Sorted by date Results 226 - 250 of 613
What do you get when a senior level management official at Trident Seafoods and a former Governor of Alaska who lives in Wrangell put their combined skills, efforts and desires together? You get a brand new set of netting for the driving range at Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. The netting, which will be installed in the spring, replaces an aging net that has seen service since the opening day at the course in 2001. According to Joe Plesha, Trident’s chief legal officer in Seattle, former G...
A new mayor, renovations to the Shakes Island Tribal House and Marine Service Center, and the ongoing Wrangell Medical Center debate – all of these stories were newsmakers in 2012. Let’s take a look back at some of the biggest stories in Wrangell over the past year. JANUARY A late night blaze destroyed a trailer and sent a woman to Wrangell Medical Center with severe burns on Dec. 22. The fire, which began at 10:30 p.m. in a small pull-behind trailer near the top of the park, severely inj...
An electrical fire in the fish tank at the James and Elsie Nolan Center caused smoke but did no real damage to the building or its artifacts early last week. The smoldering fire, which originated in the light ballast of the tank, began sometime before five o’clock in the morning on Sunday, Dec. 23 and created enough smoke that the Nolan Center’s fire detection system was triggered. “After the fire system was engaged, it sent a call out to the monitoring service in Juneau,” said Wrangell Volunte...
In the latter part of 1977, Keith Appleman began his career with the U.S. Forest Service and worked his way through a tenure that saw him rise to the top of his field as Recreation, Lands, Wilderness and Minerals staff officer for the Wrangell Ranger District – experiencing a life as a shepherd and caretaker of the forests we call our home and playground in Southeast Alaska. Appleman, who will turn 59 this month, retired from the Forest Service on Dec. 28. On New Year’s Eve he was joined by a si...
The Wrangell Wolves basketball team opened their 2012-13 season Dec. 28-29 and took two losses on the chin as they battled the Thunder Mountain Falcons on the home hardwood. Even with a 65-41 loss on Friday, senior captain Ryan Reeves led the scoring push for Wrangell with 11 points and going 1-for-6 at the free throw line. Junior Robert Marshall followed close behind with 9 points and shooting 33 percent from the line. Robert’s brother, senior Jacob Marshall, ended the night with five p...
The Lady Wolves basketball team proved a point last weekend as they showed a truism on the court; sometimes a wolf can outfox a bear. Wrangell did just that as they faced off against Juneau Douglas’ Lady Crimson Bears to open their 2012 season at home – and walked away with a pair of wins on the hardwood to start their march toward the Region V and state tournaments in March. After shooting, blocking and defending their way to a 36-22 victory on Friday night, the Wrangell squad, led by a sta...
When the residents of Petersburg and Wrangell flip a switch to turn on a light or push a button on an electronic device they probably don’t give much thought to where the power comes from – as long as the electricity keeps flowing. The power comes from somewhere close, tucked away in a picturesque river valley east of the Bradfield Canal, near the southeastern tip of Wrangell Island That place is the Tyee Lake Hydroelectric Project. It is a 20-megawatt power generation facility that sup...
Even with the drama surrounding the recent move by the Southeast Alaska Power Agency to end an operation and management agreement with Thomas Bay Power Authority, the manager of the Tyee Lake Hydroelectric project, TBPA has one silver lining among the clouds this month. In the early 1970s the communities of Wrangell and Petersburg ran on diesel exclusively – a costly proposition even in that decade. The licensing process and planning for the Tyee Lake tapping project began in 1974 and was undertaken by Harrison Western Corporation. The site, a...
Construction on the Chief Shakes Tribal House wrapped up on Friday, Dec. 14 as the rebuilding effort marked a major milestone with an open house and the official completion of work in an effort that took a year to finish and cost just around $1 million. The cedar structure, which was the home of Chief Shakes VII, the last leader of the Wrangell tribe, began its transformation in 2011 and has seen a brand new house rise in the place of the former. Todd White, a lifelong Wrangell resident, is the...
Negotiations between teachers in the Wrangell Public School District topped the agenda this week as the school board met for their final meeting of 2012 – and saw the board and teacher’s union exchange letters proposing the topics of bargaining to take place early next year. During a public work session before the regular meeting, union representative Michele Galla presented the membership’s letter requesting that a reasonable cost of living increase to the base salary be added over the next three years, a cost/benefit analysis of marri...
Coast Guard Sector Juneau command center watchstanders and a Good Samaritan assisted a fishing vessel reportedly taking on water in Snow Pass, west of Zarembo Island on Wednesday, Dec. 12. The Good Samaritan crew, aboard the 65-foot M/V Arik, was able to tow the 36-foot wooden hull trawler F/V Carrie Arlene to a cove on the north side of Bushy Island where they anchored and successfully dewatered the fishing vessel. The Carrie Arlene is harbored in Wrangell and at least one of the crewmembers lives in the borough. The Coast Guard would not iden...
Trevor Miller takes his shot in the 10-11 year old portion of the Elk’s Hoop Shoot on Saturday, Dec. 15 at the Community Gym. Miller took 1st place in his category with 13 shots completed....
The Wrangell boys’ and girls’ basketball teams made their season debut for the 2012-13 school year last weekend in Petersburg as part of the annual Little Norway Tournament. The tournament featured six other teams and the Wolves and Lady Wolves squads took part in their first year as competitors in the 2A conference – which means both teams will be in heavy competition with Craig, Metlakatla and Haines as the season progresses. While the Petersburg Vikings were the hosts, varsity squads from...
In addition to approving a bevy of capital projects that will likely come to fruition in 2013, the Borough Assembly added two new members to the Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board of Directors this week during their last regular session meeting of 2012 on Tuesday, Dec. 11. Before beginning the meeting in earnest, however, Desiré Shepler of Alaska Island Community Services made a community presentation to the Assembly on her speaking tour of Wrangell and Petersburg regarding the State of...
The Southeast Alaska Power Agency Board of Directors voted on Tuesday, Dec. 11 to hold off on accepting an operations and management proposal from D. Hittle and Associates which recommends the streamlining of operations and management at the Tyee and Swan hydroelectric projects under a single operator. SEAPA commissioned the report, which was released in September, as an alternative to current staffing and risk management solutions at both locations. According to the agency’s chief executive officer, Trey Acteson, the change in operating s...
Wrangell High School student Ben Florschutz works on a ceramic pitcher during his art class on Tuesday, Dec. 11. Florschutz later said the pitcher is a Christmas present for a very special family member who is currently in Utah....
The Wrangell Wolves wrestling squad finished their 2012 season at the 1A-3A state championships last weekend in Nikiski with Kurt Dingwall, Tanner Thomassen and Jeffrey Rooney, Jr. taking 4th place among the hundreds of wrestlers who traveled from across the state to compete. The Wolves also landed a top-20 finish in the tournament, coming in at the No. 13 spot with a total mat time of 14:13 and five pins. Bethel’s varsity squad took the top spot at the competition. Three Wolves wrestlers managed to complete the tournament while enduring the p...
The Wrangell Port Commission is having serious doubts about the technical and mechanical aspects of a hoist bid from an Italian firm that recently won in the bidding process for a new 300-ton lift to be installed at the Marine Service Center in downtown. Ascom S.p.A., an Italian firm that builds travel lifts for clients in Europe and has sold at least one model to a yard in the Gulf Coast, made the lowest bid for the machine at $1,315,000, while the Canadian-based Kendrick Equipment turned in a...
A group of 15 participants gathered last weekend at Wrangell High School’s wood shop to cut and form traditional wooden paddles for use in the rededication of Chief Shakes Island in May of next year. The workshop, which will produce 30 paddles to be used by Wrangell’s delegation to the event, was the brainchild of Shane Gillen and SEARHC natural foods specialist Ken Hoyt. “We had a pretty good turnout,” Hoyt said. “We had both Brian and Doug Chilton who are master carvers from Juneau and Angoo...
The battle over a laptop computer and iPad device are still at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the City and Borough of Wrangell against former Wrangell Medical Center administrator Noel Rea and six former members of the WMC Board of Directors after a hearing showed attorneys for both sides debating the merits of a settlement conference in the matter. A hearing held Dec. 6 in Wrangell’s First District Court seemed at first to be an opportunity for all sides and their attorneys – Rea, the six rec...
The City and Borough of Wrangell are talking about capital projects for 2013 – with a large emphasis resting upon utilities and other new projects in downtown as city officials and the public look ahead to a new year and new development. To that end, a workshop on proposed capital improvements for the borough was held Tuesday, Dec. 4 at City Hall, with Borough Manager Tim Rooney, and members of the Borough Assembly present. During the workshop session 12 priority projects were discussed as k...
The Lady Wolves basketball team now has a new head coach – officially. The Wrangell Public Schools Board of Directors officially hired Dane Vincent, an educational aide at Wrangell High School and interim head coach of the squad, on Monday, Nov. 26 during their special session meeting. WHS Activities Director Monty Buness said he is looking forward to a good season for the Lady Wolves under the tutelage of Vincent. “I think we have some great returning players that should be able to put poi...
For nearly the first twenty minutes – and a later part of the Nov. 28 meeting of the Wrangell Medical Center Board of Directors – concerned citizens spoke up during public comment about the credentialing of Alaska Island Community Services physician Greg Salard and included a pointed request coming from the doctor himself. Salard, who has not worked in the medical center since losing his credentialing in March when the former board, acting as a “fair hearing committee” made the decisio...
One of the most discussed items on the agenda of the Nov. 28 Wrangell Medical Board of Directors involved money – and how the hospital is faring financially headed toward 2013. A report from WMC Chief Financial Officer Garth Hamblin stated that the hospital is operating at a loss from the previous year due mostly to a $520,788.58 payment made to former administrator Noel Rea after his firing in June – and that the numbers in the most current audit of the hospital are slightly deceptive. “Total assets, as you look at the balance sheet and other...
An Anchorage man was sentenced to three years in state prison after being convicted of a September theft of alcohol from a bar in downtown Wrangell. Jeremiah Stanley, 56, was convicted of stealing two bottles of Captain Morgan Black rum and a single bottle of Crown Royal whiskey from the Totem Bar on Sept. 16 – all under the watchful eye of a new video surveillance system installed by bar owner Aaron Powell. According to Powell’s statement to Wrangell Police Department officers, he said that after being informed of the thefts he “looked throu...