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Work crews clear wood and debris from the interior of the new Alaska Island Community Services clinic. The construction project is ahead of schedule according to project manager Mike Ashton....
With the opening of Island Salon this week, Wrangell native Solvay Bakke is rejuvenating the commercial salon space that previously housed Kasinger’s Creatives on Shakes Street near Inner Harbor. Bakke, who originally planned on a career in childcare, graduated from the cosmetology program at Clover Park Community College in Tacoma, Wash. and also worked at the prestigious Angelo Mendi Boutique near the stadium district in Washington’s “City of Destiny.” It was her work at Regis Corpora...
The Wrangell Borough Assembly met in a special executive session on Wednesday, Nov. 2 to discuss an arbitration action between InnoVative Capital and the Wrangell Medical Center over a contract signed by Noel Rea, the CEO of WMC, and InnoVative. After a closed-door session, the assembly voted 4-3 to let stand a complaint filed by the Borough in Wrangell’s First Judicial District seeking declaratory relief from a contract signed by Noel Rea and InnoVative in August 2009. Assembly members Mike S...
A Wrangell man was sentenced to three years on probation and 200 hours of community service after being convicted in U.S. District Court of felony marijuana cultivation near Rainbow Falls. U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess in Anchorage sentenced Jeffery R. Cox, 37, of Wrangell, on Oct. 31 for his part in growing 95 marijuana plants on U.S. Forest Service property along the Rainbow Falls trail. Forest Service law enforcement officer Doug Ault said it was an alert work crew that noticed...
The decade-old Alaska Island Community Services “Crossings” program may be searching for its soul in the coming months after a round of federal budget cuts cost a number of employees their jobs last week. A group of nine full- and part-time core staff members from the program, the largest wilderness therapy program for emotionally at-risk teens in the State of Alaska, received letters on Friday, Nov. 4 telling them their positions were being eliminated due to “unforeseen circumstances.” The let...
Weather could be the most important factor facing work crews as the Wrangell Road Improvements project moves forward over the next few weeks. During the meeting, project engineer Eric Voorhees said the Nov. 18 deadline to finish all work for the 2011 season was pushed back to Nov. 23 – thanks mostly to better weather expected over the course of the coming two weeks. “The biggest factor right now is the weather,” Voorhees said. “If we have good weather, we can move ahead very quickly. I think t...
With the construction of a new hydroelectric project and transmission line near the Canadian border, officials from the Alaska Canada Energy Coalition say they are excited at the prospect of seeing Southeast Alaska communities linked to the North American power grid. The Northwest Transmission Line (NTL), a 287 kV power project that is currently under construction, will carry power from Terrace, B.C. north to a planned substation at Bob Quinn Lake. A second project currently underway on the...
The Lady Wolves volleyball team ended their 2011 season on an up note with a win at the Region V tournament in Juneau last weekend. Though they would come back later to log a victory, the team began their jaunt with a tough loss 25-22, 25-18, 25-13 to Craig in the first round of the double-elimination format competition. During the game against Craig, junior Tori Gulla went out with a pulled outer ligament in her knee. “She was in a lot of pain,” said head coach Jessica Whitaker. “She has had p...
With the coming of Thanksgiving, it is a chance for many Wrangellites to revel in great food with family and friends. But for some, the holidays can be a time of despair – when ends don’t meet and the giving of thanks can turn to a search for how to put food on the table. The Wrangell Ministerial Association is looking to put a little hope back into the lives of those in need as they prepare to help those in need with their annual Thanksgiving food basket drive. Don and Bonnie Roher are lea...
Wrangell’s Tanner Thomassen knows how to win on the wrestling mat – and proved it at the Craig Invitational Tournament last weekend. After being split into the two brackets of the 145-pounder group, Thomassen was able to achieve 5 pins and a single technical pin against his opponents. With the wins under his belt, the junior ended up earning the top points in the bracket to advance to the championship against Dalton Touhy of Haines. “Tanner’s performance this week was nothing short of we’ve b...
Nearly a dozen large mining projects planned for the interior of British Columbia could have an impact on the Stikine watershed and the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska – commercial and subsistence fisheries. That was the bleak picture painted by a group of activists who visited Wrangell last week to inform the public of plans by private industry and the B.C. government to build a number of open-pit mines and explore the vast, unpopulated region east of the U.S. border. Guy Archibald, the Clean W...
Parents of the littlest Wrangellites now have a program specifically designed to assist them in pre-Kindergarten learning. Krissy Smith, a local parent and member of the Wrangell School Board, recently completed and received a $14,000 grant for Best Beginnings, a program that focuses on assisting parents with resources and providing scholarships for children whose families cannot readily afford day care. “Our grant is for $14,000, but we will be applying for more grants as our funding need is m...
A revival of the art of traditional boat building is underway in Wrangell. That resurgence is taking place as one man seeks to keep history alive with an old-fashioned technique and rendering to work from. Josh Lesage, a volunteer on the Chief Shake Island renovation project and native of Canada, is currently building a vessel at the SNO building that will be used by him and his partner, Bianca Martin, when they return to the Yukon later this year. “I got into boatbuilding out in Whitehorse a...
The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation has awarded a portion of $1.7 million in new funding to the Alaska Community Development Corporation for administration of the HOME Opportunity Program. Alaska CDC was awarded the funding to expand the HOP to Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan, Sitka, Haines, Juneau and other communities in Southeast Alaska. HOP currently serves just the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Kenai Peninsula. The program provides principal buy-down, down payment and closing cost...
The Wrangell Wolves wrestling team traveled to Anchorage this past weekend to take part in the Anchorage Christian School tournament – and two members of the team walked away with a place in the finals. Teams from 44 schools and more than 400 wrestlers attended the tournament at ACS – a meet which is highly beneficial to the Wolves team according to head coach Jeff Rooney. “The competition at ACS allows us to seed our wrestlers more efficiently at the regional and state meets,” Rooney said. ...
For the first time in nearly a decade Wrangell High School will host a Drama, Debate and Forensics tournament featuring schools from across Southeast Alaska on Nov. 11-12. Teams from Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe, Juneau-Douglas, Thunder Mountain and Haines high schools are scheduled to attend. DDF head coach Mike Symons said the tournament is a chance for the Wolves to shine in a number of competitive categories – and to show Southeast Alaska what Wrangell has to offer in the w...
If you notice the streets of Wrangell getting a little brighter at night in the next few months, you can be sure it won’t be because of our Alaskan latitude. Over the coming months, Wrangell Municipal Light & Power will be installing more than 360 LED streetlights on borough streets. The lights, says Electrical Superintendent Clay Hammer, are more efficient than the high-pressure sodium or mercury vapor lamps currently in use. The lights, which are funded through an Energy Efficiency and C...
A Wrangell man is resting comfortably after being rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter on Tuesday morning after his 22-foot Bayliner sank in Keku Strait, south of Conclusion Island. A Coast Guard helicopter pulled Lester Kuntz, 47, off his boat, The Keeper, as it was sinking due to a puncture in the hull. Kuntz said he had motored into a safe harbor after stormy conditions forced him to abandon his original trip plan from Kake to Wrangell. “It wasn’t the storm that got me,” Kuntz said....
Attorneys for Alaska Island Community Services are asking the Borough of Wrangell to look into possible conflict of interest issues and delays in physician privileging by the Wrangell Medical Center board. In a letter to Mayor Jeremy Maxand, dated Sept. 26, Danielle Ryman, an attorney for AICS, alleged that the board could be acting improperly after failing to adhere to their bylaws. The board, according to the letter, is not acting on a request by Dr. Greg Salard for emergency room privileges...
The Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department arrived in force to fight a fire that damaged a residence at Stough’s Trailer Park on Friday, Oct. 21. Fire Chief Tim Buness said the fire, which began around 10:30 a.m., started in a bathroom at the rear of a trailer in the park on Evergreen Avenue. “There was some structural damage, but it was not extensive and was confined to a relatively small area,” Buness said. Smoke was plentiful and seen billowing from the roof when firefighters began using foam...
Debate over the increasing work delays on the Wrangell Road Improvements project came to a head last week as contractors and the project engineer looked to each other for reasons for the slowdown. What superintendent Mike Ashton called differing site conditions than the plans his crews have been working from has, in part, delayed the project, which is currently in the final stages of Phase I, he said. “We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, differing conditions,” Ashton said dur...
The Borough Assembly met in open session on Tuesday, Oct 25 to hammer out a unified message with the Wrangell Medical Center Board – and to look to the citizens of Wrangell to vote in the Nov. 15 special election. That election will put before the voters a proposed ordinance that would authorize the borough to pledge 29 acres of property at the site of the new hospital. The buildings to be raised there would also be pledged as collateral on a $24.7 million U.S.D.A. loan. The preliminary text o...
Led by two of the heartiest wrestlers in Southeast Alaska, the Wrangell Wolves wrestling team traveled north last weekend to take part in the 2011 Haines Invitational tournament. Junior Tanner Thomassen and Sophomore Devon Miller held more than their own during the event – and walked away with a pair of championships in the 145- and 170-pounder classifications, respectively. Thomassen came out on fire as he defeated four competitors from Craig, Pelican, Haines and fellow Wolves wrestler J...
The Lady Wolves hosted the Mt. Edgecumbe Lady Braves last Saturday – but only after a quick rescheduling of the games to accommodate a late airplane from Sitka. The matches, which had originally been scheduled for both Friday and Saturday, were moved to Saturday only after the plane was unable arrive from Baranof Island due to inclement weather. “Volleyball is one of those sports where we can reschedule and have a double header, so that is what we did on Saturday,” said Wrangell activ...
By GREG KNIGHT Sentinel writer With the coming of colder weather each year, one thing is as regular as the rain in Wrangell – the KSTK Fall Pledge Drive. The drive, which began Oct. 21 and runs through this weekend is seeking to raise $16,500 to continue station operations in the borough and pay for expenses related to programming and delivery of on-air content. Peter Helgeson, the station’s General Manager, believes Wrangellites support KSTK because of the service it provides to the com...
