across the island, said that metals which are valuable, such as copper and others fetching high prices, have been disappearing from the city landfill – and that...
The Wrangell High School Close Up group returned from a student government trip to Washington D.C. and New York City on Monday, April 8 with seven students and one adult. Close Up is a non-profit organization that exists to educate and inspire young people to participate in our democracy. The students spent five days in Washington D.C. and two and a half days in New York City. In D.C. they participated in workshops and heard from speakers like Jonathan Allen, POLITICO’s senior Washington c...
Two young ladies from Wrangell are making a difference through their art and a philanthropic streak that will help both locally and abroad. Sisters Jing and Sophie O’Brien were the winners of the joint Wrangell Medical Center and Alaska Island Community Services poster contest in the third through fifth grade category. With their win they took home the honor of having their art featured – and also a cash prize that will be utilized both in Wrangell and across the world in Nepal. The cash prize o...
With the stroke of a pen and a handwritten letter addressed to Mayor David Jack and members of the Borough Assembly, longtime member and Vice Mayor Bill Privett resigned his position with the quorum at their April 9 meeting. “Please consider this my formal letter of resignation, effective immediately,” Vice Mayor Privett wrote. “My grandson has applied for employment with Castle Mountain Entertainment and cannot be hired because of my Assembly position. Maybe again in the future I will be able...
