Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 613
If all goes according to plan, the Wrangell Roads Improvement project should wrap up within the next 60 days – and Front Street should be reopened completely from the cul-de-sac to Case Avenue. According to project superintendent Mike Ashton, the plan to finish work on the utilities and roadway is seeing an accelerated pace to make their deadline. “As of right now, our substantial completion date is scheduled for Sept. 21,” Ashton said. “We are on schedule. We have a lot of work to get done by...
Thanks to uncooperative weather conditions, the first day of First Bank’s golf tournament at Muskeg Meadows was cancelled, but saw a rescheduled 18-hole and 9-hole event on Sunday, July 22. The event also featured 21 participants taking part in the 9-hole event on the front-9, and had 22 playing in the back-9. The 1st place team on the front-9 was Wrangell Golf Club champion James Brooks, and First Bank representatives from Ketchikan, Matt Hagen and Brian Slick. They took the top spot with a n...
Using what is called a “peremptory challenge,” attorneys for the City and Borough of Wrangell asked for and received an order changing judges in the borough’s lawsuit against former Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea and six recalled members of the WMB Board of Directors. The order, which was filed July 18, removes First District Court Judge Kevin Miller and replaces him with Ketchikan Superior Court Judge William B. Carey. Peremptory challenges are usually used in courtroom proceedings to rem...
Members of the Borough Assembly, Borough Manager Tim Rooney, and Borough Clerk Kim Flores will be spending time during the next few months engaged in an exhaustive review of the Wrangell Municipal Code. Flores, who is working closely with the group on the code review, said the process will take nearly a year and is meant to bring Wrangell’s codebook into compliance with Alaska State law and Title 29, which covers the operation of municipal government. The review committee, which is comprised of Flores, Rooney, and assembly members Don McConachi...
A report issued by the Alaska Energy Association, in cooperation with the research group Black and Veitch, has named eight potential locations in the Wrangell area that could be used for hydroelectric generation. The Southeast Alaska Integrated Resource Plan report states that Anita (Kunk) Lake, Lake Shelokum, Sunrise Lake, Thoms Lake and Virginia Lake could be looked to for future development of sustainable hydropower. The creation of a new dam at Tyee, or construction of a third Tyee turbine...
The rear wall of the Chief Shakes Tribal House stands completed, with adzed and stained cedar planks having been placed firmly in their spots late last week....
The City and Borough of Wrangell filed suit in First District Court on July 11 seeking to have an amendment to the employment contract of former Wrangell Medical Center CEO Noel Rea voided, and to order that Rea return a six-figure severance check paid to him after his termination by the board on June 20. According to court documents, that severance check, in the amount of $520,788.58, was paid to Rea via a wire transfer on June 21 – one day after the board voted 6-1 to fire him without cause. The suit, which names Rea, along with recalled b...
As current law stands, Wrangell has the highest municipal sales tax in the nation. An application by two Wrangellites to place a proposed taxation ordinance before the Borough Assembly could change that, however, by seeking to reduce Wrangell’s sales tax to 5.5 percent from its current 7 percent rate. The initial application for a suggested change to 5 percent, filed by Wrangell residents Ernie Christian and Rhonda Dawson, failed last week in part due to requirements covering initiative petitions under the Wrangell’s Municipal Code. Chr...
A former manager at Chugach Electric Association in Anchorage has been tapped as the new head of the Southeast Alaska Power Agency. SEAPA’s Board of Directors hired Trey Acteson as their new Chief Executive Officer at the agency, which provides hydroelectric power to the communities of Petersburg, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. Acteson joins the organization after 11 years with Chugach and will start his new position on August 20. He will be based in Ketchikan. Jeremy Maxand, the chairman of SEAPA’s board said he is confident Acteson is the rig...
A group of youngsters have fun swimming and squirting each other with water guns at a beach on Zimovia Strait last week – on a day when temperatures rose to the mid-70s....
The artistry and musical magic of duo Tuck and Patti Andress will be at the forefront of the entertainment available to Wrangell during the 2012 Bearfest celebration – with two performances July 27-28 at the Nolan Center. With a string of 14 albums, including a major-label release on Epic Records, and a career spanning more than 30 years, the pair still tour relentlessly with their unique style of Tuck’s guitar-oriented jazz and Patti’s lilting vocals. Tuck, a guitar phenomenon and native of Ok...
Household pets, whether they be furry, adorable cats, or dogs – man’s best friend – need love, care, consideration and, most of all, homes that want them. When these animals find themselves unwanted or astray in Wrangell there is a safety net for them, courtesy of Delores Klinke and her St. Frances Animal Rescue operation on Graves Drive near 3.2 Mile Zimovia Highway. Klinke’s rescue service has been in operation for four years and is the busiest during the summer months. The motivation behind...
The Wrangell Ranger District and U.S. Forest Service kicked off their “Nature Detectives” program last week with a pair of youngsters joining USFS interpreters Cory Delabrue and MiKayla Stokes for a trip through the muskeg. The day trip, which included Michaela and Samantha Moran of Mesa, Ariz., began at Volunteer Park and extended through the muskeg on the east side of Ishiyama Drive – and was intended to show the varied insects, flora and other natural wonders that abound in the marshy groun...
While the Wrangell Medical Center is currently in a transitional phase, having lost 8 of the 9 members of the WMC Board of Directors, and with the dismissal of former CEO Noel Rea, the day-to-day operation of the hospital is running at full-speed-ahead under interim CEO Olinda White. White, who took over as CEO after the June 20 firing of Rea, said maintaining excellent patient care, and working on staffing and training issues are at the forefront of her mind. “We’re really busy right now trying to center everything we do on patient care, qua...
Alaska Airlines and Muskeg Meadows golf course held their largest tournament of the year last weekend with an 18-hole drop-out scramble on Saturday and a 9-hole event on Sunday. Despite a weather forecast calling for rain showers most of the day, the morning clouds burned off and temperatures topped a comfortable 70 degrees for 53 participants who took part in the tournament on Saturday. Scott Habberstad, the Director of Sales and Marketing for the airline, said the tournament was great – even t...
For patrons of Muskeg Meadows golf course, at least three fairways are interfering in their game – courtesy of the ubiquitous ravens seen throughout Wrangell Island. According to course co-manager Shannon Booker, flocks of up to 50 ravens at one time have been digging into the fairway looking for grubs and other insects on which to feed. The result has been a tremendous upheaval of grass leading to No. 3, 4 and 5 holes, as well as minor damage to every other hole except Nos. 1 and 9. It’s in...
Wrangellites and visitors to the island gave heartily to the 2012 royalty contestants and raised more than $80,000 in ticket sales to support the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce and their plans for the 2013 Fourth of July celebration in the borough. The 2012 participants; Laura Massin, Jaynee Fritzinger and Veronica Blunt, brought in a record total of $80,318 in ticket sales – an immense increase over 2011’s total sales of more than $45,000 raised by the pair of Loni Buness and Jasmine Her...
Wrangell’s American Legion Post members march with the colors during the Fourth of July parade on Front Street....
Wrangell, for its size, offers nearly a dozen churches of differing denominations and creeds. And now, one of those churches has been blessed with a new leader of its flock. Richard Fincher, the new pastor at Hope Community Church of God, recently arrived from Georgia, where he pastored and assisted at a pair of churches in the northern region of the state. His prior pastorship was at the Mount Bethel First Church of God in Toccoa, Ga., and he was an assistant pastor at Gordon Lake Wesleyan...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association welcomed one of the earliest and largest contributors to the Chief Shakes restoration project to Wrangell last week, as members of the Rasmuson Foundation paid the Tribal House and Carving Shed a visit on June 25. “The Chief Shakes Island Tribal House restoration is exactly the type of project the Rasmuson Foundation likes to get behind,” said CEO Ed Rasmuson, who before becoming President and Chairman of the Board for National Bank of Alaska spent two years running the Wrangell branch after the tenure of...
Chuck Oliver Logging Show Hand Bucking - Idaho Style 1st Place, Scott McAuliffe and Merlin Sabo 1:32:80, 2nd place, Randy Oliver and Ron Schacher, 1:47.25, 3rd place, Sean Kelly and Paul McCaige, 1:57.65 Hand Bucking – Single Jack 1st Place, Karl Franci, 31.75, 2nd place, Mike Lockabey, 48.25, 3rd place Merlin Sabo, 53.94. Choker Setting 1st place Karl Franci :18.72, 2nd place, Leif Larsson, :23.31, 3rd place Ron Schacher, :24.81. Ax Chopping 1st place, Merlin Sabo :29, 2nd place Karl Franci, :...
A crowd gathered near Outer Drive watch the fireworks shot from the south side of City Dock for Wrangell’s Fourth of July celebration....
When Bahá’u’lláh founded the Bahá’í faith in the mid-19th century, it was an outgrowth of a movement related to his Islamic upbringing. His faith, he claimed, was the prophetic proclamation and realization of another closely related religion of the time called Babism. In Babism, it was said, there would be a messenger from God who would unite Islam, Christianity and all other major world religions. The fulfillment of that prophecy, the Bahá’í faith, began in Persia, which is now known as Iran under the leadership of Bahá’u’lláh....
A Wrangell man was arrested July 7 after allegedly causing a disturbance and assaulting a police officer. Nick Howell, 24, of Wrangell, was arrested on three charges of Assault in the 4th Degree, Disorderly Conduct, and Resisting or Interfering with Arrest by Force. All the charges are misdemeanors. The resisting arrest charge arose after Howell allegedly fought with Wrangell Police Department officer Joe Paul outside a bar on Front Street. According to charging documents filed in First District Court, Paul became involved after he drove up on...
An exhaustive search and rescue operation by the Wrangell Search and Rescue, the Alaska Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard was undertaken last week in an attempt to locate Colin Buness, 25, of Wrangell, who went missing on the mainland of Southeast Alaska. Buness departed on a hiking and kayaking trip toward Aaron Creek and the Katete River on June 19. According to Tim Buness, Wrangell’s Fire Chief and incident commander for the search for Colin, the attempt to locate him began in e...
