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Eat your fruits and veggies, move around plenty and drink lots of water – a combination of these recommendations have come from health care providers for generations. Doctors have always told patients exercise is important, said Dr. Victor Sanoe Harrison, lead hospitalist at Wrangell Medical Center under the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. What's new is that an entity like SEARHC is helping to pay the costs for exercise. "Exercise has been prescribed forever," Harrison said, "just f...
The out-of-commission barge ramp where Wrangell usually unloads its freight needs to be replaced. Until that happens, repairs will suffice. A 2011 condition assessment of the barge ramp estimated it had another 10 to 15 years of useful life remaining before reaching a point where it would have degraded enough that it may no longer be considered safe to use, Port Director Steve Miller wrote in his report to the port commission’s Dec. 16 meeting. Miller estimates replacing the ramp could cost $2 million. A timeline will be dependent on f...
The results of a $7,300 study the borough commissioned in October to take a closer look at the cost of shipping goods by barge to Wrangell shows the average annual increase in marine freight costs from Seattle to Southeast Alaska from 2006 to 2021 was 4.5%, based on published rate tariffs. The global cost of marine freight has increased at an average rate of 5.7% annually, excluding 2021, while the Consumer Price Index has increased at 2.3% annually. The 12 Wrangell businesses Rain Coast Data surveyed for the report, representing some of Wrange...
The contractor hired by the borough for survey and design work of the former Institute property has signed up a subcontractor to advise on historical and archaeological ground searches, which are required before the borough can move ahead with permitting for residential development of the 134-acre site. Interim Borough Manager Jeff Good and Trevor Sande, principal at R&M Engineering, in Ketchikan, which is doing the survey work, have met with representatives of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to...
As the holiday season is upon us, people who leave town or receive visitors are hoping for an easy, breezy ride. No overheads or ferry breakdowns. But it doesn’t always go that way. Residents were happy to share their holiday travel stories, from heartwarming to humorous. Brittani Robbins, executive director of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce In 2013, her grandmother Marian Robbins, in her 70s at the time, came to visit for Christmas from Tacoma, Washington. There had been a blizzard the day before and she overheaded Wrangell to Ketchikan. J...
Responding to the loss of power at the airport during the windstorm which tore through the community on Nov. 30, the borough assembly has voted to spend $80,000 in federal funds to install a backup generator for the airport runway lighting. At its Tuesday meeting, assembly members approved using money from a CARES Act grant fund for the generator purchase and installation. The capital facilities department will order the generator this week, and expects delivery in four to five months. The generator would solely be for the runway lighting,...
It’s the holiday season and all through town, more people need to get a-stirring and pick up their packages. That’s the word from the post office. Postmaster Dorothy Gladsjo declined an interview last week, and said another time maybe, when she wasn’t “covered in sweat.” Gladsjo and a co-worker had just dumped another orange bag full of packages flown into town onto a pushcart at the post office. The shelves were already stuffed full, but they had to find room to add the latest additions. Tommy Brown, who has lived in Wrangell for 18 years, ca...
Friday night drumming at the Wrangell Cooperative Association's carving shed on Front Street brings together Tlingit elders and teens, different generations forming a circle around an overhead projector as instructor Virginia Oliver guided the group through the pronunciation of Tlingit song lyrics. Oliver's son Tommy Rooney Jr., Luella Knapp and Tom Gillen Sr. were among the adults on drums, accompanied by children that included 14-year-old Keaton (Saak, "hooligan") Gadd, 13-year-old Boomchain...
When Amber Al-Haddad inherited the public safety building project as the borough’s capital facilities director in 2018, she was told the building simply needed a paint job. The now 34-year-old building needed, and still needs, much more than that. The assembly convened in a work session Monday night to discuss a phased rehabilitation plan for overhauling the water- and rot-damaged building, a plan it had requested of Al-Haddad at its Nov. 9 assembly meeting. The latest proposal comes with an estimated price tag of at least $14.7 million, in t...
A Wrangell company that makes bath and body care products has nothing to do with fish, but that's OK because it won this year's beyond-the-plate award at the Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition. Waterbody won for its Deep Blue Sea Bath Soak, which counts Pacific sea salt and Alaska bull kelp among its ingredients. Angie Flickinger started the business in 2015 as Gathered and Grown Botanicals. The idea began when she wanted to give handcrafted soap as a gift. She rebranded in 2020 as...
The aftermath of an unexpectedly strong Nov. 30 weather system affected life in Wrangell, postponing community events and unfurling an outpouring of support amid power outages. Community events including last Friday’s Midnight Madness and downtown Christmas tree lighting were rescheduled to this Saturday, according to the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce. As utility workers were busy restoring power, and food and craft vendors were focused on getting power to their homes, the chamber decided to postpone the Dec. 3 events to this weekend, Executive...
The borough is taking inventory of losses in the community to determine the total amount of damages for a possible disaster declaration after an unexpected windstorm on Nov. 30 knocked out power. After initial power restoration to much of the community, it took nearly 48 hours to restore electricity to 90 households after the storm snapped off Southeast Alaska Power Agency poles just south of City Park. "I was outside ready to pull the generator crank when the porch (light) came on!!!" wrote...
When Devyn Johnson unexpectedly lost her mom, Shannan Lee Phillips, on June 2, 2017, in Washington state at the age of 41, it wasn't until six months later that Johnson was able to sit in her grief and mourn her mother. As the eldest, Johnson said a lot of the financial responsibility of planning the funeral fell on her. She was 25 years old. "I hadn't lost anyone before," she said. "I was just like, 'Now what?' And instead of being able to be sad and grieve, I had to go into business mode, put...
An unexpected, strong weather system sent high winds tearing through Wrangell, snapping three Southeast Alaska Power Agency poles which blocked the highway at City Park and knocked out power to most of Wrangell for much of Tuesday afternoon into the evening. A peak wind gust of 54 mph out of the southwest was detected on Zarembo Island at 1:55 p.m., said Wes Adkins, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Juneau Forecast Office. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management operate a remote, automated weather system on...
The 19th annual Dove Tree Ceremony is a way to remember loved ones during the holiday season. Participants wrote the names of their loved ones on paper doves, one name per dove, and placed the names on the boughs of a tree set up in the lobby of the Nolan Center, using loops of ribbon. Ahead of hanging the paper doves, Alice Rooney, president of the nonprofit Hospice of Wrangell, which put on the event in-person this year after last year's was virtual, started the ceremony Sunday by expressing...
Wrangell’s yearly Christmas home and business decorating contest is on. The chamber of commerce with Wrangell Real Estate is offering $1,300 in prize money. The same cash prizes will be awarded for both categories. First place nets $300, second place gets $200, third place wins $100 and honorable mention receives $50. Judging will take place Dec. 21. Contact the Wrangell chamber if you’d like to participate. You can reach out on Facebook or Instagram by searching username “wrangellchamber,” call 907-874-3901, or email info@wr...
The Wrangell Senior Center is receiving a loaner bus from Juneau, equipped to handle transporting passengers in winter weather. The loaner bus arrived early Thanksgiving morning on the Kennicott ferry, part of the Catholic Community Service fleet. “It’s one of the newer ones,” said Solvay Gillen, site manager. “It has all the bells and whistles: A chairlift, four-wheel-drive.” Catholic Community Service operates the Wrangell Senior Center. April Huber, nutrition and transportation regional coordinator at Southeast Senior Services, a division...
A doctor who served as chief of staff at the Wrangell hospital eight years ago awaits possible life imprisonment for raping an underage female relative in Louisiana more than 16 years ago. Greg Salard faces a possible sentence without parole or probation after a Louisiana jury convicted him of rape, according to the Caddo Parish district attorney’s office. Salard, 60, of Mountain View, Arkansas, was found guilty on Nov. 19 by a six-man, six-woman jury after deliberations that lasted less than 45 minutes, according to the district attorney’s off...
Tom Gillen Sr. and Glenda Gillen met at a teen dance one weekend in Ketchikan. It was either the end of 1957, or the beginning of 1958, he said. He remembered when they married - that was 1959. Their life in Wrangell has lasted a lot longer than the dance. The couple has been married 62 years and have five children: Three boys, two girls; 13 grandchildren; "I've got 27 great-grandchildren," Glenda said. "Twenty-eight," corrected Tom. "Twenty-eight great-grandchildren," Glenda amended. "I missed...
With a few pre-winter snows, a sledding hill popular with children has already seen some use. However, the Wrangell parks and recreation department’s plan to make improvements to the hill behind the covered play area at the elementary school has been delayed. Replacing decaying logs between the parking lot and the hill, and clearing of alders encroaching on the slope will now likely take place in the spring, said Kate Thomas, parks and recreation director. Parks and recreation was teaming up with the public works department to complete that w...
The aftermath of an unexpectedly strong Tuesday weather system affected life in Wrangell, postponing community events and unfurling an outpouring of support amid power outages. Power was restored to about 90 households early Thursday morning, according to Kim Lane, acting borough manager. Power poles at City Park are up and repaired, and power has been restored to the island. Crews worked through the night to restore the power, Lane said in a message. "Having roughly 100 homes without power...
The borough assembly last Thursday canceled a special meeting called to consider a face mask ordinance, citing a decline in active COVID-19 cases in the community. The decision to cancel the meeting came a day after Wrangell set a record for new COVID-19 infections in a month. The meeting, which was to be held virtually, would have reenacted the requirement of face coverings in certain indoor settings. The draft ordinance also included a $25 penalty in municipal code for non-compliance — which the borough has never used — and strongly urg...
The borough is looking to move forward with its plan to develop residential lots on the site of the former Bureau of Indian Affairs Wrangell Institute boarding school, while also fulfilling the Department of the Interior’s mandate that former boarding school sites be inspected for human remains. The federal push came after the discovery earlier this year of 215 unmarked graves in British Columbia at the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school, and the fear that unknown burial sites could exist at American Ind...
The Wrangell Cooperative Association blessed a tree harvested from ancestral Native land on Etolin Island and headed to the Governor's House in Juneau for Christmas display. The blessing in front of the Chief Shakes Tribal House on Thursday, Nov. 18, was a partnership of the WCA, U.S. Forest Service Wrangell Ranger District, and U.S. Coast Guard, which provided the Elderberry, a 65-foot buoy tender, based in Petersburg, to transport the 14-foot-tall lodgepole tree. The Elderberry left for...
A representative for a substance abuse recovery business that is exploring purchasing the former hospital visited Wrangell last week, learning from borough department heads how the community's services and facilities might fit the needs of the for-profit inpatient and outpatient treatment center. Casey Odell, who used to live and work in Wrangell as a therapist and health counselor for Alaska Island Community Services in 2013, was in town Nov. 16-18. She has other work that limited her time...
