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The nationwide Elks Hoop Shoot has been around for more than 50 years, but it’s aimed at a much younger crowd than that. Contestants in the annual free-throw shooting event set for Saturday, Dec. 9, at the community gym can’t be older than 13. For 8- to 13-year-olds, it’s a chance to take aim and sink as many free throws as they can. There will be medals and, if their scores qualify after they are measured against regional and state competitors, the kids could go to nationals. Regardless, everyone at the Hoop Shoot will get a hamburger and a...
A few $100 and $20 bills have turned up in Wrangell, prompting police to caution businesses and everyone else to look for phonies. The fakes look real enough in design and color - except for the words "COPY MONEY" on the front and back in the same typestyle as "THE UNITED STATES." The counterfeits were reported in the last week of November. "Currently, there are reports of $20 bills and $100 bills ... possibly being circulated around the community, but there could be other denominations," the...
State officials have released the names of the four people killed and two others still missing from the Nov. 20 landslide that hit just past 11-Mile Zimovia Highway. As of Monday, Nov. 27, searchers had found the bodies of Timothy Heller, 44, his wife, Beth Heller, 36, and their daughters, Mara, 16, and Kara, 11. Mara was a high school junior and Kara was in fifth grade. Searchers found Mara's body the night of the slide, during the initial search operations by first responders able to reach the...
Southeast Alaska is known for rain, windstorms, mountainsides that loom above residential areas — and landslides that occur with increasing frequency. Sitka knows the risk, and the pain, losing three people in a 2015 landslide. Haines lost two people in a 2020 slide. And now Wrangell is added to the list. That list doesn’t include the multiple landslides over the years that caused damage and fear, but thankfully no deaths. After the 2015 slide, the Sitka Sound Science Center took the lead and worked with the community — and federal money — to...
Individuals and the borough are eligible for financial aid under the state’s disaster assistance programs. State grants to individuals are limited to no more than $21,250 for housing repairs and up to the same amount for other needs. That could include lost or damaged personal items such as clothing, furnishings and tools; energy costs; medical, transportation or temporary storage expenses. The grant limit is based on a federal standard, explained Jeremy Zidek, public information officer for the state Division of Homeland Security and E...
A series of landslides hit Sitka more than eight years ago during heavy rain, with the largest striking a new subdivision and killing three workers. It prompted the community, led by the Sitka Sound Science Center, to set up a landslide warning system. The system includes rain gauges and soil-moisture sensors spread around town, with a website that advises people of the risk level of a landslide. It took about four years to develop the system — and a lot of federal grant money. “We started when we had our landslide. We started calling sci...
First responders and volunteers working at the site of the deadly landslide have a Wi-Fi signal, thanks to a backpack satellite-link setup the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska sent to Wrangell. The council’s operations center keeps the Starlink setups in Juneau and Sitka for emergencies and community use, said Chris Cropley, director of the Tidal Network at Tlingit and Haida. The council sent two of its Starlink packs to Wrangell on Nov. 22, and the service was up and running at the landslide response site that same d...
I can be sentimental. Not often, but I’m working on it. I just need to figure out how to increase my sentimentality without decreasing my cynicism. Nostalgia is my favorite form of sentimentality. I enjoy recalling the more pleasant times before social media, before angry people felt entitled to yell at store clerks, flight attendants and their own mothers, before Donald Trump convinced millions of people it is OK to be mean and even dangerous. Routines and schedules help calm me. Which is a lot like nostalgia — looking forward to those thi...
Several store owners and managers are talking about the need to form a business association of some kind to work toward drawing more locals to shop downtown. Wrangell residents are spending an increasing amount of their dollars online, ordering from Amazon and other remote merchants. About 10% of the borough’s sales tax collections last year came from online shoppers — and the number is growing. Forming a downtown business association isn’t about competing with or abandoning the chamber of commerce, the store owners said. The chamber serve...
A SEARHC patient benefits staffer will be in Wrangell Monday through Thursday, Nov. 27-30, to assist people who have questions about health insurance and need help signing up for low-cost coverage through the Affordable Care Act federally operated online marketplace. The annual enrollment period is open through Jan. 15, but people need to sign up by Dec. 15 for their coverage to start Jan. 1, according to Susan Briles, the SEARHC patient health benefits manager in Sitka. One of her colleagues, Hillary Russom, comes to Wrangell twice a year to...
Groups and individuals can bring their decorated holiday trees to the Nolan Center this weekend for the Hospice of Wrangell annual Christmas Tree Lane fundraiser. The only rules are no real trees — only artificial ones to avoid any fire risk at the building — and no wreaths. Creative decorations and unusual themes are encouraged, said Alice Rooney, of Hospice. “One year we had a tree that was upside down,” she said of the donations over the past 20 years of the fundraiser. People have decorated trees with themes ranging from Harry Potter...
State officials today released the names of the three people killed and three others still missing from the Monday night landslide at 11-Mile Zimovia Highway. Searchers have found the bodies of Timothy Heller, 44, his wife, Beth Heller, 36, and their daughter, Mara, 16. Mara was a high school junior. Searchers found her body on Monday night. Crews found Timothy and Beth Heller on Tuesday. As of Friday morning, searchers had not found Derek Heller, 12, Kara Heller, 11, or Otto Florschutz, 65. Derek was in sixth grade; Kara in fifth grade.... Full story
It seems as I get older, the more I have dreams. Not of being a baseball player, writing an award-winning book or mastering the kitchen art of making great crusty bread. No, my dreams are nocturnal. They interrupt my sleep. The good thing is I have had some amazingly weird dreams. The bad thing is I often forget them soon after waking up — no matter how hard I try to keep them in my head. Several years ago, I became obsessed — in a healthy, problem-solving sense — with finding a way to make notes of my sleeping visions. Often, my dreams would...
The Lions Club closed down its Wrangell chapter seven years ago, but volunteers still participate in the international service organization’s eyeglass recycling program. “We’re still collecting eyeglasses,” said Janet Strom, who along with her husband and co-volunteer Dennis belonged to the Lions Club when it disbanded in 2016. Janet Strom packed up two boxes and mailed about 150 pairs of eyeglasses last week, not long after she sent a box to the recycling operation in September. They mail out at least four boxes to the Alaska center every y...
The Wrangell Elks Lodge has been active in town since 1935 and could use a few more active volunteers to help with its weekend dinners, chores around the building and public services. “It is getting worse over time,” said Dawn Angerman, one of the volunteer club managers. “It’s not just the Elks, it’s everywhere.” Multiple community groups in Wrangell have struggled in recent years with finding new people to serve on boards or volunteer for work projects. “COVID didn’t help,” Angerman said. “People just haven’t broken out of that yet,” with ma...
Now in its 15th year, the applied fisheries program at the University of Alaska Southeast draws students from across the state and across the country. Not just ocean states like Florida, but the Great Lakes state of Wisconsin, and even landlocked Wyoming and Kentucky this semester. “Our enrollment has been increasing,” said assistant professor Lauren Wild, who has taught in the program since 2020. Students attend online or, she said, if they live in an area without adequate and reliable high-speed internet service, the school will send the...
I’ve been reading more about prescription drug prices lately: How they are set; why they are so high, especially in the United States; and what can be done to reduce the costs. It’s not like I take a lot of drugs — just one prescription — but thinking about future medical costs, pharmacy visits and specialists goes along with being a senior citizen. Much like grab bars in the shower. Escalating prescription drug prices far outpace inflation. The high costs can force people to choose between their health and paying other bills. If you didn’t...
A pandemic aid program that provides one-time payments to tribal citizens is ending Nov. 30, though the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will continue to offer other federally funded assistance programs for its citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that started more than three years ago. The household relief program is limited to $1,000 for each tribal citizen to help cover expenses related to coping with the pandemic and its economic hit. Those who have not yet applied since the program started in 2021 have...
The borough collected a record amount of sales tax revenues in the fiscal year that ended June 30, passing the $4 million mark. A growing share of the borough’s tax collections is coming from online sales, just over $401,000, according to Finance Director Mason Villarma. That 10% share of total sales tax receipts in the past fiscal year is substantially higher than the roughly 6% share two years ago. “It’s bittersweet,” Mayor Patty Gilbert said of the increase in online shopping. The increased tax revenue is not entirely the result of residen...
The borough wants to hear from the public as officials work toward deciding the best way to sell the several dozen residential lots that will be created at the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision upland from Shoemaker Bay. “The borough is considering two methods of disposing of the land — through an auction and a lottery,” according to the survey announcement issued by the Economic Development Department. “This dual approach is intended to enhance affordability and fairness in the land allocation process, ensuring a more equitable...
Normally, I would use this space to share my opinions with readers. That’s what newspaper columnists do: They give their opinions, the facts behind those views, and hope to educate, enlighten or at least entertain readers. But this week is different. I want to hear readers’ opinions. Actually, I need to hear from the Sentinel’s non-readers, which makes this column particularly difficult. I am writing this for people who won’t see it. Their choice, of course, but I want to understand why many people don’t read newspapers, the Sentinel in particu...
School district administrators have recommended using a collection of unspent accounts and general fund reserves to cover the $44,000 deficit in the travel account from past state competition, while acknowledging that does not address the funding problem for the current or future years. The school board will consider the staff recommendation for wiping out the negative balance in the state travel account at its Nov. 20 meeting, along with discussing options for covering travel costs for this...
Alaska officials who say the stars are aligned for the long-dreamt, long-on-the-odds multibillion-dollar North Slope natural gas project are confusing shiny stars with black holes. Like the black hole the state already has poured close to a billion dollars into over the past two decades, thinking that international markets would like expensive Alaska gas better than lower-risk, less costly gas from anywhere else. But unlike black holes, where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing escapes, the Alaska gas line dream continues to survive...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association is nearing completion of its 5,000-square-foot maintenance and warehouse building on Zimovia Highway. The facility is in its second year of construction, though planning for the project started about a decade ago. Bill Willard, Transportation Department manager, said he hopes to finish the work later this fall. The project is just waiting on some electrical items and then crews will finish the last of the interior work on the building, which is next door to the tribal offices. As with construction projects n...
No question housing is tight in town, and the Wrangell Cooperative Association is trying to help. WCA already has used federal funds to build two single-family homes, which it sold to tribal members, and now is partnering with the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority on a rental duplex. WCA is interested in providing more housing to help ease the shortage in town, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator, last week. Any further development, however, will depend on funding, decisions by the tribal council and available lots, which...